False Hope.

 

In the early 1980s I was approached after church by an elderly church member affectionately named Granny. She asked if I knew her grand-daughter who was now overseas but had been working as a nurse in the same hospital as me. Yes, I did know her, quite well, in fact, as we had worked together quite a number of times over an extended period of time. Granny explained that her grand-daughter was working overseas at a mission hospital but had caused quite a deal of disruption by insisting that things be done her way.

 

Granny knew that although I had left nursing, I was, at that time, running a counselling practice at the same hospital. And so she asked if I could write to her grand-daughter as a concerned friend and encourage her to change her approach. I agreed and said that I would send an immediate telegram with an appropriate Bible reference and follow it with a lengthy letter of explanation.

 

So I duly sent the telegram which read: AMOS 3:1-3 LETTER FOLLOWING. And I did follow it with a letter of explanation.

Amos 3:1-3 –says: Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, (2) You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. (3) Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

 

Unfortunately the telegraph operator left off the first three letters of the name of the Bible book Amos. So the telegram that she received read, S 3:1-3 LETTER FOLLOWING.

Now the grand-daughter was an intelligent girl and figured out that it was a Bible reference in the message and to expect a letter from me in the mail. But what book of the Bible starts with S? It couldn’t be Psalms as that starts with a letter P. It couldn’t be Samuel as that starts with a 1 or 2.  It could only be the Solomon’s Song of Songs.

 

Embarrassingly, Song of Songs 3:1-3 reads: By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. (2) I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. (3) The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

 

And this was a message from Lionel and it said that a letter was following.

 

Well, the grand-daughter was sufficiently moved by this, and so she wrote me a very passionate love letter responding to her perception of what I had said. Our letters crossed in the mail and it was over a week later that I received another letter in which she profusely apologised for the misunderstanding.

 

Now you want me to tell you that we got married and lived happily ever after – well, no, we simply continued to love each other as a sister and brother in Christ. And so apologies were accepted and to her credit she took my counsel and ceased her inappropriate behaviour.

So there is such a thing as dashed hope.

 

--- Lionel Hartley

 Devil-foiled Youth Ministry.

Proverbs 16:9 (TLV) "Best Laid Plans Often Go Awry".

When I was a teenager in the Anglican Church the priest approached me and another young person to join with him as he set up the church hall as a youth drop-in centre with youth activities on a Sunday afternoon. He booked the hall and purchased a large amount of equipment - table tennis tables, card tables, dartboards, board games and all the paraphernalia that went with them and gave me a set of keys to the hall. He then worked on an extensive advertising campaign within the church, the local schools and in the general community. For a couple of months, every Sunday afternoon I would unlock the hall and turn on the hot water urn for refreshments. Shortly thereafter the priest would join us in the hall, say a prayer with us and go out into the streets surrounding the church to round up young people to attend. Faithfully the other young fellow and I would boringly fill the time playing table tennis or darts, activities that neither of us bookworms particularly enjoyed. No one else ever came and eventually the idea was abandoned and the equipment donated to the church school.

-- Lionel Hartley

Do you have a best friend?

A certain person recently confessed to me that there was a time when she absolutely hated me. A recent hug initiated by her told me that this is no longer the case. When my wife Rosemary and I were courting, this lady, Lorraine, had been Rosemary's best friend for the previous decade or so, and in Lorraine's mind, I was stealing her best friend. We solved that by introducing her to a friend of mine and they got married a week after us. Just before Christmas we spent several days with them as their guests at a seaside resort. After over 50 years Lorraine still refers to Rosemary as her best friend.

Do you have a best friend? Someone who is clearly closer to you than anyone else? The book of Hebrews makes the argument that Jesus is that part of the Godhead who has the closest relationship with humans. He created our universe. He became one of us. He redeemed us. One of His current rôles is pleading on our behalf against the condemnation of our sins. He truly identifies with us. 

Welcome Him as your best friend today.

-- Lionel Hartley