Back to School Thoughts

When school officially began this month throughout the districts in Southeastern Kentucky, I don’t believe many of us were thinking about the fall season that follows. With the temperatures setting new records everywhere it just seemed impossible, at least to me, to think about the fall leaves, a cold wind and anything other then “seems like summer to me”.
For those old enough and experienced in age you will understand hearing our family members talk about sweeping the yard, it just doesn’t seem right does it? Hard to imagine if that was real action or just mountain talk for something else? It has not been unusual to see plenty of fans out on porches or folks sitting in their garage with a fan on to escape the heat and catch a breeze to find a moment of relief.
Just two months ago we were all crying drought and thought it would never rain, then the rains came, the rain deficit index was decreased, we were feeling good again, and I think you are getting the picture, the cycle of something is beginning again.
This past week with football field lights getting their switch turned to on and the swell of popcorn filling the air, we still have not reached that fall season zone have we? Even with the arrival of Labor Day this weekend I don’t quite believe we will have that settled feeling that fall has arrived. The lakes are down, the water has fallen her 15 or 20 feet but still no strong stance on when we can say fall is here still.
With the “seems like summer to me” still. With my hearts desire for fall to arrive what should one do?
The scriptures are so full of thoughts about seasons and different times in our lives and we even learn from the scriptures about seasons just like these, those that seem out of place or too much. Learning to be content is no easy position to strive after under any circumstances much less trying times, but that word is clear that we should press on.
Not sure what season you like best, not sure what you are thinking about our present weather conditions but you can rest assured of two things for sure. One, it will change just give it time, and two, if you think it can’t get worse, well hold on because it could before relief finally arrives.
In the Old Testament the scripture talks about us taking our position, standing guard, waiting and watching to see what the Lord will say, and for us to simply wait and then when we have received it to run with it. Considering all the questions raised by weather alone it makes good sense to be ready doesn’t it? Why not, while we have the time, make preparations for another type of day that has yet to arrive yet? Today it’s hot, tomorrow it maybe wet, and soon enough it will be could, should we not gather while we can?
Options available in life at this present moment range from sit back, do nothing and complain, to make the best of what you have and see if some luck comes your way, or a final option could be take action through wisdom and attempt to handle whatever comes your way. Not sure what choice you are willing to make today, but fall will arrive, colds winds will blow and now is the best time to get ready when it does arrive.

Until then

School, School, School

This time of the year the calendar cries out school, school, and more school!
I do believe that most folks like to live their lives in such a way that time periods are the focus goals, so thinking August and “back to school” thoughts go hand in hand. Depending upon your personal disposition on change, you maybe thinking that August and “back to school” thoughts will always go together? Myself, I believe even this togetherness of thoughts will change given time.
For those of us living here in the mountains we think of school as an August-May experience for school age children, many teachers think of their professions as summer free jobs, unless teaching summer school of course. However, this line of thinking has changed in not just large cities but small cities too as school districts have changed their thought lines and have begun the public introduction of year round education. We have heard this discussion in some of our local districts and no doubt, this change will occur eventually and the change may even prove to be good, if you are capable of believing that change and good are two words that can be used together.
My great – grandfather was a school teacher and I have and cherish his certificate that proclaimed him as such. It listed his grade in each subject and with such he was off to the one room school in which he was the school master. Every time I look at his certificate and I look at the basic subjects he had proficient in I think about how far it seems education has removed itself from the basics today, but that subject of thought I will save for another day.
Depending upon your location, the setting for education and the resources for education may have changed very little from the 1800’s to even the 1950’s. My father and mother attending one room schools and I have heard them say many times how they cherished books, it was just something classrooms didn’t have. I don’t understand at all today when I hear students say that there are not enough books in some subjects for every student to have their own, so students share books, wow and this is 2007 I think to myself? It is true for different reasons, but unacceptable to me, but I will save that column thought line for another day too.
Today’s column presents many things. Thoughts of the calendar month, school beginning, change; change; change; comparisons of school districts, basic education needs, issues facing students and teachers today, and some random thoughts about tomorrow or the day after next maybe. Life is so full of stuff isn’t it? The complications of issues, timing and experiences seem to fill every time slot and even seem to cover every time period.
Great advice for a month like this is best found in the Book of Psalms from the Bible. Psalms 46:10 says, “be still and know that I am God”, and oh what a thought to be in such a moment as these like these described in this column. Consider a pause from His point of view. For us to stop and see what He might be saying or communicating through this experience. Yes, no doubt, great advice would be for us to simply know He is God and in that , our discovery of peace and purpose no matter the circumstance.

