Coddle

If every church member were just like me, what kind of church would my church be? We can go even further, if every man, every father, every Christian, every doctor, were just like me, what kind of world would this world be? This is a question we face as we churn in our minds the reasons for the mess our country and our world is in.

Have you ever met someone who just stands out? When this person walks in a room, everyone is aware of a rare presence...not always because of appearance, usually because of an engaging personality, a magnetism which is infectious, affecting everyone. He is probably long dead, but I still remember him, his name was Charles Ramsey, the most dynamic, magnetic, infectious personality I have ever met.

I had just arrived in Memphis where I was preparing to go to medical school, having just graduated from the University of North Carolina. One of the first men I met on campus was Charles S. Lewis (not the famous C.S. Lewis) but Dr. Lewis did become well known where he practiced for many years. Right off, first conversation, he said, “I would like for you to go to church with me.” He was originally from Kentucky, graduated one year ahead of me, married in Memphis and stayed there. He said, “I'll be by to pick you up, I also pick up some children from a housing project and take them to church every Sunday.” This is the type of man this man was.

One Sunday school class at Bellevue Baptist church was for male professional students. Charles Ramsey was teacher of the class. When I walked in the room, there was an electricity in the man when he came over to shake my hand and welcome me in the class. His Christianity was genuine, his compassion real. He was a marvelous communicator, reached into the depths of his subject. He had been a military officer in WWII, knew firsthand the mercies of God in saving his life. He would stand in front of the class with tears running down his face as he taught the Gospel...it was so real to him. But I noticed over the years, that everyone in that large church was revitalized when he approached them. He had a disease which we all wanted to catch.

I was in the home of Mohandas Gandhi, famed leader in the nation of India, twice. I stood by the monument on the holy Ganges River where he was cremated. Gandhi, a Jain Hindu, an outstanding lawyer, a scholar who studied Christianity. He actually attended some Christian churches, but said he never saw anything there that he wanted...the people were just sad, more or less just going through the motions. Perhaps his most famous commentary on Christianity, “I would have been a Christian if I had not known so many Christians.” Just think of the millions of lost Hindus and Muslims, that through his international influence, he could have won to Christianity.

I don't think parents realize what they are doing when they rear a child...the values instilled in the home, things that no school can teach. You do not realize it, but you may be preparing a missionary, a doctor, a teacher, to face the world with the values they get from you.

There is no other personality like your personality, you are one of a kind, of the billions of people who have lived on earth, there is no other person who has had your fingerprints, your voice, your facial character, or even the flex of the iris in your eye. A new science, biometrics, involves scanning the facial characteristics of every human being. Body parts can be transplanted, but you and you alone are the possessor of your soul (which will never die), your personality. Just as God designed every snowflake that has ever fallen, beautifully-specifically, so he did with you. Don't discount yourself, don't cheat others.

When a patient came to my office, it was not just a treatment, it was an experience, you can be sure they never left the same, they had met a dynamo personality, articulate, convincing, concerned. Why just be a “blah” doctor, teacher, preacher, a nondescript anything? I am the same way with anyone who visits my home, as two black preachers who came to me for financial help, leaving said, “we will never be the same again.” In every speaking engagement, even a commentary such as this, with the mercy of God, I trust I made that difference. Someone may steal your credit card, or other forms of identification, they may think they have stolen your identity, but your identity is all yours. There is not another you.

Suicide is a great cause of death with young people in this nation, especially in the military. I notice that more and more criminals kill themselves after they kill others. Those who hate God love death. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death. (Proverbs 8:36) For so many, especially young, it is a way of escape.

The demise of Christianity started in Germany, at one time the world's pinnacle of knowledge, spread across Europe. Only the uninformed have not noticed the decline of the church in America...large churches, large buildings more like civic clubs than a place to worship a God of mercy and glory. I understand that in some churches you do not see a Christian cross, the baptistry seldom used, some so-called believers go for years without observing the Lord's Supper. The secular-humanist, liberal, phony-baloney impostors, tares have taken over. The greatest personality to ever live, Jesus Christ, the saints who worshiped and adored Him, believed in His Mercy are our example.

In this profane nation, such preachers as Rick Warren and Richard Land, are willing to compromise, thinking that the world's psychology is more important than God's theology. You can always identify the convinced, the convicted, the committed, most church members, most churches, most seminaries need a spiritual defibrillator. God is not an ATM machine. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus 1:16) The coddling of children, students, Christians, will not produce the character and personality needed in God's service.

Jalapeno Factor

You will never remember just a “blah” person, any more than you will remember “bland” food. You remember a spicy personality, one full of inner heat, zeal, ambition, cheerfulness, that twitter which always reminds you of success...remembrance. Be known for something, even if it is for eccentricities, this writer is well-known for his eccentricities.

William Randolph Hearst was one's of the world's wealthest men, publisher and financier, he was a collector of fine art. There was a painting by a well known artist which he greatly desired, he told several galleries around the world to find it for him, price was no obstacle, “I want that painting”. Several called him and said they could not find it anywhere in the world, they had checked all the galleries, all the museums. Then, one day, the curator of a New York gallery called him at his California home. “I have found the painting!” Hearst, said “where is it?” The man said, “it is in your warehouse, you own it.” Eccentric Hearst also took credit for the sinking of the Maine in the Havana harbor. Prince of preachers, perhaps the world's greatest preacher since the apostle Paul, Charles Hayden Spurgeon speaking before a seminary graduating class said, “the most important thing for you to learn, is to learn to say 'no'. This is worth more than knowing Latin. It is important to say 'no' to overwork, to overeating, to the enticements of wealth and sin, to human foilties of sexual excursions, certainly pride.”

