Howard Rutledge, a United States air force pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam during the early stages of the Vietnamese War. He spent several miserable, terrible years in the hands of the Vietnamese before being released when the war ended. He shares a testimony of something God taught him in that terrible place that really relates to where we are this morning.

"During those longer periods of enforced reflection, it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial, the worthwhile from the waste. For example, in the past, I usually worked or played hard on Sundays and had no time for church. For years my wife, Phyllis, had encouraged me to join the family at church. She never nagged or scolded. She just kept hoping and praying, but I was too busy, too preoccupied to sp…