Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and Me

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich – yes, richer than a king –
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

-       Edwin Arlington Robinson

I was saddened to hear of the death and apparent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain last week.   I did not know either of them personally.  I had watched Anthony Bourdain’s show on CNN a few times.    The death of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain provoked two thoughts in me.   First, it reminded me of the above poem that I studied in college.  Richard Cory: gentleman, rich, and schooled in every grace.  Richard Cory puts a bullet through his head and takes his life while the world around him is oblivious to all  going on internally within him. 

The second thing that the death of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain made me think of was a time when I was in a very dark place in my life.  Over 25 years ago,  I thought about taking my life.  Unlike Richard Cory, there were people that noticed the bad emotional and spiritual condition I was in.   One of those people was my late Mom.  I remember being on the phone with her late one night sharing my despair.    Mom made me promise not to take my life and to call her in the morning.    I am not sure Mom slept much that night, but if she did she awoke to a new day and her oldest son alive though not well.   The second person that noticed my plight was my friend, the late Sam Dixon (who died in the Haiti earthquake a few years ago).  Sam saw my pain, cared for me, and prayed with me during those dark days in my life.  I miss my Mom and miss Sam, but will always be grateful that they noticed my plight and stood with me as God’s instruments. 

As I write this,  I know there are a lot more Kate Spades and Anthony Bourdains out there who are in a place of despair.  Like Richard Cory, perhaps there are no people who notice.   I hope not.  I pray that there is a woman like Shirley Perry Wall Wyrick and a man like Samuel Dixon who does and stands with them as they walk through that “dark night of the soul.”     Maybe you are that person that God wants to use.  Let it be, Lord.  Let it be.   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    Lord God, thank you for people that have cared for me in the dark times in my  life.  Help me, Lord, to pay it forward to others;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

The Growing Season

Our daughter, Ginger, has many wonderful attributes like all our children.   Among her great qualities is that she does so well in chronicling the story of her family with pictures.      Ginger lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado with her husband and two children where her husband is stationed with the United States Army.    A few weeks ago,  Ginger shared on social media two pictures of her two children.  One picture was taken on their first day of school.  The second picture was taken on their last day of the school year.  As any grandparent,  I am always excited to see any pictures of my grandchildren.  One of the things that stood out in the two pictures of my oldest grand-daughter, Lillian, was how much she had grown during the school year.   It was obvious that she had grown several inches over the course of 9 months. 

This is the growing season  in my part of the world.   Grass, flowers, and the like are growing outside my window.      In a few days, the grass will need to be mowed again because it has grown.  In a few weeks,  I hope that growth of my tomato plants will bring fruit to be enjoyed on our table and on my palette.      What is not always so obvious is the way that people grow in their mind and spirit.     Are you growing in your love for God and neighbor?     The apostle Paul knows that Christian growth is the aim and he expresses it this way in Ephesians 4:  11-13 where he writes:

 ¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Whatever age we might be, there is always room to grow in our service to and in our relationship to Christ.  Keep on growing.  Have a joy-filled week.--  Pastor Randy Wall 

Prayer:    O God, thank you for my life.   Help me to honor you with my life as I continue to grow in my relationship with you and in my service to you and others;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

On Tour in St. Augustine

A few weeks ago,  Ann and I took a trip to St. Augustine, Florida.   The area had so many things that make for a great destination:  historic beauty, glorious natural scenery, and warm weather. One day during our trip, we went on a trolley tour of historic St. Augustine.  Since I am a pastor, I was especially interested in seeing some of the historic churches in the area.  One of the churches we toured was Memorial Presbyterian Church.   It is a beautiful edifice, and explains why news outlets like CNN and USA Today claim that it is one of the most beautiful Protestant churches in the world.  

The church building was built in 1889.  As beautiful as the building is, I found the story behind the building very fascinating.    The cost of the building was paid for by a businessman named Henry Flagler.  When his daughter, Jennie Louise Benedict died following complications from childbirth, Flagler built the church building in memory of Jennie and her child, Marjorie. Workers on the edifice worked continually as Flagler wanted the building completed by the first anniversary of Jennie’s death.    The building was completed a few days before the one year anniversary    While Memorial Presbyterian Church is an active congregation serving the Lord and the community, its building also is monument to Jennie and her infant child.    When Henry Flagler died in 1913, he was interred in a marble mausoleum within the church beside his daughter Jennie Louise, her infant child Marjorie, and his first wife Mary Harkness Flagler.

Henry Flagler erected the building of Memorial Presbyterian Church as a monument to remember his daughter, Jennie, and her child.  The ancient Israelites had their monuments of remembrance too.   We read in I Samuel 7:12 about a monument that Samuel erected.  He called it an “Ebenezer” remembering how the Lord helped the Israelites in their battle against the Philistines.  Whenever the Israelites saw the Ebenezer, they would remember how the Lord helped them in the past.  

When I look back over my life,  there are many times when God has helped me.    If you think about it,  I am sure you can say the same.   What are the Ebenezers  and monuments in your life that remind you how God has helped you?   Have a joy-filled week.--  Pastor Randy Wall  

Prayer:    Thank you, Lord, for all the times you have helped me in so many ways in my life.   Give me a heart to remember your goodness and faithfulness;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Going Deeper

I recently completed Tyler Perry’s book Higher is Waiting.     Though I do not often find myself watching many of Perry’s movies and such,  I thoroughly enjoyed the book.   The book is basically a series of stories of Tyler Perry’s experiences in life and spiritual lessons he learned from them.   He tells a story in the book about contracting for a well company  to drill a well at his home so he could avoid paying high water bills.    The contractor drilled the well in the location he thought he would find water.   After drilling over one thousand feet in the ground, the contractor still had not hit water.    Perry faced a decision put before him to either drill deeper or to have the contractor stop.  Perry shares in the book that he told the contractor to drill deeper.  The contractor complied and drilled only another 4 inches until he hit water for a well that has never gone dry to this day.

