Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday July 27, 2007

I am now old enough to have experienced and observed that pain is not always the precursor of failure, but is often a preparation for outstanding success.

Today (Wednesday) I read again the story of a young struggling preacher who in 1938 assumed his world to be eternally empty due to the rejection by the girl he then was madly in love with and desired her hand (along with the rest of her) in marriage. She, after conferring with her father reached the decision to marry another with more promise. The now old and famous man concerning this disappointment in his life said:

"That woeful night in the spring of 1938 when she called it quits between us was Paradise Lost for me. In my despondency, I looked up Dr. Minder, I wept out my misery to his understanding ears."

The girls name was Emily and she did in fact marry a man who was reasonably successful. And who was the poor preacher of whom not much was expected? Billy Graham.

In God's time Billy and Ruth married and as far as I know Ruth's only flaw was her Presbyterian background, the same malady that afflicted Ara Parsigian.

We all must learn and learn again that the events that bring the tears to our eye and the ache to our heart, are temporary and will pass soon enough and God will waltz His better for us through the door of opportunity. The key is to get on with living.

Robert Frost wrote that the greatest thing he had learned about life can be summed up in three words:

"It goes on."

So it does and we need to accept that the baggage prepared for one person, career choice, or place to live, need not be carried around our neck to the next relationship, career or place.

I know of one thing scarier than the sound of a prison door slamming shut behind you and you know that door will not open for five years, or perhaps never in this life. The thing more frightening is the door opening to welcome you into a world of rejection, ridicule and often brutality far worse than any thing you may have witnessed inside. Yet, those who have received the biblical instruction and pay heed to it know that the baggage from the outside must be laid aside during the stay at the Iron Bar Hotel. And most certainly the inside baggage needs be left at the exit of the Big Cage and get on with life as it is on a particular day. Life may be better some other place, with some other person, but the facts are simple; life can only be lived where you are with what you have and whom you are with, so bloom where you are planted through the power of Christ.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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