After our oldest daughter, Lillian, was born we decided it was time to grow our family by one more. On April 11, 2002, Olivia Caroline would make her entrance into this world. Our girls were 10 years apart, primarily as I shared earlier because Kim had very hard pregnancies. This wide gap though would provide many blessings. Our first ten years with just Lillian was such a blessing and this gap also allowed us to enjoy each girl’s extracurricular activities and experiences. For Lillian, it was the high school band. We followed her to many football games, concerts, the parade at Disney World and of course many band competitions. Over those years, we made many lifetime friends and enjoyed watching her grow from the many experiences of being part of the band. With Olivia, it was athletics. She played basketball and softball. Until she was a sophomore she played both and then decided to concentrate on softball. We followed Olivia around to many gymnasiums, ball parks, travel tournaments and she was blessed to receive a scholarship to play softball at Calhoun Community College as a pitcher until she suffered a shoulder injury that would end her softball career. Our girls were the joy of lives and still are my joy. They both have become very successful in life and more than anything they are just good young women and continue to make me very proud. Kim and I tried to instill in our girls a drive to be faithful to our Lord, faithful to His church, the concept of hard work, a sense of independence, a desire to be kind to others, generous hearts and to always enjoy life and have fun while living it. Kim and I always strived to make our home one that while having structure and discipline, but we also desired make it a place of sanctuary for our girls and their friends. Kim and I always desired that our girls never had a doubt that we loved them and always wanted the best for them and I believe we succeeded in this endeavor. I found so much joy as a husband and a father watching Kim just being a mom. She just had that “it” when it came to being a mom. She was always a source of strength and encouragement while never shying away from instilling discipline in our girls. She was so skilled in having the hard conversation with our girls and even their friends, but the conversation would always end with them never doubting for a minute that they were loved. Our journey as parents was one filled with joy and thankfulness to God for our girls and now for our grandchildren, John Patton and Molly Caroline. Did we make mistakes as parents? You bet we did! I believe if you are active as a parent in your children’s lives, you will make a mistake or two along the way. It is in those moments that you still get to teach your children about humbleness and a willingness to learn from your mistakes. We were protective of our girls, but we also were firm believers that you have to let your children enjoy life as they grow up. We gave them freedom to experience life and then when life would throw them a curveball, we wanted to be the first ones to pick them up, dust them off and help them learn from said curveball. Kim and I found joy in not sheltering our kids from this world because we knew that one day they would face this world head on. We believed it to be our job to prepare them to face this world and be successful while navigating it. We also, never wanted our girls to ever doubt for one minute that the love that Kim and I had for each other superseded our love for anyone else (other than the Lord). As parents, Kim and I believed that one of the greatest gifts we could give our girls outside of introducing them to their Lord was to teach them what love looked like between a husband and wife. Other than the joy of my salvation, the greatest joy in my life was found in spending time with my bride. Again, we did this because we loved one another more up to the day my bride went to heaven than we did as newly weds. I believe our girls know this and found joy in seeing us love one another. Finally, if I could sum up mine and Kim’s journey as parents (which never ends by the way) it would be with the word JOY. We found joy in the journey of raising our girls and then joy in watching them flourish as they grew into young ladies that were ready to face this world with confidence and strength.
Thoughts of a Sojourner
Thoughts, Wanderings & Adventures of a Sojourner
recent posts
- A Journey of Joy, Heartbreak and Joy Rediscovered: A Year Missing My Bride
- A Journey of Joy, Heartbreak and Joy Rediscovered: The Process of Healing
- A Journey of Joy, Heartbreak and Joy Rediscovered: The Journey of Grief
- A Journey of Joy, Heartbreak and Joy Rediscovered: Feeling Lost Without my Bride
- A Journey of Joy, Heartbreak and Joy Rediscovered: My Bride Goes Home
about
-
I wanted to spend time in this post sharing about mine and Kim’s faith journey as a couple. I will get back next week to sharing about our journey of joy in welcoming Olivia or as Kim and I referred to her (even to this day) “The Baby Girl” and our journey raising two wonderful daughters. I would be remiss though if I didn’t share about our journey of faith. Kim and I both were raised in church and both come from generations of faithful believers and servants in and of Jesus Christ. Many may think that because I am a pastor that our marriage was one that had always been defined by our faith, but in the first 3 years of our marriage we did not make serving and worshiping our Lord a priority. Like many young couples, we busied ourselves with many things that while for the most part were enjoyable, but we were not where we should have been where our dedication to worshipping and serving the Lord was concerned. We were what I would call “Easter Bunny” and “Santa Claus” church members. In other words, you would see us at church on Easter, Christmas and usually Mother’s Day. We really had no reason for not consistently attending church, worshipping and serving the Lord other than we just became very lazy where our faith was concerned. Simply put, for the first three years of our marriage it was tragically not important. In 1992 our first daughter