Keep Sharp
Stories
Contents
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "Keep Sharp"
Shining Moments: "In the Midst of an Attack, A Transformation" by Connie Hays Coddington
Good Stories: "Persistence" by John Sumwalt
Scrap Pile: "Do Not Lose Heart" by John Sumwalt
What's Up This Week
What do you do when your back is against the wall, when you are between a rock and hard place? In the Gospel lesson Jesus teaches us to pray and never lose heart. Then, of course, he tells a story. It is always advisable to tell a story or to remember a story when in trouble. There are seven stories in this week's StoryShare which may prove helpful in a time of desperate need, such as a late Saturday night when you are searching for just the right story to finish the sermon or Sunday School lesson.
A Story to Live By
Keep Sharp
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
One man challenged another to an all-day wood-chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. "I don't get it," he said. "Every time I checked you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood that I did." "But you didn't notice," came the reply from the winning woodsman, "that I was sharpening my axe every time I sat down to rest."
Shining Moments
In the Midst of an Attack, A Transformation
by Connie Hays Coddington
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
Luke 18:1
The telephone rang in my motel room in El Salvador. When I answered it, I heard the voice of the young man who just a couple of days before had abducted me and attempted to rape me. He had found out the number of my room because he worked in the motel. Now he was asking me if he could take me to dinner at the restaurant in the motel.
My first response was, "You've got to be kidding!" After all, a few days earlier he had tried to attack me, and although God had saved me during that experience, I didn't want to knowingly put myself in danger again. Still, questions kept coming to my mind: Have you been healed of fear and anger toward this man or not? Did you see him as the image and likeness of God or not? Has he changed since the encounter? Is the healing complete? The answer came immediately: Yes! That is why I answered, "I will go to dinner with you."
The Psalmist assures us that God is "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1). God is always with us, and His presence is practical -- the help we get from Him is tangible. Thinking of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness, the Psalmist sang, "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses" (Psalm 107:6).
Both before and since those words were written down, individuals around the globe have experienced deliverance by God in one way or another. I know that He is always with us because He helped me when that young man was attacking me. I share this experience with you so that it may strengthen your trust in God.
It all began shortly after I graduated from college. A woman from my church invited me to join her on a trip to El Salvador. She was to be the guide for a tour group. I was thrilled to have such an opportunity and looked forward to an adventurous trip. When we first entered the country, I was struck by the poverty and civil unrest, and it was clear that war was brewing. I prayed to know how I might help.
One evening, after dinner with a family from Nicaragua, the young man who had driven us back to our motel asked me to stay in the car for a moment as the others were getting out. I thought he was going to park the car in the nearby lot, but he proceeded to exit the lot and drive down a quiet country road.
He did not respond to my questions about where we were going or to my request that he take me back to my motel. Fear gripped me. I reached out to God in prayer, but the fear kept me from feeling His presence. When we got to a small country motel, the man dragged me out of the car into a room.
Once inside, I was able to separate myself from him and began talking with him about my religion. I briefly explained what Christian Science was. I explained how important it was to me and how I desired to live by its standards. I spoke to him about man's spirituality and goodness and about God's love for His creation. He probably thought my comments were unusual under the circumstances, but this was what came to my mind.
I tried to reason with him and to explain what he had in mind was wrong. After talking for about fifteen minutes, I requested once more that he take me back to my motel.
Instead, he attacked me. I turned to God with all my heart. The first thought that came to me as I wrestled to keep the man away was the explanation of angels from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Angels. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and morality" (pg. 581).
I knew God's thoughts were not only passing to me, but were also being communicated to this man in a way he could understand. This time, in the midst of fear, I felt God's presence.
As I continued to listen for spiritual insights, the idea came to pray the Lord's Prayer aloud. When I came to the line, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," it dawned on me that I needed to truly forgive this man and not be angry or resentful toward him.
It might seem impossible to do this under the circumstances, but this insight reminded me of man's actual spirituality and the importance of affirming this, regardless of what was happening at the moment. I realized that I needed to see this man as made in the image and likeness of God, and that I needed to do this now, not some time later. In reality, he was good, pure, and innocent, the way God created him.
The next idea that came to mind was from a poem by Mrs. Eddy titled "Mother's Evening Prayer." The line reads, "His arm encircles me, and mine, and all" (Poem, 4). God's mothering love was encircling me as well as the man. God's protecting love was present, even though I still needed to fight off the aggression.
