School is starting in the county where I live this week...memories
flood back as I recall wearing brand new shoes the first day after
going barefoot for 3 months...shirts with stiff new collars
scratching my neck. Hot: riding in non-airconditioned buses, and
sitting in classrooms only cooled by fans, if anything at all(how
did we ever survive without air conditioning in the 60's and 70's?).
Smells: catching the odor of sawdust from freshly-sharpened #2
pencils, and smelling a whiff of Windsong perfume as that girl you
secretly admire walks by you in the hallway...Books: a stack you
will lug home every night, the most prominent one the Chemistry book
for Ms. Martin's class. Her Chemistry was not for the "faint of
heart."...Lockers: too small to hold the number of books, workbooks,
notebooks,and papers we were supposed to keep up with, and
combination locks that almost made me "lose my religion" a few times
trying to open them.... School officials: like I sometimes tell my
Sunday School Class, it wasn't school I minded so much, as the
"principle" (principal) of the thing...(Ha..)
A young girl assigned to ride our bus had a hard time adjusting to
first grade...in fact, she refused to get on the bus for school when
it stopped to pick her up. She went back in the house. Afterwards,
her mom would try to cajole or convince her to get on the bus for
school... to no avail...she refused to get on the bus to travel to
school. This went on for weeks, months...No matter what the mother
did, the girl would not get on the bus for school. It seemed like
her "comfort zone" of family, home, and familiar surroundings had
her "bound up" and would not let her move on to the next stage of
her life...
Isn't that how our lives, even as Christians, sometimes are? We get
"bound up" by past sins, habits, and things that entrap us. I
remember one Pastor said he heard a church member once say: "I'll
never be friendly with that lady, because of what she said to me in
May, 1952."
We let things "bind us up" and ruin our witness if we don't turn
ourselves over completely to the Holy Spirit.
But, scripture tells us to be "unbound" if you will:
Romans 8:1-2 says: "...do not walk according to the flesh, but according
to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me
free from the law of sin and death."
Free...unbound...to release the trappings and bonds of this sinful
world...free...to claim the promises of God each and every day.
Free...to
walk in closer fellowship with God the more we aim towards the
Cross...free to help us escape all earthly chains...free from eternal
death and separation from God...
...and free, to quote a famous movie/t.v. show: "To boldy go where no
man
has gone before..."
Do you know where you're going? (Watch out for the kids and buses as
school starts.) Let's follow Jesus every day and be "truly free."
Blessings for the week
Gary McCorkle
Nevils UMC and Dayspring #56
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