Today's Daily lesson comes from Exodus chapter 18 verses 13 through 23:
13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
Upon his recent retirement, Jim Jackson, one of the great Methodist preachers and leaders in Texas of the last quarter century, wrote a list of 100 things he said he learned the hard way. Among those 100 things was this: that many a ministry have been undone for failure to say these four simple words: "I need your help."
No leader can do it all. Not Jim Jackson; and, as today's lesson shows, not even Moses. Those who try crash and burn. Psychologists call them "over functioners". The annals of church records everywhere are littered with the bodies of over-functioning pastors who tried to do it all. Moses was almost one of them.
No leader can do it all; nor should they have to. God's vision, spoken through the wisdom of Moses' father-in-law, was for the Israelites to have leaders but for all the people to shoulder the burden together. In the end, this was not only so that Moses would be spared, but also so that the people themselves could be empowered. In the new society the Israelites were building, the people themselves would be generating their own ideas, solving their own problems, and discovering their own capacity make decisions. In other words, the people at the bottom of the Pharaoh's pyramid society were now going to discover their own gifts and power.
There is an old Chinese proverb:
Go to the people
Live among them
Learn from them
Love them
Start with what they know
Build on what they have
The best leaders, when their work is finished
Their task is done
The people will need to say ‘we have done it ourselves’.
That's almost Biblical.
Monday, April 11, 2016
Friday, April 8, 2016
Daily Lesson for April 8, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 16:
23 [Moses] said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”
"Sabbath as Resistance" is the title of Biblical scholar Walter Brueggeman's 2014 reflection on the meaning and practice of Sabbath. Sabbath, says Brueggeman, is a God-given form of resistance to the "culture of now" which is killing us all with its constant demands of availability, work, and production.
The Egyptian culture the Israelites escaped from was a "culture of now", with its exploitation of the Hebrews. The essential value of the mass labor force was measured by Pharaoh solely in units of economic productivity. "Homo sapiens" was reduced to "homo faber" and the value of the individual was reduced to his or her capacity to produce (bricks) with efficiency and in bulk. It did not matter if one was ground down at an early age because there was a constant supply of steady slave labor ready at hand. When one could no longer efficiently produce he or she was deemed worthless, discarded, and replaced.
Sabbath was resistance to Pharaoh's economy of exploitation. Sabbath was God's way of teaching the Israelites that the value of a human being is greater than his or her ability to contribute to the economic index. Sabbath was God's way of teaching the Israelites that they would not live by bread or being bakers of bread alone, but also find their substance in family, prayer, study, worship, and holy rest. And the society as a whole would find its value not only in what it produced but also in what it enjoyed. Sabbath was God's way of teaching the Israelites resistance against Pharaoh's culture of now.
Today we might call all this as quality of life. And with Pharaoh calling on the cell phone, needing you to come up to work for just a few hours (say 8 or 9) on the weekend, you really have to be a pretty radical group of people to try living it.
23 [Moses] said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”
"Sabbath as Resistance" is the title of Biblical scholar Walter Brueggeman's 2014 reflection on the meaning and practice of Sabbath. Sabbath, says Brueggeman, is a God-given form of resistance to the "culture of now" which is killing us all with its constant demands of availability, work, and production.
The Egyptian culture the Israelites escaped from was a "culture of now", with its exploitation of the Hebrews. The essential value of the mass labor force was measured by Pharaoh solely in units of economic productivity. "Homo sapiens" was reduced to "homo faber" and the value of the individual was reduced to his or her capacity to produce (bricks) with efficiency and in bulk. It did not matter if one was ground down at an early age because there was a constant supply of steady slave labor ready at hand. When one could no longer efficiently produce he or she was deemed worthless, discarded, and replaced.
Sabbath was resistance to Pharaoh's economy of exploitation. Sabbath was God's way of teaching the Israelites that the value of a human being is greater than his or her ability to contribute to the economic index. Sabbath was God's way of teaching the Israelites that they would not live by bread or being bakers of bread alone, but also find their substance in family, prayer, study, worship, and holy rest. And the society as a whole would find its value not only in what it produced but also in what it enjoyed. Sabbath was God's way of teaching the Israelites resistance against Pharaoh's culture of now.
