O Oswald!

 

Sometime around 1976 I was driving through a small town, if it could be called a town, by the name of Intercession City, FL. I say, if it could be called a town, for I recall it as simply a few streets, and those streets with few houses and those houses with few people. One of those few people was Mildred Norbeck, more correctly, Sister Mildred Norbeck.

 

I had occasion to meet Sister Norbeck because I had occasion to drive my car to Intercession City, and once there I had occasion to drive to Sister Norbeck’s domicile, where I had occasion to park my car, get out of my car, and then knock on her door. For her part, Sister Norbeck had occasion to be home that day, not taking a nap at the time I knocked on her door, and consequently she had occasion to open the door and greet me.

 

We are told, by those who tell us they know such things, that Paul’s New Testament letters were “occasional” letters. Now to those of us with good sense, we might naturally think that they were “occasional” because Paul didn’t write that often, that is, we might think that Paul wrote letters only occasionally. This is along the line of me only occasionally sending a card or note to people I think about and tell myself, “You really should send them a card to tell them how much they mean to you.”

 

But those who tell us they know such things tell us that we are mistaken if we think Paul’s occasional letters were such because he seldom wrote, they will tell us that Paul wrote his New Testament letters because occasions arose in which he had to write; occasions which required that he encourage, scold, correct, warn, and articulate the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

This being the case, those of us with good sense ought to possess enough good sense to pay attention to the occasions of our lives, for God meets us not occasionally – as in rarely or not often – but rather in the daily occasions of our lives and those of us who pay attention to our occasions throughout the day will be those who have koinonia with God throughout the day.

 

Do we not have an irony here? To pay attention to our occasions is to have continuity and fellowship with God and man – for we do not occasionally have occasions, occasions come to knock on our doors throughout the day and, if we are not taking naps and if we will answer our doors – well now, we will find Jesus coming to us.

 

Or, as in my visit to Intercession City, I knocked on the door and Jesus answered it. Sometimes we knock on doors and sometimes we answer doors, I do not understand this mystery and will look to those who know such things to explain it to me. In the meantime, let us not despise occasions for without them we would not have a good part of the New Testament, nor would we daily meet Jesus.

 

During my visit to Sister Norbeck I learned that she was a retired missionary, living among other retired missionaries, all of whom were associated with the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Intercession City had once been a thriving center of revival and Bible training and…of course…intercession. Despite its rundown appearance, Intercession City was still thriving the day of my visit, thriving in the sense that eternal springs were living in Mildred Norbeck and her neighbors, intercessions were still being offered for God’s People and mankind. Had Sister Norbeck and her friends been there in Ponce de Leon’s time perhaps he would have discovered the true Fountain of Youth.

 

Mildred was thin, a whisp of a woman, soft spoken, with a light in her eyes. She had a presence about her and within her, and to connect with her was to touch the “communion of saints” spanning ages and generations. My spirit was stirred and my heart was encouraged by Sister Norbeck on a day in which I needed uplifting, in a season in which I needed a renewed sense of God’s love.  I did not know that Jesus was going to answer my knock on her door.

 

As my visit was concluding and I was saying my goodbyes at her door, she asked, “Do you have a copy of Chambers?”

 

“No,” I replied.

 

“Just a moment,” she said. She went to a bookshelf and returned with a familiar 4” x 7” brown volume. Handing it to me she said, “Please, let me give you this.”

 

Opening the volume, just inside the cover, was her name, Mildred Norbeck.

 

That copy of My Utmost for His Highest remained with me until two years ago, when I gave it away, along with boxes of books, to a pastor who was starting a library in his church. I still have a copy of “Chambers,” given to me by a friend with an inscription to me in it, dated June 2, 1994.

 

When I was 16 years old George Will, an older student at Bible College, gave me my first copy of Chambers. Mildred Norbeck gave me my second copy. Buddy Childress gave me my third copy. George, Mildred, and Buddy are saints that have touched me and others – each influencing my life. While Mildred’s influence would seem to have been brief, the fact that I am writing about her almost 50 years since my occasional visit indicates otherwise – for I have never forgotten her nor Intercession City, to have touched Mildred was to touch the transcendent in Jesus Christ.

 

I titled this piece, “O Oswald!” because I intended to write about Oswald Chambers and the disconnect between Chambers and much of what passes for Christianity today, instead I have written about Mildred Norbeck. But perhaps I have written about Chambers, for Chambers came to me through first George Will, and then Mildred Norbeck, and later still through Buddy Childress – and through Chambers came the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. Chambers has been a companion of mine since I first opened My Utmost for His Highest in 1966, and meeting Sister Norbeck was to meet not only another friend of Oswald’s, but more importantly, it was to meet another friend of Jesus Christ’s.

 

We just never know what an occasion will hold for us…we just never know.

 

What occasions might be in your future today?