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Article Archive |
2007
The Letter
by Jim Morris
“Don't EVER write another letter to MY mom again!” threatened my younger brother, Rick, as he pinned me to the wall in our school apartment at Searcy, Arkansas. I think he had plans on making me into some kind of human pretzel or worse. The fact is he probably could have done whatever he wanted. He outweighed me 30 pounds and was a professional, full-contact martial artist.
It all started when my mom and dad had come all the way from Fort Worth, Texas, to visit us at Harding University in the Fall of 1985. Mom wanted to speak privately with my wife, Linda, about a medical concern—a growing breast lump. Linda, advised mom to see the doctor immediately.
Mom had the exam and the doctor admitted her into the hospital for immediate surgery. It was cancer. They were too late. The cancer was already spreading throughout her body. At just over 60 years old the doctor's prognosis became her countdown to death. Overwhelmed, she called us with fear and anger and tears.
“We love you, mom,” I tried to say through my own tears while on the phone. “God is bigger than cancer. Who knows? He can heal you if it is His will. He has done it many times before for other folks. The main thing is to draw close to God in prayer. Ask him for healing. Remember, He has already promised you a place in heaven.”
Later, I wrote mom the same things in “The Letter” that compelled my brother to travel alone from Ft. Worth to Searcy with one purpose--to beat the daylights out of me! As my brother held me pinned to the wall, I asked him, “How could you be angry about my letter to mom?”
“You made her cry!” he screamed. “She said, 'Jimmy cares more about my soul than about me.' Now I am going to shut you up! You don't talk to MY mother that way.”
As Rick drew back his fist to shut me up, I said, “She's my mom, too, little brother.” He paused. We looked at one another for a long while. Tears filled both our eyes and we wept together. Brother to brother we rekindled the love that we had for one another. Anger and fear had taken on a life of its own. Left unchecked it could have destroyed us both. By the grace of God, it didn't.
How many times have we let our emotions run out of control? How often has great evil come about from such negative outbursts? The anger of man never accomplishes good. Instead, it consumes and destroys us like a fire.
May the Lord teach us to resolve our differences peaceably. Paul says, “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26-27).
08-20-07
# 34
