MColeman
Club Coordinator
Since the news of Shelley's illness became public I've been doing a lot of thinking. I've only met Shelley once when he camped next to me at Manatee range at a benchrest match. I liked him very much from the little time we had together.
We've all had close friends who have gone through what Shelley is facing. I had a friend here in Greenville who owned Hunter's Hideout, a great gun shop/sporting goods store. Many who visit here have been in the store when it was in business.
The owner, Ed Fuller, retired from Monsanto and opened up the store simply because he enjoyed it. Ed began to notice that he felt badly and didn't have much energy. After tests it was discovered he had lung cancer of the type caused by working around asbestos. When he was no longer able to go to the store he asked me and another friend to stop by and visit him at his home.
It turned out that when Ed's daughter was young she became seriously ill and Ed made God a promise that if He would let Sharon live that he, Ed, would do such and such. Now, facing his own death Ed was distraught because he thought that he had not lived up to his end of the bargain and he felt that God might hold it against him.
I'm not a 'SuperSaint' but I've been a Christian since 1980 and spiritual matters are on my mind quite a bit and, as it happened, I had thought about such a matter. I am convinced, and I reminded Ed Fuller of this, that it is impossible for us to disappoint God. For that to happen it would mean that we acted in such a way as to catch God by surprise, or to put it another way, something happened that He didn't expect. This cannot be for then He would not be God.
Now what I'm about to say may seem a little strange and if it does just think about it for a minute. We are all terminal. Some have some foreknowledge that their time is short such as Shelley and the person who has planned, and intends to follow through on their suicide know pretty well exactly when it will happen but the rest of us usually don't have a clue. I am convinced that people who have been told their days are few have an advantage over most of us and that is this:
If there is anything standing between them and God they have the time and opportunity to set things right. That is, if they believe there is a God and His word is true. For the atheist this doesn't matter. Those whose days are few and they know it they have the opportunity, for the man who is on his way home from work and some driver runs a stop sign and T-bones him killing him instantly he must face the Judgment just as he was at that moment. No time to repent or set things right.
This may well be the wrong forum for this but this is where Shelley's friends hang out and this is where it will probably be seen the most. Wilbur is free to move it as he sees fit with no word of protest from me. It's just something I've been thinking about since reading about Shelley's problem that, in reality, may not really be a problem. We are all just 'passing through' to somewhere.
Bless you all.
We've all had close friends who have gone through what Shelley is facing. I had a friend here in Greenville who owned Hunter's Hideout, a great gun shop/sporting goods store. Many who visit here have been in the store when it was in business.
The owner, Ed Fuller, retired from Monsanto and opened up the store simply because he enjoyed it. Ed began to notice that he felt badly and didn't have much energy. After tests it was discovered he had lung cancer of the type caused by working around asbestos. When he was no longer able to go to the store he asked me and another friend to stop by and visit him at his home.
It turned out that when Ed's daughter was young she became seriously ill and Ed made God a promise that if He would let Sharon live that he, Ed, would do such and such. Now, facing his own death Ed was distraught because he thought that he had not lived up to his end of the bargain and he felt that God might hold it against him.
I'm not a 'SuperSaint' but I've been a Christian since 1980 and spiritual matters are on my mind quite a bit and, as it happened, I had thought about such a matter. I am convinced, and I reminded Ed Fuller of this, that it is impossible for us to disappoint God. For that to happen it would mean that we acted in such a way as to catch God by surprise, or to put it another way, something happened that He didn't expect. This cannot be for then He would not be God.
Now what I'm about to say may seem a little strange and if it does just think about it for a minute. We are all terminal. Some have some foreknowledge that their time is short such as Shelley and the person who has planned, and intends to follow through on their suicide know pretty well exactly when it will happen but the rest of us usually don't have a clue. I am convinced that people who have been told their days are few have an advantage over most of us and that is this:
If there is anything standing between them and God they have the time and opportunity to set things right. That is, if they believe there is a God and His word is true. For the atheist this doesn't matter. Those whose days are few and they know it they have the opportunity, for the man who is on his way home from work and some driver runs a stop sign and T-bones him killing him instantly he must face the Judgment just as he was at that moment. No time to repent or set things right.
This may well be the wrong forum for this but this is where Shelley's friends hang out and this is where it will probably be seen the most. Wilbur is free to move it as he sees fit with no word of protest from me. It's just something I've been thinking about since reading about Shelley's problem that, in reality, may not really be a problem. We are all just 'passing through' to somewhere.
Bless you all.
