Download - The Perfect Wisdom Web

Be Not Afraid Faithdesperation to courage, and from resignation to resolve.But this can happen only if we allow it to. To paraphraseMennonite author Clarence Bauman, faith is useless ifit is only a matter of halfheartedly singing old hymnsand “perpetuating the hope of apocalyptic bliss beyondthis sinful vale of tears.” But if faith impels us to investmore heavily in the fullness of life, he says, it will openthe door to new possibilities of joy and triumph here,in this world – the present world that God created andloves, and for whom Jesus lived and died.I experienced this triumph at the death of my uncleHerman. My father’s youngest brother, this tall, gauntman once dreamed of becoming a doctor, until WorldWar II interrupted his studies, and sent him firstto Switzerland, then England, then South America,and finally the United States, working as a farmer,a teacher, and a minister. Through it all he smokedcompulsively, and by the time he was fifty he haddeveloped emphysema.In August 1972, at the age of fifty-seven, Hermanwas diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Duringthe next four months, he needed oxygen almostcontinually. At times his suffering was so intensethat he longed to die in his sleep. As he told me onemorning after a particularly hard night, “It’s hard to besuspended between life and death like this.” He spokeoften of eternity, and wondered what it would be like.10