Azeem Ullah sat down for breakfast, pulled out his phone and wrote a text message “I am sick. Have a bad, bad headache and a fever. I feel very weak. I can’t work today. Sorry.” Then he pressed ‘Send’.
His wife said, “What was that, My Life?”
“I’ve told my boss I can’t go to work today. Because I’m sick.”
Azeem’s wife looked at him. “What!” She said, “Your boss is not stupid.”
Azeem said, “Look, My Life, there are THREE games being played today. Our neighbour has invited me to watch with him. They’re big, exciting games. They’ll all be close. They’re streaming one after the other. That’s a whole day of football! How can anyone go to work?”
His wife said, “Your boss is not dumb. He knows you are football mad. It’s not the first time you’ve done this. You’ve called in sick too many times. You should stop and make some changes.”
Just then, Azeem’s phone vibrated. He looked at it and stood up. “It’s our neighbour,” he said. “The game has started.”
As he left his wife said, “My Life, I will to talk again with you about this. Later.”
And she did.
That evening as they sat down to eat she said, “Azeem, you should not have told your boss you were sick and watched the football. You’ve done that too many times. It’s becoming a habit. A bad habit. You’ve got to stop and make some changes.”
“My Life,” he said, “it’s OK. Everyone’s doing it.”
“NOT everyone’s doing it!” his wife exclaimed. “Your daughter is not doing it … yet. What is she going to think when she’s old enough to understand what you’re doing? What sort of example are you setting her? What lessons is she learning from you?”
Azeem looked down at his meal.
“Besides,” she went on, “you need to feel good about what you do. You need to be happy with your actions, My Life. Even the things you do in secret…”
Azeem Ullah looked up. He said, “On Thursday morning its the final. It’s the last game of the season and it’s going to be huge; really big. Very exciting. Our neighbour has invited me to watch with him.”
His wife said. “What WILL you do about that, My Life?”
He looked at his meal and didn’t answer.
On Thursday morning Azeem sat down for breakfast and his phone vibrated. He looked at it. “It’s our neighbour. The game has started.”
His Wife looked at him. “What are you doing to do, My Life?”
Azeem Ullah looked at her. Slowly a smile spread across his face. A big, confident, beaming, happy smile.
After the story
Did you like that? Was it interesting? Was there something particular that was interesting? Do you know of situations like that? What do you notice in the story that is true about people? Some stories will show us something about who God is or how He interacts with us; did you see anything in this story like that?
The Scriptures
“An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.” Proverbs 24.26
“I know, O God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity…” 1 Chronicles 29.17
“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the faithless are destroyed by their duplicity.” Proverbs 11.3