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PROGRAM D-8199
If you’ve ever wanted to crawl in a hole after shooting your mouth off in anger, you’ll be able to identify with our imaginary friend, Fran. We continue our saga of Fran and Jesus on the Job as Fran has just confessed her angry words and asked Jesus to forgive her, which he does readily.
As Fran thinks about the last couple of weeks and all her angry outbursts, she recognizes what caused them and when they began.
She thinks to herself, They began a couple of weeks ago, about the time I started seeing Bob. . . The truth comes out slowly and painfully for Fran. He’s not a Christian. I know that. . .and yet he’s very sophisticated and successful. I guess I was just flattered at his attention and it felt good to be treated so nicely.
Fran thinks about how wide-reaching disobedience is in her life. She realizes that when she disobeys the Lord in any area, it affects everything else. She thinks about what this one area of disobedience has done—even in two short weeks. Her fellowship with the Lord has been broken, and she has hurt quite a few people as well.
“And you know what, Lord,” Fran says, “although I was doing what I wanted to do, I was pretty miserable on the inside. I was determined to do it, but it didn’t really bring me any happiness like I thought it would.”
Thinking over her failures of the past couple of weeks, Fran realizes that the enemy of her soul has lied to her—as he always does—and made her believe that by doing it her way she would be happy, but by obeying the Lord she would be miserable. “He handed me one of his lies and I fell for it,” Fran says out loud.
“Lord, I know you have forgiven me, but how do I undo all this damage I’ve done to others?” Fran asks with alarm. “I mean, the way I talked to Al just now—and just last week I was sharing something about the Lord with him. He’ll never listen to me again. I’ve ruined my testimony!”
Fran realizes she owes apologies to her mom, to her kids, and to Al. She calls her mom right away and asks for forgiveness. As she puts down the phone, it feels like one mountain has been taken off of her shoulders.