Keys to the Kingdom By Carolyn Tucker

Dionne Warwick received her first Grammy Award in 1968 for her mega-hit, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose.”

As a child growing up in East Orange, New Jersey, she began singing in church. As a teenager, Dionne and her sister started their own gospel group, The Gospelaires. Later known as the artist who “bridged the gap,” Warwick’s soulful blend of gospel, pop, and R&B cut across race, culture, and musical boundaries.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David co-wrote the song and pitched it to Dionne, who didn‘t want to sing it, because she thought it was a silly song. But the two gentlemen talked her into recording it and she later giggled all the way to the bank. Warwick earned the nickname, “Princess of Pop,” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” became one of her most-successful international hits. After 54 years, this clever song title, catchy tune, and upbeat tempo still plays in my internal jukebox.

Whether it’s about a career choice, who to marry, which church to attend, or which route to travel on vacation, people all over the globe are wanting to know which direction to go. There’s four choices: up, down, or one side or the other. God will always lead believers up (forward). “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isaiah 30:21 NIV). God’s powerful  direction for His children is always active, opening new ways forward.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites relied on a priest, judge, or prophet to give them directions. When Saul and his friend were searching for the lost donkeys and couldn‘t find them anywhere, the friend said, “…Behold, there is a man of God [Samuel] in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go” (1 Samuel 9:6 ESV).

New Testament believers have the Holy Spirit living inside us to tell us the way we should go. We’re never left to our own devices in decision making, but often we neglect to ask for direction. And sometimes when we receive it, we shrug off the Holy Spirit’s  promptings or ignore His  leadings — which is when we fall off the log. The Christian’s life is like walking on a log that’s laying across a creek. If we get distracted and lose our balance we’ll fall off. There’s also a chance of being knocked off by a tree branch we didn’t see, but the solution is still the same. Get back up on the log and go at it again. We’ll eventually get to the other side even though we’re wet and bruised up a bit.

Recently, I was watching someone sketch a property map and I was having trouble visualizing it. I asked an important question, “Which way is north?” With the answer, I was able to get my bearings and make sense of the map. The Holy Spirit is the believer’s internal compass who keeps us heading due north toward God. There’ll be a few bumpy detours, but keep following the map (Bible), listening to the GPS (Holy Spirit) and we’ll find our way up for every day. Jesus said, “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27 NLT). Jesus clearly states that He knows us, He speaks to us, and then it’s our responsibility to listen to Him and follow (obey) Him. Jesus also said, “Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God“ (John 8:47 NLT).

The Key: Following the Holy Spirit’s direction will never take you the wrong way.

I have reported in earlier columns that Bourbon County and the other 16 counties that make up SEK are all shrinking; every one of us lost population between the 2010 and the 2020 census.  The final count for Bourbon County was an 813 person drop from 15,173 to 14,360, a 5.4% decrease.  Another way to think about it is that we lose about 81 people a year.

Who are these people?  Are we losing the rich or the poor, the young or the old, the employed or the unemployed?  These are important questions to answer, because those of us who want to stay are faced with an ever increasing tax burden, especially if those leaving are wage earners, property owners and those with a higher income.  Let’s take a look at what the numbers say:

The good news is that we are holding our own on percentage of young people, and the number of impoverished residents of our county declined significantly in the last 10 years; let’s hope they earned their way past the poverty line rather than moving away.  The trend that hurts is the drop in the number of working age adults, which is almost exactly the net number that moved away.  Yes, some of those people stayed here and account for much of the increase in the over 64 population (present company included), but either way, it means less wages earners paying taxes in Bourbon County.

How do these trends compare with the four counties around us?  I reported last week that we are the county with the lowest percentage of working age adults and the highest in average income.  Looking at 2019 poverty statistics, four of the five counties experienced declining poverty; Crawford was the exception with a slight increase.  Linn County has the lowest poverty rate by a wide margin at 12.0%; we are a distant second.  All five of the counties considered have a higher poverty rate than the State of Kansas as a whole.

Who cares about this?  Governments and businesses need this data for planning.  Site selectors from corporations considering another location find this information invaluable.  These are numbers that heavily influence decision-makers and have a large say in our future prosperity.

In the short run, schools need to plan for declining enrollment.  Governments need to consider that there are fewer taxpayers in their jurisdiction when they consider levies and spending.  Strategies need to be considered on a comprehensive basis as to how to reverse these trends.  Most importantly, those strategies need to be formulated and executed across jurisdictional lines.  Now is not the time for emotional parochialism.

