A recent death threat from an unhinged internet crackpot, followed up by 26 pages of hateful emails, was pretty unique. While receiving threats in the ministry is not an odd thing at all, this was the first time I ever felt compelled to make the authorities aware. Mind you, I do not fear for myself or my family. We are well able to take care of ourselves. But this doofus is absolutely going to try something with someone at some point, and needs to be on the radar of those who monitor such things.
Hard on the heels of that, a message popped up on my phone late one night saying, “What did you do to get under this guy’s skin?” I clicked the link to the video he had attached, and shook my head with a grin. The railing reverend with the large, captive crowd was definitely ripping into me. He does that kind of thing a lot. It is very much his claim to fame.
Then came a different issue entirely, one in which there was a clear attempt to divide dear friends, with me being one of those friends.
In the midst of all of the above, we were making funeral preparations for a sweet old saint in our church, having an entire HVAC unit switched out for the nursery wing, attending to three different people in three different hospitals, and my schedule had me running on very little sleep each night.
Best. Life. Ever.
I do not say that sarcastically. Trials, attacks, threats, irritations and all, being saved and serving the Lord is absolutely fantastic, and I recommend it. My life has been and is good. I am saved, healthy, have a wonderful family, am super close to all of my adult kids, have a phenomenal church that loves my family and me dearly, get to travel all over the country preaching and have a handful of dear, close friends.
Do you see the balance in it all? We live in a fallen, sin-cursed world, and the people therein get more “interesting” by the day. Someone at any moment is liable to hate you and let you know it for any reason or no reason. And yet, the life of a born-again child of God is positively the best and most blessed life ever.
In 2 Kings 5, Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, had leprosy. A little maid told him about Elisha, the great prophet in Samaria, and confidently proclaimed that Elisha could heal his leprosy and save his life. And that is exactly what happened. After obeying the instructions of the man of God who told him to go wash seven times in the Jordan River, he came up clean and whole.
Before he left to go back home, though, he made a seemingly odd request: 2 Kings 5:17 “And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.”
“Hey, Elisha, can I have some dirt to take back home with me?” What an odd thing to ask. Can you imagine going to a foreign country and trying to bring home a couple of suitcases full of dirt? But the request had a point, and Naaman alluded to it in his words. This dirt would be used to worship the one true God. And that God had commanded early on (Exodus 20:24-25) that his altars should be made either of dirt or of unhewn stone.
Naaman was going to take dirt back to Syria to worship the Lord on. But that begs a really large question: Syria has dirt. Lots of it. Why bring dirt back to a place that has dirt? And the answer is, in so many words, God’s dirt is better than our dirt. Naaman, who earlier in the story proclaimed that all the waters of Syria were better than any of the waters of Israel, now knows that even the dirt of God’s land is better than the dirt of his own.
In terms of our daily lives, God’s dirt, the trials and tribulations we face, really is better than even the best days of being lost, let alone the “dirt” days. We may deal with heartaches, fears, trials, tribulations, threats and irritations, but it still beats the lives we lived as sinners by a wide margin.
I got threats from a guy who, while reminding me of what was done to Charlie Kirk, said, “YOU’RE NEXT!” But in the very midst of all of that, I got letters from two young fans of my Night Heroes adventure series for kids, telling me how much they loved them and asking me questions about them. I saw half a dozen people saved in meetings I preached. I had a 32nd anniversary with my fantastic wife.
I got labeled a woman by a guy who has some creepy preaching fetish centered on me. But in the midst of all that, I got dozens of notes and messages from those who heard him, thanking me for the help I have given them through my preaching and my writing.
I faced an attempt at separating friends, yet ended up with closer friends than ever. We said goodbye to a dear old saint, but we are also welcoming three new babies to our nursery and several new families to our church.
Child of God, never forget how good you have it. Even God’s dirt is better.
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, North Carolina, a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books available on Amazon and wordofhismouth.com. Email him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.