Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Write an INSPIRATIONAL or DEVOTIONAL piece (04/26/07)
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TITLE: STUBBED TOES | Previous Challenge Entry
By Paul Potenza
05/02/07 -
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ADD TO MY FAVORITES
I KNOW that you're out there.
I KNOW that you feel like you can't go on.
I also know that you feel like you are being beaten unjustly by the very God that you have committed yourself to serve. Every day is torture...or worse...dull routine. You find yourself screaming at God and then HATING yourself because you know that He loves you but you're just so A N G R Y that He let this happen to you.
What's even worse is that the little things seems to amplify the situation. You stub your toe in the middle of the night when you get up to get a drink of water and you suddenly become a raving madman...shouting at the sky "WHY???? WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY??? DID YOU N E E D me to endure this PAIN when ALL I WANTED was a simple glass of WATER???"
Listen...
A lot of things have happened to me in my life over the last few years.
I don't know if this will help or not but I feel compelled to say it.
On this trip that we take through our lives, there are going to be a LOT of stubbed toes.
We're going to have rotten jobs and jerky bosses and unfulfilled dreams and cancer and the murder of VERY dear friends and the unexplainable evil that penetrates our TV every night and shows up again in the morning paper under our first cup of coffee.
But you know what ELSE we get?
We get to listen to the birds sing as we get up in the morning. We get to take our old dog out at night and walk in the garden, and watch as he commits unspeakable acts on our freshly mown lawn. We get to listen to the preacher that we love, as he faltingly cracks a joke. We get the unending peace that comes from hugging our Bible close to our chest as we slowly drift off to sleep knowing that all really is well with the world because we've read the end of our Bible and we know that we WIN.
So I know that you're out there...and I FEEL you...and I know that you might want to give up.
But DON'T.
In my Bible Study this morning I have happened upon JOB. If ANYONE ever "stubbed his toe", this guy did. But he never gave up. Go ahead and read it. Feel the despair in the early chapters and the relief in the later ones and know that this was a person like you and me who had every chance to give up but didn't.
Whattaya say?
Wanna risk ONE MORE TOE???
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This was good for me to read right now as with a close friend in the hospital I've been recently struggling with those kinds of questions. Thanks for sharing!
The capitalized words were a bit distracting, and not really necessary, as your word choice and your writing style did a great job of suggesting the importance of certain words and phrases. I don't know if I'm saying this right--it's a compliment, believe me--so I'll try again: You're a very good writer, and you don't need to "bop" your readers with the extra emphasis.
One of my favorites on this level.