Encouragement

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday October 7, 2005

Years ago I read a little piece of advice by T.S. Eliot that has stood me well when I applied the wisdom of it. On occasion I have failed to head the advice and seemed and felt smaller for the lapse.

The world is filled with men and women who have never heard or read the advice, advice more than hinted at in the very word of God and testified to by accomplished champions in every field.

Mr. Eliot in an address to students said:

"Whatever you do…don't whimper, but take the consequences."

One of the glories of the suffering of Christ is that in it all He did not whimper. Nor did Paul or Peter. To begin to whimper is to give Satan the victory and to lose your self respect when you regain your balanced understanding of life.

The classic case of whimpering is the old one about the man who murdered his father and mother and asked the judge for mercy because he was an orphan.

Most of the pain of our life, and mind you there are exceptions, is due to some action, foolish or even reckless and the when we sit down to the plate of consequences as Robert Louis Stevenson called them, we don’t have a palate for the fare.

Most people have respect for the person who can keep on going in spite of self inflicted consequences and most of us get a little tired of hearing the whiners. One man carries a wedge of cheese so that when the whimpering and whining starts they can have a little wine and cheese celebration.

To whimper is of course human and may very well be a national pass time, even or especially among Christians. Adam started the trend when he whimpered about the woman God gave to him. We have kept up the practice and have become adepts.

It is tough to keep on going when life comes with its bill, but come it will. Paul talked about this when reaffirmed the ancient truth, that we do reap what we sow. When this happens and it will, we must take our pain to the Lord and ask for the courage to bear up under the harvest and began sowing new or positive seed. On more than one occasion I have prayed for crop failure. Thankfully God often permits a limited crop, else we all would die young.

When we trust the Lord Jesus and refuse to become president of National Legion of Whimpers, we give others hope and testify that God’s grace is sufficient to carry us through to victory in spite the current harvest of the whirlwind coming home to us.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit.

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