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Fruitful Frustration Series
Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 7, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: To be human is to experience frustration. It is not sinful to be frustrated, for Jesus was sinless, but He did not escape frustration. He may have had more than His share even, for the more ideals and goals you have, the more you will be frustrated.
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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