"Turn Your Lights On"

 Several years ago, I attended an Alumni Officer Meeting at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  It was a three-day event to train State officers how to host an alumni meeting and how to solicit money from poor alumni, mostly ministers.

I found out that there are donors with lots of money that want to donate to our Southern Baptist Seminaries.  They give according to the number of alumni that give.  These donors reason that if alumni do not give to their alma maters, then why should they.

As an Alabama Baptist State Alumni officer, I supported the seminary by giving ten dollars for each year after graduating.  I encourage all alumni to give at least ten dollars.  The large donors do not look of the amount of each alumnus, but the number that give.  If you are a New Orleans alum, consider that ten-dollar donation.

One of the benefits of attending the meeting was the food.  The first night the Seminary hosted a crawfish boil.  There were two canoes filled with boiled crawfish, corn, and potatoes.  I am not a big fan of boiled “mud bugs,” but I do like their tails fried.  Being a big man, the servers thought I needed a large serving.  I gave them to a couple of my fellow alumni.  I did have a generous portion of corn and potatoes.  The warm brownie was pretty good too.

I ate at the seminary cafeteria for breakfast and dinner.  The second night the seminary took us to the French Quarters to eat.  Alan and Tony from Florida, Marco from Arkansas, and I went to Deenie’s.  Did I say that we walked the streets of New Orleans guided by a GPS?  I thought we would never get to Deenie’s.  It was fun trying to keep up with those technological advanced guys.  It was trying to rain and turning dark as we entered the restaurant.

I was hoping for some fried crawfish tails, but I settled for a generous portion of fried shrimp, catfish, and French fries.  I had the best time listening to these “music” guys argue over the validity of Contemporary verses Traditional.  I made the comment that Contemporary has been around so long that it has become the new traditional and that the millennials had their own style.  I thought they were going to pound me with hush puppies.

When we left the restaurant, it was still trying to rain.  We were to meet other alumni at the Café de Monde around nine.  As we hurried, we were stopped by a parade, in which I took part.  I have always wanted to be in one the funeral dirges in New Orleans.  Since Alan was most familiar, we followed him.  As we neared the Café de Monde, the parade stopped us again.  I told Alan that I could have stayed in the parade and beat them.

On the way back to the seminary in a steady rain, we had a black man following us and flashing his lights.  Now, it being a bad part of New Orleans and a little rain, it is not an area that you want to be stopping.  The driver of our rental was Tony, who is Puerto Rican.  He did not see the flashing lights; hear the honking horn, and the waving hands of the adjacent driver.  Alan and Marco did and they were very uncomfortable.  Tony and I were trying to see the poorly lighted streets.  Things have changed in New Orleans since Katrina and the once familiar was now the unfamiliar.  There remains much work and rebuilding to be done.  Some Baptists wanted to pull the Seminary out of New Orleans, but Seminary president Dr. Chuck Kelly reminded the powers that be that removing the Seminary would remove the little light that remains in the city.

Suddenly, the adjacent driver got along side of Tony.  Tony rolled down his window and the guy shouted, “You’re driving with your lights off.

That explains a lot.  That is the reason Tony almost went straight instead of making the curve.  It also explains why the cars were awfully close behind us and to the right.  That explains why Tony and I could not see the road signs until being right on top of them.

When Tony turned on his lights, we could see much better.  The only problem was we were very close to the Seminary.  We started to go back and see if we could see what we missed.

I have driven several times with my headlights off.  One time the Clanton police pulled me over for driving without headlights.  When asked why, I looked down at the dash and replied to the officer, and his green teethed sidekick, that I forgot to turn them on while I turned them on.  He told me not to get smart with him.  I did not get smart with him because I didn’t think he, nor his hayseed sidekick knew smart when they heard it.  They accused me of drinking and shined their big four-D batteries flashlights in my car.  Arguing with them that I did not drink, they again accused me of getting smart.  I looked them in the eye and told them they were crazy and pulled away leaving the green-toothed hayseed waving his flashlight.

My experience in New Orleans and in Clanton reminds me of Christians today.  We are traveling life’s highway, having a good time, and enjoying one another but our lights are not on.  Sure, we can see, but others may not see us.  Thank God for people like our black friend in New Orleans that reminded us to turn our lights on.  Seems like I read that somewhere.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 5:16 KJV).