Today we might call all this as quality of life. And with Pharaoh calling on the cell phone, needing you to come up to work for just a few hours (say 8 or 9) on the weekend, you really have to be a pretty radical group of people to try living it.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Daily Lesson for April 7, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 16 verses 14 through 20:
14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank.
When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the first thing the LORD did was give them a new economic vision. They had lived all their lives in a slave economy -- and economy based upon scarcity, a perpetual sense of isolation, and dependence upon Pharaoh. Now they were learning a new economy of freedom -- one based upon abundance, a sense of community, and dependence upon God.
The first thing to be noted about this new economy is that people worked for their own bread. This "manna" was rained down from Heaven, but it was not rained down into their bowls to eat. This daily bread was indeed a gift from God, but each family had to send someone outside the tent to gather it. In Egypt, Israelites had for centuries depended upon Pharaoh for food and provision; this new manna economy was teaching them self-reliance, and allowing them for the first time to enjoy the humble sense of dignity given to one who both trusts the LORD AND works like the Dickens to put food on the table.
The second thing to be noted in this new Manna economy is that it would be an economy where enough was simply to be enough. Under Pharaoh's economy enough was never enough. People lived in a perpetual state of scarcity. This encouraged isolation, hoarding and every man looking out for himself against all others. The tactic of Pharaoh was to destroy all sense of community amongst Israelites, because in community there is power.
This new Manna economy encouraged community, connection, and a sense of the shared common good. The notion of the common good was to be an implicit value in the new economy the Israelites would form in the Promised Land; what they learned about community from the manna would later be applied in the areas of agriculture, natural resources, education, religion, and national defense. Community was not a bad word.
What was a bad word was greed, and hoarding, and all of the impulses to acquire and save more than one's fair share. Enough really was enough. And any more than enough rotted and decayed and would never satisfy. No one in this new economy was to have too little and no one was to have too much. That would be simply be an ethical given.
So, how are we doing? Are we living in Pharaoh's economy or the new Manna economy? If in Pharaoh's then how do we get out?
Let me suggest one thing. I don't know that we need to wait for the presidential candidates to work this all out for us. That's, again, to be dependent upon Pharaoh. The Manna economy is an economic alternative to the dominant economy. And that means it starts in community.
So here is a place to start. A place of resistance to the old economy and embrace of the new. Give an extra 2% of your income to the local food bank. Pledge an hour a week to be in the schools with mentoring programs like Kids Hope, helping a student learn to read. Share your lawn mower with somebody from church who needs it. Better yet, teach them how to take care of their own lawnmower.
Believe in shared resources, self-reliance and the dignity of work, and ultimate trust in a God who wants to lead us out of the bondage of both poverty and riches and into the freedom of knowing that there is enough so long as we work hard enough, share enough, and know when to say when enough is enough.
14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank.
When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the first thing the LORD did was give them a new economic vision. They had lived all their lives in a slave economy -- and economy based upon scarcity, a perpetual sense of isolation, and dependence upon Pharaoh. Now they were learning a new economy of freedom -- one based upon abundance, a sense of community, and dependence upon God.
The first thing to be noted about this new economy is that people worked for their own bread. This "manna" was rained down from Heaven, but it was not rained down into their bowls to eat. This daily bread was indeed a gift from God, but each family had to send someone outside the tent to gather it. In Egypt, Israelites had for centuries depended upon Pharaoh for food and provision; this new manna economy was teaching them self-reliance, and allowing them for the first time to enjoy the humble sense of dignity given to one who both trusts the LORD AND works like the Dickens to put food on the table.
The second thing to be noted in this new Manna economy is that it would be an economy where enough was simply to be enough. Under Pharaoh's economy enough was never enough. People lived in a perpetual state of scarcity. This encouraged isolation, hoarding and every man looking out for himself against all others. The tactic of Pharaoh was to destroy all sense of community amongst Israelites, because in community there is power.
This new Manna economy encouraged community, connection, and a sense of the shared common good. The notion of the common good was to be an implicit value in the new economy the Israelites would form in the Promised Land; what they learned about community from the manna would later be applied in the areas of agriculture, natural resources, education, religion, and national defense. Community was not a bad word.
What was a bad word was greed, and hoarding, and all of the impulses to acquire and save more than one's fair share. Enough really was enough. And any more than enough rotted and decayed and would never satisfy. No one in this new economy was to have too little and no one was to have too much. That would be simply be an ethical given.
