Fragile

by   July 12, 2021 with No Comments

By Ann Farabee

The package was delivered.

The first thing I noticed was the warning: FRAGILE.

Some packages may not give a warning that it is fragile.

Instead, they may give these instructions: HANDLE WITH CARE.

Either way, we know that what is in the package may be damaged or broken if we do not handle it with care.

For me, the warning worked. I picked that package up, carried it carefully into my house, and placed it gently on the table. As I opened it, I had to go through styrofoam packaging to get to it, so apparently the sender and the postal workers had been careful, too. It was not broken or damaged.

Do we pay attention when we see that an item is fragile or needs to be handled with care? At my house, I often hear or say something like this, “Be careful! That will get broken!” Or perhaps I should say, “Handle with care! That’s fragile!”

But how about us? Not packages – but people.

We do not have a sign on us that warns: I AM FRAGILE.

Nor do we have a sign on us that instructs: HANDLE WITH CARE.

But sometimes, it would almost be appropriate.

If we will pay attention to those around us, we may know, anyway.

We may see it in their actions.

We may see it in their movements.

We may see it on their face.

We may see it in their eyes.

We may hear it in their voices.

They are in a stage of their lives where they may feel damaged or broken.

They are crying out: I AM FRAGILE. PLEASE HANDLE WITH CARE.

*Perhaps they lost a loved one. They are still grieving greatly, although we wrongly assume they have begun to move forward.

*Perhaps someone is dealing with a personal or private problem they do not often talk about to others.

*Perhaps it is a son, a daughter, a mother, a father, a grandparent, a neighbor, a friend, or even a pastor – all struggling with a heavy load that they do not feel will ever be lightened.

*Perhaps it is a prison inmate, a hospital patient, the employee working hard to make ends meet, the one close to bankruptcy, or those living in an unhappy home.

*Perhaps it is someone who is elderly, someone who is too busy, someone who lives alone, someone who needs encouragement, someone who is depressed, or someone who needs a friend.

No, the words ‘I AM FRAGILE’ and ‘HANDLE WITH CARE’ are not written on their T-shirts, but they are written on their hearts.

You will know who they are –

Reach out to one of them today.

There’s a promise from God about doing that –

Luke 6:28  – Give and it shall be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Together with Family

by   July 10, 2021 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

Together with Family

            There are many special things to me about the July 4th holiday. I begin the day by hanging my grandfather’s flag on my house. My grandmother gave it to me, and I consider it a very special reminder of him. It is big and beautiful, and always makes me feel patriotic.

            For many years my wife and I hosted the family gathering at our house, when we lived near Faith. The year that President Bush came to Faith was a particularly memorable time. We always took my nephews and nieces over to the fair and enjoyed the rides.

            My brother has been hosting the family gathering at his house for a number of years now. It’s convenient for everyone to gather at his house. One of my great-nephews referred to his house as the “fun house” the other day. I have to agree with him. It is always fun to go to my brother’s house.

            It was so good to see my family gathered at my brother’s house for the 4th. There is a retired pastor who lives across the street who came over to join the festivities. You can’t be thin-skinned to be at my brother’s house; you will get picked on. The retired pastor joined in the fun and kept everyone laughing. We all treat him and his wife like family.

            It’s fun when we gather as family to hear what everyone has been up to since the last time we were together. There are always plenty of stories being shared, some happy, and others about the daily struggles that make up our lives. Everyone has a story, and family gatherings are the perfect opportunity to share. The one thing my family shares at family gatherings is plenty of laughter.

            My nieces and nephews are having babies, which is naturally the biggest family news. Another nephew is working hard at his new business of mail-order gourmet food and moving into a new house. Family vacations were a big topic. And naturally, I brought my new book, which caused some excitement, too.

            After dinner, my brother set off some fireworks. We all enjoyed watching my three-year-old great-nephew as he watched the fireworks. Who am I kidding; the adults were enjoying the fireworks, too! The time passed quickly, and before you knew it, we are all working together to clean up.

