Greenbriar River

 

My Granny Whitely was a character.  She had six sisters and two brothers.  In order to be able to visit them all each year, they would rent a cabin on the Greenbriar River near Hinton, West Virginia where all of them could meet.  The sisters would stay two weeks with nieces and nephews, cousins, etc. dropping in for a night or two.  My brothers and I would stay a week and swim and fish to our heart’s content.  The days’ activities were great, but the stories and fun at night were the best.  Granny and her sisters would tell tall tales trying to outdo each other while us kids would sit spellbound listening to a time long gone.  One night, after Granny and Aunt Ruth had gone to bed, we caught some toads.  We began throwing the toads through the open window aiming for the beds.  Suddenly, Granny yelled!  We laughed and laughed.  The ladies threw the toads out of the other window, but we collected them, and back into the first window they went.  The ladies were good sports pretending to be shocked and angry.  But it was all in good fun.  I enjoyed renewing acquaintances with distant cousins.  Granny and her sisters cooked wonderful meals on the wood-burning camp stove.  Dinner was always finished up with a fried pie.  But even when we were camping out on the Greenbriar River, we went to church on Sundays.  Often we would double the attendance of the little country church when we walked in.  Granny and her sisters were often asked to sing a special.  And they did!  I remember drawing closer to the Lord as I watched the love of life in my Granny Whitely and the older folk.  Solomon reminded us in Ecclesiastes 12:1, to “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”  Just as clay is molded and then hardened, children are molded and taught.  And they grow up, they are as they were taught.  I am thankful for the Godly heritage that I have.

Darkness

My dear wife and I usually avoid restaurants late at night.  Frist of all, the dinner menu is more expensive than the lunch menu.  And secondly, we have to get up at 4:15 am to be at dialysis at 5 am.  Yikes!  But a month ago we were using a Red Lobster gift card in the evening.  So, when we walked in, I almost stumbled because the lighting was so dim (they call that the ambiance).  There were just a few lights on the ceiling with only a single, forty-watt bulb hanging over our table.  I could read the wattage because it was so dim that I could look directly at the bulb.  But I noticed that after a few minutes, I began to get used to the darkness.  And I thought, “There’s a lesson in this.”  Paul said in Ephesians 5:9&11, “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth; And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”  All too often, we as Christians want to be liked by the pagan world in which we live.  But we are called by God to be salt and light.  And here in this passage we are called to “reprove” the dark world in which we live.  That word “reprove” is like a strict schoolteacher who corrects and carefully watches over her students.  Hey, the world crucified Jesus.  What makes us think that the world will like us, His followers?!  Let’s get used to being different … for Jesus.  Let’s NOT get used to the darkness.  Let’s be the light as Jesus was the light.

 

Okra ... Kind of

In 1992 we went to Romania to distribute John/Romans Scripture portions.  We had a group of twenty Americans to help with the work.  I had been invited to a wedding of a friend in Lugoj, so we all went.  Romanian weddings are an all-day event with a civil ceremony, church wedding, and reception following.  At the reception, we had a full meal with speeches and songs between courses.  Half-way through the meal I was pleasantly surprised to be served deep-fried okra.  I thought okra was a southern dish but was glad to get food that I was familiar with.  But when I bit into my “okra” it was a piece of breaded, deep-fried lard.  It had been breaded and fried, and it looked just like okra … only it was a ball of fat.  Hey, have you ever been disappointed by something that you ate?  You thought it was one thing, but it was another.  Or worse, have you ever been disappointed in life?  Have you spent time chasing a dream to find that it was only a dream?  Have you worked for money only to find that it didn’t satisfy?  Have you been misled in life?  Have you been lied to in life?  Hey, life can be deceiving, like deep fried fat.  Solomon said in Proverbs 23:17&18, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”  Don’t put your trust in people; they will let you down.  Don’t put your trust in money; it will soon be gone.  Put your trust in God; He will be with you forever and never disappoint you.