We are taught that to succeed we must be a “Yes” man. You will hear politicians tap-dancing around every political challenge. So afraid of offending someone, afraid to say “yes” afraid to say “no”.

Character determines destiny, a person of character has that inner heat of honesty, at the church house, courthouse, schoolhouse, or even at the White House. We see presidents and those who want to be president testing the political winds. You have a right to be you. There is something wrong with you if the holy spirit of Christ, in your life, does not determine you. The root of faith produces fruit of faith. Fear is the cataract of the mind, blurring everything you see or think. Courage erases fears, 90% of faith is just raw courage.

A chaplain in General Patton's army said, “in war, each man must determine within himself, that he, and he alone, determines the outcome of the battle.” Don't tell me you do not recognize the jalapeno factor, you recognize it in young people, not afraid to show their talents, enthusiastic about everything they do, unashamedly confident and competent, ready for the battles of life. There is that jalapeno factor, that burning inside, which gives sparkle to the eyes. The grip in the handshake, the smile of confidence on the lips, which is always the mark of excellence. These are the ones who stand head and shoulder above the rest of us. It takes courage with the first patient, it takes courage in trying to make the first sale. This is what Christ was a speaking of when he said “for God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Mamie

My first wife was never satisfied with her engagement ring. She did not realize how hard I worked, how long I saved, to buy this ring for her. During my years in school, I worked at night and went to school during the day. Then, on Saturdays, I worked at Goldsmith's Store in Memphis, in the Red Cross shoe department, selling shoes. The money from the Saturday work was used to buy her engagement ring. Later, I learned that she was not happy with her jewelry because so many of her friends, at church and elsewhere, were flashing large rings which their successful ”doctor” husbands could afford. I had received an advertisement about fake diamonds. So, you know exactly what I did...I ordered a 2 carat fake diamond for her...which she never realized, nor did anyone else because who goes around with a jeweler's loop appraising a woman's jewelry? So, after this, she would remark about how everyone was so impressed by her wonderful diamond.

I heard yesterday about a woman in Texas who was beaten almost to death when her 7.5 carat diamond ring was robbed from her in the grocery store parking lot. These are the personalities we deal with on a daily basis. Pity the person who has no memories, or appreciation, of unusual personalities. Life would really be dull if everyone were just a cookie-cutter replica, same everything, as you find in collectivist, communist countries.

I was one of the first Americans into China after the Nixon-reopening in 1973. Everyone, men and women, young or old, wore the same costume: pants, coat, and hat. Everyone's hair was cut the same. Everyone looked very much the same except the women were fatter, the men more muscular, even the children wore uniforms.

Those of you so anxious to put your school children into uniforms, your employees into uniforms, so anxious to take away all the personality of the individual except for the “name tag”, will be happy when America is fully communized just like China, Cuba and North Korea. Your Home Owner's Associations, your housing projects, foster homes for your children (90% of all children in foster homes are physically or sexually abused), all cloaking personalities and individuality in sameness.

In China, in a factory where child slave labor was turning out vases for you Walmart shoppers, I said to the guide, “what if one child decided to use some personality, some artistic talent in making one vase particularly beautiful.” Such as vases in the Ming Dynasty which now sell for millions of dollars. She said, “We would destroy it.”

Mamie Pedigo was my next door neighbor, not a cookie-cutter, Chinese, replica-type personality. When Mamie died, I purchased her house, next door to me. I paid $12,000 (this was 50 years ago) for the house...a 3 bedroom, very nice house, totally furnished in antiques. Of course, I could remember when you could buy such a house for $5,000. I probably appreciated her more after her death in going through all the “stuff” in the house. She had no relatives, she had outlived them all. Her estate was left to the local hospital to be used for poor people who could not afford hospital care.

Mamie had worked at one company most of her life, secretary to the owner and general manager. She knew more about the company than anyone else, knew every employee, every employee's children, their birthdays, etc. Her life consisted of her job and her faith. Her mother had lived with her until her death at 94. Mamie's husband, Ed, was a WWI veteran who had never recovered from his injuries. Mamie always sat between the two of them at the dining room table and she still, until her death, set their places at the table each night and kept fresh flowers in front of each place in their memory. When my driver took me to the funeral home for me to say good-bye to Mamie, he said, “only two people have signed the registry, you and the neighbors who live on the other side of her house.” She was to be buried the next day with a simple service.

Think of it, the owner of the company, many employees, a member of her church for 70 years, not one had been by to look at her closed casket and sign the book. She always wrote a note to each employee on their birthday, at Christmas, or in case of family trouble. She spent each night of her life doing this. Always prepared cookies each Christmas which she lovingly boxed and used old Christmas cards for decorations. When any employee had a child graduate from high school or college, Mamie would always send a small check ($5 high school, $20 college). Yet, at her death, not one employee had been to the funeral home...so the funeral director told me. She had long passed the age of retirement, the company owner seldom went to the office because he was old and retired and, besides, she and the foreman could run things.

Mamie had a fantastic book collection...books which I am now selling on Amazon. I gave to the drama department at the high school such unusual items as a widow's veiled hat (the black hat with the veil which widow's wore to a funeral), her great-grandmother's hand-made bonnet, shoes and dresses which went out of style in the 1800's...it was obvious that she and her mother had never thrown anything away. Mamie was loyal to her friends, when abroad on a trip, she kept a sharp eye on my house. Her loyal yard man was there everyday keeping her many flower beds and flowering shrubs in order. Mamie did not have much time for church activities, but she proved her faith by her devotion to work, her fellow employees, her neighbors, and caring for her elderly mother and husband. R.I.P. Mamie.