THE SECRET
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
DECEMBER 21, 2008
Imagine the following scenario. Five people
are in an office seated around a well polished mahogany conference table. Other
than having a very close relationship with each other and the deceased, they
had no idea why they had been invited. All eyes were focused on the well
dressed distinguished looking elderly gentlemen when he entered the room and
sat down at the head of the table. After introducing himself and giving them a
warm welcome, the man took a white legal size envelope from an inside coat
pocket, carefully slit it open with a small pocket knife, and removed a hand
written letter. He placed it on the table and began reading.
“No doubt each of you is wondering about the
veil of secrecy concerning the reason I asked Mr. Emery my lawyer, to invite
you to his office on this first Christmas Eve following my death. I wrote this
letter the day after the end of having experienced a series of remarkable occurrences
of several months duration which I must describe as being very, very weird
indeed. My desire was to have you each listen carefully as he reads this letter.
You will soon realize I have no idea how long ago I wrote it. Considering the
kind of private person, you who were closest to my heart and affections always
knew me to have been; I’m sure you will soon understand how uncomfortable I
would have been in sharing this closely guarded secret until now. I assure you
I have given considerable prayerful thought to the matter, and remain
convinced, all things considered, it was a wise decision. If I offended any of
you, please forgive me. You know I would never intentionally do such a thing.
You are all very familiar with what I often
described as being the saddest day of my life and its awful aftermath. At the
time, I was the proud mother of my only child, a beautiful five year old little
girl named Mina. He father and I weren’t getting along, and that’s putting it
mildly. I’m ashamed to say we were often arguing and screaming and threatening
one another, even in front of Mina. On those occasions the poor crying child ran
upstairs and into her bedroom where she hid under the covers and pulled them
and the pillow down over her head in a futile attempt to muffle the bitterness
coming out of our mouths. I now know it was through the
I will never be able to give adequate thanks
to God for blessing Mina through such a wonderful family. That unforgettable year
leading up to what was to become the saddest day of my life was rapidly drawing
to a close. A couple of weeks before Christmas the man and his wife were in the
old
As far as I was concerned, my life was over. I
had nothing to live for. I plunged into such a depression you people convinced
me to seek medical help. Then I tried to ease my sorrow by mixing all the medicine
the doctor prescribed with alcohol. My behavior became so strange and
unpredictable that I was arrested four times before a wise kindly judge ordered
me admitted to a mental institution for evaluation. It took eight and a half
long months before the treatment finally was successful, and I have not had a
recurrence. Although I’m grateful, I would never want to return to that place.
That’s the reason I have kept the secret locked up inside of me until now. I
hope you won’t think too badly of me and will find it in your heart to forgive
me.
It started one night around midnight when I
was working in the nursing home. I was making my usual rounds and going into
the darkened patient rooms to make certain everything was ok. As I was leaving
the last one, I suddenly heard voices. Not wanting to disturb my sleeping patient,
I took my flashlight and quietly looked around the room; but there was no one
there. Even under the bed. I decided it must have been my imagination and was
about to leave when I heard a voice I later learned was that of an angel. He was
apparently speaking to the spirit part of my patient, a man in the final stages
of Alzheimer’s disease who was obviously experiencing much difficulty in
understanding how a loving God could allow such things to occur to someone as
nice as him."May I suggest
that you try to remember our God knows precisely what He is doing Charlie;
therefore He must have a good reas..."Charlie cut him off in mid sentence.
“A good reason for all this suffering and heartbreak? You got to be kidding
pal. Here I am locked in a body that by now must look like death warmed over,
lying helpless on a bed in a crummy nursing home, while Martha and the rest of
them are being drained and you’re trying to tell me God has a good reason. Be
real pal. This whole scenario makes about as much sense as the idiot who fell
into the open grave on that Halloween night. Do you remember that one
pal?" "Indeed I do Charlie." "I can imagine how the man
felt pal and all because he had the dumb luck of stumbling into the
grave." “I beg your pardon Charlie. There is no such thing as luck.
