Stairwell

 

My wife was in Memorial hospital for 13 days and I spent most of the time right there with her.  But I missed out on my morning bicycle riding.  I have weak knees, so I ride a bicycle most mornings to keep my “quads” in shape.  If my muscles are strong, my joints are strong, and I have a good pain-free day.  So at the hospital I decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Kathy’s room was on the sixth floor, so you do the math.  The first couple of days were hard, but I got stronger as time went on.  When I got to the sixth floor, I paused in the stairwell to catch my breath before I opened the door.  I didn’t want an overzealous nurse to see me gasping and have her jump into action with a defibrillator.  Hey, have you ever been surprised in life by a situation that turned out not to be what you thought it was?  Have you ever misjudged someone?  Have you ever questioned someone’s motives incorrectly?  I have.  If I am not careful, I may come to a hasty conclusion.  Often, I don’t know all of the facts; I just catch a snapshot.  Jesus reminded us in John 7:24, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”  God knows everything and God is the ONLY one who can judge righteously.  So when you see something unusual, ask yourself, “Did I really see what I think I saw?”  Maybe you did, and maybe you didn’t.  But pause before you grab a defibrillator and spring into action.

Pants on Fire

 

While in college and newly married, I worked at Mueller iron foundry on third shift.  The work was hot, dirty, and hard but paid well.  I thought, “If I’m going to trade eight hours of my life a day for money, I might as well get as much as I can for it.”  So I did.  I worked many positions while at Mueller, and one of them was pouring iron making fire hydrants.  I had safety glasses, steel-toed shoes, and rubber spats to keep hot sand off of my shoes.  I wore leather gloves and had a face-shield to minimize the heat on my face.  A hard-hat protected the top of my head.  I wore two pair of jeans and two long-sleeved shirts to protect my body from the heat as I poured the iron.  Iron melts at about 2750°F, and we poured the iron at about 2800°F.  Water splashing on your jeans is one thing, but iron splashing on your jeans is quite another thing.  After an eight-hour shift, my pants went into the washer and dryer, and the little burn holes below my knees turned into little fuzzy holes ready to be kindled.  One day an old man working behind me started swatting at the back of my legs.  I turned around in surprise and Milton said, “Whitely, you’re on fire!”  A splash of iron had ignited my frayed jeans and the second pair underneath kept me from feeling the outer pair on fire!  Fortunately, Milton put me out.  Hey, often in life we may be unaware of danger behind us.  Others can see our predicament, but we can’t.  Paul said in Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”  If we see a brother in danger, our responsibility is to help him … in the spirit of meekness.  We should not lecture, we should be kind, because tomorrow it may be us who need help in an area that we do not see.  Don’t preach at a brother; be helpful to a brother.  Put his fire out and he will help you put your fire out.

A Park in Suceava

 

 

It was 1993 and we had a group of about twenty Americans distributing New Testaments in the northeast corner of Romania. We were staying with pastor Viorel Candreanu in the little village of Impostesţi, driving into the city of Suceava each day.  We liked to go to apartment complexes called blocks, because they had lots of people in a small area.  Kathy and I walked to a playground in the center of a few five story apartments and began to pass out New Testaments.  Kathy gave a New Testament to a lady who was pushing her little child on a swing set.  The lady took the book and thumbed through its pages.  When she realized that it was a Bible, she became excited.  With tears in her eyes, she hugged Kathy over and over again, chattering in Romanian, which Kathy did not understand.  The lady walked her back to our van with us and explained her excitement to our interpreter, Pavel Clipa.  She had lost her job the day before and was just at that moment worrying about what she was going to do, when Kathy offered her a New Testament.  She was so blessed, and assured us that she would read every word of her precious New Testament.  I explained to her that it was no accident that we were there in her city, on that day, at that specific apartment complex handing out Bibles.  I told her that God loved her and wanted her to have a copy of His Word.  And she did!  Solomon said in Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.”  God cares for unemployed mothers in Romania and God cares for you.  Read His Words.  They will encourage your heart and give you direction for the day.