We just bundled several services for a better price and more items.  In fact, the price we were quoted for four services was what we had before paid for two.  We asked every question we could think to ask.  Everything sounded good and we were thrilled.

            We just got the first bill.  I spent the next half hour on the phone trying to find out why this bill was 30% higher than I was told it would be.  Easy one, as it turns out.  The quote I got was the base price and did not include taxes, surcharges and all sorts of fees.     
           
            I was not happy. Yet, after I sat down and re-figured everything, we were still getting four services for the price we had formerly paid for three.  We are still saving money, which was the reason for the whole switch.  Everything had become higher than our new retirement budget allowed and now, despite my disappointment, we are still under budget. 

            Don’t you just hate fine print?  I would much rather know what the total price is, not be surprised with it when the first bill arrives.

            Jesus did not believe in fine print either.  He laid it on the line. 

            “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”

            “I came not to bring peace but a sword.”

            “Go and sell all you have and follow me.”

            “If any would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

            “You shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”

            “Some of you will be put to death.”

            “If you do not repent, you shall all likewise perish.”

            “Go thy way and sin no more.”

            Jesus told everyone what to expect.  He never sugar-coated it.  He never promised wealth and ease in this life.  What he did promise was a life of bliss and glory--in Eternity, not in Time.  And it isn’t a bait and switch.   

            He never said you won’t be persecuted.  In fact, he told his people to count on it.  He told them to rejoice when they were badly treated.  It puts us in good company.  “For so persecuted they the prophets before you.”

            He never said wealth would accompany our conversions.  In fact, he called wealth a danger to our souls. 

            He never said we would be healthy; that no trials of life would ever touch us.  He simply said, “I know how you feel.  I will not forsake you.”

            Jesus spelled it out.  We can know the final bill before it ever arrives.  If we are shocked because we have to suffer, then we just ignored what we did not want to hear.  He never tried to hide it.

            He also told us exactly what He will give us.  I am still getting a good deal on my little bundle, but it doesn’t compare to the deal I get with the Lord.  What the Lord offers is beyond our imaginations.  Even the words God uses for our frail intellect cannot express the glory that awaits a child of God.

            Go ahead and sign the contract.  You won’t have a nasty surprise in the mail.  And if you have signed already, remind yourself of the bundle that awaits you, especially if you are in the midst of trials now.  It is well worth the cost.

His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things; enter you into the joy of your lord. Matthew 25:23

Dene Ward

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            Any time even a good translator tries to translate poetry from one language to another it presents many more problems than translating prose.  How do you find words that keep the meter of the original, that rhyme if the original poem did, and that still translate the thought of the foreign poet?  Words that rhyme in one language do not rhyme in another, and words with two syllables do not always have two in the second language, and you certainly cannot count on the accents being in the same place.

            But God in His providence chose a culture where “rhyme” and “meter” have nothing to do with the poetry.  Instead of words sounding alike, each line of a Hebrew couplet “rhyme” in thought.  In their culture, each line restates the first in a more emphatic way.  The point of the “accent” is not the way word sounds, but in the gradual intensity of meaning.  That way the translators from any culture could translate without worrying about rhyme or meter and simply translate the words, giving us exactly the same meanings as the original, just as we would ordinary prose.  The imagery is still there word for word so the effect of the poem is not lost, and the psalm can do exactly for us what it did for those people thousands of years ago.

           Imagine if it had been the other way around.  Imagine if the original psalms were written in Occidental mode—rhyme, meter and all.  I spoke to a woman who had done some translating once from Spanish to English.  She said it was an overwhelming task because in her case she had to find those words that rhymed, that had the same singsong sort of meter, yet still meant the same thing.  Even with three dictionaries in front of her the job was long and arduous.  If we were Hebrew-speaking people trying to make sense of Western poetry, could we even be certain we had the right words?  If that were important, as it certainly would be, the whole effect of the original would be lost.

            But we can be sure, because God’s providence works in amazing ways we probably never thought about before. We can know that we have the exact wording of the original psalms, the exact meaning of those heartfelt phrases because of the nature of Oriental poetry. 