Then there came a moment when it felt as though there was no more physical strength left in me. So I spoke to God; "Father, I can't fight anymore, You take over." I stopped resisting. You might say I yielded to God rather than to the man. At the very instant I quit wrestling, the man stopped his abuse. The attack ended. God had helped me, and the man. The man said, "You really are an angel." That's all he said, and he immediately took me back to my motel.
I didn't think I was an angel. But angels had been present. They were God's messages leading both of us to freedom.
Shortly thereafter, as I read, I came across the following from The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy: "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore, despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance" (pgs. 149-150).
I understood that I need not despair or murmur over the experience. Even when human encounters such as this one appear to be threatening and fear-filled, we can trust God to help us. And there does not need to be any kind of lingering after-effect. God is able to remove even the memory of such an experience. I saw so clearly that God had been present the whole time, keeping me safe.
My conviction of God's presence was what made me able to go to dinner with this young man after the attack. While we were eating, he told me of the tremendous challenges in his life and his country. He felt he would soon have to go to war. I spoke to him of a book that I was certain would help him: Science and Health and the Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I assured him that it would give him an understanding of God, of his relationship to God, and of his safety in God's presence. I didn't have an extra book with me, but I promised to send him a copy of the Spanish translation of this book when I returned to the United States. And I did. He promised he would read it.
After dinner, he wanted me to meet his dad. I must admit that I hesitated a moment, but then I agreed to go with him. As I heard them speak to each other in Spanish, a language unknown to me, I felt the deep love between them. The dad was so sincere, kind, and humble. He had worked hard all his life for very little remuneration. But the love I felt in his presence was indescribable. I can still feel it today, many years later. This country had a richness I had been unable to see before meeting this man's father. And now I perceived how to better pray for this part of the world.
From his dad's house, the young man immediately took me back to my motel, and we parted ways with a handshake. That was twenty years ago.
This experience changed my life. It gave me a confident trust in God, because it provided rock-solid proof of His care. From the moment I discovered His power and presence, I knew I could trust anything to Him. If He was here for me when I most needed Him, He would always be there for me.
God is our help always, and in times of trouble, we and our loved ones can experience that help through our prayers. No matter how far we may be from home, family, or friends, God is with us. He will help us, if we turn to Him. This I know.
Reproduced with permission. (c) 1999 Christian Science Sentinel (http://www.cssentinel.com). All rights reserved.
Connie Hays Coddington has been serving the healing ministry as a Christian Science practitioner for the past 20 years. She is a member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and is also a member of the Mother Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. Connie is on the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Wisconsin. In this capacity she writes regularly for the media and works with the state legislature to preserve and advance religious freedoms. She has written for the Christian Science Sentinel, El Heraldo de la Christian Science, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Waukesha Freeman, CNI Newspapers, and the LaCrosse Tribune.
Good Stories
Persistence
by John Sumwalt
"And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?"
Luke 18:7
In a certain city there was a corrupt bureaucrat who neither feared God nor respected people; and there was a welfare mother in the same city who kept coming to him and saying, "Make my landlord fix the furnace and insulate the walls. I can no longer afford to pay the heat bills and my children are freezing." For a while the bureaucrat refused to listen, but the woman kept coming to his office every day with her three children, and each day she would make her plea again. After several weeks of this, he thought to himself, if I don't give this woman what is right, she will pester me to death. An order was issued, and the furnace was replaced and insulation was installed in the walls.
The next day the woman was back in the bureaucrat's office with her children. She thanked him for what he had done, and then she said, "Now let me tell you about my plumbing problems..."
Scrap Pile
Do Not Lose Heart
by John Sumwalt
Then Jesus told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
Luke 18:1
Have you ever been in a situation where you were tempted to give up hope? No doubt we all have at one time or another.
What did you do? Did you give up? Did you pray?
Jesus tells us that we "...ought always to pray and not lose heart."
But we do lose heart. And we are tempted to despair. Sometimes our lives are so difficult that it seems nothing can save us.