Until then

There is help!

Today we hear breaking news headlines in many different ways. On radio, it is normally a special jingle with that all familiar tune that signals our brain to let us know something new is up, and on television it is that ‘interruption’ of our regular programming that automatically let’s ourselves know something has happened and we should pay attention. In the written press we all know what is the breaking news because news stands tell us right? After all, it is the front page story, it’s that picture or headline that causes us to say, “I need to purchase a paper”, and thus we have it, breaking news headlines in so many ways.
I could write that we have breaking news headlines in our conversations as well. It’s that look from a friend that says “hold on, I must tell you”, or it’s that flag down when we wave our arm until it appears we are going to swing it off. All these are ways that we communicate breaking news, or begin the process of sharing information.
With all that is happening around the world today, imagine breaking news today that all we have been looking for has been born in a little obscure town t hat anyone in their proper mind would want to by-pass…would you be interested? I’m thinking maybe if the coverage was reported in such a way that I had to watch or I thought about someone I knew that lived there, but unless it gets me immediately I’ve turned the page because so much other stuff is coming at me.
Here’s breaking news, there is help! Truth is even as I am writing this column I’m thinking to myself ‘help’ is not the best choice of words. After all, in this paper we have help wanted advertisements, sometimes on electric poles we see signs talking about help, and sometimes we even see folks standing on the side of the road at an intersection asking for help, so help probably is not the best word, but I’m not sure what other word to use. O.K., I’m going back to breaking news, there is help!
No, that’s so repetitive and I should be better then that but help seems to have lost its importance. Help doesn’t seem to have the same punch it had like in former days. I guess it really doesn’t mean much if someone says they will lend a helping hand, to only never show up or deliver huh? Plus everyone seems to be asking for help so it must be in short supply right?
It is amazing to me that we started this column off by speaking about help and the suggestion being made that help is available and now I am at the spot where I am writing a totally different column. It was to be a column that help is here and now it seems to be that help is gone and no one can find it, especially because we see such need all around and no one seems to be getting in touch with help.
Honesty in this column is that help does exist, even if we seem not to find it. Looking for help is more then putting a sign around your neck, or standing on a corner holding up a sign. Looking for help is more then putting out a notice letting others know, even if it is in an organized section like the help wanted ads.
Finding help is more then a one action search. If you want to hear from God you need to learn He speaks from His word, from prayer-communication with Him, and through other people. I want to write and say through out the life line ask for help and you will find it, but you need to make sure you are fishing in the right place. Make sure you are asking the source of supply and not another source looking for the same source.
There is help, His name is Jesus and you will know when you’ve found His help, because there will be a peace that over takes you like no other.
Until then

Aunt Alice; Scotty Hollingsworth; Jesus Loves Me;

