Tag: working together

Posted in Family, friends, gratitude, life, love, loving others, Military memories, prayer, priorities, Scripture, Southern born, spiritual battles, thankful, travel, Trials, USA, wisdom

Flying Like One

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12

They sliced through the air—four as one.  I was raised in Jacksonville, Florida.  My daddy worked as a jet engine mechanic at Jacksonville Naval Air Station. It was there by example that he taught me to work hard, to be loyal, and to love America. You see, Jacksonville was the home of three Naval bases, so the military was a big part of our lives. We were raised surrounded by men and women who were serving their country and that played a big part of who I am today. It also partly explains today’s story.

Because Jacksonville was the home to several Naval bases, it probably isn’t a surprise that we regularly had the Navy’s precision flying team, The Blue Angels, when the base where my daddy worked had an open house—which was once a year.  My Daddy made sure we went—and that we learned. One of the things I learned was to love the Blue Angels. Now as an Air Force veteran I love the Thunderbirds, but I have to admit the Blue Angels are my firs love. The speed, power and precision that they fly their massive machines just amazes me. Flying mere inches apart, they are the perfect example of teamwork. But the amazing part is it is not just the pilots who fly the planes—it is every member of the team.  They clearly let it be known that everyone one matters—everyone counts. They know and understand that the mission can’t be done without everyone.

Last Saturday and Sunday, I had the opportunity to see the Blue Angels do “their thing” and I was more than amazed. I love aviation, I love airplanes, and I love to see them working together. But do you know what? There is something else that I love more—and that is the family of God. I realize that my pastoring days are in the rearview mirror but that doesn’t taint my love for this thing called the church. Like the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds, it is amazing what people, and especially God’s people, can do when they come together.

It is no accident that God calls His kids the “body of Christ.” It is no accident that when Paul wrote about believers coming together, he wrote about, “the body.” It is an amazing thing when we come together not for our glory but His.  It is then that the impossible becomes possible. But I also know and believe this—when we don’t—the impossible remains exactly that. Satan knows this and we had better not forget it. We must not let anything—generations, race, religion, politics or a few dozen other things—come between us. If we do—things will crash.

You see, the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds know this. Unity brings power and success—disunity brings disaster—failure and loss. So, children of God…followers of Christ, let’s lay aside our petty differences and come together and stay together. This is the only way we can see revival in our land. There is nothing more graceful than to see those planes streaking through the sky—four like one—committed to the task at hand—the mission. They have trained for that, and it works.  We must do the same. Let’s trust the Prince of Peace to bring His peace on us as we follow Him. It is there, it is then, that we know, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Family, fear, forgiveness, friends, Grace, gratitude, life, love, loving others, sovereignty of God, spring, thankful

Larry, Barry, Harry, Terry, Ralph, and Bubba

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted.” (1 Corinthians 12:17-18)

The geese in our city park and I are occasionally on a first name basis. There are two kinds of geese in the park.  Almost all of them are standard, brownish geese.  Then there are also four or five white snow geese.  Now trust me on this.  In the past the snow geese and the regular geese just didn’t like each other.  But something must have happened.

Let me tell you what happened one day. First, there were several of the standard brownish geese families.  They were teaching the kids about swimming, eating, how to potty on the walking path…you know the standard things.  But then there was something else happening.  There were four white geese and they had like five babies, and they were one big happy family. I’m sure there was a mom and a dad but there was also at least an aunt and an uncle.  They were all doing their family thing.  But hang on.

There was also a pair of standard brownish geese, and they had babies.  What was different was they had two brown babies and a baby that obviously came from the snow geese. No really.  I’m thinking they adopted one.  And you know what?  They treated him just like the rest.  But that wasn’t quite the end of the story either.  So, there was a pair of standard brownish geese, and they had five brown babies.  They were so cute.  I think their names were probably like Larry, Barry, Harry, Terry, and Ralph.  Anyway, there’s one more thing.

There was one of the big snow geese in the family mix.  He obviously had to be a distant, and I mean distant, relative.  But he was one tough dude.  The little babies were on the sidewalk and mom and dad were standing there.  Usually, when I would walk by a family, the dad would hiss at me, and I would act afraid.  I wasn’t but I was hoping it would make him feel better.  Anyway, mom and dad were casual—no deal.

But then there was the snow goose named Bubba.  I mean when I got close, he puffed his chest out, stretched his neck, glared at me and gave me his best manly hiss.  You know the kind those big cobra snakes do in India. The hair stood up on the back of my neck and on my arms and I kept moving.  I don’t know who Bubba was, but he likes his family—brown or not—a lot.

You know, the more I thought about it…the more I thought it wasn’t weird at all.  I thought maybe that’s exactly how it is supposed to be.  The geese, regardless of their feather color, came together, formed a family and a community and were doing life.  Everyone seemed happy to me.  Well, all except Bubba.  He had an attitude, but I think even that was because he loved and cared for the others.

