Tag: included

Posted in communication, Family, friends, gratitude, life, loving others, priorities, school days, Scripture, Southern born, sovereignty of God, thankful, Trials, Uncategorized, USA

Mama and Politics

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

“Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:4-5

His name was Bill, and he was running for county commissioner.  A long time ago when I was about ten years old, I had my first and only encounter with political campaigns.  Somehow, and I have no idea how, my Momma got involved with the campaign to elect a guy named Bill Basford as county commissioner.  And, when Mom jumped in—she jumped in all the way.  That meant a couple of things.

First, and totally embarrassing, was this thing they put on our car.  We were pretty much not rich, in fact, I’m sure we weren’t even middle class.  We drove a 1957 Plymouth and let’s just say 1957 was a long way in the rearview mirror.  Anyway, back in those days if a person was running for office, they had these triangle shaped signs that people strapped to the top of their cars.  Now if it had been a little triangle that wouldn’t have been nearly as embarrassing, but this thing belonged on the sands of Egypt with the rest of the Pyramids.  It was HUGE.  It loudly proclaimed, “BILL BASFORD FOR COUNTY COMMISSIONER.” We would drive around and advertise for Bill.

That wasn’t all.  We also had to go door to door asking people to vote for Bill.  We covered our neighborhood like the plague of locusts that cleaned out Egypt.  I am certain people saw us coming and quickly closed their blinds and pretended they weren’t home.  It turns out that was just practice for when I became a preacher.  By the way…I know you are in there.  We also had a big supply of bumper stickers which we would gladly stick on your car.  When you’re ten, you like to stick things on things, so I liked that part—a lot.

Well, election day came, and Momma waited for the big news.  Either by television or by telephone we got the word that Bill had won, and they invited Momma to come downtown to the headquarters to celebrate. Like Ma and Pa Kettle, we (as in Daddy, Momma, my two sisters and I) got in the 1957 Plymouth and off we went.  I only remember a couple of things about the celebration.  There was loud music, and the air was filled with excitement.

So that was it.  Momma was excited because her guy won.  She didn’t get a political appointment or anything, but we did have a bunch of bumper stickers leftover to stick on things.  But the best part of all was that our guy won.  Winning is always a good feeling.  Everyone wants to be on the winning side. Every contest has winners and losers.  Like the song says, “Some gotta win, some gotta lose.  Good time Charlie’s got the blues. Well, your name might not be Charlie, but maybe you’ve got the blues.  And I’m not talking about any election results.

If the truth be known, life can be pretty blue, can’t it?  And sometimes, it is because we lose…our health, our job, our family, our house, well, lots of things.  But I want to tell you something that is important.  There is Someone who never loses, and His name is Jesus.  If it was an election…He would win every time. If it was a game…He would win every time.  If it was a war…He would win every time. If it was a debate…yup, He would win every time.  Do you want to know the best part?  Keep reading.

Remember how mama got invited to the big celebration downtown?  Well, if we are willing to place our faith and trust in Jesus and follow Him, two amazing things happen.  First, because He wins, we win.  In a way, when Bill Basford won—Momma won.  And when we choose to follow Jesus, because He wins—we win too.  The Bible says, “Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”  Then, the party starts.  Sometimes people think heaven is going to be one long boring church service.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  It is going to a celebration like no other…like a party without end.  And while we won’t be the center of attention—that’s Jesus’ place—we will be guests of honor.  How about that?

I don’t really know how things turned out for Bill Basford, but I suppose he was a good commissioner.  I also know it made my Momma feel pretty special to be a part of his campaign.  She felt included—we felt included.  We may have driven an old 1957 Plymouth but on that night with Bill’s name on the top, it felt like a Cadillac.  Jesus invites you to be a part of His campaign team too.  He’s not running for anything—He is already King of Kings. But there’s one thing for sure, He loves to invite people to come along for the ride.  He hopes, and so do I, that you will join Him.  When this campaign is over, we are going to celebrate Him forever.  Until then, He’s got this.  Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Family, forgiveness, Grace, gratitude, life, loving others, prayer, Scripture, thankful, Trials

The Sparrow and the Big, Fat Chick

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:8

I had to look twice. The other morning my wife Judy and I were sitting on our patio chatting, drinking coffee, and enjoying the morning. It is one of those things you can do when you are retired. Just a few feet away from the patio is a bird feeder. It is a poplar stopping off point for quite a variety of birds and we enjoy listening to them sing and watching them have breakfast. As I was watching that morning, a bird, somewhat larger than the rest pulled up and parked in the bush in my neighbor’s yard. Besides his size, I could tell that he was a little bit different than the rest. He seemed to have a difficult time balancing on the limb and he was constantly fluttering and fluffing his feathers.  I figured out that either something was not quite right with him, or he was a very young bird. It turned out to be number two.

Before long, he fluttered to the ground, half landing and half crashing, right beneath the bird feeder. While there were several birds on the ground, all much smaller than him, one particular sparrow played close attention to him. What happened next was amazing.  The large, not quite grown up half chick would occasionally flutter his feathers and I noticed it happen to happen when this little sparrow was nearby.  He fluttered and then he opened his mouth much like a baby chick in a nest.  To my amazement, the little sparrow picked up a seed from the ground and hopped over and fed the big, fat chick.

At first, I thought it was some sort of coincidence, but it wasn’t.  Time and again, he would flutter, open his mouth and the sparrow would feed him. Well, I was just amazed so I had to find out what was going on.  It turned out that the big, fat chick was in fact a baby cowbird and the sparrow was…well, an adopted momma sparrow. As I read about the cowbird, it turns out the Momma cowbird, when she is ready to lay her eggs, doesn’t build a nest.  The cowbird is a brood parasite, meaning that it lays its eggs in nests of other species. A female cowbird quietly searches for female birds of other species that are actively laying eggs.

Once she has found a suitable host, the cowbird will sneak onto the resident bird’s nest when it is away, usually damaging or removing one (or more) eggs and replacing that egg with one (or more) of her own. The foster parents then unknowingly raise the young cowbirds, usually at the expense of their own offspring. And here’s the great mystery, the other mother would come back and for whatever reason “adopt” the new eggs as her eggs and raise them as her own. Even though the eggs were different sizes and colors didn’t seem to matter. And wait for this, even when the eggs hatched and it was obvious that the chicks didn’t belong to her, she still cared for them and raised them.  I know…it makes no sense. The obvious didn’t change her caring for the one or ones who didn’t belong. Amazing.

Do you want to hear something even more amazing?  What about a God who willingly cares for a creation that clearly doesn’t deserve to be cared for?  What about a God who loves the most unloving and despite the obvious fact this creation is so much unlike Him and yet He cares?  What about that.  Well, that is Gospel story.  God, even though we totally did not deserve it, sent His Son to die so we could live—so we could be part of His family.  Now that is a mystery, but it is a mystery I love. It seemed crazy that the sparrow raised and cared for the big, fat chick but this crazy love of God for us is even more amazing.

If you find yourself abandoned and alone in this big old crazy world, just remember there is Father who wants to adopt you into His family like that sparrow, only better, He will never leave you or forsake you.  Don’t you worry—He’s got this.  Bro. Dewayne