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Fruitful Frustration Series
Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 19, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: I am sure Paul did not like the experience of being thrown in prison, but he did not, in frustration, bang his head on the bars, or go into a vegetative mood of depression. He got out his pen and wrote letters that changed the course of history.
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Joe Bayly had a chance 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 frustration.