Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

I’ve eaten biscuits with chicken gravy, sausage gravy, quail gravy, bacon gravy, squirrel gravy, and chocolate gravy. My Mom was one of the best gravy makers in Cedar County. Gravy is basically a food group all by itself. Do you know some people won’t even eat certain food without gravy on it? As a new bride, one of the first things I learned was that my husband wouldn’t eat mashed potatoes without gravy. It’s like there was a hidden gravy clause in our marriage vows. I hadn’t the foggiest idea how important gravy was to him when we got married! So, in order to save our marriage, I quickly learned from Betty Crocker how to make gravy.

“Ain’t Gonna Give Up on God” was written by Chaz Bosarge and Phil Johnson; pianist/vocalist Gordon Mote recorded it. From start to finish, this song really butters my biscuit. Here we go: “Been busted and bruised, battered and torn. Walked through the desert weary and worn. I’ve had me some biscuits without any gravy. But in every situation the hand of God fed me. So I ain’t gonna give up, ain’t gonna give up on God.”

I’m gonna stick with God and live for Him all the days of my life. The Lord says, “Don’t be afraid…I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up — the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, your Savior…” (Isaiah 43:1-3 TLB). God will not forget to help you. He’ll give you hidden treasures in the darkest night. And even when you don’t see it, God is working above the storm clouds.

We tend to be in a hurry when we ask for God’s help. But He doesn’t work on the same timetable as we do. The Bible says a thousand years and a day are the same in heaven. I can’t wrap my head around that, so I just accept it as truth and keep stirring the gravy. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8,9 NLT). It’s comforting to know God’s thoughts and ways aren’t like mine. It would be hard to place my faith, hope, and trust in someone as goofy as me.

Our trust and confidence in God builds up over time and experience. Believers are to hang in there and not give up or get tired of waiting on God to act. He is our only true and trusted source. “…For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for His help. …He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries” (Isaiah 30:18,19 NLT). So we’re blessed when we wait in faith — I like that!

Looks to me like it’s a win-win whether we’re waiting or receiving our full-blown request. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31 KJV). Don’t believe a word the devil whispers when he says you’ll never have gravy on your biscuits again.

The Key: When you’re lookin’ up just to see bottom, God’ll pour gravy on your biscuits.

The growth of government regulations has proceeded at a vigorous pace over the last several decades, and is accelerating.

From 1970 to 2017, the number of words in the Code of Federal Regulations nearly tripled from 35 million to over 103 million, according to a 2019 article published on Forbes.com, authored by Adam A. Millsap.

His study showed that a 10% increase in regulation increases consumer prices by 1%.

This excess hurts all of us, but the burden falls disproportionately on the poor and rural Americans.

Estimates are that the national poverty rate is 2.5% higher because of government regulations.

For example, a 2013 article on Meatonomics.com, written by David Simon, noted that a Big Mac cost a consumer $4.56 that year.

The price includes the costs that McDonald’s incurs to comply with laws enforced by the EPA, OSHA, EEOC, USDA, IRS, and FDA, just to name a few.

The author points out that the price tag to produce the sandwich costs the consumer even more in the form of additional taxes required to pay for government expenses such as animal cruelty enforcement, environmental clean-up of farms, meat and dairy subsidies, and health care costs borne by the government due to unhealthy eating.

The final tab for you and me? $12.00 per Big Mac, including the cost of the sandwich and the taxes you have paid for the privilege.

Another example, my bank employer is a Kansas public company with over $1 billion in assets managed. We are required to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed in 2002 in response to the Enron scandal which requires the generation of a substantial number of internal reports. The law is extremely complex and the penalties for non-compliance are substantial; so much so, we are required to undergo an independent audit just to make sure we are in compliance with this one law. The internal cost to comply is hard to discern, but we do know that we spend $220,000 annually on the external audit alone.

The result of this additional cost of regulation requires a business to grow revenue or watch profits go away. In banking, the number of charters has gone down 73% since 1970, and the shrinkage has occurred disproportionately in rural counties. Why is Western Insurance gone? The primary culprit is the cost of increased regulation that required consolidation in the industry.

