A Change of Heart by Philip Gulley

Author:Philip Gulley [Philip Gulley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061740381
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2007-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

Patience

October passed in a flurry of activity. The farmers worked their fields, the distant rumble of combines could be heard through the day, and at night the drone of grain dryers lay over the land like a blanket. Dale Hinshaw was confined to home, his heart weakened after a frenzied burst of evangelism during which he’d distributed his fake five-dollar bills in restaurants across the county. Four weeks later, with not one convert to show for his efforts and a host of angry waitresses in his wake, he’d taken to his bed, a shell of his former self.

At Harmony Friends Meeting, Sam was compiling a file for Dale’s funeral sermon, pleasant memories he could share with mourners in the event of Dale’s demise. It was a piteously slender file, and Sam was trying to plump it up with quotes he’d culled from Reader’s Digest.

“Why don’t you just stand up there and tell the truth about him?” Frank the secretary suggested, standing in the doorway of Sam’s office. “Let it be a lesson to others.”

“That’s not what eulogies are for,” Sam pointed out. “Eulogies are for telling people how nice the deceased was even if you have to lie. Say, didn’t Dale once lend you fifty cents for coffee?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Good, I can mention that.” He wrote on a Post-it Note and tucked it in Dale’s file.

“But he charged me 25 percent interest each day,” Frank said. “Ended up having to pay him back a dollar fifty-three.”

Sam reached into his file and plucked out the note. “Probably I should leave the coffee story out,” he said, wadding the note up and tossing it in the wastebasket in the corner. “Can you be sure to let me know if you hear any nice stories about Dale?”

“In the off chance that happens, you’ll be the first to know,” Frank promised, sauntering back to his office.

It was Friday, and Sam was mostly done with his sermon. He needed a closing illustration about patience. He’d been preaching a series on the fruits of the Spirit from the fifth chapter of Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The problem with living in Harmony most of his life was that he hadn’t been exposed to many instances of patience. He had numerous stories about impatience, most of them involving his secretary.

“When are you gonna pick the hymns so I can do the bulletin for this Sunday?” Frank yelled from his office. “I want to get out of here sometime before midnight, for cryin’ out loud.”

“All Creatures of Our God and King,” “’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus,” and “When We All Get to Heaven.”

“What about the Scripture reading?” Frank yelled.

“Galatians 5:22–23. The fruits of the Spirit. Same as last week.”

Sam could hear the clickety-clack of Frank’s manual typewriter as he pecked in the numbers.

“It would be a whole lot easier to use the computer,” Sam said. “You wouldn’t have to retype everything all over again each week. Just plug in the numbers and print it out, easy as pie.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.