2 Corinthians 13:11 ESV
From the Jar
In 2 Corinthians 13:11 the Apostle Paul wrote, “Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
When I read scripture from a viewpoint of past, present, and future I realize how timeless it is! I’m sure there were people in the First Century who needed restoration but compared to today, it was a gentle time.
They didn’t have cars that would easily travel from point A to point B going 70 miles an hour on a crowded and busy freeway.
They didn’t know workplace stress (at least not like we experience today).
They didn’t understand that even going on vacation was a stressful event.
While I wouldn’t change the experience of taking four small children in a six passenger van across the country so they could see things that were different and memorable, it was hectic and crazy.
On one such occasion we traveled from the Midwest to the East Coast in July when the children were still young. We thought we’d planned for just about everything. Little did we know one of my children (the one child who was hardly ever sick) would come down with an upper respiratory infection that would change the ‘tone’ of the trip.
He was really sick.
Since he was a growing boy. I never had to coax him to eat. He never complained and he ate everything in sight. However on this trip he was so sick I couldn’t GET him to eat.
We had a small camper we were pulling and I had planned meals for the entire trip. I knew how much the children could eat and we decided eating out wasn’t in our budget. We had a good camp stove so I planned meals I could cook outside.
My son became ill when we were two days away from home. Until that trip when he had a common cold he wouldn’t get very sick and he would get over it quickly, so we pressed on toward the East Coast.
He got worse. He wouldn’t eat. He was so sick that when we were in Gettysburg, PA we went to a drugstore and called our physician back home to ask him to send a prescription. Our doctor told me to get him to eat or drink anything to keep him hydrated.
The only thing he would drink was a vanilla McDonald’s shake. So while we ate meals I cooked, he lived on milkshakes.
The other three children were upset that he was given a milkshake three or four times a day while they had to eat ‘cruddy’ home cooked food.
I don’t remember how it started, but a rumor surfaced among the other three children that he was “fakin’ it”.
Every time we stopped to get him a shake they would murmur, “he’s just fakin”.
It didn’t matter how many times I explained the situation to them, they still chanted, “he’s fakin”.
And so it went.
I decided to make a game of it. It was the “he’s fakin” game. I got so tickled that I joined in. Even my son who was sick made the most of the game. When he would get yet another milkshake he drank it with pride reminding them he was ‘special’.
When the vacation was over…even almost forty years later we still all know that “he’s fakin” refers to that vacation.
Looking back I realize now that God made a way for us to laugh and be restored in the midst of a very bad situation.
The other three children still tease him today.
He still laughs.
The point is the Apostle Paul knew in the First Century that life is hard. He knew we need to take time to be intentionally joyful.
We need to look for ways to restore our soul.
We must comfort and care for one another. Even if it comes in the form of making a game of it by teasing. Laughter is a great healer and our game restored us.
Even though we were really all concerned about him being so sick, his siblings wouldn’t have admitted it because that would have spoiled the game.
Even today that vacation is the gift that keeps on giving.
We still laugh.
We still love.
We receive peace from God because ultimately we’re all glad it ended well.
Would the other three children admit that it was all worth the laughter we experienced?
Not a chance.
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: BE restored
Let yourself laugh today…and be restored.
In God, Deborah
Comments