Long meetings, feeding, falling away

I spent six hours of my ten in the office yesterday with the person I am taking over for. We went over one procedure and started on a second one in that time. By the time 2:45 rolled around I told him I needed a break. I spent the rest of the day answering emails and catching up on some of my older assignments.


Don’t get me wrong. It was time well spent, but the magnitude of the work and the manner of presentation is taking me a little bit to adapt to. I know I can do the job, or should I say, jobs, but I will have to do things very differently than they are now being done. I hope those around me adapt well to the changes, because I will have to push them forward if I am to get a firm grip on the work.

In the Borger office I am one of the first ones in the office every morning I am in that office. In the Decatur office I am the first on in the office with rare exception. This week and last there have been visitors in the office here who usually office out of N Guymon and Dumas – offices in the panhandle area. They are here very soon after I get here every morning. It is rare to have someone from this office here before 6:45 a.m. It gives me a little time in the morning to get a head start on the day. That helps me greatly.

Mama went to vacation Bible school last night at our church in Decatur. She had to leave shortly after I got home. I did not go because the time slot for VBS was from 7 to 9 p.m. That put Mama home just before 10 p.m. After a usual difficult Sunday night I needed the rest. I went to bed at my grandchildren’s bedtime last night. I did get a good night’s sleep when I got back to sleep after Mama woke me up on her return home. I do not know who she was talking to but she was quite animated and quite loud as she related whatever funny story she was telling. I know I will hear some of the details today. I was not in a very receptive mood last night.

With her leaving at the time she did, Mama left the evening feeding to me. I was okay with the horses and the chickens but when it came to feeding the dogs I was a little baffled. I could not find the dog food. I knew we were running low, but I could not find any residue anywhere. I called Mama to find out what I was missing and found out the dog food was in the back of the car she was driving. I fed them some left over meat from too long ago, but they did not mind the questionable smell. To them it tasted fine.

Mama told me last night about two other well known preachers who have lost their ministries. One through an affair with a very young lady, the other because of an affair his wife was having. I was told that the one preacher had been in the adulterous relationship for over two years – during which time he stayed in the pulpit. That means he got behind the pulpit over three hundred times and preached as thought the Spirit of God was still with him. It is hard to imagine. If I had not just finished reading through Kings and Chronicles, I would not understand how God would allow such a travesty, but all through those four books you see the words, “he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

In many of those evil reigns the tenure was decades long. God is longsuffering, but His judgments will never fail. I wrote several weeks ago about a sermon I heard recently in which the major theme was that I would rather have the correction of God in my life than to suffer His judgment. The sentence on the pastor who committed adultery has not been executed by God yet. Only God knows what that judgement will be because of the many who will fall or be turned away from the Lord through his sin. We really must be very careful.

There but for the grace of God go I.