Getting away from it all: five days and 1800 miles

I left home last Friday morning driving toward Charlotte. “Why don’t you fly?” asked a friend. “You can be there in two hours, for Pete’s sake.” She didn’t understand. Getting there was only half the point. Getting away was the other.

A longtime friend on the staff of First Baptist-Statesville, NC, had invited me to preach Sunday morning. And since our granddaughter Darilyn had recently made her profession of faith at their church in Charlotte, Idlewild Baptist, we asked Pastor Keith Whitener if I could baptize her Sunday night. “You can,” he said graciously, “if you’ll preach for us.” So I was headed north.

I love to drive, and love the solitude in the car. Once when my car radio broke, I went for a year without getting it repaired. I think out loud, pray, recite Scripture, and do nothing.

We could call this by many names. De-stressing. Finding yourself. Resting the mind. Restoring the creative impulse. Escape, maybe. Whatever.

At times, driving along the interstate, I worked in a blacksmith shop shoeing horses. I sweated across burning western deserts while buzzards circled above and Apaches lurked behind every rock. I fought it out with bad guys in saloons and led cattle drives up the Chism. All of which is to say, I listened to a package of Elmore Leonard’s Western Stories on CD, read by actors like David Strathairn and Tom Wopat.

For a while each day, I was a teenager back on the family farm singing gospel songs at the top of my lungs, heard only by my mule and ten acres of knee-high corn we were plowing. I turned up the volume and let the car vibrate with the sounds of “No Other Name,” the incredible Nashville trio which has blessed me so much lately. I wept a few times and laughed at others, and worked at finding my harmony line on the choruses.

I memorized the 20th Psalm. Ever since Pastor Greg Morrow of California, Missouri, sat in our conference room two weeks ago and read all nine verses to New Orleans Pastor Lionel Roberts, I’ve been stunned at how perfectly it fits our situation, and convinced that it is medicine to the burdened to have it blessed upon them. I’d copied it out by hand on a huge sheet of newsprint so I could read a verse at a glance and not endanger anyone on the highway.


At times, driving back south, I relived incidents and laughed out loud. Sunday morning at the Statesville church, the minister of music announced that much of the music would be in honor of the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When I rose to preach, I said, “I love Mozart; that was wonderful. I was just thinking, as director of missions for a large number of churches in New Orleans, we may have two or three who celebrated Mozart’s birthday today. But we probably have twenty or thirty that celebrated Bill Gaither’s. And a couple that probably celebrated Minnie Pearl’s!” They took it for the harmless silliness I intended.

Sunday night, just before baptizing our adorable eight-year-old, I said to the congregation–with my son and daughter-in-law and a large number of their friends present–“Someone has said that grandchildren are God’s reward for you not killing your children when they were teenagers.” They all laughed at that old line, then I said, “Marty will never know just how close he came.” Some of them are still chuckling at that. No, he didn’t come that close. It was just another bit of silliness, the type of humor that seems to work so well for me these days. Darilyn was so sweet, standing waist-deep in the warm baptistry, calling out confidently “The Lord Jesus Christ” in answer to my, “In whom do you put your trust?” She knows.

I prayed, trying to practice what I preach and praying “big.” Nothing new to report on these prayers, just doing what God’s people often do–praying the same request again and again until either the Lord answers or assures you that He has heard and you’re okay to move on. Praying for a “new and improved” New Orleans. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.”

Nothing de-stresses like visiting with a good friend. Dr. Bob Cline is vice-president for church relations of Anderson University in South Carolina. We’ve been friends nearly 20 years ago, back when he pastored the Kilborne Park Church in Columbia, and I did a revival with him. His son Nathan is a student at our New Orleans seminary and Bob just helped him and his wife move back from Houston. I called Bob on Friday and we made plans to meet in a coffee shop inside Anderson for an hour Saturday morning. Bob had tree-cutters at his house and had to get back soon. Noticing the cashier’s name was “Kat,” I said, “Katharine?” She said, “Katrina. Now you know why I just say ‘Kat.'” Indeed.

I spent Monday night with my parents at the family farm outside Jasper, Alabama. By then, the driving had sapped my energies so much, I wasn’t very good company and after a couple of games of rummy with Pop–he won both–went to bed early. Which is another great stress reliever, incidentally–sleep. Tuesday morning, I had breakfast with Mom and was on the road by 8:15.

Then, Tuesday night at home, listened to the President’s State of the Union report. This is as much show biz as anything Hollywood turns out, all the celebrities in the audience, everyone listening for their names and their pet projects. We were listening, down here in New Orleans, for some indication, some clue, that “W” gets it, that he intends to keep his promise to rebuild New Orleans. Alas, he barely mentioned us and may as well not have, for all it meant. Lip service. Lest anyone misunderstand me, I voted for him twice and I’m in the 39% supporting him. I love the guy. But it’s time he quit taking the tours of the Ninth Ward–he’s been here nine times, I think someone said–and started doing something. This guy Donald Powell, whom he appointed to head up the federal government’s rebuilding programs, is a cipher. Garland Robinette, afternoon talk-show host on WWL radio, gave himself an ulcer trying to get something out of the guy the other afternoon.

