A newly ordained preacher and his young wife were talking about being
more considerate of each other. The good wife promised that she would
stop being so critical of his sleep-inducing sermons. He, in return,
promised to honor her privacy and stop looking through her dresser
drawers.
The preacher was true to his word, never looking through his wife's
dresser drawers, and the good wife was never openly critical of her
husband's sermons. Their marriage progressed smoothly.
After 50 years, their children gave a great party to celebrate the
golden anniversary of the preacher and his wife. Many people came to
congratulate the happy couple.
That evening, as they were putting their anniversary gifts away, the
preacher saw that his wife had left one dresser drawer slightly open.
He tried as hard as he could to withstand the temptation, but he
finally opened the drawer and looked inside. There he found 3 eggs,
and $10,000, in bills of varied denominations. He was greatly
puzzled by this, and went to question his wife.
"Oh," she said. "Well, you remember when we spoke of being more
considerate with each other all those years ago?"
The preacher, feeling profoundly guilty, answered, "Yes."
"Well," she continued, "I promised to stop criticizing your boring
sermons, but every time you gave a sermon that was a real snoozer, I
put an egg into that drawer."
The preacher smiled. "Well, that's not so bad. Fifty years of sermons
and only 3 eggs! But what about all that money?"
His wife quietly responded, "Every time I got a dozen eggs, I sold
them."
--Selected from Good Clean Fun newsletter.
A WORD WITH YOU
By Ron Hutchcraft
#3988 - "Survivors' Faith" -
Job 23:8, 9
In his Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis created a magical land called Narnia where the animals talked - and which he used to illustrate allegorically some important Biblical truths. The Christ-figure in the Chronicles is a majestic lion named Aslan. And, there's a little girl named Lucy, who's one of the children who discovers Narnia. Now, in the Narnia book, Prince Caspian, Lewis relates a reunion between Lucy and Aslan, whom she has not seen for some time. And, it's a tender reunion. What follows is a short, but very insightful, conversation. Lewis says that Lucy "gazed up into that large, wise face. 'Welcome, child,' he said. 'Aslan,' said Lucy, 'you're bigger.' 'That is because you are older, little one,' answered he. 'Oh, not because you are?' 'I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.'"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Survivors' Faith."
"Every year you grow, you will find me bigger." That is a beautiful description of a Jesus-follower's enlarging relationship with Jesus Christ - and our enlarging view of how big our Lord really is. And the experiences that grow us the most inevitably are the experiences that hurt the most. It was only after all of Job's almost infinite suffering that he could say to God, "My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You." (Job 42:5)
And every experience of your life - including what you're facing right now - is designed by your Lord to enlarge your view of Him and to deepen your relationship with Him. Now, Job never appeared on the reality TV series, Survivor, but he sure won his survivor challenges big-time. And he models for us the secret of survivors' faith - the kind that makes it through the most trying, most painful, most unexplainable crucibles of your life.
That secret is in our word for today from the Word of God in Job 23, beginning in verse 8. He says, "If I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him." Job is in the depths of his personal valley, and he just can't see any visible sign of God. Listen, we have all been there - the pain is so real and God seems so silent.
But here comes survivors' faith. "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commandments of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread."
Alright, here's the secret: survivors' faith is based not on what God does, but on Who He is. That's how spiritual grownups live. You come to the place where you do not let your faith rise and fall with the circumstances - your faith is anchored in what you know God is always like. No matter what the circumstances. And that's what you trust! And, that's what keeps you going when there's not much else around you to go on.
As you cling to your Lord through the deepest of valleys, through the darkest of times, you discover, more than you ever knew before, what a mighty, majestic God you belong to. And He'll seem bigger to you every step of the way. Oh, it isn't that He's grown - it's that you have - by trusting in who your God is, not in what you God does.
If you're not sure you belong to Jesus, and you would like to make sure today, Ron would like to send to you a free copy of the booklet, "Yours for Life: How to Have Life's Most Important Relationship." Read it online here!.
--Written by Ron Hutchcraft, based on his popular
radio broadcast, "A Word With You" .
Copyright (c) 2002, Ron Hutchcraft. Reprinted with permission. "A Word With You" is a radio outreach of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
A Fun, Faith 'n Funny Bone Feature 
