by admin | Apr 25, 2007 | Blog Posts
I do. It is coming from the back of my car. It all started with a weed-eater, actually a weed-eater that was out of gas. I drove to the gas station and filled up my gas can for the appointed task of tidying up my yard. All was fine and ordinary and such until I pulled out in traffic and my gas can tipped over sideways. The can was riding happily in the back and so by the time I pulled my car over, lifted the hatch, enough gas had sloshed onto the floorboard to power my weed-eater for a week. It is at times like these that I need to come to grips with the fact that my MINI Cooper is not a pick-up truck. Be that as it may, my car has a rather strong odor of gasoline. I have left my windows down and the trunk open. I have scrubbed over and over again the floorboard carpets. All of my efforts have come to no avail. Alas, my poor car smells like a mechanic’s garage. There are just some smells you have to wait out. In an odd way this has reminded me of a saying my grandmother had: “If you hang around garbage you are going to smell like trash.” As the matriarch of the DeLoach clan this was her way of cautioning us to be careful with the company we keep. This is of course good advice for all ages, but with all due respect it is not entirely true. The believing community is also called to leave the safe and sanitary confines of...
by admin | Apr 10, 2007 | Blog Posts
Last week I joined my family for a bit of Spring Break vacation. There are a few essentials I pack for vacation: at least one pair of shorts; one Hawaiian shirt; one pair of Birkenstocks; and a stack of books. Really there is not much else one needs when taking a few days off. I did have to drive back to Augusta for a funeral but returned later that afternoon. It was there that I “unpacked” my watch. That is, I took my watch off to ignore for the remainder of the week. I love my watch, but I have no need of it when there are no schedules to observe, meetings to attend or appointments to keep. Perhaps you remember my watch? It was the one I bought in New York City for $38, which of course is a deal because anywhere else it is valued at $38,000 (I was told by the street vendor that it is a genuine Patek Philippe and the guy looked sincere so surely it is the truth, right?). My watch is self-winding and so when it is not worn it will eventually stop. I was amused when I glanced at my watch on the nightstand later that week and discovered it stopped keeping time a few days earlier. It reminded me these lines from a Jimmy Buffett song: I bought a cheap watch from a crazy man Floating down canal It doesn’t use numbers or moving hands It always just says “now” Now you may be thinking that I was had But this watch is never wrong And if I have trouble...
by admin | Mar 1, 2007 | Blog Posts
Along with a handful of other TV viewers we wasted a couple of hours watching the Oscars last Sunday evening. Why do we sacrifice useful hours before the “idiot box” when we could be doing something constructive – like lobbying for world hunger or working on my macaroni art? Is it to gawk at what the celebrities are wearing this year? Oh, please. Could it be the superficial prattle of the “talking heads” interviewing the movie stars as they make their grand entrances? Nah! The Academy Award Show itself is not particularly interesting either. I suppose that one of the biggest reasons I like to watch the “Oscars” each year is that deep down I nurture some fantasy that maybe I could get my hands on one of those trophies. Think about it for a moment – it would look good right beside my vast collection of two Little League baseball trophies and a recognition plaque for perfect attendance in the third grade. The problem is I have not quite figured out what category I could qualify for – since I have never even been in a movie. Maybe a big-time director will show up in church one Sunday, listen to my sermon and exuberantly exclaim, “For years we have been looking for a bearded-Baptist-minister-who-looks-like-a-rabbi type.” And the rest will be history. Don’t you think it would be sort of neat if we could walk around with Oscars and hand them out to deserving individuals? Maybe we could start a trend on Wednesday night. After our meal I could approach the podium and announce, “For the category of Best...
by admin | Feb 20, 2007 | Blog Posts
I like a good challenge, especially when it involves food. There is nothing that gets my competitive edge better sharpened than for someone to say to me “I bet you can’t eat…” Count me in. I will go for it, whatever “it” may be – five hot dogs and two hamburgers (2003); one whole fried chicken (most every week in college); a dozen Krispy Kremes (1991 – they have less calories if they are hot). One of the things that make us uniquely human is our response to challenges. Some meet their challenges on the ball field. Others find it in a studio, or a concert hall or a classroom. The desire to live is fundamentally an existential challenge. There are some challenges, I am sure, that we would rather not face. The challenge of raising teenagers is not always pleasant. There are health challenges that we would rather avoid, such as chronic illnesses and diseases. And then there is the challenge to confront and accept change, like getting older, or losing something (or someone) precious to us. Meeting a challenge, however, means that we are taking serious the will to live, to be human. Yet challenges of faith are often perceived as a lack of faith, or even loss of faith. It is my contention that a growing vibrant faith is nearly always under the weight of challenge. Doubt, despair, loneliness, and brokenness, are just some of the challenges you and I must face. These are at their root challenges of faith and therefore should not be avoided. This week we enter into the season of Lent and...
