The Ahh effect

I’ve been careful not to post anything to this blog that didn’t strike me (picture a hammer; no, a sledgehammer in Arnold Schwarznegger’s hands, two hands). As a result, a lot of the meditation I’ve done hasn’t been posted here, for the mere fact that they didn’t “strike” me. But the other day in church, the preacher read a verse, a popular verse which I’ve known for quite a while. Infact, I think it has been quoted in one of the many songs I listen to. II Cor 4:8-9.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;

persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; (RSV)

For me, it’s one of those verses you read and just say ahhh (sigh of relief) especially if you manage to think back to the troublesome times in which it was written and try to imagine how the writer was feeling while writing it. Sit back and imagine for a moment…

… roman knocks on the door. No its next door… a Christian being dragged off…screams…shuffling of feet…people running…sounds of breaking furniture…yet he keeps a brave heart and a braver face, tightens his grip on the pen and keeps writing…

At that same sermon, the preacher read another verse that “struck” me. Eccl 9:11

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. (RSV)

Little relation to the first notwithstanding, it produced the same ahh effect.