Some amount of regulation is necessary for public safety, but we have created a huge bureaucracy whose incentive is to advocate for more laws to enforce in order to perpetuate their own existence.

Politicians love the chance to make their mark on what they perceive as the public good.

Case in point is the proposed law to require banks to provide confidential financial information to the IRS on their customers on a regular basis. Can we trust the government to do the right thing with this information and protect its confidentiality?

For the sake of the poor and rural America, we have to hold our politicians accountable to defeating this hidden enemy of rural America by decreasing regulations.

My friend, Carol, scanning her items in an Indiana Walmart, noticed a curious behavior from the couple buying groceries next to her.

Since the store’s attendant was texting and not paying attention to the customers, the man and woman used this as an opportunity to scam the Supercenter. The woman twisted each item so that the code faced away from the electronic reader. She pretended to swipe but made sure the machine was given no opportunity to read and record her “purchases.”

Her partner-in-crime husband had perfected the “Beep” sound made when a purchased item was logged onto the screen and mimicked it with faultless pitch and timing.

Carol stood amazed at how these thieves operated and didn’t seem bothered that we all pay higher prices because of shoplifters like them.

We could only guess what would happen if the employee at the exit asked for their receipt.

My reaction would not have been my friend’s. Either I would tell the pilfering pair that I was going to rat them out if they didn’t pay for the groceries, or I would quietly alert the texting employee to what I had witnessed

. Carol did neither, fearing the thieves would realize that she was the stool pigeon and shoot her in the parking lot. (I have some over-reactive friends.)

More alarming, my friend said she actually was pretty impressed with the talent of the couple. Say WHAT?

It’s never easy to chastise someone, but doing nothing accomplishes…well, nothing.

I appreciate the story in the Old Testament following King David’s arranged murder of his lover’s husband.

The clever prophet Nathan was sent by the Lord to chastise David. He said, “There were two men in a certain city. One was rich, and the other was poor.  The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cows, but the poor man had only one little female lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up in his home with his children. She would eat his food and drink from his cup. She rested in his arms and was like a daughter.  “Now, a visitor came to the rich man. The rich man thought it would be a pity to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler. So, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared her for the traveler.”

David became livid, claiming that the rich man deserved to die and must pay back four times the price of the lamb. Nathan then exclaims that David is that man and life would not go well for him because of his sin.

The prophet modeled Proverbs 17:27: A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered.

Most of the time, I work towards that goal. Sometimes, not so much. I don’t mean to be heartless, but I’ve had it with robbers who believe they are entitled to improve their lives by taking from others.

We’ve all watched phone videos of crooks walking—or riding their bikes— out of stores with their stolen goods in hand. My husband fears that this will happen when I am nearby, and he will be forced to defend me as I show neither restraint nor even-temperedness when I tackle…and scream…and grab the thieves’ wares.

And no, this does not make me over-reactive like Carol.

It doesn’t.

Sometimes we need to be brave because, let’s face it, our entire life is lived on a witness stand. God invites us to give compelling testimony to what we have seen and heard about our faith. 

Wimping out is not an option. Carol needs to know that.

Maybe Walmart is a good place to start practicing.

My wife and I are relatively new to Bourbon County, and we love it here as it reminds us of the small towns in which we were reared. Our reception by Bourbon County was relatively warm compared to the cold shoulder we received for five years in a nearby SEK county. We have earnest business and faith communities here.

Bourbon County has a significant amount of practice in this regard, as we welcome hundreds of newcomers to our county every year in the form of college students. Additionally, we are a tourist destination and host many people here for short visits. These individuals come from a variety of cultural and racial backgrounds. Even as far back as the Civil War, we welcomed an African-American military unit to the fort. Hospitality is a natural part of our culture.

It is exciting to me that we have that in our social DNA because we need new people who will be productive citizens in Bourbon County. Statistics show that Kansas is far less diverse than the rest of our Great Nation, and Bourbon County is even less so. We have some room to grow in this regard.

I am not advocating for open borders. Understanding who is entering a country is a critical part of any nation’s sovereignty; however, we need to take a strong look at altering our legal immigration system to attract more workers who lack economic opportunity where they currently live. Congress should put a program together to allow a greater number of potential immigrants to fill out the proper paperwork, undergo a background check, and wait (hopefully not too long) in line. This process needs to be as efficient as possible.