Everything that occurs in the course of human history has been planned,
ordained and predestined to happen by our God. And I might add, He conceived
His plan before He created His world (Eph. 1:11).” “Are you
trying to tell me that it was part of God’s eternal plan for that poor slob to
trip over some stiff’s tombstone and stumble into the open grave, and that God
knew all along the guy was gonna do that?” “Precisely Charlie.” “How can God know that kind of stuff pal?” “He’s
our God Charlie. He knows everything. If He didn’t He wouldn’t be God.” “I
don’t buy that one pal. Man’s got a free will in case you forgot. There’s no telling
what anybody’s gonna do next. No sooner do you think you got someone all
figured out than whamo; they’re off and running in the opposite direction.” “May
I make a suggestion Charlie?” “Yeah, go for it pal. You’re going to make it
anyway.” “For the purpose of our
discussion, let’s stay focused on what we were talking about, which in this
case is attempting to make sense out of the man falling into the grave, instead
of exploring the area of God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will?” “I’ll cut you some slack this time pal, but
don’t think I’m going to let you off the hook about man’s free will. I’ll come
back to it” “Somehow I’m not surprised by your response Charlie. I’ll be
waiting.” “Now get on with making sense
out of that ridiculous Halloween night fiasco pal. And while you’re at it, tell
me why Martha and the rest of them are being subjected to so much heartbreak.
Make sense out of this one while you’re at it, pal.” "Lord willing I will do precisely that
Charlie” "You can’t make any sense out of that one pal. And you wanna know
why? I’ll tell you why; it don’t make any sense, that’s why."
I
listened carefully as the angel offered the Biblical explanation as to why
Charlie had experienced so many difficult experiences during his life time,
most of which he had brought upon himself, but it wasn’t to Charlie’s
satisfaction. The angel continued: “Those certainly were painful times for you
Charlie, but very necessary, I might add. Those were the times you should have
been rejoicing." "I
can't believe I'm hearing this. How many times do I have to tell you before you
finally get it pal? You ain't right! You ain't right! You ain't right! You got
to be some kind of an air head nut case to expect me to rejoice in my
suffering." The conversation continued until the exasperated angel asked
Charlie if he could request another favor. "Yeah pal, anything!"
"May I indulge in some of what little children often refer to as being
quiet time?" "Go for it pal. It's all yours." Although it lasted
only a few minutes, to Charlie it seemed as though it was an eternity. “Hey
pal; have you finally gotten enough of your quiet time stuff? I’m bored stiff
waiting all this time with no one to talk to.” “Yes I have Charlie. What would
you like to discuss?” “I’ve been thinking a lot while you doing your quiet time
thing.” “That’s wonderful Charlie. What have you been thinking about?” “My
Catlick friend Wally was right all along. There is a place called Limbo after
all, and I’m trapped in it here with you. I’m in outer space somewhere going round
and round in circles just outside of Heaven. And I never believed the guy. I
told him he was an idiot.” “As I recall, you were very quick at judging and
ridiculing people. You were also very argumentative and seemed to delight in
putting them down.” “That’s because they deserved it, pal. Someone had to clue
them in. I was always honest. Everybody knew what I thought of them. How else they
goanna learn and change and get with God’s program?” “And in your hast to
correct Wally, you quickly brushed aside and completely ignored the fact that
he was one of the most patient, kind, humble persons in your rather limited
circle of friends.” “That doesn’t make him perfect pal.” No it doesn’t Charlie,
but you knew he certainly struggled greatly to please God.”
I listened while Charlie attempted to justify
himself by shifting the blame on his father and grandfather who behaved just as
he did. Charley insisted he was following in their footsteps. The angel
acknowledged the reality of some parents being poor role models for their
children. For instance, the angel said; “it’s sad whenever parents lay out a road
map with directions leading their children straight into Hell. You were such a
good learner Charlie that you even discovered several short-cuts on your own.
But you alone were responsible for your own sinful behavior” It also became
clear that he had perfected the art of diversion. For instance, the next words
out of his mouth were: “Hey pal. I’ve been wondering. How’s Martha and the rest
of them doing these days? They must be in agony when they look at what the
disease is doing to my poor body.” “As a matter of fact, they aren’t Charlie.
They’ve learned to accept it as one of the consequences of the fall. Their
principal concern today is the ultimate eternal destination of this part of you
Charlie; the spirit part.” “You mean if I’m gonna wind up in heaven or hell. How
stupid can they be pal? Is this disease I got contagious? Don’t they remember
me going down the aisle with the rest of the crowd giving my heart to Jesus?
