The Heresy Hunter

The Age of Innocence Ain't Quite Over

Let me step out of my "heresy" boots for a minute to relate a couple of events that took place this past week.

My wife traveled 27 hours by bus a week ago to visit her father in hospital. He's 87 years old with some health problems, not the least of which is the beginnings of dementia or Alzheimer's, depending on who you talk to. She wanted to see him while he could still remember her.

Instead, what she faced from her two sisters was the most blatant persecution for being a Christian I've ever personally witnessed. Both sisters absolutely hate God, and after seeing her twin for the first time in 6 years, her twin didn't say so much as "Hello," but immediately began ordering her around and telling her over and over again not to mention God or Jesus to their father. She received the same treatment over the phone from her younger sister. As it turned out, her father talked about God to my wife, and so it was unavoidable. (In fact, I think he is now a Christian.) The situation eventually got so bad that my wife had to leave her twin's house and stay with a mutual friend - also a Christian.

When she returned she was met with the news that a friend of hers had died of brain cancer two days before. She hadn't seen this friend in 3 years and had only known the person 1 1/2 years before that. For most of us, this news would not be a big deal - it was expected. Over the years most of us have become so hardened by the world that news about the death of people we know bounces off of us. Not so with my wife - for her any death of someone she knows is big news and it hits her hard. She did a fair amount of crying over this friend. Unfortunately, people today, even Christians, don't understand such a reaction. I used to be that sensitive myself at one time, and would be overly-affected by various life experiences, but like other people, time and life has hardened me.

Sometimes I've wished that life would harden her too, since it would make things easier on her. But most of the time I'm glad she is so sensitive - I think she's a lot more like Jesus as a result than the rest of us - and so I am proud of her and I'll gladly boast about her in this blog!

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked.

"Come and see, Lord," they replied.

Jesus wept. (John 11:32-35)

posted by Bob Hunter @ Sunday, October 15, 2006