Unforeseen and Abundant Life

I’ve known the Bratt family for almost 20 years. For the first 10 I just admired their sweet family from afar, but almost 10 years ago Theresa agreed to mentor me. We’ve walked through all sorts of life experiences together, all sorts of ups and downs in both of our lives, and in the process she has become one of my very dearest friends, one of my favorite people, and someone who I look up to for a myriad of reasons. 

I remember though, when our relationship was first beginning, asking her what made her family so amazing? How did she have the relationship with her kids that she did? How was it that ALL of her kids ended up loving Jesus so much…and each other? Her kids LOVE each other. I’ve wanted my family to be just like hers and I wanted her to provide me with the guaranteed formula. She’s given me many suggestions, lots of parenting advice, marriage advice, life advice, but the bottom line: the answer has always been Jesus. He has been the center of their lives as a family and individually and the fruit is clear. 

The thing is, though, nothing is guaranteed. We can raise our kids to love Jesus and do all of the right things, but ultimately they still get to make their own choices. Demrie chose to live a life absolutely surrendered to Jesus. He was her first love and oh, how she loved Him. 

I’ve walked very closely this past year with Theresa: through Demrie’s diagnosis, surgeries, chemo treatments, pain and misery, and I have been changed. Because in the midst of all of that suffering Jesus was always shining. They were able to choose Life while facing the possibility of death each day. They took this past year and filled it so full of love, laughter and beautiful memories, and at the center of it all was Jesus. And their love for Him was contagious. 

I’ve been a Jesus follower for most of my life. The Lord showed me my need for a Savior as a little girl and though I’ve followed Him and desired to please Him with my life to some degree, I’ve struggled to see the value in absolute surrender to Him. It’s felt like such a huge sacrifice and quite honestly, I was never sure why it was necessary? I figured if I was saved and was mostly living my life for God, what did it matter if I totally surrendered to Him or not? I said this even though I knew I was missing the freedom, the joy, the fruitful life I’ve longed for. Because I didn’t see how surrender related to these characteristics, I was always giving God what I viewed as just enough to get by.  I was missing the bounty of His grace, the joy and the freedom that come from absolute surrender. And without knowing it I had settled for the lie that Jesus plus (fill in the blank) would be more satisfying than looking to Him alone for life.  Demrie has taught me this is not the case. At all. Watching Dem as she lived in absolute surrender to Jesus through such terrible suffering; as she faced some of her greatest fears, as she endured the horrible HIPEC surgery, hoping for a miracle, only to find it didn’t work. She watched her sweet nephews, and anticipated the birth of her niece, and experienced the agony of knowing she may not get to see them grow.  She had to accept that so many of her dreams would go unfulfilled in this life. And through it all she trusted the Lord so completely. She believed His way was best and truly desired for His will to be done. She believed His ways were higher than hers and she knew that Life, true, eternal, abundant Life is found only in walking in Him and in His ways. She lived a truly extraordinary life and she’s changed me. Or rather Jesus has used her great love for Him to change me. She wrote, “One thing I can guarantee is that you will never regret one moment that you devote to God or His people. Never have I regretted learning more about my Savior. I have never regretted a moment in service to God or loving His people well. This makes an extraordinary life all that much more worth living. Because in the end, you will be able to look back and have confidence that you lived a life with purpose and meaning!” 

I think the highest compliment someone could ever be payed is that others want to know Jesus more because of how that person lived their life. I can say 100% that I want to know Jesus more because of Demrie. She has shown me what it looks like to truly live an extraordinary life, and it looks nothing like what the world says it should. It’s not about self, money, possessions, or even life experiences. It’s about living a life completely surrendered to the Lord, for Him to use for His beautiful purposes. No guarantees are given in surrender. He never promises that things will be easy or that life will go as we expect, but He does promise to walk with His people through the power of His Holy Spirit, and He promises abundant life. John 10:10 says, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” 

In church last Sunday, my pastor spoke about the unlikely ways in which the Lord works. This truth doesn’t just apply to our lives, but this is the way He operated all throughout the Bible and especially in the life of His Son.  Jesus was born to an unwed virgin which not only seemed crazy but was also scandalous. He was born in a feeding trough and as soon as he was born the king was seeking to kill Him. He was ridiculed and persecuted all throughout his ministry. And He suffered and died a horrible, painful, shameful death. But through all of it a perfect plan was in place, and as a result we can be saved because He suffered. God’s purpose was beyond human comprehension, but as Pastor David said “Christmas is a reminder that God can be trusted to write our story.” We’ll never get the answers to many “why’s” in life, one of those being why sweet, beautiful Demrie had to suffer what she did, or why Jesus chose to take her home. I don’t pretend for a second to understand any of it, but I know that God has changed me through this girl. Jesus means more now to me than anything. Anything. I fail all the time but my desire is to be so fully surrendered to Him that He is glorified in me and I so badly want others to know Him through my life. Dem was a picture of this. She loved greatly and was so greatly loved. She lived a truly extraordinary life and I want to be just like her when I grow up, because she’s the closest thing to Jesus in this world that I’ve ever seen.

by Crystal Whitlock