A friend sent me an email of the following story.  I found it preposterous but asked my friend who worked in the nuclear weapon’s lab to verify it.  He did, with only a couple of modifications, not significant enough to mention.

Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch standard, four- pound, dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea was to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.

British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high-speed trains. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the British engineers.        When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer’s back-rest in two, and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin, like an arrow shot from a bow.

The horrified Brits sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the U.S. scientists for suggestions.

NASA responded with a one-line memo:                                                                    “DEFROST THE CHICKEN.”

Such a minor detail, right?  But as we all know, that’s where the most problems occur.

Dave and I have been visiting with our son Jeff and his wife Kira.  Kira is taking classes to get her pilot’s license, and the more she explains what she is learning, the more I realize that I have no desire to fly an airplane.  Yesterday, she shared just how dangerous it is if a fowl fouls up a flight pattern. Or if she enters an airspace designed for bigger planes.  Or if a pre-flight inspection misses a minor detail (like the propellers hides a plastic cover over a vent).  And let’s face it, if you fly, you want every little detail taken care of by your flight crew.

There seems to be an epidemic of this missing.

At Burger King in Louisburg, Kansas, last month, only one man had shown up for work.  He took the orders, made the food and collected the money.  People don’t feel like coming to work?  Apparently, no big deal.  Then, when I was clothes shopping in a department store in Kansas City, two elderly ladies were running around, trying to place things where they belong.  I struck up a conversation with the manager. When she asked a couple of the younger workers why they didn’t put things in the right place, she was told, “I just don’t feel like it.”

Details!

Every employer needs a detail person, the one who looks at the big picture and calculates what needs to be done.  No one is better at that than God.  When you read the Bible, take notice of the exact dimensions God gave Moses to build the Tabernacle, of the specifics he gave Noah to construct the Ark, of the rules for sacrifices and obedience expected of the Israelites. Then think of the ways our bodies are designed and the structure of the planets.  God is definitely involved in the details.

And we should be too.  Let’s purpose this week to see the trees instead of the forest: an extra tip to the weary waitress; an offer to help the customer shopping in the wheel chair; a “thank you” to the trash collector; an email of appreciation to the frazzled teacher; an “I love you” to our spouse; a prayer offered…just because.

In so doing, you will be putting God in the details…right where He belongs.

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Close Enough to Hear

The other day I heard a woman say that she and her husband had agreed that they wouldn’t try to talk to each other if one of them was in another room. It’s just a fact that if you’ve been married 40+ years, you can’t hear as well as you did when you first said, “I do.” My normal speaking voice is “loud and clear,” but when I would spend the day with my Dad in his later years, I had to talk really loud so he could hear me. By the time I hugged and kissed him goodbye and drove home, I was worn out from basically yelling all day.

God will not use His “outside voice” when He speaks to His children. He chooses not to yell because He knows we can hear Him if we choose to. His normal voice is a “gentle whisper” (ref. 1 Kings 19:12). In fact, since God’s voice is kind and nonabrasive, it’s possible we could miss what He’s saying to us. But if we set our hearts to listen, we will hear Him. “God has given me the capacity to hear and obey…” (Psalm 40:6 AMP).

My family and friends know that I welcome their visits and phone calls. Healthy interactive conversation consists of, “Talk, Stop, Listen“ over and over until the conclusion. It’s hard to visit with someone who isn’t a good listener. It’s also hard to visit with someone who doesn’t talk. It takes two to tango in order to have a satisfactory conversation. I would suspect God is disappointed when His children don’t have a ready ear toward His voice. We’re eager to tell Him what we need, but we often don’t wait to hear what He has to say. If we’re guilty of not being a good listener, we should repent for our selfish and ungrateful  attitude.

I had a brief conversation with a fellow believer that said, “God doesn’t speak to me.”  I wonder if this individual is simply in another room when God speaks. In our energetic culture, believers may have trouble being quiet (which invites our Best Friend to talk to us). “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 NKJV). We can miss God by living a hurried lifestyle, doing our own thing, and not making room for His voice. From the beginning night of Jesus’ earthly life, there wasn’t room for Him back then either. It’s definitely our responsibility to create a welcoming atmosphere so we can hear God‘s voice.

