JUST A MOMENT

Beginning at the moment of conception, life is a collection of moments until the moment of death. In reality life is short but we live as though we will live forever on this planet we call Earth. Humanity will live an eternity in one of two places, eternity in the Abyss or eternity with God. Someone once asked me where Heaven was. I told Heaven is where God is. They asked where hell is. I told them where God ain’t.

Many moments ago, my maintenance foreman asked, “Do you know why wars were fought with young men?” I told him that I ready never thought about it. He said, “Because old men won’t. Young men are ten feet tall, bullet proof, and will kill the enemy. Old men know mortality, hurt, and death.”

Precious, few, and temporal are the moments we share together in life. We build houses, families, communities, cities, businesses, and government thinking they will last forever.

Think about the cost of the average home and the thirty plus year mortgage. That house will need repair long before the mortgage is paid. Children will grow and leave home before the last house payment is paid in full. The new vehicle parked in the drive will be in the repair shop before the last payment is due. Children, house, vehicle, and neighborhood will become moments of the past. Everything will be out of date and undergo change due to the deterioration of time.

Someone mentioned in Discipleship class at church Sunday night that the world was nothing like the one we all grew up in. That truism is the same for each generation. Moments fleeing away metamorphizing by capturing the old and newfangled freshness filling the air. After a while contemporary replaces the traditional and eventually the contemporary becomes the traditional creating cycles of momentary accomplishment.

God created us with eternity in our hearts. There was a song we sang when I pastored at Brierfield Baptist Church that reminded me of our temporary time on earth. Some of the words were, “This world is not my home I am just passing through.” We are just passing through, but the WORLD tries to convince people that the here and now is it. The here and now will one day be “somewhere beyond the blue” cause we’re a just passing through.

God is without beginning or end. Special and divine moments fill our being. Momma used to teach us that things will get better. Moments would get worse in life, but the moments of pain and sorrow will one day pass. Looking at scars remind that the hurt that was once severe is now gone. It provides minute reminders that most pain will subside with time. Heartaches though austere are transient, death though cruel is transitory, and sickness though devastating is ephemeral.

The good news is:

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Corinthians 4:17-18 KJV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Want, I Want

When the children were small one of the privileges of living in this great nation, that we call America was grocery shopping once a month. Living in rural Alabama and having garden each year is that trips to the grocery store were less frequent.

We did our monthly shopping at Food World in Pelham, Alabama, which is thirty miles from Sugar Ridge. Food World was a gigantic store with a diversity of products. I remember riding my eldest son Andy in the grocery buggy when he was a toddler. He was awed by all the stuff the store had to offer.

When my daughter Angela was born, we stopped at Food World in route to taking her home. She was shopping straight from the hospital. When we shopped there, I had Andy and Angela in one buggy and another for stuff. People would ask me what aisle I found such lovely children. Later when they used to argue and fuss, I tried to return them for a refund, but they were past the expiration date. I would not return them, but it was a good tactic to stop the fuss.

Visiting Food World was always interesting. We would shop late at night when store was not as busy. It was always interesting to see the assortment of products and the miscellany of clientele. Back in the late seventies and early eighties, most shoppers were conservative. There were a few odd shoppers, nothing like those in Wal-Mart today. Sometimes there were folks dressed in costumes making a midnight run.

Funny things happen at Food World. One day my pastor and his wife were there. After a morning of eating fried fresh sweet corn, the stomach of my pastor started rumbling and churning signifying “GO TO THE TOILET” in a hurry. They were in the meat aisle which was far from the restroom. My pastor told his wife that he had “to go” and she responded, “You know where the restrooms are. Go.”

Leaving in a rush, he hurried to the restroom which was in the rear of the store. He opened the men’s room door and there were no lights. Feeling his way around the laboratories, urinals, and stalls, he opens a stall door preparing to dispose of the fresh sweet corn. Suddenly as he is about to sit, he hears a voice, “Excuse please.” My pastor left more quickly than he had entered.

Losing the urge the purge, my pastor quickly pulls up his pants and blunders out quickly. By this time, his wife had worked her way toward him. She commented that his trip was quick. Embarrassed, he tells her of his predicament and not having to “go.” She asked, “Who was it?” He said, “I don’t know.” Hiding behind a food aisle they watched as the rear door opened and the store manager exited waving and greeting Food World shoppers with, “Hey, how y’all doing and thanks for shopping at Food World.” He never knew how close he was to catastrophe or who almost bombed him. My pastor and his wife could never look at him again. They always looked the other way.

There is almost ten years between Angela and baby brother Aaron. We continued to shop at Food World. One night as I strolled Aaron in a buggy, he repeatedly said, “I want this, I want that.” Another shopper looked at me and said, “Why don’t you buy that young’un something?” I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “Lady, if I bought him everything he has asked for, I would own Food Word.” We smiled at each other.

A couple of Sundays ago, the Sunday school teacher said that we forget that life is not about us, but God. Dr. Max Lucado, one of my favorite writers has an excellent book, It’s Not About Me Journal. It helped my life’s journey. It not about me, it’s about GOD.

During the morning worship the preacher mentioned in his sermon that many folks view God as a santa claus. Our prayers are, “God I want, I want, I want. Life is worth living when we realize it not about us.

I do not own Food World, but I did buy Aaron something he wanted. God owns everything and knows what I want and what I need.

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Colossians 1:16-17 KJV

 

 

 

Eucharist Prayer

 

Communion is sacred and can inspire. When I was pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Clanton, Alabama I conducted communion and it was very sacred. It was a pivotal moment in the ministry of the church.

Before the communion service I secured a stainless-steel bowl, pencils and slips of paper. I had men distribute pencils and paper to all in attendance. I instructed all in attendance to write on the paper a sin or sins that they may be struggling with, fold the paper for privacy, and place it in the bowl. 

I gave the men specific orders to burn the papers and toss the ashes into the wind. I explained to the congregation that it was a picture of God forgiving confessed sin and removing them as far as the east is from the west.

After a few moments Irby, one of the men opened the door and entered the church. With tears streaming down his cheeks he shouted, “Their gone! Our sins are gone!” It was a magnificent moment of our being when the reality of confessing sin before partaking of the Lord’s Supper became a reality. People wept as the deacons, and I distributed the bread and the juice.

Since I retired from the pastorate Lisa and I joined Union Springs Baptist Church in Randolph, Alabama. It is my home church. They ordained me as a deacon in 1981 and ordained me into full-time ministry in 1993. It is the where I experienced my first Lord’s Supper and after becoming a deacon helped to serve it.

Several weeks ago during Communion the Holy Spirit impressed Lisa to write a prayer.

Eucharist Prayer

To Jesus-

 

In the quiet of the moment

I whisper Your Name

In the silence that surrounds me

I search eagerly for Your Face

In the shadow of Your Cross

I am humbled and bow

In the glory of Your Presence

I stand amazed

In the gentleness of Your Voice

I find comfort

In the answers to my prayers

I know peace

In the shelter of Your Arms

I am protected

In the presence of Your Love

I am loved

 

From Jesus-

 

In the quiet of the moment

I whisper your name

In the silence that surrounds you

I search eagerly for your face

In the shadow of My Cross

You are humbled and bow

In the glory of My Presence

You stand amazed

In the gentleness of My Face

You find comfort

In My answers to your prayers

You know peace

In the shelter of My Arms

You are protected

In the presence of My Love

You are loved

Lisa Marie Hopper March 1, 2026

 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

 I Corinthians 11:24-25 KJV

Planning Verses Flying by the Seat of Pants

When you rise in the morning do you think about your day? We never know what may happen. In Sunday school this past weekend there was a discussion on planning. My wife Lisa along with most of thew women in class were planners. Lisa looked and me and said, “I love to have a plan unlike someone else I know that ‘flies by the seat of his pants.’”

I asked the ladies what happens when someone or something throws a monkey wrench into their plans. One woman said she went to plan B. I asked what if it fails?

When I became a pastor, the best laid plans of mice and men go the way of the Dodo bird with one phone call. Not only can it change the day but also the week and more. Then when I started “flying by the seat of my pants.” I do plan, I just plan on the way.

When I worked at the cement plant as a cement kiln burner helper, things could change my work schedule quickly. Situations dictated actions. When I became a kiln burner, I had a helper that if a situation altered his schedule and he was discombobulated for the rest of the shift. He tried to follow his plan failing to distinguish the necessary and vital from what could be omitted until his shift ended.

I sent a poem to the publisher last week. I hope you enjoy it.

Lord Is Today The Day

One where You introduce me to an unfamiliar being

To share Your mercy and grace

That will help them journey and run the race

Encouraging all they meet with faces that are beaming

One where confession of sin creates a new beginning

Putting old habits behind and letting them die

For one day we will meet the LORD in the sky

The dead will go first and those alive will be missing

One where I have time broken relationships restore

To pen a note to a friend not seen or spoken in a while

Or receive an encouraging memo that makes me smile

Time spent with loved ones sharing memories and more

One where I enter without ache and pain

Knowing that growing old is not for sissies

Tackling the day as a warrior with the wife’s kisses

The LORD providing strength to stroll in the rain

One where I pass from corruption to the sublime

Walking the streets of gold without a cane

Earth to eternity a great and wonderful change

Indefinite time to create the perfect rhyme

 

A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. Proverbs 16:9 KJV

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” 2 Peter 3:10 KJV