We have many positives we can leverage.  We need to play economic development offense and administrative cost defense.  Let’s decide to put aside our petty differences and work together on solutions.

“You’re in our seats,” she said, not kindly.

She thought that Dave and I were sneaking into the nicer section at a minor league baseball game in Iowa, taking the more expensive seats that were rightfully hers.

She was right.

But it wasn’t completely our fault.  Our son coaches for the team, so he left us two passes for our tickets.  We were there last year and knew that family seats were behind home plate.  As we headed that direction, Dave looked at our tickets. The word “Bleacher” was stamped on the side.  Surely there was a mistake.  The bleachers are not regular seats.  They are cheap, crowded, aluminum platforms in the outfield.

We nabbed two empty seats in the handicapped section just before the rightful occupants asked us to move.  I texted Andy’s wife.  The same had happened to her, she said, and we were to “find the usher with the long hair” behind home plate; he would get us seats.  He advised that we sit a couple of seats away from the scouts in that section.  However, this night was “fireworks’ night, so it’s a sold-out crowd, so you might have to keep moving around.”

So not good!

Andy texted from the dugout that someone from upper management was in the scouts’ section and was excited to see Dave who had coached him years ago.  Soon they were engrossed in conversation.  I found an empty seat and prayed that I would not be publicly embarrassed by being told to move again.

Silly me.  No sooner did a family boot Dave from his seat than he joined me, and we had the same fate… not once, not twice, but three times.

For a little background, I get sick to my stomach when I inconvenience someone.  If an item doesn’t ring up at the checkout stand and people behind me are waiting.  If I’m two minutes late.  If I don’t press on the gas the second the light changes to green.  So, the thought of people having to deal with me taking their seats puts me in orbit.

Crowds are always sympathetic to the rightful seat occupants who have to kick out some freeloaders—us!—who are too cheap to pay for the better seats.

I wanted to scream, “My son is a hitting coach for this team, and there’s been a mistake,” but I knew that Dave would head for the parking lot if I did. So, we slinked out of the seats with some feeble apology.

By now, the aluminum seats were crammed, so we tried the indoor restaurant. That took a special ticket.  Maybe we could get a hotdog and stand by the dumpster and watch the game.

Bad idea.  The food line was 50-60 fans long. We headed to the parking lot.

Andy met us after the game.  “Dad,” he started, “because of your years in baseball, don’t you have a card that gives you VIP status at any ballpark in the country?”  Dave’s answer stunned me.  “I left it at home.” SAY WHAT?

All this time, we could have had the best seats in the house—perhaps even a suite—and Dave forgot to bring his benefit’s card?  Dave had earned that perk but didn’t use it.  The spiritual application should not go unnoticed.

In John 10:10b, Jesus promises something extraordinary: I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. Life to the full offers every awesome thing imaginable: joy, forgiveness, restoration, peace, healing–whatever we need.

If we are Christians, we are card-carrying members of God’s elite club. No one can kick us out.  So, why don’t we understand what has been offered us? Why don’t we claim what is rightfully ours?

God has offered us a suite.  Think about that the next time you are tempted to settle for the bleachers.

Keys to the Kingdom By Carolyn Tucker

My sweet and tender-hearted big brother slipped away from all those who loved him on June 17, 2022.

Always thinking and planning ahead, Randy made sure he and his sweetheart Corda made it to their 55^th wedding anniversary the day before.

When I was two years old, I couldn’t talk plain, so when I wanted a drink, I would go to my brother  and say, “Nanny dink.” There was a ten-year difference in our ages and I remember asking my Dad in later years, “Why in the world did you and Mom have us so far apart?” Without missing a beat, his pithy answer was, “We didn’t want you two to fight.” Well, their scheme worked! We never had a fight, misunderstanding, or disagreement in all my 64 years.

However, he did have a mischievous streak because he once convinced me to taste dirt. I did it because I was little and stupid…and he knew it!

During our youngest years growing up together in California, he was an excellent entertainer. We had twin beds and he would make a bridge with his body between the beds and I would crawl across on his back from one bed to the other. Then when he was 15 years of age, we moved back to our folks’ roots (Stockton, Missouri) so Randy wouldn’t marry some California girl and get stuck out there. I thought that was really wise on my folks’ part and it worked out great for all of us. I got to go on some of Randy and Corda’s dates and that was really fun and made me feel special. Just seven-years old, I had no idea I wasn‘t supposed to sit in the middle of the lovebirds. But I got by with it because I was Randy’s little sister.

