Pastor
Carl's Corner
Anna, born into slavery, raised Fulton as a child. One day he was
sitting in the kitchen and heard her say, "Much obliged, dear Lord, for
these vittles." The little boy looked up and said, "Anna, what's a
vittle?" "It's whatever I have to eat." she replied. He said, "But you
get your vittles whether your pray for them or not." "Sure," she said,
"but it makes everything taste better to be thankful."
Over the year Fulton lost track of Anna. His own life was falling apart
and he was engulfed in deep depression, having lost all trust in God.
He got word that Anna, living in poverty, was dying of cancer alone in
an old wooden shack. He forced himself out of his house of despair and
went to her, while he pondered what she'd have to be thankful for now.
He went into her dark, lonely, one-room cabin and found her near
death's door. He touched her arm; she looked up at him, and said, "Much
obliged, dear Lord, for sending me a friend to be with me when I die."
And she breathed her last. Fulton, with tears in his eyes, uttered:
"Much obliged, dear Lord, for giving me Anna and the gift of faith to
go on." His next book was, The Greatest Story Ever Told, his account of
the gospel.
Fulton was able to write about the greatest story ever told because the
story of God and His love had become his own story. The ways that it
had become his own story was through his relationship with others who
knew God's story themselves. Conversion is the same process as
character formation. It comes from practicing faith as a way of life.
Those who practice faith come to faith. Anna practiced her faith every
day, even in the simplest of thanks for her "vittles", and her practice
of faith shaped her character. Her simple strength of character was a
witness to Fulton of the power of the gift of faith in a person's life,
and that witness drew him into receiving that gift himself.
Never discount what God can do through you to touch the lives of those
around you. Anna may have been old and dying in her small wooden shack,
but her faith was alive and doing fine; dong well enough tot touch
again the life of that little boy she knew years ago but now grown up
to be a man. And now just not any man but a man of faith who could
thank God for the greatest story ever told.
Shalom,
Pastor Carl
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