Laughter to save the situation.

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Proverbs 17:22.

 

After having just become engaged to be married, my fiancée and I were out for a walk along a riverbank. As we walked hand-in-hand, I had a sudden sinking feeling, as the riverbank gave way underneath me and I slowly slid down the muddy embankment.

 

Just as I was thinking, 'Thank goodness I haven't got wet', I blurted a bible verse out of my mouth. I didn't remember the reference but I clearly remembered having memorised the words. Psalms 69:1 and 2, "… the waters have come up to my neck, I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters."

 

I looked up at my fiancée who, fortunately, had let go of my hand, and could see that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. As it was imperative that one of us save the situation, although my 3-piece suit was ruined and I had a muddy climb ahead of me to get out of the water, I began to laugh. This eased the tension considerably and we now look back at that episode with a smile.

 

King David wrote this Psalm during a very difficult time in his life, far more difficult than me sinking into the mud.

 

--- Lionel Hartley

 

Given New Life.

 

When we owned the old general store in Red Range, NSW, as part of the heritage restoration I rebuilt the old blacksmith's shop alongside the building. Elderly neighbours had told me that the original forge was made from an old disk ploughshare and so I set about reconstructing it.

 

Fortuitously, the long-since abandoned rubbish tip on the village common provided lots of scrap iron, including a large circular disk ploughshare and a length of railway iron from which to make an anvil. I used the newly-made forge to reconstruct some hand-made tools to go with it.

I would put a rusty, cold, dull piece of iron into the fire, and, after awhile, take out that identical piece of iron out of the fire, but now it was bright and glowing and I could give it a new life and fashion it into something useful.

 

Philippians 3:20-21 says, "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

 

When we die our bodies are consigned to the grave like junk on a rubbish tip, dead, lifeless and valueless. But the resurrection assures us that, in the fullness of time, the master Blacksmith will convert this lifeless trash into something bright and glowing and give it a new life.

 

(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 KJV)  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15) For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18) Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

 

n      Lionel Hartley

 The Value of a Smile.

About 6 decades ago, as a young man, I was walking along an omnibus island in Cathedral Square in Christchurch, New Zealand. I don't know that they have them there any more, but an omnibus island was a small narrow strip of pavement that 'busses could stop, clear of other traffic, for collecting or alighting passengers. 

This day I walked past an elderly lady who moved so gloomily, I immediately felt compassion on her. As she caught my eye I gave her the broadest smile that I could muster. 

I had hardly walked more than a few paces away from her when she turned and caught up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. She thanked me for the smile, saying that it was the very gift that she needed to brighten her day. 

She went on to explain that she had been contemplating ending her life and had decided that no-one cared even enough to smile at her. She asked me for a hug and as I gave her one she assured me that she had changed her mind about stepping under the next 'bus that came along.

-- Lionel Hartley

 The Use of Humour.

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Proverbs 17:22.

I was working as charge nurse on a surgical ward at a country public hospital and a certain patient was particularly distressed. He was due to have surgery for prolapsed haemorrhoids and the patient in the neighbouring bed had told him fictional horror tales of pain and trauma. I tried to reassure the patient that anaesthetics would minimise pain and we had excellent surgeons and skilled nursing staff, but it did not abate his anxiety.

In the mid morning I was escorting his assigned surgeon around the ward as he met with each patient. I had taken the time to advise the surgeon in advance of this particular patient's concerns. When he met the patient, he introduced himself like this: "Hi. I'm Dr Blake. I'm the resident dental surgeon. I'll be doing your haemorrhoidectomy this afternoon." The blank stare from the patient was quickly replaced with laughter when he saw that the surgeon was only joking.

As they laughed together the surgeon explained that he was in fact a very experienced and skilled proctologist and the patient had nothing to be concerned about. Result: Anxiety relieved.

-- Lionel Hartley

 I am a Walnut.

During my second year at high school, we were required as a whole class to attend the annual school dance. As it was not permissible for me to be absent, I decide to make the most of it and was prepared with some books to read. As I sat on the sidelines reading, one of the faculty came up and said, "Come on social sideliners, you wallflowers, get moving."

One wit among our group said, "Forget about Hartley here, he's not a wallflower, he's a walnut."

A little while later I capitalized on this appellative, when a girl came up to me and asked if I would like to put her name on my card for a dance. Without asking her name, I explained that I didn't have a card, as I was a walnut, not a wallflower, being more interested in feeding my brain than my heart. After which I contentedly resumed my reading.

God created us who we are, so we could make known who He is. Our identity is found in Him for the purpose of making known His identity.

--Lionel Hartley 

 I am someone else.

I was I was standing in shop looking at items on display. A woman came up behind me and began to speak to me as if she knew me.

When I turned around and she saw my face, she stopped, looked astonished, and said, "Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

I said, "Yes, Ma'am. You are right. I am someone else."

 

---Lionel Hartley

 The job isn't big enough.

As a keen young man of promise I progressed rapidly in a certain manufacturing company from an after-school delivery boy with a weekly pay packet of coins and one solitary banknote to the manager of a busy warehouse with staff under my care and a $17,000-a-year executives’ salary (very generous in those days) with equally generous 'fringe benefits' including two tailor-made suits a year and twice-weekly dining vouchers.

In order to commit to a life of service to others, I chose to leave all of this to train as a community health nurse with the prospect of less than $5,000-a-year after graduation.

The company's Managing Director argued long for me to stay, offering me an increase in my annual salary to $20,000 and he dangled the carrot of extra benefits including free golf-club membership and less hour’s work.

I turned it all down, explaining that the money was certainly great enough, the fiscal benefits were generous enough, the prestige was big enough, the social-connections were grand enough, the extra leisure time was inviting enough, the material rewards were large enough, but the job itself was too small.

-- Lionel Hartley