by admin | Jan 28, 2007 | Blog Posts
Many times when I go home to visit my family in Putnam County I will walk the woods for lightered knots, or “fat lightered.” Lightered is basically seasoned pine (usually a stump, but not always). Highly flammable, pieces of lightered are commonly used to start fires in the fireplace or campfire. I discovered a few years ago that you can actually buy lightered, but it is very expensive. The next thing you know people will be looking to buy other available products of nature like mistletoe or manure. At another time and another place in my past I gave an entire lightered stump to a neighbor. She had complained to Amy about how hard it was to start a fire in her fireplace. The next day we looked out the kitchen window and a steady plume of coal-black smoke was belching out of her chimney. I have never seen a volcano erupt but for the life of me I half expected lava to come out any minute. You guessed it; she put the entire stump in her fireplace. A little goes a long way. It is easy for us to fall prey to the fallacious thought that there is no such thing as too much of a good thing. Most often a little goes a long way. A smile, a handshake, or a kind word, are actions that do not require much…just a little and I find that is usually enough. Sometimes we think we have to smother, cover and slather everything in order to be effective. This method works for the Waffle House but it is not always...
by admin | Jan 9, 2007 | Blog Posts
Congratulations! You made it. We made it. We survived another year and 2006 is over and done with. For better or for worse we have made of it what we can and now it is history. The rest is up to grace. Did you stay awake long enough to countdown into the New Year? Some years it is a struggle for me – correct that, it can be sheer agony – just to stay awake by midnight. This year my family and I spent New Year’s Eve with some good friends and we laughed and danced our way into 2007. Do you remember 1999 and all the building anxiety regarding “Y2K”? Many were convinced that the world as we knew it was coming to an end because the computers were destined to fail when the year 200 began. During the 1950s computers were coded in such a way that it was thought it would be unable to read the year 2000. Nobody really worried about it in the 1950s but by the 90s it was a growing concern. By the time programmers were seriously addressing the problem 1.2 trillion lines of code had to be checked which was essentially impossible. We were “house-hunting” in 1999 and I remember looking at a house for sale where the current owners had stock-piled supplies for a year in their bonus room. According to many the sky was falling. But 1999 gently moved into history and we welcomed 2000 with no sign that this world was coming to an end. The truth is every New Year has its own set of challenges and...
by admin | Dec 20, 2006 | Blog Posts
Ah yes, the holidays. A time when families gather together at the old homestead, take sleigh rides, sip cocoa before the fire. This is a season when every boy and girl is at their best behavior and mother and father spend each idle moment in warm embraces and pleasant exchanges. Okay, who am I kidding? Life is not that way and neither are the holidays. In fact, I have never been on a sleigh ride and have rarely seen one of my children, or my nieces or nephews (even the ones not in jail) at their best behavior. What usually transpires are cryptic threats to the children like, “If you don’t get this room clean Santa Clause is going to leave you underwear – do you understand me?!” Or how about when all of the extended families come together and secretly everyone is assessing each other to see who has gained weight, whose kids are the brightest (mine are, by the way), and who is having trouble at work. We rush from home dragging our children in tow, along with our casseroles, sweet potato pie and some new recipe from Southern Living. Why do we do it? Why do families do this every year from coast to coast, sea to shining sea? I believe at the heart of the matter it is because we need one another. We really do not need our accomplishments or failures; we do not need our insightful ideas, inspirations or bragging rights. We just need each other. Christian Morgenstern wrote: “Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.” Well, I am...