            If God takes such pains in such detailed items, surely His providence will work in other ways.  Surely He knows what we need when, and how to make it come about even by ordinary, everyday means; just as He made Joseph second in command to Pharaoh and supervisor of the stores just when the family of the future Messiah would have starved without them; just as He had a Jewish girl declared Queen of Persia just when an anti-Semitic Persian came to hold sway over the king; just as He had Caesar declare a census just when a certain Jewish maiden was about to deliver so she would be in the town prophesied in Micah.

            Don’t ever doubt that God works in the world today.  We may not understand exactly what is going on.  We may, in fact, never see the results of things set in motion during our lifetimes.  But I know He is working by this one simple example: God has taken pains to give me a Word I can trust. 

            Go find Peter, the angel told Cornelius, who will teach you “words whereby you shall be saved,” Acts 10:14.  Those same words can save us too, and we can have the utmost confidence in them.

And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you that believe, 1 Thess 2:13.

Dene Ward

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On May 8, 1902, Mt Pelee erupted, killing 30,000 people.  It may have been the end of their world, but I doubt it held a candle to the fiery cataclysm in Genesis 19:  Jehovah rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven, and he overthrew those cities and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground, vv 24,25.

            We know how Lot wound up in Sodom, but did you ever wonder where his wife came from?  When Lot left Ur with Abraham, Abraham’s wife is mentioned, Lot’s wife is not.  Is that because she was not important to the story, or because she wasn’t there yet? 

            Although Lot moved to the plain of Jordan in Gen 13:11, he was actually living in Sodom by 14:12.  We first have mention of “the women” in 14:16, but that could have referred to servants—remember, at one point he had quite a few.  Lot’s wife is not specifically mentioned until he is actually living in Sodom.  Between 12:4 and 18:10, twenty-four years have elapsed, plenty of time to marry and have marriageable daughters, especially in a day where marrying them off at puberty was the custom.  Since Sodom is not actually destroyed until chapter 19, it is quite possible that Lot’s wife was a native of Sodom.  It would certainly make her attachment to the city, and her looking back, much more understandable. 

            Jesus utters the words of the title above when he is warning his followers about the destruction of Jerusalem in Luke 17.  When the time came, they were to flee, giving no thought to the life they were leaving behind.  Any delay caused by the desire for that life would cause them to lose any hope of a future life.  The warning, Remember Lot’s wife, also carried with it the idea of regretting what was left behind.  As a matter of fact, the next morning Abraham looked at those same cities Lot and his family were told not to look at, Gen 19:27,28, but he did not turn into a pillar of salt.  He was not sorry these wicked places were destroyed; he was probably wondering if Lot and his family had made it out alive.  Lot’s wife, on the other hand, was looking back like the man who put his hand to the plow and looked back.  God wants a real commitment from us, with no lingering attachment to the old way of life.

            So no, we do not really know where Lot’s wife came from, but it is safe to assume she loved her life in Sodom.  If she came from there, that might explain it—family, friends, and familiar surroundings.  But if she did not, she still might be the reason he finally made the actual move into the city.  She left only because she was forced to, Gen 19:16, and because she so plainly regretted it, God counted her with the Sodomites and destroyed her too.  Being in Sodom was not the crux of the matter, but rather, being like Sodom, and liking that place all too well.

            How about me?  Do I live the Christian life because I love it, or because I feel forced into it, regretting the loss of my old life and wishing I were there?  Do I put my hand to the plow and look back?  Do I get along so well with the world that no one sees a difference between me and them?  If God were still in the salt business, what would I look like today?

Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful, who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only they who do the same, but who take pleasure in them that do them.  Rom 1:28-32

Dene Ward

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            I don’t know where that sobriquet came from, but I think of it every time I read Matthew 6.

…Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? …Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all, Matt 6:25-32.

            Jesus is making a point we often miss in that passage.  “For the Gentiles seek after these things,” He says.  The pagan gods were notoriously capricious, vindictive, and malicious.  The whole idea was to appease them.  The best a Gentile could hope for was that the gods wouldn’t notice him at all.  If he kept his head down, minded his own business, and made the required sacrifices, maybe he could stumble his way through life without too much trouble.  Certainly no one expected those gods to actually care enough about him to provide his needs.