Dateline: Auburndale, Florida, about 1986
Jacob Wielhouser tells of an unorthodox funeral he conducted many years ago for a 17-year-old who was a star student in the local high school:
"He committed suicide with a drug overdose: with the help of the teachers, I organized a service. I invited all of his peers to sit with me on the floor, and then I invited them to share memories of Jon. Slowly they moved from death to life to drugs. I kept the Bible closed and did not preach long. The service concluded with a silent prayer and a blessing. There were lots of tears, lots of regrets, and ultimately, healing." (Jacob Wielhouser is a retired pastor who lives in New Mexico.)
Jesus said, "Do not lose heart."
Dateline: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 7, 1992
"As the 155-millimeter howitzer shells whistled down on this crumbling city today, exploding thunderously into buildings all around, a disheveled, stubble-bearded man in formal evening attire unfolded a plastic chair in the middle of Vase Miskina Street. He lifted his cello from its case and began playing Albinoni's Adagio. There were only two people to hear him, and both fled, dodging from doorway to doorway, before the performance ended. Each day at 4 p.m., the cellist, Vedran Smailovic, walks to the same spot on the pedestrian mall for a concert in honor of Sarajevo's dead. The spot he has chosen is outside the bakery where several high-explosive rounds struck a bread line 12 days ago, killing 22 people and wounding more than 100. If he holds to his plan, there will be 22 performances before his gesture has run its course.... Many, like Mr. Smailovic, who played the cello for the Sarajevo Opera, reach for an anchor amid the chaos by doing something, however small, that carries them back to the stable, reasoned life they led before. 'My mother is a Muslim and my father is a Muslim,' Mr. Smailovic said, 'but I don't care. I am a Sarajevan, I am a cosmopolitan, I am a pacifist.' Then he added: 'I am nothing special. I am a musician. I am part of the town. Like everyone else, I do what I can.' " (John F. Burns, New York Times, June 8, 1992)
Jesus says, "Do not lose heart."
Dateline: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 15, 1992
"The animal house at the Sarajevo zoo is almost silent now, except for volleys of automatic rifle fire directed toward it from the heights immediately above. Gone are the roars of the caged lions and leopards and the wolves' howls that punctuated the summer nights. Gone, too, is the lone zookeeper who risked his life to take them food. While the battle for survival by 400,000 people trapped by the Serbian siege continues, the struggle has been all but lost at the zoo. Only one animal, a female black bear, remains alive of the 100 there when the siege began in April. She is mangy, perhaps half her weight when the ordeal started, and she barely has the strength to stand upright against the rusting bars of her cage when visitors arrive with a loaf of bread and a few snatches of grass. 'Many of us are dead and almost everybody is hungry, but I feel more sorry for the animals than for the people,' said Adem Hodzic, a 32-year-old taxi driver who runs every second or third day across the 150 yards of grassy space that separates the animal house from the sandbagged militia headquarters where Mr. Hodzic and other volunteers guard the city's northern perimeter.... He added, 'People made this war, but the animals had nothing to do with it. They are only victims.' " (John F. Burns, New York Times, October 16, 1992)
Dateline: Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church, Milwaukee, Fall, 1995
A man came into the church one day this week looking for help. I'll call him Jack. Wendy could tell by looking at Jack that he was troubled. She buzzed me on the intercom, and as soon as I was free she brought him down to my office. Jack told me he was a new Christian, and that he was facing a life or death decision. He had been walking around the neighborhood for some time filled with despair. Jack said he came into our church building because the door was open.
We talked for a long time, and when he said he would like a place to pray, I brought him in here to the sanctuary. Jack was struck by the beauty of the stained glass windows, as people always are when they walk into this room for the first time. He studied the window in the back for a few moments, and then he turned and looked at this window over the altar (Christ kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane). He didn't say anything. I could tell he was deeply moved by what he saw.
I asked him if he knew the story. He said he did not. So I told him of Jesus' betrayal -- the life or death decision he faced -- and how he prayed to the Father, "if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; but not my will, but thy will be done." I pointed to the cross here over the altar. I told him about the crucifixion and the resurrection.
I don't know where Jack is today, whether he is alive or dead. I don't know what he decided to do. He was not suicidal, but he was facing very real danger. Jack may be alive today if he made the right decision. What I do know for sure is that wherever Jack is, Christ is with him.
Jesus said, "Do not lose heart!"
Pray and pray and pray and pray!
"Do not lose heart!"