Through the years, I watched my brother devote his life to becoming a man that God could use to accomplish His will. Randy was a man after God’s own heart. He listened to the gentle whispers of God’s voice and then he simply obeyed. Many years ago, he had a super-nice bicycle that he enjoyed very much, but he gave it away to someone who needed it. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John 3:17 NIV).

I watched my brother obey the vision and direction God gave him in 1993. Jailhouse Rock Ministries ships Bibles and Christian literature to jails and prisons across the entire State of Missouri. He had a heart for helping those who could not help themselves. “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself.“ (Hebrews 13:3 NLT). I now pray, “Heavenly Father, let the man (whom You have chosen) hear and obey Your voice. I believe he is waiting in the wings right now, ready to stand in the gap for JHR.“

Just five days before Randy met Jesus face to face, he selflessly stood at the pulpit in Pittsburg, Missouri and delivered one of his most-anointed messages ever. I suspect he knew it was the last time, so God’s Spirit came down and helped him preach a home run. “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes — the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith“ (Romans 1:16,17 NLT).

My brother loved hard, prayed hard, and was passionate about sharing the uncompromised Word of God. He loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He stood with his feet on the Rock, defended the faith, and showed mercy to those who were going down for the last time. He ran hard and finished his race as a good and faithful servant of Jesus Christ.

The Key: Even though he was small in stature, Randy Hayward was a giant of a man.

The personal income of Bourbon County residents is of keen importance to all of us.  It determines the relative success of most of our businesses around town and sets limits on prices of real estate and the taxes that can be collected.  The Kansas Statistical Abstract of 2020 accumulates personal income by county and by category.  Here are some interesting observations from the data:

• At the 2020 census, 14,360 people lived in Bourbon County, a 5.36% drop from the last census. Of that number, approximately 8,200 of us are in the working age category of 19 to 64 years old.
• Total personal income for Bourbon County in 2019 was approximately $521.4 million. That breaks down to $63.6 thousand per working age adult and $36.3 thousand for every man, woman and child.
• Transfer payments (welfare, SNAP, grants and other government funding) totaled $149.4 million in 2019.
• Social Security payments were right at $48 million in 2019, which equals about $19.2 thousand per person who is 65 and over. Of course, some recipients receive benefits before age 65, some delay enrollment.
• Wages and supplemental payments, such as bonuses, commissions, etc., totaled $323.8 million which is about $39.6 thousand per working age adult.

How do we compare to other counties in Kansas?  Here is a sampling from 2019; all dollar numbers in thousands:

(1) All income earned, excluding government payments.

Two major points about Bourbon County: 1) Our earned personal income compared to working age adults is the best in the five county area. 2) Our percentage of working age adults compare to total population is last in the five county area at 57.1%. We have a higher than usual population under age 18 and older than 64.  The highest percentage of working population in the five county area is Crawford at 63.7%.  This is statistical proof that compensation is better in Bourbon County, which is why upwards of 2,800 workers commute to our county from other jurisdictions.  When it comes to employment, we are the county of choice in the area.

Bourbon County has a lot to offer, and some problems to tackle.  We at Bourbon County REDI are working to enhance and promote our strengths and to create coalitions to solve problems.  We believe in the future of our county.

In a recent Instagram post, I wrote this: “Heroes do not wear capes.” We all know that. Recently, I watched a newscast which aired our Speaker of the House making a guest appearance on “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” and told the drag queens they “inspired” her. “My honor to be here to say to all of you, how proud we all are of you. Thank you for the joy and beauty you bring to the world,” she said.  “Your freedom of expression of yourselves in drag is what America is all about.”   The drag queens beamed.  I groaned.

As a college assignment, my granddaughter recently was asked to write an essay about the person who most inspired her.  She wrote about a woman she met on a missionary trip who taught her the importance of loving others…not in a fake, self-serving way but in the same way Jesus loved.  One person inspired by freedom of expression, another by loving Jesus.

Who inspires you?

The movie “Maverick” is a blockbuster hit.  Tom Cruise returns to lead a group of Top Gun specialists in a heroic, edge-of-your-seat-type spectacular.  Who of us can watch that without feeling an enormous sense of pride in the U.S. military, not only for their phenomenal piloting skills but also for the design and capabilities of the planes they fly?

