Make it Count

In the movie "Saving Private Ryan" a soldier who gave his life to save Private Ryan grabs him in the collar just before dying and says, "Make it Count."-Then he died.

At the end of the movie, Ryan cries over the man's grave wondering did he live a life that was worth the sacrifice the soldiers made for him to live.

Youth are able to do many things because of the sacrifices of parents and others, but I wonder sometimes, is it all being wasted?

A student who has honor roll capabilities, but does not perform on that level; a person who squanders a talent or another who involves himself in criminal activities; do they all waste the sacrifices made for them?

Adults squander paychecks, gamble away futures and waste countless years on loose living and small expectations. Have they wasted the sacrifices made for them?

Then, I think of how Christ died to save us from our sins and we constantly return to them. Was it wasted on us?

There is a bible verse in 2 Corinthians 6:1 that says, "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain."

God is blessing us today for a purpose.

Let's make it count.

What Shacking Means

I met a fine couple once who lived together but were not married. They explained that they loved each other but were not ready to commit to each other.

In the interim they enjoyed each other, had sex and shared space. Since neither would commit to the other, they would continue this arrangement with the full knowledge that at any given time one of them would walk away if the chips are down.

I thought about that and wondered at the time lost by two people who were just using each other.

Why would anyone want to be used? Yet, that is what shacking means: Using each other without any promises.

Committment means: If you get sick, I'm there. If you are down on your luck, I'm there.

If you get fat, I'm there. If you are depressed, I'm there.

If you win or lose, I'm there.

If you become disfigured and hard to look at, I'm there.

When you embarass your self and me too, I'm there.

If you are dying in the spirit, I'll love you back to life. If you are attacked, I'm there.

If you are dead broke, I'm there.

People who shack up do not share these attitudes. They use each other as fallbacks, financial crutches, vibrators, and simple instruments of convenience and pleasure, but if things get tough one or the other will be tossed aside.

In a shacking relationship at least one partner refuses to say "I'll be there for you." What they really say is, "If the chips are down, don't count on me."

When your mate refuses to committ, then your mate should find someone else to use as a banker, social worker, landlord, cook, driver, billpayer, vibrator or sperm receptacle.

In plain language: He or she should commit to you or get out!

I told that to the couple.

Six months later they sent me a wedding invitation and a thank you card!

They Pushed God To the Edge

God is back on the dollar coin, or will be soon!

I collect coins, so I found it interesting, like millions of others, that many of the new Presidential dollar coins did not have the inscription “In God We Trust” on their face.

I didn’t notice it until I started getting emails from believers all over the country asking me to refuse the new coins because they left God out.

I checked it out. Sure enough, in 2007 the Congress authorized a series of presidential dollar coins commemorating U.S. Presidents. The design took “In God We Trust” off the face of the coin and put it on the edge or rim along with the words “E Pluribus Unum.”

That caused quit a stir across the country. The internet was abuzz. Most of the emails urged believers to refuse the coins because God had been removed.

Last year the Congress voted to have “In God we trust” placed back on the face of the coins beginning in 2009 as soon as doing so would be practical.

So it appears that we pushed God to the edge and now we’re bringing him back to the face.

That took an act of Congress.

Will it also take an act of Congress to move God one final time? Where?

...To the forefront of our hearts.

I Finally Have My Diplomas

I graduated from college twice and haven't seen my diplomas in 25 years.

When I was young it was drilled into me that I should get a formal education so that I could better understand and appreciate the world I would step into. I was told that a formal education would make it possible for me to take advantage of opportunities that might come to me, especially those where a general formal education was required.

So, in 1967 I enrolled in Northeast Louisiana State College as a music major. Over the course of the next eight years that major changed several times: Radio and television, Education, Pre-law, Political science, Speech and Drama, and Journalism.

I didn't have any place to live in my first semester so I hung around the buildings until night and slept on the floors under desks, washing out my two shirts and underwear in the bathroom sink and going to class the next day. I started a little fly sheet and wrote about campus life and sold it to students to pay my tuition and get food. (I'm still printing that fly sheet. It's called the Monroe Free Press newspaper.)

I also enrolled in a seminary in Texas and took correspondence bible courses, too.

In 1972 I graduated the first time and graduated again in 1975.

They gave me two diplomas that I threw in a closet somewhere. In 1984 I stumbled upon them and carried them to be framed. Before I could pick them up the shop closed and my diploma's disappeared.

I didn't have the diplomas but I had the information. Those who advised me in my youth were right, the education I received opened my eyes to the world. The fact that I had a little "edgumacation" made others take me serious and made me see things more seriously.

This year, 25 years after the framing shop closed down, a lady came to my office with a package. She had bought the building used by the frame shop and found my diplomas.

Twenty five years later, I finally have my diplomas.

But what's better, I have what they represent.

One of my birthdays I turned 60

I celebrate three birthdays. On one of them I turned 60 years old this year.

When I was in the care of my father, he told me that my birthday was June 22, 1949. So, those that he paid to care for me arranged birthday parties and other activities celebrating June 22nd as the year of my birth.

When I visited my mother she told me that my birthday was June 29, 1949. She described how I was born on a sofa in the living room of a house at 119 S. 20th Street in the early morning hours of June 29th. She said my father didn’t know what the date was because he wasn’t there when it all happened. Dr. M.J. Foster came to the house and delivered me right there in the living room.

Years later I saw my birth certificate which indicated June 28, 1949 as my birthdate. It was signed by my mother and, of course, Dr. Foster. That means that on every official record my birthday is listed as June 28th.

When I was around my father it was June 22nd and when I was around my mother it was June 29th.