Someone once said it takes a village to raise a child.  It takes all kinds of people to make life work.  And do you know what?  It takes all kinds to make God’s family work too. If you go to church, you know sometimes it can get just a little bumpy. Someone doesn’t like this or doesn’t like that.  Someone wears the wrong thing or not enough of the right thing.  Someone thinks things are too loud or too soft or too hot or too cold. Well, I think we need to take a lesson from the guys and gals at the park.

In the Bible Paul wrote that things would be weird if a body was one giant ear or one giant eye.  If we were all the same, we would just be in a hot mess.  It takes every part—every person—being themselves and doing what God designed them to do.  And do you know what else it says?  It says in 1 Corinthians 12:18 “But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as He wanted.”  As.He.wanted.  That means that the person that you just love at church was put there by God.  And it also means the person who irritates you the most was put there too.  And perhaps they are there just for you.

Of all God’s creations, the church, His body, is one of His most beautiful.  A flower garden is made beautiful not in its sameness but in its variety. The body of Christ is made beautiful the very same way.  So, in these trying days, these crazy days, these days when it is so important that the church be the church, be sure and remember that the body is a bouquet of people and personalities selected and arranged by God himself.  We need the Bubbas, and we need Larry, Barry, Harry, Terry, and Ralph too.  We need the younger and we need the older.  We need each other.  Sound too difficult? Sound a little overwhelming?  Don’t worry about it.  God’s good at helping His rowdy, sometimes difficult kids grow.  So, take a rest in Him. He’s got this. Just ask Bubba. Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Family, friends, gratitude, life, love, loving others, priorities, Scripture, Southern born, thankful, Trials

Family Working Together

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony!” Psalm 133:1

I’m not sure how it happened…but it did.  I’ve said it several times, but we were not the richest family on the block…at least if the measurement was money in the bank.  I’m still amazed how my Daddy and Momma pulled off raising us and providing so richly for us.  And I mean that.  While we weren’t rich in terms of money, we were blessed with a good, solid, salt of the earth family. And we were blessed with two parents who were creative enough to make it all work.  And that is the keystone word…work.

Daddy was the kind of Daddy who got up and went to work…every day.  He would carpool out to Jacksonville Naval Air Station, put in a solid eight hours in a jet engine shop that didn’t have the luxury of air conditioning.  Keep in mind this is in North Florida…home of humidity and sweat.  After work, he would often come and work some more.  Daddy was a worker.  Momma was too.  She kept the Taylor ship shipshape…washing clothes, cleaning the house, cooking, and doing about a thousand other jobs.  While she was mainly a homemaker, she did occasionally take on outside work to help the budget.  Sometimes that was a traditional job—and sometimes it wasn’t.  This time it wasn’t.

I suppose she read it in the paper or heard it on the radio or saw it on television.  However, it happened, I just remember, it did.  The phone company was looking for people who would deliver phone books (remember them?) to all the people who had phones—and that was just about everyone. So, Momma signed us up—notice that us—and we soon found ourselves in the delivery business.  You need to know that not only did everyone have a phone and therefore they needed a phone book…there were a WHOLE lot of someone’s.  Oh, and when you have a big city with a lot of someone’s, you have a very fat, very heavy, phone book.

So, on day one of the big adventure, we went to the pick-up place and picked up a zillion phone books.  Our vehicle at that time wasn’t a pickup truck or even a station wagon.  Our car was six or seven year old Plymouth four-door sedan and we stuffed that poor car to the gills with phone books. The trunk was full, the back seat was full, the floorboard was full and even the front was full.  To this day I can remember that Plymouth squatting down in the back till it almost dragged the road.  So, with Momma at the wheel and us three little ones wedged in somewhere, we started delivering books.  Momma would start down a street, and we would jump out (or maybe fall out) of the car, grab an arm full of books and start dropping them at people’s homes.  Again, most people had a phone, but I am sure that some people who didn’t still got a book.  We soon figured out the sooner the books were gone, the sooner we could go home.  And sooner was definitely better than later.

It was crazy hard work and as best as I can remember the money went to help the family.  It was family helping family and that was a good thing.  It seems we did this more than one time but maybe not. But what I do know is I treasure that special memory that I have of Momma and us working together—adventuring together.  I am sure we looked like Ma Kettle and her kids but who cared?  I know we didn’t.  Sadly, stories like this one are slow disappearing.  Families working together and working it out together are giving way to lives too busy to be families.  It has been said that the family that prays together, stays together.  I also think it can be said that the family that works together, strains together, pulls together, “adventures” together…stays together too.

Way back in the book of Psalms, the Bible says, “How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony!” I know that is speaking about people in general, but isn’t that what families are…ordinary people doing life together? I hope this encourages us in this busy world to be family and do life together…whether it is work or play…or worship.  And speaking of worship, there’s no better place to be family than at church.  And when you get there, listen carefully and you will hear His encouraging voice saying, “Don’t worry…I’ve got this.”