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The Song
"Tribulation produces patience"
(Romans 5:3)
George Matheson said, in a commentary on Revelation 14:3 ("And
no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were
redeemed from the earth"), "There are songs which can only be learned in
the valley. No art can teach them; no rules of voice can make them perfectly sung. Their
music is in the heart. They are songs of memory, of personal experience. They bring out
their burden from the shadow of the past; they mount on the wings of yesterday? In the
night He is preparing thy song. In the valley He is tuning thy voice."
When I think of Pastor Dennis Broxton, a patient at the Long Beach, CA, VA Hospital, I
think of stressful circumstances, but his life is tempered with courage, faith, and love.
In our society, we are generally encouraged to avoid stressful situations. Magazines
publish "stress ratings", tests that are designed to help us rate our stress
level(s), with encouraging suggestions to help us avoid more stress. Dennis can’t
avoid such situations at all.
Of course, avoiding stress can be a good thing. In the early Church, quite a few people
went out into the desert and mutilated themselves, or wore rough clothing; became hermits,
or adopted other behaviors designed to place a barrier between themselves and the
sinfulness of this life. In other words, they sought stressful situations in order
to inoculate themselves from sin. It didn't work.
Dennis Broxton is becoming my friend, and he is one of God’s heroes. As mentioned
before, he is in his 80's, and has been paralyzed since 1976. His wife went to be with the
Lord in 1986, and one of his sons also died within the last few years. He recently lost a
leg and is having all sorts of complications in relation to his physical condition.
Pastor Broxton has experienced a lot of trouble, but he sought none of his suffering
(it sought him), and neither should we seek problems in life. Suffering simply -comes- to
people – quite naturally. Suffering also changes those who experience it, granting
all who do, a special "song" in eternity, that no one else can "sing".
Those who have accepted the Lord, have VICTORY in Christ Jesus. Dennis is certainly the
most victorious man I know, but the outward realization of that triumph will be in
eternity, and the victory in Christ tends to remain obscure to those who have lived
differently than this man of God.
Dennis could be angry, and many patients in hospitals are quite angry. "Why
me?" is the cry. I spent five years as a Bible teacher to the elderly in a
convalescent home (all were in wheelchairs), and I observed there were basically two kinds
of people there: Those who were angry about their lot in life, and others who had a
sweetness about them that transcended anything I ever knew or expected.
Dennis is about the "sweetest" one I have met (but there was a lady, a
retired medical doctor at the convalescent home who was right up there with him). He loves
Jesus so much that it is an actual JOY to be around the man. And yet, as stated, many
would be angry if they experienced his circumstance of life. And at the bottom of such an
anger, would be a literal FURY at the choices made by God. Most would want Him to choose
someone else.
In 1976, Dennis was not only a Pastor, but he was also the owner of a construction
company, and it was on one of his jobs that he experienced the injury which got him into
his present situation.
Some "young men" he relates, had been told to "dismantle the scaffolding
on the building" and they "did it incorrectly by starting to remove it from the
bottom." When he walked out on the scaffolding, not knowing what they were doing, he
"felt something was wrong" and suddenly he "fell 35-feet to the
ground." He never got up, although he will walk through walls (and run if he wants)
in eternity.
But he is not angry at the "young men". Instead he is in love with the Lord,
and the people around him. I asked Dennis what he has gained most from this time in his
life since 1976 - He thought for a moment, and responded, "Patience! I was not a
patient man before, but I have learned patience in this bed, in this place."
We discussed a Scripture verse, which has become very real to him - Romans 5:3, which
contains the phrase "tribulation produces patience"
(KJV). Dennis said "I have to wait for people to do things for me, and I have learned
to be -patient- in waiting for them to do what I need.
Our other friend named Dennis (Dennis Stinson), also in a wheelchair & a VA
patient, urged me to "watch them" (the patients), for as he said, "the
paras (paraplegics) help the quads (quadriplegics)" and "everybody helps those
who can do less than they can." And it's true, for I have watched those who can use
their arms, HELP those who can't. Some have learned to be helpful, and others have learned
to patiently accept that help. All have been changed, and those who are in Christ, have
learned a "song" for eternity that no one else could possibly understand.
They've learned patience through tribulation; they've learned trust, they have learned to
care in relation to others, in ways most of us do not know.
When Victor Hugo, the great 19th century writer, was past 80-years of age,
he wrote: "I feel in myself the future life. I am like a forest which has been more
than once cut down. The new shoots are livelier than ever. I am rising toward the sky. The
sunshine is on my head. The earth gives me its generous sap, but Heaven lights me with its
unknown worlds. You say the soul is nothing but the resultant of the bodily powers. Why,
then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily powers begin to fail?"
"Tribulation" indeed "produces
patience" for it is when trouble comes that we seek Him more, and in finding
Him, all sorts of wonders are wrought inside us. We acquire the "song" of George
Matheson, the "patience" of Dennis Broxton and the "new shoots" given
to Victor Hugo. We become ALIVE in Him.
Thank you, Father, for the new life You give us in Christ Jesus. Thank You for the Word
of God and for the Holy Spirit, who causes us to LIVE. We praise Your Holy Name and
welcome You into our hearts and lives. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Ron Beckham, Pastor
Friday Study Ministries (The First Church on the Internet)
www.fridaystudy.org
Ron@fridaystudy.org
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