%PDF-1.7 1 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Outlines 2 0 R /Pages 3 0 R >> endobj 2 0 obj << /Type /Outlines /Count 0 >> endobj 3 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Kids [6 0 R 20 0 R ] /Count 2 /Resources << /ProcSet 4 0 R /Font << /F1 8 0 R /F2 9 0 R /F3 10 0 R /F4 11 0 R /F5 12 0 R /F6 14 0 R >> /ExtGState << /GS1 15 0 R /GS2 16 0 R /GS3 17 0 R /GS4 18 0 R >> >> /MediaBox [0.000 0.000 612.000 792.000] >> endobj 4 0 obj [/PDF /Text ] endobj 5 0 obj << /Producer (dompdf 3.1.0 + CPDF) /CreationDate (D:20250903081438+00'00') /ModDate (D:20250903081438+00'00') >> endobj 6 0 obj << /Type /Page /MediaBox [0.000 0.000 612.000 792.000] /Parent 3 0 R /Contents 7 0 R >> endobj 7 0 obj << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 1815 >> stream xXMoWTn ;ٙ!ȡE6?FMi-g؋=US#˘SNaѤU^U*8OӮy7feŖjSbzh,AgK{)GjDfR'=|O>~YQ%q$K]-հ+Wn`eNKq~qDջ_De2¾[)_YɣX,aU nq{ߛqlXˌa3sSBkiE6^0-(I/gX Y SqMщ~?uvzEzfGrmD=\'Y=H@TdjnBV7Iݔbo:G+{[M0w4z`CMy""s jU'I~l-UbrӨؤ?HG;AOp:Q)d1d.D4{3:_"螜i 2 2Q{ U'1Q SUIkQHSѩy kkg*,ڕ!`)0w "mA0@ }Ե($R?y}b*(e j !y-ܷ}u@ !E>B h!l JLVx& Bp:d: WiZ.B~0((uНR{m=g',QT'iFwo Z.+=sw=CnP5]Qz |I^tg2+iߣvPd[Z A;mFy`^F=tfXmh}O=ʛFWVM sl8>Vi V>SD 8{<W}۩A?ň}[H{wOI}ǩ2Nʽ y-a*Zd@X8ec7{ \Ca$UՉ)"#zC7树Q#<;X0L#<^)gPc[@ eFtc- 5!ˆga(b) <fFOmǽMҷKyQOʠdr U qi)LN= SA#Ig.ǣ0eaTݲh" bfb av(K6 ~ɥϰ^6bXs㴝D-18" ؁]?{r2 Cyj'FWZ'AQ0[\:lj )GUP#O؟oIU`ѧ tm~*zUˏݟ?泆S| B; /BH6DG{Dd,}F+v# СvW;U-O!g4Y.QQM; 9|fΟ&#YD U^u#kh?C?2M}rÝ#(w'w ]С,A&(dFk@ˆUZyh=5*,a! O|JV1r{[PǗ>csY"j΅͊C {aZ>qBŐP ҺCV~ޡIj-Y/GN-gzl8g {}g ěLAlӦH*b3|/^A~8۴!q ;ez;ڿVp6iӾֻB% َvpigab׳ /+fQ|J^|Nr^Yo endstream endobj 8 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F1 /BaseFont /Helvetica /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding >> endobj 9 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F2 /BaseFont /Times-Bold /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding >> endobj 10 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F3 /BaseFont /Times-Roman /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding >> endobj 11 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F4 /BaseFont /Helvetica-Bold /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding >> endobj 12 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F5 /BaseFont /Helvetica-Oblique /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding >> endobj 13 0 obj [6 0 R /Fit] endobj 14 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F6 /BaseFont /Times-Roman /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding >> endobj 15 0 obj << /Type /ExtGState /BM /Normal /CA 1 >> endobj 16 0 obj << /Type /ExtGState /BM /Normal /ca 1 >> endobj 17 0 obj << /Type /ExtGState /BM /Normal /CA 0.3 >> endobj 18 0 obj << /Type /ExtGState /BM /Normal /ca 0.3 >> endobj 19 0 obj [6 0 R /Fit] endobj 20 0 obj << /Type /Page /MediaBox [0.000 0.000 612.000 792.000] /Parent 3 0 R /Contents 21 0 R >> endobj 21 0 obj << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 1622 >> stream xuWێ6}߯pd/A4-@P4}%bW"~& ey(,,[K g93}15 48z#UF1#%S$\m=ج|#;P  M/.`Y-*)jqC'qZ hΓUc3ʒ0^'9~ 0Xn2ɲa}V31Ƹ=GUE_'EX$=QUȅyQ "KikI te0RZ/`S !\WI}baNE A'|DcU*bd#I e)Ѫrd=ʟG@1:weGU?HLH$AYȏAXޟ% Ǽjѷ?`$}+Fo8$ r>(b6ag-ʡ:*#Ctc}|,ꡢ`5@Wdg+){ 7qDuPU $Ǩ1IM{*I( 5u'TOXA+'%iüGt6D)P UhZaG*61{E.WXN> 4휰uw~wh Є*=19<@w4I710p@;zi< l#)kgi.J#XU7#d#85za8~cڃZ<1vG-x$:Od9C=IMRc9Py<Xrvk#X,TyGǤ!2pr={Lbq]:V? /域E1աY!]lT]U'݌{ӣ uhLU.8:aal6ߍadqSEBBgx†(2׽ZègXл]ZE Ċ8L4)B1IaΞm*tXƒG4NはɒG<:Yb"N{ɸR<`p2;9wW 3Vit1L`nk;'cjF;7wQLu%-l;?1XE' 4{v$l9)|ÓNx"øx%k_^Qk&6 4.y߻2aDr Fx-64}[i湡 Aʎ_7!<̢$,s/n 6 endstream endobj xref 0 22 0000000000 65535 f 0000000009 00000 n 0000000074 00000 n 0000000120 00000 n 0000000401 00000 n 0000000430 00000 n 0000000579 00000 n 0000000682 00000 n 0000002570 00000 n 0000002677 00000 n 0000002785 00000 n 0000002895 00000 n 0000003008 00000 n 0000003124 00000 n 0000003153 00000 n 0000003263 00000 n 0000003320 00000 n 0000003377 00000 n 0000003436 00000 n 0000003495 00000 n 0000003524 00000 n 0000003629 00000 n trailer << /Size 22 /Root 1 0 R /Info 5 0 R /ID[<5cce3121b6ab73e4563248a401e30602><5cce3121b6ab73e4563248a401e30602>] >> startxref 5325 %%EOF Focus - He’s been faithful | Caring Magazine
Read Caring Magazine Volume 29