I know that some do not want any foreigners in their fields of vision. Many Americans opposed the influx of Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, Asians, etc., over the years. I wonder how the Protestant-dominated counties of Crawford and Cherokee reacted when the Italian Catholics migrated to Kansas to work in the mines. All of these waves of immigrants throughout our Nation’s history assimilated and prospered. We learned to live with them, and they with us.

Why is immigration critical for rural America? We need workers. Birth rates have fallen below replacement rates, and we are losing Baby Boomers rapidly. Our high school graduates are heading to colleges or jobs in big cities. Great jobs are going unfilled in Bourbon County.

Let’s see what we can do about supporting and welcoming newcomers and immigrants to our area. Let’s help them become part of our communities, teaching them our language, sharing our way of life, and learning about theirs. Let’s ensure that Bourbon County continues to thrive and, hopefully, grow again.

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches…” Jeremiah 9:23

Dave and I were standing in line to board our flight when a fellow passenger noticed Dave’s name on his backpack label. Not quietly, he yelled—and I mean YELLED— “You aren’t the Dave LaRoche who pitched for the Indians, are you?” This fan needed no bull horn. Caught off guard, my husband nodded. The over-excited man turned to his friend standing a good 10-feet away. “Jim, you aren’t going to believe this. This is Dave LaRoche!!! Come on over and meet him.”

I turned my back and struck up a conversation with the young couple in front of me who had pivoted to see what the commotion was all about. “So, how about those Chiefs!” I said. They, like many in line, were far too young to have heard of Dave.

This was more of an annoyance than a reason to ask for an autograph. Dave, now embarrassed, answered quietly the questions of the man with the 60-foot voice. “Who was the best pitcher you ever saw?” “When did you retire?” “Who was the toughest hitter you faced?”

The security line could not move fast enough. One of my husband’s greatest strengths is his humility, a quality he instilled in all of our children.

No home run was ever hit when our kids raised their fists as they ran around the bases. None of them pumped their arms in order to get the fans to clap louder for them. The most acknowledgement I ever saw from them was a tip of their baseball cap following a standing ovation for something they did on the field.

As Dave always said, “Act like you’ve done this before, not like it’s a big deal.”

This past Sunday, All-Pro NFL player and game commentator, Rodney Harrison, stood alongside three other celebrity analysts, Harrison the only one not holding his own umbrella during the pre-game rainfall. Responses were not kind, speculating whose hand clutched Harrison’s umbrella and questioning why he was too cool to hold his own.

Let’s face it. Self-exaltation impresses no one, yet social media offers a platform to boast about our strengths or accomplishments.

Recently, a friend shared a series of pictures a mutual acquaintance posted on Facebook, each an elegant dinner she had prepared for her husband. Crab legs. Kobe beef. Escargot. Every time the couple goes to a classy restaurant, a picture of the meal is shared. But what does that do for those who will never be able to afford such flair? (How can my Taco Bell super taco compare?)

Saint Augustine had great advice: “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”

The inventor Samuel Morse once was asked if he ever encountered situations where he didn’t know what to do. Morse responded, “More than once, and whenever I could not see my way clearly, I knelt down and prayed to God for light and understanding.” Morse felt undeserving for the many honors received from his invention of the telegraph. “I have made a valuable application of electricity not because I was superior to other men but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone and He was pleased to reveal it to me.”

So, let’s finish where we started. Verse 24 of Jeremiah 9 completes the sentence: “…but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

Which is precisely why I keep my super taco photo to myself.

Keys to the Kingdom by Carolyn Tucker

My daughter was engaged for a year before her marriage in 2009, so we had 12 months to have fun planning and shopping for the wedding. Seriously, during that year everything was stress-free and very pleasant for me. But the actual day of the wedding was a different story just because of nerves. When I got home, I felt like I’d been dragged through a knothole backwards. Knotholes come in all different shapes and sizes. Believe me, there’s one out there with your name on it. If you live long enough, you’ll eventually have to deal with at least one. During those times, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NLT).

