There is a well-known female speaker whom I love.  Usually, I am completely disinterested in Christian Women Speakers.  It seems all too often that the depth of their subject matter is desperately shallow – and when I am wanting some ‘meat to eat’, they give me frou-frou instead.  I stopped going to Women’s Conferences a long time ago.  Often it would seem as if the worst problem they ever had was that their fridge stopped working right at the time when they had to get their really special dessert to a meeting going on at church.  Or, their dinner got cold again while they were waiting for their husband who was late getting home from work.  One speaker had a really trying day when she couldn’t find matching socks for her five year-old!  They, then, follow this with how the Lord (!) gave them peace and a calm – that they learned they really didn’t have to ‘lose it’.  Wow!  Apparently, they had never experienced nearly losing a twelve year-old child – or a really evil person in their church (at the time) that prayed for them to die – or a husband who has never come to the saving grace of our Jesus.  I would much rather, generally, listen to a male speaker, for most often they have plunged into the Word and give me the ‘meat to eat’ that I so desire.

Back to the Christian female speaker for whom I have such admiration and respect.  She presented what I would call my First Perspective in a trying time.  In one of her books, she truly had much to say – and definitely with a depth.  However, when she was describing the devastation of a hurricane she had experienced, I kind of shuddered when she lamented losing eight of their large trees near and around their home.  Can you imagine one reading that who may live in the Projects in a city, or a run-down apartment – and all they would like to have is just one little tree, perhaps, near their apartment.  I’m sure they would be thinking ‘what does she have to complain about?  I’d just like a little shade outside one of my windows’.  In my estimation, this writer/speaker blew it!  Instead of being grateful for all she had, she had to get upset about her trees, forgetting who her total audience might be.  BTW, that story aside, I sill have the deepest admiration for this particular Christian woman.

Second perspective.  I was visiting a dear friend one day.  My mouth was hanging open as I couldn’t take my eyes off the style in which she and her husband had decorated and furnished their home.  I had never seen anything quite as beautiful.  It looked like it belonged in the Upper East Side of New York City.  (I had seen magazine pictures of apartments there.)  Then, she shared with me how, that in all probability, she and her husband would be losing their home.  She explained to me that it was all because of a ‘right’ decision – a godly decision they were making in their business when a partner in the business disagreed with them.  I was so proud of this couple for standing up for what they believed in, but devastated that they would lose this breath-taking home of theirs.

But this is what impressed me the most.  When I asked her how was she going to be able to handle such a disappointment, such a travesty, this was her answer.  “Well, I guess that I will thank God for the ten years He allowed us to have this place to live here.”  What spiritual insight!  What spiritual maturity!  This was her answer with something being taken away from them through no fault of their own.  They could have been beyond upset.  Everyone would have understood.  They could have been angry at God.  However, they chose with such grace what the Lord had allowed them to go through.  They didn’t lose eight trees.  They lost their whole home.  Her response – her and her husband’s response – has impressed me down through all these years.  I could only hope that I would learn from the Second Perspective.

This brings two verses, in particular, to mind.  I Thessalonians 5.18 – ‘in everything give thanks’ for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.’ – and Philippians 4:11,12 –  ‘for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity.’