Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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When driving away from home, we generally travel a couple of car lengths east, then make a gentle U-turn westward. Recently as I was pulling away, I noticed two lines of information on my truck’s instrument panel. The first said, “492 MILES TO E,” and the second said, “E 211608 mi.” As soon as I made the U-turn, the top line remained the same, but the second line changed to, “W 211608 mi.” So, I think I probably found the halfway point between “E” and “W” because I was headed west and should arrive at “E” in 492 miles. Certainly by now y...
I didn’t have a good story to tell on someone, including myself, I could use as the basis for this Quay County Sun article. So I resorted to checking the internet for interesting facts about March 4 because there’s a maximum of 366 days each year and something of interest has happened on each date at sometime within the 5,000 years or so of recorded history. Believe it or not, one website states March 4 is Grammar Day (https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-grammar-day-march-4/) — Ewwwww! I’ll not say much more about that for fear of adding...
I write for work in addition to these religion articles for the Quay County Sun. There are a few words that took me a while to figure out. “It” is an easy word for me to deal with, but I used to get “its” contraction with “is” (it’s) confused with “its” possessive (its) because, as everybody knows, possessives are made by adding the apostrophe “s” to the end of any noun. Some Bible words have been confused by men, leading to many of the denominations present today, which isn’t what Jesus wants (John 17:20-23; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephes...
Stickers, like goatheads and sandburs, can get on shoes and clothing and be brought inside buildings, such as homes, where they can cause problems for us or others. They can even be transferred to couch cushions where they affect our backsides – Ouch! (Been there!) Our church goes to a place each month where, if you step off the sidewalk, you’ll get sandburs on your shoes. Recently, after entering that building, one of our members was observed to have something on his shoe that turned out to be a cluster of sandburs. He was teased for hav...
Surely you’ve heard statements about truth being stranger than fiction. Here’s one: During a recent out-of-town trip, we bought some groceries and other things hard to find locally. Before we left for home, a backseat passenger (I was driving) asked whether he could work the puzzle on the back of a cereal box. So I handed him the box and a pencil. After finishing the puzzle, he asked if/when we’d stop for supper, saying he was starving because staring at the box of Bran flakes (no raisins) made his mouth water. Mm mmm! Bran flakes! Now, how man...
“No more let sin and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground!” — verse from the hymn “Joy to the World” Quay County is infested with goatheads and sandburs that are moved around on tires and people’s shoes. However, very safe and effective herbicides are available to kill weeds as they germinate or after they emerge aboveground if the label is followed. So there are preventive and curative measures to stop the spread of weeds, including goatheads and sandburs. The ground has been weed-infested since Adam first sinned (Genesis 3:17-18). G...
I was working on an article about truth being stranger than fiction with a few real life examples when I realized that my next article would come out right at Christmas Day. So, thinking quickly as if on my feet while I sat at my desk, I developed a Christmas article with a similar theme because the real-life events of Jesus’ birth include some aspects that are truth stranger than fiction. Actually, his whole life was a matter of truth stranger than fiction, but it was all prophesied centuries before. So no one during his lifetime s...
There are fewer than 14 shopping days left before Christmas! Are you ready? I am — that is, if a replacement present arrives in time. You see, I had my wife’s present delivered well ahead of time, but it was delivered to our house (along with several packages she’d ordered) instead of my office, which was the address on the label with my name on it and she opened it accidentally. That was nobody’s fault but the delivery service’s, as my wife would never want to spoil Christmas surprises. Still, I felt I needed to get her another gift, and...
It's Thanksgiving week, and I pray all travelers and those staying home will have a safe and happy holiday. While we should be thankful to others for kind deeds or service they do for us, including our veterans, current military and first responders, the ultimate recipient of our thanksgiving should be God. Often, when I thank someone, I also thank God for sending him or her into my life, but a real eye opener occurs when I do something for someone else and receive a blessing. I immediately count that as a blessing for entertaining an angel...
Monday was Veterans Day. Thank you veterans for your service to our country! Without that, we wouldn’t have the freedoms we enjoy. Many of our nation’s veterans have come home physically and/or emotionally/spiritually maimed by the horrors they’ve experienced. It’s well past time we started honoring and taking care of our veterans, and I’m proud of the recently initiated changes to that end. Like Americans, Christians enjoy considerable freedoms in several areas. First, is freedom from guilt because our sins have been forgiven [Hebrews...
It’s Halloween time with all its symbols from various sources, even some based in Christianized pagan rites. Much of the Christianized component originally was associated with the fear of death and its defeat by Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection (en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Halloween; Hebrews 2:14-15). For example, the skulls so prevalent today originally represented the place of Jesus’ crucifixion (John 19:16-18). Also, dressing up as scary figures (guising) is based in poking fun at Satan because of his defeat by dressing up as once-...
Oct. 12 historically was celebrated as Columbus Day in most of the USA because on that date in 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on one of the Bahama Islands. This event’s celebration was made a Monday holiday, like many others, being celebrated this past Monday. I see several points of interest about Columbus and the day celebrating his “discovery” of America. First, the Vikings were in the Western Hemisphere centuries before Columbus, but they didn’t colonize it like the more southern Europeans who followed Columbus. Besides that, those w...
