When You’re Smiling

“Why are you smiling?” I get asked that often especially if I am sitting alone. I answer, “I had a personal thought that made me smile.” The personal thought could be one in the past, at the moment, or something in the future.

I had a deacon that came to me with a complaint. Usually when a deacon tells the pastor that “we need to talk” it is not good. It means that the pastor has not followed the perceived mold standardized by the powers that control the church. Did I just write that?

He wanted to know if I was ever serious. I responded, “As serious as a heart attack.” He had a complaint from a church member that sad when she discussed the sickness of her mother to me that I smiled. I guess it was the wrong facial expression.

When the deacon finished his grievance with me, I smiled and said, “It takes less muscles to smile than it did to have the grim reapers face.”  I inherited the smile/crooked grin from my mom.

What he did not know was I smiled to keep from crying. I replied to his never serious face tirade by sharing a few moments of my life with him. I said, “In a marriage and family class at the University of Montevallo I took a test to check my well-being. I experienced the death of my dad and mom while attending the university, both passing before I graduated. I experienced the layoff from a company that had never had a layoff in the history of the plant. I was taking fifteen hours of classes, working twenty hours a week part time at minimum wage in the university carpenter shop, married with two children, no insurance, and a pregnant wife. I was a bi-vocational pastor at the time. The test revealed that I was a prime candidate for a heart attack. Yes, I know what it is to be serious. I smile because I am following God’s call on my life.”

The deacon stood before in shock. I told him that I would talk with the complaining parishioner. Most Baptist church members look as though they are made at the world. We have an expression in Chilton County, Alabama for such folks. It goes like this, “The look like a jackass eating saw briars.” More people are attracted to a smiling person than those I described. I’m smiling now and hope you are too.

Another time I was reprimanded for being too humorous when preaching. Some “stick in the mud” said the pulpit was no place for humor. Early in my ministry a lady told me that I would be successful in preaching because I have a great balance between humor and seriousness. She said it was a gift from God.

After the reprimand, I lost my gift of humor for a short period of time. One day in seminary the preaching professor asked this question. “Ladies and gentlemen why is it that you try to imitate such and such preacher when God calls you for who you are and the gifts he has blessed you. Be who you are.” I rebounded and used the gift of humor and regained my smiling.”

I have learned in life that people do not like to see happy people and will do what they can to still the joy out of life. A smile can calm a fear, help a hurt, and encourage healing. I have had plenty of people tell me that they were going to “wipe that grin ff my face.” I still have it especially when time are hard and hurt is great.

Yeah, I have dark and sad moments like we all do. I remember momma and when she was sad. She got her guitar and started singing. She would begin by singing a sad Hank Williams tearjerker and before long she would be singing a Ray Stevens laughter songs.

When my Aunt Annie was in the hospital, Lisa and I paid her a visit. She was my favorite aunt because she could make you laugh and smile. We knew she did not have long, and I wanted to make her smile. I said, “I love you Aunt Annie.” As a nurse turned to her side and I sang Aunt Annie a song that momma and she sang. It goes like this. “I see your hindy so white and shiny, it makes me giggle to see it wiggle.” She gave me a big smile. Those were the last words I said to her.

Jesus had an attractive smile. I say that because children loved Him and He them. He loved His disciples

 “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11 KJV

Our heavenly Father smiled and encouraged us to smile.

For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Psalm 30:5

The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Numbers 6:25-26 KJV

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. Proverbs 13:15 KJV

Louis Armstrong sings:

When you're smilin', when you're smilin'
The whole world smiles with you
When you're laughin', when you're laughin'
The sun comes shinin' through

SMILE

Hobo Supper

You Need to Move On

As a Director of Missions, I get invited to numerous events.  Attending events creates a bond between church laity and a director of mission.  The continuity of a director of missions and the churches he serves comes from the Director to Laity relationship.  Some think that it is the Pastor to DOM but pastors transition to other churches.  The laity was at the church before the pastor and will be there long after he is gone.