Boy that was one of the best decisions I ever made, pal. At the time I figured;
hey what the heck, it can’t do no harm. What have I got to lose? But now I’m here with you, pal, waiting to
get let into heaven, I know I got that one right pal.” “Please listen carefully
to what I’m about to say Charlie and please don’t interrupt me. Martha and the
others have serious doubts. Your observable behavior indicated the exact
opposite. They tried desperately to inform you of their concerns but you never
allowed them to. Often you became so emotional and boisterous that you wouldn’t
even allow them to finish a sentence. Your behavior was so annoying that, in an
effort to preserve their physical and emotional well being, they ceased trying.
They’re still praying continuously for you though. They’re hoping for a
miracle, because that’s what has to happen.” “It’s gonna take a miracle to get
me into Heaven? I didn’t know they felt
that way about me. Now it’s too late. They can’t tell me what was on their mind
and I can’t tell them I’m doing great. Go figure!” “At this point, I can offer
what I hope will prove to be an extremely helpful suggestion.” “Go for it pal.
I’m all ears.” “Before I begin you must promise not to badger me and insist I
reveal how I acquired the following comments contained in a letter written by a
young woman to her father, an old Baptist preacher, concerning you and me and our
present circumstance.” “You mean some people know all about what’s going on
between you and me pal?” “Precisely! But remember, I’m not at liberty to inform
you about anything else.” “You have my word. Please tell me what’s in the
letter. I really want to know, pal.”
The letter began by
saying: “Dear Dad, I find Charlie to be a difficult man to digest. He is, quite
unfortunately, too similar to so many of the Christians I know. He whines,
complains, somehow misses the joy in his existence rather than notice the
blessings that are 'in his face'. Charlie is a serious downer so much so that I
wonder if the Angel assigned to keep him company just barely escaped the title
of "fallen angel" but still has to be punished somehow for even
thinking of straying, and that working with Charlie is his punishment. I
seriously question the assumption Charlie seems to have that he is a Christian.
There is no awe at being in the presence of an angel; there is a continued
focus on self rather than a desire to spend his remaining time getting right
with God. Instead of praying for his family, Charlie assumes that they're suffering
because of the great ‘injustice' that has happened to him, to them. Rather than
look at what has happened FOR him and his family, Charlie continues to be a
miserable human being, a joyless lump of flesh that undoubtedly drools as he
survives the final stages of dementia, yet likely more pleasant in this state
than he was while his eyes were focused and his drool contained. Charlie's
world revolves around Charlie during his final days, when his only companion is
a long-suffering angel, so I'm guessing that it was also all about him before,
as well. I see Alzheimer’s, dementia, or a coma that will eventually lead to
death as a final opportunity that God, in His great mercy, gives to the
afflicted one and/or his or her family. It is a time for one-on-one
communication with God for the person who can communicate with no one else, and
it is an opportunity to draw closer in prayer and faith for the saved (or not)
outsiders who are touched by the illness or injury. In short, this time is a
blessing, a sign of God's mercy, a show of good faith on His part that none
should perish [and spend eternity] without Him. Charlie was a shell of a man
long before he ended up in the nursing home and I hope that he decides to take
advantage of this special opportunity to get closer to God. God must love
Charlie very much to offer him this time and I only hope that if my time is
near, and if there is still work that needs to be accomplished for God in my
life or in the life of my family, that He will be merciful enough to give me a
quiet, one-on-one time as He has Charlie. I love you dad, Anne-Marie.”
By now I thought to myself, O my, I must be losing my mind. I’ll be put
back into a mental institution for sure. The thought of having to suffer the
dreadful side effects until they finally discovered what medicine would work
was frightening. That’s why I never mentioned a word of my experience to anyone
including you folks who have been the closest and most supportive of me. I
must say that after a while I kind of looked forward to being privy to those
conversations between Charlie and the Angel. They always began around midnight
and lasted about ten to fifteen minutes at the most. I learned an awful lot
about myself, especially how short I was of being the kind of person God desires
His adopted children to be. The bible teaches that those are the only ones
who will be admitted into Heaven. In the ensuing months I began to realize
my existence was not all about me and my desires and perceived needs, but
about Him and the reason He created me. It was about the One in whom I live
and move and have my very being, the One apart from whom I can’t even draw
my next breath and who wants me to be holy just as He is holy. I’m not suggesting
He expects me to be perfect but that He wants me to sincerely strive to exhibit
more of a resemblance to His Son, Jesus Christ. I learned that first and foremost,
He desires that I seek His kingdom and His righteousness. He promises that
if I delight myself in Him, He will give me the desires of my heart. Of all
my many sins, the angel taught me there was two in particular which I needed
to focus on getting rid of the most. I had to get rid of my sinful anger,
bitterness and throwing fits of rage, such as I displayed towards Mina’s father,
and which caused the poor child to seek refuge under the covers of her bed.
