Pastor Buddy’s Blog

Journal,

When I look back over the years it is almost like viewing life through a kaleidoscope*. [*A complex pattern of constant changing colors and shapes.] Makes you wonder what happened to time itself.

Then I always remember how wonderful it has been to walk with the Lord these many years, and where this journey is taking me, and of course, where it is taking all of God’s children.

Perhaps the sage said it well enough, “For he [the blessed of the Lord] will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.” (Ecc5:20 nasb)

Yes indeed, I have been much occupied with the gladness of my heart over the years, but then there are times when I look back on where I came from, and I find it easy to recall scenes, events, conversations, friendships, among other things, and it seems like all those things happen just yesterday. 

Here is what I mean. When Elvis Presley was going strong in the 50s, I also was involved in Rock & Roll music. Had a group called ‘The Dizzy Cats.’ Yup, that’s me on the guitar to the left. I was about seventeen at the time. Course we didn’t amount to much in the rock and roll scene. But it seems like just yesterday?

But not long afterward at the age of eighteen, I found myself in the Navy. Spent four years as a radioman, mainly in the Philippine Islands and then aboard ship. Another seems like just yesterday?

Mustered out of the Navy, May, 1963, and in a few short months, September 9, 1963, I  married this beautiful girl from Colorado. (Originally from Oklahoma.) Where did the time go?

Early in our marriage I went into police work. From there I managed to hold various jobs. (Won’t bore you with the list.)

But how well I remember another good buddie that I had, long before the General became part of our life. His name was Butch, my police dog. In fact I can remember every dog that I ever had, even from my childhood. One thing my mom told Betty, is that ‘Buddy, loves his dogs.”

Would you believe that I miss Butch to this day? And I also miss, Missy, Prissy, Skeeter, Bo, Lep, Rover, Bear Dog … Wow, I could go on naming my good buddies.

But the question remains, ‘Where did the time go?’

Then when I think about Christian Challenge, and how those first two and a half years in Boyce were filled with memories. All I had was a stewardship from God to raise up a training ministry in Central Louisiana, on the order of the School of Prophets in the Old Testament.

I’ve never considered myself to be a prophet. In fact I don’t care much for people who like to put forth that they are prophets.

It was only years later that I came to understand what the Lord meant. Christian Challenge was to be a mentoring society in helping Christians reach their potential, not only in understanding their placement as ’sons and daughters of God,’ but also in learning to serve in the vineyard of the Lord.

When we started Christian Challenge, I was 35 years old, Betty was 33, Nathan 11, Andre 7, and Shana 2 years old. Actually our first service was on Shana’s second birthday. We had nine people in attendance. 

Can you believe it ? I was 35 and now I am 67. Where did the time go?  

So here we are, three children, ten grandchildren, and the question remains, ‘Where did all the time go?’

OK, thanks for taking time to look at the pictures and listen to my ramblings, but there really is a point in my asking the question, where did the time go?

Listen to what James said:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’

“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes aay.

“Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’” (James 4:13-15 nasb)

For a child of God this is a very wise and positive statement. The thing to remember is that behind every believer’s life there is an unseen hand that is guiding each of God’s children through life that is in accordance with God’s will and purpose. This is why we should always have an ‘Abba! Father!’ prayer as we learn to process life. (This is a ‘Father, not my will but Yours be done,’ prayer.)

Have you found that when we get in trouble it is usually when we try to take the reins of our own life in our own hands, for whatever reason. How many foolish mistakes have we made, from which the Lord had to rescue us? Should we not call to mind what Jesus told the disciples in that He would be with them [all of us] always, even to the end of the age?

OK, here’s a test. I want to challenge my readers to look back over your life and see if you can pick up instances where you can now say that the Lord was there, even though you did not recognize it at the time. In fact, you may have even been a sinner at the time.

Here is one from my own experience. In Junior High School I choose a class on art. Yet something happened that I came to resent at the time. There was another class that was short on students. A teacher came to our Art’s class, picked me and a couple of others and placed us in the Speech Arts class. She didn’t even ask for volunteers.

Wasn’t that a terrible thing to do to a young student who wanted to learn how to draw? Years later I came to realize just how very much the Lord was involved in my life from early on. Which class would serve best to give me a foundation in public speaking? As for art, it was just a way to get out of other classes.   — Sure. None of you have ever done that. —

But there is even a greater lesson that I want to get across. No matter how you look at it, life as we know it now is fleeting especially when compared to eternity. And this is where David gave some awesome instructions in regard to how we should look at life. Take time to meditate on Psalm 139. You may even wish to use it as a prayer?

Here goes. Go ahead and make it your prayer….

“O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

‘You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

“Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it all.

“You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

“If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me.

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,’even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.

“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.

“My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;

“and in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

“O that You would slay the wicked, O God; depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies take Your name in vain.

“Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139)

Yes indeed, I shared briefly on just a bit on my past life. And wouldn’t you know it — Inside of me I still feel like a 25 year old lad. The problem is that the outside of me does not want to cooperate. It says, ‘Slow down my friend. You are not as young as you use to be.’

Come on — Let me hear from you. This is a wonderful topic for sharing.

Much love coming your way,

Buddy