Where's My Recognition

An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid. They discovered they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.

They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President's entourage. As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong. Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us, it doesn't seem right."

When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. But no one noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping to see what they could do to make a living in the city.

That night the man's spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can't take this; God is not treating us fairly." His wife replied, "Why don't you tell it to the Lord?" A short time later he came out from the bedroom a changed man.

 "The Lord settled it with me, I told him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said, 'But you're not home yet!'"

from Ray Stedman's Talking to My Father

Brennan Manning - Kevin Martin - Finding God In The Midst Of Disappointment and Hurt

Just a few years ago, an Episcopal priest from Columbus, OH, walked into his office, his church office, on a Monday morning and wrote a hasty letter of resignation. Then he went back to his house, sat down at the kitchen table, and wrote a letter to his wife and three children, all under the age of 10, that he was abandoning them. He went to a logging camp in New England. He took a job in Vermont as a logger.

One Saturday afternoon in January it was about 10 degrees below zero, heavy snow, and the priest was sitting in his portable aluminum trailer that he had rented. The only source of heat was a tiny portable aluminum heater. The heater suddenly quit and died. Within minutes, the temperature in the trailer plunged down to zero.

Shivering and in a fit of rage, the priest picked up the heater, flung it through the window, broke the window, and shouted, "Christ, I hate you. Damn you, God. Get out of my life. I'm finished with this Christian crap. It's all over."

He sank to his knees, defeated and weeping. And in the bright darkness of faith, he heard a voice from within say, "It's okay, Kevin. I understand. I'm here. I am with you and I am for you."

Then he heard Jesus weeping within him. Christ felt what he was feeling. It was an overwhelming feeling of intimacy. That same afternoon Kevin Martin packed his bag, returned to Columbus, Ohio to be reconciled to his family and his church. Since that time he has gone on to pastor the most alive, dynamic, and Spirit-filled Episcopal church in America, St. Luke's in Seattle, Washington. Jesus is fine tuned to our anger and disappointment. He really knows what hurts the human heart.