Texas Baptists Committed - A Rancher's Rumblings, June 19, 2007

As I write this, it is Monday evening, and I’m actually at the ranch! I spent the drive out here thinking about what to write, so I suppose this is “actual” rumblings, since I do not have a specific theme in mind.

Tomorrow I start my vacation for this summer. I think it will end tomorrow evening or early Wednesday morning, because I honestly just cannot see another opportunity to take a day off. I am hopeful that maybe, just maybe, Loretta and I will find a Wednesday evening through Sunday (a few years ago, we did it 2 years in a row) to get away, but I am not optimistic.

Now do not feel sorry for me. It is my own doing, for the most part. I am great at making too many commitments for the time that I have available to give to such things; as we all know, and as the Bible tells us plainly, we ultimately reap what we sow.

Anyway, while out here, I am just thinking about “stuff.”

For example, who is going to preach my funeral? Four years ago, I wrote out the details of my funeral after I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Phil Strickland was to give a eulogy; Dr. Herbert Reynolds was supposed to talk about my contribution to Texas Baptists; and I figured my pastor would preach a bit. There would also be Willie Nelson singing “Amazing Grace” (by way of a CD, that is), as well as the Eagles singing “Desperado.”

(continued)

Well, we have changed pastors, and Phil and Dr. Reynolds have gone on to heaven, where they’ll be with me during my funeral. All of my tests are totally cancer–free, so it seems that the date of my funeral has possibly been pushed on down the road (although, as we all know, no one is guaranteed tomorrow). I guess I will think about this sometime later; however, if he’s still living when I go, I do know that I want my friend, Atlanta Pastor David Sapp, to actually do the preaching this time around.

Another “rumbling thought” is that I have never ever seen this piece of dirt, which I love so much, the way it is now. We have had good rain in years past, but memory tells me it was fall rains, not spring and summer rains. Wildflowers, like I have never seen before, are everywhere. This evening, I saw 6-foot-tall sunflowers on the new place I bought a few years ago, a place that tied the old ranch to the highway. Also, having just had Father’s Day, I still wish—after 18 years—that I could drive around this place with Roy Currie, my Dad. I look forward to spending tomorrow on a four-wheeler next to my son Chad on his four-wheeler, spraying mesquite. I honestly think that there will be something spiritual about it.

Chad will be 26 tomorrow. So, for his birthday, I told him I’d work with him. Aren’t I a good Dad!!!

(continued)

And a final “rumbling” thought. I have been writing these articles once a week for nearly 6 months now. I sort of have one fantasy—that some of you have observed a different side of me than you have in the past. Yes, I’m a fighter and, to be honest, I enjoyed taking on Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler head-to-head over the future of the BGCT. It seemed the right thing to do at the time.

But I actually do believe in Jesus, okay? I actually do know that there is more to life than fighting Fundamentalism, as important as that is. I actually do believe that the most important things that any of us ever do is love people in Jesus’ name, accept and forgive unconditionally, and recognize that, in the most mundane moments of our lives, Jesus is there—like He will be tomorrow when I’m riding a four-wheeler, enjoying a day with my son.