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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Season(s) of a year or life (01/13/11)
When Kings Go To War
I had met Rebecca at a Prayer meeting and we became friends. She was a quiet and withdrawn person and looked sad and depressed. After sometime she stopped coming and I decided to visit her.
When she opened the door, the sight of her startled me. She looked shabby and dirty and also sick and miserable. She looked at me and burst out sobbing. I held her in my arms until she calmed down. I prayed to God to comfort her. Between sobs she told me her pitiful story.
Her happy marriage ended when her husband died of a heart attack. It had been such a shock that she was devastated. Her son was married at that time. Her teenage daughter, who doted on her father, could not cope with the grief of losing him. As her mother was of no help she became sick and ended up in a mental institution.
She stopped going to church. Desperate she began to seek relief from other sources. She turned to gambling and reckless shopping. Soon all the wealth her husband left her vanished and she found herself in heavy debt.
By this time her son and his wife had two children. He had a good job. He cared for his mother and helped her clear all her debts and helped her to start all over again.
At the time I met her she had gone back to gambling
and was debts. Her lawyer had advised her to go bankrupt. She was too scared to tell her son and this was her problem. I made her clean up and change her clothes and prepared some food for her. After eating we prayed for strength and then I made her call her son. He was very kind and understanding and offered to talk to her lawyer. She felt much better after that conversation.
This was just the beginning. A depressed person does not get cured overnight. I began to feel the strain and did not want to be her crutch anymore. I tried to convince myself that staying at home and praying for her was enough. After all Jesus commended Mary for sitting at His feet and listening to Him rather than being busy like Martha. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes had said that there is a season to hold and a season to let go. Now was my time to let go.
I was forgetting that God has His way of making His will known. One morning I was reading my Bible. The passage was IChron.20. It opened with the words: “It was spring, the season when the kings go to war…” But David, the King of Israel, did not go to war. He stayed at home and rested. And that is how he happened to see Bathsheba, and the rest is history.
There evidently is a season when you have to work and a season when you have to rest. You have to have the wisdom to know when a season begins and when it ends. Season follow God’s given plan. The sun does not stop shining in the middle of summer. And so if I was to be Rebecca’s crutch, I better be one until she does not need one.
I should not be concerned about my ability to be a crutch. God was the One who was going to give me that ability when I needed it. When it was the season for the kings to go to war they should not be resting in their palaces. So I went back to helping Rebecca and thank God she is improving.
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This article has been read 484 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Bonnie Bowden 
01/20/11
I could relate very well to the characters in the story. I loved the title, "When Kings Go to War."

There were a few grammatical difficulties. The sentence, At the time I met her she had gone back to gambling and was debts, for example. However, these minor mistakes, did not detract from the overall message you communicated.

Please keep on writing. I look forward to reading more of your work.

Nancy Bucca
01/23/11
You chose a tough topic and handled it well, I think. I can really relate to that bit about not wanting to be someone's crutch. Unfortunately I've met people who didn't want to give up the crutch, but we do have to listen to His leading in all such situations.
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
01/24/11
You make such a valid point. Sometimes we can help a person too much. It's important to listen to God and to know when to step up and when to step back.
diana kay
01/24/11
the title and the story did not seem to go together until you got to that explanation about seasons and being in the place God wants us and the person for the time.I could relate to lots of this in the story and although i got a little lost in some of the chronology of your description i found there was some very relevant parts too.thank you for writing this and reminding us that when people stop coming to church there is often a reason.