STRANGER ON THE PHONE

"And in nothing terrified by your adversaries:  which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God."  (Philippians 1:28)

"...fearlessly, no matter what your enemies may do.  They will see this as a sign of their downfall, but for you it will be a clear sign from God that he is with you, and that he has given you eternal life with him."  (Philippians 1:28 The Living Bible)

A well known Alfred Hitchcock movie is the 1951 release Strangers on a Train.  That film ironically plays an important role in the 1987 comedy film Throw Momma from the Train.  The title Strangers on a Train inspired me to call this essay Stranger on the Phone.  The incident I'm writing about took place during the 1980s.  I suspect it happened in either 1983 or 1984.  It happened while I was an Assistant Pastor at Christian Life Center.  At the time, Christian Life Center was a church of several hundred in Walpole, Massachusetts.

I have never told this story to anyone - until now.  Yesterday, my pastor's Sunday morning sermon was about forgiveness.  His material was taken from Matthew chapter 18.  I've found myself thinking about this story from my past since yesterday morning's sermon.  The fact that I've been ill with respiratory issues over the past five weeks or so, and I'm still somewhat ill, may also have played a role in why I've been obsessed with this story from my past today; and why I feel compelled to tell you about it.

I was maybe 29 or 30 years old at the time.  You may recall that the New Testament character Timothy is believed to have been a young man (not much older than 30) who was like a son to the Apostle Paul.  Apparently, some Believers disrespected Timothy because he was young and perhaps also because he was fearful (see I Timothy 4:12 and 2 Timothy 1:7).  Yet, Paul saw a lot of promise and potential in Timothy, and did all he could to endorse his ministry and encourage him.  I was a lot like Timothy!  My father was very confident, extroverted, and had an authoritative personality.  He had a distinguished career in law enforcement.  My "boss" at Christian Life Center, David C. Milley, was very much like my father.  He was extroverted, confident, and very much a "take charge" guy.  I was not very much like either my father or my "boss".  I know there were those in authority at the Walpole church who questioned my fitness for leadership.  David Milley (like Paul with Timothy) viewed me as a young man with promise and potential.  The job at that church was a huge opportunity for me.  I didn't want to disappoint David Milley or anyone else.  I didn't want to disappoint the Lord Jesus Christ.  I didn't want to fail!

One weekday morning, the church secretary patched a phone call through to my office.  There was a stranger on the phone.  It was a young man whom I'd guess wasn't much older than I was.  He was calling from out-of-state.  I don't remember exactly where he was calling from.  He was concerned about a relative that was seriously ill and had been hospitalized.  I think the hospitalized person may have been his grandfather; I honestly can't remember.  The stranger on the phone provided me with the patient's name and told me the name of the hospital at which he was being treated.  I don't remember which hospital it was; I believe it was about forty-five minutes away from Walpole.  The stranger on the phone stressed that the patient was not in right standing with God.  The stranger on the phone stressed that it was imperative the patient be presented with the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and have an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as his Personal Lord and Savior.  (If you're not an evangelical Christian this may not make sense to you.  If you are an evangelical Christian, you know there's nothing more important than that a person receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  It makes the difference between eternity in hell or eternity in heaven.)  I assured the stranger on the phone that I understood why this was important and that I would definitely be visiting the hospital patient very soon.  I remember writing down the name of the hospital patient along with the hospital information on a three by five index card and laying it on my desktop.  I don't remember if I also wrote down the name of the stranger on the phone or if the stranger on the phone gave me his telephone number.

"Tomorrow I'm definitely going to visit that guy in the hospital" was my immediate thought upon hanging up the phone.

The next morning I was sick.  I awoke with very bad cold symptoms:  congestion, runny nose, cough, slight sore throat, and slight headache.  My voice sounded very nasal.  I immediately remembered Instructor Terry Lewis' class at Central Bible College where he admonished us, "Never go on a hospital call if you're sick.  Your germs could cause a patient's death!"  Going to see the stranger on the phone's relative was out.  It would have to wait for another day.

Several days went by before my health was truly back to normal.  Shortly after arriving at my office, I dialed the hospital where the stranger on the phone's relative had been reported to be a patient.  These days because of health/privacy laws it can frankly be difficult to call a hospital and receive patient information if you're not a close relative of that patient.  In the 1980s, obtaining such information was not difficult at all.  The hospital informed me the patient had died a couple of days earlier.  Yes - died!  When I received that news, I wanted to die!  What was I going to tell the stranger on the phone if he ever called back to see how my visit with his relative went?  This probably would've been a good time to read 2 Timothy 1:7!  I didn't even think of doing that!