Lillian was born and we still didn’t think it a priority to make sure our daughter was raised in church with same opportunity to know the Lord as Kim and I had been given the opportunity to do. Thankfully that all changed in the spring of 1993. I am thankful for a godly mama! My mom, Connie, called me one Saturday evening that Spring and asked to carry Lillian to church with her the next morning. Shamefully, I was wrongly “offended” and told my precious mama, no. She responded with, “Your daughter should have the same opportunity to know the Lord as you and Kim had when you were young” and I remember I had no response and the conversation ended. Over the next day or two, Kim and I begin to talk about that fateful phone call and fell under great conviction that my mama was right! To say I am thankful for a mama that loved me enough to tell me the truth and confront me about my lack of faithfulness to the Lord is an understatement. For the first time, as a young father and husband, I realized that it was my responsibility to lead my family spiritually and that needed to begin with attending worship. We would begin this renewed journey of faith in April of 1993 the very next Sunday after that phone call by attending worship at Sardis Springs Baptist Church. Kim had attended First Baptist Athens and I attended Fairview Baptist until we were married. We decided to start fresh in a new church and Sardis Springs is where we started. I will never forget that first Sunday. I was overwhelmed first by grief that I had failed my family up to that point in leading them spiritually. Secondly, I felt a great sense of the Lord’s grace and forgiveness as I committed myself that day to do my best to be a godly husband and father. The Monday night after that Sunday, Billie and Angie Blackburn visited us to just invite us to their Sunday School class and give us a Sunday School book. We begin attending Sunday School the following Sunday and Billie & Angie became great examples and mentors for Kim and me. I will always be thankful for their impact on us as a couple and for Billie’s impact on me falling in love with teaching God’s word. Billie gave me my first opportunity to teach in his absence one Sunday and I knew very quickly that I wanted to grow in my study of God’s word and spend my life teaching His word, although being a pastor was not on my radar. Kim found her niche and calling in children’s ministry by working in the children’s department and ultimately becoming the Vacation Bible School director not only at Sardis Springs, but would continue that role for many years at Belmor where I have pastored the last 25 1/2 years until her illness caused her to have to give it up. We would also serve as volunteer youth ministers at Sardis Springs for several years. Those years in youth ministry were some of the most rewarding of our early faith journey. We grew to love so many of those teenagers in our ministry as our own and still love them to this day. I was given the opportunity to serve as a deacon at Sardis Springs from 1997 to 2000 at which time the Lord called me to the pastorate. I began wrestling with the Lord in the spring of 1999 with God’s call on my life to serve as a pastor. For several months only Kim and I knew of this struggle and she was such a support and prayer warrior for me during those months. In late October of 1999, I told Kim that I was ready to surrender my life to the call God had placed on me. I will forever be thankful for her prayers and encouragement. I am also thankful for the prayers and encouragement of my Mama & Daddy and my Papa (Schrimsher) during the last couple months before publicly surrendering to the call to the gospel ministry. They were the only other people other than Kim that I had discussed it with before surrendering publicly. My first opportunity to preach would come in November of 1999 when Mike Henderson called and asked me to preach at Belmor Baptist Church one Sunday because they were without a pastor. Over the next three and half months I would preach pretty regularly at Belmor and in March of 2000 I formally submitted my resume’ to be the pastor of Belmor Baptist Church. I would ultimately serve my first Sunday as the pastor of Belmor Baptist Church on March 26, 2000. I have continued to serve my precious church over these last 25 years and 8 months. I don’t think I could serve a better church than Belmor. Kim and I quickly fell in love with our new church and they have treated my family with overwhelming love and grace these 25 plus years. For 24 years and 11 months, Kim faithfully served by my side as the best pastor’s wife a pastor could ever hope to have at his side. She was my confidant, my counselor, my accountability partner and partner in faith those many years. To say that I have missed her companionship in this area would be a gross understatement. I find myself many times wishing I had access to her counsel and wisdom, but I am thankful to be able to glean from her many previous years of faithful counsel and wisdom. During her illness and ultimate home going, my church has loved on me and been such a great source of refuge and comfort in a way that I could never hope repay. Looking back over our 34 1/2 years of marriage, I am thankful that most of it was spent serving the Lord together. We would often look back with thankfulness to that phone call from my precious Mama many years ago as a catalyst to our renewed and continuing faith journey. Of all the things in mine and Kim’s marriage, I am most thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord with my bride by my side. After observing her many years of faithful service to the Lord and His church, I am confident that my bride was greeted by our Lord with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. She finished well and that should be the goal of every believer. Gosh!, I miss her partnership in ministry, but I do not begrudge her faith becoming sight on that early morning of February 21, 2025 and I am confident because of the saving grace of the Lord we serve, that one day I will see her beautiful smile again in all of it’s glorious perfection.