So, how are we doing? Are we living in Pharaoh's economy or the new Manna economy? If in Pharaoh's then how do we get out?
Let me suggest one thing. I don't know that we need to wait for the presidential candidates to work this all out for us. That's, again, to be dependent upon Pharaoh. The Manna economy is an economic alternative to the dominant economy. And that means it starts in community.
So here is a place to start. A place of resistance to the old economy and embrace of the new. Give an extra 2% of your income to the local food bank. Pledge an hour a week to be in the schools with mentoring programs like Kids Hope, helping a student learn to read. Share your lawn mower with somebody from church who needs it. Better yet, teach them how to take care of their own lawnmower.
Believe in shared resources, self-reliance and the dignity of work, and ultimate trust in a God who wants to lead us out of the bondage of both poverty and riches and into the freedom of knowing that there is enough so long as we work hard enough, share enough, and know when to say when enough is enough.
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Daily Lesson for April 6, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from John 15 verses 4 through 6:
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
In his book "Falling Upward" Richard Rohr tells about a meeting he once had with Desmond Tutu. "Richard, always remember we are simply the light bulb," Tutu told Rohr. "Our job is to remain screwed in."
All spiritual energy and vitality comes from God. Growth comes from God. Light and life come from God. This is bad news in that it means none of these can be manufactured. It is also good news in that it frees us from the fantasy of ourselves or someone else somehow being able to create vitality on our or their own. This is a prescription for failure, disappointment, and scapegoating.
We are the branches and God is the vine. When the branches do not grow, one of two things must be decided: 1) that either the conditions are not right for growth and need to be changed (soil, water, light, etc have a lot to do with things) or that 2) it is simply not in the branch to grow and therefore the branch needs to be cut off or let go. For example, we might have to let go of a dream, or a partnership, or an employee or an endeavor. This is the pruning which happens in our life which helps us grow and produce in the direction God would have us to.
Augustine said that it is in God's nature to give life and it is in our nature to receive it. When life in the vine is not present some find the courage to ask why. This is always difficult and may sometimes be very painful in that it requires work and may even mean difficult pruning. But the result is new life in the vine, and the fruits a better harvest of grapes for the wine.
And the non-Baptists tell me that makes all the difference. 😉
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
In his book "Falling Upward" Richard Rohr tells about a meeting he once had with Desmond Tutu. "Richard, always remember we are simply the light bulb," Tutu told Rohr. "Our job is to remain screwed in."
All spiritual energy and vitality comes from God. Growth comes from God. Light and life come from God. This is bad news in that it means none of these can be manufactured. It is also good news in that it frees us from the fantasy of ourselves or someone else somehow being able to create vitality on our or their own. This is a prescription for failure, disappointment, and scapegoating.
We are the branches and God is the vine. When the branches do not grow, one of two things must be decided: 1) that either the conditions are not right for growth and need to be changed (soil, water, light, etc have a lot to do with things) or that 2) it is simply not in the branch to grow and therefore the branch needs to be cut off or let go. For example, we might have to let go of a dream, or a partnership, or an employee or an endeavor. This is the pruning which happens in our life which helps us grow and produce in the direction God would have us to.
Augustine said that it is in God's nature to give life and it is in our nature to receive it. When life in the vine is not present some find the courage to ask why. This is always difficult and may sometimes be very painful in that it requires work and may even mean difficult pruning. But the result is new life in the vine, and the fruits a better harvest of grapes for the wine.
And the non-Baptists tell me that makes all the difference. 😉
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Daily Lesson for April 5, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 14 verses 25 through 27:
25 "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
"You have everything you need to make it through." That was one of the central messages we heard time and time again from Charlie Johnson, who was Second B's pastor when I was in college. It is appropriate to hear that message time and time again because of the encouragement and hope it brings. In fact, on the last night of Jesus' life, when what he said to his disciples he knew was sure to be remembered, he chose to tell them that they would have everything they need to make it through. God would come. God would provide. God would be their source of consolation and strength.
And to hear those words, to take them to heart, and to truly believe them to be true is to enter into the mystery of serenity only God and trust in God can give. It is to no longer be troubled in spirit or afraid of what is to come, but to fall into the arms of God's everlasting peace. To know we have everything we need is to know we have God, who is everything we need.
