Stacking Eggs

The final stages in formatting a book resembles building a tower of playing cards.

Each section I add, each header or footer, each font change, any move I make can bring the whole thing down in shambles.

I remember how with the Ward Diary I discovered a fatal error just two days before I’d intended to publish that work; that discovery set me back weeks before I could correct it and finish the book.

I’ve arrived at another shaky point now with Barbara White’s manuscripts. Looks as though I have material for four books here… But formatting them is like stacking eggs.

Because I feel her work is so important and because I’m so nervous about the process of formatting it — I do so want to get it right — I’m going to knock off blog posting myself for a couple of days and post guest columns she wrote.

Here’s a sample:

The Hard Choice Between Good And Best

I had to leave a discussion before it was finished the other day — a situation that causes me to return over and over to an unsettled question.

In this case the topic was that portion of the Lord's Prayer in which we ask Him not to lead us into temptation, or not to put us to the test.

What does it mean, asking God not to lead us into temptation?

The suggestion was made that it meant asking God not to put before us really hard choices — not choices concerning things we can see are wrong, like adultery or stealing — but choices between Him and good things we hold really dear.

For example, one member of the group told of realizing right in the middle of a Little League soccer match that he did not know where the Lord was in the whole thing. He shared the strange feeling the thought had given him and said he hoped he would not have to choose between soccer, which he loves, and his Lord.

What could possibly be wrong with having that kind of fun, asked another member of the group. And we began to consider the importance in our lives of "having fun."

Football fans in the group stood solidly by their intention to watch the Super Bowl. They said they did not think that made them awful persons — a conclusion with which I agree, by the way.

What the hockey fan meant was not that hockey was "wrong," but that he hoped (prayed?) that God would not lead him to the point of having to choose between hockey and the Lord.

Having fun is not wrong — unless the Lord has asked us to leave that fun and serve Him in another way. It is not having fun that is wrong, but our pursuit of happiness (a national right!) when it takes us along any road that is not the one our Lord has chosen and marked out for us.

There is nothing wrong with such innocent pleasures for anyone before whom God has placed a specific choice. It may still be all right for every other Christian, but the Lord may say, "It is wrong for the you I want you to be, so choose."

The degree of difficulty in that "test" will depend on the degree of attachment sports has for you.

But what if the Lord puts a choice before you between serving Him or pleasing your mother and father? What if He puts the choice of helping a stranger or helping your children?

God wouldn't ask that, you might say indignantly.

But I believe He might and that is the kind of test I ask Him not to put before me, though I think that is exactly what He meant when He said we had to be willing to go instantly to the marriage feast when called.