"Ability to Shoot from the Hip"

Several years ago, one of our pastors, now in another part of the state, asked me about my ability to “shoot from the hip.”  He said his church wanted to know how I did it.  I said that one should never rely on “shooting from the hip” as a way to handle life’s situation.  The ability to “shoot from the hip” is as coaches teach players.  Practice your position so well that it becomes second nature without really thinking.

I told my pastor friend that I constantly read books and articles.  I am storing information that can be retrieved as needed.  Most things we do require thinking and contemplation.
My personality in decision-making requires that I gather the necessary information, meditate, and sleep on it.  “Shooting from the hip” is more exceptional, than the rule of thumb.  It is great to have the ability, but it must be tempered and preceded by thought and reflection.  Folks up home have a saying, “He is sharper than a stepped-on thumb tack.”  All I can say is that the tack has been stepped on a lot if it is sharp.

I never will forget my first day at the cement plant.  The yard foreman was conveying to me why the plant had the reputation for high wages.  He said that it was hot, nasty, hard, and dangerous work.  Reality hit when he said, “You may walk in the plant, but if I did not work safely, co-workers would carry my dead body out.”   I responded, “Yes sir!”

We had regular safety classes.  Everyone that worked rotation had to either stay past quitting time or come in early to attend TAKE 2 classes.  Gerald Thomas from Georgia taught these classes and was a good teacher.  TAKE 2 started in North Alabama at a chemical plant.  The spokesperson was said to be a custodial worker with a very good voice.  I had my doubts, but the old gentleman did have a very good speaking voice.  The chemical plant produced a movie clip that focused on different scenarios where people would get hurt.  It was very good, but it was no Hollywood production.

There was jingle with the presentation that stuck with you after the class.  TAKE 2 meant that one would take two minutes to think about the situation before taking action.  TAKE was an acronym for T, have I Talked over the situation, A, what Actions will I take, K, do I have the Knowledge to perform the task, and E, do I have right Equipment to do the job safely and correctly.

The film would show an employee who did not take time to review the job that resulted in the employee injuring himself.  The narrator would reiterate what the simpleton did wrong and then the same employee would do it correctly following the TAKE 2 steps.

There were several jobs where TAKE 2 had to be automatic and fast reaction saved lives and equipment.  Employees had to be fast, but not careless.  At every safety meeting, Gerald would handout “Fatal Grams,” papers containing reports of fatalities in cement plants, and other related industries.  These men and women walked into the plant, but coworkers or rescue squads carried them out.

Taking 2 is important in ministry.  One of my former pastors of my home church, David Myers, talked with me about being a pastor.  He said, “Bobby, as one of your dads in the ministry, let me give you one piece of advice.  Church members will come to you with difficult problems expecting you to fix it.  Tell them that you will take it with consideration of prayer and genuinely pray.  Wait on God to solve it or give you an answer.  Most preachers run ahead of God trying to fix the problem, if they had waited, God would have taken care of it.  Take time to let God work.”  That is why so many preachers get in trouble and must find another church.

I can say that after thirty plus years of ministry, Brother David was right just as David of the Old Testament:

And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;  And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.  So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.  Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.  And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.  And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.  And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.  And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all (I Samuel 30:1-8 KJV).

 

King David was pretty decent at shooting from the hip in his younger years; just ask the Goliath family, but learned wisdom in seeking God as he faced life. 

A Road Renewed

I had a wonderful dream a moment ago

Aaron and I traveled down a fresh graded dirt road

 

It was beautiful as we held hands and walked

Suddenly he let go as a friend yelled and talked

 

Separated for just a moment by a machine

Aaron was gone and not seen

 

As I looked for him with fear in my heart

Around a beam he came swift as a dart

 

He grabbed for my hand with a look of relief

Falling and losing his candy and chips in temporary grief

 

I cringed in pain as he slammed his small hand on a piece of steel

He gave a sign that he was okay and that the pain was real

 

He looked up with eyes of concern of what I would do

I looked back with eyes that said are you hurt and I love you

 

He picked his candy bar, chips, quickly reaching for me

Together we continued down an old road renewed to see

 

All the things one sees in dreams when he longs for sons away

Smiling as he awakes and remembers that they will be back one day

 

Wonderful dreams from God, a loving Father, during a morning time snooze

Gee, I hope the boys come back for we do not have many days to lose

 

As the story in Luke’s gospel where a father longs for a returning son

Seeing him coming down a road renewed knows a new beginning has begun

 

So, thank you Lord for the visions and dreams of old men

They remind me that old things pass away, and renewed roads begin

 