I’m certainly not wise enough to orchestrate my own life. I’d be yelling “Gee” when I should be yelling “Haw.” (These are unique voice commands to tell a workhorse to turn right or left when pulling a plow.) Christ followers want to live productive lives and bear good fruit for the Kingdom of God, but we desperately need God’s help to accomplish this goal. Jesus tells the crowd to listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: “The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s Word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” (Matthew 13:23 NLT). I want to be good dirt and grow a big crop for Jesus — but first I have to listen and understand so I can produce.

The Key: Stay in the same room with God so you can hear and obey His voice.

This last installment of my analysis as to why rural America is shrinking has to do with the growing cultural trend towards a preference for entertainment experiences and the electronic filter of relationships through social media.  The evaluation is more experiential than it is statistical, but certainly current lifestyle trends lend themselves more toward urban living than the traditional rural experience.

Case in point, my fondest memories from my youth are of sitting on the front porch of my grandparent’s home overlooking the bandstand in the center of the town square in a farm community of 1,300 people.  We shucked corn, snapped beans, hulled peas, and cleaned fish while we listened to the St. Louis Cardinal on the radio.  My most magical summer was the “Phold of 1964,” the year the Phillies collapsed in the last two weeks of the baseball season and were overtaken by my red-hot Cardinals.  It was an experience that gelled families and communities all over the Midwest.

My seven city-raised children would blanch at the prospect of spending a summer of listening to the radio and in idle conversations on the topics of religion, politics, world and local news, and sports.  My eleven grandchildren would ask about the strength of the WiFi signal on the porch, and tolerate the scene until allowed access to their gaming console again.  Do I sound like I have lived during 70 decades?

Most of us can identify with this great generational divide on one side or the other.  Whether social media, gaming, exotic vacations, movies, bingeing TV shows, etc. are more healthy and constructive than front-porch-sittin’ remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the change in culture has seriously impacted the perceived value of small communities.  The “brain-drain” of our best and brightest to major universities and big jobs in big cities continues, with no end in sight.

What can, or should, rural communities do about this megatrend which is contributing significantly to our population loss?  We certainly cannot compete with the entertainment and shopping venues of major metropolitan areas, and we would be foolish to try to a large degree.  We would have a difficult time recruiting Fortune 500 companies to our county in order to offer the next generation world-class job options.  We should do all we can to make high-speed Internet access broadly available across the county.

I believe we need to be who we are: a place that offers time for community and contemplation; a place that has the advantages of nature and the social and recreational aspects that come with it; a place that has history and played an important role in one of the most critical periods of American history; a place with time to love and to be loved.  Sounds like heaven to me.

We need to be the best Bourbon County we can be.  We need to lean into each other, support each other, and cultivate county-wide trust together.  Someday, our culture will again want what we have, which I think represents the best of human nature.  In the meantime, we wait, we work, we pray, we relate, and we build…together.

A spider and a centipede are having tea.  The centipede gets up and offers to go buy snacks.  He goes out the door and hours pass.  The spider is so hungry, wondering what happened, and opens the door, only to find the centipede sitting on the doormat, still putting on his shoes.

Sometimes I am that centipede.  It takes me F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to tie my hundred shoes, to get going…in a spiritual sense, I mean.  In real world activities, I am the Energizer Bunny.

Francis Chan’s “New York Times” best seller, Crazy Love, makes me wonder if I am taking my own sweet time in becoming what God desires for me, even after 45 years of being a Christian.  Chan writes much about “lukewarm Christians” (in other words, not Christians at all).  They love God for what He can do for them (like eternity in Heaven) and not for who He is.

The test is simple, using the question John Piper wrote in God In the Gospel: “If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?”

Spend some time before answering.

