By Royce Clay
One cold rainy night while I was waiting at a bus
stop, an elderly woman got off a bus and walked slowly over to where
I stood.
"Could you tell me when the next bus is due?" she
asked. I asked where she was going. Upon hearing her reply I
exclaimed, "But you just got off a bus going to your destination."
"Well," she stammered shyly, "there was a
terribly crippled young man on that bus and nobody offered hem a
seat. I knew he'd be embarrassed if an old lady like me got up for
him, so I pretended it was time for me to get off so he could have
my seat. He wasn't embarrassed, and I -- well, there's always
another bus.
We need, as a congregation, to manifest a little
more of that little lady's attitude.
Source:
Meadowbrook Church of Christ, Anderson, IN, Jan. 15, 1995.
By David Gibson
The other day I heard about a roomful of doctors eating
together. One doctor gets up from the table, leaves the room, and, in minutes,
is dead. A morsel of food had lodged in his windpipe, and he choked to death.
The tragedy of this incident is heightened by the fact that
probably any one of those doctors could have performed the Heimlich Maneuver
or, if need be, a tracheotomy to restore his breathing. But they didn't know
anything was wrong - he didn't tell them. He just got up and died.
There's a lesson here somewhere for those of us in the
church. A member has a problem in his life: with his marriage or his children,
or a personal problem with money, or alcohol, or grief, or loneliness, or
depression, or whatever. He feels embarrassed about the situation, so he
doesn't tell his brothers and sisters in Christ that he is struggling. Instead
he withdraws himself or puts on a brave front and struggles on alone.
Sometimes, he is crushed beneath the load, and on one knew it until it was too
late.
But the scriptures say: "Bear one another's burdens and
thus fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:1) That's one big reason why
Christ in His wisdom placed us together in His church - to bear burdens, and to
have our burdens borne. Of course, many problems can't be solved as quickly as
that of a choking victim, but most problems become more bearable when shared
with our brethren.
Have you been keeping a problem to yourself that is about to
get you down? Why not share it with at least one of your fellow-Christians?
Don't let pride keep you from saying, "I need help." We all do.
Source:
The Challenger, the weekly bulletin of the Church of Christ, Carbondale,
IL [date unknown].
