The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall sell in the house of the Lord forever.[Psalm 23]
In this psalm, like many of his others, David begins speaking about God's provisions, protection, and goodness in his life. He's speaks about God in the third person to the reader: "He makes", "He restores", and "He leads me".
Then suddenly, David changes to second person by speaking directly to God, praising Him as the source for those provisions, protection, and goodness in his life: "You are with me", "You prepare", and "You anoint".
God is an unchanging and eternal God (Malachi 3:6). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). All good and perfect gifts come from God (James 1:17). If David experienced God's goodness like that 3,000 years ago, we can experience God's goodness like that today. If God was worthy of that praise 3,000 years ago, He's just as worthy of our praise today.
First Steps
If you have read my story, you know that God saved me from anger and rage in my late teens. That was the beginning of His bringing His peace into my life.
I have lived in my home for many decades. There was a period of about 15 years in my thirties and forties that my home had 11 different attempted or successful break-ins. As I don't own items of real worth or general interests, the only time things were stolen was during the first break-in. Of those items taken, only one amounted to anything and it wasn't even mine. I was temporarily holding onto the item for my brother.
The first break-in was traumatizing and brought the feeling of violation. Soon after that incident, I had an alarm company install a security system. I had them include glass-break detectors, door detectors, window detectors, motion detectors, and a painfully loud alarm siren. Not long after that, my neighbor's home was also broken into. She already had an alarm system on her home, but the burglars cut her telephone line running to her home (yes, this was in the days of land-lines) so the system could not dial out to the monitoring station. I immediately upgraded my system's dialer with a cellular back-up.
The second break-in some months later was still upsetting. It still brought a feeling of violation, but not to the level of the first. I arrived at the house about the same time as the police officers. The intruders had already raced through the house, disheveled everything quickly searching for at-hand items worth taking, and fled before any of us arrived.
With the third break-in, even while I was driving to meet the police officers at the house, God placed on my heart to pray for the intruders. Whatever their reasons (boredom, hunger, addiction, whatever), they were obviously neck-deep in sin. Praying for the intruders became the normal response from that time onward.
After a few more break-in attempts and successes, I discontinued my alarm monitoring service. It was uselessly costing money and achieving nothing in return. Each time the house was attacked, it resulted in one of two outcomes:
1) The intruders would break a window or kick in a door and be immediately frightened off by the audible alarm2) The intruders entered the house, riffled through everything, and then fled without anything for their troubles before the police could arrive.
Every time though I was left having to repair door frames or replace window panes of which the costs never got close to meeting or exceeding my insurance deductible. After another couple of attempted break-ins, I put bars on the windows and security bars on the doors. I had one more break-in after that, and most recently an attempt at breaking out a window which I caught on security camera. (I'm still baffled over that one; the window had bars that would have prevented entry.)
But - I prayed for the intruders with complete peace about the situations.
Keep Walking
March 19, 2025 was a very windy day with gusts in excess of 50 mph. I had taken the day off from work to have a minor repair done on my car. I began the day by attending my early morning Downline discipleship class. Immediately after that, I dropped the car off at my mechanic and walked to a nearby Chick-Fil-A for a breakfast and some alone time with God. A few hours later, the car was ready. I then ran a few quick errands, and picked up lunch before heading for home.
As I left from picking up my lunch, a neighbor called.
"Your house is on fire!"
I asked whether it was the house or the yard, and he confirmed it was the house and it was all in flames. I told him I was on my way. I sent a text to my brother for him to get word to our family, and I sent a text to my church community group telling them what I had just learned and asked for prayer.
I then prayed. "Father, it is in Your hands. Please make it nothing, or make it everything. But use this through me to witness of Your goodness to others." I turned it completely over to God, and I began praising Him in prayer and song as I drove.
Trying to turn into my neighborhood, I was having to avoid a number of police cars responding. There were already a number of them there, and at two fire trucks present, and I wasn't even on my street yet. The first turn to my street was blocked, so I continued to the other which was closer to the actual location of my house. It was also blocked. I parked and walked to the corner to try seeing the house. I could not see more than maybe 100 feet before all visibility was obscured by a solid brown wall of smoke. A police officer approached and told me and others around me that we had to leave the area.
Several hours later, the fire was finally contained and we were allowed to return to our properties.
(The before photo was taken August 29, 2023 - The after photo was taken March 19, 2025)
(Kitchen and Dining Room destruction)
My home and three others were completely wrecked. The woods behind our homes was scorched and barren of undergrowth as were our backyards. Utility lines and poles that ran parallel to our property lines had to have immediate repairs the following day.
Pick Up The Pace
But God is so good! Not one moment of anxiety, worry, or sorrow have I experienced despite the loss of the family home that my parents purchased in 1969 as its first owners and which my siblings graciously worked for it to come to me in the estate settlement after my parents' passing.
Understand, I am still very much a work in progress, and this doesn't exemplify my every day response to situations. It is a process of growth over time. There is nothing in me that can produce this kind of peace other than the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
God answered my prayer in that it was an "everything" result. It wasn't a "nothing" result, and it wasn't a "partial" or "halfway" result. His peace, and only His peace, has been carrying me through this, and I have been able to share His goodness with others. One friend sympathetically said, "Oh Brian! You've lost everything!" I replied, "No, I haven't. The day I said 'Jesus, save me!' I gained everything. That was just stuff that can be replaced." I told of how God has been working in my life, and how He worked in this situation.
With a pending trip to Rwanda, another dear friend asked about my passport. Having to replace the passport at this point could have been problematic for actually making the trip.
I knew where the passport had been: inside my travel wallet, inside my suitcase, inside a bedroom closet. What I didn't know was if the passport, much less the closet, was still there. The closet was at the back of the house - the direction my neighbors told me the fire had come from and which the fire inspector later confirmed. When finally able to access the house, I made my way through the debris to that closet. I had the suitcase wrapped in a plastic bag with the bag closed with a clothes pin. There was minimal water exposure on the bag, and the suitcase and all of its contents, including the passport, were completely dry.
God has been setting me up to be involved with Acts4Rwanda, but a little house fire cannot interrupt His plans!
What has effected me, and effected me deeply, is the overwhelming love, prayers, support, and generosity from every direction: family, friends, my church, my community group, former and current coworkers, friends I have not had contact with for many years, and even people I don't personally know.
That outpouring has been truly as humbling as it has been overwhelming, and it is teaching me another lesson that has its own level of difficulty in my life.
As these wonderful people have reached out to me, one of my sister's told me, "Part of being gracious is to learn how to receive a gift." This proverbial gem was echoed at another Downline discipleship session as we concluded covering the book of Romans. Paul wrote in Romans 12:13, "Contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality."
Eyes on the Finish
My story is not unique. People have been blessed by God in many remarkable ways throughout history even in the midst of moderate and great tragedy, and many times in exceedingly more remarkable ways than my own experience. However, I pray that this event in my life will encourage you in your relationship with God. He wants us to trust Him and follow Him, even through those valleys of the shadow of death. He doesn't watch from afar as we go through these hardships; He's right there with us.
It's not an overnight transformation. From the time He took the rage away until praising Him despite losing my home has been nearly 40 years. But being in this progressed state of relationship with Him is greater than everything I could gain from this world.
As David said, he had no reason to fear. Why? Because God was with him.
- - -
- - -
Posts