I don't know how many days went by - maybe it was ten days.  The stranger on the phone called back.  The church secretary put the call through to my office.  This has to have been the worst phone call I ever received in my life.  I sadly told him point blank what I've just told you in this composition.  Remember; I was a Timothy.  I didn't have a lot of confidence.  I didn't want to disappoint or fail anyone.  I've been stopped a few times while driving by police officers who lectured me about the speed limit, or failure to make a complete stop; things like that.  A couple times I received hefty traffic tickets.  Those experiences were a joke compared to this phone call!  

"If you were sick, why didn't you call someone to go in your place?!  You couldn't do that?!"

I had no answer.  He didn't utter a single obscene or profane word.  Somehow, I think obscene or profane words would have been easier to hear than what the stranger on the phone said to me.  You may also wonder why I didn't seek out someone to go in my place.  At the time, that thought had never occurred to me.  Remember:  I'd have been asking someone to go to the hospital to minister to a man I didn't know and had never met; and that the request had come from a man over the phone from out-of-state whom I did not know and had not met.  It might not have been easy to have found a minister (even from the staff at Christian Life Center - Walpole) to go in my place.  But; we'll never know, will we?

At that point I promised myself I'd never let something like that happen again.  Believe it or not, after another twenty-five years of full-time ministry, and then fifteen years beyond full-time ministry something like that never did happen again!

Yes, this is the first time I've ever shared the story with anyone.  What do you think?  Is that a horrible story?  Do you supposed that old man in the hospital died and went to hell?  If so, was that my fault?  Did the stranger on the phone have the right to condemn me?  Was it all just some terrible accident that couldn't be helped?

Readers, this is what "real life" ministry is like.  It's possible that had that incident happened twenty years later I would have handled it differently.  In fact, I probably would have handled that differently at 50 than at 30.  I know someone will post a comment saying "You've got to forgive yourself!"  I think I have.  If I hadn't forgiven myself, I don't think I could have done another twenty-five years of full-time ministry.  And from those years of ministry did come many wonderful victories and success stories.  This one's been in the closet for over forty years.

AND SO THIS IS THANKSGIVING...

"In every thing give thanks:  for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  (I Thessalonians 5:18)

Yes, the inspiration for my title was John Lennon's "And So This is Christmas"!  It might surprise some of you that I really like that song.  I guess if I tried I could write a similar song about Thanksgiving Day, but I'm not going to try that right now!  My favorite two American holidays are Independence Day and Thanksgiving Day.  I feel bad that Thanksgiving Day seems to be less and less important each year.  My birthday is in September and I guess even in September these days Christmas decorations are out!  Thanksgiving Day has been turned into a little prelude for Christmas.  It's too bad.  When I was a kid November meant Thanksgiving and December meant Christmas.  It should still be that way.  I guess this is a bit "off topic" but each year around this time there are plenty of displays of photos featuring Dallas, Texas taken on November 22, 1963.  Have you ever noticed that there are no Christmas decorations or Merry Christmas signs anywhere in those photos?  That's because Christmas in those days got very little mention before Thanksgiving Day.

My first memory of Thanksgiving must be from 1958.  Our family moved from inner city Boston to the suburban community of Canton in December of that year.  My parents had one of those 1950s General Electric portable "Roaster" ovens.  In that oven they cooked a turkey.  I can still see the "Roaster" and the turkey at the "old" house and I remember my parents telling me it was a very special day.  When we were kids we'd have relatives over for Thanksgiving.  My father was very "macho" and very much an authority figure; but when the relatives were over, he was a bit nervous and I always got a kick out of that!  In 1972, my mother was in the hospital undergoing an operation during the Thanksgiving week.  My father was no "Galloping Gourmet" but he insisted on cooking a turkey for we three "kids" who were in our mid and late teens at that point.  My father in an apron cooking a meal frankly looked ridiculous!  I know I struggled to maintain my composure.  I'm sure my siblings did too!  After dinner we went to visit my mother in the hospital.  I don't know why we didn't just go out to a restaurant!

I spent a couple of Thanksgiving Days in Springfield, Missouri during my time at Central Bible College.  One year we were invited to Pastor Wartenbee's house.  I remember his wife offering us "cold peas and cheese" as an appetizer.  And I still recall my friend James Rayburn from Georgia looking horrified at the thought of cold peas and cheese!  I think I made some excuse, myself!  Just recently I was reading that cold peas and cheese is a popular holiday appetizer in much of the midwest - I think especially from families of Germanic origin.  So now that kind of makes sense!

My favorite part of the Thanksgiving dinner was always the stuffing.  I'm French Canadian.  French Canadian stuffing is primarily meat stuffing.  There are various ways to make it.  Most people do include the traditional bread stuffing mixes you can buy at the supermarket, but to that you add ground beef and ground mild sausage as well as chopped up celery and sometimes even a little bit of mashed potatoes into the stuffing.  It's really good!

