Adding Value to Others

Her name was Barbara (still is, I imagine), but I came to know her after a few months as Pokey. When she called me at the church, that’s how she identified herself. “Hey, this is Pokey,” she would say, “I was just calling to ask …” or “I was just calling to let you know …”. I can still hear the voice ringing in my ears. The nickname came from her siblings when she was growing up. She did not move as quickly as others because she had moderate cerebral palsy. She didn’t require a cane or any other kind of assistance to walk, but her slightly awkward gait and her speech revealed clearly what was going on.
Barbara sang in the choir at Lane Avenue Baptist Church in Columbus, OH when I was Minister of Music and Youth there. She is one of the brightest spots in my memory of those years. She wasn’t the most gifted singer I have ever had in a choir, but she certainly was not the least gifted either. Her strongest contribution to the choir, however, was not musical … it was spiritual. She was an encourager from the word go. I can’t even think about her without good emotions bubbling up in my heart (what a wonderful way to be remembered, by the way).
A couple of years into my tenure at Lane Avenue, I began asking various choir members to volunteer to lead a brief devotional (3-5 minutes every week). Barbara, ever enthusiastic about everything, signed up. She began with a scripture passage … I can’t for the life of me remember what it was now … then began to tell why it was meaningful to her. She began to tell how she valued her life so much because as an infant she almost died. Emotion and tears took over and she couldn’t finish; she didn’t need to. We were all fond of her anyway, but what she did that evening caused us to value her even more deeply. When her mother passed away (the first funeral I ever preached), she moved to Missouri with her sister leaving an empty space that no one else could fill. There was only one Pokey.
I’ve come to realize in recent weeks what it was about Pokey that made her such a memorable person in my life. Whenever she was around, she did something that leadership guru John Maxwell talks about: she added value to others. Her love for life and for personal interaction was contagious without being intrusive. One felt better just for having been around her. Maxwell says that adding value to others is something about which we have to be intentional. Pokey did it as naturally as breathing.
Some people I know can brighten a room just by leaving, but that wasn’t Pokey. We should all follow her example. That’s enough to think about for now …

Pronunciation rant

The word is "strength," not "strenth." It has a g in it for a reason. Do not ignore the g ... especially if you're in the business of speaking on television.

I thought it was just a local mispronunciation of the word that got on my nerves until I heard a national broadcaster mispronounce the same word as I was watching the olympics last night.

And while I'm at it, I'm dismayed at the information I learned from a schoolteacher a couple of weeks ago that a speech therapist in our state cannot correct a child who says "skraight" instead of "straight," or "aks" instead of "ask," or "skrawberry" instead of "strawberry" and similar mispronunciations because they are considered dialectic variants rather wrong pronunciations (which is what they are). Is it any wonder that our children have trouble spelling words they don't pronounce properly?

Enough said. I wish it made me feel better.

What he said ... what I thought about

Some of the points in my pastor's message this past Sunday brought to my mind a fascinating story that I heard when I was in South Africa on a mission trip in 1999. I found a very concise summary of the situation on the Northern Youth Ministries web site (www.nymministries.org).

Recently the National Fatherhood Initiative released a television public service announcement recounting the true story of the consequences that ensued when a group of young male elephants was transported from one wild game preserve in Africa to another without also transporting the older, “bull” elephants with them.

Without the presence of older male elephants, this group of juvenile elephants began to do something that elephants just don’t do in the wild. They began marauding in bands, wantonly killing other animals. This pack of “wilding” juvenile elephants especially liked to harass white rhinos, chasing them over great distances, throwing sticks at them and finally stomping them to death. It was only after a group of adult male elephants were transported into the game preserve that this delinquent and violent behaviour stopped.

How did this happen? Did the older bull elephants bring the younger male elephants together to express their feelings? No! They started to enforce the rules. In no uncertain terms, the older males began to discipline the younger elephants. Quickly the younger male elephants fell back into line. There hasn’t been a report of a single murderous elephant since.

… Little boys, like juvenile elephants, need the presence of adult males around them who monitor their behaviour and enforce the rules. And in doing so, we also have to give them opportunities to express their maleness and desire for meaning in ways that don’t involve worshiping [negative role models] … Boys will be boys. Whether or not they will grow up to be well-socialized and decent men is up to us.

Thank God for church organizations like Royal Ambassadors, and for morally upright organizations like the Boy Scouts of America for their continued commitment to shaping the lives of young men as they navigate the ever more treacherous waters of the society around us. Pray for these organizations and others like them. Pray for boys you know and the men who seek to guide them. Men, invest yourself in the lives of boys and ask God to inspire others to fill the empty spaces in the lives of boys with no significant male role models in their circle. Their future is at stake. That’s enough to think about for now …

Thoughts on worship from Jim Wilson

Jim Wilson, pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Seaside California, hosts a web site called Fresh Ministry. As a co-laborer in our Master’s field, Wilson seeks to share observations and ideas about how to keep what we do as a church relevant in a rapidly changing society. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but he seeks to offer information and ideas to others hoeing the same tough row (to preserve the agricultural metaphor). He shared some thoughts on worship recently in his online journal (www.blog.freshministry.org).

Today Alito is sworn in as Associate Justice. It seems like an eternity since President Bush nominated him. But I still remember a couple of things he said during his remarks after being nominated to replace Justice O’Connor on the United States Supreme Court, Judge Samuel Alito said. “The Supreme Court is an institution that I have long held in reverence.” Later, he commented, “I argued my first case before the Supreme Court in 1982, and I still vividly recall that day. I remember the sense of awe that I felt when I stepped up to the lectern …”

He holds the court in reverence; standing at the lectern he had a sense of awe. Those are the same feeling we should experience as we stand before a Holy God ready to bring Him praise, adoration and worship.

Reverence and awe has nothing to do with the way we dress and everything to do with the attitude we have in our heart as we approach God.

Hebrews 12:28-29 (HCSB) “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us hold on to grace. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe; [29] for our God is a consuming fire.”

I don’t plan on waiting ’til Sunday to worship God. I hope you don’t either.

That’s enough to think about for now …