            One of my favorite parts of the day is getting home in time to watch the Capital Fourth Celebration on public television. I really enjoy listening to the special music and watching the fireworks from the comfort of my couch with my wife. It is a great ending to a wonderful day. The fourth of July is a great time to celebrate family, friends, and eat some great food.

            Gathering together as a family keeps our hearts united and our bonds strong. We need each other to celebrate our victories, but it’s more important to be there when times are tough. God designed us to be co-dependent on each other, especially in the family of God. There are no super Christians who can make it through life on their own. We need the love and support of each other to press through the challenges life presents.

            The pandemic has kept many people away from gathering at church. It is so important that we gather and connect with each other. I need your gifts and you need mine. We need to worship, hear the message, and share our needs for prayer. We need to encourage each other and hold each other accountable so we will stay strong and united in faith. We need to laugh and cry together.  

            We can’t escape the fact that we need each other in both practical and spiritual ways. Sometimes we need practical help fixing or moving things. Other times we need a shoulder to cry on. Your prayers may be the thing that helps me put one foot in front of the other as I take steps forward. For some, the family of God is their only family; brothers and sisters in Christ, offering love and support.

            I want to encourage you to commit to safely gathering and connecting with fellow believers. If you aren’t comfortable attending church due to the pandemic, connect on the phone, email, text, or simply visit one another. Our spirits need to be rekindled and stirred by each other. Our fire can grow dim when we stay apart, so don’t let the pandemic completely isolate you. Find ways to safely connect with your church family so you can encourage and be encouraged in your Christian walk.

Doug Creamer has a new book at Amazon: EncouragingU: Summer Stories. Contact him at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com

The Man in the Song

by   July 9, 2021 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

On a recent evening, my wife and I were sitting on our screened porch watching another hot, summer day simmer to an end over Lake Norman. A CD of the number one songs by Johnny Cash helped our mood as the worn disc moved from favorite song to favorite song .  However, like many things we think we know, I was surprised by a line in one of the songs, a song I know the “history” of and have enjoyed. The line that I seemed to fully comprehend for the first time and that engendered my thinking is, “’Cause there’s something in a Sunday/ Makes a body feel alone…”

In his mournful song, Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, Kris Kristofferson writes of a  Sunday morning in which a man suffering a hangover tries to make sense of the world. Drinking two beers to help his hangover, he puts on his “cleanest dirty shirt” and goes outside to witnesses the world begin another Sunday—all with him as observer, not participant. Crossing an empty street he smells chicken being fried and laments, “And it took me back to somethin’/ That I’d lost somehow, somewhere along the way.” He continues on his journey to nowhere and with no one by his side.

 Perhaps the song is a memory of Merton College in Oxford where Kristofferson studied as a Rhodes Scholar; maybe it is a story of one of the long nights/mornings he spent as a struggling artist in Nashville during the late 1960’s; or it could be just an anecdote he heard. Whatever! the narrative captures the misery of a life ill spent in whole or parts, but still resulting in regret.

In Thoughts in Solitude Thomas Merton writes, “Violence is not completely fatal until it ceases to disturb us.” Now, we all know (or should) that violence comes in many packages, but no matter how it is wrapped, violence leaves wounds. And the fatal violence Merton writes of is often the result of uncontrolled anger, an addiction, or some other evil cause. Kristofferson is writing of alcoholism and when that violence in a bottle becomes the ordinary of a life it ceases to disturb because it is what has become normal. Then, often too late, the addict becomes like the narrator in the song who smells frying chicken and remembers something lost along the way. That “something” is likely a person or persons and on a Sunday morning all the narrator can do is to numb himself with alcohol and suffer through another day of regret.

On my desk sits a black and white photograph taken in the front yard of my paternal grandparents. The poplar trees in the background are bare, but I know it is Easter Sunday because two cousins knelling in front of the photograph hold their Easter baskets.  My younger brother and sister stand with me and an older sister. Behind my brother is our father who wears a suit jacket, opened-collared shirt, and is looking toward the camera, but his face is full of shadow. The photograph is important for me because our father seldom shared Sundays with us and my two older sisters who are not in the photograph. Years before he had deserted us and our mother, but he is present this day because his parents and siblings had gathered for Easter Sunday. And for whatever reason he posed for the photograph, a stranger standing with his children.