            Then Jesus reminds his disciples, “Your heavenly Father knows…”  Did you catch that?  Your God is not a capricious god; your God is your heavenly Father.  If He is your Father, of course He will take care of your needs.  Any time we worry—just like the Gentiles worried—we are insulting God, calling Him no better than those heathen gods who didn’t love their subjects, and certainly never thought of them as beloved children.

            What would your earthly father have thought if, as a child, you came home from school every day and wondered aloud if there would be any supper on the table that night?  How hurt would he have been if you didn’t trust him to love you and provide for you any better than that?  Why do we think God would feel differently?  Why would He not only be insulted, but angry, and wouldn’t it be understandable?

            We may not have everything we want.  Some of us will be more comfortable than others.  But God is your Father, a Father who is able far beyond any pagan god to care for His people, and not only that--He wants to.  Don’t insult Him, treating Him like nothing more than an idol, and a spiteful one at that, by worrying about the necessities of life.

 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust, Psalm 103:13,14

Dene Ward

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            Do you want to know what the word “relative” means?  Just follow me around for awhile and listen to the doctors. 

            Many years ago we moved a thousand miles and I went to a new ophthalmologist for the first time.  Unfortunately, my file did not make it before the appointment.  The doctor looked at my eyes and the contacts I was wearing at the time and shook his head.  “Who fit these?  He obviously doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

            A week later I returned to his office.  He had received the file and read it through, noting the nanophthalmic eyes and the incredibly steep corneas.  “Your doctor is a genius,” he pronounced.  “I don’t know how he did this.  You shouldn’t even be able to wear contact lenses, but had he not been able to do it, you would be blind by now.”  Nothing about my eyes changed, but the doctor’s opinion certainly did.

            Then there was the difference between the lens implant surgeon in Cincinnati and my glaucoma surgeon.  The first considered the lens implant almost a failure because my nanophthalmus had skewed the formulas and I still could not see well.  The second considered it a success because I could still see at all. 

            Only a few weeks ago, I had a visit with the retina guru after a “retina event” as they called it in the glaucoma hall.  The tech there declared it impossible for the doctor to be able to see into “these tiny little pupils.  You will most certainly need to be dilated.”  (This, in spite of the fact that my chart is stamped in large, red, capital letters DO NOT DILATE.)   The retina doctor knew better than to dilate someone with my symptoms and overruled her.  Later, when the glaucoma doctor looked into my eyes, he said, “What are they complaining about?  These are nice big pupils.”  Of course, he has been dealing with them for years.

            You see, good for me is bad for you, at least at the ophthalmologist’s office.    

            Many things are like that.  If you’re from the north, you think Florida winters are warm and springs are hot.  If you are from Florida, you think the northeast is arid.  You would probably turn to dust the minute you walked into Arizona.  And because we understand the concept of relativity, we have a tendency not to see the awfulness of sin, particularly our own.  I’m not bad, we think.  I haven’t murdered anyone, I haven’t stolen from anyone.  I don’t lie—well, at least not big black lies.  And there we go excusing ourselves because we can always find someone worse than we are.  Paul, in another context, mentions those who measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, concluding that they are without understanding, 2 Cor 10:12.  We are too, if we think we can get to Heaven by comparing our lives to anything other than God’s standard

            Nothing is relative when it comes to sin.  When we think we can decide which sins need to be repented of and which don’t, when we think we can choose a standard of our own, whether a person or a personal credo, when we think we are the ones who get to draw the line, God will not tolerate even what we consider the tiniest of sins.  To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a sin by any other name will still rise as a stench in the nostrils of God.

            There is nothing relative about sin.  It is a theory that will always prove false.

For whoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble in one point, he has become guilty of it all.  For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill.  Now if you do not commit adultery but you do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.  So speak and so do as men who are to be judged by a perfect law of liberty, James 2:10-12.