Excerpts from a sermon preached at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee on August 20, 2000.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Jodie Felton, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. Click on the title above for information about how to order. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A, which begins in December.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
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StoryShare, October 17, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "Keep Sharp"
Shining Moments: "In the Midst of an Attack, A Transformation" by Connie Hays Coddington
Good Stories: "Persistence" by John Sumwalt
Scrap Pile: "Do Not Lose Heart" by John Sumwalt
What's Up This Week
What do you do when your back is against the wall, when you are between a rock and hard place? In the Gospel lesson Jesus teaches us to pray and never lose heart. Then, of course, he tells a story. It is always advisable to tell a story or to remember a story when in trouble. There are seven stories in this week's StoryShare which may prove helpful in a time of desperate need, such as a late Saturday night when you are searching for just the right story to finish the sermon or Sunday School lesson.
A Story to Live By
Keep Sharp
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
One man challenged another to an all-day wood-chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. "I don't get it," he said. "Every time I checked you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood that I did." "But you didn't notice," came the reply from the winning woodsman, "that I was sharpening my axe every time I sat down to rest."
Shining Moments
In the Midst of an Attack, A Transformation
by Connie Hays Coddington
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
Luke 18:1
The telephone rang in my motel room in El Salvador. When I answered it, I heard the voice of the young man who just a couple of days before had abducted me and attempted to rape me. He had found out the number of my room because he worked in the motel. Now he was asking me if he could take me to dinner at the restaurant in the motel.
My first response was, "You've got to be kidding!" After all, a few days earlier he had tried to attack me, and although God had saved me during that experience, I didn't want to knowingly put myself in danger again. Still, questions kept coming to my mind: Have you been healed of fear and anger toward this man or not? Did you see him as the image and likeness of God or not? Has he changed since the encounter? Is the healing complete? The answer came immediately: Yes! That is why I answered, "I will go to dinner with you."
The Psalmist assures us that God is "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1). God is always with us, and His presence is practical -- the help we get from Him is tangible. Thinking of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness, the Psalmist sang, "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses" (Psalm 107:6).
Both before and since those words were written down, individuals around the globe have experienced deliverance by God in one way or another. I know that He is always with us because He helped me when that young man was attacking me. I share this experience with you so that it may strengthen your trust in God.
It all began shortly after I graduated from college. A woman from my church invited me to join her on a trip to El Salvador. She was to be the guide for a tour group. I was thrilled to have such an opportunity and looked forward to an adventurous trip. When we first entered the country, I was struck by the poverty and civil unrest, and it was clear that war was brewing. I prayed to know how I might help.
One evening, after dinner with a family from Nicaragua, the young man who had driven us back to our motel asked me to stay in the car for a moment as the others were getting out. I thought he was going to park the car in the nearby lot, but he proceeded to exit the lot and drive down a quiet country road.
He did not respond to my questions about where we were going or to my request that he take me back to my motel. Fear gripped me. I reached out to God in prayer, but the fear kept me from feeling His presence. When we got to a small country motel, the man dragged me out of the car into a room.
Once inside, I was able to separate myself from him and began talking with him about my religion. I briefly explained what Christian Science was. I explained how important it was to me and how I desired to live by its standards. I spoke to him about man's spirituality and goodness and about God's love for His creation. He probably thought my comments were unusual under the circumstances, but this was what came to my mind.
I tried to reason with him and to explain what he had in mind was wrong. After talking for about fifteen minutes, I requested once more that he take me back to my motel.
Instead, he attacked me. I turned to God with all my heart. The first thought that came to me as I wrestled to keep the man away was the explanation of angels from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Angels. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and morality" (pg. 581).
I knew God's thoughts were not only passing to me, but were also being communicated to this man in a way he could understand. This time, in the midst of fear, I felt God's presence.
As I continued to listen for spiritual insights, the idea came to pray the Lord's Prayer aloud. When I came to the line, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," it dawned on me that I needed to truly forgive this man and not be angry or resentful toward him.
It might seem impossible to do this under the circumstances, but this insight reminded me of man's actual spirituality and the importance of affirming this, regardless of what was happening at the moment. I realized that I needed to see this man as made in the image and likeness of God, and that I needed to do this now, not some time later. In reality, he was good, pure, and innocent, the way God created him.
The next idea that came to mind was from a poem by Mrs. Eddy titled "Mother's Evening Prayer." The line reads, "His arm encircles me, and mine, and all" (Poem, 4). God's mothering love was encircling me as well as the man. God's protecting love was present, even though I still needed to fight off the aggression.
