The good old days?

By DR. KNOX HERNDON
Pastor

When I was younger, I used to hear these older men speak of "the good old days."

Since my father was in the military, we moved a great deal, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The moving naturally had its pros and cons, but generally I liked the new places and people and the new experiences.

My mother was born in the small town of Neosho, Mo. and then moved as a small child to Okmulgee, Okla. Since we moved so much in the military, you have so many sets of roots in a lot of places.

In the summers we would often go back to Okmulgee to visit our family. They consisted of several loving aunts and uncles and, of course, my grandmother.

We were an unusually close family and every evening we would all gather at one of the homes and I would hear romantic stories of the early West and how the oil boom town of Okmulgee contributed to that rich history. In fact there is a river in Macon, Ga. named the Ocmulgee River. It is spelled with a "c" instead of a "k."

I understand that the trail of tears started from here in Georgia and ended for some, in Okmulgee, Okla. Okmulgee became the Creek Indian capital.

I remember seeing a lot of Indians in Okmulgee as a child. The story was told that the Creek Indians were so honorable a people that if a man was convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to die by hanging, that he would be released and would return on the day of his hanging to face his death.

As a chaplain in the Army, I used to tell my chaplains that "these are the good old days right now." They used to laugh and shake their heads because we were often enduring some harsh conditions. Later I would see them and they would smile and say, "These are the good old days."

Have you ever stopped to think that the situation you are now in is the one that you are going to look back on and smile and say, "Those were the good old days?"

Often we wish our lives away and when we get to the place we wished for, we wish for something else. It is important for our spiritual walk that we live the moment and realize that these are "the good old days" we will fondly look back on.

God's Word says in Matthew 6:25, "Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take your thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory were not arrayed like one for these. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Remember, these are the good old days.

The Rev. Dr. Knox Herndon is the pastor of His House Community Church (SBC) and a substitute school teacher in the Fayette County School System, and a former Army chaplain. The church is currently meeting in the American Legion Log Cabin across from the fountain on the Square in Fayetteville, but not for long. The church will move to a new location near Senoia in September. Prayer line 770-719-2365; e-mail KHERN2365@aol.com.

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