Stepping Up

The Counselor: I have come to help you.

Old Man: Go away. Leave me alone.

The Counselor: I can't go away. I came here to help you.

Old Man: What do you want with me? Go away. Don't bother me. You can't help me. Let me die in peace.

The Counselor: That's what I came here to do, in a manner of speaking.

Old Man: What? Let me die in peace?

The Counselor: In a way, yes. I came to help you.

Old Man: I don't know whether you can help me. I don't know whether I can be helped. I am an old man. I am tired of living. I've had too many trials to want to keep on going. All my dreams have been crushed. I lost everyone in my life I ever loved or cared about. I have made mistakes, some of which I will never be able to fix. I have regrets. My regrets are not like normal regrets. My regrets are more like disappointments I could never do what I thought I was capable of doing. Every time I took a step forward, I went two steps backward. Some people had fortune. I had misfortune. Some of my misfortune was due to mistakes I made. Most of my misfortune was due to burdens put upon me by whoever puts bad things on people. My wife and children abandoned me. Some of my mistakes were due to factors in my life I could not control. I was blind to the truth in so many ways. Being blind to the truth, I never helped the people I should have helped. I never served those people who really needed me. I was a failure. Most of what I touched turned into some kind of dark mush ready to be thrown out in the garbage. I have always wanted to turn things around, to redo what I messed up, to make amends and show the people I hurt I was sorry. Now it is too late. Just about anyone I have known is dead. My businesses failed and everyone abandoned me. Let me die in peace. I have run out of chances long ago.

The Counselor: I have come to give you a new perspective on your life. I cannot give you new chances to make amends, but I can give you a way to see the love in your life.

Old Man: Love? Love? You have to be joking. I have never had love in my life. My life has been so full of pain any love was left out.

The Counselor: You had love but you did not see it, or know it, or feel it. Love was always present. You see the shack outside your window?

Old Man: Yes, I see it. Where did the shack come from? It wasn't there a few minutes ago.

The Counselor: The shack came with me. The shack contains a golden stairway. I will help you get out of bed and we will walk through the wall and we will be outside.

Old Man: Walk through the wall? Not possible.

The Counselor: Oh, very much possible. Here, take my hand. I will help you out of bed. When you take my hand, you will feel young again. Try it. Here, take my hand.

Old Man: OK, guess it wouldn't hurt anything. Mercy! You are right. I don't feel old anymore.

The Counselor: OK, climb out of bed and we will walk through the wall.

Old Man: You are right. We are walking through the wall. And now we are outside. I feel young again. I feel like I am twenty or twenty-one.

The Counselor: OK, let's walk over to the shack. Now we are inside the shack. See the golden stairway?

Old Man: Yes, truly amazing. Where does the stairway go?

The Counselor: Up. Every step represents a day in your life beginning at your earliest memory. When you take the first step I will be with you. The people you see in the places you go on each step will never see you but you can see them. You will be able to hear them but they will never hear you. You can always come back down the stairway instead of always going up. However, once a person starts going up the stairway, the person never comes back down.

Old Man: OK, why not. I am going to die anyway, why not try this stairway out.

The Counselor: OK, take the first step.

Old Man: OK, here we go. Look at this!!  I am at home when I was about three years old. I am sitting on my mother's lap. We are in the big rocking chair sitting by the big window in our living room. We are waiting on my dad to come home. It is dark outside and there is a terrible ice storm going on outside. My mother loved me, didn't she? I never felt she loved me that much. It is kind of overwhelming to see this. Just this one step makes me see more than I ever saw before.

The Counselor: The love you feel is not just the love of your mother, but the love of God. Would you like to take the next step?

Old Man: Yes, I would like to take the next step but will there be love like this on every step?

The Counselor: Yes, there will be love. Your spirit has left your body. Remember you will not see me again or hear me again until you get to the top, but I am always with you until you get to the top of the stairway. Time for you is no more. You will not get tired or fatigued. You are young again and you will never get old. Your perspective on your life will change as you touch the infinite love that has always been with you. Your acceptance of Christ will be renewed.

When the spirit of the old man left his body, his body lapsed into a coma. After several weeks, his body went to sleep or died but his spirit was alive. He was young again as he climbed higher and higher on the golden stairway.

This message was presented in April 2012 as the Virtual Church message in Shepherd's Care Ministries virtual church site at http://www.shepherdscare.net