Patience is a Virtue

 

[1]

Proverbs 19:11 Contemporary English Version

¹¹ It's wise to be patient
and show what you are like
    by forgiving others.

 

In 2003 we had rented a car in Nairobi, Kenya, then headed south towards a meeting we had in Arusha, Tanzania. When we got to the Kenya-Tanzania border, we passed through the Kenya border with no problem. At the Tanzania customs, the official looked over our documents very carefully. Then he demanded to see my log book. I explained that they don’t require nor give log books for car rentals.

“No! You have to return to car rental and get a log book. You cannot enter Tanzania without a log book.” He was adamant.

I knew he was pushing me to give him a bribe. I don’t believe in bribing people. I could feel the ire coloring my face. My nature wanted me to shout at him and threaten him that I would report him. I was between a rock and a hard place. I didn’t know how much to bribe him with, even if I were willing to do so. I knew what the car rental place would say—they don’t supply log books. Besides it was 155 km (about 100 miles) and three hours’ drive one way back to Nairobi. After talking with the official for a while, just to be friendly, he indicated that I still needed the logbook. Finally, I walked out of the office and sat down in my car.

I grew up in Africa and knew a little of the African way. So, Sylvia and I sat there for well over a half-an-hour. We chatted about our predicament with each other. We prayed silently but displayed only patience—what else could we do?

Eventually, the official came out to our car. “Ï have my aunt here, and she needs a ride to Arusha. Can you take her there?” S well-dressed middle-aged woman with several packages stood behind him.

“Sure,” I said. “We’ll be happy to take her.” I got out and put her things in with ours and made room for her in the back seat of the car. He gave us the correct documents and sent us on our way.

Our passenger spoke excellent English and told us all about the area we were driving through. She was familiar with Tanzania Adventist College (Now Arusha University). She promised that if we dropped her at her place, she would send someone with us to guide us to TAC. He turned out to be a good guide. Without him, we would have had a terrible time finding the place. We paid his bus fare back into town, and he was happy with that.

My red hair, what hadn’t fallen out, indicated natural impatience within me. Reluctant patience paid off, however, benefitted us, and saved us more time than we spent waiting.

Thank You, Lord, for a lesson in patience and for resolving the predicament. Thank You for doing exactly that over and over again with us.

 

 

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[1] https://cdn.britannica.com/34/153434-050-863E8023/Mount-Kilimanjaro-Tanzania.jpg

Damocle's Sword

 

 

[1]

 

Revelation 22:10-12 (King James Version)

 ¹⁰And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

 ¹¹He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

 ¹²And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

 

It started early in life. We were discussing the closing of probation in a class in my parochial primary school. I had already discovered the inevitability of sin in my life. Time and time again I had had to seek forgiveness for something I had done. I began to understand how basically evil I was, even though I was not yet ten years old. This doctrine that God would draw a line across time after which the solemn declaration would be pronounced, petrified me:

The threat of this proclamation hung over my head like Damocles’ sword. It struck fear into my young breast that haunted me. My teacher explained that if there was a sin in my life that was unforgiven, it could no longer be forgiven. The fires of hell were awaiting me.

Timidly I raised my hand and asked a question that haunted me. Since, my entire life had been a sequence of sins for which I had to ask forgiveness, not only of God but also some mortal soul I had wronged. “What if I’m on my way to ask forgiveness and the close of probation is declared? Will it be too late?”

My teacher, who loved us kids, realized the distress I found myself in. But I’m not sure that she had encountered that question. Her answer left a lot of uncertainty in my mind: “I’m sure that if God sees you’re actually going to confess a sin that He will understand.” But her answer lacked conviction.

To her the guardian angels God had assigned to each one of us carried a black book and continually wrote down every evil thought or action we might have. That picture of my guardian angel had been burned into my young mind, too. The angel might indeed be guarding me from harm, although he never stopped me from getting hurt, possibly because he was too busy writing down the continuous notes about my sins.

My life span had to double before I would begin to put Christ’s yielding His life for me together with His love for purity. Christ loved me and that is why His grace took care of my evil nature. Probation might indeed close, but God’s love and grace would never end.

Thank You, Jesus, for Your infinite and eternal love. Help me to show others this great love.

 

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[1] https://media.bizj.us/view/img/9823622/howtodamocles*1200xx2184-1230-0-103.jpg

To Tithe or not to Tithe

[1]

 

Isaiah 25:1 King James Version

25 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

 

Alan[2] phoned me the other day and told me he had reached a low spot in his finances. “I have reached the end of my finances. I owe $100 tithe. If I pay the tithe, I will have nothing to live on for the next two weeks. What shall I do?” He was experiencing a major crisis of faith as well as finances. He has been paying tithe for the better part of a year, and all has gone well. Now he was completely at the end of his rope.

Immediately I thought, “Been there—done that!” I didn’t say that of course. But my life flashed before me in an instant. I remembered our second year as missionaries in Tanzania, 1968. The mission organization had miscalculated my salary the during 1967 and wrote me that they were going to have to take it out of this year’s salary. “We know you will need some money to live on, so we will send you $20 a month so you have some cash.” Even in Africa, that was a mere slap in the face. Yet God came through beautifully.

Years later, at Helderberg College in South Africa, the organization had forgotten to take out our U. S. Social Security tax for two years. It was calculated on what our salary would have been in the States. In Africa our salary was roughly a quarter of that. So when they took out the equivalent of 3 years SS tax, it left us very little to live on. Besides that, the country was experiencing double digit inflation, and we received no cost-of-living adjustments. But, true to God’s promises, we came through debt free. Then God organized, against our desires, for us to transfer to the States. That definitely turned out to be the best move for us at the time.

In the States we have been essentially a one salary family. Throughout our whole married life—58 years in June, we have tithed our income. Most of the time we have tithed after taxes. I have reasoned that my taxes go to finance various wars including Afghanistan and Iraq, support for unwed mothers, and welfare for people who choose not to work; so, I could not, with a clear conscience, count that as “increase”.[3] Even in the States I have seen our bank balance come down to less than $10. God has always stepped in—sometimes at the very last minute—to help us.

Now that we are retired, we are living very well. When I get concerned about what will happen to us if runaway inflation destroys our savings, I remind myself that God has never let us go hungry or without a home to live in. He will see us through.

I reminded Alan that in Malachi 3:10 God has urged us to “Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things.”[4] If he chose not to tithe, God would understand, but if he chose to pay his tithe and trust God, he would experience a great thrill as God rewards his faith. This is the only point in our Christian experience where God urges us to test him!

Lord, thank You for challenging us to test You. And thank You for coming through time and again for us, often in the nick of time.

 

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[1] https://thechurchadmin.com/do-church-members-have-to-tithe/

[2]  I have changed the name and circumstances, but the experience is very real and happened within the week of this writing.

[3] Deuteronomy 14:22 (KJV) Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.

 [4]  Today’s English Version (1982)