I don't even have time to write about all the school football games I've attended on Thanksgiving Days!  No I never played football - I'd have been killed!  But I was in the high school band and we went to all the games.  And when my kids were at Marian High School we attended their Thanksgiving games!  I guess I'm making the mistake here a lot of Americans make:  I'm talking about food and football but nothing about God or being thankful!  It really is so important to be thankful!  Did you know Americans by nature are not thankful?  That was stated by a guest preacher I heard a number of years ago, and I think it's true.   I want to remember to be thankful this year!

I'm thankful for the memories I've shared today.  They're good memories.  I'm thankful that at seventy-one I'm alive and reasonably healthy.  I'm thankful for my wife Mary Ann.  I'm not always the easiest person to deal with or to please.  I'm grateful she forgives and loves me.  I'm thankful for my three grown children.  All three are committed Christians.  Mary Ann has sometimes lamented that we didn't shield our kids from a lot of things they really shouldn't have been exposed to.  It's true, and I have to take the blame for that.  And, yet, in spite of that, they're committed Christians and truly outstanding people.  

I'm grateful for the church we attend:  Bread of Life Church in Westminster, Mass.  Yeah, I guess we get the long distance award as it's more than fifty miles each way on Sunday mornings.  But it's really a wonderful church family and very special to be part of it.  Like George Bailey, I'm also rich in friends.  I'm a very quirky person and a little odd at times.  Really!  I once told clergy colleague Dick Germaine that I was "a weirdo"!  Dick got really upset with me for calling myself a weirdo!  So, instead I'm saying I'm quirky and odd!  And yet this quirky and odd guy really has a lot of good friends that I frankly don't deserve!  

I guess counting 1954, tomorrow will be my 72nd Thanksgiving Day.  I'm looking forward to it!  I most of all thank God for His free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, and I thank God for all the "stuff" I'm mentioning here!

CULTS AND A '53 CHEVY

"... your old men shall dream dreams:" (from Acts 2:17)

The issue of whether to share a dream or dreams that you've had and that you believe could be a message from God is quite a controversial and "loaded" issue!  It does set a person up for possible ridicule and rejection.  And, indeed most dreams are not from God, nor are most dreams from the forces of darkness for that matter.  My old friend David C. Milley used to say that "Dreams usually mean nothing more than that you ate too much pizza!"  David did have a very valid point.  Most of the time, dreams are kind of wild and crazy things made up by your mind as you sleep and most of the time they mean absolutely nothing.  But sometimes I'll have a dream or two that I strongly believe has significance and that may well have been from God.  In fact, in my case, often when it's something from God, for me it will be two dreams in a row, much as with Pharaoh in the Genesis account when Joseph interpreted his dreams.  I've decided to risk ridicule and rejection and share the two dreams I had last night.  I welcome honest feedback from my readers about the dreams.  Sometimes people tell me they try to leave Comments on the blog and they can't.  I know it can be difficult.  It you are able to leave a Comment right here at the blog that would be great.  If not, you're welcome to email me or to leave a message for me on Facebook or Messenger.

I had a dream last night about a couple who were in the church I pastored in Framingham, Mass.  They were a very nice couple.  Since I don't have permission to use their names, I am going to give them the fictitious names of Joe and Donna.  I don't think my dream actually has anything to do with the real Joe and Donna that I know.  Rather, they were just characters in the dream, meant to illustrate a point.  In the dream, I was at their home.  Donna was out, and I was having a conversation with Joe.  Joe was concerned that Donna was getting involved with members of a very dangerous cult.  Donna is a very sweet, loving, innocent, and trusting person.  Joe was concerned that while Donna loved these new friends she had made and fully trusted these new friends she had made, they may not be the wonderful people she believed them to be and that great harm could come to her.  But, here's the "kicker":  Joe, himself, had also started to become involved in a completely different cult.  Joe did not see this as any problem, as he had a lot in common with the folks in the cult with which he was becoming involved, and in comparison to the cult in which Donna was enamored with, this cult was not really considered dangerous or life-threatening.

Wow!

I sensed trying to talk Joe out of involvement with "his" cult might not be the best course of action initially.  Since "Donna's" cult was truly dangerous and could be life-threatening, I felt that's what I needed to focus on. While I was talking to Joe, Donna came home.  She was smiling intensely.  Her entire manner was one of being carefree, relaxed, happy, and at peace.  I made brief pleasant conversation with her - just trying to set her at ease.  I was both Joe and Donna's pastor.  My job was not to turn them into enemies.  My job was to be their friend, but also to get them thinking clearly and to see to it that each of them would get as far away from these cults as possible!

I woke up!

