The Art Show, Southeast Hospital and Dr. David Crowe

Yesterday I went to the Art Show at Southeast Hospital.   The intention was to preview the photography which Dr. David Crowe had given to the hospital.   He had given 10 pieces which had been lapped up by donors and the donors were asked to preview the works.  I picked one of them that I wanted to give in memory of my brother, Dr. Jim Cooper, and I wanted it to be hung on the bare wall in front of the surgery wing of the hospital.   There will be an engraved etching by the side of it saying that it was given in his memory.

I want his name to be there on the wall so I can see it.  I want his name to be there so that my nephew, James Shelby, can see it.  And I want it to be there so that people from Mississippi County can walk out of that hospital surgery ward and remember him.   I don't know why that means something to me but it does.  It does because I know that he talked to the University and said, "I didn't go here but I am a Southeast Missouri boy and I want to do this!"   I intend to do something at Sikeston Hospital also because he worked there every summer and he loved Bill Critchlow and Max Heeb.  I can still remember when he came home and one of his

female classmates, can't remember her name right now, but she married a Babb, came in to have a baby and she yelled for Jim to get out of the hospital room..  She didn't want him to see her having a baby and seeing her baby parts.  He was furious at her.

I feel good about this gift.   Someone once said that you should spend your life doing things that will outlive it.  I intend to use my gift from Jim to find ways to honor him.   He deserves to be remembered!

Luck of the draw

I am not a poker player so I can't vouch for being successful or lucky at drawing the right cards.  But I have learned that I have to figure out how to play the cards that I am dealt along the way whether they are in my family deck or in my business world deck or my social deck.   Sometimes I play them well and sometimes I could have done a better job of reading the signs of my partners.   Sometimes I have to just throw the cards on the table and admit what a lousy player I am.   It is usually not my finest hour.  I like to be successful in all things.

Learning to be a minister of presence takes the same kind of attitude adjusting.  Yesterday I went to a social event with my former boss and he was regaling people with stories about how I made him go with me to see donors and go to funerals, etc when we worked in the development area together.   Finally, he stopped and looked straight at me, and said, "Did I ever thank you for your persistance?   I would never have gone anywhere if I hadn't been able to latch on to your coat tails and mutter something after you said the real words!"    He added, "Now I go in to hospital rooms, funeral homes, everywhere and other people are latching on to my coat tails, muttering stuff."

Much of being a minister of presence is learned.   The art and act of caring is learned.  It helps to have a sensitivity for another person and a situation.  But the words, themselves, have to gradually become more than mutterings.   And the situation and the individual have to be learned by a constancy of presence.   Not everything works in every situation.  But the truth is, that sometimes when we are ready to throw in the cards,  God gives us a sign, unmistakable to the minister, that something in the game is working.  And it is more than enough;  it is an inner jubilation!   It keeps us keeping on!    

Blessings on the ones who have staying (and playing) power!

CBF and moving ahead

I went to a brunch at the home of Bruce and Becky Gentry this morning to meet Jennifer Graham and Harold Phillips from Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and hear about 22 years of change.  They even have a woman president!

I learned that Jim smith is now the head of the foundation!  I have lost my way; maybe i.ll go back in!  I like some of the things I heard in the presentation.  They were concerned about missions and they had a featured magazine about Ministry of Presence.   They are taking in churches all over the area and are on their way to University Baptist Church in Carbondale.   They are more Baptist that Southern Baptist and more liberal.   They have no way of knowing where they are going but they know where they have been.  I like Harold Phillips and I liked Jennifer Graham.  We will see what happens.

Buffalo gnats!

You can run but you can't hide!  Buffalo gnats are out there waiting for you this summer.  Don't even think of sitting out on your front porch for a summer's night.  They will attack you and chase you around the yard before you can get the can of aerosol which doesn't work, anyway!  All the citronella candles in the world will not protect you from these tiny swarming insects which go for the jugular.

Huge article in Southeast Missourian today, front page, about why they are rampant--wet climate--this year.  The Missouri Conservation agent, Kyle Booth, announced what we already know:  "The more water we have, the more spawning they're going to do and the more offspring."   They recommend that we put out something sweet, like vanilla extract and mixing it with water and spraying on yourself.   Sort of sweeting yourself up!

Hey, this could work for us as people and churches also to keep the gnats away! We could hold a special Wednesday night service instead of prayer meeting and spray all the pewsitters and then send them out to minister in droves.   Don't knock it if you haven't tried it!   But one small warning, first you have to get it passed through business meeting and it is a new, untried idea! 

Today

Working like mad on my book!  Had lunch with Jane Stephens and Loretta prater!

Job, Sickeningly Patient!

I have never been thrilled by the Biblical character, Job!  In the first place he just seemed, to me, to be the kind of person who "mealy-mouthed" around and sort of poor-me'd his circumstances (and he was plenty wealthy to begin with with almost a Midas touch).  It was a way too Christian approach for me.  I saw him as two-faced, less than mordacious, or anybody's dog who would hunt.  I really couldn't stand his attitude and this may have stemmed from the fact that I knew someone just like this, who was real old like Job, and I despised it when he conquered me and I had to listen to his whinings.

My mother would talk about a friend of hers who had the "patience of Job".   My brother and I had cynical views about this friend and thought she should deal with her problems, quit supporting a bunch of her loser relatives, and tell them to get a job and quit mooching off of her.   Patience was not a virtue I was interested in pursuing.

In the end, it paid off for Job.  He has a book in the Bible named for him and that's not easy to come by.
I still don't like Job.  His book is a big authority and his faith is undeniable.  But I don't have to like him in the process.  I think it is called non-identification.

A memorial presence

Memorial Day is a day that we choose to remember...our fallen and our dead.  We are doing just that!  Jim and Laurie have fixed flags to go to Bryan Walkers grave and the flag is flying on my house!   It is always good to remember the past!

And then turn to the present and think about new opportunities!