Thursday, February 19, 2004
Thursday, February 19, 2004
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you
life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and
length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors,
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
(Deuteronomy 30.19-20
NRSV)
That was a lesson that Mel Trotter had to learn the hard way. For much of his life Trotter was a hopeless alcoholic. He came home after one ten-day drinking spree to find his baby dead in his wife's arms. "I've killed my son," he cried. "I'll never touch another drop." But two hours after his baby's funeral, Mel Trotter staggered home--drunk again. He had taken the little white shoes off his baby in the coffin and pawned them for money to buy drink. In utter despair he headed along a Chicago street for Lake Michigan. But on the way the strong arm of Harry Monroe, Superintendent of Pacific Garden Mission, pulled him inside a hall where the Gospel was being preached. That night suicidal Mel Trotter heard that there was a hope in Christ. He became a Christian and for the next 40 years served as superintendent of a rescue mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan. From this base he started 60 other gospel missions in U.S. cities, all designed to reach down-and-outers for Christ. He counseled thousands of would-be suicides, putting them on the road to happiness and Heaven. Mel Trotter chose to turn from death to life.
Our situation is not apt to be as desperate as Mel Trotter's but still there are choices you and I make every day that determine the quality of our lives and the quality of our relationships. God's will for each of us is to make choices that lead to abundant life.
Dear God, help me to make good choices. Amen.