Then there came a moment when it felt as though there was no more physical strength left in me. So I spoke to God; "Father, I can't fight anymore, You take over." I stopped resisting. You might say I yielded to God rather than to the man. At the very instant I quit wrestling, the man stopped his abuse. The attack ended. God had helped me, and the man. The man said, "You really are an angel." That's all he said, and he immediately took me back to my motel.
I didn't think I was an angel. But angels had been present. They were God's messages leading both of us to freedom.
Shortly thereafter, as I read, I came across the following from The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy: "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore, despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance" (pgs. 149-150).
I understood that I need not despair or murmur over the experience. Even when human encounters such as this one appear to be threatening and fear-filled, we can trust God to help us. And there does not need to be any kind of lingering after-effect. God is able to remove even the memory of such an experience. I saw so clearly that God had been present the whole time, keeping me safe.
My conviction of God's presence was what made me able to go to dinner with this young man after the attack. While we were eating, he told me of the tremendous challenges in his life and his country. He felt he would soon have to go to war. I spoke to him of a book that I was certain would help him: Science and Health and the Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I assured him that it would give him an understanding of God, of his relationship to God, and of his safety in God's presence. I didn't have an extra book with me, but I promised to send him a copy of the Spanish translation of this book when I returned to the United States. And I did. He promised he would read it.
After dinner, he wanted me to meet his dad. I must admit that I hesitated a moment, but then I agreed to go with him. As I heard them speak to each other in Spanish, a language unknown to me, I felt the deep love between them. The dad was so sincere, kind, and humble. He had worked hard all his life for very little remuneration. But the love I felt in his presence was indescribable. I can still feel it today, many years later. This country had a richness I had been unable to see before meeting this man's father. And now I perceived how to better pray for this part of the world.
From his dad's house, the young man immediately took me back to my motel, and we parted ways with a handshake. That was twenty years ago.
This experience changed my life. It gave me a confident trust in God, because it provided rock-solid proof of His care. From the moment I discovered His power and presence, I knew I could trust anything to Him. If He was here for me when I most needed Him, He would always be there for me.
God is our help always, and in times of trouble, we and our loved ones can experience that help through our prayers. No matter how far we may be from home, family, or friends, God is with us. He will help us, if we turn to Him. This I know.
Reproduced with permission. (c) 1999 Christian Science Sentinel (http://www.cssentinel.com). All rights reserved.
Connie Hays Coddington has been serving the healing ministry as a Christian Science practitioner for the past 20 years. She is a member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and is also a member of the Mother Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. Connie is on the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Wisconsin. In this capacity she writes regularly for the media and works with the state legislature to preserve and advance religious freedoms. She has written for the Christian Science Sentinel, El Heraldo de la Christian Science, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Waukesha Freeman, CNI Newspapers, and the LaCrosse Tribune.
Good Stories
Persistence
by John Sumwalt
"And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?"
Luke 18:7
In a certain city there was a corrupt bureaucrat who neither feared God nor respected people; and there was a welfare mother in the same city who kept coming to him and saying, "Make my landlord fix the furnace and insulate the walls. I can no longer afford to pay the heat bills and my children are freezing." For a while the bureaucrat refused to listen, but the woman kept coming to his office every day with her three children, and each day she would make her plea again. After several weeks of this, he thought to himself, if I don't give this woman what is right, she will pester me to death. An order was issued, and the furnace was replaced and insulation was installed in the walls.
The next day the woman was back in the bureaucrat's office with her children. She thanked him for what he had done, and then she said, "Now let me tell you about my plumbing problems..."
Scrap Pile
Do Not Lose Heart
by John Sumwalt
Then Jesus told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
Luke 18:1
Have you ever been in a situation where you were tempted to give up hope? No doubt we all have at one time or another.
What did you do? Did you give up? Did you pray?
Jesus tells us that we "...ought always to pray and not lose heart."
But we do lose heart. And we are tempted to despair. Sometimes our lives are so difficult that it seems nothing can save us.
