Riding to Freedom

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    People die without consulting our calendars.

    Buuuuuuut if nobody dies by Friday (8/2), I'll mount Return and head off with my favorite freedom riders for our annual mandatory trek to...

    My bleeding pony got a transfusion from my best tech on Sunday, I topped off the air in Return's shoes on the way to the hospital on Monday, and now I'm doin' my best so BC can crack, "Man, you pack more crap for the road than a..."

    True.

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    On the eve of my ordination (5/8/77), my pastor and mentor The Rev. Harold F. Mante (RIP) cautioned me about three things.

    1. Never look at the giving records of church members because it will enable personal/pastoral prejudices.

    2. Never learn how to use the ditto machine.

    3. Never talk about compensation; 'cause if ya gotta ask, it's time to move on.

    True.

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    I've never seen a motorcycle parked in front of a shrink's office.

    If I have to explain that to you, you wouldn't understand anyway.

    So-called employers - real undershepherds understand those first two words of this sentence 'cause they know all about the real Employer - have saved lots of $ on me over the years 'cause I've been riding to freedom since I was 16.

    Of course, Return's gettin' up there avec moi and needs reincarnation before the parousia; and I'd have the $ right now if I hadn't squandered so much, given so much away, and been stiffed, cheated, and...

    I'm not complaining.

    Getting back to Pastor Harold, he asked by way of saying before he'd sign off on the ordination, "If you care about money or expect to be paid fairly or even adequately or trust that someone will..., don't even think about it.  But He will take care of your needs and even bless some of your desires if you care more about ministry than $.  You'll learn about those angels as time goes by..."

    Actually, that conversation repeated a conversation that occurred when I was in 8th grade as we were strolling across the seminary campus that I'd eventually attend.

    Reminds me of something that a senior wrote in my yearbook at the end of 8th grade: "May you live as long as you want to and want to as long as you live."

    True.

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    There are five, uh, blessings that keep me sane amid the miscreants, meanness, madness, and misery of modern ministry.

    Except for the last One mentioned below, they are complementary rather than hierarchically listed.

    Billy.

    He's a Special Olympics world champion golfer.  By promises by providential call to his sister then father now mother, Billy is the brother that I never had, I'm the father that he still needs, and, apart from Jesus, is the #1 encourager in my life.  If you pick up Henri Nouwen's In the Name of Jesus that I read when it came out in 1991 or about 14 years before He put us together, you'll catch the...

    Return.

    When we're riding to freedom, it's the only time that I'm not chained to the church, cellular, or cyberspace.  If you pick up I Just Wanna Ride and help sales go viral after over a year of non-best-selling publication for Return's reincarnation, you'll catch the...

    Family.

    My wife and sons even when...  Uh, if I have to explain that to you,...

    Covenant brothers.

    Uh, see the second fragment of the preceding blessing.

    Jesus. 

    My Lord and Savior.  Psalm 62.  If I have to explain that to you,...

    True.

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    Back in the early 70s, George Sweazey often told us in the school that was/is supposed to get girls/boys like me ready for ordination, "Preach every sermon as if it is your last one."

    That's why I can't preach without talking about Jesus.

    Our Lord and Savior.

    Psalm 62.

    If I have to explain that to you,...

    True.

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    Sooooooo this is the last edition of KD until sometime after 8/8 or unless...

    True.

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Blessings and Love!