After about a half hour of pondering this dream while a radio was on in the background, I fell asleep again and had another dream.  In this dream, I was at a school facility.  I was outdoors, along with students, teachers, and parents.  The building looked something like the building where I went to junior high in the late 1960s.  The students were all elementary school aged - maybe grades K through 5.  One mother there was someone I know.  In real life she has a daughter, but in the dream she had a son.  He was about age ten.  If you've ever seen the film School of Rock, he looked like the boy in that movie who's an amazing guitarist.  We were all outdoors because there had been some kind of an emergency.  I don't think it was an active shooter or anything like that.  I think more likely, it was a fire drill or false fire alarm or something like that.  In the dream I'm not sure what my role was - maybe I was a teacher; I don't know.  The boy who looked like the School of Rock kid was in a toy car.  It looked like a toy car that maybe a three through seven-year-old might play with.  It frankly looked a little too "babyish" for a ten-year-old; but he was in that toy car.  The toy car looked remarkably like a toy 1953 Chevy.  I was thinking, "Boy, here we are well into the twenty-first century and toy cars still look like cars of the fifties!"  One thing that struck me as odd about this toy Chevy was that the driver's side headlight was not on the front of the car, but rather on the side front fender.  "Who's stupid idea was that?" I wondered.  Somehow, the "emergency" was ended, and we were all filing into the school building.  

Suddenly, I woke up!

I've given these dreams a lot of thought.  I think they do have significance and are likely from God.  That first dream involving a Christian husband and wife gravitating toward different cults and me as a pastor trying to diffuse the situation, I think speaks to the state of many Christians today.  I think of 2 Timothy 4:3-4 which says, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."  There's a dearth of understanding the Bible, and of sound doctrine.  People think they've "got it all together" but they don't!  And in the dream, Joe thought "his" cult was fine.  He was worried about Donna, but in fact both were in danger.  I think a lot of pastors, especially older pastors, would say they fear the spiritual condition of a lot of the people to whom they minister.  The second dream had to do with a school.  I think that speaks of instruction.  There was some "emergency" going on.  In the dream, we were all rather passive about it, but it was an emergency.  And what about the toy '53 Chevy?  I think a lot of today's churches and pastors think they can use the methods of the past and everything will be fine.  It won't!  This is not 1953.  The headlight was not even in front of the toy car.  The kid wouldn't even "see" correctly.  People are not being taught correctly - they don't "see" the spiritual dangers right in front of them.  And the kid was using a toy which really was "babyish" for him.  This reminds me of that passage in Hebrews chapter 5 which warns that Believers who should be mature in Christ are still on "milk" and can't handle sound doctrine.

There may well be a lot more to dreams than I've even considered so far!

What do you think?

WHAT MIGHT JOSEPH WANT TO TELL US?

[PLEASE READ FIRST:  The following is a piece of fiction.  I know that some Christians become very upset if people write or perform fictional pieces about Biblical characters.  They feel such pieces or performances are blasphemous, sacrilegious, or inappropriate.  If you're one of those Christians, you can feel free to stop reading now.  If, however, you can appreciate the value of a creative piece about a Biblical character or a Biblical story, please continue on!]

"And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?..." (from Genesis 45:3)

I feel extremely blessed to be writing this piece.  I'm Joseph - not the husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus Christ; not that Joseph!  I'm the man many would refer to as "Joseph of the Old Testament".  It would take thousands of paragraphs to explain how I was given permission to write this essay on Bob Baril's blog; how I was enabled to speak and understand twenty-first century American English; how I was enabled to understand your technology; your geography, your history, your sports and entertainment, and even your idioms.  That's been all miraculously taken care of!  In this piece I'm giving you a rare treat and privilege.  I'm letting you hear from me and know me.  I'm sharing some thoughts with you that I learned in my ancient life which can greatly help you as you live your modern American lives - and this especially applies to those of you who are evangelical Christians!

Listen, my life in many respects was crazy!  I know that countless modern American Christians love to complain!  They really expect life to just be one happy barrel of laughs, and they really expect life to be decades of happiness, success, and euphoria!  I guess that's the first thing I want you to know:  Such thinking is very wrong and very misguided.  A Christian who expects life to be that way will be doomed to failure and spiritual catastrophe.  How would most of these American Christians handle being sold into slavery at age seventeen, and then spending the next thirteen years as a slave and later as a prison inmate?

I understand Mark Twain said, "Youth is wasted on the young!"  He was right!  Do you have hopes and plans and dreams?  That's fine!  That's good!  But you don't have to broadcast this to everybody!  That was a huge mistake on my part.  I know.  I guess I can blame my father for it.  And that's another thing a lot of people are good at - blaming their parents for their shortcomings.  I will say Jacob's tendency toward favoritism was a big mistake!  He did favor me!  He treated me like Little Lord Fauntleroy!  But my horrific experiences were mostly my fault.  I loved the dreams I had.  I bragged to my brothers about them.  I dreamed and fantasized about my family bowing down to me!  My brothers hated me.  Why didn't I have enough brains to keep that stuff to myself?  When my brothers threw me into a cistern and then sold me to some Midianite traders, I couldn't have been more shocked!  I screamed!  I yelled, "You can't do this to me!"  But they did.  

