Holy Heartburn
Writer Author Jerry Lee Kay Sr.
Christian Article
:
Christian Living
- Fiction No
Every Sunday morning, Wednesday evening, and those days we were going to have a singing or a prayer meeting, my grandfather would take me to the church so we could open the windows and let it cool down before the folks began to arrive, also I was appointed the job of making sure there were plenty of hand fans from the funeral home distributed to all the pews. Air conditioning? Yeah Right! The first one I beheld was around 1960 and thought it made it much to cold in that room. They were all window units and very noisy.
My oldest brother and I liked it before A/C, we sang in the choir and after the preacher started preaching we could sit down and wait, wait for the Bats to start flying through the church dive bombing folks, he and I had gotten really good at trapping them between the pages of our song books. Another thing we really enjoyed was after Sunday school got started we would fake it and excuse our selves to go to the restroom, or I should say the outhouse, we didn't have an inside toilet, there or at school, or at home for that matter, and Yep we had a water well and a bucket.
Sometimes folks would ask me what is your Native American name? And I always told them "Runs for Water", because it was always me they would tell, "Run get me a bucket of water", anyway after the Sunday school teachers got started we would slip to the outside and light firecrackers and toss them through the open windows, and then try to get back inside the building before they caught us. Sometimes we hid behind the bushes until one of the girls went to the outhouse and throw cherry bomb firecrackers at the door....My! My! Those were glorious days...Yes indeed glorious days!... Church was a great place to have a good time.
On occasion one of the old sisters would out smart us and catch us red-handed, their motto was "Show no Mercy" made no difference who's kid you were, if they got their Hands on you, you couldn't get away. These were farm and ranch ladies and as strong as any man, I still have scars on my ears from old sister Goodnight. An Osage that worked for John Running Wolf most of her life, She loved to give it a good tweak and then drag me to the pastor or one of the elders. She said many times, "BOY, you need your soul fed a good dose of the Holy Ghost". She sure wasn't talking about chicken & dumplings. I use to call her sister 'Bad day' and my friend John Wolf would laugh so hard he would burst into tears. (She literally believed Jude 23). She always said, "Sometimes our Christian personality is hidden deep inside us. It is unseen, like the soup carried in a tureen high over a waiter's head. No one knows what's inside—unless the waiter is bumped and he trips! Sometimes we don't know what's inside us until we've been bumped. But if Christ is living inside, what spills out will be the fruit of the Spirit"... Sister Goodnight was all about bumping!
In her later years she loved to say, that she thought Poppa would never amount to a hill of beans, and that I gave her a case of "Heartburn" but she never stopped praying for me. Sometimes when I was walking through the parking area she would grab me and pray down fire from heaven, not just at church, at school, at the post office, and even the grocery store, needless to say I soon began to realize it is best to scope out all parking areas before entering, so as to avoid getting prayed for.
When I turned eleven she said, the Holy Spirit told her, "that boy has a Good Heart I have my hand on him", and that I was more like an Agave plant", A common sight in America's Southwest desert sometimes called the century plant. It's unique. The century plant thrives in rocky, mountainous, desert sites. It has dramatic, splayed leaves that grow up to a foot wide. The plant can reach twelve feet in diameter. But what makes the century plant unusual, as its name suggests, is its long reproduction cycle. For twenty or thirty years the six-foot-tall plant stands the same height and puts out no flowers. Then one year, without warning, a new bud sprouts. The bud, which resembles a Tree-trunk-size asparagus spear, shoots into the sky at a fantastic rate of seven inches per day and reaches an eventual height of twenty to forty feet. Then it crowns itself with several clumps of yellowish blossoms that last up to three weeks... Like the century plant, many of the most glorious things that happen to us come only after a long wait.
You see, ..."When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away with"..."When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
When I was very young and just getting started in the things of the Spirit Life, God positioned me under a great man of God who was strongly anointed by the Spirit of God. To me, this man had the best combination possible—brains and anointing all mixed together in one package! The first time I heard him teach, my jaw dropped open! His teaching reminded me of the way Jesus baffled the scribes when they heard Him teach with such great authority. I immediately knew that I needed to be under this man's anointing and to receive from his life. God opened the door for me to be trained by this great man of God, and for many years I worked side by side with him every day, I literally was with him seven days a week so he could teach and train me. It was amazing that a man of this caliber would put so much of himself into someone as young as I was, but he did it because he believed in the call of God on my life. This man imparted the tools, the skills, and the understanding I needed to become a man of God who could both grow in the things of the Spirit and establish a ministry that was balanced between the Word and the Spirit.
When I preached my first sermon, lo and behold, there was that dear 'sweet' Sister Goodnight sitting on the front pew, smiling, saying Amen and Glory to God! She was always there, wherever I preached she was always there, she and my mother were best friends. She once said, "I know how those people felt as they walked on the road to Emmaus...."Did not our heart burn within us... while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the scriptures" Luke 24:32...She emphasized heartburn... and then added, pointing at me, he was a painful heartburn, that became a..."Holy Heartburn"... I preached Sister Goodnight's funeral not long ago, she was eighty-five and we were best friends.... in spite of the scars on my ears.
My daughter told me a story about her, or someone, being between Flights at an airport, bought a small package of cookies. She sat down and began reading a newspaper. Gradually, she became aware of a rustling noise. From behind her paper, she was flabbergasted to see a neatly dressed man helping himself to her cookies. Not wanting to make a scene, she leaned over and took a cookie herself. A minute or two passed, and then came more rustling. He was helping himself to another cookie! By this time, they had come to the end of the package, but she was so angry she didn't dare allow herself to say anything. Then, as if to add insult to injury, the man broke the remaining cookie in two, pushed half across to her, and ate the other half and left. Still fuming some time later when her flight was announced, she opened her handbag to get her ticket. To her shock and embarrassment, there she found her pack of unopened cookies!
We should be very careful with our assumptions towards loved ones, and other folks we come in contact with that don't seem to measure up... Is it possible they are late bloomers?.. “The wind blows wherever it pleases.” said Jesus on one occasion. “You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” (John 3:8).
God Bless You
Poppa
Editor's Comment:
About the Writer Author
State:
Texas
Country:
United States
Email:
jerryleekay@suddenlink.net
Website:
www.jerryleekay.net
Profile:
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