The father in the photograph would understand Kristofferson’s song because he was like the narrator—a man trying to make sense of the world as seen through the violent haze of alcohol. He would keenly understand how a familiar smell could trigger a memory of something that he had lost “somehow, somewhere along the way.” He would intimately know the loneliness of Sundays,  even a special one like this Easter Sunday. But I wonder if the shadow covering his face in the photograph is not a forewarning of the shadow he would feel later after his children had walked to their mother’s home, and he returned to “somewhere along the way.”

Meet Shelia Gillespie

by   July 6, 2021 with No Comments

By David Freeze

Over the years, I’ve written about all types of runners, representing all speeds and all ages. Shelia Gillespie and her husband John are my nearest neighbors below the farm. Still about a third of a mile away, I see her almost every day. Shelia has one of the best local running/walking streaks going right now.

From West Virginia, they moved to N.C. in August 1986 due to lack of work. Shelia said, “I moved to Iredell County and then after quite a few years we were ready to leave Mooresville to find a place in the country. I grew up off a mile long dirt road in Lincoln County, W.V. In November 2001, we did move to Rowan County with cows as my nearest neighbor. Not the case anymore, but I do like being where the houses are not right on top of each other. Everyone around me lives on at least an acre of land and strives to help one another.”

Shelia started walking/running in 2014 and then Daetwyler, the company she works for in Huntersville, started a wellness program that paid for any running/walking event of 5K, 10K, marathon or triathlon. She said, “The longest race I have done is a 10K with three of them now complete. Since the 10Ks always started in the morning, I twice did a 5K the same evening. My first race was in Charlotte with a group of our employees to support the Children’s Levine Hospital. Hooked by that time, I have also completed two Warrior Dash Mud Runs that are so much fun if you like dirt. I’d much rather do my running/walking outside with my dog by my side no matter how far I go, but when the weather does not permit, I am treadmill bound.”

With rheumatoid arthritis, Shelia must give herself two shots every other week. She also has amyloidosis of the bladder to which there is no cure but is manageable. When Shelia’s urologist got the diagnosis back, he had never heard of it. With research, he found that she was one of only 200 in the world to have it in the bladder, Shelia said, “I am not sure the running helps with amyloidosis but I know it does with the RA because just moving helps keep my joints more flexible. You know the old saying ‘a body in motion stays in motion.’”

Shelia was doing sometimes three 5Ks a month and Daetwyler human resources told her that she would be their poster child for the wellness program. With 50 races complete, her next race will be the Salisbury Greenway 5K on July 17 unless something else comes up that isn’t in Charlotte or a virtual race.

Shelia added, “I have become obsessed with my days in a row of walking or running. By Thursday, I had 388 days straight which is a feat in itself. When COVID hit and they sent me to work while sitting at home near the end of March 2020, I decided on June 2, 2020, that I needed to get up and get moving. At first, I was going to try for 30 days, and the goal just kept going up, recently passing a year. When I have to have a medical procedure done, I will get up early in the morning and get on the treadmill. Right now, my goal is 400 days, and I am getting closer I know there will come a time when the streak will end, but I am going to push as long as I can.”

John and Shelia have been married since January 1998. Shelia said, “He is not really into the health thing even though he has issues. If I race close to home or have one in Charlotte, he drives me because I don’t like the traffic. He then participates so he doesn’t have to sit all alone. John will occasionally go out and walk with me on the weekend. We will be doing the Salisbury Greenway Race on the July 17.”

I will bet that Shelia doesn’t stop at 400 days. Check out next Saturday’s Shiloh Missions 5K and the Greenway 5K at www.salisburyrowanrunners.org .

Do We Forget?

by   July 5, 2021 with No Comments

By Ann Farabee

Have you heard a speaker speak, a teacher teach, or a preacher preach lately?