I loved God.  I believed in God.  I trusted God.  I had no Bible, mind you.  There were no Bibles then!  But I knew the stories of Adam and Eve, of Cain and Abel, of Noah, and of my great-grandfather Abraham.  I believed in miracles.  But I was terrified!  Once my ordeal began, I was constantly harassed by the devil who told me God had let me down and I needed to hate God.  Somehow I just couldn't do that.  Imagine having to learn a new language.  There were no special language classes.  You just had to listen and pick it up.  At first, my life in Egypt was absolutely terrible.  I was scared all the time.  But my owner, Potiphar, who was a really high level guy in the Egyptian military and government, amazingly liked me!  Some of the other slaves weren't happy about that.  In time, I became a slave inside his household doing what your culture would call "White collar work".  This may sound really weird.  But slavery in the ancient world could be much different from what you'd imagine!  Did you know in the days of the Roman Empire some physicians were slaves to wealthy people and families, for instance?

Then there was Mrs. Potiphar!  You've heard of a "cougar"?  I don't mean an animal.  I mean an older woman who preys sexually on boys and young men.  That's what she was.  She was always after me!  Some of my fellow slaves were jealous of that!  As bad as things were for me, I knew having sex with her would not make anything better.  This may sound unbelievable, but most of all, I didn't want to upset God!  Many of you know the story.  She accused me of trying to rape her!  Do you know what would normally be done to a slave who tried to rape (or did rape) an Egyptian official's wife?  He'd be executed!  

I thought I might be executed.  But it was obvious Potiphar didn't believe her accusations.  However, like Pontius Pilate, Potiphar was in a quandary!  He didn't want to have me executed, but he couldn't have me remain as his slave.  His solution was to put me in prison.  It was a small prison, and actually it was what your culture would call a "minimal security prison for white collar criminals".  So, you're disappointed in God, you hate your life, and you think God is cruel and unfair?  How'd you have handled this situation?  Well, again, this may sound crazy but in a lot of ways being in that prison was better than being a slave.  I just did the best I could.  However, remember all those dreams I'd had?  Nobody was bowing down to me!  I wasn't successful!  My prospects for the future were pretty much poor!

If you've seen Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, you know what ultimately happens in my story.  I interpret dreams for Pharaoh, and as some folks have said, "One day Joseph woke up as a prisoner and went to bed as a prince!"  I wasn't exactly a prince, but I became the second most important person in Egypt.  I married Asenath, daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On.  I had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.  And as many of you know, after over twenty years, I met my long lost brothers, put them through some serious testing, they and my father came to live in Egypt, and we all lived happily ever after.  Sort of!

Again, why am I writing all this?  Because ninety-eight percent of today's American Christians would never make it through what I endured!  I want you to think about that!  And I want to give you Five Rules for Living which I sincerely hope you'll put into practice!  Here they are:

1.  PUT GOD FRONT AND CENTER IN YOUR LIFE!   Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

2.  BE BOTH TOUGH AND TENDER, USING MUCH WISDOM!  Matthew 10:16 says, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves:  be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

3.  FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE!  Matthew 18:21-22 says, "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  till seven times?  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times:  but, Until seventy times seven."

4.  KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE LORD WHEN NOTHING MAKES SENSE!  Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

5.  NO MATTER HOW BAD SOMETHING IS, REMEMBER THAT GOD WILL BRING GOOD OUT OF IT!  Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Canton, MA - Where the "Soap Opera" is REAL!

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  (John 8:32)

If I'm ever asked to play one of those parlor games where you have to disclose something about yourself nobody would ever guess or suspect, I usually write, "I was hooked on a soap opera".  Indeed I was.  It was "All My Children" on ABC back in the early 1970s.  (That's the show on which Susan Lucci played Erica Kane.)  One summer day in 1972 my mother asked me to watch that particular day's episode and let her know what happened.  I did.  And the next thing you know, any weekday I was free at 1 in the afternoon it was time for "All My Children".  I went to Stonehill College.  1 p.m. was not a time in which a lot of classes were typically scheduled, so I caught AMC two or three times a week.  And that went on till sometime in 1974 when (as we evangelicals sometimes admit) "I got convicted by the Holy Spirit".  I knew watching AMC was a stupid waste of time.  But it was sort of a guilty pleasure.  However, shortly after "getting convicted" I gave the show up cold turkey!  And I'm glad I did!

