MAY 9/10 : STARTING WHERE I LEFT OFF?

FIRST OF ALL, I WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I WILL BE OUT OF TOWN FOR SEVERAL DAYS.  LORD WILLING, THE WRITING OF THE BLOG WILL RESUME WHEN I GET BACK.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

One of the longest journeys of my life happened in late April and early May of 1977.  I had just finished up my first semester at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri.  I’d flown in at the beginning of January, and THAT’S a whole story in itself.  I made arrangements to ride home with Donnie Colageo from Walpole, Massachusetts and his girlfriend Debby from Westminster, Massachusetts.  Donnie had just bought a 1969 Ford Econoline van.  We started up Interstate 44 on a Saturday afternoon.  Just about three hours into the trip, the van was overheating “big time”!  We pulled off Route 44 near Union, Missouri- about an hour southwest of downtown St. Louis.  The water pump had failed. I know this sounds like something from a crazy redneck movie, but a drunk in a pickup truck stopped and took us in to stay at his trailer, where he lived with his girlfriend.  “Lou” put on a musical concert for us, singing (badly) and playing hard rock music on his guitar.  I still remember he had three little poodles who looked like little lions.  We stayed with Lou for several nights;  then we stayed with a “more normal” family who took us in for a night.  During that time, the weather was very hot and humid and Donnie got a sunburn.  When the hot weather broke, funnel clouds were forecast for that area.  Donnie was finally able to find a water pump and install it.  From Missouri, we ultimately drove to the Buffalo, New York area where we stayed with mutual friends for a couple of nights.  We arrived back in Massachusetts on May 9, 1977 in the middle of a RECORD-BREAKING MAY SNOWSTORM!  Due to the snow, we stayed overnight at Debby’s home in Westminster, and I got home to Canton, Massachusetts on May 10.  I will never forget that trip!

I have made numerous road trips between the Boston, Massachusetts and Springfield, Missouri areas since then.  Some have been “eventful” but none as eventful as that 1977 trek!  

Ironically, today, May 9, I fly to Springfield, Missouri, and tomorrow, May 10, my daughter Amy and I leave for a road trip back to New England in her 1995 Ford Taurus wagon.  (I hope and pray it won’t be “Found On Road Dead” as the ‘69 Econoline was all those years ago!)  It’s been twenty-nine years since that infamous Donnie Colageo trip.  That doesn’t seem possible.  Today, Don Colageo is married to Debby and he’s a Lutheran minister in Maine.  At that age (I was 22) I just figured things would work out.  I really didn’t worry too much.  I trusted God, and I guess you’d say I had a “whatever” attitude.  Today, at 51 I’m so much more intense, and I hate to say it, but can be so much more negative.  There HAVE been many joys and victories in my life, but there have also been disappointments- many disappointments.  In public, more than ever, I’m working at being (what I call) “cheerful, and positive, and motivational”.  I really think that at church I’ve been more “cheerful, and positive, and motivational” in the past 6 months than I’ve ever been.  And, I pretty much think that’s as it SHOULD be.  But, if you’ve ever heard the Twila Paris Christian song, “The Warrior is a Child”, or the Five For Fighting secular song, “Superman”, you’ll know what I mean when I say that INSIDE my feelings are frequently not “cheerful, and positive, and motivational”.  When you’re a pastor, people expect SO much of you.  They really do.  There are the moments when you literally go into the bathroom and you’re thinking, “Man I just got that person all cheered up and filled with faith, but I wish somebody would do that for me!”   Even more “gut-level” is the feeling of, “How did a nervous, awkward, timid and numb guy like me ever get to the point that he’s so admired as a motivational speaker?”  Wanna know something really weird?  Sometimes I listen to my sermon tapes and they’re SO good and SO well presented and SO inspirational, I just sit and marvel and can’t believe I possibly recorded them!

It shows, doesn’t it?  I really need to get away.  I do.  

It’s ironic I’m starting this trip on May 9/10 when I ended up that other trip on May 9/10. I wish I could capture some of the youthful, faith-filled, trusting, naive kid that I was!  

Honestly, I need something on this trip.  I really do.  I’m looking for God to do something.  As we Pentecostals say, “I need a fresh anointing”.  I really do need a “fresh anointing” and a lot of other stuff.  Pastoring is much harder than it looks.  At a recent pastors’ support group that I attended, a pastor sat and sobbed like a baby.  Through the years I’ve seen all kids of stuff like that.  People would be shocked.  They have NO idea of the pressures.  It’s not just the business of running a church.  It’s the thing of people expecting you to be perfect.  I’ve listened to guys share issues and struggles that you would not believe.  

Well, I probably wrote “way too much” in many respects!  I covet your prayers for a safe trip, and that God would meet me in a special way on this trip!