AND my wife just laughed and laughed," our minister friend said.
Someone had brought up the subject of the ever-ringing telephone in the minister's home and the odd hours at which it some times rings. This particular minister was telling the story of a time when a church member called him at four o'clock in the morning. The night before he had tried to get in touch with this church member, but was informed that he was on a trip and would be back any time.
"Have him call me when he comes back, will you?" asked the minister.
But the young man did not return until nearly four in the morning. Finding the message he called at once.
It is not a very reassuring thing to be awakened in the still, small hours by the ringing of the telephone. All kinds of fear some possibilities present themselves to the mind as one answers its summons. The minister's wife in this case was jerked into instant wakefulness and lay wondering what the call could be. It was when she was told what it was and how trivial the matter that she "just laughed and laughed."
As I heard the story I thought, Fortunate the minister whose wife can laugh at such a time. How many would complain bitterly of thoughtless people who had no more sense than to call a tired pastor at that unearthly hour! But this minister's wife wasted no time on such thoughts. She took the situation with a sense of humor and I am sure the two of them quickly went back to sleep because of this attitude. Had she not shown grace and humor, however, they both might have lain awake for hours, annoyed and frustrated.
How much depends on our attitude to impossible situations!
I remember once asking a much-loved elderly couple to Sabbath dinner. We planned to sit down quietly after our meal and discuss some of the great themes of the Bible. But our invitation was doomed to grow and grow.
First our guest called on Thursday to say that her granddaughter had just telephoned to say she was coming for the week end.
"Just bring her along," I said. On Friday she called again.
"Rosalyn is coming too," she said, referring to her other granddaughter. "So perhaps we had better stay home, as her boy friend will be coming also."
"Oh, by all means bring them both," I said.
Next day we had in church a distinguished visitor from overseas. I wondered whether anyone had invited him to a meal and ventured to ask him.
"No," he told me when I inquired of him.
"Well, please come home with us. We shall be delighted to have you visit with us."
"I will be delighted to accept your invitation," he said, "but Elder Blank brought me here from Biftown. Does the invitation include him?"
"Of course," I said, and proceeded to find Elder Blank.
"Thank you," he said brightly to my invitation. "My wife is with me too."
"Fine," I said, warming to the challenge (although secretly glad for the moment that they were a childless couple). I turned to hurry home and met my daughter.
"Oh, Mother," she said. "Joan came to church this morning. May we invite her home to dinner so she can see what it is like to keep Sabbath?" (Joan was a non-Adventist school friend who had become interested in attending our services.)
"Sure," I said, "but you'd better come along with me now so we can do a bit of menu stretching."
Fortunately we had plenty of salad vegetables and cans of beans and a large box of cottage cheese with which to augment the meal I had prepared, and we were soon seated all twelve of us having a wonderful time. How we laughed afterwards at that invitation that grew and grew and grew! We missed the tete-a-tete we had planned with our friends, but we all had a wonderful time together.
Yes, we get into all sorts of impossible situations at times, and some of them could be very annoying if we let them annoy us. Let's take them as they come, accept the challenges they present, and make everyone, including ourselves, the happier.