Wednesday morning’s Times-Picayune reprinted a New York Times editorial, “Louisiana caught in limbo.” It refers to our state’s representative Richard Baker’s plan in Congress for the government to buy up all the devastated property and resell in large tracts to developers who could then rebuild the city in planned, orderly, modern communities. Everyone comes out ahead, and it might even be a wash, economically. Here’s some of the editorial…

“… the Bush administration has now rejected the most broadly supported plan for rebuilding communities while offering nothing to take its place… To add insult to injury, two days after the White House shot down Baker’s proposal, President Bush suggested at a news conference that Louisiana’s problem was the lack of a plan.

“Instead of an alternate solution, the president’s Katrina czar, Donald Powell, has offered sleight of hand, touting $6.2 billion in development money for Louisiana passed last year by Congress as if it were somewhow a substitute.”

“Now, Congress has a responsibility to follow its own lead rather than the president’s. We were outraged once, shocked at the images on our television sets, at the poverty in our collective backyard, and the devastation of a great city. As the disaster threatens to become permanent, we have every reason to remain so.”

Oh well, it was a great weekend.

3 thoughts on “Getting away from it all: five days and 1800 miles

  1. I listened to the president on Tuesday night also. I understand that you are down in New Orleans living the struggle of trying to help put things back together. But I wonder what the Louisiana government s doing to help and the New Orleans goverment. What is their agenda?

    I love your emails and make copies to past out to some that do not have computers. But to be honest, I’m tried of everyone blaming George Bush for everything that has happened and everything that has not happened. It’s the same thing as blaming you for all the New Orleans churches (damaged or destroyed) not being rebuilt by now and all the congregations not sitting in the new pews and all the pastors not being back in their own pulpits by now. To me there is no difference. I agree, New Orleans needs help and so does the MS coast, and so does our pockets from the rising cost of gasoline, heating costs and out sourcing of jobs. But blaming George Bush is not going to get it done, start with your local goverment and your elected state officals.

    Then go up the ladder.

    I really do understand that you have a mountain to climb in getting New Orleans back on it’s feet. And my prayers will continue for your and your city. I will always remember our many trips to New Orleans visiting my son and daughter in law, the wonderful old city and great food like no other.

    Continue your road, God called you to New Orleans for a reason.

    Lanette Wold

  2. Dear Joe,

    I had to chuckle when I read that you were memorizing Psalm20…copying it out by hand on the huge sheet of newsprint in order to read it at a glance.

    Steve prints his verse for the week out on the computer in about size 20 font so that he can put it on the dash or seat of the car, pick it up at

    stop lights or in long lines of B.R. traffic and study/memorize it.

    Last Tuesday night our group leader/facilitator was pairing us up asking for tips on how to accomplish personal disciplines and encouragement;

    > i.e. prayer, Bible reading, scripture memory, (there were 9).

    > She asked Steve to show/share his method of memorization. He showed his’sign’. Of course he was being serious. But EVERYONE in the room

    could read the verse! That’s when it dawned on me that he could evangelize 4 lanes of

    traffic at a time with his verse at one stop light! It did get pretty funny.

    But, I am not sure he appreciated that ‘enlightenment’.

    I wonder if there will be scripture flashers in our city traffic this week? That would definitely be a welcome change.

    Blessings.

    Keep your eyes on the narrow road

    Mary

  3. Hi, Joe.

    I had to chuckle when I read that you were memorizing Psalm

    20 copying it

    out by hand on the huge sheet of newsprint in order to read it at a

    glance.

    Steve prints his verse for the week out on the computer in about

    size 20

    font so that he can put it on the dash or seat of the car, pick it

    up at

    stop lights or in long lines of B.R. traffic and study/memorize it.

    Last Tuesday night our group leader/facilitator was pairing us up

    asking for

    tips on how to accomplish personal disciplines and encouragement;

    i.e.

    prayer, Bible reading, scripture memory, (there were 9).

    She asked Steve to show/share his method of memorization. He showed

    his

    ‘sign’. Of course he was being serious. But everyone in the room

    could read

    the verse. That’s when it dawned on me that he could evangelize 4

    lanes of

    traffic at a time with his verse at one stop light. It did get

    pretty funny.

    But, I am not sure he appreciated that ‘enlightenment’.

    I wonder if there will be scripture flashers in our city traffic

    this week? What an improvement that would be!

Comments are closed.