The Fourth of July will be celebrated this weekend.  Many of us will have family get togethers, roast hot dogs and shoot fireworks. For that day, we might even play patriotic songs on our iPhones, and when we hear Lee Greenwood’s “I’m Proud to be an American,” we will sing along.  Yet, we who never served in the military cannot begin to understand just what heroes our soldiers are.

Adam and Jenn, my son and daughter-in-law, regularly host PTSD veterans at their ranch.  These heroes come to heal, to team with others who have suffered as they have, and to share their experiences with like-minded veterans.  Once recovered (as much as humanly possible), some return to mentor the newbies who come for the first time.  Statistics are alarming for those who are not helped.  According to U.S.O. reports,     “In 2021, research found that 30,177 active duty personnel and veterans who served in the military after 9/11 have died by suicide – compared to the 7,057 service members killed in combat in those same 20 years.”

This week, Adam and a team of heroes are in Ukraine.  Yesterday, our family received a rare text from him, describing his mission.  A friend in Moldova had called him, asking if his team could bring aid to a church in Ukraine accessible by only two bridges.  One had been blown up two months ago, but the second, hit by a missile a few days previous, was still passable.  The church where they delivered the goods had a pastor who had acted on faith and built a large church, praying that people would come.

Adam wrote, “His first service in the new church was Feb. 20.  Russia invaded on the 24^th.  His church now has 1500-2000 who attend daily, evening services…we (E3 Foundation) had bought seven tons of food for his church.  Shortly after buying it, I got a random text from a friend in the states who wanted to make a donation to E3 for just shy of the amount we just spent.”  He ended with this: “God continues to open doors and we continue to see His light overpower the darkness here!”

Let’s remember that the reason we (including drag queens) have the “freedom of expression” to celebrate the 4^th of July has nothing to do with us.  It is because of the eternal Hero making that possible by blessing those who fight for that right.

We should all remember that this Independence Day!

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Many years ago, I was visiting with a neighbor on her property and she was explaining the layout of her front-yard landscaping. She said, “The ground is so rocky that we simply planted the trees where we could dig a hole, so that’s why there’s no rhyme or reason to them.” Since she mentioned this, I suspect she was a little disappointed with the final outcome. Everybody has 20/20 hindsight. Any decisions we make, or neglect to make, today will always affect the future sooner or later.

Believers really need to live our lives on purpose and not helter skelter. We can’t just wing it and hope everything turns out OK; we have to be intentional. Flying by the seat of your pants  usually means you’ve got a hole in them and have lost your cell phone, wallet, key, etc. Maybe you’re a squared-away person and write a to-do list every morning and meet all your goals by supper. If so, that’s great and you deserve a pat on the back. I sure hope God shows up somewhere on that list.

When you were created in your mother’s womb, God wasn’t just haphazardly throwing a bunch of stuff together in some wild and crazy experiment. You were fearfully and wonderfully made with a purpose! Your Creator had a rhyme and reason to your layout. As Christ followers, we were designed to bear good fruit. So we must stay very close to the Master Gardener so He can prune us in order for us to grow strong in Him.

When we live for God with a purposeful heart, one of our main objectives is to bear fruit. “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things” (Galatians 5:22,23 NLT). Developing the fruit of the spirit never goes out of style and will continue as long as we belong to Christ Jesus. “When you produce much fruit, you are My true disciples. This brings great glory to My Father” (John 15:8 NLT).

We are to constantly abide in Jesus, so we must make our personal relationship with Him our #1 priority. The following quote was written in one of my journals: “If we don’t make time for friends, we won’t have any.“ If we aren’t diligent about making time for Jesus, we won’t have any fruit. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned“ (John 15:5,6 NLT). Basically, if we choose to live an unproductive self-absorbed life, we’ll end up in a worthless stick pile because we‘ve disconnected from the life-giving Vine.

Jesus didn’t come to give us religion, He came to give us a genuine personal love relationship with the Father through Him. “So you must remain in life-union with Me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to Mine” (John 15:4 TPT).

The Key: Make sure your relationship with God has a daily rhyme and reason, and  prepare to be pruned.

