“How am I going to answer their question about my GPA?” the college senior sighed. As his job interview drew steadily nearer, Ben1 now fretted openly about his good-but-not-great transcript. “Just turn the negative into a positive,” chimed my wife Peggy, optimistically. “How am I going to do that?” he skeptically rejoined. “Just tell him since you played college sports and worked full time while also taking a full class load, you weren’t always able to adequately prepare for exams. A better demonstration is that you passed three CPA exams on your first try and since passed the last one.” It was Ben who broke the silence that ensued, “Can you say that again? I want to write that down.”
Sometimes we let our apparent situation — and the past experiences that led us there — define who we are and obscure our trust in God. Absent understanding, doubt stymies confidence, perhaps, or despair stifles hope. But how many times must God redeem our past before we rest in Him today and trust Him for tomorrow? When Joseph’s brothers feared his retribution for their mistreatment of him, he pointed them to God’s larger purpose: “You intended to harm me,” he said, “but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”2 And when Jesus’ disciples saw Him walking on the water toward them, they cried out in fear. “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.’”3 We regard circumstances in our finite way, but God rules over them in Sovereignty and ultimately for His glory. “And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”4
How has God acted in your life? How has He turned your failures into His glory? When you look back today, can you see His ongoing transformational work in you? If so, is He not praiseworthy? Remember where you were when God met you, chose you, called you, drew you, saved you, liberated you, and raised you from death to life. What does His action speak to us — perpetual blame and condemnation, or eternal acceptance as His adopted sons and daughters? In His great mercy, God turns our negatives into His positives. For “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”5
Say that again; write that down.
Epilogue. When asked about his GPA in the interview, Ben replied with his readied response. “That’s a really good answer,” marveled his questioner. Ben got the job.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!6 In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 This name is changed for privacy purposes.
2 Genesis 50:20 NIV
3 Matthew 14:27 ESV
4 Matthew 14:33 ESV
5 Romans 8:28 NASB
6 Psalm 139:23-24 ESV
Tag: Rembrance series
Categories
A Morsel of Bread and a Sip of Wine
For two people in my life, both of whom have passed on from here, I keep a token remembrance. A small screwdriver that once belonged to my father now dangles from my keyring wherever I go. It is tempered steel, much like my childhood image of my dad. It is useful to me as it was to him, and it often brings him to mind. On our bedroom wall hangs a watercolor painting that my mother began but never finished. Its feminine flair captures her elegance, and its simplicity displays her quiet confidence and subtle taste. It reflects her as much as any self-portrait could, or so it seems to me.
Of all the reminders Jesus could have left behind, vast or simple, He specifically chose these: a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. In what would be His “last supper” here on Earth, Jesus gave bread to His disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”1 He then offered them wine, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”2 So what might a morsel of bread and a sip of wine — this body and blood — speak to us as we partake of them together as the people of Christ?
God engages us at great length. He made us in His image, then came to us in ours. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . All things were made through him . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”3
God acts with great purpose. “When the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.”4
God loves us at great cost. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”5
God lives in us forever. “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.”6
God purifies us completely. In Levitucus God declared, “The life of a creature is in the blood . . . it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”7 Not just any blood, but only that of the Creator — “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”8
Yes, Lord. Thank You for the bread and the wine, Your body and blood. We remember; we believe; we partake. For in Christ we live, and in Him we pray. Amen.
1 Luke 22:19 ESV (emphasis added)
2 1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV (emphasis added)
3 John 1:1-3, 14 ESV
4 Galatians 4:4-5 NLT
5 1 John 4:10 NIV
6 1 John 4:15
7 Leviticus 17:11 NIV
8 1 John 1:7 NIV
Categories
Those Who Are Where You Once Were
Statistics startle sometimes. Case in point: Bible sales. Every year in the U.S., the Bible is the top-selling book. So, the fact that its sales in America soared 22% in 2024 seemed statistically impossible to me. How do we account for such a surge in the perennial bestseller? I think we have an answer: “a groundswell of commitment to Jesus over the last four years.”1 So observed a study from the research organization, the Barna Group. Barna’s recent data shows “66 percent of all U.S. adults say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today. That marks a 12-percentage-point increase since 2021.” Moreover, “Among the biggest drivers of the Jesus resurgence are younger generations—particularly Gen Z and Millennials.”2 What does this tell us but that people still search for meaning and truth? And that some are finding life’s purpose in God and truth in His Word.
Do you recall when “seeker” described you — when you were the one struggling in the search that ultimately led to God through Christ Jesus, His Son? God calls us to remember our plight and, in such remembrance, to extend justice and mercy to those who are where we once were. In giving the Law, God commanded His people, “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.”3 Similarly, God directed His people to the generosity and compassion He had extended to them: “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. . . You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.”4
Today as ever, there are the many who cry out from their own “Egyptian” captivity, those seeking cleansing from guilt and removal of shame, those searching for the purpose of life and the certainty of truth — people who are where we once were. Today may we remember when this was us, and in this remembrance, extend the hope and freedom which, through others, God extended to us.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”5 Yes, Lord, grace us to remember your comfort and to extend your compassion always. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1, 2 “New Research: Belief in Jesus Rises, Fueled by Younger Adults,” Barna, accessed August 5, 2025, https://www.barna.com/research/belief-in-jesus-rises/ (emphases added)
3 Deuteronomy 24:17-18 ESV (emphasis added)
4 Deuteronomy 24: 19-22 ESV (emphasis added)
5 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV
Paul Nordman—Author 