My name is Jabez

MY NAME IS JABEZ

It was as if the wind never blew his garments about. He heard nothing of the commotion at the market. The chatter of the women at the well caught none of his attention. All he knew was the pain he felt cut him deep and he was tired. He wanted out!


The young man walked a distance from the small settlement and walked to the outskirts near the desert. He needed to be alone; he needed to think. “ My solitude can be my answer.” he said to himself if only to bring relief to the heavy heart he carried within him. He found the spot that was his haven in times of despair. He sat and looked around him. He looked out into the desert and took in the scenery. It looked peaceful enough. The dunes in their various shapes and sizes seemed a lesser evil to him than his very own life.

A cough brought him out of his daze. He stood up quickly, feeling threatened in his haven. “Who are you?” he asked when he saw the elderly man lying near the bush that had previously concealed him. “ The question should be who are you, not me. You’re as dark as the rain cloud that brought the hail.” The man didn’t move. He lay there as unconcerned as possible.

The young man started but kept silent, studying the old man, not sure what to make of him. To begin with, why was he here? He didn’t seem like the orthodox old man you’d meet in the town. There was something about him, something almost mischievous, something…he just couldn’t tell what. He waited for the man to respond to his silence, but the old man just lay there waiting for no one, waiting for nothing.

A moment passed. The young man became irritated. “ This is my spot.” Few words were needed to explain the intended meaning; his tone was cold. The old man opened his eyes momentarily, looked at the young man and replied, “I don’t see your name indicating you as owner. Besides, you didn’t know I was here. As long as we both keep quiet, we can both enjoy the silence.” The young man was not pleased with this reply, and neither did the unconcerned attitude of the old man meet his taste.

Sensing that further conversation would only aggravate him more, he sat down again, only he could not enjoy the solitude he had previously taken pleasure in. The presence of the old man nearby unsettled him. He thought about their conversation. Then he remembered the words spoken to him,” You’re as dark as the rain cloud that brought the hail.” That brought a whole new feeling. “Who’s that man to comment on how I look? And why is he here of all places? Shouldn’t he be with the other men talking about their wives and their children and land and all those other things old men talk about?”

He heard the old man move so he peeked through the bush to see if solitude would have the pleasure of his company only to see the man had woken up. He dusted the sand off his back. “You know, keeping quiet never solved anything. The answers to life rarely lie within you, the old man said.

“If I wanted to ask you for your advice, I would have done so. I’m not interested in talking to you, old man,” the young man retorted. The old man smiled and then stood up. “ I didn’t ask you to talk to me. I just spoke what I saw. What you are looking for cannot be found in the desert, and neither is it within you.” With that, he picked up the staff that lay near him and began to walk back to the town. The young man, thankful that peace was his again, rested his back on a rock and aspired to get lost in his thoughts again.” The nerve of the man,” he thought. “ Who says I was looking for answers in the desert? And what if I was anyway? Of what concern is it to him?”

Suddenly, the revelation of the moment hit him. The old man had asked. Nobody had done that for the longest time. Even his mother had not shown him the concern he needed as her son. She spent her time complaining about everything that was going on. He stood up to see how far the old man had gone and saw him nearing the town. “That old man asked. He noticed and he asked.” Momentary flashbacks ran through his mind. “The answers to life rarely lie within you…”

He was not a young man for nothing so he gathered his tunic and ran after the old man. The old man had both intrigued and irritated him, but he had left a mark. “ I’ll only find out why he asked,” the young man told himself. Moments later he caught up with him.

“ You’re back, my young friend. Did you forget another cold harsh answer you wanted to give me, or have you found the deed to the spot?”

The young man could not help but smile. “You amuse me, you seem to have an answer for everything.”

The old man returned the smile. “ Is that why you ran after me? Because I seem to have the answer to everything?”

Youth has its moments of pride, and this would have been such a moment for the young man, but the injustices of life had made him a slightly more mellow man, when the occasion called for it.

“ I have just to inquire why you asked about me.”

The cold and rude replies were now replaced with humility. The old man looked over the young man and asked, “ What is your name, young friend?”

“Twice he has called me ‘young friend’. What is the meaning of this?” thought the young man.

“My name is Jabez.”

“ And tell me Jabez, what do you desire?”

The question brought a wave of emotion in Jabez. What did he want? A good home, a wife, money, a happy non-bickering mother…he hung his head low. Oh how he wanted to be happy! He looked up at the old man. “ I wish…I wish…that God would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that His hand might be with me, and that He would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!” He said no more. It had all been said.