A beekeeper once told author/pastor F.B. Meyer how some of the young bees are nurtured to ensure their healthy development. The queen lays each egg in a six-sided cell which is filled with enough pollen and honey to nourish the egg until it reaches a certain stage of maturity. The top is then sealed with a capsule of wax.

When the food is gone, it is time for the tiny creature to be released. The wax is so hard to penetrate that the bee can make only a very narrow opening. It is so narrow that in the agony of exit, the bee rubs off the membrane that encases its wings. When it finally does emerge, it is able to fly.

The man telling the story said that one time a moth got into the hive and devoured the wax capsules. As a result, the young bees crawled out without any effort or trouble. But they could not fly.                                                                                                                                                           F.B. Meyer said this: “Remember, it is through the struggle of the trial—the journey out of the pit—that the very best part of us takes flight. One day soon, you will look around to see that you are coming out of the dark.”

In Mark 10, we read about Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, who, when Jesus passed by, recognized him as the Messiah and called on him to show him mercy. Jesus’ disciples rebuked the beggar for such a display, but Bartimaeus continued to cry out.   How was it possible for a blind man to recognize what others did not?  Perhaps his spiritual eyes, the ones that really matter, were open, even though his physical eyes were not.  Bartimaeus recognized that he was a sinner in need of a touch from his Savior. Which is exactly what he got.

Verse 49-52 explains what happened next.  Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they (the disciples) called to the blind man, “Cheer up!  On your feet!  He’s calling you.”      Throwing his cloak aside, the beggar jumped to his feet and neared Jesus who asked what he wanted.  “Rabbi,” he said, “I want to see.” Jesus’ response had to still the crowd. “Go, your faith has healed you.” Immediately, the blind man could see and followed Jesus down the road.

This man was in such a hurry to meet Jesus, he flung his outer cloak away.  Nothing would impede his haste to meet the one who would change his life forever.

Missionary Elizabeth Elliott once wrote, “Long-suffering is sometimes the only means by which the greater glory of God will be served.” Whatever you are going through, however dark your journey might appear, remember that the struggle can lead to your victory.  We all will go through dark periods…some much darker than others. Many times, all we need to do is choose light and get rid of whatever hinders us (like moths or cloaks). We need to look at our problems in the light of Jesus’ power instead of looking at Jesus in the darkness of our problems.

Yes, it can be as simple as that.

Keys to the Kingdom By Carolyn Tucker

As I backed the Chrysler out of the garage, I looked to my left and saw a piece of trash in the pasture that had blown across the fence.  When I returned home, I spotted it again but didn’t bother to take the time to retrieve it. After a couple more days of repeating this scenario, it finally dawned on me what I was actually seeing. As I walked toward the “trash” with my tape measure, I squatted down and measured an amazing 11”-diameter toadstool. Judging only by looks, things are not always what we think they are.

The next day, I had an entertaining conversation with my mother-in-law. It was Sunday and I had gone to the 9:30 a.m. service, returned home, ate lunch, and changed into work clothes because I wanted to pick up the sticks in my yard. But first, I grabbed my mother-in-law’s mail and headed to her house across the lane. When I entered the back door around noon, she looked at me and asked, “Didn’t you go to church today?“ I grinned and responded, “I went to the early service.” I don’t blame her for assuming I hadn’t gone to church because I looked like the grapes of wrath from the top of my head to my dirty tennis shoes. I was a Christian incognito — just like the disguised toadstool.

I’ve always been fond of the Old Testament account where the prophet Samuel is at Jesse’s place trying to find the right son to anoint as the next king of Israel. Like the rest of us, Samuel thought a king should have a certain “look” about him. “…Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, ’Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ’Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:6,7 NLT). (The heart is the center of our inner life, the place of thinking, feeling, and choosing.)

The outward appearance of a believer is all anyone can literally see. So we need to remember that our everyday born-again lifestyle needs to correspond with our born-again  heart that obeys God and loves others. It’s good protocol to do a self-checkup on our heart quite often. What kind of facial expressions do we carry around? Have you ever had someone ask, “Why are you looking at me like that?” I have, and it wasn‘t a compliment either. The Bible describes our facial expressions as our countenance. What’s in the heart will show up on the face. “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance…” (Proverbs 15:13 NKJV). And after Cain murdered his brother, “So the Lord said to Cain, ’Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?’” (Genesis 4:6 NKJV). Either way, your face will surely show it.

Just as Jesus taught His followers 2,000 years ago, we find that it’s still all about the heart. “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” (Luke 6:45 NLT). At that time, the religious leaders were only concerned with outward appearances and were completely neglecting inward purity, which was/is a big “No No” to Jesus. He spoke to them bluntly, “…You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy — full of greed and self-indulgence! …First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too” (Matthew 23:25 NLT).

The Key: Next time you wash the dishes, do your part and examine your heart.

Last Sunday, Randy, a pastor at the church Dave and I attended in Florida, stunned the congregation when he walked onto the stage with his arm in a sling.  He explained that the previous Sunday he had left the third church service early to go golfing.  His admission was met with laughter when he announced, “I know what you all are thinking.  Surely this couldn’t be part of God’s plan.”  He continued, saying that this was the first time he ever had exited church before dismissal and that he had a lot of guilt when he did…but not enough to miss his golf outing.

I admit, my first thought was that his priorities were out of whack and God had taught him a lesson the hard, painful way. He now would share that lesson with us and explain that as one of the pastors, his first obligation was to his church and he had erred in choosing sports over spiritual matters.

Not even close.

