Off the Wall: Musings of Randy Wall

Monday, May 30, 2022

Hitting Singles Instead of Home Runs

It is baseball season now. While I never was a great baseball player, I am a fan of the game. Many of you know the names of some of the mighty hitters in baseball history. Hitters like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron are known for the many home runs they hit through the years. Everyone likes home runs and all hitters like to make home runs, but how about singles? Most of us do not think it much of a big deal to hit a single. A single is when the hitter gets only to first base when they hit a ball. I discovered recently that in the history of baseball that the all time leader in single hits was Pete Rose.

If we can use baseball as a metaphor for the Christian life, I suppose most of us are envious of a Billy Graham who has preached before thousands or of an apostle Paul who founded many churches. We would consider them “home run leaders” in the Christian faith and life because of their great efforts and accomplishments. While most of us will not be a Billy Graham or an apostle Paul, all of us are do something and be something in our walk with Christ. To put it another way, all of us can “hit a single” every now and then.

A few months ago, I read a book titled The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. One of the things that Jeff Olson says in the book is that all of us can do something to make our personal development, health and fitness, and the like better by doing small things. I have been thinking about that truth when it comes to our walk with Christ. While many of us think it beyond our capacity to read the whole Bible in a year, all of us have the capacity to spend 10 minutes a day reading our Bible. While few of us have the time to spend one hour a day in prayer, would we not all have a deeper relationship with Christ if we spent ten minutes a day in prayer? While few in our world will share the gospel with millions like Billy Graham, I wonder whose life would be different if we had the goal to share our faith with one person a week?

While none of us can do everything, all of us can do some thing in our walk as a follower of Christ. Again, most of us cannot be a “home run leader” in our walk with Christ; however, all of us can “hit a single” by spending a few minutes a day in prayer, scripture reading, or sharing our faith. Today is not too soon to get started. Have a joy-filled week.- Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER

Forgive me, Lord, for excusing my lack of action as a disciple by comparing myself to others. Give me the courage and motivation to do something to grow in knowing you and serving you; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Monday, May 16, 2022

A Man Praying By the Side of the Road

I see him regularly sitting by the side of the road in one of those folding chairs that people often put in their cars to sit in at a concert or a ball game. The road is one of the busy thoroughfares in the city I call home. Since he is sitting in the parking lot of a local church, I assume that he is a member of that church and a Christian. There is something else that is there along the side of the road in that church parking lot: a sign. It is one of the signs like you see in a front yard of a home for sale or selling puppies or kittens. This sign says this man is not selling anything. A matter of fact, he is giving something away: prayers. You see, the sign says: Can I pray for you?

Can I pray for you? I don’t know about you, but I am always grateful for prayers. However, I have never stopped on that busy road in that church parking lot and asked that man to pray for me. I wonder if any one else has or how many people stop in an average week.

I remember a woman who was a member of a congregation I had the honor to serve as pastor. Her health had deteriorated through the years, and when I became her pastor she spent all her waking hours either in a wheelchair or a bed. It was not the way she wanted to live her life, and she shared the same with me one day when she lamented: “What good am I for our church and for the human race in this wheelchair every day?” God gave me an answer to her question and it was this: “You can pray for me and for your church. That is one of the best things you can do.”

Praying for each other is one of the biggest gifts you can give your family, your friends, your church, your pastor, your community, and your world. I do not think that all of us need to sit out in a chair by the side of a busy road with a sign that says “Can I pray for you?” However, I believe that the world would be a much better place if we spent more time praying for each other. Have a joy-filled week, and thanks for your prayers for me.- Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER

God, thank you for the people through the years who have prayed for me whether I knew it or not. Lord, I cannot do everything but I can do something. Help me to pray for others; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Who Are You Supposed to Tell Your Story?

I have always found it very meaningful to hear the stories of how people came to Jesus. It was in hearing those stories over 50 years ago at a church event called lay witness mission that was an important part of my our own salvation story.

