9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)
By Bro. John L. Cash
My father’s oldest brother was named Howard. He outlived all of his siblings, reaching the ripe old age of 89 years. My Uncle Howard was wonderful, and I adored him. I’ll have to tell you all about him sometime.
Several years before Uncle Howard passed away, he had a series of small strokes that affected his ability to choose the correct word for the idea he was trying to express. His life became very frustrating. In his discouragement, he said that he was going to pray for the Lord to “take him on home to Heaven” because he was tired of living this life below.
However, after a bit of time had passed by, Uncle Howard began to recover and to feel better. One day his son was helping him pay a stack of bills. One of the bills was a subscription notice for a little magazine that Uncle Howard liked to read. His son said, “Daddy, there’s a renewal letter for your magazine. You can renew for one year. But if you renew for three years, you save some money. Which do you want to do?”
Uncle Howard thought about it briefly and decided he would renew his subscription for three years. You see, a wonderful thing had happened. Howard Cash had gotten his second wind! He went on to live a number of happy years in an assisted living facility. He became an expert pocket-billiards player and rode around the campus on a Rascal Wheelchair Scooter. He called out the numbers in a weekly Bingo hour, was active in his church, and was dearly loved by all the other residents. The last years of his life were very happy.
There’s a very important lesson for all of us here. We all become tired and discouraged from time to time. But, the most beautiful thing of all is that — in our lives with the Lord — He very often sends us a second wind. That’s what David was talking about in The 23rd Psalm when he wrote, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures…He restoreth my soul.”
So this week, when you are weary, don’t go to pieces. Go to the Shepherd instead.
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 27 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school and teaches Latin on closed-circuit-television.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Preacher and his wife sometimes get tired but always get rested up again.) The Cashes have two sons, Spencer (age 21), and Seth (age 18), who live in the parsonage, too, except when they are away at college. He would love to hear from you in an email sent to countrypreacherdad@gaggle.net.