Sometimes churches become rooted in the local church being their church, not the bride of Christ.  Laity can get the attitude of “Our Four and No More.”  I fear this trend.  Churches that do not birth new members are destined to die.  The church will continue until the Lord returns.  I must imagine that some churches will continue to meet with their four even when the church is raptured.  The attitude of the church being a closed event prevails.

I experienced this by invitation to a “Hobo Supper” church event.  One of the churches I served had an annual Hobo Supper.  This hobo supper started an iron pot cooking with a little water and meat.  Everyone brings an item from the pantry to add to the pot making a stew.  It is delicious.  The first year I attended I won best costume just wearing my everyday works clothes.  After that I will dress like a poor hobo.

One year I decided to fool the church folks.  I got an old white dress shirt that yellowed with age, put  it on by buttoning it wrong, and ripped it by stretching it.  I took an old pair of pants and cut one leg shorter than the other and tied the pants around my waist with an old rope.  I wore two different tennis shoes as well as two different socks.  I got an old had that was frayed and a broken pair of sunglasses.

I wore a pair of realistic “bubba teeth”, put smut on my face, dirt under my fingernails, and dog poop on my shoes.  I found a discarded beer can and sprinkled the remaining contents on as perfume.  I hadn’t shaved for a few days.  I had gout and walked with a limp using the staff.

Since it was a hobo supper, I took a staff and tied two canned vegetables in a red bandana on the end.  I had my son drop me at the entrance of the supper.  To make it realistic, my son acted as though he had picked me up hitchhiking and told me that was as far as he could take me, and I told him thanks and that he was a fine young man.

As I stood on the shoulder of a US Highway, drivers would move to the other side of the road to avoid me.  I stuck out my thumb to see if I could get someone to stop.  I was unsuccessful.  Several women waved and smiled as they turned to enter the hobo supper which was down a drive behind some woods.

Finally, a deacon and his wife from the church stopped as they entered the drive.  He lowered the window of the passenger side just enough to talk.  He asked me what I wanted.  I told him that I had been in town looking for food when a young man in a red jeep told me of a hobo supper.  He said I did not look to hungry.  I am a big man.  I told him not to look at my appearance and that just because I had a large stomach did not mean that I was not hungry.  He told me that I needed to move on down the road and I was not invited to the hobo supper.  He rolled up his window and continued down the drive to the supper.  Ironically, I exercised with this deacon at the local gym every morning.

Several passersby told the host that there was a bum at the driveway entrance.  She told them that it was probably me having fun.  The deacon told her that it was not me.

Another man I knew stopped and verbatim did as the deacon did.  He was not as hospitable as the deacon and told me there was no hobo supper.  I told him that I knew I was close and that I could smell the smoke and the stew cooking.  He wanted to know how I learned of the supper.  I told him a fine Christian man told me and even brought me to where someone could direct me.  He rudely said I needed to move on down the road.

After a short I while I hobbled down to the gathering.  When the host saw me, she said that is not Bobby Hopper.  Everyone shunned me.  I told them that they needed to remember the Scripture how men and women entertained Angels unaware.  I did jokingly but was serious about how they treated a stranger.

I took out my bubba teeth and removed my hat and sunglasses to reveal who I was.  They were shocked and said that if they knew it was me they would picked me up, especially my deacon friend.  I told him that it should not matter and that as a deacon he should have acted differently.

This is one of the reasons for starting God’s Front Porch.  Many of us do not feel welcome when attending church.  It may be the way we dress or smell.  It may be that we suffer from divorce or spousal abandonment.  We may have a problem with addiction, be homeless, mentally, or physically challenged, or jobless.

I know from conversations with believers that many are disgruntled with church but not with God.  Two or three of my former church members and friends have told me that one more episode at church and they will stay home, help the needy, and worship the Lord there.

The church that does not evangelize dies.  I recall that the Scriptures in the Holy Bible reveal that the church had the concept of our four and no more with all its rules and regulations and people who needed God were ignored and that is why Jesus came to save.