Wouldn’t it be a wonderful compliment to have someone say, “You are the most honest person I have ever met!” My answer would be, “Not necessarily!”
This was expressed to me in front of many others when I was retiring from my last job. My life flashed in front of me and all I could think of is the many times I would have disappointed the person making the compliment.
I then thought back to an adult Sunday school class I was teaching (I might add not very confidently) about 25 years ago. There was one man I had never seen before. I can picture exactly where he was sitting. Every question I asked, this man answered correctly. All I could think of is this man should be teaching the class! Shortly thereafter, I found out the man (I’ll call him John) had devoted his life to telling others about the Good News of Jesus Christ. Subsequently, he gave a sermon that painted a word picture, that although I forgot a few of the details, I remember the gist of it to this day. Although not seeing John for a couple of decades, I did manage to contact him through the Internet and asked him to provide me with the details about the sermon that I had forgotten. With John’s permission, following is his story:
“I was working at a fast food restaurant at a beach town. Every day a man would come to the restaurant and order a cheeseburger. He insisted that I put on the grill a fresh burger, even though I already had several cooking on the grill at the time. His cocky and arrogant attitude, making his demands each day, began to irk me. I thought, ‘Who does he think he is to make this demand each day?’ What was the problem with the burgers I was already cooking? Weren’t they good enough? This went on day after day. I thought that I would show him who the ‘real’ boss is.”
“I had learned that he owned a nice boat and docked it at a marina. I decided to sink his boat as a way to get even with him. So one night I pulled the plug on the boat and sunk it tied to the dock. The next morning I was standing nearby when he came to see his boat floating underwater. When I saw the look of disgust on his face at who would do this, I just laughed and got the last laugh on that deal. That day when he came to get his burger and demanded a fresh one, I gladly put a fresh one on the grill for him. In about a month he had cleaned up the boat and engine and put it back at the dock. That night I sunk it again, but this time untied it from the dock and let it sink in the channel about 10 feet deep. When he came to find it I was standing nearby and laughed again as I was the victor in this situation.”
“Each day I would cook his FRESH burger with a smile on my face. I ended up sinking the boat a third time. He was furious, but I was laughing as the victor. Several years later I became a follower of Jesus Christ. As I looked back over my life, I became convicted about things I had stolen and returned them to the rightful owner and sought forgiveness and restitution for my evil acts. I also became convicted about sinking the boat three times over something as simple as a FRESH burger on the grill. I was living several states away from the beach town. In order to get a clean conscience, I wrote a letter to the man and confessed to what I had done and told him I would visit him on my next visit to his area. Several months later, I went to visit him and share my story of salvation in Christ and being convicted of my evil acts and the need to get a clear conscience with God and man. I let him know I would be willing to do what I had to do to make things right. But the most important thing I wanted was to be forgiven and get a clean and clear conscience. He forgave me and let me go. That day as I walked away from him, I was free and my soul was free and clean. God had forgiven me and the man had forgiven me. Keeping a clear conscience with God and man is very important. Be honest and come clean and make things right. You will die and face God, the ultimate judge. On that day you will lose if you have not made things right.”
There is nothing more to add to John’s testimony. I can just reiterate that “Making Things Right” is the way to go.
Jeff Hall, of Honey Brook, contributes columns to Berks-Mont Newspapers. Questions/comments may be directed to jeffreyhall77@comcast.net.