I asked my mother why would she signed a birth certificate with the wrong birthdate on it and she said, “I was hurting. I saw it had the wrong date but I was hurting so bad I just signed it.” She told me to take her word for it, it was June 29th.

As a result I have three birthdays. One of them is the real one.

I'm going to enjoy the 60's. It will be a lot of fun.

I would have enjoyed the other 59 years even more had I known then what I know now.

I would have learned more in school and pursued a higher degree than I obtained.

I would have managed my money and resources better.

I would have spent less time trying to save the world and more with those closer to me.

Those things aside, its been a ball.

I’m generally a healthy person. I take one pill that Dr. Claude Minor insists I take to control my blood pressure.

I don’t have any real worries of my own; most of my worries are about other people. (I’m still trying to save the world and every lost child, I guess).

I can’t wait to see what the 60’s will be.

I look forward to the discounts, AARP, and special treatment that folks in the 60’s get. (I will love to be eligible for Medicare instead of this $755 a month I pay for health care.)

Wow!

So, on one of these days: June 22, 28, or 29th I turned 60.

"This is the day the Lord has made, I will be rejoice and be glade in it."

"This Little Piggie" and a tickle

The more time we spend around our fathers, the more we know about them and in some ways we emulate them.

As a child I never spent more than a week under the same roof with my father, but there were several men from whom I drew inspiration, guidance and nurture.

My father didn't know much about being a father; I suppose he tried. After he and my mother divorced in 1951 he had the task or raising a two year old boy. He had to be a father, without much instruction.

He compensated by paying a variety of people to keep me in their homes during the fall, winter and spring, and sent me to live with his mother in the summer. From time to time I hung out around his cab stand and watched the drivers come and go.

Mostly, I hung around, stayed out of the way and watched. It's what I watched that I learned and remember most from him.

I watched him wear a tie as he drove his cab. I later grew up with a respect for men who wear ties.

I watched him reach for his glasses so he could read; I do the same.

I watched buy two way radios and electric gadgets for his business; I still keep up with the latest technology in my own business.

I watched him read the newspaper from front to back. I later grew up reading the newspaper daily, then owning one.

I watched him save his money, pay his bills and pay others. I later grew up saving my money, too and paying others.

I watched him buy a dinner, eat half of it and save the other half for the next day. Believe or not, I often do the same.

I watched him buy Ford automobiles. I do the same.

I watched his attraction to high yellow women; he married two and had two children by another one, but one died.. I married only one, had four children by her, but one died.

I watched him attend church on occasion. I became a preacher.

I watched him become an old man, now I'm the age that I considered him old.

He never rode me on his back and played horsie. He rarely had time to do foolish, father things with me. We never went on trips, had vacations or rolled around on the floor in fun. We rarely laughed together.

I mostly watched, then learned most everything else from the other fathers he paid to care for me.

I remember what they taught me but there are two pictures that loom in my mind. They overshadowed the memory of all the other surrogate fathers I have had.

I remember him playing, "This little piggie with my toes" and tickling me in the side to make me laugh. I remember those two things. They have been amplified to be more fun in my memory than they probably were, but I remember them.

I have his sense of independence, business acumen, and tendency toward frugality.

I look like him, so do two of his grandsons and one of his great grandsons. Some of them have some of his traits, too.

I don't know what my own sons will remember about me, you never know what lingers in the mind. I have never asked.

Every Father's Day I don't think about what my father did not do for me or labor on what it might have been had I been a better son and he a better father.

What I choose to remember is, "This little Piggie" and the tickle in my side. The other memories will fade in time.

He never knew how to be a father. I never knew how to be a son.

His grandsons and great-grandchildren should be proud of him. Whatever he was, he now lives in them.

It probably wasn't important to them, and may have been forgotten, but when all three of them were very small, I played "This little piggie on their toes" and tickled them in the sides, hoping they would have at least two fond memories of my feeble attempt at fatherhood

I swept, she scraped

I saw a small group of people erect an entire church building in just 24 hours, complete with carpet, furnishings, baptizing pool and electronics.

When saw it on the evening news my wife and I were so excited about the prospect of something like that happening that we put on tennis shoes, grabbed a vacum cleaner and went to join in the fun.

A small Pentecostal Church in Sterlington, La., with only 30 members, received help from the United Pentecostal Church and a swarm of volunteers came to erect a church for them in just one day. It's part of something the Pentacostals call "Church-in-a-day." In which others help small churches get started.

It was an amazing thing to see. Carpenters, bricklayers, cooks, electricians and just plain folks from all over the country converged on little Sterlington at 7 a.m. Friday morning, facing nothing but a concrete slab. By noon, they had the frame built. By mid afternoon the roof and shingles were in place, along with electrical wiring and air conditioning.

My wife and I were the among the handful of locals who were present. We're not Pentecostal, we just saw a wonderful thing happening and decided to pitch in. We were asked to help clean the floors for the carpet. I pushed a broom and my wife handled a floor scraper like a pro.

Just as promised, in 24 hours they built a church.

I sat and listened to friendly conversations, everyone addressed as "My Brother or My Sister." There was spirit of fellowship in the air. For a few hours there was a heavenly atmosphere, all races, ages and varying denominations all working together for a common cause.

We watched and talked about what we saw and pondered what would happen if more people would do a little less lip service and little more real service without the thought of being paid or recognized?

There is a bible scripture in Nehemiah 4:6 that says, "So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work."


The North Pointe Pentacostal Church is up now. They had a mind to work.

They are having their first worship in the new building today.

I was glad to be a floor sweeper in the project.

See video.