HUP 1 – November 4, 2025

The day had come. His prayers answered. Smiling, the old man stood before a gathering of mixed generation Christians: millennials, Gen X’s – Zs… married…  single ready to talk about Jesus during a Just Musing Session. The old man’s name is Hup. Yes, he had prayed about this day. He had prayed as King David prayed: “Even when I’m old and gray, do not forsake me God, till I declare your power to the next generation.”

“So. Do you want to hear my two cents or not?” Hup asked the gathering of grace-gilded gladiators.

“Go on, Hup,” Tim called out from the back of the room.

Hup had met Tim in a Dunkin’ Donuts. Hup approached him when he saw him sitting at a table, reading his Bible. Hup told Tim about his desire to serve the Lord by sharing the Lord’s testimony with the younger generation. 

“The Lord’s testimony? Not yours?” Tim asked.

Hup smiled, then asked him, “Left or right side?”

“Left or right side? What do you mean?” Tim leaned back and gave Hup a puzzled look. 

“When we stand before Jesus, that’s what I mean. Whose testimony do you want to hear?” 

“Ah, Got it.” Tim laughed, and said that he’d do what he could to make the session happen. And there he was, standing in front absorbing the moment… praying that this meeting didn’t turn out to be his testimony… gone badly.

“How’d you get the name Hup?” a young woman sitting close asked.

 “It’s a derivative of hupandros… New Testament Greek”

“Meaning?” a young man who stood in the back next to Tim. 

“Means husband. Was for forty-three years. She gave the marching orders, Hup 2,3,4; that is until she died.”

A smattering of laughter spread across the room, but ended abruptly when he spoke of his wife’s death. “It’s okay, she’s where God intended her.”  

‘How’d you feel about your wife giving marching orders?”

“Short marches, fine. Forced? Not so.”

“It says in your bio, you’re an Ex-Marine?” the woman smiled but continued.  

“Did my bio read Ex-Marine? No. Former Marine, Miss. X marks a spot – spots make blemishes and blemishes – without grace – make husbands and wives into ‘ex’s.’  I am a former Marine as I was husband.” 

The man chuckled who sat next to the woman who spoke out. Hup could hear the man say, “I told you, Pam,” then Pam elbowed him and snapped. “And you stood by and let me?”

Hup thought of Adam and Eve. “I apologize for the stir. Anyway, I remember saying the same once, and being confronted by a former Marine who corrected me on the spot. That stayed with me. What stayed with me too, was our need for grace.. God’s grace first and foremost, and what you get? Spread like real butter… not an oleo or margarine. We have enough Oleo in the church. 

“If I do, that’s probably a Spirit-directed segue into my first thought: We need to show each other grace… You know the parable. Jesus spoke of a man who was forgiven a great debt – more than he could repay if he worked a hundred lives, the span a thousand years.”

“He was forgiven but threw another man in prison for not paying up on his.”

Hup mused: by the looks of the lad, a Gen Alpha. “That’s right,” Hup said, “Of course, I don’t know how far we go with that parable.

“What do you mean, how far?” Tim called out.

“Well, it takes us into the question of the nature of the grace shown to the man. Was it saving grace or common?”

“Saving or common?” another asked, unfamiliar with the terms.   

“Saving grace promises heaven but assures neither sunlight nor rain on earth. Common grace? God treats everyone alike, where his providence allows the sun to shine and rain to fall – whether good or evil.”    

The class became quiet at that point. In a way, God had sent his rain there, and it was time for things to soak in.  Next up? Hup 2. 

 

        

 

 

 

The Apostle Paul said it, ‘Whatever is done without faith is a sin.’ Of course, when we hear something like that we tend to balk, if not curse God. Then again, that’s to be expected. We’re all sinners, and those who live in, and love the world, they tend to see any mention of sin as a real buzz kill. We wanna do what we wanna do, and there’s a lot of things we wanna do that… well… if we do have faith, we hope to survive the night. Yeah, and if it seems I’m making light of the subject, I hope so – for your sake. Yes, but I’m not making light in the sense to dismiss the seriousness of sin and its consequence. I’m grappling with that myself – everyday. The Lord God is just and justifier. He’s the One who’ll bring harsh judgment. As for me, I’m coming to grapple with sin and its grip, as I hold this two cent coin:

Heads:  ‘Give thanks always for all things, and
Tails: ‘Do all things in faith.’