GOD'S PROTECTION CAN HURT SOMETIMES

​I work closely with a special young man here at ASAPH. I’ll call him Willis. Willis has made great strides developing himself as a musician. He plays in church services regularly. He plays a couple of instruments better than I can.
He has grown in faith and was baptized into membership in our local church. He is now deep into his teen years.
A young lady in the community caught the eye of Willis. I talk often with the young people around me about the subject of love, dating, etc. But it is almost always in general terms. I don’t often probe too much, and kids don’t offer up much information in general. I had discussed such things with Willis to some degree. (His father, as is so often the case, is not involved in his life very much.)
Willis declared his love for the young lady who caught his eye. She accepted. They would talk together on occasion, but only his mother knew about the young relationship. Late one evening (when Willis should have been in church) he was walking by her house on his way home. She called to him. He stopped, and they stood together in the dark talking. That’s when her mother appeared. The girl panicked. She didn’t want her mother to see them together. She told Willis to go hide in a dark corner of the house until her mom passed by. Well, that is where she discovered Willis…hiding in her house.
She screamed. She yelled bloody murder, as it were. There was a scandal. Young Willis was embarrassed and humiliated. He was innocent…to a degree. But his name was now fodder for conversations in the street.
I believe God allowed this huge embarrassment for Willis. He was headed to a place where disaster was a real possibility. Too many of the people Willis should have trusted knew nothing of his relationship with the young lady. It was a secret, and those secrets often turn into a sinful relationship. That is unlikely now. His eyes have been opened, and he has sought the help of many adults in regard to his relationships with the opposite sex.
God’s protection can hurt. Willis was in obvious pain for a few days. He agrees now that God used the apparent “bad thing” to protect him from something worse. God is good…even when it hurts.