Fruitful Frustration Series

Joe Bayly had a change to stay in the luxurious Hilton Hotel in

Chicago. It was going to be a treat of a retreat, but then he was hit

again by the x-factor. That is what he calls Murphy's Law-the law

that says, if anything can go wrong it will. The hot water in his

room would not work. He was frustrated, but not all that surprised,

for the x-factor is everywhere. It is like the law of gravity. It starts

in childhood with getting the mumps on Thanksgiving. Then when

you wear your new shoes, you get a deep scratch in them the first

time, which you can't even remember happening to your old worn

out pair. Then you move up to breaking an arm just as summer

vacation begins. Later on, the night before your first date you get a

big pimple on your face. Some people do grow out of the pimples,

but nobody ever grows out of the x-factor. Bayly says, when he

finally gets a chance to sleep in late, that is when some unusual event

will wake him up and hour before his usual time.

Dr. R. F. Gumperson began serious research on the x-factor back

in 1938. He made some discoveries that led the x-factor to be called

Gumperson's law by many. Some of his discoveries were-

1. That a child exposed to a disease for weeks without catching it

will then without exposure come down with it the day before the

family vacation.

2. That the dishwasher is most likely to break down on an evening

in which you are expecting guests.

3. That good parking places are most often seen on the other side of

the street.

4. That a man who can't start a fire with a box of matches and the

Sunday paper will start a forest fire when he throws a burnt match

out of his car window.

There is no telling what other discoveries his genius may have

yielded had he not been killed in 1947. He was walking along the

highway one evening facing the traffic as wise walkers do, when he

was struck by a visiting Englishman who was driving on the

shoulder. The x-factor got him. It gets us all at sometime or another,

and the reason I am preaching on it is because it has recently gotten

us. As we were going through a very frustrating time, it suddenly

dawned on me that this is a major cause of suffering in the world,

and it would fit right into my series on suffering. I knew the Bible

would have something to say about an experience so universal, and

so when I began to search, it was not long before I discovered that it

is a major factor in Biblical revelation.

Let me share some of our experience to show what motivated me

to study the subject of frustration. Lavonne and I always look

forward to May because that is our anniversary month, and for

many years it has been our month for a special get away. This year

it was even more important to us because Lavonne had been ill so

much with a strange virus that would come and go. It came more

than it went, and left her weak and bedridden. I have had to do

things I have seldom or never done in cleaning, cooking, and taking

care of her. She was getting better, and the Sunday before our

vacation she was in both services and felt good. But then the x-factor

got us. Monday she was ill again, and the first two days of

our vacation we were going to specialists. On the third day she was

admitted to Bethesda Hospital, and that is where we spent

Wednesday to Saturday.

It was the most frustrating vacation we have ever experienced.

This deep taste of frustration made me realize just how powerful a

force frustration can be in people's lives. I know everybody gets

frustrated, but when it is a prolonged experience, it has all kinds of

potential for being destructive. I better understand the battle of

those who endure long range frustration. And I better understand

why it is one of Satan's most powerful tools to damage the Christian

life. I realized how important it is for Christians not to be ignorant

of Satan's devices, and I became determined to find out what God's

Word had to say about this serious subject. We can't begin to cover

it in one message, but what we can cover is enough to help us be

aware of some basics. The first thing we want to look at is-

I. THE FACT OF FRUSTRATION.

By this I mean, it is a part of our fallen world, and it goes with the

territory. There is no escape. To be human is to experience