I'm Terrific!: Created on Purpose for a Purpose

Our book study group was practicing evangelism techniques, but I couldn't get past the

question we were supposed to pose: "Isn't it the best news you ever heard that you can know that

you will go to heaven when you die?" In a setting like that, I had to be honest. It wasn't the best

news. Maybe I wasn't even a Christian. I had volunteered in ministry ventures since my teen

years, but at that moment, I felt like I didn't fit in with the other committed Believers. I kept

pondering the questions "What is life all about? Why am I here?

I didn't know I was looking for the presence of God in this life. I was missing His Holy Spirit,

as we had never been introduced. He is the Good News. He it is who brings us peace in the midst

of turmoil, good cheer on a gloomy day, wisdom when all seems bleak, the solution to an

impossible problem. It is the Holy Spirit who can answer the questions, "What is life all about

anyway? Why am I here?" He can show us in retrospect all the times He read our heart's desire

and led us to the fulfillment. Why, it has been in His Word all along.

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance for us to do"

(Ephesians 2:10 NIV)

Or as the Holy Spirit interpreted the verse for me, we were created on purpose for a purpose.

If you were to call me by my formal name. Virginia Lou, I would think you were mad at me. I

have been Ginger since infancy and Ginger Rogers since Phil and I married in 1963. My parents

were committed church members, even active in church life, and they raised my brothers and me

to honor God and to lead lives of integrity. I received my BA degree in Psychology from Rice

University and was prepared for doing what I really wanted to do all along - get married and be

a mommy. Phil and I lived in Houston until he received a job offer he couldn't refuse. We ended

up living in the Texas Hill Country until it was time to move to Tennessee to care for my dad in

his final years. Then on to Albuquerque to join our youngest daughter and her family. We

followed them since back to Texas. Now a widow, I live in their home. It is the Holy Spirit who

made it possible for me to preach from the pulpit in churches wherever I have lived and to do

short-term missionary work in Mexico, Indonesia, India and Russia thusly satisfying a deeply

held heart's desire.