Uncle John Had Never Gotten Over It

Meditations for Ragamuffins

November 21, 2023

Uncle John Had Never Gotten Over It

A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22 (NRSV)

When I was in seminary, one of my classmates was a very cheerful, upbeat woman. She had an effervescent faith and was quite convinced the sufficiency of God’s grace would see her through every day. She drove one of our professors crazy. He ridiculed her and called her ‘Pollyanna.” He was convinced she was not grounded in reality because he knew life was difficult and full of potholes.

Had he taken the time to get to know her, he would have found that she had experienced more than her share of difficulties, even tragic events; she was well acquainted with the potholes in life. However, she chose to respond to life differently than our professor. Her response to life reminded me of a story Garrison Keillor tells in one of his books. Garrison’s extended family gathered for a Thanksgiving feast. The hostess called on his Uncle John to pray. Garrison remembered that “Everybody in the family knew that Uncle John couldn't pray without talking about the cross and crying. And if there is one thing that makes people nervous, it's listening to a grown man cry. Sure enough, Uncle John prayed, talked about the cross, and cried. Meanwhile, the rest of us shifted nervously from one foot to the other and longed for the prayer to end. All of us knew that Jesus died on the cross for us, but Uncle John had never gotten over it."

Neither had my friend gotten over it. My friend remembered well what Christ had done for her, and this inspired her to always, even in the most difficult of times, allow the life of Jesus to be made visible in her mortal flesh.

My Takeaway: I think it was Saint Teresa of Avila who prayed, “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, spare us, O Lord.” It is good to remember Teresa’s prayer because a good-humored Christian will win more souls for Christ than the best, and most zealous, but ill-humored evangelist. 

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.