“Call me Ishmael.” So begins Herman Melville’s masterpiece. In Hebrew, of course, “Ishmael” means “God hears.” And God clearly heard the prayers of both the Biblical person and the lead character in the novel Moby Dick who bore that name.
Now, it pains me to admit it, but had my parents given me a Hebrew name, it would likely have been “Kaw-sheh'”, meaning “hard”, and by implication, “hard-headed, obstinate, and/or stubborn”. The events of earlier today will suffice to show why I say this.
It rained this morning; so much so that I could not get my daily walk in as early as I am accustomed. I therefore occupied myself with other projects until late this afternoon, when the weather app said the rain was to be moving out. As I left the house and headed out, it was partly cloudy. But with each passing step, I quickly discovered the climate was indeed changing!
Dark clouds loomed on the horizon. The wind picked up. And a barely perceptible rumble of thunder was heard somewhere off in the distance. I quickly whipped out my smart phone and checked the weather app. While it showed storms, they still appeared to be quite a few miles away. Emboldened, I soldiered on.
Only even as I did, the clouds grew ever darker and the winds grew ever stronger. Now the sensible thing to do would clearly have been to turn around and cut for home. But oh no, not for me! I had waited all day to get my walk in; and I was not about to be thwarted at this late hour by a few threatening clouds!
I increased my pace, banking on the fact that I could complete my circuit and make it back home before any rain came. And yet, even as I was reasoning this out and assuring myself of this fact, I heard a noise. I continued on as I pondered what it could be. All the while it grew louder and louder until, it suddenly hit me. What I was hearing was rain falling.
Concurrent with that realization was the abrupt arrival of large drops of water splattering all around me and on top of me. Before I could make it to relative safety beneath a large tree that was close by, the proverbial bottom fell out. Within five minutes, I could not have been any wetter if I had jumped off a nearby boat dock and into the lake.
Thereafter, I spent the next forty-five minutes or so slogging my way home through a downpour that I would later discover had produced almost a full inch of rain. Thoroughly soaked from head to toe, I eventually squished my way up the driveway and into the house.
Now what does one do when he finds himself in such a condition? Naturally, he gets straight out of his wet clothes and into the shower, whereupon he proceeds to stand under yet another deluge of water for yet another fifteen minutes!
As I thought about the irony of all that, a verse of scripture came to my mind. In the New Testament Book of James (chapter 3, verse 10), we read: “Out of the same mouth comes both blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.”
How apropos! A little less than an hour before I entered the warm shower, I was drenched with a very cold shower. More to the point, a little less than an hour before that second shower, being human, I found myself thinking, if not saying, a few choice words about my predicament in the midst of that cold shower.
And yet, a short while later, while making my way home, and after having seen a streak of lightening flash by overhead, I found myself uttering a prayer to the Lord above to get me safely home!
I stood convicted. Out of my own mouth, I had all but cursed; and out of that very same mouth, I had then prayed and asked the Lord to bless me. If I am to be completely honest here, James was right. Such things ought not to be!
I will not soon forget the events of this day. I will not soon forget the lesson I learned. And I can only hope that I will not soon use the words of my mouth duplicitously, and therefore, to say anything other than to glorify the God Who created me, Who redeemed me, and Who sustains me each and every day!
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
https://biblehub.com/james/3-10.htm.
SEE ALSO:
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7186.htm;
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3458.htm;
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2701/pg2701-images.html.
Now, it pains me to admit it, but had my parents given me a Hebrew name, it would likely have been “Kaw-sheh'”, meaning “hard”, and by implication, “hard-headed, obstinate, and/or stubborn”. The events of earlier today will suffice to show why I say this.
It rained this morning; so much so that I could not get my daily walk in as early as I am accustomed. I therefore occupied myself with other projects until late this afternoon, when the weather app said the rain was to be moving out. As I left the house and headed out, it was partly cloudy. But with each passing step, I quickly discovered the climate was indeed changing!
Dark clouds loomed on the horizon. The wind picked up. And a barely perceptible rumble of thunder was heard somewhere off in the distance. I quickly whipped out my smart phone and checked the weather app. While it showed storms, they still appeared to be quite a few miles away. Emboldened, I soldiered on.
Only even as I did, the clouds grew ever darker and the winds grew ever stronger. Now the sensible thing to do would clearly have been to turn around and cut for home. But oh no, not for me! I had waited all day to get my walk in; and I was not about to be thwarted at this late hour by a few threatening clouds!
I increased my pace, banking on the fact that I could complete my circuit and make it back home before any rain came. And yet, even as I was reasoning this out and assuring myself of this fact, I heard a noise. I continued on as I pondered what it could be. All the while it grew louder and louder until, it suddenly hit me. What I was hearing was rain falling.
Concurrent with that realization was the abrupt arrival of large drops of water splattering all around me and on top of me. Before I could make it to relative safety beneath a large tree that was close by, the proverbial bottom fell out. Within five minutes, I could not have been any wetter if I had jumped off a nearby boat dock and into the lake.
Thereafter, I spent the next forty-five minutes or so slogging my way home through a downpour that I would later discover had produced almost a full inch of rain. Thoroughly soaked from head to toe, I eventually squished my way up the driveway and into the house.
Now what does one do when he finds himself in such a condition? Naturally, he gets straight out of his wet clothes and into the shower, whereupon he proceeds to stand under yet another deluge of water for yet another fifteen minutes!
As I thought about the irony of all that, a verse of scripture came to my mind. In the New Testament Book of James (chapter 3, verse 10), we read: “Out of the same mouth comes both blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.”
How apropos! A little less than an hour before I entered the warm shower, I was drenched with a very cold shower. More to the point, a little less than an hour before that second shower, being human, I found myself thinking, if not saying, a few choice words about my predicament in the midst of that cold shower.
And yet, a short while later, while making my way home, and after having seen a streak of lightening flash by overhead, I found myself uttering a prayer to the Lord above to get me safely home!
I stood convicted. Out of my own mouth, I had all but cursed; and out of that very same mouth, I had then prayed and asked the Lord to bless me. If I am to be completely honest here, James was right. Such things ought not to be!
I will not soon forget the events of this day. I will not soon forget the lesson I learned. And I can only hope that I will not soon use the words of my mouth duplicitously, and therefore, to say anything other than to glorify the God Who created me, Who redeemed me, and Who sustains me each and every day!
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
https://biblehub.com/james/3-10.htm.
SEE ALSO:
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7186.htm;
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3458.htm;
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2701/pg2701-images.html.