Humor Ist Wenn Man Trotz Dem Lacht

I found a new favorite website tonight, http://www.konig.org/about.htm. I was looking up the reference to the 153 fish that the disciples catch after Jesus meets them on the beach after His resurrection, and the first website I found was a very complex and somewhat confusing numerological treatise. I skimmed through it because it wasn’t making much sense and when I started to read something about the Bible really being a pagan philosophical text, I closed out of that and went back to look for another website reference. That’s when I found my new favorite website, and George Konig’s words on those 153 fish, http://www.konig.org/wc9.htm. It’s a lovely article, and I encourage you to read it. There were references given for one of the theories that George Konig highlighted, describing that a Christian Army officer had “discovered that the four Gospels record precisely 153 individuals who were specifically blessed by Jesus Christ.” After explaining in more detail, George Konig continues in a later paragraph with words that touched my heart, “Between the 4 Gospels, the total of these blessed people supposedly adds up to 153. If true, perhaps this number of 153 is more than mere coincidence. It would coincide with the fact that the Lord numbers and watches over every individual who places his faith and trust in Him.” He finishes with one of the sweetest passages of scripture to my mind, writing, “As Jesus states in Matthew 10:29-31, ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’”

I enjoyed reading George Konig’s writing so much – he has a writing voice that is from the heart, honest, and pure from any artifice. “Artless” is the term that used to be used for a person who had that kind of open, honest, and pure voice, meaning not that there was no art as in the beauty of art, but that there was no falsity or manipulation. I read his testimony next, http://www.konig.org/testimony.htm, and found so much more to enjoy that I knew immediately that I’d be writing about him here because his is a voice worth sharing and he has an important message to share. There is so much to enjoy in his testimony, and here is something just to give you an idea of the richness there, “I believe that Satan will strike out at you after you are saved, just as he tempted Jesus during the 40-day fast in the desert after Jesus was baptized by John. After I was saved, things went downhill for a while. There was a lot of sickness with my family members, financial problems, etc. Satan lost me and he keeps attacking to get me back, hoping I will just give up and turn away from God. His attacks are still coming, but I take it as an honor when they happen. I must be a big pain in the neck to him. I figure the only rest he will get is when I’m asleep, and maybe not even then, as I have found myself praying as I wake up. I pray for 1 to 2 hours a day, including reading the Bible. I recommend constant prayer to all of you. Keep talking to God.” After that he writes, “We have had sickness in the family, car problems, house problems and financial problems that are too numerous and too personal to list, but God has pulled us through every one of them. To Him be the glory.” And then he writes this, “One of the more interesting things that occurred for me in the last 10 years is the complete peace of mind I have with all the problems that have come up. I don’t know if I could have handled these problems if they had occurred before I was saved.”

As I read George Konig’s words, I knew I had to share them. A friend and I had been talking about some very similar experiences, and I found George Konig’s description refreshing and encouraging and full of light. Over the weekend I had bought a few things at a yard sale someone was having near where I live. She had some German cookie presses – not cutters, but the old presses that you roll over the dough. My mother has some that her mother brought from Germany, and we used to make the cookies at Christmas time. Even though my mother doesn’t bake any more, she still likes to have the presses around, and I haven’t had much time for baking either so I haven’t wanted to ask her for them. When I saw them at the yard sale, I bought them immediately, and while I was talking to the woman who had owned them, I noticed a little sign in a bowl of pins with different sayings on them. The little sign was about two inches square, and on it were these words, “Humor ist wenn man trotz dem lacht.” I know a little bit of German, and could figure out the “Humor is when a man” part, but I had no idea what “trotz dem lacht” meant. When I asked the woman, she said that it had been her husband’s from when he was stationed in Germany, and she suggested I ask her neighbor who was sitting nearby. Her neighbor said it meant, “Humor is when you laugh,” but I didn’t think that was quite it. German humor is strange sometimes, but that seemed a bit too simple. When I got home I looked it up and found out that it means, “Humor is when you look on the bright side,” and I started to think about the Holy Spirit and the spirit of laughter and joy, and how Jesus wants us to rejoice in all things because ultimately we can know that He is Lord of all and that He has triumphed over everything so no matter what we are facing we can look on the bright side, we can look on the side of Jesus, and we can know we have the victory.

Reading George Konig’s words tonight gave me that feeling, a feeling of lighthearted joy. It wasn’t the voice of a man who has not known trouble and hardship, but the voice of a man who knows Jesus. He knows that God is faithful and that He will always bring us through. It is the voice of the wise builder that Jesus teaches about in Matthew 7:24-27, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” It is the voice of a man who knows how to rejoice in His God.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan