We all have our idiosyncrasies, the little things we do that are unique to each of us. My wife, Barbara, tells the story of a preacher back in the days when most all preachers wore ties. He had the habit of pulling on his tie while preaching. I would imagine that once he got wound up, and the more fervently he preached, the more frequently and the more forcefully he pulled on his tie. He must have had a different kind of knot rather than a regular tie knot, plus, the tie he was wearing was probably of a narrow design made of a coarse material. The story goes that as he preached, with his frequent pulls on the tie, the tighter it noosed around his neck. In time, the man was having a hard time breathing, until he finally began choking. With that, his attempts to loosen his tie failed. He was now standing before the congregation struggling for breath. He was already short of breath due to his fervent preaching, and now, the more he struggled to loosen his tie, the less breath he had left. In a few moments it became evident to all that the man was in a life-or-death struggle, and something had to be done very quickly. One of the faithful quickly came forward and brandished a sharp pocket knife. With a deft move of the blade, the strangle-hold tie was cut from around the preacher’s neck, and he gladly found his breath again. Thank God for the quick reactions of the brotherhood! It would have been embarrassing to read the headlines, Preacher Dies from Self-Strangulation in the Pulpit. The article would start out, “The people thought he went out in the Spirit; but he lay there and died.” We all have our quirps! We all have things in our lives that are less than perfect. God might deal with us about our “things,” but one thing for sure, God will use us even if we have these things in our life that are less than perfect. When it becomes evident that we need to change some things, then most certainly that is exactly what we are to do—change them! But God will use us as we are. As we give ourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ day-by-day, what needs to be changed will be known to us, one way or the other. We trust His faithfulness to fulfill His purpose in our lives. As we yield, totally surrendering unto His Lordship in our life, we will know the things in our life that need to be changed. I think our preacher friend figured out that he needed to get away from that little habit he carried in his preaching. Maybe he needed to learn a different knot, or wear a different texture of material for a tie. Bottom line: God will use us as we are; and we are to be open to change for Him to use us even more.
Tight Necktie
Published by