I believe that story is a fitting allegory for our lives.    If we want a fulfilled and abundant life, we often need to go deeper in study of God’s Word, Christian service, and discipleship.  If we only allow ourselves to being a “surface Christian”,  we will not know the abundance that can be found in God.     We see that truth in a fishing story in Luke 5: 1-7 where we read: 

 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,^[a] the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. ² He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets.³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.  ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”  ⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”  ⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

 How deep are you going in your relationship with a God who is greater than we ever could imagine?   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”    Amen.    (Ephesians 3: 17b-19)

From the Dentist Office

I found myself in the dentist office for a few hours last month for the placement of a crown on a tooth.   Though my dentist and his staff are great people,  I always approach time in the dentist chair with a bit of anxiety.   It requires a good bit of time to fix a crown on a person’s tooth.  Before placing the crown, they had to numb my mouth, do x-rays on the tooth, and drill into the tooth.  During the procedure,  I had a gag reflex overcome me a couple of times.   That was particularly true when they were doing the x-rays.  The dental assistant had a suggestion for me to overcome the gag reflex, and it was this:   lift up my left or right leg when they begin to do the x-rays.   Following that tip, I did the same and found myself not experiencing any gag reflex at all.   The point in lifting a leg was this:  by focusing on lifting my leg,  I would forget about the x-ray film in my mouth and the x-ray taking place on my mouth.  

That experience of lifting my leg  in the dentist chair got me to thinking about focus.   I was so busy focusing on lifting my leg as they did dental x-rays that I did not think about what was going on with the x-ray film filling my mouth.     Sometimes, I think we humans focus on the wrong thing.     Jesus tells a parable that we read in Luke 10:

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’  ³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”  ³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”   Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

The priest and levite are on their way to Jerusalem to do a good thing:  to worship the Lord and do their religious duty.   Yet, they are so busy focusing on their church work that they are blind to the opportunity to do the real work of the church right there on the Jerusalem to Jericho road.  What will have your focus on this day in this life?   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  give us eyes to focus on the things that most important around us.  Help us see the opportunity to serve you; through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Do You Remember?

I got off the phone a few days ago with a one of my debtors.   The bad news is that I forgot to make a payment that was due a few days ago. The good news is that they told me that it was the first time that I have ever forgotten to make my payment by the due date.  I must confess that sometimes I forget things.  I sometimes forget to do this household chore… make that phone call… or go on that errand.    I bet that if you are honest that sometimes you forget too. 

One of the saddest conditions that I witness among my fellow human beings  is dementia.  The person cannot remember the names of loved ones or friends or they forget appointments to the doctor or the way home.  The person looks like their old selves, but in your interaction with them you discover that there is something missing.   I find myself today wondering if my forgetfulness to pay that bill is a foreshadowing of a dementia that is to come. 

While dementia is a sad and debilitating condition, there is a condition that is akin that is just as devastating that we talk little about.   That condition is spiritual amnesia.  You will not see it discussed in a medical journal or have a doctor screen you for it at your next physical examination.    Spiritual amnesia is when we forget the Lord our God and all that He has done for us. 

I am trying to fight against spiritual amnesia.      I read my Bible daily not because I have never read it before.   I attend worship Sunday after Sunday, church season after church season.   I have a Bible app on my phone that sends me a “verse of the day” and I read that verse morning and night.   When I look at the beauty of a sunset or a blooming flower, I am awed not just by what it is but by the One who created it.   I know not what the future will be for me.   I am not sure if there will ever come a time when I will forget my loved ones or forget how to get home.  I certainly do not want to forget them, but I also certainly do not want to forget the One who told his followers long ago “Do this in remembrance of me.”   The best news is that  though you and  I may sometimes forget the Lord, God never forgets us.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  we give you thanks that though we may forget you, you never forget us.  Thank you for your love that is new every morning;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Writings in the Dust

I wrote last week that I am taking a writing class online through our local community college, Rowan Cabarrus Community College.    A few times a week, I go to the class web site on the internet doing a series of readings, assignments, and online discussions.  My class got me to thinking about the writing of  Jesus.  Now, many of you have read sayings of Jesus.  We find them  in places like the sermon on the mount in the gospel of Matthew in our Bible.   All of you can say that you have read my writings simply because you are reading this blog.  But what about the writings of Jesus?  While you may have read the sayings of Jesus, you probably have not read the writings of Jesus.

We hear about the writings of Jesus in John 8: 6-8 where we read:   ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.   But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.         I find myself wondering today what Jesus wrote in the dust of the ground.    As the religious leaders stood around him,  did Jesus write in the dirt the sins of the religious leaders or the names of the men before him who had sinned against God?   With a woman caught in the very act of adultery also before him, did Jesus write in the dust of the ground the name of the man who was a partner to this woman in her act of adultery?   

None of us will ever read any writings of Jesus as you are reading my writing in this blog today.  The writing of Jesus in the dirt of the Galilean ground is  wiped away even as our sins are wiped away by the One who told a woman that day to “go and sin no more.”  I don’t know about you, but I am glad that my sins are also wiped away.    Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  we give you thanks that Christ Jesus forgave a woman of her sins long ago, and forgives our sins today.   As forgiven people, help us go share your love and forgiveness with others;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen.