A Summer Reflection 2010 - from Philippians 4:12

This has been the first summer that I have not traveled to Brazil - or somewhere overseas for either mission, study or both - for some time. The alternative? I stayed 'home' - braving both the heat and the summertime mood of the people whom I pastor. What I have found has been a nice blend of respite and work, as well as a sparing of my usual summer travel angst - for a kind of reconnection, if you will, with both the needs and pressures of the people who live and work in our city.

What I also have found is that John Mellencamps' tune, "I was born in a small town," is becoming an increasing cry for what was, not what is - making me think I am hearing it regularly and soulfully played from the heart of the folks of my charge. Was it really that good? (I mean in YOUR small town?). Well, probably not. But, is it really this bad? Unfortunately, to most, probably so! For what I sense is that folks here are tired, frazzled, discouraged, and, in some cases, just plain mad.

Now at the end of my summer I took a road trip - 14 hours and 900 miles - going through some of your small towns along the way. Towns like Chilicothe, Calrendon, Wichita Falls and Amarillo. I saw the overgrown rodeo stands of Quanah, Texas, and the wistful past of Dalhart and Dumas. In New Mexico, things were not much brighter, and once in Colorado and on Interstate, just more of the same - bad fast food and fast, fat folks eating the wrong stuff and taking wrong pills to feel better. Being a pastor, I talked. Asking questions and listening - to discover this - most folks, especially those young and in the middle, want desperately to be somewhere else. Their town, whether small, medium or large, is not what they want. And somewhere, somewhere 'out there,' there exists for them a place, actually more a circumstance, for which they daily and dolefully pine.

So that I wondered, is it really that bad back home? Is it really so bad in this 'terrible, horrible, place - that I, you, or anyone else can't make it, through Christ, that place of joy, love and happiness? Or... could it be that we all have just lost the how by pining for the was? I suspect the latter, don't you?

One last thing, though, if I might. Yesterday I drove the other way, down through Mexia, Texas (the place of my birth) - on my way to take Trey and his Mom on a visit to College Station. And, yes, the Dairy Queen is shut down - but there is a Taco Bell! Inside was a young man who asked me 'where' I was from? I paused, thought for a moment about what he was asking and why, then said, "Mexia." He looked at my car, my clothes, and at me - then smiled to say, "I am, too!"

Till Sunday, then -

Pastor Sam