Scripture: Matthew 6:12
"Forgive us for our sins, just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us" NCV
What does it take for Jesus to get your attention? For Aimee Kyambadde it was a process where she learned --- not to look at others --- but to Jesus alone. Discovering that she was responsible for her own relationship with Jesus and no one could be blamed for her choices --- was a most delivering revelation.
Aimee was brought up in a pleasant suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota Christian home and taught all the "right" things. Aimee's dad and mom pastor a church that by default made her a "PK" --- preachers kid. While she became born again at seven years old and loved the Lord sincerely, life became tough for this teenager battling fears, insecurities, and rejection. Adding the moniker "PK" became a millstone around Aimee's neck she could not control. Trying to figure out where she fit in with friends and the congregation --- and dealing with the spiritual mind battles the enemy uses on PK's --- proved painful. She struggled to find her place and felt like she was hurt more than her fair share. Feeling betrayed, judged, and wounded by "the church" and having experienced a violent traumatic physical attack by some "church" youth, she tried to run from people but ended up running from God --- hardening her heart to mask her pain.
Aimee knew her parents and many others were praying for her but the traumatic experiences and disappointments in her Christian relationships tormented her. Then the running stopped abruptly.
Her life quickly falling apart, feeling farther from loved ones and God than ever, Aimee realized she needed God to intervene and fast. She prayed "Jesus please slap me in the face if you have to --- knock some sense into me. My heart is so hard and I'm so full of anger --- speak to my heart in the night season --- and change me." She slept with her Bible open on her chest for seven days.
On the seventh day, Aimee was shot in the face in a drive-by shooting.
In the hospital, Aimee realized it was her and Jesus --- not "her and the church" or "her and her friends" or "her and anybody". She had become even more of a hypocrite than all the "church hypocrites" she hated. Now she knew first hand exactly what Paul felt like on the road to Damascus! At heart and in action Aimee was persecuting the church. Hurting those who loved her. But she was so engrossed in herself she couldn't see anyone else. It was time to repent! And she did.
From that day, Aimee set her face toward Jesus and learned to stop looking at people to find Him. Devoting her life to helping others overcome similar battles and learn to use their experiences to help others, Aimee became a minister (the one thing she sore years ago she would never do).
Years later on a mission trip in Uganda Aimee met a man named David. Looking across the parking lot where she first saw him --- without thinking she said, "Who is that man, I'm going to marry him!"
Part 2 tomorrow
Prayer: Father your ways are a mystery that each of us must unravel by himself --- help me to get it right the first time. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
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