Recently, I wrote about picking up trash along U.S. 54 and that on one such occasion, I found a pair of unmatched left-handed work gloves. I threw them away because they didn’t match, and I don’t have two left hands (I do have two left feet, however!). That previous article’s point was we’re to test everything holding on to the good and throw out the evil. Another thing that reminded me of was, until not too long ago, naturally left-handed individuals were forced to learn how to write and do other things right-handed. Maybe that’s why I onl...
We’ve all heard comments along the lines of, “When the door of opportunity opens, you’ve got to walk through it,” or “When God closes a door, he always opens a window.” Just after stating we’re saved by grace through faith and not by our own works, God, through Paul, tells us we’re saved to do good works he prepared for us before we became Christians, and God says through James we must do those works to prove our faith (Ephesians 2:8-10; James 2:14-26). Our faith alone isn’t what saves, either. Nevertheless, while God completed the wor...
We pick up trash along U.S. 54 about twice a year and, every once in a while, we find something of potential value and put into a separate bucket with recyclable plastics, cans, bottles, etc., for further inspection after the picking up is done (we also carry a trash bag). You know, one man’s garbage is another man’s gold; or, sometimes people get in a hurry and unintentionally throw out valuables. I found a nice, full toolbox at an illegal roadside garbage dump once while walking home from school. Anyway, during the most recent trash pick-up o...
We found a paperback book at our house about a year ago that does not belong to anyone living here. So, we’ve been asking those who visit whether it’s theirs. Recently, we asked a mid-30s, single male family member, and when he heard the title, he said it might be his and asked to see it. Whether it actually was his, he was interested because of the title, that is, until he read the banner above the title, “Heartwarming Inspirational Romance.” Obviously, the rest of us had a laugh at his expense because he’d originally misinterpreted the title,...
I read signs and often find some rather interesting, if not outright funny. I saw one once on the back of a tractor-trailer saying something like, “We drive with lights on, hands-free and text-free.” I’m sure we all understand that was a safety promise about the driver keeping his or her hands on the steering wheel rather than messing with a cellphone; however, when I saw that, my first thought was, “Look Mom! No hands!” Most of us (guys, anyway) can remember yelling that the first time we rode our bike past the house after we learned h...
I often quote sayings from Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” such as the dwarfs’ response to Snow White’s question about when they last had washed their hands, which was, “Recently.” I also like Grumpy’s response to Bashful’s question, “What are wicked wiles?” which was, “I don’t know, but I’m agin ‘em!” While Grumpy was referring to the behavior of even angelic-appearing females being poison, he was on target about being against wicked wiles. Satan and his minions appear as angels of light (truth), whether or not they know they’r...
Here’s one for ya: How many aircraft technicians does it take to change a light bulb? I don’t know, but here’s what actually happened recently. We had flights booked since March to send our grandson to visit his mother and for me to attend a conference and spend a few days away with my wife. About two months after booking the flights, our flight was cancelled, and we had to reschedule. Not a problem, but it threw us two hours later arriving. The morning of our flights, I was texted the second leg of our rescheduled flight was cancelled. The t...
The movie “Braveheart” ends with William Wallace, a leader in the First War of Scottish Independence (against English rule), portrayed as proclaiming, “Freedom!” while being executed in 1305. I think his statement carried two messages. One was to the English they really hadn’t conquered the Scots by putting him to death; they merely were giving him his freedom. The second message was to the Scots: If they continued their fight for independence, they’d gain their national freedom by defeating the English or their personal freedom similarly a...
This Friday, June 14, is National Flag Day (usflag.org/history/flagday.html). The American flag is a symbol of unity with reminders for the present (a star for each of the current 50 states) and our origin (a stripe for each of the original 13 colonies who declared their/our independence from tyranny and who developed the Constitution of the United States by which we have existed as a nation and probably only by which we can continue to do so). Although no official declaration has been made about the colors except the specific colors...
Our locally owned restaurants have rightful claim(s) to fame. While we might debate in our household over where to eat, or not eat fast food for a while, there’s seldom, if ever, any debate about where to have a sit-down meal because they all have multiple choices of good food (we might struggle within over our own personal selection at any given time or eatery). A specialty of local Cornerstone’s is Mercy Me, a pie made with Carolina reaper, Trinidad scorpion and bhut jolokia chili peppers. These are the three hottest known peppers with 2.2...
May Day, usually falling on May 1 (for obvious reasons) but not everywhere, is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival celebrated with dances, singing and cake. Being of pagan origin, as with many such celebrations, attempts were made to "Christianize" the holiday. Early European settlers brought May Day to North America, where, if celebrated at all, festivities vary greatly from region to region in the USA, with some having a political agenda. Most commonly, small baskets filled with flowers or treats are left at someone's doorstep, and...
This was to be my April 3 article, but I didn’t have all the necessary information to submit it before that issue’s deadline. So here it is now. March 1 was a sunny 77 degrees at Tucumcari, and March 2 also was nice. But, March 3 and 4 didn’t get over 30, with lows around 10 and snow. March 31 was 65 degrees, immediately preceded by 50 and followed by mid-70s. So, what happened? Did March come in like a lamb with mild weather or like a lion with sunny weather as opposed to the next few days, which were either white like a lamb or harsh like...
As for every month on the Roman calendar, March 15, was called the Ides of March, which was last Friday. On the Ides of March in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated by as many as 60 conspirators, many of whom he counted among his friends and led by two of his closest friends. They all took a stab at killing him (you have to know the history or read Shakespeare to get that one). Caesar was warned by a seer harm would come on or before the Ides of March, and on that very day, Caesar mocked the seer as he approached the place of his...