Although I was correct in my assessment of the man, in God’s eyes there was
no justification for the disgraceful manner in which I all too often dealt
with my anger. Another thing the angel taught me and which I finally learned
was that God wanted me to forgive others just as I have been forgiven in Christ
Jesus. With His help, I could have done it before I went to sleep at night
but I honestly didn’t want to forgive him for taking my child away from me.
The angel persisted and taught me I should and, with God’s help I could, and
so, I did. From that moment forward my first prayer each morning was asking
God to please help me become more like Jesus in my every thought, word and
deed throughout the new day, and to provide me with whatever I needed to overcome
every temptation not to do so. My last prayer each night was asking for His
forgiveness when I fell short and then thanking Him for those times He enabled
me to. Before I close, I want to share the following conversation between
Charlie and the Angel.
“Hey pal, I’ve been doing a whole lot of thinking since we last spoke.
I’m really the kind of person that woman Anne-Marie says I am. Now I’m in
big trouble. I don’t want to go to Hell when we finally leave here. I want
to be saved from winding up in that joint. What do I have to do, pal?” “Just
believe in Him. It’s that simple, Charlie.” “But I do believe in Him. Since
we last spoke I asked Him to forgive me and please save me—a lot of times.
I was even crying, pal. But there was something you said earlier that’s been
bugging me.” “What might that be Charlie?” “You told me it would take a miracle,
and that’s what Martha and the rest of them are praying for.” “Oh but it did
Charlie.” “I’m sorry but I disagree with you on that one pal. I did it of
my own free will. Come to think of it, it was a piece of cake.” “Of course
it was, Charlie. That’s because He chose you in Him before He created the
world, so that you would be holy and blameless before Him. In short, He predestined
you for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His unchanging
eternal will. There is nothing human beings can do to become saved. They must
be born again. Salvation is a supernatural gift from God.” “But how about
my free will? No one made me ask God to forgive me. I did that freely pal.”
Indeed you did Charlie. At a precise moment in time, the Lord opened your
heart to pay attention to the things I told you, (Acts 16:14) and because
you had been ordained to eternal life, you believed, (Acts 13:48). Salvation
is a supernatural act of God. God is totally responsible for mans salvation
and man is responsible if he isn’t saved. Both are true.” “I don’t really
understand all the mechanics of this kind stuff pal.” “Neither does anyone
else, Charlie, but it’s what the Word of God teaches. It’s a miracle” “Does
that mean I’m in good shape?” Yes it does, Charlie.” “Wow! Martha and the
others are in for a big surprise.” “As you are so fond of saying; you got that one right, Charlie.” “I also gotta say He used you to
help me a lot and I don’t even know your name, pal.” “I thought you did Charlie.
It’s Paladin, but I love it when my friends call me Pal. Now let’s get out
of here Charlie. We shouldn’t keep Him waiting.”
That was the last time I ever heard the voices. But I had a powerful impression
that as Charlie and the angel were leaving that room, a grinning angel turned
and looked straight at me, and winked, which seemed to say, ‘You will get
the desire of your heart.’ And I did, and the five of you were with me in
the American Consulate in
I have already prayed and asked
God to turn my Christmas message into a blessing for each of you folks who just
heard it and all those who may read it later. Before we sing the final hymn,
let’s bow our heads for a moment and think about what I have just shared. Think
about the love of the One who was born to die that you might live forever. I
want to remind you the clock is ticking. Before it’s too late, if anyone hasn’t
already done so, before your run out of time, I sincerely encourage you to make
a decision to do something you will never regret. Ask Him to forgive you and to
begin the life-long process of changing you into becoming more and more of a
person resembling His Son Jesus.
In case any of you are wondering,
I modeled Charlie’s characteristics after TV’s Archie Bunker and Jackie
Gleason, and I’m happy to say, my
former self.