The high school political science...
Illustration
The high school political science class had been studying political crises in the Middle East. Their assignment was to write an essay explaining how it must feel to be a freed political hostage.
At first, Gene felt this was a real head-scratcher of an assignment. He did not have the foggiest notion what he would write. Fortunately, he had taken pretty comprehensive notes which gave him a good base from which to build his paper.
After working on his outline for several hours, he realized he had described a lot of the physical attributes of the typical imprisonment, but had not begun to address the element of feelings. The essay was to describe the impact of freedom on the hostage's feelings after a long period of imprisonment.
As he reorganized his essay's outlines, a passage from a recent Sunday school lesson found itself as part of this summary statement: "God's statement in Jeremiah reflects much of what a hostage must feel upon being freed. 'The girls will dance and be happy, and men, young and old, will rejoice. I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy, their sorrow into gladness.' Those kinds of promises from God would bring hope to any heart."
--Thompson
At first, Gene felt this was a real head-scratcher of an assignment. He did not have the foggiest notion what he would write. Fortunately, he had taken pretty comprehensive notes which gave him a good base from which to build his paper.
After working on his outline for several hours, he realized he had described a lot of the physical attributes of the typical imprisonment, but had not begun to address the element of feelings. The essay was to describe the impact of freedom on the hostage's feelings after a long period of imprisonment.
As he reorganized his essay's outlines, a passage from a recent Sunday school lesson found itself as part of this summary statement: "God's statement in Jeremiah reflects much of what a hostage must feel upon being freed. 'The girls will dance and be happy, and men, young and old, will rejoice. I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy, their sorrow into gladness.' Those kinds of promises from God would bring hope to any heart."
--Thompson