Research shows that within an hour of hearing someone speak, we forget 50% of it.

Within 24 hours, we forget 70%. Within 7 days, we forget 90%.

Those percentages seem a bit optimistic for my memory capability.

The 90% forgetting arrives much more quickly.

Research also shows that if we almost forget something, but bring it to remembrance, the memory will then become stronger and stay longer.

For example: I had forgotten that my 13-year-old brother had ridden with me to a basketball game at the high school I was attending as a 17-year-old. So at 10 p.m., he was waiting at the school in the dark on the steps outside the gym for his beloved sister to remember that she forgot him. Yes, this was well before cellphones.

Sometimes we tend to forget things — or even people.

But forget God? Who? Us?

How could that happen?

God made the world. God made us. God is with us.

God keeps our world spinning.

Jeremiah 2:32 says, “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet, my people have forgotten me days without number.”

A bride forgetting her wedding dress? Unlikely.

That dress would be a very important part of her day.

In this verse, Israel had forgotten God — because they had become focused on the world.

Not only had they forgotten God — but they had forgotten God for days without number.

I am glad we don’t do that!

We remember God, don’t we?

We would certainly not go days without him!

Because he is the most important part of our day!

Or would we?

Sometimes our personal prayer life may weaken.

Sometimes our personal praise life may be forgotten.

Sometimes reading God’s word may be neglected.

Sometimes being in God’s house may be pushed aside.

Sometimes teaching our children about God may be overlooked.

We may then realize that maybe we have forgotten God.

How sad to think that the most important part of our day could be forgotten.

The night I left my brother at the gym happened because I had lost touch with him while we were there. I had been busy watching the game and talking with friends. 

I had forgotten to remember the person who meant the most to me — my brother.

I turned that car around like a maniac and headed back as quickly as possible.

I was focused on one thing only — getting back to him!

When I wheeled around the circle drive that led to the very dark gym, I was afraid he would not be there. I was afraid he would be angry.

But no. He was standing there — looking for me. He smiled, ran toward me, jumped in the car, while saying, “I sure am glad you finally remembered me!”

I was, too. That could have been hard to explain to my parents.

I believe that is what God does when we forget him.

He keeps waiting. He keeps looking for us.

Then, when he sees us heading back toward him, he smiles and runs to meet us.

For he knows that we finally remembered the most important part of our day.

Ann Farabee is a teacher, writer and speaker. Contact her at annfarabee@gmail.com or annfarabee.com.

God Allows

by   July 3, 2021 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

            My pastor’s wife was sneaky recently. She planned a getaway for the two of them to celebrate their anniversary. I was one of a handful of people who knew ahead of time since it meant the pastor would have to miss Sunday service. I was honored to have the opportunity to speak in his place. My pastor was completely surprised, and I hear they had a relaxing time away.

            I had lots of different ideas floating around my head about what I should share in my message. It was difficult to quiet myself to hear from heaven about which way I needed to go. It took several quiet mornings on the porch to make sure I was hearing what was on the Father’s heart. God wants to speak to us; we just have to get quiet before His throne.

            A couple of weeks ago, the adult Sunday school teacher asked if I would teach her class one Sunday morning. I taught the class about how God tests us. I made it abundantly clear that he does not tempt us, because God is good and He would never tempt us. But God does test us, or allow us to be tested.

            Joseph, the son of Jacob, faced many tests in his life. His brothers sold him into slavery, so it would have been very easy for him to be angry and bitter. After doing everything right, he was accused of sexual misconduct and put in a dungeon. Depression and anxiety would easily be his friends in such a place. There were certainly some tough days in Joseph’s life, and plenty of questions about where God was in the midst of all that. Tests!

            I firmly believe that God works in unexpected ways. He allows us to face temptations because he promises that He will provide a way of escape. He allows us to face tests because He has sent what we need to get through the tests. Sometimes we don’t acquire what He provides, so we fail our tests. That means we have to go back and learn the lessons we didn’t get along the way.