The author is concerned about the unfaithfulness of Christians.  Referring to the question “Can I go to heaven without truly and faithfully loving Jesus?”, Chan’s response comes as no surprise.  “I don’t see anywhere in Scripture how the answer to that question could be yes.”

We know that Jesus’ sacrifice to die on the cross for our sins benefits us eternally, but have we ever considered the emotional pain well before the crucifixion, like how it had to sadden God to say farewell to His son and send him to earth to live with sinners who would reject him, abandon him, deny him and kill him?  (If you are a parent, put yourself in God’s shoes.)

Leading up to that Heavenly good-bye, I wonder if the angels were huddled in panic.  Were there lingering hugs and tears? Surely Jesus knew what was ahead, that he would be grieved, tempted, exhausted, frustrated and would agonize over his impending death. Still, he volunteered to come, to offer to die in our place.

How much love he has for you and me, that he made that choice!

Jesus wasn’t finished. He returned to Heaven but did not leave us without help: the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His followers and therefore us, “… it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go the Helper will not come …” (John 16:7). Get that?  Better than Jesus remaining with the disciples is that we can be gifted with his Spirit. And what a gift he is!   In John 14, we learn much about what we Christians have living inside of us, thank you, Jesus, waiting to be used.  A helper.  A comforter.  A teacher. A guide.  A prophet. A convicter. An intercessor.

Christians, we have been given everything we need to faithfully follow Jesus.  It is time we lace up our spiritual shoes and get moving.  Luke 10:2 reminds us of Jesus’ words, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…”

Often, I have made time to talk about politics, about families, even about the weather, but I don’t make time to put on the Jesus shoe to tell others what matters most.

I have to wonder, Would Chan use that as a definition of “lukewarm”?

Around sixth grade, Jonita and I were having a great day touring the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, MO. I’d never been around llamas before, so I didn’t know they spat at humans when distressed, annoyed, or threatened. As we stood on the other side of the fence, we were acting goofy and giggling and I was talking rather loud. (Since that day, I’ve learned there are two signs that let you know a llama is getting ready to spit. The llama will pin its ears back and then stare at its target. Next, a llama will move its neck and raise its head up and spit either from its mouth or stomach.) Well, I made the llama angry and, sure enough, a flying torpedo of spit missed my face by an inch. After the initial shock, we erupted in hysterical laughter and stumbled away to the monkey cage where I was the target of flying poop. I seem to have a special rapport with zoo animals.

Llamas, alpacas, and camels are all from the same family. In the Old Testament, the Midianites were among the first to use camels in warfare.“…they [Midianites] would come like locusts in number — both they and their camels could not be counted — so that they laid waste the land as they came in” (Judges 6:5 ESV). The one-humped dromedary can travel more than 150 miles in one day. The two-humped Bactrian camel is slower but can carry more weight than the dromedary. Camels live to be 40-50 years old, and can weigh 1,800 pounds. They drink 30 gallons of water in 13 minutes and run 25-40 mph. You certainly want to stay on the good side of camels because they can be dangerous and unpredictable. If they become angry, they can wreck an entire campsite!  

It’s not just camels that can wreck stuff when they get angry. Humans can totally destroy relationships if they let anger take control of their emotions and actions. Vicious and hateful attitudes toward others are dangerous undercurrents which can develop into anger. “I will bridle my anger, trash my wrath, cool my pipes — it only makes things worse” (Psalm 37:8 MSG). When llamas get super mad, they spit terrible stinky junk from their stomach. If they’re simply annoyed, they just spit saliva from their mouth. But whatever they spit, it’s not pleasant if you’re the target. (I know from first-hand experience!)

In the middle of writing this column, I was insulted and offended by a spur-of-the-moment situation that made me so angry I could chew up nails and spit out a barbed wire fence. However, after recounting the episode with four trusted loved ones, I finally got to the point where I could laugh about it. Before I hit the hay that evening, I had trashed my temptation to spit and had chosen the better option of uproarious laughter. “And don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil“ (Ephesians 4:26,27).