From personal experience, I need three types of rest: physical, spiritual, and emotional. When God says to come to Him and He will give you rest, that’s exactly what He means. God’s got what we need — He’s simply waiting for us to meet His conditions in order to receive the rest we require. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours (Mark 11:22-24 NLT). I’ve never needed to change the terrain, but Jesus is using a vivid word picture to teach believers that we must have great faith in order to slam the door on doubt and move our problems on out.

If I live an exhausted physical lifestyle because I’m running full throttle in the fast lane and not ever getting enough sleep or rest, God isn’t obligated to help me because I’m intentionally operating in stupid mode. But if we‘re tired because we’re the caregiver for aging parents, ill family members, etc., God will supply us with the energy and ability to do what needs to be done. “My grace is all you need, for My power is greatest when you are weak” (2 Corinthians 12:9 GNT).

If my spiritual well is dry, I can’t offer water to anyone that’s thirsty. Paul prayed for spiritual growth for the Ephesus believers, and it’s also for us. “I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 5:16-20 NLT).

Paul also wrote to the church in Philippi regarding emotional rest. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus“ (Philippians 4:6,7 NLT).

The Key: When your personalized knothole arrives, you need to be able to crawl through it and come out sunny-side up.

According to kansaspolicy.org, the population of Kansas has risen 11% since 1997; during the same period, the rate of inflation was 53% and the average county in Kansas raised property taxes by 180%. Bourbon County was right at the state average, while shrinking about 5.5%.

Here is how some of our neighboring counties fared since 1997:

County Tax Change Mill Change

Allen 321% 81%

Anderson 236% 59%

Bourbon 180% 53%

Crawford 147% 33%

Linn 223% 71%

Here are a few of the highest and lowest around the state:

Douglas 399% 88%

Harper 67% -6%

Lane -1% -42%

Mitchell 428% 119%

Rice 88% -14%

The new “Truth in Taxation” law that was signed by the governor in 2020 went into effect this year. In essence, the law says that government entities that rely upon real estate tax revenue must set a revenue-neutral mill levy every year, unless they hold a public hearing to inform voters. What this means is that when the total assessed valuation of a county goes up, the mill levy must be dropped in order to avoid collecting more taxes.

Do you think businesses consider these numbers when selecting their next location? Do potential new residents? Common sense would tell us, “Yes.”

Related to real estate taxes is the issue of delinquent taxes. The recent list of tardy property owners published in the local newspaper raised quite a stir. Statutes exist that set the rules as to when a jurisdiction can sell a property to collect the past due levies.

Unfortunately for small counties, the cost to follow legal procedures to foreclose upon and sell the properties in question can cost more than the total auction prices achieved.

Yes, the beginning of the process can awaken an owner into action and more taxes are collected. During the proceedings, property owners must pay their taxes plus penalties, or face losing their properties; however, we need to consider all the implications, including the foreclosure economics and the cost to own foreclosed property.

I would be much more interested in strong code enforcement that brings attention to problems before a building collapses and costs our government even more money.

Last point, some elected officials are of a mindset that small tax decreases will not be noticed by property owners and are a meaningless gesture. It is the same mentality that caused the continual tax increases in the first place that totaled over three times the rate of inflation.

We need to think about the long-term and the cumulative impact of mill levy changes. Let’s start a downward trend, no matter how small, and keep revenue increases at or below the rate of inflation.

We all agree that honesty is a noble quality, but do we practice it when it costs us something? Literally “costs” us something?

Dave and I last week were in the San Francisco area, visiting friends from Mazatlán, Joyce and Howard, who live on a golf course when not in Mexico.

Errant golf balls are commonly found in their back yard, but Joyce shared that one day when she returned from running errands, she found her guest bedroom’s French door to an outside patio shattered by such a hit. Joyce phoned her local country club to ask for help in finding who might have teed off that morning.

The club contacted those golfers, and within two days, one called her and admitted that he had hit a ball in that direction but had no idea when it went over her fence it broke a window. He showed up at her house, apologizing and leaving her a check for the $600 he owed.

My friend told of another time two years ago when she returned from Mazatlán to find a large hole in that same wooden fence. It appeared that a cart had done the extensive damage. Again, Joyce called the club to report the damage, but this time no one came forward. The club ended up repairing the hole.

