Some years ago, when my girls were still quite young, I was working in a wonderful secretarial position with a Christian boss. I had returned to work after the birth of my last daughter to help pay the bills.
It was during this time that I was going through great Spiritual growth, learning much from my discussions with my boss during worktime, and I’d even joined his church. The children and I went to his home for meals often as I enjoyed being with him and his wife as much as possible. Hew was like a second father to me and I felt like a sponge, soaking in everything he could teach me about our wonderful Lord and Saviour.
The girls and I were still attending our church too, going there in the mornings and Hew’s church in the evenings, and it was during this same period of time that I became friendly with a lady named Betty from my own church and who had been placed as my ‘elder’.
One Sunday morning Betty took ill during the church service and was rushed to hospital. I was sitting at the back of the church with the children and remember seeing her head fall back and her eyes rolling up. It wasn’t a pleasant sight and I wondered at first what on earth she was doing? It didn’t occur to me at first that she was unwell and it later appeared she had had a stroke. Betty returned home around ten days later in good health but rather tired.
After Betty’s return home, and while I was at work, for several days the words ‘Be Still and Know that I am God’ kept rolling around in my head, plus the words ‘ring Betty’. I dismissed it as fanciful thinking at first but it lasted for days and eventually started to drive me crazy. I couldn’t shake the words from my head.
Finally, shaking, I gave in to it and decided to give Betty a ring and see how she was. I wasn’t sure how I was going to approach the subject of this message in my head but knew I had to tell her. I plucked up the courage after about five minutes of conversation and told her that I had to say something to her, but didn’t know if it was relevant to her. I quoted the verse and stopped.
She was silent at the other end and I wasn’t sure if she was still there. I waited somewhat nervously. Then she spoke. ‘It’s funny’, she said, ‘but they were teaching on Psalm 46:10 the Friday night at the elder’s meeting before the Sunday I took ill. I dismissed it as not being for me. While I was in hospital they did lots of tests but they could find nothing wrong. They let me come back home but I was still very tired and needing rest. I started to spend time with the Lord and reading His Word. You are right; it’s what I needed to hear.’
I said my goodbyes to her, my heart gladdened because I’d listened and obeyed. But boy was I shaking!
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