There was a gang rape that happened
once in United States of America,
in which some of these women had become pregnant,
most of them aborted it.
But one lady braved enough to say that
‘If this is what God has done to me,
then I’m going to carry that child
and deliver that child and parent that child’.
And the child was named Ben Hooper.
And the child grew up.
And one of the things that he dreaded,
was when people used to ask him,
‘Who is your father?’
Because he had no clue who his father was!
Not that he didn’t have a father.
He didn’t even know who his father was.
It became a complex to him,
and he felt so withdrawn about it.
He never used to socialize.
Any marketplace, he goes
and anybody and they used to…
‘Hey, you know, this boy,
he doesn’t even know who his father is?’
Used to shatter him.
A new pastor had come to the church in the town.
And the news was that his sermons were very soothing.
So a lot of people
who were genuinely interested in this kid, Ben Hooper,
started encouraging him to go to the church
to listen to the sermon saying that,
‘It will make all the difference to you’.
And he started going to this…
He used to be the last person to enter
after the sermons begin, sit in the last row.
And when he knows it’s going to end,
he will leave before anybody notices him.
One day, he was so engrossed in the sermon,
that it got over
and he forgot to get up and leave and there was a crowd around.
He was trying to hurry his way through just then
he experienced the warmth of
a gentle hand on his shoulders.
He turned and he saw the pastor was standing.
And the pastor asked him,
‘I’ve been seeing you only for the last few weeks.
‘Whose son, are you?’’
That one dreaded question
that he never wanted to hear.
And the pastor asked him,
‘Whose son, are you?’
Immediately Ben Hooper’s face shrunk.
And there was murmuring all around and they were all saying,
‘Oh, he doesn’t know who his father is…’
The pastor realized the gravity of the situation.
The entire expression of the pastor changed, and he said,
‘Oh, I know whose son you are!
Your identity is unmistakable!’
Ben was shaken.
‘Even my mother doesn’t whose son I am!’
How come this pastor knows?
But there was this change in expression…
‘I know whose son you are!
The identity is unmistakable!’
Then holding Ben
with both his hands,
the pastor looked straight into his eyes and told him
‘I pity all these people,
they know their mortal father.
So they call themselves as the son and the daughter of…
How lucky you are!
You don’t know your mortal father.
So, you have to live your life as the
Son of God.
You’re God’s child!
And what an inheritance to live up to!
To live your entire life as God’s child
what an inheritance to live up to!’
The pastor just gently patted him on the back and said,
‘Go, go my son,
go and live your entire life
worthy of being the son of God!’
30 years later,
Ben Hooper went on to become
the Governor of one of the states of the United States.
And in his speech of acceptance Ben Hooper said,
‘Long time back I knew
I was cut out for big things in life…
great things in life!
The day I heard the pastor tell me,
‘Go and live a life worthy of being the son of God.
Go and live your life worthy of this inheritance!’
Go! Go and live your life,
as Mahatria’s creation,
in any geography, in any path, in any direction…
go and live your life,
worthy of this inheritance, this energy.
