The day’s end draws nigh, my friends, and with it another week. We started in spring, and are ending in what seems like February, that hated, despised, malcontent miscreant of a month. I’ve seen too much of it from under the bed of my truck, but thankfully, the ground was dry when I was laying there staring at things I knew not what to call, at least in terms less profane and more technical. I lost a good friend this week, as did the town of Chadbourn. Fax Rector was a Yankee, but he made Chadbourn his home and his heart. My heart hurts for his whole family, as well as a community that has lost a true leader. I also ask your prayers tonight for our Perfessor, Robb Cross, who is back in the hospital, albeit just for an overnight stay. Preacher Jack Miller’s visit will likely be longer, and anyone who knows him and his family understands that the heart surgeons were working on a very special heart today. Y’all lift them, please. I also hope you’ll take the time this weekend to do a few things that will benefit you as much as anyone else, whether you believe it or not. Hug your momma. Tell your daddy you love him, even if he isn’t the mushy type. Talk to your grandparents. They know a lot of cool stuff. Tell your siblings you love them, too. Hold your kids so close they squirm. Someday they’ll appreciate it. Roll in the grass with your dog. Make faces at a cat. Hug a horse. Talk junk to a goat. Philosophize with a goose. Panic with a guinea fowl. Befriend an owl. Scratch a friendly pig. Howl back at a coyote. Tell a donkey a joke. Stare down a cow. Read to a little kid. So something fun and new together – fly a kite, track an animal, play a new game. Whistle. Sing a silly song. Ask a little kid’s opinion of something important, and listen. We can learn so much from little kids, enough to make it a better world, if we’ll just listen. When the clouds clear off, watch the moon rise. Count the stars in one corner of the sky. Watch a sunrise, and a sunset. Listen to a river. Feel an old oak tree. Crush a handful of pine straw, and smell it. Watch the clouds roll away. Trickle a handful of dirt through your fingers. Listen to a bird’s song. Count the veins in a leaf, or the colors in a stone. Then remember that the one who made all this, who knew you before your farthest ancestor was born, who knows the number of times your heart will beat – that Great Creator loved you enough to send his son to die for your sins, that you might spend eternity with them in Heaven. I think of my own sins and failures, and shudder, but God forgave them all, because He loves me, as He loves you. If that ain’t humbling, we need to have a talk. Do something nice for someone else, with no expectation of reward. Leave a bigger tip. Drop your change in a donation jar. Hold the door for someone. Be the friend you would want if you were in someone else’s shoes. Look with your heart, and make use of your hands. Read your Bible, and go to church Sunday. Listen to the man in the pulpit, and heed his message. Pray for those who are in turmoil and pain; pray for those who have the ability to help. Pray for the person beside you in the pew, and the one who should be there. Pray for someone you don’t like, and someone you know doesn’t like you. When you’re done – ask God what you can do to help. Just mean it with your heart. He loves a cheerful servant, but not a posing liar. Hold hands with the one you love at every opportunity, and never let them doubt the way you feel. Don’t assume, don’t try to prove it with material things – say it, then show it. I have a few more buckets of salt to lift toward the top of the mine, and I’ll be out of here like many of you already are. Rattle that dogbox, and wake up the possums – and watch out for those weasels. It is time to howl, howl, howl. Y’all be good.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:07:06 +0000
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