EP 69: What Are You Leaning On?

“Lord, if you will show me the way, I will follow you. Amen.” ~Brother  Andrew Once there was a boy who grew up poor, uneducated, with a deaf father, an ill mother and a handicapped brother. This boy's life was full of troubles and heartaches. Yet, despite the challenges, his family deeply loved each other and God.  Unfortunately, despite being taught all the right principles this boy, Andrew, still lacked clarity, self-confidence and direction. Rather than turning to God to solve these problems, Andrew chose to lean on other things for strength -- changing his environment, giving in to peer pressure, chain smoking, getting drunk, even risking his life in battle. Of course, none of the things he had chosen to lean on restored his love of self, removed his grief and shame, took away his resentments, made him happy or brought him comfort, peace, or joy. Like Andrew, when the pain of the world descends upon us we must lean on something for support! What will we choose to lean on?  That makes all the difference! Listener's Guide: Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast.  3:54        Andrew's story 8:31        What do you want to do with your life, Andrew? 10:30     Killing is not the adventure he sought 13:57      Leaning on all the wrong things 25:00     The Bible 28:46     Letting go and Freedom! 30:00     God's smuggler 33:15      Audrey's challenge and the 1st Law of Life Mission Quotes from this episode: “I left home emotionally as well as physically…how I liked being treated like an adult.” ~Brother Andrew “And instantly I knew that I had been wrong about this adventure. It wasn’t the danger—I liked that—it was the killing. Suddenly targets were no longer pieces of paper stuck up on an earth background, they were fathers and brothers like my own. Often our targets weren’t even in uniform. What was I doing? How had I gotten here? I was more disgusted with myself than I had ever imagined possible.” ~Brother Andrew Brother Andrew's prayer: “Today help me not take a step outside Your will.”  “That was the final irony, the final failure. I hadn’t even managed to get my brains blown out. Just a foot. Somehow in all my furious self-destructiveness I had never considered this possibility. I had always seen myself going out in a blaze of contempt for the whole human farce. But to live—and crippled!—that was the meanest fate of all. My great adventure had failed. Worse, I was twenty years old, and I had discovered that there was no real adventure anywhere in the world.” ~Brother Andrew  “I said thanks but I didn’t pick [the Bible] up. I doubt if I ever would have, except for the nuns….The hospital to which I had been assigned was run by Franciscan sisters. I soon fell in love with every one of them…" ~Brother Andrew “He asks for so little in order to give us so much.”  ~Brother Andrew “'Why, Andrew, you ought to know the answer to that—a good Dutch boy like you. It’s the love the Christ.’ When she said it, her eyes sparkled, and I knew without question that for her this was the whole answer...” ~from God's Smuggler “It is just when we are weakest that God can use us most.” ~Brother Andrew “What was I hanging on to? I lay on my back with my hands under my head staring at the darkened ceiling and all at once, very quietly, I let go of my ego. With a new note in the wind yelling at me not to be a fool, I turned myself over to God—lock, stock, and adventure. There wasn’t much faith in my prayer. I just said, ‘Lord, if You will show me the way, I will follow You. Amen.  ...although I had thrown away every shred of self-defense, I felt secure in a way I had never before known. I woke up with such joy welling in me that I had t...