A MOMENT OF STUPIDITY

Saturday I had an accident. I was distracted looking down at a GPS in a curve, looked up and saw I was running off the road into a mud hole. I overcorrected, slid across the road and into some trees. The airbag deployed, but, unusual for me, I had failed to buckle my seatbelt. I evidently slid around the bag and into the windshield. The van was totaled. I have a broken left forefinger, a neck brace, a bloody face, forehead and scalp, and am sore all over my body. I was in the ER twelve hours, and missed the Iron Bowl. But now I am at home typing this on Monday Morning (December 2nd).

Some would say that I was lucky or fortunate that it was no worse. With a little more force it could have been fatal. But I was not lucky. I was surrounded. “The angel of the Lord encamps all around them that fear Him, and delivers them.” (Psalm 34:7) I have spoken often of our need to look for God’s hand in everything that happens. So I am praising God that it wasn’t any worse, and I know His hand was in that. I am praising God that no oncoming vehicle was in the other lane on a busy road, and God’s hand was in that. So I am grateful to God for life, for medical care and for healing.

Lastly, my stupidity proves once again the danger of distracted driving. 

Grace and Peace

MARRYING MAN

            I spoke with my grand niece this week. This is my brother Bill’s grandchild. I married her grandparents (my brother and his wife Evelyn) and then I married her parents (Peggy Jo and Donnie Helms). She wanted to know if I am still doing wedding ceremonies. She thought it would be special if I could also marry her and her fiancé, the third generation. Being a licensed minister in the state of Alabama, I still have the legal authority to preside at weddings and sign the marriage license. Also, as long as I can don my robe, stand up and speak, I can accomplish the task.

            To be sure, I still have my robe; and also my baptismal trousers. But serving at Central Park Baptist with the few members being median and senior adults, in these four years I’ve neither married someone in the church nor baptized anyone into the church. I have done a number of weddings, however, for relatives and former church members or their children. So I assured Katie that I would be delighted to preside at her wedding in May.

            For the first several decades of my ministry I could claim that of the persons at whose weddings I had presided, none had divorced. Alas that ended some years ago. Tragically, many now go through the heartache and trauma of divorce, including any children involved.

            The vows repeated verbally in a ceremony are of no value unless there is a prior commitment of the will. A commitment to the spouse but also, for believers, the vow is a commitment to God. God is a party to the union. Jesus said, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Mark 10:9) 

Grace and Peace

GROWING OLD(ER)

             This Friday Liz and I will attend the “Golden Bulldog Lunch” at Samford University. As the name implies, the lunch is for Samford (Howard) graduates who finished their degree fifty or more years ago. The truth is, I finished fifty-six years ago and Liz finished fifty-four years ago. I rejoice to attend and fellowship with some other old people. But being eligible to be a part of the lunch affirms once again that we are getting old(er).

            Growing older has its own positives, but this occasion will provoke the memories of how great it was to be a college student in the 1950’s. It was a relative innocent time and peaceful time. The Korean conflict was ending and the Vietnam War was not yet on the radar. The post World War II boom was still progressing. Most of us were far from rich, but we had all we really needed. And most were experiencing upward mobility.  Rock and roll music was bursting on the scene with Elvis, Buddy Holley, Fats Domino, and others. There were the great experiences unique to the college, the A Capella Choir, the classes, preaching trips for H-Days, even the hour long trolley ride going to and coming from campus.

            We cherish that time but also cherish each part of life. Wise King Solomon said, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Also, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (3:8) Our task is to find the beautiful in every season, at every age.                                                                                                                  

Grace and Peace

LITTERBUGS

 Last year when we moved into our new home in the Oaks on Parkwood, we were very pleased with the manicured lawns and roadways of the complex. But I was shocked by the amount of litter on the approach road, Parkwood.  When it became apparent that the county would not be picking up litter on the roadway, I decided to informally adopt the roadway from Highway 150 to the entrance of the Oaks, a one man litter patrol. I bought a grappler and spend an hour or two each week picking up litter. I haven’t covered the whole stretch yet, because each week a bag full of new litter appears on the areas I have already worked. Alabama, like all other states, has a law against littering, but such laws are hard to enforce.

This experience has caused me to reflect on the character of people who throw trash out of a vehicle’s window. Liz has wished for a sign that says “Please Do Not Litter.” Such a sign would do no good with people who have no problem with littering. Not knowing who these people are, I have a strong opinion on what they are. First, they have no respect for the law. Second, they do not care for their neighbors or for others, else they would not foul the environment. Third, they are very self centered doing what they want to do regardless of the result. I don’t make assumptions about their religious condition. But if they are Christians they have forgotten the “Golden Rule” of Jesus; “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31) I wonder how these would feel if someone could gather all the litter they have ever thrown out of a vehicle window and dump it in their yard.