            Last Sunday I talked with our congregation about God allowing things to happen. When we look at the difficulties and the tragedies in the world around us, it’s easy to wonder why God doesn’t step in. We need to stop and remember one critical thing: God is good and the devil is bad. When tragic events occur like the condo collapsing in Miami or COVID, God is not the author of those events. God is not evil and cannot do evil things.

            When God allows trials and difficulties to come into our lives, we have to keep the following things in mind: God has faith in us, and He provides a way for us to get through it. I am not saying there won’t be bad days. God sets the limits of how much can come our way. I sometimes think that God has way too much faith in me. But I try to keep reminding myself that God is in control and that He will see me through.

            When we find ourselves in the middle of challenging times, we have to remember that God allowed it to stir our faith, not shake it. We will, with His help, get through to the other side. We have to do our part, which includes both standing and fighting. Don’t forget to call your friends to get them praying. Prayer is a powerful weapon when we are struggling.

            We have to take steps of faith even if we can only move a few inches. We have to remind ourselves when we feel like God isn’t doing anything, that He is working behind the scenes to work everything out in our favor. While it might feel like He is waiting way too long, He is never too late. Mary and Martha thought Jesus was too late for their brother Lazarus, but they didn’t understand God’s plan.

            No matter how dark it might feel, we must keep the flame of hope alive. We never give up. God is ALWAYS for us and NEVER against us. We must keep trusting, believing, hoping, and praying. The enemy may knock us down, but God will help us back up.

            I want to encourage you if you find yourself in the middle of a difficult time. Help is on the way. Nothing is impossible with God. You serve a risen savior and the power of that resurrection lives inside you. God will appear on the scene and circumstances will work out in your favor. We serve a good, loving, Heavenly Father who has His eye on you and your situation. Stir your faith and trust Him.

Doug Creamer has a new book at Amazon: EncouragingU: Summer Stories. Contact him at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com

The Gift

by   July 2, 2021 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

According to a Google search I recently conducted, as many adults regularly play chess as are users of Facebook. That is a large number of the world’s population, and while I am not a user of  the latter, I play the former. My rating is about 725, which means that I am far from being a good player. But that is okay because my rating cannot gauge the satisfaction I receive from playing on-line chess: I have won a few more games than I have lost; I have had some draws; I have lost to women; I have lost to younger players; I have played players who live in a range of countries; I have been checkmated by a player waiting for a flight in an airport; I have learned about COVID in other countries through the message board; and I have been gifted by a player in India.

Recently I logged in and requested to play. The machinery spun and a player’s user name, national flag, and rating appeared on the screen. The player’s rating was about fifty points higher than mine, so I would be awarded ten points for a win, two points for a draw, and six points for a loss. I was excited because I would rather lose to a superior player than beat a lesser one; plus, sometimes I play poorer against lower rated players. So I moved my white pawn and waited for his response with a dark piece.

By my fourth or fifth move, his superior skill was causing me trouble. I could find no way to penetrate his wall of pawns, and he was beginning to advance his major pieces. I had a sinking feeling, but I continued looking for some way to gain some foothold. Yet it seemed the harder I tried, the more perilous my position was. My big blunder in losing my queen did not help my cause, and soon, mercifully, my doom was imminent. I had several pawns, one lonely king, and a rook to my opponent’s  array of powerful pieces. Then his queen captured my rook. Done! Kaput! Fried! But—wait. The result screen showed that my opponent had resigned, and I was awarded ten points for the win. I messaged him and asked why. He responded, “I am rated higher than you, and the game was not fair.” He had required me to play while not patronizing me by “letting” me win.

Fair? The game was more than fair; it was just. I was whopped by a superior player, and I wonder if he is not a superior person as well? I mean, would I resign a game I had clearly won because I was rated higher than my opponent? Do I have the character required to freely give away ten points of my rating?

He required me to play then he gave me the gift, and I do not mean the ten points. When he resigned he created a moment of kindness and gentleness. When he resigned, he demonstrated that chess on my level is more than points in a rating. When he resigned, he acted like the champion he is.

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