 

 

Written January 18, 2022, Andy’s 46^th Birthday for Aaron and Andy while they are away from me physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  I know one day that we will walk together again.  bobby e. hopper   

 

 

Snow on Your Birthday

 It snowed on a Sunday on the third week in January on the Alabama ground

It was as special and unique as you as the snowflakes falling around

 

Looking forward to snow around the eighteenth reminds me of you

It is something that only the God of all creation can do

 

Snowflakes, babies, and new days are His special gifts He gives

Each only lasts for a short time the longer each of us lives

 

Snowflakes last a few days, babies for a few months, and new days a day

That is what makes the extraordinary and exceptional come our way

 

The snow on your first birthday was one a magnificent moment in our time

Followed by other birthday snows your sixth and sixteenth are memories of mine

 

Your sixteenth was a trip to eat Chinese in a blizzard was fun when we returned home

Stranded in the deep ice and snow we feared as the car slide and started to roam

 

Each time the snow falls, I think of how wonderfully and uniquely created you are   

My son I pray that your birthday gives you all you want and desire

 

The snow is gone for your birthday and you are far away in Texas somewhere

I miss you and long to be with you to watch the snow flying in the air

 

Andy’s 46^th Birthday poem – bobby e. hopper, January 18, 2022

I Can't Wait!

Whew!  Are you glad the Christmas shopping is over?  My favorite day to Christmas shop is Christmas Eve.  Lisa and I had fun this Christmas Eve at the Walmart, Kirkland’s, and Lowes in Alabaster, Alabama.  I heard some woman on her cell phone say, “I’ll be so glad when Christmas is over. And can’t wait to get out of this crowded Walmart.”  She was pushing and overloaded cart of toys.

I remember when my son Andy and daughter Angela were small, I would take them along with Rachel, Brandi, and Allyson, my nieces, Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve.  We would have our pictures taken with Santa, eat at McDonalds or Arby’s, and hit, the now long-gone, Eastwood Mall.  We would get home just in time for supper at Granny and Pawpaw Moxley.  We had a blast looking at all the lights, hearing the sounds, and smelling the treats of Christmas.  I continued this tradition when Aaron came along.  It was fun until they all got too big for one vehicle.

The first year I went alone was 2011 and there was a crowd in Meridian.  There were so many folks Christmas Shopping that I went through three traffic light changes before I was past the light.  One time there was no light, but people were thoughtful and generous to allow cars to enter the lane.

I continued my tradition of eating out at a restaurant.  This time it was Chili’s Restaurant.  It cost about the same as I used to pay for all those Mickey D kid meals or an occasional Arby’s.  By the way, I never did see Santa.

The mall was crowded and the hot item for sale was anything related to cell phones.  I was in several conversations before I realized that cell phone users and customers were talking to their ear.  I did not need any cell phone paraphernalia, but I did buy Toy Story 3 which we watched as a family on Christmas Day.

I am by shopping as I am about hunting and fishing.  People ask me do I hunt or fish.  I tell them that I rather kill and catch.  It is the same with shopping.  I go to buy.  I do research those things that I might be in the market to buy.  I have never understood why people go to several stores and usually return to the first store and buy what they initially picked.

I have never been to haggle.  I had a car salesman friend that I bought most of my vehicles.  I would say, “Jerry, I want you to make a living but not all of it from me.  What is the bottom price?”  If I liked it or thought it fair, I bought it.  If I thought it too much, I went home.

Shopping is an art that I have yet to master or for that matter to acquire.  I heard a preacher on the radio the say that some people visit churches “shopping for a feeling.”  I have heard that from a good many folks over the years.  Some would say, “Preacher, we are just shopping around to see where we want to attend church.”  I translated that as, “Preacher we are trying to find a place that will cater to all are needs.”  The joy of visiting prospects is when they say, “Preacher, how long do we have to wait to serve when we join your church?”

Most people want to be served rather than serving.  They want to feel good when they go to church.  I remember a preacher friend telling one of the “feel good searchers” that one could not always go on feelings because from time to time he felt that he was lost, but the Bible affirmed it was not about feelings and was about what Jesus did and believing it.  Joy comes knowing that even in the worst of times, Jesus did it all and God is on His throne.

Jesus came and purchased our salvation.  Shopping for a feeling will lead to disillusion and disappointment.  Serving is not about feelings, but about faith and sacrifice. 

