That is our job. To prepare the way for those coming behind us. This includes the next generation, as well as those to come after them. Everything YOU do, everything WE do (as a family, community, church, nation) will either prepare the path OR do harm to the path. EVERYTHING WE DO has an impact on those coming behind us.
I hope that really makes us all THINK.
The Bible has an answer for that . . .Evil WILL reign all around when good men and women REMAIN SILENT. When we get so caught up in our love of peace that we do not want to say anything, hoping a controversy will pass. When the good remain silent, evil does ALL the talking. And walking. And doing.
I read an e-mail this morning about Nazi Germany, specifically about a man who was NOT a Nazi, just a peace-loving German who awoke one day to realize the Nazis that he thought would fizzle and go away OWNED HIM. Sent him to a concentration camp. He lost EVERYTHING because he remained silent, because he thought they would go away. This e-mail was a call to “peace-loving Muslims” to speak up, before they fall into the same fate as this German.
I see several parallels around my world today. In fact, I have seen this truth lived out for years all around. I am not talking about the church, but in other areas of Florence in which I am involved. A few VOCAL people develop an agenda (usually a selfish one) and it somehow happens because NO ONE WILL SPEAK UP. NO ONE WILL STAND UP.
It is the old “squeaky wheel” philosophy. I have two answers to this issue . . . 1. SPEAK OUT WHEN YOU SEE IT, because we will all be held accountable one day. 2. Those who work their own agendas in life WILL be held accountable one day, too. God is a God of justice . . . He will have the final word in all of this!
Last week was one of those amazing weeks to be down there . . . There were only a few people on the beach until Friday. Wednesday and Thursday were very windy. All of the days were cool. It was really great.
However, sometimes I find it hard to forget about things going on in Florence. One of the blessings and curses of the current electronic age is that I am way too easy to get, even on vacation. I always check my e-mail and have my cell phone. Most folks, if they know I am on vacation, are thoughtful enough to ONLY call in emergency. I wonder sometime if I REALLY want a vacation if I need to go far away. But, anyway . . .
Lots on the agenda for the next few weeks at Ebenezer. Vacation Bible School is coming up in a couple of weeks and the remainder of the summer is pretty busy. And I am thankful to be busy!! The alternative could be depressing . . .
AT THE BEACH!! I had an opportunity to go to Garden City with my family and my mom and dad for most of last week. The blogger was in the sand, feet in the ocean, and enjoying the waves. Therefore, I did not blog last week. I thought about it a couple of times, but I did not blog.
I hope you had a good week. In spite of several events and even a tragedy at the church, it was good to spend some time away. And now, back to the grind!!!
Well, the school year is practically over and the CLC meetings will cease on Wednesday. We finished our academic stuff a few days ago and the last week or so has been character education material. It was a good semester, and all of the kids passed (although a few did it by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins). As I look back on the semester, I wonder what we really accomplished?
Certainly they learned many facts about the New Testament. About John the Baptist, Jesus, the 12 Disciples, and Paul. They learned the purpose of the Bible is to reveal God and His love to humanity. They heard the Gospel of Jesus many, many times. They learned what Jesus has to say about how we treat each other.
When I think back on the whole thing, I hope they will take at least TWO things with them: God loves them so much that He sent Jesus to DIE FOR THEIR SINS (and through this they can have eternal life) AND I hope they realize that Ebenezer Baptist Church loves them, too. I really will miss them. I know Justin will, too.
Pray for them! They are great kids, and I hope they will look back one day and see what God did for them!
And, YES, CLC will continue at Ebenezer. We have THREE classes on the slate for this fall! The CLC team will be hiring teachers for those classes, and they will be using our two vans and our facility! And I AM PUMPED ABOUT IT!!!
In sports, we drill this into our athletes. Practice, practice, practice. You play like you practice. The more you practice, the more you will automatically do the right thing when there is no time to think. All of this is true. Yes, we will make mistakes, but practice really does help when the heat is on.
This is also true in life. We would never say we are practicing in our vocations, but we are: Every day, you learn in your job. Every day (if you are paying attention) you pick up something that will help you in the future. If this is true, you are getting better and better at what you do. There are some exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, it is true.
What if we apply the same principles to life in Christ?? What if we realized that THEY DO APPLY, whether we consciously do it or not? What if I wrote that the discipline we exercise, every day, DOES determine what we do when the pressure is on, when the chips are down, when there is no time to think, just time to act??
Every day, we have a chance to practice our life in Christ. Every day is preparation for those times when the pressure is on . . .
And, practice DOES make perfect. Have a great practice today!
Tonight is our final Wednesday night of the school year. We will restart on August 29th. This brings Wednesday night supper and missions & music for kids to a halt for the summer. I can’t believe the school year is almost over (and yet in some personal ways, it could not come fast enough). But, all things considered, it sure has gone by fast!
Next year, Krissy will be a junior and Drew will be in the seventh grade. That is really hard for me to believe . . . When we came to Ebenezer, Krissy was 4 and Drew was 1 MONTH old. I know some might say I have been here 12 years too long, it seems to me to be like yesterday when we unpacked that U-Haul into one of the Cambridge Apartments on Southborough Road.
The older I get, the faster it goes by . . . If YOU have kids, better spend time with them NOW!! Tomorrow they will be moving out!
Last night was the first time I had to catch Krissy since February . . . She was faster than I have ever seen her, and she was complaining about losing speed because we took a little break after the playoffs were over. WOW!!
Pitching is a good outlet for her right now. She is having a little disagreement with one of her teachers, and it was good for her to get out on the mound and work out a little frustration, and see something good come out of it. It is better than punching a wall!
And, I like catching her. It gives us time to spend together and do something we both enjoy. Yeah, I had to miss our church softball game last night to do it, but it is worth it.
We did not make our usual Mother’s Day trek to Garden City yesterday. So, after watching SNL on my DVR, I did something EXTREMELY RARE for me (or for any Wike that I know): I watched the race.
I am not really a big racing fan. I do keep up with it, because SportsCenter talks about it every day. I will say this: There is nothing like going out there to Darlington. sitting in turn 4, and feeling little pieces of rubber hit your face and arms. But, then again, when you watch it on television you can easily keep up with everything that is going on and you have a great view of the entire track.
Now, this doesn’t mean that I will be watching the race from now on. It was a random act on a Sunday.
Last night I had the privilege of officiating at a family wedding . . . The bride is the daughter of my first cousin. Ironically, even though I am about the only family member that lives in Florence, this is where they held the wedding. It was to be an outdoor affair at the Country Club of South Carolina. Tipoff: 5:30pm.
The risk of an outdoor wedding when it is hot in the Pee Dee region of SC is great. Evening showers are like clockwork. Driving out there last night, I knew we were in trouble. And, besides, with the Darlington race last night, you had to KNOW it would rain. And rain IT DID.
The problem was easy to understand, but difficult to solve. The bride wanted so badly to be married outdoors and the rain looked (to the experts) like it was passing over. Dealing with baseball and softball, I had a bad feeling about those clouds. I tried to get things going. We had no “director” for this wedding, and that put the bride in a difficult spot: She was in no condition to make the necessary decision to move the wedding in doors, and had her heart set on doing it outside.
We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, reason kicked in as the storm got worse and it was apparent there was no way an outdoor wedding would occur on that day. We moved it inside, finally got it started, and it went off like clockwork.
And, the moral of the story is: No matter how much you plan, pray, rehearse, set up, and wish, you can never control what will happen in an outdoor wedding!!! Take the money, get hitched in a small ceremony, and go on a CRUISE!!!
The Random Thinker 