Holy Spear

When I was 5 years old we lived on Portwood Street in Greenwood, Mississippi. There are a lot of memories from living in that house. We only lived there a few years as my parents frequently would sell our house and buy another one to “move up” and get a better and bigger house. This one was small—two bedrooms and a bath, but this was where we lived when my folks bought our first television.

 Before we bought a television, all I knew about this magical box I learned when we would park our car in front of the Western Auto and watch the moving pictures in a wooden box in the display window of the store. That was a great advertising gimmick—to leave a TV on all the time (well, at least when programming was going on) for people to see what they were missing by not having a TV at home. It worked for my folks, so we had our first television. After seeing Howdy Doody for the first time, it became my favorite show (www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIslhp9vqqw).

 Other memories from that house included the arrival of my brother, Barry, who I started calling “Bubba”—and it stuck to this day. But, sorry Bubba, I have much more vivid memories about TV and about one other thing: my mother would come to my bed every night to have prayers with me. I would pray something—don’t remember what. However, I vividly remember that she would often thank God for the Holy Spirit who would be right beside me and protect me all night long. It would have been okay if I had truly understood what my mother was talking about, but I did not sleep well many nights because I thought she was saying that the “Holy Spear” would be beside me all night long!

 Now for a five-year-old you can imagine what went through my mind. I was afraid to open my eyes after the prayer because there was a Holy Spear next to my bed!

 It was only several years later that I begin to understand what the Holy Spirit is—and I am still working on that understanding.

 How many times do you hear someone pray, “Lord, we pray that your Spirit would be with us today in this service,” or “God please be with them as they travel.” These are well intended prayers, but they lack an understanding that God’s Holy Spirit is right beside us ALL THE TIME. “And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20

 Thank you Heavenly Father that you are with me every nanosecond of my existence. May I not be afraid of your presence beside me, but may I be filled with confidence and joy because YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME. Rejoice!

The edge of light

Will, my new son-in-law, is an avid cyclist. He is not into the casual bike riding; he is into the 50-mile type rides. He is a serious cyclist. I am the type that may have ridden 50 miles in my lifetime!

Last week he showed me a new light for one of his bicycles. We had most of the lights off in the living room, so he turned the light on, and WOW! That little light put out some lumens—400 to be exact. I was impressed at that circle of light. Then, I asked him what that little light was worth. He told me that it retailed for $100. That’s right--$100 for a flashlight!

OK, it is an expensive light, but I was still impressed. After his demo of the light, I thought about that circle of light and how distinct the difference in the light and darkness was. It reminded me that often we who walk in the light are afraid to step outside that circle of light that is our comfort zone. We walk to the edge and do not trust God to provide the light for us as we walk into the darkness of the unknown.

How many times has the still quiet voice of God spoken to us and we have responded in our heart of hearts, “I can’t do that” or “I am not qualified to do that, Lord,” or “Lord, you have to find someone else who knows better than me how to do that.”

Walk to the edge, take another step and trust God to provide the lumens.

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NASB

Getting caught

Living in West Africa afforded our family many opportunities to be exposed to “wild” animals. Even though these wild animals were a long way from our home, our kids grew up with exotic animals. Villagers learned quickly that I would buy most any animal from the wild, so they regularly brought us all sorts of creatures.

I never paid much for any species, but the villagers were very happy to get anything for something that they thought was so trivial as a wild animal.  At one time or another we had a baby crocodile, a bush baby, a dikdik (miniature antelope), a monkey, an African Gray parrot, and so forth. The kids enjoyed caring for them and they learned a lot about caring for animals—although they had plenty of experience caring for our flock of chickens, goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, a horse, donkeys, cows, turkeys, guineas, and rabbits.

One day a man that I had never seen came to our gate with a pair of elephant tusks tied on the back of his bicycle. The tusks had blood on the tusks that was not yet dry. The man told me that he cut them out of a “dead” elephant earlier that day. I had my doubts about how that elephant became classified as “dead.”

They were a beautiful pair of ivory tusks, and he wanted to sell them to me for a very small amount of their value. I really wanted those tusks. I was salivating to buy them, but a small voice in my head was saying to me, “You know that it’s unlawful to possess uncut ivory in this country,” But, another voice was saying, “You will never have another opportunity for a buy like this. Those tusks are worth a lot of money.” I was thinking about how good they would look decorating our home, but then I was thinking of how quickly our family could be expelled from the country.

Sound judgment prevailed and I did not buy them, and I quickly asked the man to leave our property as I did not want to be caught with those tusks at my home. I have thought many times about this incident and particularly about what made me decide not to buy the tusks. Was it that I did not want to break the law, or, rather, was it because I was afraid of getting caught? I must confess that it was the latter. I was more afraid of what others would say about me if I got caught or what they would think about me for buying contraband. I knew the right thing to do, but I was VERY tempted to do what I knew was wrong. Being tempted is not a sin, but if I had bought those tusks it would have been wrong.

So, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin (James 4:17).

Mimes

Jeremy and Kimberly and girls have been with us for the past week. During this visit Shelby and Darby have often said to me, “You are just like my daddy.” Finally after hearing this several times, today Cheryl corrected one of them and said, “No, your daddy is just like your papa.”

The first thought that came to my mind when she made that statement is that Jeremy is like me because of DNA—Deoxyribonucleic acid—the self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. But, there is more—Jeremy is like me in many ways because he spent the earliest formative years of his life living with me and his mother and siblings.

The girls were referring to things like something that I might say in a given situation that their dad would also say, or how we both peel a tangerine, or how we season turnip greens. Jeremy learned those things because he lived in our home and was influenced by his parents, not necessarily because of DNA.

