Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Encouragement (among believers) (11/08/07)
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TITLE: Two Plus One Equals � | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynda Schultz
11/10/07 -
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“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. There just isn’t anything there.”
Pers banged his head against the desk. He was a hulking big brute; so the impact of his solidly built, but now blocked block hitting immoveable wood, rattled the pencils and paperclips. He just wanted to lie down and sleep—forever.
You are dead wrong, Pers. There is a lot there. You have time, talent, experience, and energy—what more do you need? Sit down. Do it.
“This is so frustrating. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. There’s got to be something wrong with me, there just has to be. Sitting down doesn’t help. I just stare at the screen and nothing happens. My hands freeze on the keyboard and the only thing that calls to me is the Mahjong game.”
Resist, brother, resist. It’s there; it has to be.
“But what if it isn’t? What if this is all a mistake? What if I missed my calling? What if I should be doing something else? What if I’m just wasting time? Who cares anyway.”
Pers moved away from the desk. His backside hurt. Funny how that never happened when Ins was around. When she was with him, he was totally unaware of aches, pains, the growling of his stomach, or anything else short of an earthquake. He paced the floor, stared out the window, hoping against hope that the scenery would light up the darkness of his soul. The clouds were an unusual shape, sort of like …
There it is, it’s coming, you can almost hear it, can’t you? You’ve got it.
Then the idea aborted itself just before it had a chance to be born.
“It’s no use. I can’t do it.”
He heard a key turning in the lock. He didn’t—couldn’t— wait until the ritual was complete.
Pers flung open the door. There she was, his small Ins, smiling up at him, perfectly at ease, but with a light in her eyes that held him with hope and pierced him with possibilities. She was just a little bit of a thing and insignificant to some. However, to Pers, she was everything right and good in his world.
“Hi, I’m back. Have you been talking to yourself again? I was sure that was you I heard somewhere around the time the elevator passed the eleventh floor.”
“Oh, Ins, where have you been? I’ve been frantic without you. Did you get anything?”
He pranced around her, like a circus Kodiak hanging over a trainer in tights. She laughed, the sound cascading around him, calming him.
“Relax, please. You’ve gotten yourself all bugged and bothered for nothing.”
“Nothing? Nothing? I’ve been going nuts here by myself. What took you so long?”
Ins took her counterpart back into the office and sat him on a chair. She reached up and cupped his face in her hands.
“I was wandering around, waiting for something to happen. Finally, I sat down on a bench. It seemed a reasonable thing to do; the day was sunny and the park was pretty. You should try it sometime. It will relax you.”
“Okay, okay, so what happened?”
“Then I called a brother. We talked for a while, you know, just business. Out of nowhere or, maybe out of somewhere, he started getting personal. He’s not usually so forthcoming, but he told me what a great team we were, and how valuable we are to the Kingdom. It made me feel good.”
“So …?”
Patience, idiot: She’s going to tell you in her own time.
Ins shook her head in mock exasperation.
“That’s your trouble, Pers, you always want to rush ahead and get things done before those things are ready to get done. Anyway, our conversation gave me hope. What we do is hard, but it isn’t going unnoticed or unappreciated. Someone cares.”
Ins looked fondly at her anxious partner. She knew what he desperately needed to hear from her.
“How about we get to work? That conversation also gave me a great idea for the both of us. You know how you wanted to find some creative way to explain what the Scriptures really mean when they talk about ….”
Pers settled back into his chair. The block that had been his head turned to sawdust and sifted away. Ins was back, and all was well.
And so it was that Perspiration and Inspiration, along with the help of a good friend, got down to work once more.
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