Page 163 - Evidence of Things Unseen

those who did not judge things by the Spirit. False accusations were added that I might be
made to look utterly reprehensible.
The judge gave me opportunity to speak, and I recounted how the Lord had led us as
a family to this walk of complete trust in Him. I shared that we had seen God’s provision
miraculously an uncounted number of times, and we had even seen our son healed of a
hereditary bone disease that caused him to fracture 12 bones by the age of seven, when we
cast ourselves over onto God at obedience to His direction. I shared that since my wife had
left me that she had gone back on what God had spoken to us as a requirement to see our
son healed. We had been told to cancel his SSI and Medicaid benefits and God would keep
him from breaking bones. For seven years God had been faithful to this. Yet one of the first
things my wife did after leaving me was to take out government benefits on our son once
more. Just a few weeks later he broke his elbow when a friend jumped into the swimming
pool and landed on him. He had to have surgery and to wear a cast for months.
The judge listened somewhat impatiently, and then said, “Mr. Herrin, in some ways
I find your faith to be admirable, but I must conclude that it is my judgment that it is
misguided.” The judge granted the divorce and required that I begin paying alimony and
child support amounting to $900 a month. At the time I was only earning $400 a month,
but the judge based this amount upon what I had earned six years earlier while employed
as a computer professional.
After the divorce was granted, my father came from out of state to visit me. He and my
mother had concluded years earlier that I was a religious heretic, filled with many ideas
relating to God’s word and life in the Spirit that were unsound. I knew it would probably
be a trying meeting, so I prayed before I went to meet him that God would give me grace to
simply express my love for my father and to not allow my tongue to say anything
disrespectful.
My dad shared that he placed the blame for my divorce upon my shoulders. He said
that if I continued to do as I was doing in seeking to be led of God in all things that I would
probably end up in jail for not paying child support. I told my father that I understood how
he arrived at his conclusions in this matter. I told him that if I had lived the life that had
been mine since 1999 because I had chosen it for myself, and that God had not chosen it for
me as he believed, then he could only judge me to be a great fool. In response my father
replied, “That is right. I believe you are a fool.”
After we finished sharing a meal together, we went to part. My father stuck out his
hand in parting, but I drew closer and hugged his neck instead. I told him I loved him, and
I have not heard from him since that day.
As I drove back to the rescue mission I told the Lord that I did not know what the
future held, but if it was His will for me to go to jail as my father suggested, then I was
willing. My life had been so much like Joseph’s, the son of Jacob, that I could almost
imagine it to be God’s will that I also suffer this ignominy. I confessed to the Lord that my
life was in His hands. He had told me not to hire a lawyer or mount a defense, but to entrust
myself to His care, and I had done so. I told Him I would continue to rest in His care.
The next day a man from New Zealand sent me $5,000. This was the largest gift I had
ever received. Five is the number of grace, and it was as if the Lord had answered the
challenge of my father, and said, “You trusted me in this, and I will provide for you. You will
not go to jail for lack of ability to pay child support.” Right after this happened, the director
of the mission approached me and said that he was going to fire the two managers of their
thrift store that day, and he wanted me to step into a management position there