At least "All My Children" wasn't real.  I mean, nobody was ever going to run into Dr. Tyler, or Paul Martin, or Nick Davis, or (perish the thought) Erica Kane at a supermarket or a fast food restaurant or while pumping gas at a self serve filling station!  But the "soap opera" currently happening in Canton, Massachusetts, and which has been "on the air" (so to speak) for over three years is the "Karen Reed Case", and it's a reality.  I remember when radio and television news reports in late January and early February of 2022 began speaking about the body of Boston Police Office John O'Keefe being found in the snow during a blizzard on a front lawn at 34 Fairview Road, Canton.  And, several days later, reports were given stating he'd been fighting with his girlfriend Karen Read and that it was believed she'd hit him with her SUV and left him to die.  I didn't know Officer O'Keefe, nor did I know Karen Read.  It sounded like whatever happened on Fairview Road between O'Keefe and Read was both bizarre and horrific!

During the next couple of years, rumors and reports about John O'Keefe's death became more frequent and more amazing.  A controversial blogger and a couple of popular talk radio hosts began frequently reporting that Karen Read did not hit John O'Keefe at all.  Rather, it was rumored that he'd been murdered inside the 34 Fairview Road house and that Karen Read, a victim of an elaborate conspiracy and cover-up, was being framed.  In Canton, a Boston suburb of about 24,000, two camps formed:  There was the "Karen Read was Framed" camp, and there was the "We Support the Men and Women of the Canton Police Department" camp.  If you think the divisions between people who love Donald Trump and people who hate Donald Trump are scary and extreme, that's nothing compared to the divisions over the Karen Read case in Canton, Massachusetts!

It's not unusual that over the years some people have switched sides once or even twice.  I will admit, I was once on one side and now I'm on the other side!  I'm not going to tell you which side I'm on.  Last year Karen Read was tried for Second Degree Murder (among other charges).  The trial resulted in a "hung jury".  Several days ago, the "re-trying" of Karen Read began at Dedham Superior Court.  I've been praying about this case for a long time, and it's my sincere prayer that if she is truly Guilty she'll be found Guilty, and if she is truly Not Guilty she'll be found Not Guilty.

Whatever the results of the trial, I suspect Karen Read will never set foot in Canton, Mass. again! But many of the other "players" (or maybe it's "personalities") are still around and about in the community.  It is freaky to see one of them when you are just going about your business in Canton.  I try to not stare at the person and to not act weird, but it's difficult!  I frequently take a long walk around Canton.  On my walk, I pass 1 Meadows Avenue, where John O'Keefe lived and where his parents now live.  I pass the Waterfall Bar, and C.F. McCarthy's, where John and Karen and many of the "players" were on that fateful January 2022 night.  I also pass Chris Albert's pizza shop.  His brother was the owner of the Fairview Road residence.  I don't pass 34 Fairview Road.  It's a couple miles away.  But I suppose one day if I get ambitious, I'll take a walk past there, too.

Who would have thought this case would make Canton famous and that "true crime junkies" from all over the world would be studying and discussing these "players" and locations?   Yeah, it's like people and events from a soap opera have come to life!  It's kind of eerie!

Almost ten years ago now, my son Jon and I were on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  Well, Jon was the contestant and I was his "Plus One".  That show was produced in several different locations through the years.  At that time, the show was done in Stamford, Connecticut.  His episode aired several times.  The first time was on Columbus Day 2015.  Jon had "banked" $30,000 and was going for $50,000.  As his "Plus One" I gave him a wrong answer!  His "winnings" dropped to $5,000 and that was that!  Being on the show was what being in Canton, MA feels like right now.  It was so weird to be in studio and to be talking to Chris Harrison.  In the "green room" I'd also talked to other contestants and a producer.  I know the word is overused but it was surreal.  And, I felt the same way when I told a story at a MOTH Mainstage Event in Boston which was broadcast on their national radio program on public radio a couple of times.  When you're there and it's real it's what I call "a trip"!

I know this will sound crazy to some readers and that some will laugh at me or mock me.  But at Millionaire as I was experiencing everything remember thinking, "When I get to Heaven, I think it's going to feel something like this.  I read the Bible and I pray.  And I know God has done some powerful and significant things in my life.  But at some point I'll pass from this life into the next life - and I'll actually experience what Mercy Me sings about in their song I Can Only Imagine."  

I've experienced it before.  I'm experiencing it now.  And for sure, I'm going to experience it in Heaven someday - that Truth is not only stranger than Fiction - Truth is Reality!

Why I Identify With THE HURTING And With THE HELPER

 "Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."  (2 Corinthians 1:4)

Last week there was a rarity on television!  Something was "hyped to the inth degree" by CBS as something very important that must be watched.  In the past, a number of items have been similarly proclaimed by a television network.  The publicity may be "off the charts".  It's all you hear about!  It's all over social media.  You tune in.  You watch it.  And you think "Huh?  That was boring, stupid, and not worth watching at all!"  Last week was different.  Last week was surprising.  CBS proclaimed the Thursday, March 27 episode of Survivor as extraordinary - an episode which would feature one of the most powerful and important happenings on Survivor ever!  I did not watch on Thursday night, and I hadn't seen Survivor in over a decade, although at one time I watched the show regularly.  I watch a lot less television than I did at one time.  Frankly, I consider much of what's currently on network television to be garbage!  Saturday evening, I happened to be flipping through the channels.  I was surprised that Survivor was coming on, and as far as I could tell, it would be a repeat of the regular Thursday night episode.  I decided to watch and see what this great thing was which the network was proclaiming.  I wasn't disappointed!