Dene Ward

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            Girls raised in the South, or GRITS as one of my coffee mugs calls them, are some of the strongest people on this earth.  These women were nurtured on grits, greens, cornbread and chores from the time they could chew.  They work hard and long without complaint.  They know that getting dirty is healthy and sweat is not a terminal disease so they don’t avoid either one.  They can hoe row after row in the hot sun, shell beans till midnight, can, blanch, and preserve in a steamy kitchen for hours, cook for an army every night, and then clean it all up and start over the next morning. 

            They show up like magic when others are hurting and do whatever needs doing.  They find their way in any kitchen, heating up casseroles seasoned with love and tears, stirring pots of vegetables flavored with fatback, slicing tall layer cakes and mile high meringue pies, sinking their arms in a sink full of suds, and grabbing up a basket of laundry on their way out the door to be returned clean, mended, ironed, and folded before the house of mourning even realizes the clothes are missing. 

            They will take anyone’s children in their laps and dry up tears, listen to sad stories, and tell a few funny ones to bring back the smiles.  They bandage skinned knees and aren’t too prissy to change a needful baby’s diapers, no matter who it belongs to.  They will even offer a little discipline on little bottoms that think since Mama’s not around no one else cares—they care.  They can play tag, hide and seek, and red rover, make mudpies and sand castles, and then go home and finish whatever needs doing, no matter how late it gets.  They will stay up all night with anyone who needs it, then get up and go again as if nothing has happened.

            How do they do it?  The women I grew up watching had one magic ingredient—love—love that involved selflessness, strength, and purpose, and was borne from the heat of life.  Maybe living in the South made that come more naturally, just as the southern heat and humidity makes the sweat pour more profusely. 

            God applies the heat to us as well.  In Isa 48:10, God told His people,   Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. Affliction hurts.  It burns in a flash and roasts in constant pain and fear.  But eventually, the heat refines our souls and makes them pure and strong.

            What, you think it unfair that God would do this?  Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.  If He would do it to His own Son, who are we to get some sort of special dispensation?  In fact, the special dispensation is in the trials.  If God never put us through these things, we would be weaklings, always babes, never maturing to spirituality.  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

            There is another result from all this fiery testing, perhaps the best result of all.  God speaks of a group of His people in Zech 13:9, saying, And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"  I will go through whatever it takes to have Him declare me His child and answer my call, won’t you?

            Even now, as the long hot summer approaches, I am ready for it.  It reminds me that just as the southern heat strengthens my body, the spiritual heat can work wonders on my soul.  I know from watching both of my grandmothers, and my mother and aunts.  I know from working side by side with other women as we toil for our families and neighbors, and for the Lord, too, as we serve our brethren. 

            You need to become comfortable with the fire.  If you can’t stand the heat, the kitchen is the least of your worries.

Each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 1 Corinthians 3:13

Dene Ward

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            “Lose up to ten pounds the first week!  No dieting!  No exercise!  Eat what you like.  One pill a day will give you the body you have always dreamed of!”

            It’s sad how many people believe those ads.  But it is understandable too.  No one wants to change his lifestyle.  No one wants to go hungry and sweat.  Everyone wants to eat the good stuff and take a magic pill to cure their obesity.

            I know a few people who have that problem with sin too.  They don’t want to change their lives.  They don’t want to admit they even need to change.  They certainly don’t want to make the effort in study, prayer, self-examination, and true repentance.  They think they have the “magic pill,” and here is what it is.

            I can go merrily along if I remember to pray for forgiveness every night, especially for my “secret sins.” 

            I can live my life as I wish as long as I show up Sunday morning and take the Lord’s Supper.

            I can even play at repentance by talking about my imperfections and making statements like, “I know I am a sinner,” so no one can quote 1 John 1:8 at me.

            I have seen it too many times over the years.  I have even done it myself.  I know I am not perfect so a quick prayer for forgiveness every day should take care of the problem.  Far be it from me to actually admit anything specific and work on it.  Have you noticed this about people like that?  Sooner or later they make a statement like this, “If I’ve sinned, I’m sorry.”  They’ve taken yet another diet pill and expect a 15 pound loss of sin in one short minute.

            The real weight loss programs out there are all about accountability.  You show up, you weigh in, you talk about exactly what you have eaten and not eaten, and how much exercise you have or have not had.  Those people tend to lose the weight and keep it off longer.  They understand that this is a lifestyle change, not a magic pill.  And they take responsibility for their actions, both good and bad.

