Let God Be Magnified

Everyone –

I just finished reading Mistaken Identity by Van Ryn, Cerak, and Tab.

It’s amazing. Go read it now. It will change your life.

It’s the story of two girls along with their five friends involved in a car accident on their way back from a Bible Camp. The two girls, Whitney Cerak and Laura Van Ryn, had their identities mistaken at the scene of the horrific crash that took the lives of everyone but one. It’s the one, Whitney, that this book centers on. For over five weeks she was mistakenly identified as Laura Van Ryn and it wasn’t until she started her rehab that the mistake was discovered that changed forever the lives of two families.

What I found absolutely encouraging and touching is their transparent love for God through His Son Jesus Christ. They constantly honor Him by showing how they depended and relied upon Him during these trials. The Prologue written by the two families sets the tone that will permeate the rest of the book:

“It is a horrible thing to lose a child. Yet even in the midst of the worst tragedies, God reveals Himself. These are not just words we use to keep our spirits up during difficult days. We have experienced this revelation for ourselves. Above all things, this is the message we hope to convey. This is a story about God’s grace and His love for us that transcends the worst this world can dish out.”

I think that which impacted me most was the faith lived out by these families. As Tony Evan’s has said, and I paraphrase, “Many Christians want to audit the Christian life as they would audit a college class. They want all the information and they want to know all that the Bible teaches but when it comes time to take the test they’re afraid. They’re content just knowing. But knowing is just knowledge and worthless until you put it into action and live it out.” These families live out their faith. It is probably the greatest witness we can give the secular world and to each other and these families shine. They would probably tell you that they’re just doing the best that they can and what they do is nothing special. But it is. To many of us LIVING the life is much different than KNOWING the life.

One final note to make. We are all taught that there is a “Purpose” to our life. Everyone is seeking their purpose and they feel discontent until they do. We’ve been told to try and find it. This is a question that Whitney Cerak asks herself at the end of the book as she questions why she survived and the others didn’t. Her insight is dead on perfect:

“At the end of [Saving Private Ryan] Tom Hank’s character says to Private Ryan with his dying breath something like, “Earn this.” It’s like he’s telling Private Ryan to do something special with his life that it will make the other soldiers’ deaths worth it. That’s kind of how I felt when people told me how God must have some great purpose in mind for me. I started to think that if I didn’t do something amazing with my life, then I was letting God and everyone in the accident down. One day I was having coffee with a friend named Brad, and I told him a little about how I’d been feeling. In response, he read me a story from the Old Testament book of 1 Kings. In the story, a prophet named Elijah goes out in the desert to talk to God. He’s waiting for God when he hears this giant windstorm that is so strong in tears rocks apart. But God isn’t in the windstorm. Then there’s an earthquake, but God isn’t in the earthquake. Then there’s a fire, but God isn’t in the fire. Finally, he hears a gentle whisper, and he realizes it’s God. Another friend had read the same story to me during my freshman year, so I knew God was telling me something through it. I realized that instead of thinking that my life has to be some big windstorm or earthquake for God, perhaps I only have to let Him whisper gently through my life. That story made me realize I don’t have to accomplish some giant thing for God. If I’m just a camp counselor who makes the difference in the life of one person, or if I’m just a mom who loves her children and tells them about Jesus, that’s enough. It took a little while, but I finally figured out that God’s purpose is for me to let Him do whatever He wants in my life, big or small. Being a part of writing this book may be the last ‘big’ thing I ever do, and I’m fine with that.”

While reading through the book of Romans, this exact point is made. We are alive in Christ and put away the things of the flesh. With this life that we live for and through Christ our purpose is to bear fruit for Him:

“I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. … Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” – Romans 6:19; 7:4

That’s it. Bear fruit. How and in what manner and in what quantity is up to God. If we stay in His word and obey Him (He is Savior and Lord after all) how can we not bear fruit for Him?

So go out and buy Mistaken Identity. Your life will be blessed by going through this amazing experience with the Cerak and Van Ryn families. Mine was.

Later Eriek