Dateline: Auburndale, Florida, about 1986
Jacob Wielhouser tells of an unorthodox funeral he conducted many years ago for a 17-year-old who was a star student in the local high school:
"He committed suicide with a drug overdose: with the help of the teachers, I organized a service. I invited all of his peers to sit with me on the floor, and then I invited them to share memories of Jon. Slowly they moved from death to life to drugs. I kept the Bible closed and did not preach long. The service concluded with a silent prayer and a blessing. There were lots of tears, lots of regrets, and ultimately, healing." (Jacob Wielhouser is a retired pastor who lives in New Mexico.)
Jesus said, "Do not lose heart."
Dateline: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 7, 1992
"As the 155-millimeter howitzer shells whistled down on this crumbling city today, exploding thunderously into buildings all around, a disheveled, stubble-bearded man in formal evening attire unfolded a plastic chair in the middle of Vase Miskina Street. He lifted his cello from its case and began playing Albinoni's Adagio. There were only two people to hear him, and both fled, dodging from doorway to doorway, before the performance ended. Each day at 4 p.m., the cellist, Vedran Smailovic, walks to the same spot on the pedestrian mall for a concert in honor of Sarajevo's dead. The spot he has chosen is outside the bakery where several high-explosive rounds struck a bread line 12 days ago, killing 22 people and wounding more than 100. If he holds to his plan, there will be 22 performances before his gesture has run its course.... Many, like Mr. Smailovic, who played the cello for the Sarajevo Opera, reach for an anchor amid the chaos by doing something, however small, that carries them back to the stable, reasoned life they led before. 'My mother is a Muslim and my father is a Muslim,' Mr. Smailovic said, 'but I don't care. I am a Sarajevan, I am a cosmopolitan, I am a pacifist.' Then he added: 'I am nothing special. I am a musician. I am part of the town. Like everyone else, I do what I can.' " (John F. Burns, New York Times, June 8, 1992)
Jesus says, "Do not lose heart."
Dateline: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 15, 1992
"The animal house at the Sarajevo zoo is almost silent now, except for volleys of automatic rifle fire directed toward it from the heights immediately above. Gone are the roars of the caged lions and leopards and the wolves' howls that punctuated the summer nights. Gone, too, is the lone zookeeper who risked his life to take them food. While the battle for survival by 400,000 people trapped by the Serbian siege continues, the struggle has been all but lost at the zoo. Only one animal, a female black bear, remains alive of the 100 there when the siege began in April. She is mangy, perhaps half her weight when the ordeal started, and she barely has the strength to stand upright against the rusting bars of her cage when visitors arrive with a loaf of bread and a few snatches of grass. 'Many of us are dead and almost everybody is hungry, but I feel more sorry for the animals than for the people,' said Adem Hodzic, a 32-year-old taxi driver who runs every second or third day across the 150 yards of grassy space that separates the animal house from the sandbagged militia headquarters where Mr. Hodzic and other volunteers guard the city's northern perimeter.... He added, 'People made this war, but the animals had nothing to do with it. They are only victims.' " (John F. Burns, New York Times, October 16, 1992)
Dateline: Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church, Milwaukee, Fall, 1995
A man came into the church one day this week looking for help. I'll call him Jack. Wendy could tell by looking at Jack that he was troubled. She buzzed me on the intercom, and as soon as I was free she brought him down to my office. Jack told me he was a new Christian, and that he was facing a life or death decision. He had been walking around the neighborhood for some time filled with despair. Jack said he came into our church building because the door was open.
We talked for a long time, and when he said he would like a place to pray, I brought him in here to the sanctuary. Jack was struck by the beauty of the stained glass windows, as people always are when they walk into this room for the first time. He studied the window in the back for a few moments, and then he turned and looked at this window over the altar (Christ kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane). He didn't say anything. I could tell he was deeply moved by what he saw.
I asked him if he knew the story. He said he did not. So I told him of Jesus' betrayal -- the life or death decision he faced -- and how he prayed to the Father, "if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; but not my will, but thy will be done." I pointed to the cross here over the altar. I told him about the crucifixion and the resurrection.
I don't know where Jack is today, whether he is alive or dead. I don't know what he decided to do. He was not suicidal, but he was facing very real danger. Jack may be alive today if he made the right decision. What I do know for sure is that wherever Jack is, Christ is with him.
Jesus said, "Do not lose heart!"
Pray and pray and pray and pray!
"Do not lose heart!"
Excerpts from a sermon preached at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee on August 20, 2000.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Jodie Felton, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. Click on the title above for information about how to order. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A, which begins in December.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
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StoryShare, October 17, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