Fast forward to last Friday when Howard and Dave were repairing the mesh fence that adds a few more feet of ball protection height to that fence. Two golfers came by and parked their carts near where the guys were working.

Howard struck up a conversation with one and told the story of the unresolved issue. “I know who did that,” said the golfer, pointing to his partner standing a few yards away. Immediately, the guilty man turned his back to Howard, jumped in his cart and skedaddled away. (We could only imagine the conversation between those two golfers when they met on the next hole. Oh my!)

In 2 Corinthians 8:21, Paul the apostle reminds readers of his intentional honesty: For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man. He writes further in Ephesians 4:25: Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

I picture the dishonest golfer waking the next morning, worrying he might be caught, and yes, my friend intends to call the club to ask for help in finding the blameworthy runaway.

But before we point fingers, if we are really honest, we must admit that our human nature is not to get caught when our mistakes cost us something…even if it’s not money but instead is our reputation or our position or our supposed spirituality.

Who knew this better than King Saul of the Old Testament? The prophet Samuel relayed God’s message to warrior Saul to destroy “everything” of the Amalekites, enemies of Israel and the first nation to attack the Israelites when Moses led them out of Egypt.

Instead of obeying, Saul failed to slaughter the enemy’s animals and kept the Amalekite king alive as his war trophy, returning to Israel and erecting a monument to himself.

Big mistake.

When Samuel confronted Saul, the king lied and made excuses, blaming the soldiers by saying that they kept the animals alive to make sacrifices to the Lord. He even asked Samuel to cover his sin and make him look good to his fellow Israelites.

God’s reaction was anything but understanding. Saul would no longer be king.

Someone once said, “Tell a lie once, and all your truths become questionable.” I think that God knows that, and if He would go to such drastic measures to punish Israel’s leader, I imagine that none of us should expect leniency. Honesty is, after all, the best policy.

Keys to the Kingdom – By Carolyn Tucker

When I was expecting our first child, my Mom tried to encourage me with these wise words, “After a woman has a baby and she sees and holds it for the first time, she forgets all about the pain.” So I was banking on that to happen when I delivered my first child. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but my amnesia never did kick in. That’s the only time my Mom lied to me. However, I can honestly say that it was worth it — both times.

Christ followers have to keep on and stand strong in the pain of adversities. We have His promises and the privilege of going boldly to God’s throne for whatever we need. We mustn’t give up or give in when the going gets rough.

Believers need to make up their minds and purpose in their hearts that no matter what, they’re going to be radically dedicated to Jesus. Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. Endurance is defined as the ability to last, continue, or remain. “For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy” (James 5:10,11 NLT).

“The path of the godly leads away from evil; he who follows that path is safe” (Proverbs 16:17 TLB). Should you wander off the good path, don’t despair. One of Satan’s meanest tricks is to try to convince you that you’re a big fat fail and you might as well give up. The enemy of your soul doesn’t want you to know God‘s Word: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand” (Psalm 37:23,24 NKJV).

One of my favorite songs, “I Won’t Turn Back,” was written by Geron Davis, Tim Pedigo, and Janet Paschal. The lyrics encourage me to keep going. “It’s a struggle for survival, we daily meet the foe. Out there on the battlefield sometimes we stand alone. That‘s when I reach for my holy armor; I pick up my shield of faith and I march onto the battlefield — I take up my sword and say, ‘The mountain is high but it’s not too steep. The battle is rough but I’m not too weak. And I won’t turn back, oh no, I won’t turn back! The road is hot but it’s not too long. And the enemy is near but he’s not too strong. And I won’t turn back, oh no, I won’t turn back.’ In the face of strong resistance, we press on through the night. For often on the battlefield we walk by faith not sight. We march through persecution, determined come what may. We have to fight a good fight; we have to keep the faith!”

“The godly have a refuge when they die” (Proverbs 14:32 TLB). I love to use my husband’s preaching Bible. Jimmy underlined the following verse: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful” (2 Timothy 4:7 NLT). If I could ask him today, “Was it worth it?” I know he would answer, “Oh my, yes!”

The Key: When you’ve run your final race and you see your Savior’s face, it will be worth it all.