A few months ago, I heard a friend share their story. They were trying to get a ride from California to their hometown in the northeastern U.S. to spend Thanksgiving with their family. She had advertised for a cross-country ride, and Wally answered her ad. While she was an unbeliever, Wally was a new Christ follower. When you ride for 4 days across country, you have a lot of time to talk with someone. Wally talked and told her about Jesus. When she asked questions, Wally invited her to look at the Bible and some other Christian books in the back seat. Though she did not make a commitment to Christ on the trip, it was the beginning of her journey to give her life to Christ. After she made a Christian commitment and was baptized, Wally told her why he offered her a ride across country: because God told him.

In Acts 8, we hear the story of a man named Philip. While God told Wally to offer a ride to a young woman across the country and tell her about Jesus, God simply tells Philip to go to a chariot and tell him about Jesus. Read these words from Acts 8:

²⁶Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian^[^a^] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” ³⁰Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. ³¹“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

If you are a follower of Christ, you have a story to tell of what Christ has done and is doing in your life just like Wally and Philip. Who does God want you to tell that story to? Have a joy-filled week.- Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER

Thank you, Lord, for what you have done and are doing in my life. Give me wisdom and courage, Lord, to share that story with others in word and deed; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Monday, May 2, 2022

A Mothers Day Tribute to The Living

Our daughters- Melissa, Heather, Ginger, Hannah (Left to Right)

Around Mothers Day, I always find myself thinking of the Mothers in my life It has been over 20 years since Mom died, and much longer since my Grandmothers died. They were each remarkable women that had a great impact on me. I became a pastor about the time that women were just beginning to serve as pastors of local churches. A lot of persons my age and older have struggled with accepting women as pastors. I never have largely because of the large place that women, particularly my mother and grandmothers, had in my life.

While I could write long about my mother and grandmothers who have gone on to glory, today I want to write in tribute to the women in my life who are living: my wife, Ann, and our 4 daughters. While none of them are my mother, my wife Ann and 3 of our 4 daughters are mothers. All of them are strong women who have touched my life and the lives of not only our family, but many others. I do not often speak about them in this forum but today I do with gratitude.

Ann, my wife

My wife, Ann, is one of the most generous people I have ever met. She is generous not only with her time and talents with our community but with her monies in making gifts to others sometimes without them knowing about her kindness. While I often find myself in the limelight due to my vocation, Ann often is working behind the scenes and prefers it that way. While I often react in a quick reactive way to people, Ann most often reacts to people with kindness giving them the benefeit of the doubt.

Our daughters are also great women. Heather is one of the most intuitive persons I know and is a wonderful mother, wife, and school teacher. She has a variety of interests and is skilled in so many things. Ginger is a great Mom and wife and shows the same through her untiring efforts to look after her family. She is showing in these days her skill in juggling many duties as she finds her self in school again and in the workplace again. Hannah is so generous to others and is always seeking to take the side of the underdog and the overlooked. Though she is not a Mom, she continually seeks to dote on children especially her nieces and nephews. Melissa tirelessly seeks to be a great role model and teacher to the children in her classroom and a great mother to the 3 young children in her home. Each of our daughters are special in their own way, and I am grateful for the women and people they are.

Many years ago, a women in a congregation where I served shared a statement with me that went like this: “Give me flowers before I die, not when I am dead and gone.” Today, I give flowers to these living women in my life for who they are to not only me, but to their family and beyond. Perhaps you can offer a bouquet to the important women in your life. I love and appreciate the women you are Ann, Heather, Ginger, Hannah, and Melissa. You make life better for me and so many! I love you! Have a joy-filled week and a blessed Mother's Day everyone. - Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER

Thank you, God, for those mothers and women in my life in days past and today. Give me words to tell them and show them how much they mean to me; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saturday, April 23, 2022

A Person With Two Tongues

How many tongues do you have? If you answered one, you are absolutely wrong. A few years ago, I heard a man named Otis say that every person has two tongues that we can use to share Christ with others.

