“Farther Along”

1                 Farther Along

I guess we all have our favorite hymns. Like other music they reside within special times in our lives and bring back memories any time we hear them.

This is a story about one such hymn that changed my life.

                   Farther Along

Tempted and tried we’re oft made to wonder

Why it should be thus all the day long

While there are others living about us

Never molested, though in the wrong”

Before accepting Jesus as my savior I did often wonder why it seemed as though people of faith seemed to struggle. I would say it certainly had a major effect on my refusing to accept Jesus into my life because I was working hard but making a living and supporting my family. I sure didn’t want to add any more struggle.

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I saw what I called “good” people around me being shunned and left out of the loop. I witnessed co-workers who just mentioned God or Jesus in a conversation, ridiculed, never taken seriously, and passed over for opportunities.

But,

Verse:

“Farther along we’ll know more about it

Farther along we’ll understand why

Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine

We’ll understand it – all by and by”

See, when the old me heard or read this refrain, I would not have understood because I wouldn’t have wanted to understand, and it would not have cheered me up.

I had it all figured out, I knew what was best for me and my family and I didn’t think God had anything to do with it.

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I felt I was already living in “some” sunshine without him.

Verse:

“Often when death has taken our loved ones

Leaving our home so lone and so drear

Then do we wonder why others prosper

Living so wicked year after year”

During my early teen years, I had what you might call a bunch of those rowdy friends. We were always into something and I’ll leave it at that. All except one, Steve Walker. He was the best of us. He was the football star, good grades, and wouldn’t involve himself in our many trans-gressions. He was also a Christian in a Christian family. Steve died at football practice one day and I remember later thinking, maybe that song was right, “Only the Good Die Young”

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When death took my sweetheart and wife Liz two years ago I was angry. Very angry. I called God every nasty thing I could think of. I walked up and down the road screaming at him like a crazy man.

She was the one who trusted in Jesus. She was the one that never stopped praying for me.

Yet death took her and not me.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the movie, “God’s Not Dead:

Marc, a wealthy, mean, despicable, and atheist son finally comes to a nursing home to see his dying Christian mother who also has dementia.

Marc says to her: “You prayed and believed your whole life, never done anything wrong, and here you are. You are the nicest person I know. I am the meanest. You have dementia. My life is perfect. Explain that to me”

She opens her eyes and with very unexpected clarity says: 

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“Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn’t want them turning to God. Their sin is like a jail cell, except it is all nice and comfy and there doesn’t seem to be any reason to leave. The door’s wide open, till one-day time runs out and the cell door slams shut, and suddenly it’s too late.“

Verse:

Soon we will see our dear loving savior     Hear the last trumpet sound through the sky

Then we will meet those gone on before us

Then we shall know and understand why”

I have always been an inquisitive person wanting to know how things work and how to build (one of those) myself. I needed to understand.

 Not having parents to lean on for support I had to be strong and depend only on myself. Even after becoming a Christian it was

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difficult (at first) for me to give up control and allow God to be in charge of my life.

As I heard God loving Christians throughout my adult life being called “Jesus freaks” or “Bible thumpers” As I witnessed them being dismissed as uneducated fools and Christianity even being called “science for poor people” it is no wonder that I wanted no part of Christianity. It seemed to me that God could only make my life more difficult than it already was.

But these words, this song was always in my head. It was like a tiny barely lit ember inside my brain and on rare occasions when I somehow heard it accidentally on the radio or maybe in a movie playing in the background, that little ember would grow just a bit, kept alive by this sweet little hymn.

Verse:“Farther along we’ll know more about it

Farther along we’ll understand why

Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine

We’ll understand it all by and by