Christian Living

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Larry Lilly’s Letter Tuesday December 11, 2007

That I suffer from a morose tendency is evident in my writing and in my speaking. Years ago a woman called the radio station where I was talking about several tragedies in the community and said to me; “Larry, why are you so discouraged?” I was discouraged, yet in my young mind I thought I was covering this well. Experienced people can and do pick up a note of discouragement and thankfully many pray for the discouraged person, and triple thankfully, some, a special few, confront the moribund man or woman and offer something to help. Such was that day, it changed my life. I discovered that you do not need to fake it til you make, but that honesty will draw those who can touch a secret part of you and accept you as you are until the joyful you returns from wallowing in what John Bunyan called the “slough of despond” in his immortal The Pilgrims Progress.

Most inspirational writers know the truth that all humans at some point need a little encouragement and we live to be the catalyst of such wonder. The wise King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 25:11:

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

Just the right word at the right time can change a person’s day, even their life. Words contain the power of life or death depending how they are used. Harsh, cutting words have been the straw that broke many a person’s heart and pushed them over the edge. As I write these lines several innocent young people lie cold in death and even more lie near the edge of life and death in hospitals. Their killer was consumed with hatred for Christians, for who knows the reason, but they did involve some form of rejection, and just perhaps harsh, searing words were spoken at the initiation of the occasion of the rejection.

Matthew Murray was as are the mass of humanity searching for happiness. In the pain of his twisted mind and emotions he imagined he could find happiness in life by assuming the prerogative of God and taking human life. He is a graphic illustration of Helen Keller’s statement on the wrong idea of true happiness. Ms. Keller wrote:

“Many persons have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”

Those who suffer inner pain due to some form of rejection tend to withdraw into a hermit’s existence, their circle of people who matter is ever shrinking and every trace of their life becomes self-centered, and self is too small a place for the human soul.

The escape from this slow death is to catch a vision of the greatness of life and the important part we each play in the grand drama of life. I expect historians will list our era as the Age of Emptiness. Only when our generation breaks out of the prison of egocentricity and into the pursuing the quest of living for Christ, the greatest person and the grandest cause can we again walk free, and people shall live free from fear of holocaust on a small or horribly large scale.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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