-
Our first two years of marriage were times of happiness and joy. We didn’t have all the riches that life could offer and even had moments of challenge. One thing that was never a challenge was our relationship. Yes, we like most young married couples had the typical financial concerns from time to time, but really nothing major. We were still discovering the things about each other’s habits that come when you begin a life together. My contention is that until you begin to live day in and day out with a person you really don’t know them! We had the typical adjustments to each others ways that even after five years of dating that we did not know because until the day we were married, we both lived at home with our parents which I believe made for an even greater adventure because there was mystery left to be discovered in our relationship. We committed ourselves to making our marriage one of a partnership. In any good partnership there are defined roles. We had our roles within the marriage and it worked out great. After two years of marriage, we decided it was time for us to start our family and on April 24, 1992 we welcomed our first child, Lillian Claire to the world. We were over the moon filled with joy! When it came to birth of both of our girls, we decided not to find out whether we were having a boy or girl. Kim said that the birth of a child and finding out if your child was a boy or girl at the time of birth was one of purest surprises that life has for us and she wanted to experience that with both instances of our children being born. Kim’s journey through pregnancy was an adventure in and of itself. She suffered extreme sickness (primarily extreme vomiting) through the entire pregnancy. It was so bad that she required home health assistance through both of her pregnancies. It was during these nine months that I learned just how tough my bride was and how she had a never quit attitude. We endured a lot of tough days during those months, but unknown to me those months would prepare me for taking care of my bride as we would navigate her journey of battling cancer. She and I both would tell you though that every moment of the harshness of those 9 months leading up to the birth of our first born was so worth it. Lillian was born in Decatur General Hospital and I remember Kim & I were filled with joy overflowing and we were scared to death!!…lol. From the very beginning, Kim was such a natural when it came to being a mama. I was amazed as a young dad watching my wife grow into a mom and the way she nurtured and did such an amazing job raising our girls. Lillian of course was the first grandchild for our parents which made this moment in our marriage even more special. Kim and I found such joy in being parents. We made the decision early on that Kim would stay home with our children when they were born until they began preschool or kindergarten. Kim would say through the years that though, we could have had much more materially, nothing could replace the time she would spend with our girls in those early years. When Lillian was about 2 1/2 years old, the doctors discovered that she had condition called Diastematomyelia or in simpler terms Split Cord Malformation. This scared the crap out of us! Without sharing a lot of detail here, this condition basically causes a portion of the spinal cord to split and it normally affects the development and growth of one leg and/or foot and this was the case with Lillian. We made many trips to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham over the first 14-15 years of Lillian’s life. Lillian endured 3 major surgeries, two of which were spinal surgeries. She came through them like a champ and today is a wonderful wife and mother to our two grandchildren (more on the grands later of course!). As parents, we made sure that we instilled in not only Lillian, but also Olivia that we must persevere through adversity and wow did Lillian do this! She would go on to be a huge part of her high school marching band as a majorette and a part of the concert band. She would go on to marry Brandon and as I said earlier is a wonderful mom and wife. Kim and I found so much joy in becoming parents and sharing our life with Lillian as our marriage adventure was still young. Kim would often tell young mothers to savor those early years of being a mom, but in reality Kim savored being a mom her entire life as a parent! After a few years, we decided to build a house and we were blessed to be able to build on a piece of property that was part of my families farm that had been in my family for several generations. We moved into our new home in August of 1997 and it is the place that I still call home today. We enjoyed the process of building and I even more so now because my dad built our home and it allowed me to spend many hours with him working to build our home. We would make so many memories in our new home and those memories hold such a special place in my heart today and I’m sure there will be many more to be made in the future. Kim and I always wanted and strived to make our home a home filled with love, fun and joy and I think we accomplished this goal in large part thanks to her skill of making a house a home. A home where our girls always felt safe and loved. A home where their friends could always be welcomed and feel the love that our home contained. Kim and I were always so thankful for the countless hours spent as parents. I am so thankful for the nearly 28 years Kim and I spent in this house. Of course today, it is much different without her physical presence here with me, but every room here in this house is filled with her touch in some way and I suppose it will remain that way from now on.