The first tongue is the tongue that is in our mouth. James 3:7-8 says these words about the tongue, “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restful evil, full of deadly poison”. If you have ever said something to someone you wish you had not said or if you still know the hurt of words that were said to you, you know the truth of those words of scripture. James speaks further about the tongue when he says in James 3:9-10:“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.

Otis went on to speak about a second tongue that we have- the tongue in our shoe. While Jesus and his early followers probably did not wear shoes like we wear, they did not stand still. Jesus traveled from place to place sharing the message of God’s love in word and deed. While the apostle Paul was not there when Jesus shared that commission to “Go into all the world and make disciples….”, Paul let his feet do the walking to places like Galatia, Ephesus, and Rome. For some of us the calling of Christ may take us to faraway places, but for most of us that calling is not around the world but simply around the block or down the street. What are you doing with your two tongues in sharing the loving of Christ? Does the tongue of your mouth bring praise to God, or does it curse men? And how about the tongue in your shoe? When was the last time when you went out of your way to share the love of Christ with someone simply through presence? Have a joy-filled week.- Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER- God, help my lips and words to praise you. Grant that I might let Christ be known in my words and the way I treat others. Give me ears to hear the places you are calling me to serve in the places of this world and in the places I travel everyday; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

At Worship With Curlers in Your Hair

Nan was a short, petite woman who was a member of my home church. Ironically, she lived with her husband and son in the same house where our family lived when I was in elementary school. Though Nan has been dead for years, I think of her when Holy Week rolls around every year because of an incident that happened at my home church many years ago.

It was Maundy Thursday, and Nan and her family were there in their usual seats. As a new Christian, it perhaps was the first Maundy Thursday Service I had ever attended. In a day and age when there were many women who would not even leave the house without wearing make up and a dress, lo and behold there was Nan in the Maundy Thursday Service wearing a scarf over a head that was filled with curlers in her hair. Later after the service, Nan provided the explanation: "Well, the pastor said to come to the service as you are and so I came as I was with curlers in my hair."

During this Holy Week, we ponder those who gather around the cross:

- Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other women coming in the throes of their grief

- A centurion under orders from his superior officer who declares his alleigance to a higher authority as he exclaims "Surely this was the son of God"

- Mockers who wag their tongues at Jesus because of either what they felt in their heart or because of what they felt they must say

- Criminals guilty of charges that brought them to that time and place, one contrite and another that wanted Jesus free them from it all

- Disciples of Jesus who are there in their confusion and brokenness representing disciples who cower in some secret place

In this Holy Week, come as you are whether you be a disciple, criminal, mocker, soldier, mother, or the like. Come to Jesus and His cross. Come as you are knowing that the love that flows from the cross is sufficient to cover all your sins. Have a blessed week.- Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer: Lord and God, we thank you for the love and grace that is sufficient for us in the cross of Christ whoever we are and wherever we are in our relationship with you. Thank you, God; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Getting Ready for the "Moving" Experience

He is moving again. Moving is nothing new for most United Methodist pastors. I must say that I am very experienced in the moving process since I have done it a few times.

He will get the help he needed to move the boxes and furniture. He will hang the pictures and unpack the boxes. There are some other things that he needs in this moving process, and this friend cannot do it as much as I would like to. First, my friend and his family need to meet and make new friends and neighbors. A neighbor is more than a person that lives near you. They are also persons with which you develop friendships. I hope and pray that happens.

We live in a society that has become increasingly mobile. While you might have lived in the same community all of your life, our community is increasingly being filled with people who have moved from other places. I read a couple of months ago that of the members of our town’s city council, only two are natives. Like my friend, they need neighbors and friends, and they need a church home. In Hebrews 13:2, we hear: “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” Bill Hybels says that the first step in evangelism is sometimes simply walking across the room and saying Hi (or walking across the street, down the road, or across the sanctuary). For Christ’s sake and for the sake of those who are strangers among us, let us seek to be a neighbor to those new to our area and invite them to visit our church home. Have a joy-filled week. He is risen indeed!- Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER

O God, give me eyes to see the strangers among us. Give me the courage to go beyond my comfort zone and offer hospitality to them; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.