Aktive Direkt Hilfe e.V.

Neulich hatte ich einen dieser „Verfolgungs“-Träume, in denen man vor einem Gegner wegläuft und sich bemüht, nicht erwischt zu werden. In diesem Fall musste ich vor zwei Personen fliehen. Ich kam davon, aber als ich aufwachte, raste mein Herz.

Dann fragte ich Gott nach der Bedeutung dieses Traumes und Er zeigte mir die Sinnlosigkeit solcher Verfolgungsjagden und Rennen. Warum tun wir das, anstatt ein friedliches Leben zu führen? Mir wurde klar, wie wir von dieser Art von Gesinnung erzogen, trainiert und umgeben werden, im Grunde von der Wiege bis zur Bahre. Wir werden dafür trainiert, der Beste, der Schnellste, die „Nummer Eins“ zu sein.

Man denke an Spiele, von Monopoly über andere Brettspiele bis hin zu Computerspielen. Bringen uns die meisten von ihnen nicht bei, zu versuchen, zu gewinnen und die anderen Spielteilnehmer zu schlagen? Wir sehen uns gegenseitig als Konkurrenten, anstatt zusammenzuarbeiten!

Wie anders sind Gott und Sein Vorgehen! Er hat Mitgefühl für die Menschen. Er hat Barmherzigkeit, Gnade und Liebe. Jesus ist der greifbarste Beweis für Gottes Liebe. Er heilte die Kranken, sogar am Sabbat, an dem es laut der Gesetzeshüter nicht erlaubt war, zu heilen. Er vergab der Ehebrecherin, als sie zu Tode gesteinigt werden sollte. Er sprach mit einer schon fünfmal verheirateten samaritanischen Frau, die mit einem Mann zusammenlebte, der nicht ihr Ehemann war, zu einer Zeit, zu der es für Juden verboten war, auch nur Kontakt mit Samaritern zu haben.

Wenn wir uns die Welt anschauen, ist es nicht traurig, wie Menschen und Nationen miteinander konkurrieren? Die Reichen wollen noch reicher werden, die mächtigen Nationen wollen noch mächtiger sein. Sie bauen immer größere Lagerhäuser und immer gewaltigere und tödlichere Waffen. Wann werden sie mit dem zufrieden sein, was sie haben? Begreifen sie nicht, dass die großen, mächtigen Menschen und Nationen immer fallen werden, immer? Schauen wir uns nur die Geschichte an. Sie sind alle gefallen, die größten Reiche, die mächtigsten Päpste. Die reichsten Menschen müssen eines Tages sterben und können keinen Cent mitnehmen.

Also, warum nicht lieber mitfühlend sein, warum nicht mit den Armen teilen? Warum nicht miteinander arbeiten, statt gegeneinander? Warum nicht ein Friedensstifter sein, anstatt ein Kriegstreiber? Die friedlichsten Menschen, die ich je getroffen habe, waren die einfachsten Leute, die Pygmäen – verachtet von ihren Nachbarn, ihren eigenen Landsleuten. So gut wie ohne Besitz haben sie dennoch Liebe füreinander und ziehen lieber an einen anderen Ort, als gegen jene zu kämpfen, von denen sie verachtet oder misshandelt werden.

Jesus war das beste Beispiel. Er hatte keine irdischen Besitztümer. Dennoch hatte Er Mitleid mit den Armen, und die Menschen liebten Ihn dafür. Er sagte uns: „Selig sind die Armen im Geiste, denn ihrer ist das Himmelreich. Selig sind die Sanftmütigen, denn sie werden das Erdreich erben. Selig sind, die Frieden stiften; denn sie werden Gottes Kinder heißen.“ (Mat 5,5-9)

Folgen wir Seinem Beispiel und zeigen anderen Menschen Liebe und Mitgefühl, anstatt sie als Konkurrenten zu betrachten.

The other night I had one of those “chasing” dreams, where one runs away from an opponent, trying hard not to get caught. In this case, I had to flee from two people. I got away, but when I woke up, my heart was racing.

Then I asked God for the meaning of this dream and He showed me the futility of such chases and races. Why do we do that instead of living a peaceful life? I realized how we are raised, trained and surrounded by that kind of a mindset, basically from the cradle to the grave. We are trained to be the best, the fastest, the “Number One”.

Think about games, from Monopoly to other board games, to computer games. Don’t most of them teach us to try to win, to beat the other participants of the game? We see each other as competitors instead of working together!

How different God and His approach are! He has compassion for the people. He has mercy, grace and love. Jesus is the most tangible proof of God’s love. He healed the sick, even on the Sabbath day, when – according to the law enforcers – it was not allowed to heal. He forgave the adulteress when she was about to be stoned to death. He talked with a Samaritan woman who was already married five times and was living with a man, who was not her husband, at a time when it was forbidden for Jews to even have contact with Samaritans.

When we look at the world, isn’t it sad how people and nations are competing with each other? The rich want to become even richer, the powerful nations want to be even more powerful. They build ever bigger barns and more and more powerful and deadly weapons. When will they be satisfied with what they have? Don’t they realize that the big, powerful people and nations will always fall, always? Just look at history. They all fell, the biggest empires, the biggest popes, the richest people have to die one day and cannot take a cent with them.

So, why not rather be compassionate, why not share with the poor? Why not work together instead of against each other? Why not be a peacemaker instead of a warmonger? The most peaceful people I ever met were the simplest people, the Pygmies – looked down upon by their neighbors, their own countrymen. They have as good as no possessions, but have love for each other and prefer to move to another location rather than fight against those who despise or mistreat them.

Jesus was the best example. He had no earthly possessions. Yet, He had compassion on the poor, and the people loved Him for that. He told us: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Mat 5:5-9)

Let us follow His example and show love and compassion to others instead of seeing them as competitors.

At first, for our family the corona virus seemed like some distant disease somewhere far away. Then suddenly it landed close to our doorstep! The first serious case was my 80-year-old aunt in a nursing home who, thank God, overcame it! Then my very nice aunt Iva got it, but unfortunately, she did not survive it. This was followed by the infection of my brother’s entire family, and eventually my parents. The battle intensified. How much we prayed!

My brother’s family gradually got over the sickness; with my parents, it was worse. My father had to go to the hospital because he could not breathe properly anymore. He was in the early stage of pneumonia. He still looked good, ate alone, walked around a little bit and now and then needed oxygen. Then suddenly things changed and he ended up in the ICU. A few days later, he was in an artificially induced coma, on a ventilator. His condition became more and more serious and the doctors no longer gave us hope. Although my mother also had to go to the hospital, fortunately she soon was released to go back home again. Her condition has improved greatly since then.

These have been extremely difficult days for us. I think I’ve been through every stage of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Sometimes I felt a tight pain in my chest. I bargained with God. I was mad at the whole stupid COVID situation and sad that I couldn’t be with my parents in person. On top of it I wasn’t feeling well myself and had trouble breathing. When the news from the hospital wasn’t getting better, I began to feel hopeless. I had reached the point of acceptance that I would probably have to say goodbye to my Daddy here on earth.

Despite everything however, I personally felt God’s presence, love and comfort. Although I must admit, sometimes I gave Him a piece of my mind! But I know that it’s O.K. with Him, that He knows my heart and understands how I feel and prefers that I am honest than to pretend to be so good. I held long conversations with Him especially at night when I couldn’t sleep. He always comforted me. Once I felt that He was telling me that He is in the hospital with my Dad and that He is taking care of him. And when it looked really hopeless, He told me that Daddy would get over it, but that the recovery would take a long time. The next day the hospital told us more bad news and I believed them more than God.

At that time, a friend sent me the following: „I believe there is great strength and comfort in prayer. It is not a means to ‘move‘ God, but it is a possibility, an invitation, to be closer to Him and to bring others to Him. Somehow it changes us when we think about others more than ourselves.“

How deep this truth is! These kinds of difficult situations deepen our relationship with God. They restore our confidence that He is with us even in the worst situations and that even if we are not in control, He is, and He loves us very much, no matter what will happen. It’s a genuine experience of God’s love and care.

Since my Dad wasn’t the first to get sick in our family, we were a little better prepared and sent out even more prayer requests than we did before for my aunt and others. Some of our close friends even passed our prayer requests on to others. All over the world people prayed for him ... until God did a miracle!

The very next day the hospital told us that Daddy had been taken off the life support system and that he was breathing on his own! It will still be a struggle, but we won’t give up. Jesus is still the same. And just as He did miracles for people in the Bible, he can do them for us! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Heb 13:8) How extremely grateful we are to Him, to all the doctors and nurses who took such good care of him and to all those who have continued to fight with us. God bless them all!

What else did we do besides praying constantly? We memorized verses from the Bible on the theme of healing and “reminded” God of them. Especially these two: Jesus Christ heals you and He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might he increases strength. (Acts 9:34a, Isa 40:29)

We also strengthened our faith by reading Christian literature and listening to various sermons. Sometimes we were fasting. Wolfgang skipped some meals, I didn’t eat sweets for a while and stopped watching my favorite TV shows.

At one point, I felt I should start thanking God in advance that He had already healed my father, even though we did not yet hold the physical proof of the healing in our hands. It was another thing that we believe helped.

Another crucial thing which is also a principle of how God works, was to “give up” in the sense of putting the whole situation in God’s hands, no matter what happens at the end. Every time we put something we really want into His hands, He’ll open His arms to us. That’s why it takes a lot of courage, and sometimes we do it with bated breath, but it always frees His hands to do what’s best for us. And in time, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that He just knows better than we do, though sometimes it takes us a long time to find something good in it.

The one who had the most faith all along was probably our daughter Anissa. It was a big lesson for me to see how children just trust. In her mind it was simple: „Either God will heal Grandpa or take him to Heaven. In either case he will be happy!“ I don’t think she could relate to our worries. She once said: “Maybe God hasn’t healed him yet, because when it gets worse, it’ll be a real miracle when he’s healed!“

A few days after my father was brought back from induced coma and was better, the attending doctor told me on the phone that a few days ago they thought that my Dad was going to die! I could tell him that a lot of people were praying for him and that it worked.

The only one who can work miracles is God and He gets our biggest thanks! We feel for those whose loved ones have not recovered from their illness. We don’t know why someone gets better and someone else doesn’t, but we can be sure that God is with those who are sick and with us when we are full of pain. He’s very close to us and is always holding us.

Every Easter we remember Jesus’ resurrection. Let us not forget that His power to heal and perform miracles still applies to us at this present time.

One day God decided to send an angel with a big basket to collect prayers from people. He flew through all the countries. He went to the poor and the rich, the happy and the sad, the hungry and the satisfied, the children, the young and old, women and men. He visited prisons, orphanages and homes for the elderly, hospitals and institutions. He was in villas, flats, houses and slums. He made sure he didn’t forget anyone!

He returned to Heaven to the throne of God with a basket full of wishes from the people on the earth. He collected everything they asked for, whether it was big things like the recovery of the seriously ill or something that might seem tiny. But nothing is tiny for God! He takes seriously everything we ask for, and it makes Him happy when we ask for help. He is our heavenly Father, and we are His children and he cares about us so much! God was happy to accomodate his children on earth, and He did His best to answer all those who asked for something.

When another very kind and sweet angel saw all this, he asked God if he could also go down and collect all the thanks from the people. He loved God very much and wanted so much to make Him happy. It didn’t go unnoticed to him how much work and organization the many prayers required. How many angels had to be involved in the work, how much and hard they worked to bring certain people together, to be able to say nice things to each other, to help each other, and so on.

So this angel set off. He flew all over the countries from North to South, from East to West. He went to the islands, to the high mountains, in the hot deserts, on ships and airplanes, he was able to get everywhere and visit all the people who asked God to do something for them. But when his time came to fly back to Heaven to the throne of his dear God, his heart was heavy. Will he have enough courage to show Him his basket?

When he stood before the throne, God leaned over and looked inside the basket. He found only very few thanks in there. A shadow flickered across His beautiful loving face, sadness filled his eyes, perhaps even a tear appeared in them? He put so much into answering human desires and so little gratitude was in the basket.

The angel was sad, too, and then he got a wonderful idea! He’s gonna send this story to the people on earth so that the next time God does something beautiful for them, they will remember to thank him. So the next time you are happy, don’t forget to share it with your heavenly Father! Together, let’s fill the angel’s basket till it overflows! Are you in? May God’s love be with you everywhere you go! “In everything give thanks.“ (1 Thes. 5:18)