-
The journey shared so far has included first dates, courtship, the proposal and the wedding. Kim and I were married on a Friday evening at 6:00pm on August 17, 1990 at First Baptist Church, Athens, AL. Our wedding was a beautiful wedding, but yet simple. Kim and I loved the word “simple”. Yes, we loved adventure as a couple and loved to travel, try new things, try new types of food, meet new people and just enjoyed life together as a couple. From the very start we believed that marriage should be an adventure enjoyed together. While we both had things we enjoyed doing alone or with friends, our marriage was pretty much defined by doing things together. Normally if you saw one of us, you saw the other one. We genuinely loved being with each other and we were happiest when we were together. Our marriage started very simply from a financial, home and things perspective. For example, even our honeymoon was simple. We escaped for 3 days in the mountains of Gatlinburg. Some would say, “3 days, that’s it?”…lol. Well, it was three days because I had just been promoted from a part time position with UPS as a truck loader to a full time driver and had to report to work the following Wednesday after our wedding on Friday!! We thought nothing of it because it was just what we had to do. We didn’t start in an extravagant house, but started our life together in a small mobile home, but we were so happy with our home because we were together as husband and wife. This attitude defined our marriage for 34 wonderful years. I worked for UPS and Kim worked at First Alabama Bank & life was good! From the very beginning, Kim made our house a home (there is a difference in just a house and it being a home). We shared so many memories in those first two years before God would bless us with our first daughter Lillian. Most of those memories were just simple things but they were defined by love, laughs and fun. Again, we didn’t require a lot to be happy as long as we were together. Whether it was just an evening watching TV or listening to music or a night out with friends for dinner, we had fun! Now did we ever argue or fuss? Oh heck yeah we did a little, but we learned some things about those moments. First, when you fight, fight fair. Second, be careful with your words because they can hurt more than actions. Third, never go to sleep angry even it means you talk it out through the night and fourthly make up quickly (and always with a hug and a kiss) and move on with life. We learned to compromise and learned that most of the time what we were fussing about was in reality pretty silly in the end. Thankfully those moments were VERY few and far between. I know so many couples that seem to constantly live in a state of strife. I am so thankful, to have shared life with someone that understood that life is too short not to be enjoyed together in a state of happiness. Our early years were not defined by fine homes, fine cars, piles of money, luxuries, but rather discovering ways to make life more fun together. Could we have worked more hours to make more money early one in order to have all the material things that define so marriages? Well yes we could have done these things, but we decided very early on that material wealth and things could never define happiness in marriage. We valued our time together and now that my bride is in heaven, I am so thankful for the humble beginnings of our marriage. I am thankful for the quite nights at home, cooking a meal together, watching TV or a movie in our VCR (streaming did not exist then…lol), valuing romance and continuing to “date” each other. Those are moments that you can’t replace with stuff or money. They are priceless and especially now. I look forward in the next few weeks sharing about our life when our girls came along. If you read this, you may think, “Well there was nothing really extraordinary about our early years”. I would vehemently disagree if that is your thinking, because we enjoyed the one commodity that life gives that can never be replaced, bought or relived – time. Our time spent those early years are etched in my memory never to be erased or forgotten because it was spent with my best friend, my lover and my bride. Just wow, the memories we made together as newlyweds!! Until my next writing, get out there and enjoy life with the one you love!!
-
In my last writing, I shared the beginning of mine and Kim’s love story and ended it with our first date. Kim used to laugh and actuallyy laughed throughout our marriage about the fact that I was a such a creature of habit. Those that know me best, know that I am still a creature of habit. One of the habits that I had was every Thursday night for about the first month that we dated, I would always call on Thursday night and asked her out for that Saturday night! I did this for about a month until we decided that we were officially “going steady”…lol. Today, I think most young people would say, “Facebook Official” instead of going steady. Unless there was a basketball game on Saturday evening that she had to cheer at, we had a standing date every Saturday the entirety of our senior year. During that basketball season, I logged a lot of miles with her and her parents to many basketball games. Our dates were usually pretty simple stuff such as eating out, going to a movie, a Bama football game or going to my Uncle Malcolm and Aunt Lou Ann’s to play cards or spoons. By the way, I learned very quickly through those card games and playing spoons that my cute little red headed girlfriend had a competitive streak a mile wide! These simple dates turned into continuing enjoying simple dates and outings throughout our marriage (more on the simple, yet important things in our marriage in a later writing). When I think about our Friday and Saturday night dates, it always brings a smile to my face because no matter what we decided to do, we had fun just enjoying being together. We learned through our 5 years of courtship to enjoy new things and learned to enjoy doing things that maybe one of us enjoyed and the other not so much, but through all these new adventures we learned that part of loving one another was doing things that maybe the other enjoyed a little more. Ours was a relationship that never endured a break up, long term or short term. Does that mean we never disagreed or even had a “lover’s quarrel”? Of course not! One thing though that we did not do once we began our serious courtship, which began around a month after that first date, was to end a night mad or not speaking to one another and this carried us well through 34 years, 6 months