Whatsoever Means Anything

About the Book

Should miracles all be taken with a grain of salt or be accepted without a trace of doubt? What if Jesus was taken literally when He said, “You haven’t asked Me for anything yet. Ask for whatsoever you want, and I will do it for you so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” And what if Jesus responded instantly to such requests? And what if Jesus started answering questions plainly, and it became next to impossible to not recognize a Christian?

Hasn’t a story got room for more than one miracle? If you answered to that was no, then this book is not for you; however, if your answer was yes, then this is the book for you. The story is crowded with people like yourself, except for the awesome adventure in which they find themselves.

Here’s a sampling from a couple of chapters.

Irving Samuels pulled his coat collar tighter about his neck and ducked his head into the wind as he pressed on toward home. “I wish that I didn’t have to face Maria tonight,” he thought. “Why does she have to nag me all of time, anyway? She wasn’t that way before we got married. Sometimes I wish that I had stayed single.”

Irving patted his breast pocket to verify to himself the presence of his paycheck. He fervently hoped that it would go further than it usually did. It might be a long time before he would get another paycheck, because he had just been laid off along with five hundred of his fellow employees. “They could have given us more warning,” he thought.  “On the other hand, what would I have done if they had given me two weeks notice? So many people are out of work that there aren’t any jobs open anyway, especially in my field. Oh well, in a couple of weeks, I can draw unemployment.”

Irving sighed deeply. Lately things hadn’t been going at all well for him. Suddenly he stopped and spun around, “You dummy!” he admonished himself. “You walked right past the bank.”

He quickly retraced his steps past three stores and entered the front door of the American National Bank. He was pleased to find that there were only two people in line at the teller’s window. A few minutes later, his check was cashed, and he was pocketing the money. Somehow his week’s pay of $480 didn’t seem to measure up to his usual high regard for his paycheck. “A good stiff drink or two might help me feel better,” he decided. “Ha! It might even help me to face Maria!”

A few steps more brought him to Mickey’s Tavern. Irving walked inside, blinked his eyes to adjust to the gloom, and yelled at the bartender, “Hey, Mick! Give me a bourbon! Better yet, make it a double.”

“Hey yourself, Irving! What’re you doing in here so early?”

“Got laid off!” answered Irving. “Boy, nothing’s going right lately.”

Just then, the newscast on the radio behind the bar caught Irving’s attention. “The Dow Jones Industrial Averages plunged another 522 points today to establish a 15 Year low. Brokers attribute much of this drop to . . .”

“Oh no!” groaned Irving. “First my job, and now this!”

“It can’t be that bad,” said Mickey as he put the bourbon down in front of Irving.

Irving tossed the drink down neat and grimaced before answering , “My stock hasn’t done anything but go down since I bought it. On top of that, it follows the Dow like it was glued to it. I bought right at the peak, and if that isn’t bad enough, I bought 500 shares on margin. I kept waiting for it to go up, and now I’ve waited too long. Now I will have to put up some more cash. With my job gone, I just can’t afford it. Give me another double.”

Irving gulped down the second drink, threw a couple of bills on the bar, and walked out.

“What a stupid mess,

About the Author

Joel L. Meredith’s personal, in-depth years of Bible study, his careful research in related materials, and his meticulous attention to detail all combine to produce his enjoyable and educational reference works, which include Meredith’s Book of Bible Lists, Meredith’s Second Book of Bible Lists, and The Gentile Bible. Then he demonstrated a lighter, humorous side to himself in his latest book, Adventures in Alliteration, his personal side in, More Than Enough, and now his what-if side in his novel, Whatsoever Means Anything. Joel and his wife, Lorraine live in Texas. He has two daughters, seven grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and two cats. He’s a retired Senior Logistics Engineer who worked in the aerospace industry for almost twenty years.