I'll swear it's the truth

I recently overheard a conversation between some men who were taking a rest from a construction job. I was pleased to hear how important their faith was. The longer I listened the more I could see that God was a very important part of their lives.

One young man, in particular, was very fond of telling the others about his own personal relationship with God. Almost every sentence started with the declaration that God was his individual deity. He was constantly saying, "Oh, my God." I liked the way that he made it so casual as if he was just having a friendly conversation. He would tell about some happening this way, "Oh, my God, you should have seen the mess that the new guy made on that project." Then he would continue telling about the incident. He never shared God with the others by saying something about "your God". No, he felt his was a possessive relationship with HIS God. Sometimes he would vary his salutation by talking to "Oh, my Lord" but this man seemed to prefer using the God term for his heavenly friend.

However another man in the group appeared to have a more exalted relationship. He kept referring to his "great God almighty". He related most occurrences to this "great God almighty," you mean to tell me that he spent the whole day trying to get those two walls to meet in the corner?" I would imagine that the great God almighty already knew about the problems the poor new guy was facing. But the workman enjoyed telling him the story anyway.

The third man in the conversation had a different impression of his divine friend. He used the term "good Lord" to begin most of his reports on high. "Good Lord, our whole crew will have to work an extra day to clear up all the mistakes that guy has made." He didn't ask the good Lord for any help in clearing up the problem, but he did want to be sure that it was duly noted in the upper realm. He repeatedly responded to each new incident mentioned by sharing the information with the good Lord.

All three men expressed their knowledge of the power of God. Their information about hell's fire and damnation were expressed freely in their talk together, and they seemed to bring forth that image quite frequently, especially when talking about the hapless new man.

One of the men had a slightly different thought about the mention of Hades. He often commented on "hell's bells". That was a new idea to me, but I will try to look it up to see where I missed that reference in the Bible.

Throughout my eavesdropping experience I felt very pleased that these young men who were working hard for their living could also have such strong faith as to include God in much of their conversation. It made me rethink some criticisms I had heard recently about how the younger people were not taking their religion seriously. Obviously that was not true with these three workmen.

I was so impressed I vowed to try to follow their example. But somehow when I used the same words they didn't seem to come across with the power and enthusiasm that the young men showed. Golly gee I just don't seem to have their abilities. For heaven's sake, what's the matter with me?