Big Elmer

By Ted E. Hurlburt

A wrestler who causes his opponents death in the ring is haunted by the grief it has caused the opponents family. His fruitless endeavors to work his way from beneath the shadow of guilt have failed until he finds an answer from a most unlikely source. Read his full story in the pages of this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490843933

Ted E. Hurlburt

Ted E. (Mr. Ted) Hurlburt is a Christian minister and instructor. He has served as pastor for congregations in California, Oregon, and Hawaii. He taught at Zimbabwe Christian College, at Harare, and at his alma mater, San Jose Bible College (now William Jessup University). He lives in Yucaipa, California, with his lovely wife, Dorothy, and has a son and two daughters.

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Copyright © 2014 Ted E. Hurlburt.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-4394-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-4395-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-4393-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014912196

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/25/2014

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Introduction

T he story you are about to read is fiction. All of the events, characters, and descriptions are invented … except for Big Elmer. There was a man named Elmer who fit the description of the Big Elmer in this story. He was a giant of a man and a loving Christian, but the events of this book, to my knowledge, were not a part of his life.

As you read this story, four things can be seen.

1. No tragedy is so great as to overwhelm good.

2. We learn more from our failures than we do our accomplishments.

3. Success is often built on a foundation of misfortune.

4. Forgiveness begets forgiveness.

Laugh a little, cry a little, and enjoy a lot.

CHAPTER 1

B ig Elmer had a pair of loving hands. They were the hands of a man with a loving heart, hands that would tell a wonderful and powerful story.

If anyone shook the hand of Big Elmer, as he was affectionately called, they would never forget coming in contact with a hand that was so broad and thick that it was like shaking hands with a baseball mitt. Big Elmer’s huge hand was well in proportion with the rest of his preponderant form. He was the most muscular specimen of human power wrapped in a body that anyone could behold.

He was tremendously big boned. His facial features were huge and coarse. Shoulders were almost twice the breadth of the average man. By the size of his arm, one would think a foot should be protruding from the end rather than the hand. It was no wonder that there was a measure of timidity expressed in the eyes of those who met him. That timidity was immediately dispelled by his dancing eyes and bright smile. His handshake was from a loving heart that had been kissed by God’s grace.

Big Elmer was recommended for enrollment to South Bay Bible College by Pastor Koch, who was a member of its board of directors. The school was a small ministerial training college that took pride in maintaining a close, informal rapport with their students. Dr. Price, a professor, had the opportunity of teaching these fine students.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he had been assigned to Student Services. He would book the music teams and fill requests for students to speak in local congregations. He strove to motivate students in areas where their talents could best be used. One of the rewards of his position was seeing the students mature in knowledge, zeal, and wisdom. It was in the latter area that he came to appreciate Big Elmer.

Not too long after first meeting Big Elmer, four or five students and Dr. Price were sitting on the lawn and talking about their last class session, which focused on the life of the apostle Paul and his conversion to Christ. Soon they were all sharing their own experience of becoming Christians.

Big Elmer stood up, lifted his massive hands, and turned them over and back, over and back, over and back. As they looked into the serious expression on his face, he began to tell the most fascinating and devastating yet wondrous experience of how he became a Christian. As he spoke, there was total silence, for Big Elmer had completely captured their attention.

He spoke slowly and softly, and they gathered more closely around the towering man so as not to miss a word. He told them about his hands, hands that were trained to conquer and to hurt. Before I came to South Bay Bible College, before I met Christ, I crawled through the ropes into a ring to match my brawn and wit against another human being. Wrestling was my life, the object of my love. I breathed wrestling, ate wrestling, and my dreams were dreams of wrestling. It can really get ahold of a person. Everything about it, from the smell of the dressing room, the glare of the ring lights, to the response of the jeers and cheers of the crowd. These are the things I trained for, worked for, and yes, even lived for. I knew how to pretend to be hurt when I wasn’t and how to appear to be permanently maiming my opponent while not hurting him at all. I was a proud man. Most of all, I was proud of my hands.

Big Elmer was still looking at his uplifted hands, still turning them over and back slowly. They all looked at his hands too. As they stared, the fingers slowly curled into two massive fists. The muscles of his arms rippled into hardness. His shoulders hunched, and his once dancing eyes now shot forth sparks of fire. His big happy smile moved into a snarl of hatred. They leaned far back as real fear crept into their hearts.

Elmer roared, With my hands I could take a man’s head and crush it!

They all scooted back even farther.

The little group had grown to a dozen or more people. The girls were wide-eyed, their hands cupped over their mouths as they stood frozen in place. The guys looked with wonder and a weird kind of admiration.

As Big Elmer relaxed, so did those around him. His eyes twinkled. The big smile was again on his face. It was as though he had emerged from a dark fog filled with the bleakness of the past and now walked into the bright clearness of the now. Yet there were still shadows—shadows of self-blame, of guilt, of shame. They could tell that he wondered if the shadows would ever leave.

Elmer continued his story. "My last wrestling match was with a young contender. Billy the Kid was his ring name. He was just getting started in professional wrestling. He’d had maybe a dozen bouts or so, but I was the first big-timer he would wrestle. Prior to the match we talked over some of the holds we would do, about the length of time each would take before exchanging offense for defense, secret hand signals we would use so no one would get hurt.

"Billy the Kid was really excited and gung ho to have this match. I told Billy I would let him put on a good show before I took him down. Billy gave me a big grin and told me that it may not be him who has the last fall. I thought that Billy was a cocky kid, but that’s what it takes in this game. I kind of liked him.

The match was going pretty well. Billy was making a good show of it. It was evident that the Kid felt this was more than just a match. To him it was a golden opportunity to let the wrestling world know he was more than ready for the next level.

Big Elmer looked at his hands again and continued his story. "The Kid made a rookie mistake. Maybe it was because he miscalculated my speed. I moved in, elbows high. As we banged chests, my arms were around him and my fingers interlocked. I pulled him tight and applied the pressure. It was as good a big bear hug as I could have possibly achieved. I squeezed tight and held it, waiting for the secret hand signal to let up, but Billy the Kid made none. Boy, this kid is really tough, I thought."

They could tell that Big Elmer was struggling to get the rest of the story out. His speech was slowed by grasping for words, and his eyes welled up in tears.

Then Elmer continued by telling them of the biggest mistake he ever made in his life. With a little jerk, I squeezed harder. There was a loud pop, then a scream of anguish. The kid lay limp in my arms. I could tell his back was broken. I lifted Billy in my arms and stared into his ashen face. Then ever-so-gently I laid him tenderly on the mat as though he were a newborn babe.

As the students and Dr. Price hung on