SOUNDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE, CITY AND GOD

     “When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”                          

1 Corinthians 13:10-12

 

     When I was a very young kid my first experiences of the country occurred while being ‘farmed out’ for the summers to my Uncle Leon, in Nutbush, Tennessee. There were cows and pigs, horses and hens, buzzards and crows. Times were quieter then and sounds could be heard well past the next farm or two but the best sound of all was that of the great dinner bell.

     A few years later, after Papa retired from the railroad, we moved up to our farm, Highway 19 east of Ripley.  There, trains could be heard across Lauderdale County as they worked their way from Chicago, along the Mighty Mississippi and through the great Delta to New Orleans.  One of the greatest sounds from that era was the day World War II was over and the sounds from town, three and a half miles away, included the shrill shriek of the whistle from the tomato canning factory, the fire department’s several serious sirens, a cacophony of car horns from the highway and I promise you, I think we may have heard people shouting.

     Many years later, in Collierville, I lay face down in the aging green shag carpet of the office of my counselor, pastor and friend. For weeks we had been praying for God to dig deep into the depths of my soul, to forgive my sins and finish a work in me He had began many years before.  I had moved from the seated position to the kneeling position and lastly, prone on the carpet when I heard it, the sound of the train approaching the crossing. The engineer alerted everyone within hearing that the train was coming and essentially ‘there’.  Being from a railroad family I understood the message from the train, “I am here.”  God was nearby.  He had heard my prayers and I had heard his voice through the train whistle. I stood to my feet a changed person. Prayer really changes things. Prayer makes a difference.  God changes lives.

     Years later, Matt Surber, senior pastor-designate, was wrapping up his sermon on his introductory test run at Central Church and I had been praying along with him that God would ‘show up’ and bless his efforts.  Then, I heard it again, as if on cue....the sound of the train, “I am here”.  Prayer changes things. God changes lives.

     He, God, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, is right here in the middle of our church, our lives and the ‘big C church’ out there.  He is calling the lost unto himself...bringing salvation to the yet untamed and unchurched masses and tending His flock.  To hear and to heed the voice of our Lord is a great daily prayer. It is also a thought that should penetrate, permeate and occupy our hearts, our minds, our thoughts and our souls, constantly through the day and into the night.

     May the sounds of “The Engineer” and the long train of His eternal salvation move in and along the tracks of your life and those of your loved ones...soon and often.

 

     “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.”  Romans 12: 11-13