December 2003
Past and Present - Obedient Responses to God Bring Healing and Relief
Late in the 19th century, Amos Kenworthy courageously spoke God's insights and a woman's life was saved.
"It's just too much!" cried Margaret Chester early Sunday morning. "My lazy husband expects me to do everything, and I'm sick and tired of it all. There's not even food for the children's breakfast."
"I'm hungry," her husband growled. "How come you ain't got nothin' cooked up yet? And get more wood unless you want us to freeze to death today."
Margaret glared, turned, and ran into the woodshed, crumpled into a heap, and sobbed. Soon she noticed the stout cow rope bunched in the corner. She picked it up.
"I can't take it any longer." Margaret tossed one end of the rope over the beam and dragged a splintery wooden box under it. "That good-for-nothing husband will be sorry when I'm gone."
She stepped onto the box then remembered, Amos Kenworthy is coming to the Friends meeting today. I would like to hear him. I've heard about his powerful preaching. Margaret dropped the rope and stepped down. I'll do this after I get home.
She slid quietly into a back seat at the meetinghouse. Amos Kenworthy's preaching held her attention. "There's a woman here this morning who tied a noose in the rope over the beam in her woodshed and stood on a box. She planned to hang herself."
Margaret gasped.
"I want to tell her," Amos said, "that God loves her, and that he has help for her this very day."
At the close of the meeting, Margaret rushed forward. "Amos Kenworthy, I must speak to you. I'm that woman you talked about. How did you know?"
"God spoke to me, but I didn't know it was you." Together they knelt at the front of the meetinghouse and prayed. God's love spread like a warm blanket over Margaret, bringing comfort and peace to her troubled heart.
—by Betty Hockett. The story is based on, "Amos Reveals a Secret," in More Than Empty Dreams, by Betty M. Hockett, available from Barclay Press, Newberg, Oregon. Amos Kenworthy did hold a service at Tecumseh, Michigan one Sunday in 1877, revealing a woman's plans to hang herself. The woman's name and circumstances are fictitious.
Early in the 21st century, a young pastor courageously responds to God to save a friendship.
Zacchaeus was changed when he came into close personal contact with Jesus. As he talked with the Master, something told him it was time to make things right with his neighbors. He had wronged so many of them, stolen from them, cheated them.
Joy, grief, and fear must have mixed together in his soul as he spoke out his commitment. "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount" (Luke 19:8).
Today, I know that same mixture of emotions. I wrote a letter to a friend. Months ago we had a disagreement and since that time our relationship has seemed strained, distant, aloof. I don't yet know what response I will get, but I know my heart changed as I met with Jesus this morning and obeyed his call to "seek peace and pursue it" (Psalm 34:14).
Not too long ago, I heard Andy Stanley preach about having the courage to lead. He talked about David's fearlessness before Goliath. He showed how that one act of bravery established the young shepherd boy as a leader in the hearts and minds of the people of Israel.
I now understand his words differently than before. At first hearing, I thought courageous leadership was just about taking bold stands against evil. But as I face this more personal battle, I realize that courage isn't just about beheading giants; it's also about swallowing pride, confessing sin, and patching things up when I've wronged another.
It's following Zacchaeus, hat in hand, knocking on a wounded friend's door, as much as it is following David, sling in hand, knocking God's enemy to the ground.
Courage is stepping out in faith to do what God says to do. Courage is what sets us apart as leaders. But courage may look different than how we have perceived it growing up.
Perhaps there is someone with whom you should reconcile. Or maybe there is a letter to be written or a conflicted relationship to restore. Like Zacchaeus and like David, make relationship with God the top priority. Experience the healing that comes. Then, take courage and respond to God.
-by Mike Neifert, pastor of Argonia Friends Church in Argonia, Kansas. He and his wife, Susan, have three daughters.
