The Autumn of the Year, and the Autumn of My Years

 

NOTE:    The essay below was written several months ago and was entered into the North Carolina Senior Games finals for 2025.    Enjoy.-   RW

I love this time of year!   I love Autumn and Fall.    I particularly love the month of October.     As I have said before,   October is the month when I fell in love with Jesus and fell in love with my wife, Ann.   October often brings us cool morning and warm days….the sight of fields being harvested and the feel of a frosty morning… the smell of burning leaves and of freshly cooked barbecue at a church fund-raiser.  Another thing that Autumn brings is the glorious splendor of leaves as they change to colors of red, orange, and yellow.    What a wonderful experience to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway under a colored canopy of trees above you or to look from a mountain vista this time of year.    

I am now in the autumn of my life.     I think that is fair to say that I have more years in the past than I have in my future.      Since I am on social security and medicare now,   the government has officially declared that I am old.     I wear my age with a badge of honor as I can name you friends who have gone on to the reward God has for them that I still miss.    I sometimes ask at restaurants if they offer a senior citizen discount and am quick to accept them if they are offered.    I have less hair on my head than I used to, and it is not sandy and blond as it once was.    It is not unusual for me to hear on social media or to read in the obituary pages the names of people who are my peers.      

Despite the fact that I am in the autumn of my life,    I can also declare this:    as the autumn of the year is a beautiful time,  so the autumn of my years is also a beautiful time.    It is nice some nights to stay up late if I want to, and some mornings to sleep a little later.     It is nice to look at my bank account and see retirement monies or social security being deposited into my bank account.     It is flattering when our children or grandchildren ask me about something in the past years ago  that I seem to be able to remember when sometimes I struggle to remember what I had for dinner 3 nights ago.     It is a joy to still be healthy enough to live on my own, and to some days walk for more than an hour.     It is  a real blessing to leave home for a few days and travel to destinations a few hours away by car or a few hours away by plane and see family, friends, or this beautiful world that God has given us.     Most of all, it is a gift to me to be able to have my wife, Ann, by my side and to share these  days and experiences with her and to have children, grandchildren, and other family that we love and that love us.  

I see and hear once in a while someone making critical  or condescending remarks about senior citizens and the elderly.   I am certain I use to make them also, but now I look in the mirror and realize that person looking back at me is an elder.       And despite the critical remarks I sometimes hear,  I can say with gratitude what a blessing God gives me each day to wake up and live this life in the autumn of my years.      What a beautiful time of year is Autumn, and what a beautiful gift is the autumn of my life.    Have a joy-filled day.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer-   God, thank you for the gift of life.    Help me, O God, to live each day with joy and wonder;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.    Amen.

The Loss of the Family Farm

 

See the picture below.     It is a photo of a painting that hangs in the living room of our  home.    

It is a picture of the first home where I lived after my parents brought me home  from the hospital after I was born.   The house where my parents lived at the time of my birth was actually my maternal Grandparents home.   It was located outside of my hometown of Burlington North Carolina.   In the land behind the farm was a small family farm where my grandfather farmed the land.   That land is not a farm anymore.   In my toddler years was when the interstate highway system began in the United States.    Today,  8 lanes of Interstate 85 and Interstate 40 goes through the middle of the land that was once my grandparents family farm.    Another portion of the old family farm is where a Home Depot welcomes customers today.  

I see the loss of farmland also  in the community outside of Charlotte where I currently live.    My wife and I live in a subdivision that once was part of a family farm that was once owned by a man who I had the privilege to officiate at his funeral when I served as his pastor back in the 1990’s. .   Down the road,  a local public school sits on land where cattle once grazed and roamed.   

I share these observations and truths to make a point:   farmland and family farms are disappearing across the United States.   Yahoo finance reported in 2022 that the 2020 census showed that 1.9 million acres of farmland in the United States had disappeared largely through urbanization.    The article reported that the leading states where this has been happening is in Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma.    In 2023, the American Farmland Trust reported that in my home state of North Carolina that 55 acres of farmland is lost EACH DAY.   At this rate,   they believe that 1.2 million acres of farmland will be lost by 2040 in NC.  

Perhaps some of you are wondering why this loss of farmland or family farms should concern you.   Am I just being  nostalgic and seeking for the clock to turn back to a former time?    Is the loss of farmland simply something that has to happen for progress and community growth to happen?  Perhaps the loss of farmland is progress, but what price is being paid for that progress?

