DO YOU WADDLE?

            The Alabama Baptist newspaper recently had a lead article on obesity, more specific, obesity among pastors. The article quoted a survey that revealed that 30 percent of active pastors are obese. This is beyond “overweight” and is considered a medical problem. The article suggested several ways an individual can cope with the problem. In the list was increased exercise. It has been proven that exercise is the best medicine available for all conditions. In concern for brothers and sisters who are at medical risk because of their obesity, I was contemplating some ways to encourage them.

            About the same time that article came out I read in another publication about a zoo which was facing the same problem…  with its penguins. After a few months of gorging on fish, the penguins at the Asahiyama Zoo on the northern Japanese island of Hakkaido, were becoming obese. The vets prescribed exercise. The zookeepers organized a 30 minute waddle session twice a day. Patrons of the Zoo have flocked there to see the daily penguin waddle.

            Aha! Maybe, instead of a penguin waddle, we can begin a pastor waddle. Twice a day, rise from the desk or forsake one’s activity for a thirty minute walk. Dedicate that time, one hour a day, for the sake of health and longevity. An added benefit is more energy for routine tasks.

           A waddle will do you good also, whoever you are. I know all the excuses for not doing so. I have used them. But I challenge you to begin your own waddle sessions. “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:27) 

Grace and peace.

FRIENDSHIPS

           At almost 80 years of age, I often flip back through memories of good times and of hard times. Doing so brings into focus some friends I haven’t heard from in many years. Alas, they haven’t heard from me either. It has been so long that I wonder if they are still living or are now on the other side with Christ. Those who are as old as me, or almost as old, are in what a pastor friend calls “the check out zone.”

The internet and Facebook have been instrumental in reconnecting with some of them. But in addition, I have decided, rather than wonder where they are or what they are doing; I will systematically attempt to contact them and bring each of us up to date, and renew our friendship.

            I recognize that keeping a friendship alive is my responsibility. I can’t count on someone else doing it. Why should I be the one? I am the one because I value those friendships and thank God for them. And I am blessed by the memories of them.

            The apostle Paul made mission trips all over the Mediterranean world. I imagine that he made hundreds, if not thousands of friends during those trips. I don’t know if he kept up with any of them (no regular postal service, no phone, no email or Facebook). But he remembered them. To the Philippians he wrote, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” (Philippians 1:3)

 

Grace and peace

ONCE TO DIE

             The headline was a shocker. It boldly proclaimed, “Tommy Arthur, scheduled to die for sixth time…”

            Cats are reputed to have nine lives and can, therefore, die nine times. This myth is attributed to the natural suppleness and swiftness cats exhibit to escape life-threatening situations. Also lending credence to this myth is that falling cats often land on their feet because of an inbuilt automatic twisting reaction and are able to twist their bodies around to land feet first.
                 (Do you know why cats have nine lives -- or did you ever wonder why people say they do? This is the story. A very hungry cat entered a house one day and found a plate of nine fish that were going to be eaten for dinner by the nine starving children who lived there. The cat was feeling a little selfish that day and ate up all of the fish in nine quick bites. With no food on the table, the nine starving children died of hunger the very next day, along with the cat who died from eating WAY too much. When the cat went up to heaven and spoke with God, God was so angry with the cat that he threw him out of heaven and made him fall for nine days all the way back to earth. To this day, the cat still holds the nine lives of the starving children in his belly, which is why he must die nine different times before he will stay dead.)

                Of course, cats do not have nine lives. And no man can die six times. Closer examination of the headline and article puts it in context. Arthur has been scheduled for the sixth time to die. But his execution has not happened.

            Men die physically only once. As we are told in the book of Hebrews, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)  We can be ready for the judgment by spiritually dying to self and allowing Christ to live in us. As Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) 

Grace and peace.

SELMA

               I saw the movie “Selma” last Sunday evening. From things I saw on T.V. news and read in the newspaper during those times, I cannot fault the historical accuracy of the movie. I was not there. I moved to Selma eleven years later in 1978. But make no mistake, the events depicted in the movie multiplied and hardened racial bias in the city. I had told the Lord that I didn’t any longer wish to serve a church which was not open to blacks. Therefore, when a pulpit committee from Selma came to invite me to come to their church, I refused their offer. Six months later they came back and the Lord put it on my heart to go check out the situation. While visiting the church and city I sat with the twelve person Pulpit Committee and each one of them in turn assured me their church was open to black members, even though they had none at that time. So I felt free to accept their call to be pastor. There were two all white academies in Selma, but we enrolled our girls in the public schools. This was a real challenge to older daughter Julie whose junior high and high schools were primarily black. She had to face a lot of black prejudice and bullying. Liz taught in a public grade school.

