by The Rev. Ted Staton
April 10, 2014
…But I am but a mere lad!
Couldn’t find a Scripture about a Christmas drummer boy, so the young David may have to do:
I Samuel 17:
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
When I was younger, I often felt as David must have felt – you are too young. You are too little – on and on.
During this time of Holy Lent, battle may be the furthest thing from our minds. Quiet, prayer, fasting…these are our areas of focus.
But, like David, I want to help my Lord and my Church. I want to give to missions.
Our pastor, Lisa, preached on the 23rd of March about fasting and giving to the One Great Hour of Sharing an equivalent to the cost of the missed meal.
But who am I? I am just an old man. I have the 70 candles from my birthday cake and the stack of prescription medicine bottles to prove it. At least David could have waited to grow up a little. Can I wait to grow young? What can I – me – I do?
Well, about 22 years ago I was pastor to two sisters. One had 95 candles on her cake, the other sister had 96. They had outlived their respective spouses so they moved in together. Like a good pastor, I paid regular visits. One day I noticed a jar on the middle of the kitchen table. Money had been pushed through the slot in the lid. Thinking it was a collection of some sort, I offered to add my few coins. “Oh, no, Preacher, please don’t you do that. We don’t talk about this but since you saw it, here is the story. We don’t eat every Friday at noon. We figure what we saved from the food we did not have to buy and push that much money into the jar. Every so often, we take the money to the church for Our Daily Bread. We can’t do a lot, but we can do that.”
How can you be a witness when you are 95 and 96 and a widow? I am beginning to see. I am beginning to feel that 70 is not that old after all.
Prayer: “God, help me to follow the footsteps you set before me.”