It's still quite early in this season's Survivor.  There are still plenty of contestants.  There was (in my opinion) a pretty tough "physical challenge" in which they were all competing.  I want to focus on two competitors who were each on two different teams:  Eva Erickson, a 24-year-old Ph.D. student who is also on a female hockey team; and Joe Hunter, a 45-year-old Fire Dept. Captain.  Eva was giving her all to the challenge.  She succeeded, but it obviously was taxing for her, physically, mentally, and emotionally.  The only way I can describe it is she had what I call "a melt down".  She was crying, and trembling, and obviously distraught.  She was definitely "not okay".  The viewers could see that Joe was very compassionate and concerned for Eva.  Jeff Probst the host did something he pretty much never does.  He broke protocol.  He asked Joe if he wanted to go over and comfort Eva, and Joe responded in the affirmative.  He went to Eva. hugged her, tightly held both of her hands, and calmly instructed her to breathe as he gave her words of reassurance and told her it would be okay.

It didn't take long for Eva to become calm.  She then addressed everyone present.  She told them she is autistic and that she was diagnosed with autism as a young child.  Her parents were told all the things that Eva would never be able to do because she "was not normal".  Her parents chose to believe despite Eva's autism she could live a normal life and that there was not something deficient about her.  Eva was mainstreamed in school.  Things were not always easy for her.  She referred to what happened during the Survivor physical challenge as an "episode".  She explained that all her life she's had to deal with these "episodes" but that she has never allowed them to stop her.  As an amateur hockey player and a Ph.D. candidate, obviously she hasn't allowed autism to prevent her from success in life.  As for Joe, he commented that what he did for Eva is what he'd expect someone to do for his own daughter were she in a similar situation.

I cannot properly express how deeply moved and affected I was by watching this very powerful situation on Survivor.  In doing so, I realized that I definitely identified with Eva, who had been deeply hurting and that I also identified with Joe, who was the helper.

Many years ago, I used to describe myself as "eccentric".  I will say my wife never liked that!  It's true that when people think of an "eccentric" person, they tend to think of "a nut", of someone that just makes everybody uncomfortable and will never fit in.  That's really not what it means to be "eccentric".  Rather, the word simply means "outside the circle".  An eccentric person is one who marches to the beat of a different drummer.  I've always been that person.  But in more recent years, I've described myself as "unconventional" which for some reason is less off-putting to people.  I don't have the space here to write about the "eccentric" and "unconventional" things I've done in life.  It would probably take forty-seven paragraphs for me to do that!  I will tell you just one.  Most of you know I'm an Assemblies of God minister.  At our 1998 District Council which is a business meeting and conference of the AG ministers and church leaders in Southern New England, I brought forth a proposal to change the annual financial giving requirements for ministers.  As I stood there before a couple hundred people discussing my proposal (which I really thought was a great idea) I could just feel the negativity and disapproval in the room.  I was confident on the outside but began to feel pretty scared on the inside.  There was a "voice vote" taken regarding my proposal.  Suffice it to say, it lost.  I'd say maybe 4% voted For it and 96% voted Against it.  During the remainder of the conference, I wondered if people were looking at me and thinking, "There's that weirdo".  So, yeah, I've had plenty of my Eva Erickson moments.  And I believe that's made me more compassionate.

But I've got to tell you about Stephen Weber here.  Who is he?  He was another minister in the District.  Honestly, I hardly knew him.  A few days later he contacted me.  He told me he'd voted For the proposal and that he appreciated what I'd tried to do.  He gave me some good counsel which I never forgot.  He said, "You never bring a proposal like that by yourself.  You've got to have at least two other people with you.  And one of them has to be somebody who has some clout in the District."  Rev. Weber told me if I wanted to try again, and set up a committee of folks who'd like to work on bringing a future proposal about changing the policy regarding financial giving requirements for ministers, he'd be happy to work on it with me.

I never did.  And I'm not close to Stephen Weber.  He now lives in another part of the country.  But he did a lot to make me feel not like a jerk but rather like a valuable and thoughtful and important human being.  I think just his reaching out to me made a tremendous impact.  I relate to Joe Hunter.  When somebody's "out there" having "an episode" I want to be the guy who jumps in and helps and encourages and affirms that person.  And I really try to do that!

