POLITICAL PROMISES – I remember when Jimmy Carter run for president, promising whatever was popular with the particular crowd he was speaking to. Now we have Obama with his promises involving the spending of billions of dollars that we do not have in order to turn the economy around. Though I was too young to have heard and remembered what FDR promised, trying to move the country out of the Great Depression by various spending programs, I have read and heard of those efforts. The facts are, they didn’t work and it was entering World War II that finally brought us out of the Great Depression. Will it work this time? Wait, watch and see, we are in for a great ride down the path of spend, spend , spend. The first half of the TARP program started in the fall and the money was misused, wasted. Many think we would have been better of to let those banks and insurance companies go through bankruptcy and saved the money. I am far from being an economist but simple observation is a good educator. The sad part is, that we often fail to learn from our experiences.
UNIONS – I do not consider myself a union man. There were times as a young man when I had to belong to a union in order to obtain or hold a job. Of course all that went by the side when I entered into the ministry. If I were involved in secular work today I would not be very happy about the present discussions relating to “open ballots” the unions are try to get passed in place of secret ballots when it comes to deciding whether or not to become a union shop or business. This flies in the face of a pure democratic process, as far as I am concerned. I feel for those who have to be so involved these days.
REHAB – This week I have started rehab, about an hour twice a week. It’s a long walk after getting into the large building where this is done. I wasn’t too bad going in but coming out after being on one of those pedal and handle machines that work both you arms and legs. I was moving a little slower. Hopefully this will build my strength back up. Next week they have scheduled me to talk to a dietician. That should prove interesting because I have very little appetite. The doctor has given me a pill that is supposed to help that but I really haven’t noticed much difference. So it goes with this old man following bypass surgery.
BUILDING PROJECTS – Last weeks “Musings” talked about home missionaries being involved in building churches and being involved in the carpentry trade, whether they are carpenters of not. I got to remembering back to the first church we helped build. It was all volunteer work and some knew what they were doing and some didn’t but they were learning. I remember one dear brother who decided to deal with the plumbing. He would get instructions from a plumber friend as to how to plumb the toilets and washrooms. He would do a little work and then go back for further instructions. When it came time for inspection we managed to get an inspector that was Catholic and it was apparent he didn’t like Baptists. He really gave our dear brother a hard time and kept refusing to pass the plumbing. Poor Willie would go back to the plumber friend for new instructions to make the proper corrections. In one instance the plumber told Willie that what the inspector was requiring hadn’t been done for several years with new changes in the code. The inspector was simply giving us a hard time based on his personal bias. Of course it didn’t help when an unlicensed and non-union man was doing the work. We did finally get the plumbing approved but it was one difficult task. The next church project we hired a plumber to plumb the kitchen. I remember one day come into the new addition and found the plumber gone and having left the fire on under the lead pot he was using to melt the lead to seal some of the joints. I turned the gas torch off, not wanting to chance a fire while the plumber was finding his way back to finish his project. Even licensed plumbers have their goofs. At least I’d consider that a goof, it could have been a rather disastrous error.
A FAMILY RUN CHURCH – One church I took on had been started by someone else. A domineering family, a father and three married sons controlled every detail of the church and had run off the founding pastor. I was not smart enough to fully recognize the problems in those learning years but soon learned how difficult a situation it was. They had formed a constitution and then didn’t follow their own guidelines when it suited their whims. The constitution clearly stated that all teachers had to be members of the local church in order to teach but they continued to use a lady that refused to join the church. (This was one of many battles fought.) After numerous attempts to get the lady to join us I finally took the matter to a church business meeting. You couldn’t imagine the animosity this event stirred up. The church membership had grown and when we brought this matter up the domineering family lost the battle and we voted to remove the teacher from her class as a teacher. The four families, the father and three married sons, all left that church that night and never returned. (The teacher, her daughter and mother also left.) An interesting side note, this family liked to be seen for their giving. During the building project the father had asked to speak to the church when we had run out of funds to complete the project. He proceeded to have what I called a fund raising auction. “I’ll give the first amount of so many dollars, who will add their gift to this?” What I found interesting, for all their pretense of being major supporters of the church, after they left the church the giving in the church increased rather than being diminished. How do you figure? This is just another of many experiences of a pastor/home missionary. Thankfully most ministerial experiences are more pleasant.
A MIRACLE – What could have been a tremendous loss of life turned out to be a miracle of lives saved when the U. S. Air flight 1549 came down in the Hudson River just minutes after take off The accident was caused by geese being sucked into the planes engines. All 155 lives including passengers and crew were saved with only minor injuries. I’ve heard the testimonies of a number of people that went through the experience acknowledging the miracle. I’ve heard people telling of praying, etc. but I have not heard one person acknowledge God’s miracle working hand in all this. Hopefully, as time goes by, there will be some who recognize God’s miraculous hand in all of this. I’ve heard praise of the pilot, the flight crew and the many rescue workers and boat captains on the river that rescued people, and rightly so. It will be interesting to hear the testimonies of more people as this story unfolds to see if God is mentioned as giving wisdom and skill in what is an amazing event.
DOES GOD WORK IN CIRMCUMSTANCES – I believe so. Once while driving from Camas, WA, a dog ran in front of our car and I hit it. Stopping to see how the dog was it ran off into the woods and we went on our way. As we drove into Vancouver, WA we came to a green light at an intersection and as we were about to go through the crossing a car came speeding through the red light. Had we been there a minute or seconds earlier we would have been broad sided and perhaps killed. I’ve always believed that God caused that brief delay by that dog crossing our path to save us from what could have been a terrible accident. Coincidence? I prefer to believe that God intervened.
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