2008
May is a time for stones for many of us in northeast Alabama. I remember my mother telling me not to play around the stones for there was the story of some little boy who was playing around the stones when one toppled over on him, killing him. The story was told in a most dramatic fashion to get my attention. I didn’t play on the stones “too much”. I was always curious about the small stones with lambs on the top of them. I remember how my cousins and I would move flowers from stones that had many flowers to stones that had no flowers.
As I became a pastor whose attendance dropped to virtually nothing during the month of May (and now extended even to June), I dreaded the time for stones. However, as I have grown older, I have come to realize that the time for stones is much more. It is also much more than a Decoration Day. It is a time families get together and get, again, in touch with their roots … and distant cousins seen but once a year. Church and the times for worship are important. (To that end, my churches usually had early services in May to accommodate those who went to decorations and family get-togethers.)
I have come to realize time for families, even, and especially, extended families, is important. Such times are times for catching up – and perhaps, in the best sense, finding out who needs our prayers.
I have come to believe visits to places of stones may be very good and very healing. By being reconnected to friends and family, we may also be reconnected to what is important for us. As we learn what is important to our family’s into which we were born and raised, let us not forget we are born into another family as well. God has claimed us for His own. While you remember families, don’t forget to remember the one who went to the cross for us. In Athens, it was at the place for stones Paul proclaimed the identity of the Unknown God. -tony
I don’t know how many of you do email, but I have a question for those of you who do. Do you ever get hate mail? I do -- Almost everyday. I get hate mail addressed to one or the other of the political candidates. It comes packaged in neat boxes, like “You must read this!” It sounds important, but it is just more hate mail. Much of it is filled with half truths. Why do we call it half truths? Would not Half-lies work better? I get hate mail about big business and the oil companies (whom I really don’t usually trust).
My son produces t-v news on a morning show in Winston-Salem. I ask him about the news. Why so much bad and not any good. He tells me that he tries to get the good news stories, but usually the good news stories don’t sell advertising. The public wants bad news. I am constantly amazed by this. He tells me that bad news is the exception. Good news happens every day. Bad news is the exception to what is generally going on. People’s everyday lives happen without significant upheavals most every day.
Even so, I, for one, will take my stand with sharing good news. I don’t like hate mail. When I was in the Army, we had a saying when we went on training maneuvers that we didn’t have to practice being miserable. Well, we don’t have to practice the bad news. Bad things happen. There is bad news sometimes. In the meanwhile, I choose to hear the good news. I want good mail. I’ll delete the rest. “Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for God is with me. His rod and staff (note: these are not weapons of war.), they comfort me.”
There is bad news out there. There is hatred out there. There is fear out there. I pray I will choose to leave it out there. I pray the news I share is good news. That is the meaning of the word, gospel, by the way.
-tony
At Civitan the other night, our jokester told the following:
There was a man and his wife, and his wife’s mother, his mother-in-law (need I say more), who were touring the Holy Land. The mother-in-law had the misfortune to die during the trip. The local funeral director took charge of the body and inquired of the man whether his mother-in-law should be buried in Israel or be shipped back to the U.S. He explained there would be quite a cost in shipping a body back to the U.S. The disposal of the body could be accomplished much faster if she were buried there.
The man thought about it for a few minutes and then replied, “Well, I know of one man who was buried here, and after three days he arose. I don’t want to take any chances. Ship her back to the U.S.”
Well, actually we know of no other and expect no other to be resurrected in the manner Jesus was. We don’t understand it. Even those who told the story didn’t understand it, but it nonetheless changed their lives forever. People tell me every week they are prepared for death, even if they are not ready for it. There are lots of reasons to want to continue to live in this world. At the same time, people, especially older people, tell me they are ready to go on home. They are confident this world has little to offer them anymore, and they feel certain a place has been prepared for them that is far more real than this one.
I don’t know what tomorrow may hold, but I am glad I know the One who holds tomorrow, to paraphrase a gospel song. I’m glad one resurrection was all that was needed to give assurance of a love so great even death could not separate us from it. It’s that kind of promise that gives me confidence to live today more fully. I don’t have time to worry over tomorrow. So, God does that for me. -tony
This is leap year. I don’t know why they call it “Leap” year. It is not a shorter year, it’s a longer one: by a day. Those people who are born on February 29 have to determine how to handle their birthdays. They celebrate it on the last day of February until they are thirty, then they only want to celebrate it on February 29 (that way they only count a year older every four years).
I like February. We celebrate President’s Day. Well, we have a date on the calendar for President’s Day some people count as a holiday; I don’t know that I’ve ever known of a celebration. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not the same way yet. There were some real celebrations of MLK Day. Many Americans of all races joined to celebrate a victory for Human Rights in this country. Other Americans chose to celebrate Robert E. Lee’s birthday instead. Robert E. Lee was a great man as well. He followed his conscience, even if that meant fighting against the United States.
Every day is “something” day: Valentine’s Day, Ground Hot Day, Chinese New Year, Black History Month, Thinking Day (Girl Scouts), and Ash Wednesday, to name a few. Sometimes we Christians forget every Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Some Jews forget Saturday is the Sabbath, as do some Seventh Day Adventists. Jesus said that the Sabbath is a day for doing good.
Some of us tend to forget that every day is a day for doing good. No one really has to have an excuse. There are always needs to be met, smiles to be shared. Real friends don’t let friends see the glass as half empty. Hospice patients still have life, and can live as long as life shall last. Thank God, for our volunteers who see everyday as a day for doing good. You help our patients fill some of those last days with good living. -tony
Devotional 12-11-07
I’m trying to think about 2008 and January. It’s not quite here yet, but it’s coming as sure as tootin’. I still don’t have all the things done I intended to accomplish before July. I dare not make any New Years resolutions. I’ll just keep working on last year’s. Getting my taxes done before April 15 is a major objective.
I’m not even to the point of reflecting on 2007 yet, although, as I do so now, it has been a good year in spite of some difficult times. God walks with us through hard times. He has thus far and I believe He can be trusted to do so in 2008. Even when we are in the valleys of despair, he lifts us to new heights. Many of us have endured some difficult times this past year. We hope the New Year brings better times.
At the same time, we dare not be lackadaisical. “God is in his heaven and all is right with the world” doesn’t apply. God is with his people in the world, and things are still not all right. There are murders and rapes of people in Darfur, Afghanistan, and Alabama. Children’s heads were bashed in the Holy Land after Jesus was born. I read this week of one whose head was bashed by its mother in Alabama.
I am solicited by groups wanting me to support children, elephants, fish, and almost everything imaginable. Many are worthwhile causes. I called “Feed the Children” and made a request. If I made a donation, could they assure me that they wouldn’t waste my money by soliciting me all year long? They could not.
There are enough difficult decisions for the New Year; I just can’t deal with all of them. Thank God, that in 2008 and beyond, God can guide us who listen and give it to him just as he has in 2007!
-tony
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