A few years ago, the Rev. Will B. Dunn battled a bruised bursa in his right hip after he fell on some ice while walking to get his morning newspaper. (He believes in preaching with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, so to speak.)
Will’s driveway is cement and has an upward incline to it as you walk toward his mailbox. One day in November (as I said, a few years ago) some ice came during the night, and Will couldn’t wait till it melted. He had to have his newspaper to read about world events in order to see if the Rev. John Hagee was on the right track as to how end-time events might shape up.
So, Will put on a coat and trekked to his mailbox. He has a little holder underneath the mailbox where his paper person puts the newspaper. Will made it to the box, but on the way back, his leather-bottomed shoes failed him. Whoop-sy! He fell backwards and twisted as he went down. He whopped onto his right hip. Ker-splat!
He lay sprawled flat on his back for a few minutes. During that time, he thought about “predestination” and wondered whether his falling was “meant to be.” He thought about his wife, who died from cancer a few winters ago, and wondered why that was “in God’s will.”
He then thought, “Lord, why did you let me fall?”
He quickly repented and prayed silently, “I’m sorry, Lord. I didn’t mean to blame you. I should have waited till the sun melted the ice.”
Will felt a bit better after he repented of blaming the Lord. But his hip was hurting “like the devil,” as some of his Bypass Baptist church members might say. They like to blame most everything on the devil, though Pastor Will B. knows they bring lots of stuff on themselves.
“The devil don’t have to work all that hard,” Will B. once said from his Bypass Baptist pulpit. “Most of y’all bring a heap of hardships on yourselves.”
As Will lay on his cold driveway, reflecting on why he was lying there, those words he delivered to his flock came back to bite him and “hit home.”
“I’m a-laying like a turtle on its back,” Will thought. “I better get up from here.”
The words Jesus said to the paralytic came to Will’s mind: “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.” And Will thought of these words in an old chorus his church used to sing: “We’ve got the power in the name of Jesus.”
Will longed for that power. He wanted to touch his own hip and have it become well. Wouldn’t that be some more kind of testimony to give at the church-house?
Will laid his hand on his hip and prayed out loud. Nothing happened. Then he thought, “I don’t want one of my members riding by and seeing me in a discombobulated condition. I need to present an ‘I have it all together’ image before my people.”
Then he wondered just how much human pride was in that thought. And he mused about the pride behind his idea of wanting instant healing. In his mind, he saw himself standing before his congregation, bragging about his healing, about how he laid hands on himself and got healed without anybody having to help him. He saw himself elevated in the eyes of his congregation. No longer would they question his authority. No more would his members be thinking, “Maybe we need a new pastor.”
Will then thought about this concept found in the book of James: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives.”
“Uh-oh,” Will said to himself.
He realized his thoughts were playing ping-pong in his head, so he decided he’d done enough thinking while lying on his backside. He managed to struggle to his feet, and, holding his newspaper like something he paid a price to get, he limped to his front steps, hobbled up them, and made it through his front door.
Soon, Will sat, hurting, in his easy chair. He prayed a blessing over two pieces of toast and a small glass of orange juice and he gazed at a nearby photo of his deceased wife, Nancy. A tear ran down his cheek as he prayed softly but out loud, “Lord, I trust you in all things and ‘lean not to my own understanding.’ In all my ways I acknowledge you and ask you to direct my paths . . . in Jesus’ name, amen.”
(*The Rev. Will B. Done is a character in "Kudzu," a comic strip that was discontinued after its author/artist Doug Marlette died in a car accident in 2007. I enjoyed Marlette's work and wrote this fictional story based on his created character "the Rev. Will B. Done.")
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