It seems to be a pattern in our culture to chip away at personal freedoms in order to protect people from themselves.  We heard about an example of this in New York City when the mayor at the time pushed through an ordinance banning the sale of drinks larger than 16ozs; the pushback was so intense that the law was repealed in short order.  The attitude seems to be that we are wiser and better educated than you and we have drawn some firm conclusions on how you should conduct your life; freedom and civil debate are stifled.

Do you remember learning that there are nine planets, sometimes using a clever sentence to remember them in order?  Pluto was recently demoted from the ranks, lowering the number in our solar system to eight. Thankfully, none of us lived in the 18^th Century when bloodletting was a common practice and the probable cause of death of our first President.  If science closed off research and free debate on the topics, we would still be under these misimpressions.

Free debate must be encouraged to get to the truth.

Why do I believe this to be so important?  On a macro level, the American experiment in freedom has delivered the most powerful, the most economically successful nation in human history.  Yes, those truths are diminished somewhat by the poor choices free people make; slavery is a glaring example.  We mourn the consequences of poor choices people make with the privilege of Constitutional freedom, but the free expression of ideas eventually led us to the right conclusions.

This process of reevaluation often plays out on the local level, including Bourbon County.  When people use whatever means possible to silence those with whom they disagree, we all lose.  When we try to shout down local candidates we don’t like because of personal reasons, or they are not part of our particular “faction,” we all miss out on the free expression of ideas and appropriate debate.  Instead, we write and share social media posts with trivial negativity and half-truths about our fellow citizens.  We use whatever personal leverage we might have to discredit or discourage opponents instead of engaging them in healthy discourse.

What Bourbon County needs more than anything is a free people in an earnest quest for truth to reestablish the trust we are now missing, to our great detriment.  Our public forums and debates must keep the quest for truth through the free expression of ideas at the center.  Otherwise, we will not arrive at solutions that represent our best.

Before you attack, demean, pick apart and generally criticize someone with whom you disagree, examine your motives and the general impact it will have on the culture and wellbeing of our community.  Certainly, politely call out those who are stifling open discourse through half-truths and nit-picky acts of disrespect. Let us depend upon the honest exchange of ideas through free and civil discourse in order to arrive at the best solutions for Bourbon County.  Let us reestablish trust through respecting one another’s freedoms.

When I taught high school speech, students wrote a eulogy about someone/thing no longer in their life.  Many were funny anecdotes about losing their baby teeth or learning that Santa Claus is not real.  But some were tragic, and not a few tears flowed as students told about their fathers’ incarceration or disappearance or abuse.

This past weekend we celebrated fathers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18.4 million children, one in four, live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. My father died when I was eight-months old, so all I knew of him were the wonderful things my mother shared. I always wondered what it would be like to be someone’s little princess or to attend the father/daughter breakfast or to have my noggin thumped when I sassed.

Recently, when I asked on Facebook for examples of people who had overcome rejection, a dear friend contacted me to share of her dad’s inability to love.  Only when she was an adult and learned that her father’s father had never modeled love did she start to understand and forgive.

We all know fathers who are present in their children’s lives, those who never miss a Little League practice or a soccer game or a Sunday football game, but how many fail to impart spiritual knowledge into their kids, read the Bible to them, take them to church, and most importantly, pray unceasingly for them?  They are not intentional in modeling a faith-filled experience to their impressionable youngsters.  Let’s face it, fatherhood is demanding business, and merely knowing God does not make a good father.

In the Old Testament, two of the most tragic stories deal with godly men who were terrible fathers.  Eli, the high priest who was hand-picked by Samuel’s mother to raise her son into manhood, fathered rebellious sons who, instead of following in Eli’s footsteps, dishonored God.  Samuel grew into a great prophet for Israel while Eli’s sons died in a battle because of their sins.

Even King David, one of the bravest leaders in Israel’s history, lacked parenting skills. His eldest son, Amnon, raped his half-sister and was later killed by his brother Absalom who set out to sabotage David’s kingdom.  Both Eli and David knew of their sons’ shenanigans but failed to train or discipline them.

No father—except for God—is sinless.  I hope you have a father who tries to do right, who loves you unconditionally, who sacrifices for you and who loves Jesus. I hope you have forgiven him for not being perfect. (“Let ye without sin pass the first stone.”)

The great early American spokesman, Patrick Henry, wrote in his will, “I have disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is Christ. If they have Him and if I had not given them one dollar, they would be rich. And if they have not Him, and I had given them the whole world, they would be poor.”

Dads, it’s never too late.  Be intentional in giving your children the Riches they deserve.