Here's Pastor Dave McDowell's weekly devotional that he sends out to members of his church. Dave is my brother and serves as the Music Minister at Stewartstown UMC in PA.
Valentines check
list
Chocolates............check
.
Flowers............check
Dinner
Out.............check
Mushy
Card............check
Rat Poison............say
what?
Let's chalk this one up
to
you learn something new
everyday.
I was
traveling
in the area of
my
family's get-a-way
cottage.
We were having a rodent
problem
and so I stopped in at a local
store
to pick up some rat
poison.
This was in small town,
USA
so it was one of only a few
businesses in town.
It quickly became apparent that
the cashier's counter
was a hot spot for local
information & gossip.
I couldn't find the poison and so
I asked
the cashier where it might be
located.
Oddly
enough,
another man perched at the
counter
answered
instead.
"Oh, it's in aisle
7.
Make sure you get the good
stuff."
Say what?
.
I went and found the brand
that I have used for
years
fully content that this was "the
good stuff."
I brought it to the
counter
and the man
said,
"Yup, that's the good
stuff."
I was content to let the
conversation
end with that curious
comment.
After all, you never know where a
conversation
about rat poison
might go.
I was about to find out.
But the man, who looked to be
about 100 years old continued.
"Yup, I've been using that
stuff for years.
Good
stuff"
I took the bait (pun
intended)
and replied,
'So you have a rodent
problem?"
"Nope," he
said.
Now, this old geezer had my
curiosity.
I decided to proceed, but with
great apprehension.......
"So, what do you use it
for
if you don't have a rodent
problem?" I asked,
not realizing that I had just
reached first base
in this unexpected game of
Crazyball.
"I eat
it,"
he said as he chomped on a big
piece of chewing tobacco.
At that moment, I was convinced
that I was either on Candid Camera
or in the midst of the
Twilight Zone.
I wanted to get out of there as
quickly as possible.
I have found that conversations
with crazy people
usually aren't overly
productive.
The cashier had been measuring my
look of surprise and confusion.
"Oh, he's not kidding,"
the cashier said.
I handed the cashier my
cash
hoping I could get out of
Crazyball as fast as possible.
But the cashier held my twenty
dollar bill (and me) hostage.
"He really does eat
it."
I reluctantly decided to head to
second base......
"Why do you eat it?" I
asked,
not sure that I wanted to hear the
answer.
"It thins my
blood,
I eat a piece every morning at
breakfast.
Put it in with my
oatmeal," he said very matter-of-factly.
If this was
Crazyball,
the pitcher had just released a
wild pitch over the backstop.
I had no choice but to go to third
base......
"So you eat rat poison with
your oatmeal
every morning, and it helps to
thin your blood?"
"Yup, it sure
does,"
he said between
chews.
"I give it to my wife
too."
I immediately said a prayer for
this woman whom I had never met.
"Been doing it for 50
years,
she's healthy as a
horse," he said very proudly.
The cashier rang up my
purchase.
I eyed the door as my escape to
sanity.
"Yup, you should try it."
he suggested.
By this time, I figured my
best
way of escaping from
Crazyball
was to try to steal
home
and get out the
door.
I grabbed my change and
mumbled,
"Yeah, maybe I will give it a
try."
As I darted for the door, he
blurted out,
"Just put a lot of cinnamon on
it.
You'll never know it was
there."
The door slammed behind
me.
Home run
Game over.
Crazy wins.
We all do strange things from time
to time.
Especially when love factors into
the equation.
How many of us have been
known
to do the outlandish when love is
young and blooming?
Sing a song in
public?
Buy a gift that is way out of the
budget?
Put a marriage proposal on a
billboard?
Yes, love sometimes motivates us
to do the strangest things.
If you think slipping rat poison
into a mate's oatmeal is bizarre,
how about willingly
receiving three nails into the flesh
for the sake of the
beloved?
As we practice acts of love on
February 14,
remember the journey of Lent
begins very soon.
What would possess a Father to not
only allow,
but cause a Son to suffer
such a fate
on behalf of a stiff necked
people,
many whom to this day,
still do not
receive this act of
rescue?
The
answer......
love.
Lent is not only a yearly ritual
of the church.
It is the journey for each one
of us
to walk towards the One that
loves us more than anyone else....
to stare into the heart of
God,
to witness the crazy act of
sacrificing love,
and to receive that
craziness,
knowing that we will be
forever changed.
Before you turn and walk out of
the door,
dismissing crazy as just being
crazy,
think how crazy it would
be
for you to reject a love that is
that deep.
As for my
oatmeal,
raisins will do my just fine,
thank you.
For the word of the cross is to those
who are perishing,
foolishness,
but to us who re being
saved,
it is the power of
God.
I
Corinthians 1:18
.
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