Gateway Motel

 

In 1967 I left Maryland for Tennessee to go to college.  Since the new men’s dormitory was not completed on time, fifty of us male students were housed in a motel off campus.  Not a very nice one, I might add.  A rented school bus brought us into campus in the morning and took us back in the evening.  Many boys had cars, so it was relatively easy to make the two-mile trip most anytime of the day.  I was the only freshman in our room of five, so I was the low man.  Frank B. and Mike C. were upperclassmen and karate students.  Both were black belts and good at what they did.  Frank told me to wake him up in the morning, but I learned the hard way to be cautious.  When I shook him to wake him up, he jumped awake karate style, swinging his fists and kicking his feet.  Thereafter, I crouched at the foot of his bed, reached over the footboard, and grabbed his toes to wake him up.  Tom W. was a laid-back boy from North Carolina. One night Tom came in late and Frank was already asleep.  Tom stepped on Frank’s bed to get up onto his top bunk, but his foot slipped in the dim light, and before Tom could get away, Frank had hit him multiple times.  I never saw Tom move so fast!  Hey, all of those roommates have long since passed away.  Tom, Mike, Frank, and Denny.  I am the only one who is still here.  I am reminded of God’s grace and goodness upon my life.  May I serve Him with each and every day that I have left to live.  David said in Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”  Hey, how many days do you have left?  You say, you don’t know?  Well then live for the good Lord today with all of the energy that you have, because today is the only day that you are guaranteed.