First of all, I apologize for not making an entry to this
blog in the past 14 months. I have been
out of the blog business, since we haven’t made a trip to Uganda in about that
time frame. We are going to Uganda in
May and I will tell you more about that later.
This week has brought back many memories and has been a bit
emotional for me. One night last week,
my parents, siblings and various other family members met at my grandmother’s
house to clean out her attic and storage building. My Granny Due moved to an assisted living in
2016 and we are preparing to sell the house that she and my Grampus bought in
1980. My Grampus died in May of 1987,
but my Granny continued to live there alone since then. Many things in the attic and storage building
had pretty much gone untouched since 1987.
It is hard to believe that it has been almost 30 years.
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| Garage in the middle of clean out. |
We found some really cool stuff in the clean out. Like recruiting letters written to my Uncle
Terry Due, asking him to play basketball at different universities. One was from Army and Assistant Coach Bob
Knight. Another from Oklahoma State and Coach Henry Iba. Terry eventually made
the “correct” choice and played basketball at OU. We found home crafted telescopes, antique
tools, and small desk top cannon, in case we ever need one. The junk in the attic was carried to the curb
and to dumpsters. The awesome treasures
were taken to family homes to pour over or display on a prominent shelf. This unearthing of these cool family
artifacts had me thinking about my grandfather (Elmer Due) and Due Unto
Others. I was also contemplating how I
might lead the latter to be more like the former. As I think about my grandfather, it is easy
to see that I need more Due in me and more Due in Due Unto Others.
The great American philosopher and comedian, Ron White, once
said that his grandfather always said that his grandson “Had a whole lot of
quit in him”. To tell you the truth, I
would like to have less quit and more Due in me. To bring this point home, let me describe
some of the memories and qualities, of my grandfather, that came back to me
this week.
He was patient. Oh my
goodness was he patient. I never saw him
lose his temper once in my 16 years with him.
I think this quality may have fed into many of the other great
qualities.
He was gentle. He was
former military and a machinist, but very gentle. I remember one time that he sat with his
dying friend and held his hand for hours.
His friend twisted Grampus’ watch around so many times that he had a big
scab wound on his wrist.
He was a hard worker.
He worked for 30 years and retired from Halliburton. On his off time, he made arts and crafts to sell,
coached baseball, taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, kept a big garden, played multiple musical instruments and led music/bible
study at local nursing homes. When his
work mates at Halliburton went on strike, he could not put is family at risk,
so he crossed the picket lines (enduring insults and injury) to keep working. He would sneak his paycheck home in his
lunchbox so that the people on the picket line would not see it.
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| Teaching my brother Jack about hard work. |
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| Setting up his crafts. |
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| Grampus and Granny playing music. |
He was honest. I
remember one time that I was telling him the story about my trip to Burger
King. I had bought my meal, and somehow,
the cashier made a mistake in counting back my money. I was celebrating my windfall, but he gently
pointed out to me that me taking that money was not right. That weighed heavy on my mind. He would probably be disappointed to know, but
as a high school student, I was too embarrassed to go back to Burger King and
give back the $5.36. So there you have it,
Burger King, I owe you $5.36 from 1986.
He was innovative. I
mentioned the homemade telescope and cannon earlier. He could make anything out of nothing + junk.
He had a unique approach to things. One time while my parents were out of town,
we were staying with my grandparents. He
thought it would be a good idea, at 5 years old, for me to try his chewing
tobacco. I still remember how mad my mom
got at him, but after I got done throwing up all over his backyard, I had
formed my negative opinion about tobacco.
He was kind, he was generous, he was a friend to everyone,
he was loving, and on and on and on.
Our church is in the middle of a message series entitled “This
is what we do.” We are reviewing some of
the things that we do as Christians.
Matthew 7:16 says, “By their fruits you will recognize them.” Our fruits are our actions.
Colossians 3:23-24 says, “...don’t just do the minimum that
will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for
God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your
inheritance.
I am in the process of deciding what our theme will be for
our upcoming Uganda mission trip. I am
thinking about “borrowing” the title from our church message series and making
it our own. This is what we “Due”. Being kind-Being Generous-Working hard-Being
Honest-Being Patient-Loving Others…..This is what we Due.
Please lift our team up in your prayers. We are leaving for Uganda on May 17 and we
will be returning home on June 28. We
will be hosting general medical clinics, as well as finding people with
cataracts and helping them get them removed.
At every clinic, patients see Jesus in the team and hear the Gospel
presented. Please pray that God be
glorified in all of our activities. If
you would like to donate towards the medical clinics and cataract surgeries,
you can send a tax deductible check to:
Due Unto Others
3418 Robert Dr
Duncan, OK 73533
My life is often cluttered with things that need to be
cleaned out of the attic and dragged to the curb. But buried in there are things that are
important. Once I remove the clutter and
then dust off the things in my life that matter, I want to place those things
on a prominent shelf. I want to Due more
for others. I want to be more patient,
kind, hard-working, loving, gentle and kind.
I want God to recognize me because, those things are what I Due.
This is what we Due!
Jay
Matthew 7:16
PS: My research tells
me that $5.36 in 1986 is now worth $11.84.
So I will be donating that money to Due Unto Others this week.
