ADVENTURES IN FAITH                                                                                                                         FAITH IN ADVENTURES

FAIR PAYMENT by Kent Terry

 Almost everyone who has lived on a farm has bailed hay at one time or another. And, almost everyone who has done so will tell you that this is one of the worst jobs ever. As I remember from being a boy and helping farmers, you pick the hottest day of the year to do extremely physical labor for an awfully long time. Thus, I surprised myself somewhat when I offered to help my wife's brothers bail hay for my father-in-law Carl because I actually knew better.

The task didn't disappoint me! Bailing hay was just as miserable as I remembered from my youth. Although I was in my 50s and prided myself in staying in shape I certainly wasn't as strong as Ann's brothers but I was holding my own tossing bales from the field into the wagon. Naturally, it was terribly hot and I have to admit I had forgotten how sticky the chaff from the hail feels when it sticks to your sweaty body. While I can't say it was fun, I did enjoy working with Ann's brother and father until it was time to put the hay into the barn loft. Here is where the job turns from miserable to really miserable! At he end of the day, when all of us were the most tired, the bales began to pick up late afternoon moisture and weight more. The sun beat down on the barn roof and made the loft hotter and hotter. As the hay bails took up more and more space in the loft it seemed like there was less and less air and more and more chaff. Just about the time when I thought that my arms were going to fall off from tossing bails off the elevator we were blessedly done. My father-in-law gratefully thanked me for my help and offered to pay me.

I responded with a smile, "Carl, you can't pay me enough to bail hay."

I haven't bailed hay since that day and certainly don't plan to at any price, but this is not the point of the story. My time and effort was a gift and it was "small potatoes" or more to the point, inconsequential compared to the gift that God gave us. There is no way in the world we could ever compensate God for the gift of his Son's life on the cross that God Friday and for the even better gift, His resurrection.

                                                         

     ADVENTURES IN FAITH `FAITH IN ADVENTURES

                                                                        The Old Kodak

Psalm 90: 12  Teach us to realize the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom.  

    I love my office. It has items that I have treasure such as a framed picture of the Alamo that my grandfather made for me when I was a small boy and driftwood that my talented daughter Sara painted for me showing my favorite spot along the Fox River. Many of my favorite pictures are in my office including one that shows me climbing straight up a rock wall in Colorado and I put a yellow tag on the bottom with the words "fall risk!" I try not to be too much into personal honors , but the Volunteer of the Year award from the American Red Cross for my work in helping to restore my city of Marseilles following the disasterous flood of 2013 is in a prominent spot. All my religious books are kept here and on top of the fold down desk that I inherited from my grandparents is the diploma from my lay ministry instruction, a picture of my wife Ann and I from the day that I received this and a wooden cross carved by a friend. Among all this stuff, which at least I consider interesting, is something most people might miss seeing. On the book shelf there is a black and white Kodak picture going back to the early 1940s just prior to WWII.

    My father and his twin brother Ed were born in 1920 and my mother in 1922 and in this now browned Kodak picture the three young people barely out of their teens are pictured by a Missouri bay. What makes the picture so delightful to me is that my Dad and Uncle Ed are holding my mother up off the ground literally making a chair for her with their strong arms. I remember seeing this picture for the first time and exclaiming, "The were just kids having fun!" and the joy of the moment could be seen on all three of their faces.

    WWII soon intervened stopping all that fun and my father and uncle both served honorably. They serve who also stand and wait and my mother carried a locket, which of course I have, with Dad's picture until he returned from the Navy. My parents were married in 1944 and I was born three years later.

    This old Kodak picture is important to me on several levels. I was blessed to be with both of my parents as they took their last breath. I still have the vivid remembrance of carrying my mother weakened from cancer in my arms to her room when my sister Karen and I spent the last week of her life with her. This browned picture of my parents as young strong kids is a jarring reminder to me of the changes in life that we all go through. Whatever stage of life we are in, be that young and strong stage or in our later years when we look back longingly at those days, our lives are transitory or as the Bible puts it, "dust in the wind." 

    So, what's the most important object in my office. It is obviously the cross, or as I counted going shelf to shelf, crosses since I found 10 and may have missed some. Our lives may be short and obviously subject to many changes. These are not only physical as evidenced by the old Kodak picture, but also emotional from our life experiences good and bad. The constant through all these changes should be Jesus and I count growing up in a Christian home as one of my greatest blessings and not only is Jesus with ous through our lives, if we truly believe and confess our sinfulness, he can be with us through eternity.

    One more item from my office; hung on the wall by my grandparent's desk is a wood carving that I brought from the chapel at Mendota Lutheran Home where I had the honor to serve as Chaplain until it's closure. The beautiful carving shows Jesus knocking at the door, and that's our door whether we are a young child learning about Jesus in Sunday School, young adults in the prime of their lives like my parents in the Kodak picture or in the stage of our lives where the road ahead is far shorter than the road behind. It's a wonderful reminder to me, regardless of what stage my life is in, to not only open that door when Jesus knocks but to keep it open as well.

Kent Terry 3/8/21