Randy was on the second hole when he heard two youngsters screaming for help.  He left his tee spot, followed the cries and was shocked to find the brothers drowning.  Somehow, in the middle of the rescue, he tore his rotator cuff.  Thus, the sling.

No longer were we congregants laughing or tsk-tsking his decision.  Actually, we gasped.  Suddenly, it became apparent that God had orchestrated Randy’s first-ever, early church departure in order to save two young boys’ lives.

Someone once said, “Nothing is easier than faultfinding: no talent, no self-denial, no brains, and no character are required to set up in the judging business.” So why is that our default button?  Why do we act in an ungenerous manner and make quick interpretations of a person’s motives? Jesus himself spoke about this behavior: Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  (Luke 6:37a)

Obviously, Jesus is not ruling out the legitimate place of judging others.  Judges must render verdicts in courts of law, elders must decide discipline cases in the church, managers must judge their employees’ performance, teachers must assess their students, etc. A few verses later, Jesus calls his disciples to judge people by their fruit (6:43-45). There are times when judging is appropriate.                                                                                                                                                            What is not appropriate is when our judgment is unwarranted or improper or haughty.  As commentator Darrell Bock says, “The idea is rather a judgmental and censorious perspective toward others that holds them down in guilt and never seeks to encourage them toward God. What is commanded is an attitude that is hesitant to condemn and quick to forgive. What is prohibited is an arrogance that reacts with hostility to the worldly and morally lax, viewing such people as beyond God’s reach.”

Dear Readers, we have to be careful and check our motives. When you first read my opening paragraph, did you not think—like I did—that God was teaching Randy a lesson?  That he got what he deserved?  Or were you happy that he had managed to find some time to relax and hang with friends?  Your answer—and mine—to that question determines the merciful (or merciless) attitude of our hearts.

To me, it seems that Randy’s lesson was a profound one from which we can learn much: God can show up anywhere He is needed…even on a golf course.

Keys to the Kingdom By Carolyn Tucker

3 Ps in a Pod

One morning I was thinking about God’s goodness and a description for the Word of God came to me as precious, priceless, and powerful — three Ps.

My late husband and I collected Bibles in different translations and it’s been a personal spiritual blessing to read through a different translation every year. Reading, believing and studying the written Word of God will illuminate wrong mindsets, change your heart, and strengthen your walk with Christ. The Bible is a love letter of great value to have and to hold all the days of your life. I have the letters my parents wrote to each other during World War II. They married in 1943 and in 1944 Dad was shipped out to the front lines in Germany. I’m sure  Mom didn’t procrastinate in opening his letters that made their way across the Atlantic Ocean. Why? Because they were from the one she loved and longed for.

God explains why believers should pay attention and listen carefully to His Words. “My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to My words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body” (Proverbs 4:20 NLT). The entire body would include physical, psychological, and spiritual healing. God has made provision for everything we need in order to live an abundant, joy-filled, and peaceful life on planet earth.

When something is precious it is of great value, beloved, and dear. We often apply the word “precious” to the most sought-after gemstones such as the diamond, ruby, emerald, and sapphire. A lifestyle based on the Word of God should be a sought-after necessity for a believer. “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6 NLT). With all of my being, I purpose to be a lifetime seeker.

When something is priceless it is so treasured and irreplaceable that its value and worth cannot be determined. We can apply the word “priceless” to our loved ones. And in God’s Kingdom, His Word is irreplaceable. If we combined all the books in the world and weighed them against the Bible, the scales would never balance out. What God says trumps everything that selfish humanistic mankind dreams up from pride. “You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right“   (2 Timothy 3:15,16 NLT). You’ll never go wrong by doin’ what’s right.

When something is powerful, it is strong and mighty. My daughter’s favorite TV series was Home Improvement where Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor modified machines and cars  for more power. I’ve used wimpy hair dryers and powerful hair dryers, and I prefer powerful because it gets the job done faster. “For the Word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the One to whom we are accountable” (Hebrews 4:12,13 NLT).

The Key: Don’t neglect to read those love letters hidden in the P pod from God.

The unmistakable trend toward urbanization of American spells bad news economically for those of us who live in rural areas.  It means increased government spending in larger municipalities, increased state and federal representation by urban areas in our capitals, and more of our tax dollars being exported to benefit our big city brothers and sisters.  Just how strong is this trend?  Let us take a look at some of the numbers relative to our 3,140 counties in the last 120 years:

(*) numbers in millions

The American trend toward urbanization has been going on since 1941, but has accelerated in the latter half of the 20^th Century and the first two decades of the 21^st.  For the first time since the number of states reached 50, rural America experienced a net loss of population between census years.  Column space does not allow me to get into the numbers, but the loss is more acute in the farm belt as compared to rural counties in energy sectors such as North Dakota and Pennsylvania.

Besides shuttered stores and deteriorating homes and infrastructure, the biggest threat to rural America is the increased taxation for those of us left behind.  Generally, local governments have not reduced in size as a result of the population loss, and costs have increased.  The highest mill levies in Kansas are in rural counties, including Bourbon.  We have held the line in recent years, but decades of gradual increases have taken their toll on us.  Urban counties can manage their mill levy much easier because of population increases and healthy jumps in total assessed valuation.

What is there to do?  We have to play both offense and defense.  We have to continue to work to fix problems that inhibit our growth and contribute to those wanting to move away, especially our high school graduates.  We have to dedicate ourselves to economic development, grant writing, and tourism.  With our time, talent and treasure, we have to invest in our not-for-profits who suport our most vulnerable and improve our culture.  We have to get behind our schools, even if we do not have school-aged children, and work to make them the best that we can muster.

How do we play defense?  That is the subject for next week’s column.

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.