Romans 12:12 ~ Joyful, Prayerful, Perseverance ~ Pastor Bill Slabaugh

“Don’t Despair”

 Several years ago, a missionary was sitting at her second-story window when she was handed a letter from home. As she opened the letter, a crisp, new, ten-dollar bill fell out. She was pleasantly surprised, but as she read the letter her eyes were distracted by the movement of a shabbily dressed stranger down below. He was leaning against a post in front of the building.

She couldn’t get him off her mind. Thinking that he might be in greater financial stress than she, she slipped the bill into an envelope on which she quickly penned, “Don’t despair” and she threw it out the window. The stranger below picked it up, read it, looked up, and smiled as he tipped his hat and went his way.

The next day she was about to leave the house when a knock came at the door. She found the same shabbily dressed man smiling as he handed her a roll of bills. When she asked what they were for, he replied, “That’s the sixty bucks you won, lady. Don’t Despair paid five to one.”

Swindoll, Charles R.. The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart (Swindoll Leadership Library) (p. 274). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.