{"id":8386,"date":"2004-12-25T18:38:14","date_gmt":"2004-12-25T23:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=8386"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:28:47","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:28:47","slug":"4021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2004\/12\/25\/4021\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Worry: ‘The Lord’s Been Good to Me’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Skipper<\/p>\n

MASON CITY, IA (December 25, 2004)\u00a0 – The woman wouldn’t want me to mention her\u00a0 name. But her story is one that needs to be told during the holiday season.<\/p>\n
She is nearing 80 and is a widow. She lost her husband to cancer several\u00a0 years ago and has also lost son to a debilitating disease. She has other\u00a0 grown children and two grandchildren.<\/p>\n
The woman called the newspaper (where I work) because she found an old\u00a0 book in her home and wanted ideas on who would be interested in having\u00a0 it. We chatted for a few minutes. I knew her husband and her son. That\u00a0 was my only connection with her.<\/p>\n
When I asked how she was doing, the woman told me about a bit of a\u00a0 dilemma she was having. With the little bit of money she had coming in,\u00a0 she said she had to pay her bills, pay $466 for her health insurance,\u00a0 $300 for prescription drugs, buy food for herself and also buy Christmas\u00a0 presents for her grandchildren. She said she didn’t have enough money to\u00a0 do it all.<\/p>\n
I suggested she should take care of her needs first so that she could\u00a0 stay healthy. That would be the best present of all for her\u00a0 grandchildren. I wished her well and our conversation ended. But I found\u00a0 myself continually thinking about her problem. Food. Medicine. Christmas\u00a0 gifts. And not enough money.<\/p>\n
I’ve heard that story many times over the years from needy people who\u00a0 have done nothing wrong. They just had the audacity to grow old. Each\u00a0 time I hear their story, my heart aches. But what can I do? I thought\u00a0 about starting up a collection for her – just to show her somebody cares.<\/p>\n
Two days after our first conversation, I called her back. I thought the\u00a0 least I could do was express my concern and let her know I was thinking\u00a0 about her.<\/p>\n
“I figured out what to do,” she said. I could almost see the twinkle in\u00a0 her eye through the phone line. “Everywhere I could, I paid a little bit on all my bills. I\u00a0 had a little money left, so I went to the Dollar Store. I got everybody\u00a0 a little something. Don’t worry about me, I’m doing fine.”<\/p>\n
And then I thought to myself, “Who’s comforting who here?” She will\u00a0 continue to wrestle every month with paying her bills, buying her food,\u00a0 getting her medication and paying her insurance. But she’ll get by\u00a0 because she has a peace about her that I neglected to detect the first\u00a0 time I talked to her. And that turned out to be the real Christmas\u00a0 message for me.<\/p>\n
“I can’t complain,” she said. “The real Christmas to me is the birth of\u00a0 Christ. And the Lord has been very good to me.”<\/p>\n
Editor’s note: This newspaper column appeared December 13, 2004, and\u00a0 is published here with permission of the Globe Gazette<\/em> in Mason\u00a0 City, Iowa. The writer is a longtime member of First Covenant Church.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By John Skipper MASON CITY, IA (December 25, 2004)\u00a0 – The woman wouldn’t want me to mention her\u00a0 name. But her story is one that needs to be told during the holiday season. 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