by admin | Dec 13, 2006 | Blog Posts
Let’s see, in October we were carving pumpkins, in November Amy was picking out a 17 pound turkey of which we are still eating and now in December we removed and displayed from the attic most all of our dusty, Christmas decorations. Every family has their own routine and the DeLoaches are no different. Let’s see how we are doing on our holiday checklist: Good old fashion Christmas tree lovingly selected from the thousands sold at Lowes. Thought about constructing a ginger bread house, but remembered that the last time we made one I had eaten half of it by the next day. Picked up pine needles from last year’s tree. Baked hundreds of cookies and completed all shopping – okay, that one is not true, but we are committed to finishing up this year by the 23rd, 24th tops. Had pictures made with Santa Clause. St. Nick, however, did complain a bit that I was a little too heavy to sit on his lap and insisted I sit beside him this time. It just wasn’t the same. The boys, of course, were nowhere to be found. Well, that is what we have completed, or at least started. You should see the list that so far has no checks beside it. Staggering. ‘Tis the season to feel overwhelmed I suppose. Has it always been this way? In truth, yes. Think of Joseph and Mary. And then there is the tiny village of Bethlehem flooded with “immigrants” for the census. Can you imagine the shepherds out in the fields surrounded by a whole heavenly host? Overwhelmed. As we sink beneath...
by admin | Dec 11, 2006 | Blog Posts
Are you ready for Christmas? I have fond recollections from childhood of my grandmother readying for Christmas by weeks and weeks of baking, boiling and kneading her way to December 25th. The kitchen and spare bedroom of her simple house would be stacked high with Tupperware containers filled with high calorie treats. Each year we could expect lady fingers, date nut balls, divinity, and peanut butter fudge. Just before Christmas day she would buy a few coconuts (we never could grow any in Putnam County) and grate them for a homemade coconut cake. One year my brothers and I decided to help grate the coconuts but failed to properly wash up before plunging into the task at hand. Instead of a pearly white color, the cake looked more like a mud hut on the side of the creek. Needless to say the cake never made it to the table. Another year my grandmother was inspired to try something new. She had read a recipe in a magazine for rum balls. Like any good southern lady of her time, my grandmother was a staunch tee-totaler, but she had always heard you can cook the alcohol out. She dispatched my father to go in the dark of night, so no one would see, and purchase a bottle of rum to make rum balls. Like most grandmothers, she did not always work with measurements so she added rum to the mixture according to what she thought looked right. Take my word for it; minors had no business eating those rum balls! When we took the lid off of the container of rum...
by admin | Nov 30, 2006 | Blog Posts
I use to poke fun at some of the gaudy decorations I would see in people’s yards. Over time, however, I have come to better appreciate the efforts people make so that their houses are festive. When I jog through the neighborhoods I know the houses that will use nothing but blue lights, and the ones that will decorate with blinking lights. I can take you right to the home that has an electric candle in every widow – the bulbs are bright red. The last few years I have seen more and more yards festooned with those giant inflatable characters. With every home that hangs quaint evergreen wreaths there are two more homes that have a giant inflatable bear in a toy soldier suit. By comparison, our yard is rather drab. We have some garland hanging over the banisters with magnolia leaves as accents. Right in the center hangs a Moravian star. That’s it. The star doesn’t sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and the lights on the garland to not change from purple to blue and then to red. When my children were younger they begged for gaudiness. They wanted lights, and lots of them. One year we added a few white lights to the shrubbery but that was not good enough. They want multi-colored, disco-infused, dancing lights. “Too gaudy” I say. But I think I am starting to change my mind. There is comfort in knowing how my neighbors will decorate to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Sure, an inflatable Snoopy in a Santa hat doesn’t have much to do with the babe in the...
by admin | Oct 25, 2006 | Blog Posts
Every Sunday at 11 AM sharp I am in the Activities Building for the beginning of the contemporary worship service, better known as “Reach.” After a welcome and a children’s message I slip out the back door and I am “whisked” away in a golf cart to the sanctuary building. Sure I could walk, but do church members and those watching by way of broadcast really want to see me sweaty and red faced as I enter the sanctuary? I have many fond memories of these weekly rides in the golf cart, chauffeured by one of our staff members (I have not been here long enough for them to trust me with the keys). Sometimes we will get so enthralled in conversation that we will go right past the sanctuary and have to do a U-turn (I am not exaggerating). I also get a kick at waving at church members while we zoom by. I have heard more than one of you refer to this little golf cart as the “pope-mobile.” Imagine my distress when last week the beloved cab-enclosed golf cart caught fire! I was not riding in the car at the time. It was on some other mission during the week and the electrical system caught fire. I wondered to myself if this would be a good time to suggest procuring one of those nifty segway scooters. “How am I going to get there from here?” My chagrin regarding my transportation options was short lived because this past Sunday I was picked up in a sporty convertible golf cart – no cab, no roof, no doors, just...
Recent Comments