Buckin Bales

I grew up in a fairly small town in the Southeast part of Missouri called Cape Girardeau, right on the Mississippi river. I remember in the fall we all looked forward to the college homecoming parade down Broadway.  I believe the whole town came out to see the bands and floats, and afterward would be the football game with the SEMO Indians and some other team.  It was small town America, where when a funeral approached, we always stopped and showed respect.  Also, when you heard a siren you got out of the way fast. 

During two weeks of every summer, I would go work on my grandpa’s farm.  I’m not sure how much I helped but he always included me in every project.  Most of the time I was at the farm when he was baling hay.  When I was younger, I would be in charge of driving the truck in the field in “granny low” as he called it.  But I was helping.  There would be one man on each side and a man on the truck bed stacking the hay.  When I got older, I asked grandpa if I could help “Buck” the bales.  He asked if I was ready for hard work and I assured him I was.  Mind you I was not going to let him or myself down.  I worked bailing hay and bucking bales for a week (that almost killed me) but I was not going to let him know. At the end of the week he gave me $20.00 and said, “you did a good job this week”.  For me $20.00 was a lot but it did not compare to the words he told me.  

Paul writes in Ephesians 4

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  

I know that he was patient and kind to me and his words and actions I hold dear to my heart.

Years later I moved from Missouri to Orlando, Florida.  Now I really do not know how but I just gravitated to water and the beach and could not get enough of being on a boat.  That was a piece of mind I could see myself adjusting to well.  However, the stress of the big city is something I look back on now and wonder how we maintained sanity.  Something is just not right when you go into town and it’s a success if you come home unharmed.  Now that is a bit of an exaggeration, but the fear is always there. Most people are too busy and caught up in their own world to stop and look around.  There is a whole different attitude living in the city which I never got used to.  We have friends that we are still in touch with and will always treasure them.  We had a friend visit us from Missouri and his analogy was spot on he said, “People down here are in such a hurry to get somewhere so they can relax”.

Paul continues in Ephesians chapter 4

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

We have been forced to live in different times.  We pray together for God to stop this pandemic. We pray for all of the nurses, doctors and first responders who put their lives on the line for our well-being. Since we have been in the panhandle, we have noticed people are looking out after people.  We care that Bill down the street who owns the local restaurant is struggling and we want to help his business out.  Or you see the Domino’s pizza manager standing in the middle of Highway 90 giving out water during the fires when everyone was stranded because traffic was not moving.  

We should look for the good and how we can help rather than have our blinders on.

Maybe its time we walk along a truck and buck a few bales.

God Bless

Mike