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Array
(
[sid] => 168315
[catid] => 1
[aid] => mick
[title] => PASS IT ON!
[time] => 2011-11-03 13:39:07
[hometext] =>
[bodytext] => A Short Story By Robert Edgar Burns I was a young married man with two young children during the 1970’s. I was working 3 minimum waged jobs then as times were hard! I came home one evening dead tired from being out in the hot sun all day as a roofer putting shingles on a roof and tending a tar pot for the flat deck portion of the roof. I was sweaty, smelly and covered with tar. I saw my beautiful wife meet me at the door as my two children jumped onto my shoes yelling “Daddy!” The first words out of my mouth were “What’s for supper?” Right then my wife burst into tears and slid to the floor then leaned against the wall and sobbed, with her face in her hands. “Honey, what’s wrong” I asked her? She then conveyed to me that she had spent our last penny at a doctors appointment for one of the kids, and that the cupboards and refrigerator were empty and she had no idea where our next meal was coming from. I said come on lets sit at the table and ask God for help, not really believing it would do any good. But I wanted to encourage her and get her to stop crying. I assured her it wasn’t her fault. All four of us held hands as I began to pray, “Dear Lord!” I was right at that moment interrupted by a knock at the front door. I rose to answer the knock and upon opening it observed that there was no one in sight. But as I looked down at the sidewalk I saw two huge taped cardboard boxes sitting there. Opening one box I discovered in Deli style plastic containers a complete baked chicken dinner with all the sides and an apple pie. Everything was hot and ready to eat. In the second box I found enough frozen food to feed our family of 4 for two more weeks. But in addition to that was an envelope sitting on top that contained a one hundred dollar bill! That was a lot of money back in the 70’s, especially for a minimum wage earner. My wife and kids began jumping up and down and celebrating. My daughter Amy, the baby, then said “Daddy, you surprised us!” It was me then who began crying. I said through the tears “No sweetie, that was God answering our prayers”. She then said, “God really works fast huh daddy!” I said, yes, sometimes He really does! In the next several months, this scenario was repeated several more times in our lives! We never found out and still have no idea who God used to bless us but we can only imagine they were being blessed as well for their kindnesses. Our adopted son Roger had been praying for a baby sister for several years prior to this incident. We were told we could never have any children by natural birth and cried every time he asked for this, but guess what? God answered that little boy’s prayers for a sister. Get your kids praying at an early age and watch the miracles happen, because their faith is the purest and most trusting kind of all! I believe God hears them first and foremost! Around this same time frame, I had met a young man who became my best friend. His name is Gary and to this day he has remained a bachelor! We spent many hours together fishing and enjoying each others company. I was given the privilege of leading him to the Lord during one of our many discussions on religion and faith In God! We at that time had one car, an old red Army jeep. The car had several hundred thousand miles on it and I only paid $15.00 for it! It didn’t even have a key. I had to start it by pushing it while running along side of it, then jumping in to pop the clutch before it would surge forward and start. If it stalled, I had to repeat the process. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that it did not have a top on it. Here in Florida, during the tropical season, it was a very dangerous mode of travel and that car almost killed me a number of times. One saturday afternoon, Gary came by to pick me up and take me fishing. On the way to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on Tampa bay in St. Petersburg, where we liked to go onto the pier and use treble hooks to catch buckets full of sheepshead fish, Gary pulled into a used car lot in the Clearwater/Largo area. He said he had wanted to look at a very beautiful baby blue Chevy Impala sitting out front. It was a 1965 model and was in tip top shape, inside, outside, and immaculate under the hood! He asked the salesman for the key so we could start the engine. We started it and it sounded better than I had imagined it would. Gary then said, slide behind the wheel and feel how comfortable it was. So I did. Then he shut the door on me, as the salesman handed me the title and said,” Enjoy this buddy. It’s already been paid for and it’s in your name!” Then Gary said, “Meet you at the pier!” He walked away as I yelled, “Gary. I can not repay you for this at this time’ and he replied “Rob, you don’t have to. Just if you ever are in a position to help someone else in need, just please do that, and you will be repaying me!” He said “I was lost and heading to Hell and you pointed me in the right direction. It’s I who can never repay you!” Being the crybaby I was I had tears in my eyes all the way to the county line and the bridge, 20 miles away! Gary had exemplified to me what living as a Christian was all about. I prayed that day while hanging over the peaceful blue waters of Tampa Bay, and asked the Lord to help me to begin living like Gary and to please allow me to someday help others in the same manner that Gary had! That was when my life changed from one of selfishness to one of sharing with whoever God led me to. We started helping others right away. But what is interesting is the fact that the more we gave away, the more we were blessed by the Lord! Our philosophy was this; because of my health and also because we both believed we are living in the last days, we wanted to give away as much as we could while we were still alive and able to control where our finances went, because once we are dead, who would direct our funds? I truly believed I only had mere months, not years of life left! We continued behind the scenes with our giving to help others. We did it quietly, without fanfare, never asking for any recognition. If we knew of a young and struggling family who needed transportation so they could find a job, we’d hand them the keys and a title to a vehicle. We relished dropping off food and clothing to people’s houses and leaving these items on their door steps and walking away. We received more joy in the doing, than the recipients of the gifts possibly could have. One of our favorite charities was the Salvation Army’s Spouse Abuse Center, helping women and children set up new house keeping in homes far away from their abusers. In conclusion, in recent years we have experienced severe financial difficulties in much the same way we had experienced them as a young married family. We never asked for any help from anyone. But two people came forward to bless us anyhow!. One’s name is Mike. The other’s name is Larry. Remember at the beginning when a young family of four prayed for food and it arrived? Well, God still works in mysterious ways. We had just prayed for money for food, on two occasions, when there came knocks at our door. We opened it, and there is good ole Mike, then good ole Larry, my good friend’s trying to get away without us noticing Them. On a chair by the front door sat two cardboard boxes of food, and an envelope in each one with some cash in it! The moral of this story is this: In this life everyone suffers. Doing what is Really Right is never the wrong thing to do, regardless of the outcome, the sacrifice made, the cost paid, or the criticism of others. Remember to make a difference in this world. Christianity is not a code, or a creed, or a charity, or even a church. Christianity is “Christ!” All of our struggles with sin and selfishness boils down to one thing, and that is the battle between our ears and behind our eyes! [comments] => 1 [counter] => 64 [topic] => 31 [informant] => robert_edgar_burns [notes] => [ihome] => 0 [alanguage] => [acomm] => 0 [haspoll] => 0 [pollID] => 0 [score] => 0 [ratings] => 0 [editpoem] => 1 [associated] => [topicname] => StoryPoetry )
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