Dear Susan,
I want to thank you for raising your son so well. He is a wonderful husband and a great father. I understand that his decision to leave the medical profession in order to be a pastor was a disappointment to you. I can understand why. The medical profession is held in high esteem all over the world, and the pastor’s income is small compared to a doctor’s.
I thought I could shed some light on his reasons. I made a similar decision when I was 29 years old. I had a professional education to be a naval officer, and I practiced it for 6½ years. I had a wife and three children with a well-paying job.
During those years on active duty, I saw thousands of immoral, profane officers and men. While on active duty, I was able to help perhaps 100 of them become moral men. These men were otherwise healthy and intelligent. But spiritually they were sick with a malignancy that the medical profession could not cure.
I had been cured of this evil my second year at the U.S. Naval Academy. I knew intellectually, and spiritually, the solution to their problems (including marriage).
For the next five years after resigning from the navy, I travelled to all of the academies—navy, army, air force, coast guard, merchant marine, plus several other military schools including the Royal Military College in Canada. Men’s lives were changed everywhere I went. For the next five years, I spent most of my time at the U.S. Naval Academy. The last forty years, I have been working at civilian colleges.
The first twenty years of my life, I tried being good. Compared to others, I succeeded. I did not drink, smoke, use profanity or even slang, or have sex. The last two years of that twenty was in the Navy. I was better than most people, knew it, was pleased with it, and took credit for it. I was not happy, joyful, nor at peace. That story is told in my booklet Saved from Being Good.
If I had had cancer and heard of a simple, free cure for cancer and took it and was cured, I would want to tell everyone who had cancer of this simple and free cure.
However, if I thought that I should not force my experience on anyone else and therefore told no one, it would be immoral of me. I would be obligated to spread this good news.
I am going to quote some scripture to you, some from Jesus and some from St. Paul. I am not expecting you to obey these, because no one can obey them. I want you to know what they are and know that even if you wanted to you couldn’t obey them.
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:27-36).
St. Paul wrote, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone” (Titus 3:5-8).
God is going to judge us by His standard, not by ours. He does it by an absolute standard, not by a comparative standard. This may not make sense to you.
I could not live by God’s standard, and your son could not. So we both called on His grace and mercy.
St. Paul wrote, “You see just at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25).
Christ died for the ungodly. He loved and died for sinners. It is necessary to be ungodly in order to go to heaven. Christ did not die for good people. Good people do not need forgiveness. St. Paul wrote, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
No one naturally can live a righteous life.
When your son received Christ, he received a new nature. When that happened, it was then possible to live a righteous, holy life with a desire to live it. He married a woman whose life had also been changed when she received Christ.
You might not understand why they do what they do, but you must know that they are happy and loving to everyone. They do not do this just by choice, but because they have the fruit of the Spirit which is described in Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” These are gifts from God, not earned or deserved.
I realize you might be upset by this letter. You know that your son has something in his life that you do not have and did not give to him. This is something good that came from God.
God loves you because He is love and has love for everyone.
With love,
Jim Wilson
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