and 4 days of marriage. We both knew, as we would talk about through the years, that very early on in our courtship we would spend the rest of our natural lives together. In late July, 1989, I decided after four years of dating the only girl I had ever loved that it was time to pop the question. We had started to discuss more and more the rest of our lives together. The crazy thing is that we had no trepidation about the prospect of marriage. It just seemed like the natural next step for us and we knew that we were meant to spend the rest of our lives together as husband and wife. I remember like it was yesterday the several trips to various jewelry stores to look at engagement rings. We didn’t do this so she could pick out the specific one she wanted, but I asked her to just give me some ideas of what she would like – after all this would be something she would wear the rest of her life! I remember after seeing a lot of options, I picked out what I thought was the perfect token of my love and desire to make her my wife. As it should be, I went and sat down with her father Billy and asked for his only daughter’s hand in marriage. He gave his blessing and on August 17, 1989 I got down on one knee and asked Kimberly Michelle Jones to marry me and make me the happiest man on earth. Of course, she said YES and she loved the ring! Unlike, many of today’s proposals, ours was a simple moment of just Kim and me by ourselves. We believed moments like this should be shared between each other. Looking back, it was one of the sweetest moments in our 39 years together. It was a moment that would cast us off into 34 years of what I believe to be, in my humble and of course biased opinion, the greatest love story and adventure ever. We were married on August 17, 1990 a year to the day of our engagement and 5 years to the day of our first date at First Baptist Church in Athens, AL.. As a minister of nearly 26 years, I have seen a lot of brides, but I have never seen one as pretty as the one I saw when those doors swung open at the end of the aisle that evening. I had dated this woman for 5 years and yet in that moment my knees got weak at just the mere site of my beautiful bride as her and her dad begin to walk down that aisle toward me. Dr Fred Lackey performed the ceremony and with every word that we repeated from our vows that we actually wrote ourselves my heart seemed to beat faster as did her’s (according to her own words). My heart did not beat faster out of nervousness, but rather because I knew in a matter of moments we would share the most important kiss of our relationship. A kiss that would symbolize a 34 year adventure of a wonderful marriage. Our five years of courtship consisted of so many wonderful memories and that I suppose and pray will forever be locked in my memory. I will share over the next few weeks about our marriage. As I have said before, I pray that maybe these writings will be an encouragement to some, bring a smile to those that know us best, give a written record for our girls and the generations that follow and just give a glimpse into what I believe to be a wonderful story of love, overcoming, endurance, simplicity and fun.
-
Today will be the first of several of several installments where I share about mine and Kim’s story of love, courtship, marriage, heartbreak and my personal journey through the process of losing my bride. As I share these writings, I know my time writing will be filled with smiles, tears and joy, but such is this life that we live on this earth. I have been contemplating sharing this story for sometime and until now I have not really been ready to put my thoughts to words written/typed.
So where do I start with a love story that spanned nearly 40 years? Well, you start from the beginning! Kim and I attended the same school for 12 years. We attended East Limestone High School (when East was a K -12 school…yes I’m old…lol). Through most of our school days, we were acquaintances and knew each other because let’s face it, when your class only has 68 people you tend to know everyone. All this changed in the spring of 1985! We both attended our junior prom, although not together, but we did end up hanging out together with a group of mutual friends and actually danced together that fateful night. I knew from that night on that I wanted to pursue that cute redhead! As the final couple months of our junior year came to a close, we found ourselves talking more and actually went out one time in May of that year. As Spring moved to Summer, we found ourselves being the last two people toward the end of July at our school on the day everyone got their senior portraits done. After I finished getting mine done, I decided to hang around and wait on Kim to get finished. We ended up hanging out together just talking and laughing that evening. After a couple weeks of talking on the phone almost nightly, I got the courage to ask her out on our first official date which took place on August 17, 1985. Man was it a romantic date! We went to Shoney’s, had a cheeseburger and then took in the latest installment of the Rambo saga at the theater…lol. We would laugh about that night for the next 39 years. As we parted company that night in her driveway, we shared our first kiss and I knew (as she would tell me later that she knew too) in that moment that she was the ONE. I know many in this world do not believe in love at first sight, but I can truly say that we loved each other from that moment. From that precious night of August 17, 1985, we were inseparable. Our story of dating and courtship was the classic captain of the football team & head cheerleader romance. We knew from the very beginning that our love would be one that would ultimately be solidified in marriage. From the very beginning, we found joy and happiness just in being with each other. I am a firm believer that God orchestrates every affair of our lives and I firmly believe that God caused our paths to cross. I am thankful beyond any method of measurement that on that night of our junior prom, I found the courage to ask my future bride to dance because that moment set in motion what would become a life together defined by love and joy. In the weeks ahead I will share more about our courtship, marriage, the joys, the challenges, overcoming those challenges, my losing my bride, the process of grief and finally the beginning joy rediscovered as I enter this phase of life. My pray is that this story will be one of encouragement and ultimately as I share about the grief process maybe help to someone that may be traveling that path right now.
