The Parson's Page
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Sermons
  • C David Hess
    • A Raging Moderate
  • About

On "Being Patient"

5/24/1997

 
Perhaps one of the most difficult admonitions of scripture to follow is Paul's admonition to be "patient in tribulation" (Romans 12:12). Times of tribulation are when we want immediate relief. Being told to be patient is the last thing we want to hear. Recently a psychologist pointed out to me a fact which had previously escaped my attention. The word "patience" comes from the Latin word for suffering. Gandhi pointed to the same truth when he said, "...patience is self-suffering." It is no accident that we call those in our hospital "patients." To be a patient is to suffer. A large part of a patient's suffering is having to be patient and wait for health to be restored. Sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes it is easy to despair of healing ever coming.

Of course, Paul knew this. Patience never comes easily for activists, and Paul was one of the world's great activists. We first see him actively persecuting Christians. He thought he was serving God. This changed when he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. The persecutor of the Christians became one of them. Paul, the activist, wanted to serve God actively as a Christian, but the church would not allow it at that time. They were suspicious of him because of his past actions. He went off to Arabia and faded from view for at least ten years. Then Barnabus came and invited him to join him on a missionary journey. We know the rest of the story.

Those years of being relegated to the sidelines, of patient waiting, must have been hard on Paul the activist. I am sure his suffering was great, but I doubt he was really inactive. I assume those years were years of thought and reflection during which he incorporated his old faith with his new. It was those years of patient waiting which enabled him to become the great missionary he became and to write more of what we now call "scripture" than any other person. Among the words he wrote are these: "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces patience, and patience produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us..." (Romans 5:3-5).

©1997 C. David Hess

Beware of Life's Falls

5/17/1997

 
Picture
Picture
I remember a horrific story I heard on the news a few years ago. A member of a sky diving club decided to take a video camera with him and film the club's jump. On the plane before the jump he took care to see that his video equipment was all ready. After all, it would be a shame to make the jump without fresh batteries and a blank tape in the camera. When the plane reached the proper altitude the sky divers jumped, and the one with the camera started filming their descent. There was only one problem. He had taken care to get his video equipment ready, but he had forgotten to put his parachute on. When he reached to pull his ripcord, it wasn't there. He fell to his death.

I have often thought of that man and tried to imagine what he felt during his fatal fall. No doubt there was terror, but I imagine he also had thoughts of self recrimination--"you stupid idiot." I am sure he wished he could have replayed the last few minutes, but there was no way to get back in the plane and do it over again. It was too late. It was an act of simple forgetfulness, but it had drastic consequences.

Such events are not as rare as one would think. Lives are full of similar events--simple acts of carelessness with drastic consequences. Sometimes they are not acts of forgetfulness but intentional actions of choice. A man falls to temptation and sleeps with a woman other than his wife, and it leads to the breakup of his marriage and the alienation of his children. A teenager drinks and drives and is involved in an accident which kills his best friend. There is no way the actions can be taken back no matter how much one would wish. The consequences sometimes are more severe than one would have ever imagined while engaging in the misdeed.

It does us good to remember that life is full of danger of all types--including moral danger. Actions have consequences. People can be hurt and lives destroyed even when there is no intention of doing so.

The police sergeant on the old TV show, "Hill Street Blues," put it well: "Be careful out there."

Peter, the apostle, was even more pointed: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour."


©1997 C. David Hess

Rosie O'Donnell, Scope Mouthwash, and the Cross  

5/10/1997

 
Scope, the mouthwash company, tried to get a little advertising at talk show host, Rosie O'Donnell's expense; now they wish they hadn't. It all began when Scope named Rosie the "least kissable" TV talk show host. Rosie responded by plugging Scope's competitor, Listerine, and declaring that Scope tastes "like scum." Guests which came on Rosie's show pointedly kissed her. Listerine took full advantage of the situation and offered to give $1,000 to one of Rosie's favorite charities for every kiss she received on her show. Celebrities, including the full cast of one Broadway show, lined up to kiss Rosie. Listerine paid out over a half million dollars to make good on their promise. It was money well spent. It was an advertising bonanza for Listerine. Scope finally cried "uncle" and apologized to Rosie, but the damage was done. Their advertising strategy had backfired big time.

Something like that happened almost two thousand years ago. Satan and the forces of evil conspired to kill the holy, Son of God, but their plan backfired really, really big time. What they had intended for evil, God used for good (we even call the Friday on which Christ was killed "good"). The cross was not the defeat of God as intended, but the instrument through which He saved us. As George Bernard Shaw wrote, "We crucified him on a stick, but we have always had a curious feeling that He somehow managed to get hold of the right end of it."

©1997 C. David Hess

    Parsonally Speaking

    Categories

    All
    Current Events/Hot Issues
    Other Articles
    Personal Confessions
    The Bible & Christianity
    The Church
    The Darker Side
    The Lighter Side
    The Movies

    Archives

    September 2014
    October 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    April 2011
    December 2010
    June 2010
    April 2010
    December 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    September 2008
    June 2008
    March 2008
    February 2008
    November 2007
    October 2007
    September 2007
    May 2007
    March 2007
    January 2007
    December 2006
    September 2006
    June 2006
    May 2006
    March 2006
    February 2006
    January 2006
    December 2005
    September 2005
    April 2005
    March 2005
    November 2004
    June 2004
    May 2004
    April 2004
    March 2004
    December 2003
    October 2003
    September 2003
    May 2003
    March 2003
    January 2003
    September 2002
    August 2002
    April 2002
    October 2001
    September 2001
    July 2001
    March 2001
    December 2000
    November 2000
    September 2000
    August 2000
    May 2000
    March 2000
    January 2000
    November 1999
    April 1999
    March 1999
    December 1998
    September 1998
    August 1998
    May 1998
    April 1998
    March 1998
    February 1998
    January 1998
    December 1997
    August 1997
    June 1997
    May 1997
    April 1997
    January 1997
    December 1996
    November 1996
    October 1996
    September 1996
    August 1996
    July 1996
    June 1996
    May 1996
    April 1996
    March 1996
    February 1996
    January 1996
    December 1995
    November 1995
    August 1995
    April 1995
    January 1994
    February 1993
    January 1993


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.