The Beginning:
This true story is a holy fabric, masterfully woven by the tender instruction of God's Spirit. The story's purpose is to answer prayer, and that answer is spun of the threads of tragedy, worship and love. The student in this private tutelage of God's classroom is merely a man; a man who has been realizing that to more intimately follow Jesus' footsteps requires many things, but as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV); ". . the greatest of these is love."Realizing He Can't - The 'Request':
Mankind feels he can love many things: people, recreation, food or money; but what we really do is enjoy these things. In fact, man enjoys pleasing himself most of all. For some, enjoy turns into obsession, and sometimes even into worship; but we must realize that it is not love. God created love. He is love, and what we call love can never be what He has created. The student in our lesson petitions God for a miracle. He simply and prayerfully petitions the Lord to place HIS love in a clay jar, because his love is only a sin-stained counterfeit."Lord, how can I be a witness to people that I can't stand to be around? How can I be an ambassador for you to those that I'd prefer to push down a flight of stairs? Lord, you need to show me your love and fill me with the reality of that love because I simply have no capacity to do it on my own."Can we love unconditionally on our own?
Can we love unconditionally those we don't even like?
The man, the student, had sincerely implored God to fill him with HIS love, and to show him how HIS love works. There was more in that request than our student could have known. The lesson, God's classroom, was in session. . . . .The Trigger - Love's Sorrow:
In time, the manifestation of answered prayer took shape. The Lord was acting upon the student's request to know and feel HIS love, and He began to show him how that love works and how that love IS. He began by preparing a special place in the student to house the desire to love others. The student couldn't have known beforehand that God was being typically God. This lesson was invoked long before the request.The object of God's lesson was an Olympic caliber cyclist in the 1995 Tour de France. He was an Italian racing on one of the American teams, an Olympic road race champion, 24 years young, newly married and the father of a 4 month old son. He had everything to live for: a new wife, a new son, fame as an athlete; he had the world by the tail. He was, seemingly, in complete control. Others in the past have thought so too. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.'" (Luke 12:20 NIV)God was preparing a lesson for a simple man half a world away, but the events pertaining to the cyclist were not triggered by the student's simple request. We can't know how God weaves events into the fabric that comprises our everyday lives. The details are His, and we couldn't fathom them if we tried. Sometimes we are privileged to view portions of His mosaic, but often we are not. We are charged, however, to follow what we can see with loving and faithful obedience, and what is not revealed to us we trust on faith.On Tuesday, July 18, 1995, the champion Italian cyclist stepped into one of only two eternities that God has created.
Our cyclist was speeding down a mountain road in Cauterets, France during one portion of this grueling endurance race. His bicycle was traveling an estimated 55 MPH when he apparently lost control. No one was present to view the actual crash, only the devastating result. He was found lying on his side in a fetal position with blood streaming from his head. He was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at a local hospital. His worry-free, everything-to-live-for life was over; his wife was a widow; his son was fatherless.The next day, the student in God's classroom reads about the cyclist in the morning paper. Accompanying the article is a graphic photo. It is evident that blood is pouring out of the comatose man's body and is all around him. The image of the cyclist in the fetal position speaks to the student loudly. As a helpless babe we enter life, and we leave it the same way. It is through the power of that image that God really begins to teach."Oh Lord, why does this story and photo captivate me so? Why can't I get it out of my mind? Why does it make me feel so sick? So bothered? So sorrowful? somewhere in my stomach it literally hurts! I've seen countless gruesome scenes of war's devastation in books and on TV. I've watched horrifying footage of the massacres in Rwanda, witnessing the not-quite-dead being relieved of the very shoes from their feet while in the throes of death. I've grown accustomed to the tragic carnage we see depicted in the nightly news: auto accidents, suicides and murders virtually non-stop every day. So Lord, why does this Italian cyclist, a man I've never heard of, upset me so? Why am I so troubled in my spirit? Oh Lord please tell me? Is there something I need to know? Are you trying to relay to me some message? Please help me! Please relieve the ache in my soul!"
For man to fully grasp the hugeness of God's love, he must also taste and comprehend God's sorrow. This lesson is one that requires special perspective.Praise, Worship . . . And Teaching:
Truth blazed down upon on our student's lesson during praise and worship at an evening church service the very next day. The worship leader was lead by the Spirit to call for a time of quiet meditation, prayer and waiting upon the Lord.And in the quiet of the moment . . . . . . God spoke volumes!
It was not so much a conversation of words, sentences or paragraphs. It was comparable to a burst of thought, or an instant conversation . An entire lesson was instantaneously transferred in a tender yet unforgettable way. In essence, this is what God communicated:"I needed to show you how much I love my children by showing you how much I hurt when they reject me and die apart from my Son. I have caused you to feel some of the pain, the hurt, the sheer discomfort of body, soul and spirit that accompanies a lost soul. I FEEL THAT TOO! You see, that was a person made in MY IMAGE, made be ME, and yet they will live in agony apart from me for eternity!"So many people in this world are like that cyclist I have shown you recently. Learn from him and the example I have shown you. So many lives are like his final decent down that mountain in France. They have confidence in their own strength, confidence in their machines and devices, a sureness learned over time by success in their daily lives, jobs, and hobbies. BEWARE SUCCESS! Those people say, 'I can ride up and down any mountain I choose! I have been training for months. My equipment is state-of-the-art. My bike has a space-age alloy frame that is lighter than air and stronger than steel. My tires are high-tech silk-sown wonders that roll effortlessly. My brakes could stop a team of Clydesdales with no effort at all.'"But like the cyclist I've shown you, these people need more than this world has to offer. The cyclist's skill and training weren't enough. His machine couldn't save him, regardless of it's sophistication. Because of over-confidence, he wasn't even wearing a helmet as the blow of the crash was taken straight in his face. How like life that is."Most people don't perceive the frightful decent down their mountains as life threatening. They may even feel exhilarated by them, for a time. They have loads of confidence in their brakes, tires and athletic skills. Their perspective on life is worldly, finite, and selfish. Like our cyclist, all their plans can never prepare them for the eternity that awaits."Can you see now how much I love you by the feeling I have placed in your spirit that speaks to you just how much I hurt when you reject me? You have asked me to place in you this kind of love. Yes, you must have my love in order to be Holy, in order to bear fruit, in order to be a witness to the world, in order to be like my Son. You have also asked for this wisdom so that you can tell others - and so you will. The chance will come."God's Words Have Been Fulfilled In This Lesson To You Today.
Step By Step, Down The Road:
The man in this lesson, the student, has just begun to walk in a newness of faith down a long and well traveled road. For him it is a new road, but it is a road traveled by Jesus Christ Himself. Indeed, it is a road paved, brick by brick, by Our Lord. Within our student is an area prepared beforehand by God to receive HIS love, and the inflow will most probably be steady - one drop at a time. It is a very big area to fill, and it is longing terribly to be filled. At present, there is plenty of room to spare.
God's Love & Pain
The Goodsoil Discipleship Ministry
By Bro. Andy Madonio
November 18, 1995
Introduction:
This story, or 'discipletter', is based upon a factual news account of Italian cycling champion Fabio Casartelli, and was reported in the Wednesday, July 19, 1995 edition of the USA Today. The 'student' in the story is none other than the author, me! God used my whole body, soul and spirit as a tablet upon which to write this lesson.What should be learned here is this. The greatness and indescribable hugeness of God's Love requires that He also have a correspondingly great and huge heartache potential as well. Knowing God is the key to understanding Him.This story utilizes death to teach a lesson about life and love. Hmmmmm, I believe God has combined those themes before.