-
I never come to the beach that I am not reminded of God’s sovereignty over His entire creation. I have spent the last few days at the beach. Every morning I get up, walk out on the balcony with coffee in hand and watch the sunrise over the gulf coast. As I gaze down to the beach and watch the gentle waves caress the sand on the shore, I am quickly reminded of the passage from the scriptures in Job 38:8-11 where God reminds Job of His creative, sovereign, creative power – “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it bursts forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garnet and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed it’s limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far you shall come and no farther, and here shall your waves be stayed’?” (Job 38:8-11). What an overwhelming sight the ocean is when one sets his eyes on it and sees no end other than the horizon which doesn’t bring it to an end, but rather just says to our frail human eyes, “This is as far as you go”. As the sun, rises to the east just in time and kisses the gulf with it’s rays, life on the shore wakes up from the varying shore birds to the occasional dolphin that disturbs the emerald calmness to take another breath as it continues fill its stomach with the schools of fish that dart in the surf. The vastness of the sea is truly an intimidating sight, but to God, our Creator, it is but a puddle of water that he created for His glory and man’s pleasure. It is not something that He had to try and fail many times to create, but rather simply spoke into existence and gave it, it’s orders of its existence. The sea is but one example of the majestic creative, sovereignty of God that man gets to enjoy. The lesson for me in observing and being reminded of the Sea and sovereignty is that if God put so much detail into creating this one facet of the total created universe, how could we ever plumb the depths of the love and care that He has for us, His most prized creation. Please remember, you are created in the image of God and no other part of creation carries that distinction. With that thought in mind, how could I ever think God has forgotten me, even in the darkest corners that life may bring. Friend, the thing I am reminded of everyday is that God is faithful and just as He told the sea where to stop, He intimately knows your limits for both the tumultuous times and times of plenty and sets limits to both. Sometimes the limits of plenty leave us desiring more, but instead take time to celebrate what God has given you in times of plenty. Whether it be plenty in the area of material things, plenty in moments of joy, plenty in time with family or plenty in time spent with friends just to name a few. However, what about when we hit the limits he has set in times of brokenness? My own personal experience has shown me that my faith in God should never be dependent on circumstances. I have and am trying to learn that we can have joy in the journey no matter where the road on this journey takes us. In discovering that the tumultuous times have limits, I must trust God to bring me out of the other side of the darkness and know that He is going to restore the joy and love for life that He intends for His most precious creation. So what is the take away that I want to leave you with from these ramblings of mine this morning? Folks, embrace this life that God has given you. Embrace the knowledge that the same God that spoke the vast sea into existence and set it’s limits, knows you intimately and loves you beyond your comprehension and there is nothing, I mean nothing, that life can fling at us that our sovereign God has not already set a limit on and already has a plan to bring you through stronger and with more zeal for life. Go! Find and embrace the joy of living!!
-
The subject that I am writing about and sharing my thoughts about in this installment of penned ramblings probably will not be popular with some and perhaps many that I would align with in my faith or politics, but then again those that know me well know that I am not real good at conforming with the masses at times..lol. When I worked at UPS, I had a few friends that gave me the moniker of “Candid Keith”. In other words, I tend to be very transparent in my thoughts and tend to say what needs to be said more so than what people want to necessarily hear and the subject matter here will hit that way with some of my readers.
The term “Cancel Culture” has been around for a number of years, but really ramped up beginning in 2020. It moved to warp speed in 2020 and continues today. In 2020, we were a nation in upheaval. This disease called COVID reared its head on a worldwide scale. George Floyd died during detainment and arrest. Both of these events would set of a wildfire of panic, violence, needless destruction, division the likes of which we had not seen in decades and widespread calls for cancellation and squashing of those with differing opinions. If you dared questioned the genesis, treatment options, vaccines & their safety and the government responses where COVID was concerned, you were labeled a nut, uncaring, unchristian and just a bad person (full transparency…I am one of those that have questioned in all of these areas where COVID is concerned). In the wake of George Floyd’s death, we had massive violent protests, cities that burned, division based on race and hate seemed to spike. If you questioned the response of the police, you were labeled as one that did not support the police and law & order. If you criticized the violent protests and those committing the violence you were labeled a racist. The response to those that questioned these things would be a culture of cancellation. In other words, there were moves to squash those of dissenting views. A dissenting view just was not tolerated by the masses and people became weary of questioning authority whether it be government, organizations and even religious figures & organizations.