I have been thinking about the very familiar verse in Ephesians 5:1—“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” I looked up the root word in Greek and Latin for imitate and found that it has the same origin as mimic or mime.

Just recently someone asked me about an area in London, and I talked to them about all the mimes who perform in the public square in this area. What do mimes do?  They don’t speak, do they? They express themselves without saying a word, but when they are trying to get a message to their audience, they express it in such an exaggerated manner that you don’t miss their message.

To be an imitator of God is not about actions that I do for God. It is about actions that God does through me. How does God do things through me? First of all I must be His child—I have given my heart and life to Jesus Christ. Then, I must obey His commandments. What is the greatest commandment? I must love the Lord my God with all my heart, my soul and my mind and I must love my neighbor as myself.

Be imitators of God…then I must love the unlovely. I must love someone who I don’t think is worthy of my love, but he was created in the image of God and God loves him as much as He loves me.

The old hymn says it for me: “Your life’s a book before their eyes, they’re reading it through and through.”

Walk with the lions

Through the years I have viewed wild animals in several different countries in Africa and Asia, so I don’t really look for opportunities to go on a safari. However, through our international projects at the foundation our participants often get to go on photo safaris to view the animals. I usually don’t participate if I don’t have to—not because I don’t want to be with our folks, but it is expensive to see animals, and I have seen plenty.

Recently in Zimbabwe, our team taught the SERVE principles of our company to the leadership of a game park, and they offered us a free “event” because they were so pleased with our sharing with them. One of the “events” was a walk with the lions. I was intrigued and asked for more information, and I found out that this was the only place in the world where one could walk with lions in the wild—no cages, no fences. This was an opportunity that I could not pass up.

So six other people and I met at dawn for our orientation about the walk. We would be walking with two three-year-old lionesses that had been taken away from their mothers at three weeks of age and raised by three handlers at the game park. They are still wild animals even though they have been around humans all their lives. We were instructed on how to act around the lions—never approach them from the front (they get very angry about this and show their teeth—as I experienced first-hand), always walk beside them so they can see you and never in front of their front legs, don’t make quick movements or loud noises, etc. 

They gave us a walking stick—that was the only “weapon” that the handlers had also—and we were on our way. During the walk we took turns walking beside one of the lions (see photos below). You have to know that I don’t like cats—all my family knows this—but I reached down and rubbed the back of the lioness. In a weird way I think the lioness actually liked that. But, as I walked with the lion, I could not help but think about lions in the Bible. I don’t know of a verse where a lion is presented as a gentle creature to pet. Every instance that I could think of was one that referred to the prowess of a lion or the roar or the bite—that gave me the creeps, and here I was walking with the lion. I was sane, but maybe not smart.

All of a sudden the two lions took off running at full speed and just as quickly they stopped and froze a few hundred yards from us. The handler pointed with his stick at a small herd of antelope. He told us not to worry, that the lions would not make a kill today as they had just taken down a wildebeest three days before and they usually only ate every five days—I was immediately happy that I did not wait two days to take my walk with the lions!

I had several good take-aways from this experience. One of them was some good photos to show the grandchildren, but the best one was this: I Peter 5:6-11 has been a good example of how I am supposed to act before the almighty God of the universes. But after being that close to a lion, verse eight really became so much clearer to me: “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Are we more afraid of lions than we are of the devil?

Day trip

Several people have contacted me to ask about my health, so I will devote this post to a brief report.

 My six month checkup with my radiation oncologist was three weeks ago. I flew to Jacksonville and back the same day. It was a long way to go for a doctor’s appointment, but it was worth it. I don’t know what one is supposed to expect from a visit with an oncologist. Of course, one would like to hear “Good news! You don’t have cancer” or something like that. I have to realize that he sees patients every day, and I was just one of many with whom he talked on that day.

 My PSA is still elevated from its normal level, and he explained that my prostate is very irritated from the treatments it has received, so it is normal to see this. He added that it can take two to three years after treatment for the PSA to return to normal.   I finally asked him if this is a good report. He responded, “Looks normal for this point in your treatment.”  I accepted that as a good report.

 They asked me dozens of questions about side effects, and I was very happy that my responses were almost entirely very positive. I am thankful to have almost no side effects from the radiation treatments. My quality of life is excellent, and I am very thankful that I did the proton therapy treatments.

 As you hear of friends or family members who have discovered that they have prostate cancer, please ask them to consider proton therapy.  I would be happy to share my experience with them.

Prepared

Each year about 60% of the graduates of IMPACT 360 return to our campus for our annual reunion. It is always great to reconnect with many of our alums who are investing their lives all over the USA and even in other countries. At our last IMPACT 360 reunion, one of the young men who was in our first class in 2006 walked into a room filled with graduates from this past May and exclaimed to Cheryl and me: “These are babies!”

It has been a great privilege to watch our former students grow in their walk with the Lord during their studies. Some of them are married—some to classmates whom they met at IMPACT 360. Some of them now have children. Some of them are in grad school and others are engaged in the workplace. However, there are a few who are still working on a degree after five and six years of college.

I have had opportunities to talk with a lot of young adults who are college graduates and who are still trying to “find themselves.” I think there are some common factors among these young adults. One that I have observed is that they are concerned about whether or not they will be prepared for whatever God wants them to do. I have tried to encourage these students and others over the years with some examples from our lives and from others with whom we have worked over the years. If God can use a Mississippi farm boy, then he can use anyone.

 God gives us all different gifts. He prepares us for whatever He calls us to do. Romans 12:6-8 says, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

 Too many people worry about whether or not they are qualified or whether or not they have the right experience for a task that they believe the Lord wants them to do.  God never gives a call without giving the gift or gifts necessary to fulfill that call.