            That’s exactly the way overcoming sin works.  “Confess your faults one to another,” James tells us, “and pray for one another” (5:16)   Everyone participates and everyone helps.

             “Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance,” John told the masses (Matt 3:8).  A quick little prayer or a ritual offering was only the beginning of a lifestyle change that was supposed to be obvious to everyone from then on.

            I’ve heard brethren criticize the Catholic religion as one of convenience.  “You can live as you like as long as you confess every week and do penance.”  Some of us don’t even want to do that much.  Confession is humiliating.  Doing penance is hard work.  It’s far easier to pray for forgiveness every night and show up every Sunday for those few magic bites.  Don’t tell me we aren’t as bad they are—we’re worse!

            Satan is the one who puts out those ads for sin’s magic pills.  Don’t be a “patsy.”  No one is sure where the term came from.  Some suggest it is from the Italian word pazzo.  Do you know what that word means?  “Fool.”  Sounds to me like the perfect word. 

For godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation, a repentance which brings no regret: but the sorrow of the world works death. For behold, this selfsame thing, that you were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging! In everything you approved yourselves to be pure in the matter. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11.

Dene Ward       

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            Keith called me outside one Saturday.  I was in the middle of something important and was a little irritated. It is hard enough to do things these days when I have to lean so close, squint so hard, and put up with the resulting headaches trying to see what I am doing.  Then he wants to interrupt me, and I will just have to start all over again.  But I sighed, a louder one than was called for, and dutifully went outside.

            The afternoon sun was waning, for which I was grateful.  No matter how dim the day I have to reach for sunglasses nearly all the time now.  He took me to a shaded spot on the west side of the field and pointed.  Then I saw it, or them as it turned out, probably a hundred dragonflies darting here and there all over the place. 

            He felt bad for me because I could not see them all the time.  In fact, I would not have known what they were had he not told me, but I think my vision of them was the best.  He saw them in the shade as well, when they once again became ugly black bugs, but I only saw them as they came out of the shadows, the sun striking their wings and lighting them up like tiny golden light bulbs.  Then they would disappear, but more would appear in their place, over and over, darting here and there in movements no one could possibly predict.  I think my view was much more magical than his, and therefore far more delightful.  We stood there watching them for several minutes.  I probably could have stood their longer since I had the better view, a view he would never have because he could see so well.

            No matter what we may be going through in this life, God always prepares good things for us, but we will never see them if we always stay inside ourselves, commiserating with ourselves, rewinding over and over the tape of all our troubles till we can recite them from memory to anyone who asks, and even some who don’t.  There is a silver lining somewhere if we just search, and in the searching who knows what treasures we might find? Besides, it will keep us too busy to complain so much.

            Go out there today and look for those silver linings—or the golden dragonflies, or whatever God has specially prepared to help you through this day.  You will find them, but only if you have a mind to.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  Psalm 23:5,6.

Dene Ward

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Today’s post is by guest writer Keith Ward

            The title tends to be a phrase we rush through between the glory and fear we express at the thought that we can call God our father and explanations why it is or is not proper to say, “Thy Kingdom come” (1Pet 1:17).  Who is even sure what “hallowed” means any way?

            Bible dictionaries say, “To causatively make, pronounce or observe as clean,” or, “To set aside for divine service.”  We are more familiar with the thought, “to make holy,” but have no better understanding of what we must do in a practical way to accomplish this.  One gains a better understanding by reading through all those dull rules in Exodus and Leviticus:

            The Tabernacle was made holy because God was there and all who touched the altar were hallowed by that act.

            If Israel was to be called God’s people, they had to show proper respect for His holiness by keeping themselves clean.  The lists of rules that one must obey to be clean, and the meticulous rituals for purification of uncleanness emphasize the separateness of God and how special it is to be called his people – special and fearful.

            One who violated the hallowed nature of the Sabbath in a minor way was stoned (Num 15:32) and one who was unclean in the most minor way could not partake of the Passover even if his uncleanness happened by accident (Num 6:6-8; 9:6).