Fast forward from 2020 to today. The cancel culture is alive and well. In the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk, the culture of cancelation is hitting a fevered pitch. Understand, I believe that Charlie Kirk was a generational voice for the gospel and righteousness from a biblical worldview so the opinions that I will close this writing with in no way are meant to disparage his name. I do want to remind those, that like me, supported the work of Mr Kirk to be careful about blindly following and getting on board with those that may have and still oppose the biblical worldview of Mr. Kirk. Our nation was founded from the power of having a dissenting voice. In my view, the problem with many in my camp is that we would rather just squash the opposing views by cancellation. We would rather, in many cases, have any opposing view just removed from the conversation or the public square. In many corners of the church, there are leanings or a call to Christian Nationalism. In other words, to force every aspect of our government and culture to become christianized and that would solve our problems. Those of this view seem to have a low knowledge of our nation’s founding. While our Creator is acknowledged in our founding documents, our government was established as a secular government and for good reason. Our founders were wise enough to understand that it was a mistake to force christianity on a population either through cancelation or by the point of gun. An honest look at church history over centuries shows that attempting to christianize populations never works out for the glory of God. Whether it be the Crusades, The Inquisition, violence toward the reformers from the Roman church, violence from some corners of the reformation toward the Anabaptist, Bloody Mary’s campaign against protestants in England & Scotland, the persecution of the Puritans in England which would ultimately lead to them fleeing England for the shores of the America’s. A look at New Testament scripture, shows us that the early church in the book of Acts did not pray that their opposition or rather those that oppose Christ be removed, but rather they prayed for boldness in the face of opposition (Acts 4:24-31). Jesus even tells His disciples that the world hated Him and would in turn hate them. Paul and the other apostles counted it an honor to suffer for their faith rather than try cancel those that opposed and persecuted them. As believers today, rather than spending our days endlessly cheering on the cancellation of the culture that opposes the things of God and righteousness, why not pray for boldness to engage the culture in a way that would cause them to want to know the reason for your joy, hope and contentment. The Bible tells us that we should do this with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15-16). I am weary and think it unwise of the church and those that have a biblical worldview to support the current brand of cancellation. Growing up, I loved to hunt. I especially loved to rabbit hunt with a pack of beagle hounds. I always had the upper hand on the rabbit, because I was always holding the gun! I never one time wondered what would happen if the rabbit got the gun, but I have to imagine it would have not been a good situation. Why do I use this illustration you may ask? I use it because while today for those that, like me, support and proclaim a biblical worldview have a situation from a political standpoint where the public square is a little more conducive to our point of view right now, but beware things on the political and cultural landscape can quickly change. Be careful supporting the squashing and stomping out of dissenting viewpoints because one day “the rabbit could get the gun” and those cancelation tables could quickly turn.
-
I am a little behind in my writing this week, but for very good reason. I have had the blessing of spending the week with my precious grandkids, John Patton and Molly this week. I made the trip over to the small town of Franklin, NC last weekend to meet Lillian and Brandon at one of our halfway points between Fayetteville, NC (I plan to write about my couple days exploring and seeing the majestic mountains of East Tennessee, SW North Carolina and North Georgia next week after my return trip there this weekend) to pick the grands up and bring them to Alabama for a week in what we, in my family, call Pop’s Fun Zone! Over the years, Kim and I always cherished our time not only with John Patton and Molly, but also getting the opportunity to see our oldest baby girl Lillian and our hero soldier, son in law Brandon. Of course things are a little different without my partner in crime where the fun zone is concerned since my bride went to be with Jesus, but we continue to navigate this new normal. I have made it my goal to make each trip for them fun and adventurous as it always was when Sugar was the ring leader of the fun and adventure. I have had to learn how to brush hair, put hair up in ponytails, make sure actual showers are taken daily, teeth are brushed, meals are cooked to specks and I think Sugar would be proud of my progress…lol. We have had the best week! There is never a dull moment in the fun zone that is Pop’s house! Whether we are doing a little gardening, feeding the chickens (that are nothing but feathered pets), playing with and wearing out our miniature schnauzer Baxter, watching wrestling, building legos, going to the woods for a hike down a trail in the wildlife refuge nearby or visiting with Great Ma, Grammie & Pappy, Grandpa and Grammy (Brandon’s parents) and of course spending part of a day riding the combine & grain buggy with Justin and Elizabeth who were harvesting the corn crop. As I sit here and share my thoughts some things and thoughts come to mind. First, as parents and grandparents always make the most of the time we have with our kids and grandkids. Time is fleeting and passes so quickly, make sure and invest it in your grandchildren if you are blessed to have grandchildren. As a kid, I have such great memories of times spent with my grandparents. I want to make sure that my grandkids have memories to cherish that were spent with Sugar and Me & now me going forward. We can give our kids and grandkids material things (and we should to a certain extent), but the greatest investment that we can give them is time spent and especially time spent just having fun! Even this week, my youngest daughter Olivia had surgery to have tonsils removed today and she will spend the next couple days with her Ma and my mom getting nursed back to health. Those are moments that you can’t put a price on because time is priceless. I have also been reminded that even today kids still like simple things. Whether it’s walking a nature trail through the woods and them asking Pops all kinds of questions about what they are seeing in many cases for the first time, puling up a chair in a pen with my chickens and having one of the diva chickens hop in their lap to be hand fed a handful of blueberries, gathering eggs that have just been laid or simply planting a seed in a mound of dirt in a pot, tray or garden bed. These are simple things that teach us so much about life and our God, the giver of life. This past Sunday, I was reminded how precious it is to attend worship at church on Sunday with them and seeing them enjoy their time in God’s house. In this instance, I was reminded that the greatest legacy we can leave our children and grandchildren is a legacy of faith and a life of walking with the Lord through times of joy and even sorrow. As our week at Pop’s FunZone comes to close tomorrow evening, I hope memories have been made that will transcend my life on this earth and bring them joy when they think about when they are grown and hopefully have kids of their own. When Saturday rolls around and we complete our trip back to the Appalachian foothills to send them on their way back to their home, we will start to mark the calendar, looking forward to our next time together if the Lord allows. I am truly blessed to have two angels that call me Pops and for that I am grateful to God.
