Gardner Taylor tells a story...
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Gardner Taylor tells a story about a man who approached him following a Sunday service. They had not seen each other since youth, and the man had become a doctor. The man tells him how he would have never become a doctor had someone not helped him out. "And he told me about a man, dearly loved of me, who let him have 65 dollars, so that he could get back to his job; so he could go to school. He said to me, 'That man did not know that right then I was at the end of my courage, and if he had not given me that 65 dollars, I would have given up.' "Now that man did not know -- but as surely as I stand here, my faith says to me that there was somebody who did know, somebody who knows when we reach the end of our patience, somebody who knows when our strength has all but failed, who knows when we have borne the last sorrow. He is the One who cares." (Wilson, The Practice of Preaching, p. 252.) Near the end of John's sixth chapter, many of the disciples turn away from following Jesus because it is too difficult (v. 60). But Simon Peter knew that Jesus is the One who cares when he said, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life" (v. 68). -- Bolton
