July 5, 2008

A New, Clear Reactor

Bud Welch lost his 23-year-old daughter, Julie, in the blast that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people in all. In a story entitled “Where Healing Begins” (Guideposts, May 1999), he recounts the extraordinary personal journey to forgiveness that began for him on April 19, 1995. “From the moment I learned it was a bomb,” Bud writes, “I survived on hate.” His anger was focused on Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and like so many others, Bud wished for their speedy conviction and execution. When he saw McVeigh’s father on television a few months after the bombing, however, Bud’s emotions began to shift for the first time. Oh, dear God, he remembers thinking to himself, this man has lost a child too.

To read the rest of the story in the July 5 lesson, please Click Here.

July 12, 2008

An Everyday Man

Once there was a man who grew up in the projects, the worst*** neighborhood for miles. As a child he was pretty average-looking, even though he didn’t act like the average boy his age. There was always something about him that made him different. It was as if he always had a purpose for whatever he did. He ended up not making much of himself when you compare him to all the important people of the time. He worked the same humble job his father had worked, and his father before him. Still stuck in the same neighborhood, with the same kids he’d grown up with. But as he approached middle age, something came over him.

Before he had had a purpose for what he did. But now it was if he were on a mission!

To read the rest of the story in the July 12 lesson, please Click Here.