-
At 2:15am on February 21, 2025 my life changed in a way that no matter how strong your faith or how much you may think you are prepared, the loss of my bride shook me to the deepest of my core. Yes, I know she received her ultimate healing and immediately went into the presence of our Lord, but the sudden finality of a wonderful 34 year marriage was crushing to my heart and spirit in a way that I cannot put into words (I do plan in the near future to write a series of entries here about my journey through the grief process and mine & Kim’s story of love that spanned 39 years). One thing that this event did was in the days, weeks and months that would lay ahead was to cause me to think a lot about life ahead and how I wanted to approach life. The one conclusion that I came to was that I wanted to discover what it was to live life simply. You may ask, “What does it mean to live life simply?”. What I want to do in this entry is share my version of what it means to me thus far in this second half of uncharted life for me. First, when I say living simply, I mean to determine to let go of things that bring unnecessary stress to life. This involves not allowing things unnecessarily into my life that could steal my joy, peace and freedom in Christ. I turned to the scriptures, specifically Matthew chapters 5-7. I first looked at what are known as the B-Attitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). These verses I rediscovered the attitudes that we are to have in our attitude toward living life. In these 12 verses, we see the word “Blessed” which translated means “HAPPY” precede each thing that we are to exhibit as believers. Then in verses 13-16(Chapter 5), we are to simply be salt and light to the world around us, that is we are to make a difference in this dark world that is our current home. Verses 21-26 (chapter 5) teach us that we are not to remain angry, but seek reconciliation with those we may have wronged or that have wronged us – life is too short to allow unforgiveness to steal our joy. Chapter 5 verse 37 reminds us to be honest in our dealing with one another and have a reputation of being people of integrity. Chapter 5 verses 38-42 remind us that we are seek peace and not retaliation toward others. Verses 43-48 shows us that like Christ, we are to love our enemies and not just love those that demonstrate love toward us. Chapter 6 begins in verses 1-4 by reminding us to hold loosely to what God has blessed us with and when we have opportunity to give out of what He has blessed with to give, but not give to be seen by anyone other than God. In 6:5-13, Christ reminds us that the first focus of our prayers should be the worship & adoration of our perfect Father in heaven and verses 14-15 reminds us that deals with the high priority of practicing forgiveness due to our need of forgiveness from our Heavenly Father. Matthew 6:16-18 reminds us that we are not to wear our “religion” on our sleeve, but rather true religion for the believer is most importantly lived inwardly through our relationship with Christ through a deep, inward faith in Him. Chapter 6 verses 19-24 should cause us to cease seeking to serve the masters of this world for gain that is temporary, but rather strive to live a life that makes a difference eternally as we serve the only Master (Lord). Matthew 6:24-34 really is the reminders that helped me in the past 8 months, that we should resist worrying about the mundane things of life that world says is so important because our Heavenly Father is our provider of peace in this messed up, fallen world and provides exactly what we need, provides it perfectly and in the perfect time. These verses also remind us to quite living in the “what if’s” of tomorrow, but focus on this current day that God has, out of His grace blessed us with and live it to the fullest with joy, peace, happiness and with the same grace that He has provided us. Finally, Matthew 7:1-5 reminds us to properly judge ourselves before we begin to make judgements concerning others. This passage does not tell us that we are not make judgments, but rather first judge ourselves. In doing proper self judgement, it is then that through godly, gracious judgement we will judge according to grace by which we have been judged. In closing this blog entry, I want to make sure you understand that the things I have shared are not shared out of arrogance as if I have arrived so to speak in all of these areas, but I am most certainly a work in progress that still falls short so many times. These things though have been the catalyst to helping me to live simply because these verses really teach us that life for the believer really should be boiled down to these principles becoming practices and characteristics of our life. I believe if one will commit himself/herself to seeking to live out these things, life will certainly become less complicated, peaceful, with less stress, more joy and a life lived that has the greatest potential to glorify God which is our highest calling as Jesus followers.
Thoughts of a Sojourner 