            As generations passed, Israel became less awed to be God’s possession and less careful to hallow God by their actions. Finally came the day that God had enough and left the temple; neither it nor the people would any longer be hallowed by his presence among them (Ezek 8-10). In the course of His departure, God ordered a slaughter similar to that for the sin of Baal-Peor (Num 25:1-9; Ezek 9:1-6). As He instructed the angels to spare those with His mark from the divine slaughter, we learn what God considers the true hallowing of his name: “Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done.” It clearly was not sufficient to refrain from most of the sins; it was not even enough to avoid them all.  One had to be in abject mourning that those things were being done at all. Then, and only then was the name of God hallowed.

            So, now, how do we feel about saying, “Hallowed be thy name?” Do we measure up any better than those Israelites did?  Going to service of the church and sincerely clearing our minds of all worldly thoughts and cares to truly worship is not enough to hallow God.  Refraining from the various evils in our society is not enough.  Saying these 4 words—Hallowed be thy name—demands that we mourn that sin is being committed at all, anywhere, by anyone, for all are in the presence of God.  

            How can we claim we mourn the sins when we laugh at them on our favorite sitcoms?  Is it an expression of our sorrow at the lusts of the world to peruse the swimsuit issue or watch the lingerie TV specials?  Can we claim to be hallowed by having touched the presence of God on Sunday if we appear at the beach scantily clad during the week?  Will praying a lot and studying a lot make up for all the ways we show that we wish we could participate in these things, if only….?  Where will the “man with the writer’s inkhorn” find anyone to mark among us?

Keith Ward

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            I was sound asleep when it started.  I knew I was asleep but somehow I carried on a regular conversation with myself. 

            “You are too asleep to do anything about this.  Even if you woke Keith up, he could not hear you.  Maybe you could point.”  So I whacked him across the chest with my left arm.  He sat straight up in bed shouting, “Hunh?  What’s happening?”  He turned on the light.

            By then it had started.  I was still asleep, but I was bouncing rhythmically and grunting, “Uh—uh—uh” with every bounce.  He thought I was having convulsions and about to die.

            “What’s wrong?  What’s wrong?  What’s wrong?!!!” 

            I was still asleep and could not answer him.  Even if I had been awake, I probably could not have said anything.  It hurt that badly.  Finally I managed to point (still sleeping), and somehow—being married for 39 years maybe?—he figured it out.  I had a charley horse.  But which leg?  He just grabbed the one nearest and started pushing against my heel and rubbing my calf muscle.  He got the right leg—actually the left leg, but it was the right one.

            Finally I woke up.  I lifted my toes and pushed against his hand.  Five minutes later it was over with, but I still had a knot in my calf muscle the next morning and it took fifteen minutes before I could walk flat-footed.

            Charley horses must be the worst pain possible for something that is so harmless.  They will not kill you—you just wish they would for a minute or two.  Then you realize that it will soon be over and everything will be fine.

            That is the way the early Christians dealt with trials and persecution.  Peter says, now for a little while, if necessary, you have been put to grief in many trials.  He recognized that they were grievous, they did hurt, but they were only “for a little while.”  After telling his readers that they would suffer, the Hebrew writer says, For you have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a very little while, He who comes shall come, and shall not tarry Heb 10:36,37.

            Sometimes that grief is tremendous.  It certainly was for those Christians.  We all recognize that we must die.  We know that one or the other spouse will, in most cases, go before the other.  That is normal.  We all know that we will bury our parents.  That is the natural order.  It still hurts, but we understand it.  When the unnatural happens, it hurts even more.  I have known women who dealt with widowhood in their 30s and 40s.  My own in-laws buried a ten year old daughter whom cancer had stolen from them.  I cannot imagine the pain.  I know one good sister who had to endure both of those things—a widow at 40 and an only child, a daughter, who died unexpectedly a long time before she did.

            How did she make it?  She realized that these trials are transitory.  They do not last.  That trite old saying is trite because it is true, “This too will pass.”  Only one thing lasts—the joy we will have as we exist forever with our Father and Savior.  Hang on to that hope.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ: whom not having seen you love; on whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Pet 1:3-9.

Dene Ward