The Infamous Ketchup Bottle Incident: Belief Challenged
I Thessalonians 3:5 - 8
For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be for nothing. But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
Paul was encouraged to hear that the faith of the believers at Thessalonica had taken root and they were standing firm. Paul knew that belief for salvation was only the first step of the faith journey. Paul knew their faith would be tested. That same testing is true for us, and it was for my dad, as well.
Dad met Jesus personally at age 14 with encouragement from his aunt and uncle, and that faith would begin to grow. His uncle would soon be transferred to a military base in Oklahoma, and then onto Japan. Dad stayed with them until their overseas transfer occurred. During his time with them, I believe Dad experienced great spiritual growth and development. However, it was also short lived.
Once he returned to Memphis, unable to travel internationally, he experienced a major test to his new and growing faith. Dad, now a young teenager ready to begin his high school years, was thrown back into a life surrounded by sin and rebellion.
Teenage years are challenging for most, and when there is a lack of spiritual influence at home, things worsen, especially for a new believer in Christ. However, for my dad, faith had taken root and he was intent on living out the new life of Christ. Upon his return to Memphis he discovered just how deeply his mother and stepfather’s lifestyle had deteriorated.
Not long after dad was back in Memphis, the infamous Ketchup bottle incident occurred. They were sitting at a dinner table when Dad asked his stepfather to pass him the ketchup. His stepfather, who was already drunk, became enraged and violent. He took the ketchup bottle and threw it, causing it to shatter all over the room. Clearly, broken glass and a hemophiliac don’t go too well together. Thankfully, Dad was not injured and was able to get away without harm, but it was now obvious that he could not remain in the home. That night Dad fled to the home of his father where he found another act of divine intervention.
My dad’s father had remarried a sweet, kind and compassionate lady named Hazel. Through her faithful and quiet lifestyle, she began to point my grandfather to Christ. Hazel exemplified I Peter 3:1, “In the same way, you wives, be subject to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won over without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your pure and respectful behavior.” My grandfather, this bully, brawler and fighter, now on his third marriage had begun to soften. That night, God intervened and Dad found favor and safety in his earthly father’s home.
During the next two weeks, little by little after school, Dad began moving a few of his belongings each day to his new home. Dad was now in high school and suddenly those years of being passed to different family members and moving from one location to another would end. Dad would spend the remainder of his school years living with his father and Hazel. Unfortunately, the close proximity to his father didn’t exactly bring a close relationship with him. In Dad’s own words, “we had nothing in common.” However, because of Hazel, who was a devout believer in Jesus Christ, Dad’s life was stable and safe. God had intervened and Dad’s faith was growing.
During Dad’s high school years, he would still be haunted by the trials of his mother and stepfather’s recklessness, no relationship with his father, and the growing challenges of hemophilia on his body. But faith had been embraced and taken root.
By the time Dad was a senior in high school, he served as chaplain of his class, chaplain of the Key Club, and a singer and soloist in his a cappella school choir. (Back, right.)
Dad’s life, just like yours and mine, was filled with ups and downs, hardships and victories, difficulties and blessings. He knew that his faith would be challenged, just as our faith is challenged. Yet, Dad had trusted Christ by faith alone and was now walking by faith. He wrote “my problems didn’t disappear when I came to Christ, in fact my life has been full of great disappointments.”
Dad was beginning to learn a very important spiritual lesson that would help him through those disappointments - walk by faith, not sight. And so must we.
II Corinthians 5:6 - 10 says, “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord - for we walk by faith, not by sight— but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad.”
Think About It
What is happening in your life now that is spurring you on to “walk by faith, not by sight”?
Can you think of people in your life who have chosen to “walk by faith, not by sight,” especially when circumstances in life were difficult? If you are able, reach out to this person and ask them how they managed this kind of faith, endurance, and was it worth it? And be sure to thank them for their example of walking by faith.
Think back through your childhood, teenage and early adult years. What pivotal moments helped solidify your faith in Christ, even if you feel like you faltered in the moment. What did you learn? What would you do differently? How do you see yourself responding when similar or difficult circumstances come in the future?
Pray
Spend some time thanking God for the people in your life who have been examples of walking by faith. If your family doesn’t have many examples, think about and thank God for examples from scripture of men and women who responded to God in faith. Ask God to give you “good courage” for this kind of faith - a faith that walks by trusting, even when you can’t see the road ahead. And end this prayer time asking God to give you someone in your life to share this faith with and cheer on to winning the race of faith!