There are many trying times in life which seem to pull at you from every angle and there are so many rushing waves, it appears, that one cannot even catch their breath. This past week qualified as “one of those” descriptions for me personally.
My family just experienced the passing of my aunt, Alice Marie Shelton, this was one of my father’s younger sisters and we had been in Franklin, Ohio supporting my father and our extended family and had just returned back home when my brother’s middle child, Meagan Danielle was involved in an accident that sent her to the University of Tennessee by flight, then to also be called about the loss of Jeffery Scott (Holly) Hollingsworth. The past 10 days, I believe you can understand, were trying times not to mention the wedding I would be officiating that weekend as well as one this weekend too.
Emotions, feelings and the roller coaster of life itself are very sensitive and delicate items to deal with. I confess that I am not always personally up to the challenge, but I am most thankful that God never fails even in our greatest time of need. As a pastor I assume it would be more professional on my part at least, to write that I never have doubts, I am always up for a challenge, I’ve never been depressed, or that I am always looking and seeing life in a totally positive view, but that is just not the case.
Often I have wondered if God is still God? Different times I have thought to myself is God listening as I pray? I have even gone as far as to tell Him that if He doesn’t do something I will….now that’s wise huh? Certainly the pressure of our jobs, family, friends, relationships, church, and even unknown people can create moments of questions in our lives, or at least they have in me.
I wish I could write that He has always answered when I’ve demanded He do so, but that’s not the case. I wish I could write that I have clearly understood His direction each time I’ve asked but I haven’t. With all this true, one might ask why ask then, right?
Well, I’m still turning and looking to God for direction and answers because while He doesn’t do it my way, He does do it His way, and when my head is looking for His answers I have always found them. I’ve discovered that when I stop looking from my selfish point of view and ask what His will would be, I seem to always see the direction I should go. It has been amazing, to me, that He has never failed me, yet I’ve failed him time and time again. My real question is why would He still love me after I’ve acted that way? Again, I’m faced with a difficult moment because I don’t have an answer for that one either except to say because He loves me so.
In my childhood I learned early on that song that many of you know too, “Jesus Loves Me”. The song simple says, “Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so”.
I would love to be able to share with you great Theology that I learned in Seminary that would impress you with my academic studies and cause folks to see me in a different light, but I’m simply me. I see myself looking for a God that will and does love me just as I am. I’m looking for a Savior that accepts me with my good points and my bad ones. I know in my looking I think I’ve found a God that meets those needs in my life, and so much more than I’ve even asked or thought of. His name is Jesus Christ and I’m not sure what your last days have been like but if you think you need a helping hand I am suggesting you turn to Him.

Until then

Remembering Aunt Alice

Those of you who read this column regularly know that each year I select a verse of scripture that I focus on for the entire year. In 2006 it was Ecclesiastes 3:1; this year’s verse is 2 Corinthians 5:1;
In December of 2006, when I making my final thoughts about which verse, I really didn’t have any clear cut motivation for this year’s verse, other then it is a verse I have never really spent large amounts of time with before. My studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, provided me with enough basics to understand the context of the verse, in that it was dealing with eternal life, but there is so much more I am discovering then just that basic thought.
On July 2, 2007, my father’s younger sister, Alice Marie Shelton, passed into eternal life. She was born and raised on Stinking Creek and while she spent her adult life living in Franklin, Ohio, she never forgot where her earthly home was, in the heart of Stinking Creek on Acorn Fork. Aunt Alice and my Uncle John worked and raised their children, Dana and Joey, there in Ohio, but Aunt Alice never forgot where her earthly home was, who her “people” were and even more special what it was that has made us the family we are and what we believe.
I am most proud of my family’s heritage, the simple people we are, the basic foundations and beliefs we cherish, and while I love to tell our family stories about where we came from in North Carolina, the crossing of the Cumberland Gap, and where are individual names come from and the stories behind them. I do however, cherish most, the learning of our spiritual buildings, that part of this year’s scripture that talks about our Heavenly Home when this life has run her course and the stories behind how folks press on when things are not quite as they had planned or hoped for.
Aunt Alice spend many years dealing with health issues that often times prevented her from doing what she would like to do or even felt called to do as a wife, mother, sister, aunt, friend, grandmother and even newly announced great-grandmother. Yet, with limitations she still was able to touch and impact so many lives. The Apostle Paul said that one should strive to learn to be content in ‘whatever state’ and she did. She never stopped talking about what she was going to do, or was thinking about doing. She never stopped loving her ‘people’ and talking about who her folks were and just listening at her recollections you could hear the love and excitement as she would talk about the family, her mom and dad, her brother and sisters, her children and even those of us who bore the title of nephew or niece.
Back several years ago she spent a period of time living with my parents and I became so rich in my personal life because of this opportunity to learn from her directly about her childhood days, and more especially the time she spent learning to recognize God’s voice and His call on her heart to follow Him.
The biggest mistake I hear so many make in life is evaluating people’s spiritual journeys based upon our own experiences. While often our personal experiences are of great value, as Aunt Alice’s sharing with me has been, the caution must be in our spiritual walk that we allow each to follow the scriptures in working out their own salvation, and trusting that God does do all things well in His time, which His word so clearly states.
Aunt Alice you were a blessing not just to me, but to Bridget and Jim Jr too, and your faith and ours will guide each of us gently, safely over.Until then