Category: Tennessee

Posted on

A Roller Coaster Ride!

Personally, the best description for the last few days of March, 2013 would be a roller-coaster ride!roller coaster

Emotions were flowing as we learned of my daddy’s passing on Saturday afternoon, March 23rd.  Then within forty-eight hours, we spent sixteen hours traveling to Kansas and back for his graveside service.  Though visiting with family was a blessing, laying the patriarch of our family to rest was difficult at best.  The next forty-eight hours brought us to the annual LTC convention in Dallas (Leadership Training for Christ).  An exciting, busy but certainly focused weekend for more than 1,000 saints in down-town Dallas.  But the month of March was still not over; our youngest son decided he was ready to put Christ on in baptism…at 10:30 PM Saturday night, March 30th!  An exhilarating lift as we continued to ride ‘the roller coaster.’  Oh wait, the next afternoon following morning services, my oldest drove back to Tennessee to resume the last two months of his freshman year.  His first time to drive 9 hours…alone.  If you could see the calendar of events and feel the emotional twisting and turning, you’d know these past few weeks have been a roller coaster ride.

So how does one put this in to prospective?  Any time we lose a family member, we hurt; and anytime a lost sheep is found, we rejoice.  When you feel those two strong emotions within a matter of days you realize priorities have to be set.  What is most important and where do I put my focus?

One of the blessings we experienced at the memorial of my daddy was the assurance of his faith, and gentle hand of sympathy from brothers and sisters in Christ.  Four of his grandson’s lead the singing and read scripture, while several others shared thoughts of encouragement.  But as we closed the service we all joined in singing some songs of praise and inspiration.  We closed the service with the song, “Softly and Tenderly”.  The message was perfect as we sang about ‘coming home’ and in respect to my dad’s passing…I believe he was on his way home.  But then as I considered my son’s baptism I realized that he too began his journey as he decided he was ready to ‘come home’.  Each of these events, though separated by two different extremes, bring my mind toward what’s most important.  Do we listen as Jesus is calling us home?

“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.”

Refrain:
“Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!”

This song is a wonderful call for the sinner, the lost lamb, to come back to the fold of God.  And I certainly saw the implications as I realized my son was indeed turning his mind to follow Jesus and come home.  But as we remembered the passing of our daddy, the third verse of this song rings true.  Grim as it may be…it is so true…

“Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing for you and for me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.”Dillons baptism...3.30.13

Roller coasters are certain to come into our lives…whether we want them to or not.  The question we must ask is how will we ride?  Many enjoy the thrill of the lift while others hold on tight.  We know there will be times when we cry out and wish the track would level off.  But the best advise is to find the excitement at every turn and hold on tight!  Know the ride will soon be over and the ups and downs will eventually level off.  Take comfort in remembering Christ is at the controls of life.  He knows your fears and He sees your tears.  And when we come to give Him our lives, even the angels rejoice.  Our Savior is pleading for us all to come home…softly and tenderly.

Posted on

Area-wide Singing…

Recently a friend of mine shared with me this newspaper article from McNairy County Independent Appeal newspaper in west Tennessee.  The article announces a Sunday morning singing in Finger, Tennessee, just south of Henderson, Tennessee.  The date of this article is August 15, 1913.  Step back in time and read how a small, rural community viewed opportunities to fellowship and worship together…

“Notice:  We will sing at Lain’s School House all day the third Sunday in August, 1913.  Bring all your song books, and especially your old ones, as we will sing more old songs than new ones.  These new songs are cheap stuff anyhow at meetings like these.
An organ will be there, and a trained organist playing it. (this was the Christian church)
We rather see boxes than bottles, baskets than bruises, peace than pistols, worship than war, joy than jugs, beef than beer, knowledge than ‘knuckles’, water than wine, a song feast than a series of  fistfights, a manifestation of a spiritual out pour than the laying on of hands of a civil law officer, pies than pipes, mutton than murmuring, rounding of voices in song than the result of vices, good behavior and orderly conduct than bad manners and wretched confusion, there that day.  We will begin at 10 a.m.

Remember the date, please, and come prepared to sing and not to talk politics, argue scripture, swap horses, raise the tick quarantine, trade knives, tell big fish tales, opine what the price of cotton will be by Christmas, prophesy for dry weather, inquire into the whereabouts of Dick, Tom and Harry’s missing watermelons, recite Paul’s charge to Timothy, tinker with the tariff, announce the exact age of a mule by looking into said mule’s mouth, or explain what the Good Book meant when it said: ‘One woe is past: and, behold there come two woes more hereafter.’

Several good leaders promised to come.
Let’s have a first class singing.
A stock of new yarns will be disposed of at reduced prices that day.” (the author of this news paper article Hodges, operated a store)

Harvey Hodges

It’s interesting to read from years gone by the simplicity of daily life and the planning that went toward getting the community together to sing.  In 1913 our country was a much different place than you and I live in today.  Life styles were simple and the concern for what was important took precedence.  If we were to step back in time and live a day in the early 1900’s, most of us won’t survive more than a few weeks.  Without air conditioning, running water and indoor plumbing there would be little to ‘sing about’.  Why did folks in this time period dedicate a full day to singing praises to God?  Did they know something we don’t know?

Simply put…we have become too busy to slow down and praise God in song.  We are more interested in finding the newest ipad app rather of finding peace in praising God.  Our schedules are so full of self that we forget each other.  Of course even those in the 1913 had to be reminded to put aside selfish ideas and opinions and focus on the task at hand.  It would be interesting to find out how many came to the Lain’s School House on that Sunday morning in August.  Then again, if we called for folks to join us THIS coming Sunday…how many do you think would come?

“Come, let us all unite to sing, God is love.  Let heaven and earth their praises bring, God is love.  Let every soul from sin awake, each in his heart sweet music make, and sing with us for Jesus’ sake, for God is love.”  Written in 1849 (54 years before this ‘Tennessee singing’) and published in Millard & Badger’s Hymns, this song reminds us of the importance of coming together and singing.  Join us on Sunday!