“I felt useless. I felt I was living an aimless and pointless life. Then I decided to set a goal for myself.” Mandeep Kaur is a well-travelled woman who had it all. She had worked in Singapore, Georgia and Hongkong to fulfill her dreams of making money and making something of herself.
“My life revolved around my work and pleasures. I wasn’t unhappy per se but I definitely wasn’t happy in life either,” she says, recalling how mundane and monotonous her life was. Mandeep’s life of humdrum activities was suddenly interrupted with a tragic accident. A fall inured her leg, leaving her unable to walk or move about freely. “It felt as though it was the end of my life. I just wanted to meet my mother once again.” Mandeep made the tough decision of leaving the life she knew well, to go back to India to meet her mother.
The injury not only restricted Mandeep’s movement, but also her ability to look at life in a positive way. To make matters worse, her relatives and even strangers made unnecessary and unkind comments about her situation. “My relatives would say it was the consequences of my own bad actions,” she said, remembering how much those comments affected her mental health at the time. She felt absolutely useless, and her life felt meaningless.
On one of her routine visits to the hospital, Mandeep and her mother met with an auto-rickshaw driver who shared the gospel with them and encouraged them to reach out to the pastor for prayer. Mandeep and her mother decided to try it out. They went over to the pastor’s house where they heard the pastor tell them about God’s word and pray for them. “As I sat there listening to the pastor speak, I felt this sudden peace and calmness, one I had never felt before. It seemed as though all my pain, hurt, and trauma had washed away,” she said, smiling. Mandeep went home and began reading the Bible, and loved the peaceful feeling it gave her.
One of the verses that stood out for Mandeep was Matthew 7:1, which reminds us to refrain from judging others. Keeping this in mind, and fueled by the newfound peace, Mandeep began making small changes in her life. Over time, and continuous communication with God, she felt herself change. She noticed her own short-comings instead of judging others. One day she stumbled upon the CBN Punjabi page where she watched videos of people who had been blessed by coming close to God. This fueled her desire to know Christ better and be more like Him. She set a goal for herself – to walk by His will, not her own. While it was easy to make this choice, it was often challenging to follow through. But Mandeep persevered and was often inspired by Isaiah 41:10 to push through the major challenges and struggles.
Today, Mandeep prays for the people she knows and meets; because she continues to pursue her goal of walking by His will. To those who feel aimless and lost in life, she uses her own life as an example to show them the beauty of God’s love. She encourages them to set a personal goal to delve into God’s word to find direction.