Anger that’s not nipped in the bud is a serious problem and God’s Word gives us a lot of  instruction on it. It’s natural to experience anger, but it’s important to quickly handle it in a godly manner. Being madder than a snake who married a garden hose shouldn’t last a week, month, or year. And getting mad as a mule chewing on bumble bees shouldn’t be an everyday occurrence either. “A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare. A hot-tempered person starts fights; a cool-tempered person stops them” (Proverbs 15:1,18 NLT).

The Key: Don’t waste your money on a spittoon, just get over “it” before you go to bed.

It is common knowledge that the shopping habits of Americans have changed dramatically in my lifetime, particularly that of small town residents.  Gone are the days when I walked into the locally-owned grocery store by myself as a child in my home town of 1,300, and everyone called me by name.  The five-and-dime where I bought cinnamon balls, Bazooka bubble gum and comic books is a thing of the past.  No more soda counters.  What happened?

The biggest megatrend to hit rural America was big box stores, such as K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc.  The concentration of buying power enabled them to cut prices and undersell locally-owned stores who could not compete.  Good for the consumer in terms of prices and increased selection, bad for small town retail businesses.  Even newspapers suffered, as these stores usually had their own distribution system of flyers, often bypassing print media.  Hundreds of small town newspapers have closed or dramatically decreased their frequency of publication over the last several decades. Around 7% of America’s counties now have no local news outlet and around 20% are at risk of their communities becoming news deserts in the foreseeable future.

Also, since President Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act of 1956, federal and state roads have continued to improve incrementally.  Do you remember how bad 69 Highway was between Overland Park and Fort Scott?  With the vast improvements of 69 Highway North and South and 54 Highway East and West, small town shoppers have no problem driving an hour or so for more shopping choices.  As evidence, our “Pull Factor” (the percentage of every dollar a Bourbon County resident spends of their income locally, plus tourists and passerbys) has dipped to 70% in recent years.

The last great megatrend might be the most impactful for local businesses: The Internet.  It is way too easy to click on a web site and buy what you need without leaving your couch.  One would expect this trend to continue.  We are even getting our entertainment via online streaming services now.  How does a local business compete?

When a population is shrinking, such as it is in every county in Southeast Kansas, it is easy to understand that a business that sells exclusively to the local population will have less sales down the road.  The only small town businesses that have a chance to grow are those who sell primarily to out-of-town clients, such as the two window manufacturers we have in Bourbon County.  The other winning strategy is selling to the increased traffic count on 69 Highway and visitors.

The board and staff at Bourbon County REDI understands these megatrends and are engaging strategies that will help stem the tide and play to our strengths, which are many in our neck of the woods.  We believe in Bourbon County and its future; that is why we live here.  We encourage you to shop locally and support tourism by welcoming those from out of town.  It is the least we can do to move us forward together.

1 Corinthians 10:26: The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.

When Dave and I moved back to Fort Scott in the early 80’s, we attended various churches in order to decide where we best fit.  It was a season for tithing sermons, I guess, a subject we were not too keen on obeying.  I mean, we gave to charities and tossed some dollars into all of the collection plates, but if these churches were going to browbeat us into feeling guilty, they weren’t for us.

Embarrassing, I agree.

As relatively new Christians, we had missed out on a basic tenet of Faith, namely, God owns everything we think we own.  Everything.  He has blessed us with the ability to accumulate what we have, so we cannot take credit for any of our possessions.

When you read the Old Testament, it becomes evident that God wants the first 10% of what we make.  The “first” 10%.  Then Jesus arrived on the scene, and the New Testament tells us to “live generously.”  No longer is a specific amount noted, so most scholars claim that 10% should be a minimum we give.

Pastor Todd Mullens, from the church Dave and I attended three years ago in Jupiter, Florida, made a powerful demonstration of how that minimum plays out.  On the stage, he had a large basket of fruit.  He pulled out 10 bunches of carrots, carefully counting them as he laid them on a table.  He removed one bunch and placed it in a smaller basket.  That was God’s portion.  He did likewise with apples and cucumbers.

