Experiencing a growth spurt in my early teens, I became a maladroit
athlete. Another word for maladroit is
clumsy. I learned how to stumble without
serious injury by learning to hit and roll.
In fact, I made it an art, which was a great attribute to possess being
a practice dummy for the senior high football team that kicked and knocked me
around quite regularly.
Shouldering paper wood and walking in the woods through
honeysuckle vines and saw briars was a great learning tool for the art of
stumbling. It is amazing how many of
nature’s creeping plants can grab hold of a size 12 boots. Stumbling with a large stick of paper wood,
you learn quickly how to fall without serious injury.
My junior year, I remember one night I intercepted a pass
and headed for a touchdown. I had two
blockers, who should have been blocking, along side of me as I headed for the
end zone. The only man to beat was the
quarterback and we were behind him. He
chased, and at the last minute, drove to catch only the tip of my right cleat. I stumbled, falling short of the end
zone. I went rolling head over heels
like a ball. We did not score and
eventually lost 14-13. I watched the
play on film and the quarterback barely touched the tip of my toe.
Most people, who stumble, will jump up readily and look to
see if someone is watching. The other
day I stumbled on one of the boards I use for a ramp into my shed. It has flipped me on several occasions but I
have always landed on my feet. That was
until the moment when my neighbor was watching.
The board tilted throwing me toward the shed. Wanting to preserve my face, actually not
wanted any more scars, I used the poise of a ballet dancer to turn while flying
through the air, soutenu en tournant, and toward a host of scar making items. With the grace of a meteorite striking the earth
and the sound of an elephant falling into a room full of brass cymbals, I
miraculously landed sitting upright in the garage door.
Thinking of a moment that could have earned me a spot for
the grand prize on America ’s
Funniest Home Videos, except that no one was filming, I heard my neighbor
holler, “Are you okay?” I was until I
realized what a sight he saw. I assured
him that it looked and sounded more melodramatic than it was.
One Memorial Day my good friend and minister of music, Bill Baker,
took my son Aaron and me fishing on a slough converted into a lake on the Tombigbee west of Demopolis. We bought some minnows, called “menners” in Chilton County , and headed to a great day of
crappie fishing.
I got concerned about the size of the boat for the three of
us. Bill assured me that it was big
enough as we bypassed a larger one. Bill
would be running the trolling motor so he wanted a boat he could navigate more
easily.
We put the boat in the water and again I questioned the size
of the boat to the size of us three.
Bill said, “Preacher you get in first, Aaron can sit in the middle and I
will sit on the front.”
Slowly I maneuvered my way to the back, a floating boat is
an accident waiting to happen, trying not to stumble and fall into a cold lake. I had already experienced stumbling on a
rebar on a bridge and falling backwards, while holding and bending to rebars,
into a muddy creek where the high for the day was 14 degrees. Did you know that cold water will take your
breath?
I made it to the back of the dinghy, small boat, and as I
sat on the bench, the water came within an inch of the rim of the top of the
boat. I told Bill I thought we needed
the bigger boat. He assured me that it
would be okay and he told Aaron to get it.
Aaron, size 15 boot, tripped on the ice chest between the front and
middle seats and fell into my lifted and out-stretched arms. I broke his fall and kept him out of the
lake, but the dinghy sank to the bottom of the lake with me holding my precious
baby boy in my arms. I had visions of
the sinking of the Titanic. For a moment
I knew how the Egyptians must have felt when the Red Sea
came crashing in on them. I watched the
water come over the boat like a miniature Niagara
Falls wetting me to under my armpits. I was glad we were near the bank or we would
have perished.
Bill, holding the rope to the boat and I think humming Taps, bent over with laughter, fell to
the ground, and rolled on the bank laughing to the high heavens. Aaron made excuses for stumbling and we became
the other famous “Soggy Bottom Boys.” We
were not men of constant sorrows, but men who got the bigger boat and had a
great day of fishing, teasing, and laughing, with soggy bottoms.
We all stumble in many ways (James 3:2a NIV).
Now to Him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present
you faultless before the presence of His glory in great joy. To the only God our Saviour, through Jesus
Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and
now, and for evermore. Amen, (Jude 24-25 ASV ).
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