“Through
it all,
through it all,
I've learned to trust in Jesus,
I've learned to trust in God.
Through it all,
through it all,
I've learned to depend upon His Word.”
Chorus of Through it All, Andre Crouch
In this flight-fight-plight of life there is nothing
more troublesome than the study of the human mind, just getting through the
supernatural comprehension of what is involved in human intelligence: realizing
the mercy, grace of the Creator of the universe-caretaker of its planets and God's
direct relationship with the personhood of man and every human dilemma.
This writer wonders how many believers have
experimented with prayer, the wondrous love of a Savior whose blood and water
gushed from His heart as He died for the sin of the world... The supernatural
message of the cross.
Years ago, speaking in many churches, I seldom saw a
cross, even a vacant cross. I so love the Catholic crucifix. Every worship
service should be engulfed by the "worth-ship" of the pain our
blessed Lord freely gave. My pain, as a sightless man, is reaching out-pushing
out to those who spend more time before a TV set, in a gym, or in an arena
watching millionaire ballplayers run up and down a ball court than they do with
God's word; the answer book for every human equation... the greatest power in
all the world, the One who created you, sustained you and at last will save
you.
What I want to get across here is the fact, and it
is a fact, proved over and over, that we are not stuck where we start.
Your writer was born on a dirt road in poverty
stricken Eastern North Carolina ... no power,
phone or water lines. School houses, like church houses, like most houses, were
destitute. There were no inside gyms at the school, we played on God's
"Good Earth". I would have been to short to play basketball anyway.
I saw my first basketball game after I arrived at
UNC, Chapel Hill . There were 13 in my high
school graduating class. As in everything else, I was not prepared for college.
Back then, basketball games were played in Woolen
Gym where they set up bleachers for national university games. Since then,
there has been Carmichael Center and now the famous Gene Smith Center
When anyone asks this Christian what proof he has
for the Bible, I state "it is just a three letter word"... "JEW".
Study the history of man in the world, learn to trust the "Boss" of
the universe. He gave "free throws" to the Jewish people. The death
angel "Passover" just because they were Jews, three million slaves
lead across a sea bed, water piled on either side just because they were Jews, "free
throws". And it has never ended, "free throws", God gave his Son
and his Son gave His life.
Even more so, as we maneuver amid victims, towards
the goal line, think of those who were born to privilege-ancestry-money, think
of those born with superior minds, think of those born with good looks, think
of those with talent whether surgery or singing... "free throws".
I never considered this very much until I left the
poverty of Eastern North Carolina and
encountered the disparity of the world found at an education institution. As
children, my father had taken us into town to see the Christmas
lights-decorations at the homes of wealth. Most of these people did not even
believe in the Christ of Christmas. At the state supported Colleges and
University, supported by the taxes of all citizens, even those with dark skins
and who were not allowed to enter the University, or put their feet on the
sands of the state's white beaches. The disparity-bigotry-discrimination became
stigmatized when I learned that some of my friends whose fathers were judges,
legislators, big alumni givers got many "free throws" from the
University. The University had officials who checked on the sons of prominence regularly
to make sure they had no academic or financial problems. My friend Ned, whose
father was a Legislator would buy me ice cream with his food allowance. He did
not need to work to get through financially or academically. The University via
politics in Raleigh ,
took care of him and so it was with so many others. The poor, the
disenfranchised, the disabled, those with black or dark skins, those who did
not graduate from military-prep-outstanding high schools did not receive any
"free throws" from any place.
If there is anything I have learned in my long life,
those who are the recipients of "free throws", think God should be
made in their image, not them made in the image of God.
Henry David Thoreau had said "Once you have
seen one train wreck, you have seen them all." God knew that sightless, I
could not see all the train wrecks of the world, but he wanted me to
"sense" the world. We have learned the silliness of warning people
about smoking cigarettes, over eating, even the futility of wars against poverty-drugs-terrorism.
Most simply do not care. In a world of meism, you sit in a chair surrounded by
a circle. Your only interest, that within the circle that surrounds your chair.
Within the madness of addictions, sex, greed, we have become profane-decadent
creatures. Most of us have very few friends who usually are "free
throws". Betrayal of country, friends, even family makes God blush. What kind
of idiot had rather be on a landing craft at Normandy ,
knowing the certain death of bullets, would not have rather had been at home in
America
with his family, going to a job, enjoying his children. The more mature the
saint, the tougher the test. Have you ever considered the "free
throws" you enjoy because of the saints and glory who kept our faith, the
thousands of veterans buried on foreign soil, who prized this Nation?
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