Fruitful Frustration Series

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.