Then he told a story about his son’s sixth birthday party.  For a present, his grandpa had given Jefferson 10 one-dollar bills.  Todd asked his son who gave him the money and was told “Papa did.”  Todd agreed but reminded young Jefferson that God had given Papa the ability to make the money.  Todd took the bills and placed them side-by-side on the kitchen table, counting them out slowly.

“Jefferson, every time we get some money, we need to give God 1/10 of what we have received.  You need to give God one dollar out of these ten.  You get to keep the rest.”

Jefferson picked out one bill, looked at his father and asked, “Gee, Dad, this is all God wants?” A perspective we all should share.

According to the “Generous Church” organization, the average Christian gives 2.5% of his/her earnings to God.  Should they give 10%, between $165 billion and $300 billion (depending on the source), more could be amassed.  Look at how that plays out:

• $25 billion and five years would relieve global hunger, starvation, provide clean water and deaths from preventable diseases.
• $12 billion would eliminate illiteracy in 5 years.
• $15 billion would solve the world’s water and sanitation issues.
• $10.8 billion would free 27 million people living in slavery.

Add it up.  That still would allow at least $100 billion to be used elsewhere.  Scripture says that “God loves a cheerful giver.”  Something tells me that those who give 2.5% of their earnings to God probably don’t fit that definition.

Keys to the Kingdom

I stepped out onto my porch and saw him walking toward me, leaving his big honkin’ tractor-trailer rig idling in the lane. He greeted me, joined me on the porch and drawled, “Car-o-line, how’re we gonna do this?“ I answered, “You’re the expert, you do whatever you need to do to set that 600 lb. fireplace insert right here on the porch.“ (You could’ve   pushed me over with a feather when I saw a Fed Ex 18-wheeler instead of a normal-sized box truck like I was expecting.) He was grateful to know he had permission to  maneuver through my yard/pasture area, because he needed it to get into proper position to drop his load. I’d been waiting six months for this backordered item and it finally arrived when it was 85+ degrees. Seven trees, a fire pit, and a flag pole later, he proved he’d been skillfully doing this for 28 years. I was astonished from the moment those big wheels rolled across my entrance until they rolled out 40 minutes later. If you ever order an elephant or hippopotamus, you should ask for Eric to deliver it ‘cause he‘s the best!

As the All-Knowing Expert, God has my permission to sit in the driver’s seat of my life. He knows where I’m supposed to go and how to get me there at the right time. He knows what He’s doing and He doesn’t need my help with the steering wheel, accelerator, or brakes. On the way to church one morning, I set the cruise and a few miles later I noticed my foot was on the accelerator. I thought, “This is the way a lot of believers live. At our wit’s end, we finally ask God to help us. Then we get impatient and rack our brains trying to figure out how we can do it without Him.”

A really good bad example is found in the first book of the Old Testament. God told Abraham and Sarah they would have a child. After several years of waiting, Sarah got impatient and decided to help God out. “She said to Abraham, ‘The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.’ And Abraham agreed with Sarah’s proposal” (Genesis 16:2 NLT). In today’s culture, I think we might call that a FAIL. This was not God’s plan in any way, shape, or form.

“Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go, He’s the one who will keep you on track” (Proverbs 3:6 MSG). There are two voices that speak to believers and it’s absolutely essential to know the difference. Jesus said that His sheep know His voice and the voice of another they will not follow. Satan is cunning and he’ll lie to us in an attempt to steer us off the straight path onto a wild goose chase that’ll crash and burn.

God‘s driver‘s manual states that we are to, “Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path” (Proverbs 4:26 NLT). There was nothing straight about the layout of my property. However, it was obvious the truck driver had given careful thought as to how he would proceed before he visited with me. There are plenty of detours on life’s highway that are as crooked as a dog‘s hind leg. God repeatedly warns us not to leave the straight path. I appreciate the promise in Psalm 37:34 TLB: “I won’t be impatient for the Lord to act! I will keep traveling steadily along His pathway and in due season He will honor me with every blessing.”

The Key: Give Him the driver’s seat and let God be God in your life.