This farmland was used to produce crops and livestock that feed us.   Will the loss of farmland mean that someday that the only producer of our food is a large corporation or conglomerate?     Will the future hold the prospects of importing the food we eat like we do the clothing we wear and the textiles we use?      This farmland is also home to wildlife like birds,  deer, rabbits, and creatures.   Where will these creatures of God go?       Do we really want to live in a world where our children can only see crops or livestock in a grocery store or a can, and cannot have the experience to experience the sight and culture of a farm?      These are a few questions that I have, and I suspect there are only the tip of the iceberg of questions that could be raised by church, local, state, and national leaders.    Thanks for reading.   Have a joy-filled day.   -     Randy L. Wall

Prayer-   God, you have created us and all creation.     Give us wisdom as we face the challenges of these days of how to be good stewards of this world you have given;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.

LEAVE IT IN HIS HANDS

 

As many of you know,  one of the things I am doing in this season of life is doing counseling and therapy on a part time basis  with individuals and couples as a licensed clinical mental health counselor in North Carolina and a licensed professional counselor in South  Carolina.    I generally see persons virtually in different locales across the Carolinas.  I am enjoying the opportunity to continue to help persons and see it as a ministry.    One of the things I see quite often i.. s people quite often is people feeling stress and anxiety.     There are all sorts of  reasons it seems that people are anxious:   job… relationships… world events… and the list goes on. 

As I pondered the stress and anxiety I see in my clients recently,   I was reminded of a place in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia.    Many years ago when I was a pastor in the Burlington NC area, the late Barney Davidson invited myself and other pastors to several retreats at a home he owned off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Ferrum Virginia.     It was a quiet, beautiful place with farmland and woods around it and a distant  view of the lights of Martinsville Virginia in the distance at night.  In front of the farmhouse that Barney owned was a pond.    Barney told that there were several large fish in the pond though I never saw any.    In the middle of that small pond was an island with a walkway that allowed persons to walk from the banks of the pond to the island.    On the island, Barney had posted at a sign.    Since it has been almost 30 years since I visited the spot,  I am not sure I remember the exact words on the sign but it was something like this:     “If you come to this island with troubles or stress, leave it here on the island in the hands of the Lord.”  

I suspect that there are more people who feel stress and anxiety than those I see as clients in my therapy and counseling practice.     Sometimes,   I feel it myself.   Oh, for the willingness to leave what stresses us and makes us anxious in the hands of the Lord.   Have a  joy-filled day.-  Pastor   Randy Wall

Prayer-    God,   help me to leave the things that trouble my soul in your hands.   Remind me, Lord, regularly that you able to do more for me that I ask or even imagine; through Christ our Lord.   Amen.  

"I Knew It All Along"

 

NOTE:   This is a piece I wrote several years ago.-   RW  

            Many of you will remember the late Tim Russert, former NBC News political reporter that died several years ago.  In his book, Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons,  he shares a story told by a woman whose Father was ill and was taken to the hospital.  The woman shares that she rushed to the hospital not just because of her concern for her Father, but because she felt that she needed to tell her Father that she loved him because she had never done that before.  When the woman arrived at the hospital, she found her father in a hallway because the Emergency Room was so busy.  With a combination of passion and urgency, she leaned over to embrace her father and said to him, “Oh, Dad, I love you. I love you so much and am sorry that I have never told you.”  As she embraced her father, he whispered in her ear, “That’s okay, Honey.  I knew it all along.” 

            That Father is not the only one who knows he is loved by his child without being told.   Christ Jesus says the same thing in John 14: 23-24,  Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.  You see, love in Christ is not so much something we say as something we do.   If your father is living, take time in these days to show your love to them.   Your father will be glad you did and you will be glad you did.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall 

• Previous Book:Go to Luke
• Previous Chapter : Go to John 13
• Expand: show the entire chapter ofJohn 14
• Next Chapter : Go to John 15
• Next Book:Go to Acts
• Listen to this passage : John 14
• View commentary related to this passage : John 14

 

PRAYER   Lord,  through the power of your Holy Spirit help our love for you to be seen and  not just said.   We pray these prayers in the name of the One whose name and nature is  love, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

WHAT? ME WORRY?

 

There was a magazine that I used to skim in the days of my youth called Mad Magazine.     From what I have been able to discover,  it is not around anymore.    Every issue that I looked at had on its cover its mascot.   Alfred E. Neuman,  with sometimes the caption  “What?   Me Worry?”

