333 Words

333 WORDS….

Before you – yes, just ahead – is a better life. And….

Before you – yes, just ahead – is a worse life.

The life you walk into doesn’t depend on luck or charm or ability…. but rather relationship.

Having a rich relationship with the One who made you will lead to a better life. Much better.

Perhaps, thou thinkest, you have already reached bottom, so tomorrow must be better. And because life has to get better, could never get worse, maybe you think a carefully calculated life-change will improve your circumstances. That’s what Carl Werner thought….

Because of the ’30s depression Carl’s working hours at Ford Motor Company were shortened. Life in Detroit became strenuous – not harsh, just difficult. When Ford offered employees an opportunity to work in Russia, Carl accepted.

Perhaps Carl thought, as most of us think, he was at his bottom with nowhere to go but up, up, up. But no, life also has downs, deeper bottoms. And it was down…. down into horrid living quarters, down into inferior meals and terrible working conditions, down into a society fearful and sad. Yet Carl, his wife and daughter, hadn’t yet bottomed, nowhere close.

For no valid reason, Carl was arrested and imprisoned in Stalin’s Gulag where millions died a cruel life in weather so cold “even fog would freeze”. [See note.] With Carl’s imprisonment, starvation became a lingering threat for the three. When daughter was likewise arrested they finally reached their bottom, and resided there many years.

Like Carl, many of us have tried improving our lives and walked into worse. Our bottom deepened because we refused to submit to the One we incorrectly referred to as “Lord”…. while steering our own lives.

But you don’t have to walk into worse. Better is equally available. Today can be the beginning of increase. Lord Jesus will take hold of the hand outstretched to Him. Really.

Life doesn’t have two solutions. To attain better, there really isn’t an alternative. He alone can take you into a better life.

NOTE: Dancing Under the Red Star, authored by Karl Tobien. “The extraordinary story of Margaret Werner, the only American woman to survive Stalin’s Gulag.”