 A year after I moved to Selma, the “open door” of the church was challenged. A widow with school aged children moved back to Selma, her childhood home. She had met her husband at the local Air Force base. He, as training instructor elsewhere, had been killed in a crash. Her children had attended Southern Baptist Churches at the bases where their father had been assigned. So the family began to participate fully in our church, especially music, R.A.s and G.A.s. Immediately some within the church wanted to hold a special business meeting to bar them from attendance. A special business meeting was called on a Wednesday evening. Some of our members wanted open membership, some did not but felt God wanted us to have it, and some were radically opposed to it. On the night of the vote the attendance was double the Sunday morning attendance. People who had membership in the church but hadn’t attended in years materialized. The resulting vote was to ask the family to not return.  I vividly remember a precious pre-school boy crying loudly when the vote was announced.

I needed to decide, do I stay with the church or seek another? God led me to stay another four years as an advocate for open membership. This I did. I was not confrontational, for that in itself would have lost me the opportunity to change minds. But preaching and teaching the Bible, I left no doubt that we, as a church, were out of God’s will. I was able to counsel one on one with individual members. Some came to understand despite their personal feelings, God is “no respecter of persons.”

            At one point some of the deacons held a secret meeting, the purpose of which was to get rid of me. They invited one young deacon who had formerly sided with them, but with whom I had spent some time. I understand that when he arrived at the meeting and discovered its purpose, he soundly rebuffed the other deacons present and put some of them to shame. That ended their plan.

 Liz and I spent those four years in perfect peace, the peace that Jesus gave us. Actually it was a sense of spiritual euphoria. This was in spite of the opposition we faced from some in the church and many in the area. We would sit in the swing and. because of our spiritual euphoria, giggle at the situation. We look back and agree that our five years in Selma were some of the happiest of our lives. I sense that both girls think positively about them.

After five years I accepted a call to a church in Pensacola. Our Selma church still did not have any black members. I was told by one of the deacons that before they started looking for another preacher the deacons had a meeting that lasted all night. They debated the race issue back and forth. They came away from that meeting agreed that the church would be open to black membership. We did not get the victory while we were there, but we did ultimately get the victory. 

Grace and peace.

 

TODAY

             January First is the beginning of a new year. We celebrated it as such when we watched the ball drop, or the Moon Pie (Mobile) or whatever else was dropped to count off the remaining seconds of the old year. Back in the 1950’s Charles Dederich, a recovering alcoholic who founded the Synanon organization for alcoholics and drug addicts, coined the saying “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” The truth of that sentiment is obvious. Therefore each day is a “new year.”

            No matter what has come before, good or bad, today you have a new beginning. If there is anything you want to change about your life, your habits, your spirituality, etc. there is no better time to begin than today, because today is the first day of the rest of your life.

            Not only is today the first day of the rest of your life, it is also a good day. We agree with the Psalmist, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24) Now you may have troubles or challenges in this day, but it is still the day the Lord has made and He can make it a good day. In Him we have the victory.

            “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”            (1 Corinthians 15:57) 

Grace and peace.

AMBROSIA

             Families have different traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas. Certain foods are always on the menu for Christmas. Like at Thanksgiving, many families also cook a turkey for the Christmas season. In Liz’s family their traditional dish was boiled custard. In our family the traditional dish is ambrosia. Ambrosia, in Greek mythology, is the food of the gods and Nectar is the drink of the gods. Their food and drink was believed to give the Gods immortality.

 Our dish called ambrosia is so named because it is so delicious it is worthy of the name. There are dozens of dishes called ambrosia, but for our family there is only one ambrosia. When I was a child and a youth the ambrosia was made each year by my bachelor uncle, Roy Tom. When Roy got to the place he could no longer get it together, I took up the mantle of ambrosia maker using the same ingredients my uncle used: sectioned oranges, crushed pineapple, maraschino cherries and coconut, sweetened to taste. So each Christmas season I find myself at the kitchen sink peeling dozens of oranges and mixing them with the other ingredients. I then take a portion of ambrosia to each family gathering. 

            I don’t claim my ambrosia confers immortality no matter how good it is. There is food, however, which does give you immortality. Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you,…” (John 6:27) 

Grace and peace.