Vol. #29

Hope in Action

Read Issue

Latest Impact StoriesView All

Popular Topics

PopularView All

Focus – He’s been faithful

August 14, 2004
4 minute read
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
Listen to this article

by Amanda Reardon, Captain – 

I admit that sometimes I’m a little self-absorbed. What are miniscule problems in the grand scheme of things can seem like insurmountable obstacles when they’re my problems. I try to maintain perspective, but I’m not always successful. Recently, I spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself and angry with God for not giving me what I “needed.” I guess God got sick of my whining, because he arranged for my path to collide with that of a man named Geoff Allan, who has impacted my life forever.

Geoff Allan is a Salvation Army officer in the Central Territory. He has a wife and five children. The youngest is 21-one-year-old Nicholas. Four years ago, Nicholas had surgery on his jaw. During the course of that surgery, Nicholas did not receive any oxygen for twelve minutes. As a result, Nicholas is severely handicapped, physically and mentally. He is wheelchair bound and requires full-time care. His communication skills are almost completely gone.

This story isn’t about me. But I can only tell it to you through my eyes. I can only tell you how it moved me.
Geoff and I were on a committee, the participants of which were all staying in the same hotel. He told us about his son the first day we met. I wanted desperately to talk to him, so the next morning I prayed that he’d appear in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Only a few moments later, he approached my table. “Oh! Will you join me?” I asked. And he did.

We were pressed for time, so I broached my subject rather quickly. “May I ask you something very personal?” I asked. His face was open and warm. “Sure, I don’t mind.”

“With everything that happened to Nicholas, how did your faith survive? Weren’t you angry with God?”

Emotion flickered briefly across Geoff’s face, and then he collected himself. I knew then that I wasn’t going to receive a pat answer. He was going to speak from his soul. “Well, I did try to bargain with God,” he began. As he recalled the story of a deal he tried to make with God, he came to tears. I practically shook with emotion myself.

Geoff went on to tell me how his faith was strengthened by the way others ministered to him. Friends, family and strangers all over the world contacted him to let him know they were praying for Nicholas. A Christian radio station found out about Nicholas and encouraged others to pray for him.

Then Geoff said something that I found astounding. “When you read the prayers people prayed in the Bible, they never ask God to take their problems away. They just ask him to bring them through it. And he’s done that for us. God has been faithful.”

How could Geoff say that God had been faithful? God had turned a deaf ear to innumerable pleas for Nicholas’s recovery. How could Geoff say God had brought them through? The situation hadn’t changed, so how could he say he was through it? Wasn’t he still in the middle of it?

If Geoff said he’d come through it, I was certainly in no position to deny it. I began to understand what he meant. He had accepted his new reality. God had taken him and his wife through the initial horror, and they’d survived it. I pray I never forget what Geoff said next: “You play the hand you’re dealt.” Though the vernacular doesn’t resemble Scripture, that was some of the deepest spiritual advice I’d ever received.

In my mind, God had failed Geoff for not healing Nicholas. But Geoff has a different view of prayer. The point is to turn to God for strength, not necessarily resolution. Psalm 46 is an example of the same type of prayer:

God is our refuge and strength,
An ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
And the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
Though its waters roar and foam
And the mountains quake with their surging.
(vv. 1 – 3)
The psalmist says that God helps in troubled times, he doesn’t remove the troubles. He gives us reason to remain brave in the face of adversity. He doesn’t divert all manner of adversity before it crosses our path.

As I sat across the table from Geoff that Thursday morning, I saw who he really was: a great hero of the faith. And I saw what I didn’t want to see in myself: pettiness. I may have remained in my chair as far as Geoff could tell, but in my heart, I was on my knees. “You have been faithful to me,” I whispered to God. “Forgive my unfaithfulness.”

Download this page as a PDF

You May Also Like