There's a lot more I want to say.  But I think I've made my point.  I can't believe I'm writing this but, Thank you CBS and Jeff Probst for that powerful episode of Survivor.  And Thank you Stephen Weber for what you did for me back in 1998.  And Thank you to all the eccentric and unconventional people out there, including but certainly not limited to people with autism.  You bring some important stuff to the table and teach all of us some valuable lessons.  And Thank you to all the Joe Hunters who don't care what anybody else thinks but don't hesitate to jump in and comfort and help folks who desperately need that comfort and help.

I know the cliche "W.W.J.D. - What Would Jesus Do?" got way overused back in the 1990s.  But in this Easter season, I hope you won't just follow the crowd and just do what everybody else is doing - good or bad.  I hope you'll remember that powerful scene from Survivor.  It's all over social media.  If you haven't seen it, you should be able to find it and view it pretty easily.  And I do hope you really will ask yourself in every situation, "What Would Jesus Do?"

Identify with The Hurting!  And when you are able to do so, Be The Helper!

LEAVING A LAUDABLE LEGACY

"Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:  Who have for my life laid down their own necks:  unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles."  (Romans 16:3-4)

Priscilla and Aquila were personal friends and ministry associates of the Apostle Paul in the first century.  You can read all about them in the Biblical Book of Acts.  It's been almost two thousand years, but they're still remembered.  They left a laudable legacy.  I'm age seventy.  When you're a teenager, you usually don't think much about death, funerals, where you're going to be buried, and what kind of a legacy you'll leave.  And unless there's some kind of a terrible tragedy like a fatal car accident, you don't usually find yourself going to friend's funerals.  At age seventy, it's a completely different ballgame!  As Jimmy Swaggart has said, that's a big part of the reason he sings that old song "Heaven's Sounding Sweeter All the Time".  At this age you frequently are facing the passing of friends and acquaintances.  Yesterday a dear woman named Sandra, from the church where Mary Ann and I attend, passed into Heaven.  It's a medium-sized church and Mary Ann and I live over fifty miles from it, so I can't say I have a lot of close friends there.  But there are people there who've made an impact on my life and Sandra and her husband Scott are among those people.  Scott's the church's Missions person.  He usually shares a Missionary Highlight during one service each month.  Since my daughter's a missionary, and one of those the church supports, that's important to me.  Sandra had a lot of health problems, especially during the past few years.  She was in a wheelchair.  I knew she faced a lot of physical challenges.  That's why I was surprised when several times over the past year, she'd signal for me to come over and talk to her, she'd give me a big smile, and she'd tell me how much she enjoyed reading what I post online.  I honestly don't receive much positive feedback about what I post online.  For Sandra to make a point of telling me that - well, it was pretty special.  I greatly appreciated it. 

A few months ago a woman from our church named Trisha also passed away.  She also had been a fan of my online writings.  (I know, that may sound awful... like my online writings make people die... I trust that's not the case!)  And then I think of my ministry friend Billy Meek in Tennessee.  He died during the Spring of 2023.  I can't tell you how many times Billy showed me love and encouragement.  He had very serious health problems.  Yet he used to say, "I still gots my joy!".  When he passed, I actually recorded a memorial piece about him on YouTube.

Legacy is so important!  What kind of a legacy will I leave when I pass?  My Dad was seventy-seven when he died, and my Mom was seventy-six.  I may not live more than a few more years.  The legacy I will leave is something I think about.  Billy, Trisha, and Sandra showed the great importance of being an encourager.  As a pastor I preached a lot of "Get your act together!" kind of sermons.  There is a place for sermons like that, but I think were I pastoring now, there'd be more encouraging sermons.  Honestly, I've gone through some serious depression and self-doubt over the past fifteen years.  People like Billy, Trisha, and Sandra (and there are others who are still alive!) have come to mean so much to me!  

I don't preach all that much anymore.  But I try whenever I can to be an encourager.  If one person at my memorial service someday says, "Bob Baril was an encourager" and I know about that in Heaven, there will actually be "tears in Heaven" from me.  They won't be tears of sadness; they'll be tears of great joy.

I hope this doesn't come across as morbid.  That's not my intention.  But as I'm typing, I'm thinking of the words of someone else I've known who is now in Heaven:  Opal Reddin who taught at Central Bible College.  She used to say, "There's a Heaven to gain, and a Hell to shun!".  Yeah, that's "old school".  It's what all the old southern evangelists used to say fifty-plus years ago.  And it's true. 

I have a bunch of handwritten notes in front of me.  There are other stories and other things I want to add to this.  But preachers have a habit of going on too long!  If I were actually preaching this from a pulpit, would it be better for me to continue on for fifteen more minutes?  Or would it be better for me to wrap it up and give an altar call?

You guessed it!  Maybe you're not in a place to get on your knees right now.  But spend some time with God sometime soon.  Allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart.  I know I don't want to be an overbearing jerk - and sometimes in life that's exactly what I've been!  No!  I want to be an encourager like Billy, and Trisha, and Sandra!  I hope you also want to Leave a Laudable Legacy!