Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Lifting Eyes to the Hills.

Lifting Eyes to the Hills.

George Rusky
December 2003


The narrator: George Rusky, 50, a Christian writer and teacher.
Martina: a visitor, a Czech woman
Pavel: her future husband, a Czech man.

"I’m living in the Czech Republic, writing articles for a couple of local newspapers and magazines that are printed for English-speaking readers. In my free time, I teach English at the Jazykova Skola, ( a language school) more for fun, rather than for money.

I wish I could write like the gifted Ernest Hemingway, except without his lack of Christian ideals.
I’m married with two adult sons, D., who is twenty-six, and K., who is twenty. S., my wife, will be fifty this year.
To make the picture complete, we have a ten- year old dog Cristina, a Toy-Terrier.
She was only two weeks old when S. brought to the family.

When I meet fellow-Americans for the first time, I am often asked: ”Why are you here?” with various tones, melodies and, sometimes, unpredictably, “What the hell are you doing here?” What is so great about living here in Prague?” Local folks don’t bother to ask me this question. They just figure that it is none of their business.
(A lot of my countrymen have the bad habit of being nosy; that is precisely why we get into so much trouble overseas.)

Well, this is the question I failed to answer myself, until recently.
Back in 1997, when I came here I intended to see Europe, to explore new territories, just as our ancestors did a couple of centuries ago. A well-known story, is it not?

As time passed I came to feel that Prague is a great city to live in* In a spiritual sense, I see it as the crossroads between the East and the West; the river brings commerce and goods, from the West and mysterious country folk with their ancient customs and folk-medicine.

Soon after my wife and younger son arrived, they both began liking their new city.
K. got to know, and later became a member of our local Baptist church.
There he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and was baptized.
Can you see this chain of events? In other words, GOD brought my family and I here.
It is truly wonderful!

Then, only then, I very clearly realized, why God had brought me here.

Well, after such an introduction, it’s the time to tell you the story.
It was Sunday, the day when I sometimes meet with people and talk to them about the Lord and the Bible, sort of Bible studies, a home course, if you want.

I’m fond of these meetings, where my listeners are able to share their understanding of God, who He is, and what they think about Christianity, and how we all have to live according to the word of God. We discuss a lot of various questions connected with this subject.

Along with the writing and teaching English, I consider this part of my ministry very important.
On that Sunday I was expecting M. and P. a young couple who came into my life to learn English and to learn about GOD. I usually try to combine
both lessons into one, but I had to confine my religious teaching at home.

Matina and Pavel seemed to be interested in learning about GOD, so I invited them to our apartment.
Since that day, they have visited me several times.
I must say, these meetings were not only very warm and pleasant, but useful in learning English and understanding of the nature of God. We began practicing as we started reading the Bible in English. Generally speaking, our friendship grew and developed.

As I waited for them to come I was thinking about the course and what were we going to study, when the telephone rang.
It was Martina.
“I’ve just arrived by bus,” she said.” I’m coming to see you in twenty minutes. Pavel called me and said he didn’t know if he would come. He is sorry.”
“May I come without him, yes?” she asked in her nice voice with an irresistible accent.
“Yes, sure, no problem,” I replied.

I put my mobile phone on the desk. Something was wrong. I felt it even though I didn’t know what it was.
I tried to pull my thoughts together.
“I come without him, yes?”

Did Martina say that? Did she say she was coming without her boy friend this time into my apartment where we were supposed to be alone with no one else there?
“What seems to be the problem?” I said in a strong voice.
“We are going to read the third chapter of Matthew and discuss it, aren’t we?” I went on.
I was just about to continue my speech in the same vein, but suddenly I saw Martina’s eyes, her smile, her hair, the picture was so vivid and real, as if she was next to me.

I even could sense the aroma of the perfume she was wearing.
I remembered, when I first saw her, I was charmed by her look.
I felt a warm wave spreading on my body, the tongue got dry.
I couldn’t control my thoughts which now led me to the images of her naked body with a perfect shape of her breasts and smell of her skin. I imagined us in bed with all the details of the moment.

I could hardly breathe!. The flow of sexy pictures overwhelmed me. The vision was so strong and real, that I lost control. Faces of Jesus, my wife, my children all of my dearest ones changed one another in front of my eyes.
Yet, there was someone else, who’s whispering I heard. It was going through my ears into my brain and chained my will, pushing me into the act!

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it was terribly wrong to follow his instructions and not to be strong enough to struggle against him.
I suddenly realized! I had to do something to stop this flow of images!
But how could I do that?
“Isn’t she a good partner? You know now what to do when she comes! “The voice kept on whispering.
”You don’t have to read Mathew to her, it’s a long ago story. Use this chance; answer the call of your human nature. Both of you will just love it! Nobody will ever know that…”

“But my Father in Heaven will!” I gathered all my power and shouted.
“Come on, don’t be stupid,” he continued. ”Hath your Father said, Ye shall not love a woman you want?” He started laughing at me, waiting for my reaction.
Something dramatically familiar was in the question…

Yes, now I remembered, from where I had known the question.
I knew also, that alone, I could do nothing against him. I reached the Bible and breathed out: ”Jesus, help me, please!”

I repeated again and again, or it might have been just my thoughts, rather than words. I tried to imagine Christ’s face, His hands his eyes, the ones I saw in the movie Jesus Christ
“My Lord, only you can help me now, please do it for me. I’m not strong enough, I’m so sorry. Forgive me for not being that strong,” I begged…

Then, in an instant, my dream was over. I opened my eyes, and whoosh! The voluptuous vision disappeared! I found myself with the Bible in my hand, kneeling on my knees. I felt a great sense of relief, as if a giant boulder had fallen off my shoulders!

“Oh, Jesus, thank you, my Lord. I knew you will never let me down, when I need you”
I said.
I slowly stood up, closed my face with my hands, trying to realize what had happened a few minutes ago. The Lord helped me. There was no doubt about it. Hallelujah!
“Thank you my Lord, thank you for your help…”

The doorbell brought me back to reality. I opened the door.
Martina was smiling at the door, and next to her, stood Pavel.
“A strange thing happened to my boss. He, all of a sudden, changed the time of our meeting today, so,” Pavel continued,” I can have the pleasure of seeing you!”
His words rang in my head: “The pleasure of seeing you!”
“You can’t imagine, what a pleasure for me to see you,” I said, smiling.

No, I didn’t just say it, I practically shouted, and laughed hysterically!
They both had a quizzical expression on their faces but they didn’t ask me any thing. They didn’t know, what had happened to me just a few moments before, and they never will!

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” (Psalms 121:1,2)