In Rodelio Mallari’s sermon FACT, FAITH, and FEELING he states, “Our feelings are deceptive because they are based from external factors.  Jeremiah 17:9 states, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? They are affected by the changing state of finances, weather, environment, problems at home and work, or the sickness and death of loved ones.  The presence of bad feelings and the lack of good feelings do not always indicate that we are sinning or out of God’s will. God sometimes cuts off our source of security and allows us to be deprived temporarily so He may know what is in our hearts; whether we love Him for Who He is.  Feeling is a fruit of salvation not its basis. You’ll feel good when you LIVE and SERVE God for His glory & honor!”

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Romans 5:1-5 KJV).

My Favorite Uncle

With all the hoopla of a new world order behind us and the uncertainty of the world before us, people are cautious.  The prognosis is bleak for a worldview and thus caution prevails as our way of life tumbles.  Cautious people procrastinate and worry of failure. 

Beverly Sills, famed opera singer, observed, “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”

That statement reminds me of my uncle Clifton.  He was my favorite uncle on the Hopper side of the family.  He lived with us when we lived in Illinois.  He rode a Harley, raced stock cars, drove in demolition derbies, and flew airplanes.   Now, you know why he was my favorite uncle.

He was the reason we lived in Illinois.  He got daddy a job at Beloit Iron Works.

Uncle Clifton ran away from home when he was sixteen.  He lived in Bessemer for a short time running moonshine and racing cars with the boys from Hueytown, the ones who would later become Alabama Raceway and NASCAR legends.

He left home because Granny Hopper would not let him play sports or participate in any activity that might harm him due to a heart condition.  No one knew where he was for years until one day, he appeared at our home in Chilton County.  Daddy did not recognize him, and he did not know daddy.  He was looking for daddy when he stopped to ask where the Hoppers lived.  After that meeting, we packed and moved up North.

After three years there, we moved back to Sweet Home Alabama.  Uncle Clifton married Aunt Maxine and for several years could not have children.  They adopted Jim, eighteen months later adopted Mike, twenty-one months later birthed Bill, and later Alice.

Somewhere along the way, my adventurous and dashing uncle became over cautious.  Reckon having kids did that to him?

One day years down the road, my cousin Bill approached Uncle Clifton with a great idea about VCRs.  VCRs were new and Bill suggested to Uncle Clifton that they buy VCR movies and VCR players and rent them to people.  Uncle Clifton told Bill that that new-fangled invention was a fade, and it would be a bad investment.  You know what happened there and now it has gone the way of the Dodo.  When I think of it, I could have been related to the billionaire who created Bill’s Blockbuster or The Hopper Movie Gallery.

A little later Bill, the persistent entrepreneur, had another scheme.  He told Uncle Clifton about paintball guns.  Bill wanted to open a store that sold paintball guns and accessories.  Uncle Clifton said that it was another fad and that it too would pass.

Like the VCR rental, paintball and accessories were the craze of young people everywhere.  Bill did open a store and had success with the store as a part-time venture.  He had paintball guns that were like something out a science fiction movie.

Bill, the perennial entrepreneur, consulted Uncle Clifton with the idea of buying a tract of land and building a course for hosting paintball competition.  Bill envisioned hundreds of people from all over the state coming and competing in paintball wars, battles, and mêlées.  He dreamed of family events, national competition, and maybe worldwide competition.  Uncle Clifton talked him out of the venture.

Uncle Clifton, on one his spontaneous excursions, visited me at Gallion, Alabama.  It was not unusual for him to make a trek from Illinois to Arizona to Louisiana to Alabama to Illinois visiting kinfolk.  He was not too cautious, just with his children and his money.  On this particular visit, he spoke of Bill’s potential as an entrepreneur.  He said that the next time Bill had an idea that they were going to run with it.  On Uncle Clifton’s next spontaneous excursion, he had a stroke near Joplin, Missouri and died in the hospital. 

Being too cautious prohibits many blessings.  Philip is an example of being too cautious in the Bible.

When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?  And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.  Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.  One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him,  there is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?(John 6:5-9 KJV)

What's Your Red Stew?

 

This morning as we have gathered in God’s house to speak of the eternal,

Some have chosen to remain away for the temporal. 

They feel that it was more important to call a turkey for the kill,

Rather than call a lost friend to tell them of God’s will. 

Others have stayed at home to rest,

Rather than go to God’s house and give their best. 

Others elected to work,

Rather than be blessed in doing God’s work. 

Others have gone to shop at the mall,

Rather than stop and give God their all. 

They all say they are looking for something their spirits to renew,

But as did Esau, they have traded God’s blessing for some red stew.