There is an old hymn, written in 1847 by Henry Francis Lyte, who was dying of tuberculosis as he composed, and sung a century later by nurse Edith Cavell the night before she was executed by German soldiers for helping British soldiers escape from Belgium during WWI.
"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me."
The Lord with us abides; and in the end that is everything we need -- even if it's the only thing we have.
25 "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
"You have everything you need to make it through." That was one of the central messages we heard time and time again from Charlie Johnson, who was Second B's pastor when I was in college. It is appropriate to hear that message time and time again because of the encouragement and hope it brings. In fact, on the last night of Jesus' life, when what he said to his disciples he knew was sure to be remembered, he chose to tell them that they would have everything they need to make it through. God would come. God would provide. God would be their source of consolation and strength.
And to hear those words, to take them to heart, and to truly believe them to be true is to enter into the mystery of serenity only God and trust in God can give. It is to no longer be troubled in spirit or afraid of what is to come, but to fall into the arms of God's everlasting peace. To know we have everything we need is to know we have God, who is everything we need.
There is an old hymn, written in 1847 by Henry Francis Lyte, who was dying of tuberculosis as he composed, and sung a century later by nurse Edith Cavell the night before she was executed by German soldiers for helping British soldiers escape from Belgium during WWI.
"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me."
The Lord with us abides; and in the end that is everything we need -- even if it's the only thing we have.
Monday, April 4, 2016
Daily Lesson for April 4, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 8 and 9:
"Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
A couple of years ago I read that a letter written in 1945 and addressed to a "Mrs Ellis" was being auctioned off for a considerable some of money. The letter, which had for many years been hidden inside the jacket of a book on the shelves of some used bookstore in England, was penned by a man named Clives Staples Lewis -- better known to the world as C.S. Lewis.
The letter's importance is measured not only in its having Lewis' autograph, but also because of its contents. I mean mainly the letter's reflections on the meaning of the concept of joy, which we already knew was a very important concept for Lewis in 1945. Written in August of 1945, the hidden letter corresponded in timing to the writing of the long-famous spiritual memoir Lewis authored chronicling his conversion to Christian faith -- a memoir he titled "Surprised by Joy".
In the letter, Lewis made a decided contrast between joy and simply the state of how things might be going -- one's "security or prosperity". In fact, the distinction was so sharp for Lewis that he went on in the letter to say that joy is "almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony." (I pause to let you read that again and let it sink in.)
For joy to be almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony, means that joy is something altogether different from circumstance. This is what separates happiness, which depends upon one's "happenstance", from joy which does not. Joy is something altogether independent from what happens to someone -- unless what is "happening" is the glorious experience one has of suddenly realizing they are alive and well and eternally at peace in God. "Surprised" is the right word for this realization because what we once thought was the greatest things to be achieved, security and prosperity in this world, are now shown to be what they really are, counterfeits when held up against the light of the eternal life -- a life which now lives in us and is our joy.
On the last night of his life, Jesus spoke of the sadness of the disciples' grief to come. But then he spoke of something deeper, something beyond he events of that fateful night and the next day to come. What he spoke to them about was joy. "And no one can take your joy away," he said.
Joy is deeper then circumstance and happenstance. Deeper than anything that could befall us -- whether poverty or prosperity, security or death. Joy is the gift of a human being alive with and in God; and nothing and no one but God can give or take it away.
"Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
A couple of years ago I read that a letter written in 1945 and addressed to a "Mrs Ellis" was being auctioned off for a considerable some of money. The letter, which had for many years been hidden inside the jacket of a book on the shelves of some used bookstore in England, was penned by a man named Clives Staples Lewis -- better known to the world as C.S. Lewis.
The letter's importance is measured not only in its having Lewis' autograph, but also because of its contents. I mean mainly the letter's reflections on the meaning of the concept of joy, which we already knew was a very important concept for Lewis in 1945. Written in August of 1945, the hidden letter corresponded in timing to the writing of the long-famous spiritual memoir Lewis authored chronicling his conversion to Christian faith -- a memoir he titled "Surprised by Joy".
In the letter, Lewis made a decided contrast between joy and simply the state of how things might be going -- one's "security or prosperity". In fact, the distinction was so sharp for Lewis that he went on in the letter to say that joy is "almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony." (I pause to let you read that again and let it sink in.)