So, please, put it in a trash can, a litter barrel or take it home with you. 

Grace and Peace

LIFE IS LIKE A VAPOR

James, in his letter, gives us a perspective on life. In James 4:13-14 he writes: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit; ’whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” We need to live each day with the awareness that that day may be our last.

A friend and fellow church member was going to visit his mother on his motorcycle. He had in mind where he would go after that. He probably had in mind tentative plans for the next day, and the next week. But someone pulled an automobile into his path and the collision took his life. I feel certain that John Veazey had his life and his spirituality in order and was ready to be ushered into the next life. But I doubt he expected it to be on Friday. Our sympathy goes out to his family. And though he surely sorrows to be parted from them, I know that his life beyond life is one of rewards and joy.

We all need to make plans, keep a calendar, and honor future commitments. Life would be chaotic without so doing. But the question for all of us is, do our plans for our activities have a place for interruption? For one day, hopefully far into the future, we shall transition from this life into the next, some gradually and some suddenly. We need to be sure we are in the Lord’s hands when it happens. 

Grace and Peace

PLEASE GOVERNOR BENTLEY

                During 55 years of service as the pastor of Baptist churches I have sought assiduously to avoid politics in my preaching and writing, whether local, state or federal. I have never had anyone’s bumper sticker on my auto or sign in my yard. I have had my opinions and faithfully voted in all elections. But I did not want politics to interfere with ministry to any person or group. (This was doubly true when members of the same small town church ran against each other in a local election.)

 There is a current issue, however, that demands that I speak out. As a part of healthcare reform, the federal government is offering to expand Medicaid in each state, providing 100% of the cost of such expansion for the first years and the bulk of the cost in following years. Such an expansion in Alabama would provide more than 300,000 Alabamians with healthcare coverage who are not now covered. There is one person who can say “yes” or “no” to such an expansion. That one person is the Governor of Alabama, Dr. Bentley, who has indicated that he will say “no,” thus depriving these many citizens of healthcare coverage.  

Although I do not know Governor Bentley personally, I believe him to be a good man. He is an active member of a Baptist church in Tuscaloosa. He is therefore my brother in Christ. I do not intend any disrespect for him as a person, nor as our Governor. But I appeal to him to change his mind on this issue. He has given reasons for rejecting this benefit for the people, such as Medicaid in the state being “broken” and needing to be fixed. I know nothing of these things. I suspect his position has much to do with politics and resistance to the President. But whatever informs his thinking, I would, as a fellow Christian, like to remind him of our responsibility in Christ. May it also inform his thinking.   

In Matthew 25 Jesus speaks of His judging of the nations. The criteria He will use will be how we treated the needy among us, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked (i.e. the poor), the sick and the prisoner. Is it too farfetched to imagine Him saying “I was sick and you denied me healthcare?” “Lord, when did we deny you healthcare?” “Inasmuch as you denied it to the least of these, you denied it unto me.”

If I were the sole person in the state of Alabama who must decide to give or deny healthcare to hundreds of thousands of Alabamians, pushing aside all “reason” and “politics,” I would certainly opt to provide this healthcare. I would not like to live out my life and go into eternity with a“NO” on my record. 

Grace and Peace

KILLING CHILDREN

            The world was shocked by the use of gas to kill an estimated 1400+ in Syria, many of them babies and children. As I write this the U.S. Congress debates what, if any, response the U.S. should make to such an atrocity. But, think about this - Jehovah, God of the Israelites, is guilty of something very similar. He commanded the Israelites to wipe out the nations completely. They were to kill the men and women, the children and little babies, as well as the animals. The babies were dashed against rocks or on the ground and they were just as dead as those gassed in Syria.

            On Wednesday evenings we have been studying the books of Moses, and I have confessed to those present that I have a difficult time with this God. I do believe that Jehovah of the Old Testament and Jesus of the New Testament are God, and with the Holy Spirit comprise the Trinity, the three in one, a concept difficult for people to comprehend.  The July/August issue of Christianity Today has three articles which seek to reconcile God in the Old Testament with God in the New Testament. For me they failed. No commentator I have ever read has successfully done so.

            Many reasons have been suggested as to why God was such a terrible and fearful God in the Old Testament, but none fully explain it. Some claim God is sovereign over all things and does not need to justify Himself to us. I agree.

            Some say the Trinity is a mystery that we must accept by faith. I say the same thing about the God of the Old Testament. He is a mystery that we accept by faith. I have hope that He will explain some of these things to us in heaven. That may not be necessary, however. We may just know by then. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 

Grace and Peace