Just a thought by coppi

“The Bible is not a script for a funeral service, but it is the record of God always bringing life where we expected to find death. Everywhere it is the story of resurrection.” – Eugene Peterson

Back to my days in Dallas: Those days I truly was a roadrunner.  I was trying to do everything and not miss a beat on accomplishing the world and what it offered.  I look back on that time in life, and it makes me tired just thinking about it. Lol

I played golf among all the other things I was doing and as in every gathering of humanity conflict happens.  Conflict and different ways of engaging in interaction happens. One day I was in our locker room talking with the lady who took care of the ladies locker room when she said to me:  “Coppi my husband is in Parkland Hospital (Charity hospital and where John F Kennedy was taken when he was shot) and would you mind going there and talking to him”.  Sure, I said.  I drove over to Parkland Hospital and was amazed how much space it covered and how expansive it was.  I sat in the car praying to God just what was I to say to this individual who was an alcoholic among other things. I looked down and saw a Bible I had inadvertently taken from the church I was attending.  I had plan to return it, but I thought I would give it to this person and that surely would be an outreach from the church.  I made my way to his room, which was not a room but a dormitory of humanity.  I walked over to his bed and introduced myself to him and told him his wife ask that I pay him a visit.  We had a nice conversation, and then I handed him the Bible.  You would have thought I gave him a bucket of gold from his actions.  He was overjoyed to have it and kept saying how proud of it he was and that he would definitely read it.  I left the hospital feeling great joy. I got to my car and realized I had given the church’s Bible to him; I called the church to tell them what i did  expecting them to be pleased as I was – not so.  The secretary of the church told me to go back up there and retrieve the Bible and bring it back to the church.  The Bible’s are for the church and not to be given out.  Needless to say, but I was crushed and disappointed, but I told her I would get the Bible and return it.  I immediately went to a bookstore and bought another Bible and made my way back to Parkland hospital  to the room of my friend’s husband.  I told him the truth about giving him the church’s Bible and I needed to return it, but I bought him another one.  He graciously gave me back the Bible and took the one I bought, but the same joy and glee was missing in the transaction.  I was  disappointed and wondered why in the world would a church be more interested in a Bible sitting in a pew than in the hands of someone who needed a word of life when around him was so much death.  But, I guess they had their reasoning and I was to abide by them even if I disagreed. 

“The Bible is not a script for a funeral service, but it is the record of God always bringing life where we expected to find death. Everywhere it is the story of resurrection.” – Eugene Peterson

Just a thought by coppi