By Victoria Ostrosky
“Don’t drink the polluted water the world offers. Seek Christ. God is working behind the scenes, and He has called you for a purpose.”
Ruth was a Gentile, the widow of a Jewish man. She accompanied her mother-in-law back to Israel after her husband’s death, and God took this outsider and blessed her. She became the great-grandmother of King David. In the New Testament, there’s Mary of Magdala, a demon-possessed woman, another outsider from the community. She met Jesus, who released her from her demons; she was the first person to see the risen Savior, and a testimony for the ages.
Of course, we know about the woman at the well. The Samaritan woman. Jews didn’t associate with half-breed Samaritans. They went out of their way to avoid their town. In addition, this woman was an adulteress, shunned from good society, which was the reason she was coming to draw water in the heat of the day. But Jesus knew all about her. “He knew she felt like less because of how others looked at her. He made the trip just for her.” You might remember, Jesus had told his disciples that He needed to go through Samaria. He knew exactly who He was going to encounter and the changed lives that would be birthed from that visit.
June Kohls knows what it feels like to be looked down on. She and her brothers grew up in a dysfunctional home with a father with anger issues and a co-dependent mother. “We did our best to cope. It was hurtful and embarrassing. We never knew when Dad would have another explosion of temper.” June loved going to church on Sunday, though. Her mom would take her and her brothers every week. But even while soaking in the good news of the Gospel, she felt like she didn’t fit in. “As a little girl, I could feel almost rejection or like I didn’t matter to some of the people in church from what I called ‘normal’ families. I felt shunned.” She realizes now that it’s possible it was just her perception, but at the time, it felt very real.
But through it all, June knows that God was always working through her pain. Emotional fragility drags around its own baggage of feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. Sometimes it’s warranted, sometimes not. But it still does its damage. As a believer, staying in the Word, spending time with other brothers and sisters, and most of all, spending lots of time with Jesus brings necessary healing.
“The Lord used every difficulty and heartache to bring me to a place to be well watered.” Once she became involved in a women’s Bible study, she suddenly had mentors. Other women, also growing in their faith, whom she could relate to and ask questions of. Although God is always working, as June says, “the enemy is always working as well. He will do anything possible to prevent you from being successful.”
Through the loss of her newborn baby girl, the end of a marriage, and partial loss of eyesight, June is determined to continue to follow the Lord. “My calling is to love women and minister to them. Let them know it’s ok what your past was.”
Throughout scripture, God had the men who penned the words recount stories of insignificant, outcast, and broken people to convey a shocking truth. “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” (I Corinthians 1:27) As the Apostle Paul wrote after asking God three times to remove his thorn in the flesh – God said – “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
You can listen to June Kohls’ entire interview and many other incredible stories on the weekly Road to Redemption radio show and podcast at www.rtrdestiny.com.
