STEDFAST AND UNMOVEABLE

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.–1 Cor. 15:58

Over the last 44 years I have seen so much compromise, so much change, so much sin, so much heartache, and so many failures that it sometimes frightens me that I might become another causality. The following story expresses how I feel:

In the November 1987 issue of Reader’s Digest, Betty Wein retold an old tale she heard from Elie Wiesel, a world-renowned Jewish novelist, philosopher, political activist, and Holocaust survivor:

“A just man comes to Sodom hoping to save the city. He pickets. What else can he do? He goes from street to street, from marketplace to marketplace, shouting, ‘Men and women, repent. What you are doing is wrong. It will kill you; it will destroy you!’

“They laugh, but he goes on shouting, until one day, a child stops him. ‘Poor stranger, don’t you see it’s useless?’

“‘Yes,’ the just man replies.

“‘Then why do you go on?’ the child asks.

“‘I was convinced that I would change them. Now I go on shouting because I don’t want them to change me.’ “

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Cor. 10:12