I recently decided to give a pontoon boat to a friend in the ministry. I’d used the boat in Honey Lake but no longer had a use for it. My friend has worked extremely hard for his ministry and helping others, but he has not enjoyed practically anything for himself and his family due to his mindset of giving versus receiving.
I knew that he would never buy anything like this boat, because number one he could never afford it, and two if he had the money, he would spend it on his ministry and not himself.
So I just decided to bless him with it; however that blessing would come with a test. I decided to play a little trick on him to see how he would react. First I called and told him that I’d decided to bless him with this nice boat just in time for him to gain great use out of it over the summer. He lives right next to a beautiful waterway that spills into the Gulf of Mexico and it’s loaded with manatees and other wildlife and he was very excited as he pictured himself boating through the beautiful canals in the area and out into the Gulf for some fishing.
So he made arrangements to come and get the boat in about two weeks. A few days later I was talking to him and he mentioned the boat. I told him that he had delayed so long in coming to get it, that I’d just decided to sell it and had done so.
I wanted to know how he would react. Would he curse me or spurn our friendship over the boat?
There was dead silence on the phone and then he kind of whined and said that he wished he would have come and gotten it the day I told him about it. I could feel his disappointment through the phone; however I didn’t say anything and after some small talk we hung up. As part of the test I wondered, (if after he broke the bad news to his family and experienced their keen disappointment too), if he would send me a raging letter telling me what a jerk I was. So I allowed a few days to allow him time to simmer and come to a boil and lash out at me.
No letter came and in a few days he called me and didn’t even mention the boat. I didn’t mention it either until right before we got off the phone I asked him when he was coming to get his boat, and that I wished he would hurry, because it was in my way.
He was confused and stammered, “I thought – I thought you sold it????” I just laughed and told him that I’d just been testing him to see if our friendship was real or not, and apparently it was, or at least he didn’t allow a boat that he and his family really wanted to come between us.
So this week he is going to pick up his pontoon boat along with the new trailer tag that I bought for him and I’m sure that he will enjoy it to the hilt.
This little test reminds me of some trials that I have gone through, particularly with the Jesus Alliance. It is a constant test of faith to keep working away while struggling with so many obstacles, especially funding. I wonder if one day the Lord will tell me that it was all just a test of my faith and will appreciate that I didn’t lash out at Him over my own lack of faith. I think that he does test us; I just hope I pass the test like my buddy did.
James 1:3
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Romans 5:4
Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
July 6 2016 – Click here to listen