For joy to be almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony, means that joy is something altogether different from circumstance. This is what separates happiness, which depends upon one's "happenstance", from joy which does not. Joy is something altogether independent from what happens to someone -- unless what is "happening" is the glorious experience one has of suddenly realizing they are alive and well and eternally at peace in God. "Surprised" is the right word for this realization because what we once thought was the greatest things to be achieved, security and prosperity in this world, are now shown to be what they really are, counterfeits when held up against the light of the eternal life -- a life which now lives in us and is our joy.
On the last night of his life, Jesus spoke of the sadness of the disciples' grief to come. But then he spoke of something deeper, something beyond he events of that fateful night and the next day to come. What he spoke to them about was joy. "And no one can take your joy away," he said.
Joy is deeper then circumstance and happenstance. Deeper than anything that could befall us -- whether poverty or prosperity, security or death. Joy is the gift of a human being alive with and in God; and nothing and no one but God can give or take it away.
Friday, April 1, 2016
Daily Lesson for April 1, 2016
"Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers."
-- Psalm 1
On Tuesday I went to be with with my friend and fellow Second Ber David Weaver and wonderful team at the South Plains Food Bank as they were celebrating the grand opening of the new J.T. and Margaret Talkington Distribution Center. What an incredibly beautiful -- and big! - place. Generations of lives will be better with help from this new building.
Before the official building dedication, I toured the 69,000 square foot facility, and my tour guide was another Second Ber Howard Mercer. Howard, a WWII veteran, is still at it after 20 plus years of post-retirement volunteering for the Food Bank. Today he is giving tours; but he's done everything from stock shelves and pack food sacks to serve on the board and raise money.
As we move towards the back of the new facility Howard takes our group on a slight detour towards a window in the back which looks East. Through the glass we can see row upon of Apple trees. This is the Food Bank orchard and there are 1,200 trees out there Howard tells us. "I know because I planted them," he says with a laugh.
Howard tells our group that when he retired he wanted to do something to help the Food Bank, so he helped get up enough money from places like his Rotary Club to make the purchase on the trees for the orchard. He says he and another retired man named George Elle were working on it together and George told Howard, "If you can raise the money to buy the trees then we'll plant them."
"Now," Howard told us, "when George said, 'we' I didn't know he meant him and me. But sure enough, that's who he meant." So with Howard 65-years-old and George at 79, the two went to planting trees-- one by one, in 100 plus degree weather, all 1,200 of them. Howard goes on with the story: "I told my wife Emma Lou, 'He's going to kill me. He's literally going to kill me.' But I lived. And we only lost one tree."
The group looks out the window onto the orchard. The trees have been there for 20 plus years now, their apples helping to feed no telling how many hundreds of thousands of people.
After we conclude our tour, we went back to the front lobby for the ribbon cutting ceremony. In David's speech he is moved to tears as he begins to talk about all the people who helped to make the Food Bank what it is today. He invokes language we often use at church when referring to those who have gone before us -- "saints, past and present."
As David is speaking certain names come to mind. I think of my Aunt Anita who was one of the original founding board members the South Plains Food Bank. I think of Doug Carlson, another board member, who showed up to volunteer five days a week. When he passed, they named the volunteer of the year award the "Doug Carlson Award" after him. I thought of Bill Kingsbery, another Greatest Generation man whose hospital bed I had just been in that morning. As a businessman and generous philanthropist, his generosity helped start the Food Bank; and it was his wife Mary Louise's family who gave the land where the orchard and new building now stand.
And thinking on the land got me to thinking again of George and Howard and something David told me Howard once said while reflecting on the meaning of the planting of those Apple trees. "Each of us," Howard said, "ought to plant trees under whose shade another generation will sit."
There is an old adage, "You can count the seeds in the apple, but you can never count the apples in a seed." It makes me wonder, how many apples are in the seeds of 1,200 trees? And what about now in 69,000 square feet of seeds? And what about in me?
George, Doug, Anita and Mary Louise are now gone; they've moved from saints present to saints past. The rest of the Greatest Generation will one day join them. But they've planted their orchard. And it's under the shade of their trees that we sit and celebrate today, until tomorrow we go out and plant our own.
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