I don’t know Jeff Dyer. But I’ve appreciated his sense of humor.
Jeff had a web site where you could find clean jokes and stories. I guess that Jeff did it for fun and took the initiative to make it work with AvantGo, an offline reader for the PalmOS (before WiFi). Many times, while sitting in a waiting room, I’d take out my Palm iv and get a smile from what he had there.
But suddenly, there was nothing on that AvantGo channel. Just an empty site. Upon further investigation, I found that Jeff had given it up. He listed three reasons, paraphrased here:
- Lack of time to keep up with technical advances
- Lack of joy in keeping it current, and
- Unwillingness to continue to subject himself to the judgments of modern-day Pharisees.
His exact words were:
I am tired of trying to explain myself to the self-appointed, self-righteous guardians of ethics and morality. I have been accused of everything from intentional plagiarism, copyright infringement to un-Christ like attitudes and behavior. I just do not want to fight those battles anymore.
He had printed this third reason in bold. I am guessing it was not just the straw the broke the camel’s back, but the primary reason he stopped.
Jeff — I understand your heart. As a Christian, I want to bring joy to the lives of people. But there are folks out there who, in the name of Christ, seem to desire to keep people from finding joy. They carry their faith like a ball and chain. And when they see someone else working to make the yoke easy and burden light, they load people down with burdens they can hardly carry. It’s sad.
I don’t blame people like Jeff for not wanting to “fight those battles anymore.” But I am still fighting. The way I’ll fight is not to defend myself, but to simply keep working to pour out joy in a dry and thirsty land.
May God bless us all as we continue to share the Joy of knowing Christ, remaining InHis gracious hands.
Steve:
You hit the nail right on the head my friend. All of 2005 in our Morning Worship Services I have preached on the theme of Grace. Guess what — there is still some much I have not covered I am still on this same theme in 2006.
Have a GREAT day!
DMO
Steve,
This is a wise attitude. It makes me think of Nehemiah’s response when asked if he would leave his work on the wall and go down to meet with Sanballat and Geshem (who only wanted to hurt him). He said, “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down.” (Nehemiah 6)
Keep pressing on. As I find myself smack in the middle, or is it the muddle!, of mid-life, the only thing that is sustaning me is the JOY that comes in knowing that Christ is cheering me on in my journey with Him. Often other Christians make for terrible cheerleaders, but Christ will finish in our hearts that good work which He has begun.
Keep on Keeping on!
John Friedlund