Despite the magazine and the message about worry, it seems that a lot of people spend a lot of time worrying.    They worry about what has happened and what is happening.    Why they even worry what might happen even though experience shows us that so many times what we worry about in the future does not take place.     There are a lot of things that give us pause to worry.    In my opinion, consuming all that you see or hear about in our 24/7 news cycle is enough to make any of us to worry.  

Several years ago,   I came across a poem that speaks about worry.     Recently, I discovered that the author of that poem was Elizabeth Cheney and it is titled  “Overheard in the Orchard”.   While the poem was  written in 1856 I think it ia as applicable today as it was then.     The poem goes like this:

Said the Robin to the Sparrow,

“I should really like to know

Why these anxious human beings

Rush about and worry so!”

Said the Sparrow to the Robin,

“Friend, I think that it must be

That they have no heavenly Father

Such as cares for you and me!”

 

Jesus used the metaphor of the birds in the sermon on the mount  (Matthew 6: 25-33) when he exclaimed:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?  ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Oh, for a heart that seeks to be free from worry because of trusting in the Lord.  Have a joy-filled day.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer-    God,  help me to worry less and trust you more;  in Christ our Lord.   Amen.  

The Sight of Blood

 

I recall a friend in my youth who was considering becoming a nurse as her vocation.     So, she decided to become a volunteer at our local hospital in a program they called “candy stripers”.   The name came from the fact that all the young ladies who served as hospital volunteers wore outfits that had stripes on them that ressembled the stripes on a candy cane.  When the school year began again I asked my friend whether she was still hoping to become a nurse.   She proceeded to tell me that her vocation plans had changed as her experience in the hospital emergency room taught her that she might seek a different vocation as she did not like the sight of blood.

There are a lot of folks that are like my candy striper friend who did  not like the sight of blood.    To avoid the sight, they turn their heads when medical staff are drawing blood at the doctors office or they turn the channel when they see blood on one of those medical shows.    In this week, Christians become face to face with the sight of blood as go through thee days of Holy Week and consider the Biblical truth that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The sad news is that Christ died and was buried.    He did not seem to die like what you might see in a television show or movie.   No, he really and truly died.   However, the good news is that Christ died FOR US.    He died for the sins of you, me, and the whole world.  Ponder the wonder and mystery of it all during this week, my friends, and give thanks.   Have a joy-filled Holy Week and a blessed Easter.-    Pastor Randy L. Wall

 

PRAYER-   O God, I give thanks for the sacrifice of your Son for my sins and for the sins of the whole world.    Help me, God, to live my life in gratitude to you by being a living sacrifice for you;   through Christ our Lord.   Amen.  

God Provides a Wheelchair

 

As some of you know,   I weekly volunteer  at a local helping agency called Opportunity House.   It is a faith-based day shelter for the homeless.   Among the things it offers include  two meals each weekday,  showers, a clothing closet, and a nurse who helps with medical issues.   They also assist formerly homeless persons recovering  from drug and alcohol issues with a recovery program.   I work doing group counseling with those who are in the recovery program.  

Several months ago,  I was making my way toward Opportunity House when I saw a woman riding down the street in her wheelchair.    Though I thought she might be going to Opportunity House,   I  did not know for sure until several minutes later I found her seeking to come in.   When I assisted her to get  into the building,   I was told a story about the woman that goes like this:

During the week earlier, the woman had made her way to Opportunity House from the local Salvation Army shelter where she is staying.    When the woman arrived,  it was soon discovered that her wheelchair was broken.    She needed a wheelchair to get around, and there was no wheelchair to be found.      A few minutes later,  some folks came to the door of Opportunity House that had some things they wanted to donate.   Among the items they had was a wheelchair!      The givers of these items were told about the need that this woman had, and were asked if they would join them as they presented the wheelchair to her.    These kind people consented with enthusiasm, and joined the Opportunity House staff in presenting this disabled woman with a wheelchair who received the gift with tears on the face that trickled down to her wide grin.

God will provide.    He provided a sacrifice for Abraham and He provided manna and quail for the Israelites to eat in the wilderness.    On a cold day in Concord, NC,  God provided for a woman who needed a wheelchair.    What is it that you need today?    Where are you lacking in your life?    The God that provided for  Abraham, the Israelites, and for a wheelchair-bound in Concord, NC can also provide for you.   Have a joy-filled day.   -   Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER-   O God, I pray for those this day who struggle with the basic needs of life including the homeless.   Make me a part of the solution for them, and so many others who struggle.    Thank you, God, for providing for the needs of my life;  through Christ our Lord.   Amen.