Random Thoughts

Last week, I lost a dear friend, Wyndol Hart, a deacon in our church. He died from complications following a heart attack. He was well loved by the whole church. The young children quickly learned that he carried candy in his pocket, ready to hand out to them all. He was well known not only at our church and in our association, but he was well known by the southern gospel music crowd. As I write this, I’ve just remembered that he was always the one who organized the Valentines banquet, selling tickets and arranging for the entertainment. I’m sure that by the time that event comes around the Planning Committee will have it under control, but it’ll be different. He was very involved with our effort in building our new family life center.

I can’t help but wonder if it doesn’t say something about God’s timing when we look at how it all worked out. It was a long drawn out process, but we had finally completed the building and we had the dedication service. Within a week of that service he was gone. It almost seems like God wanted to let him see it through to completion before he took him.

His funeral is today and we’re expecting a big crowd. If it tells you anything, most of our college kids we sent away for school were back in the service yesterday because they wanted to attend his funeral. Because we may have more people than the seating capacity of our auditorium, we’re setting up a video feed to our fellowship hall for the overflow. I’ll be upstairs running the video camera.

I hope you’ll forgive me for the scattered nature of this post, but when I bought that camera I had one project in mind that needed a high quality camera. I could’ve done it with a cheaper camera, but I wanted a better one and I sort of justified the expense with that project. I’ve used that camera just for fun, but most of the use I’ve gotten out of it has been up at church. Life’s funny that way. You wonder about spending money on something you want because it seems selfish and then you discover that you use it more for God than for yourself. If I’d known that before for I bought it, I might not have struggled with the purchase so much.

That brings us to another big expense. By the strangest bit of timing, I have learned that my neighbor’s house has been foreclosed on and is going up for public auction next month. I’m really hoping that’s a God thing. I could’ve easily missed that public notice because I haven’t even looked at public notices until now. If I can put together enough cash soon enough and I can get it for low enough, I’d like to buy the house. The house isn’t in great shape, but that doesn’t bother me because what I really want to do is tear down the house and clear the land so my yard will be larger. It would be nice to think that the other potential bidders would recognize the house isn’t in good shape and not bid, but the people who buy houses at public auction don’t always know much about the houses they’re bidding on. I would sure like to come back at a later date and be able to say that I prayed like Jabez that God would enlarge my coasts and he did. But God is God. He may have something else planned for me.