The Land of Beginning Again
Scattered throughout the notes and writings of my dad was found this poem by Louise Fletcher. He quoted pieces of it during phones conversations. He inserted lines of it in correspondence. He used it in sermons and lectures.
And, of course, I know why….
He longed – as many of us do – to be able to retrace the years and redo the things he did wrong and enjoy more the precious things taken for granted. It seems a bit unfair that we are not able to realize the intrinsic value of the truly important things until it is too late.
Well, that’s not entirely true, for today my dad is in that land of beginning again. No heartaches, no tears. No broken relationships to be lamented. No regrets and failures. He’s there and I’m going for I, too, have my regrets.
One day, like all of us, we will come upon that Land all unawares – I wonder if we will be prepared…….
I wish that there were some wonderful place Called the Land of Beginning Again
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches And all of our selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat by the door And never be put on again.
I wish we could come on it all unaware Like the hunter who finds a lost trail
And I wish that the one whom our blindness has done The greatest injustice of all
Could be at the gates like an old friend that waits For the comrade he’s gladdest to hail.
We would find all the things we intended to do But forgot, and remembered too late;
Little praises unspoken, little promises broken And all of the thousand and one
Little duties neglected that might have perfected The day for one less fortunate.
It wouldn’t be possible not to be kind In the Land of Beginning Again
And the ones we misjudged and the ones whom we grudged Their moments of victory then
Would find in the grasp of our loving handclasp More than penitent lips could explain.
For what had been hardest we’d know had been best And what had seemed loss would be gain
For there isn’t a sting that will not take a wing When we’ve faced it and laughed it away,
And I think that the laughter is most what we’re after In the Land of Beginning Again.
So I wish that there were some wondered place Called the Land of Beginning Again
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches And all of our selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door And never be put on again.
–Louise Fletcher
In one spot in his writings, on a small piece of paper used for funeral addresses, Dad add the following to the end of this poem:
“For me to live is Christ — to DIE IS GAIN! Our Father, may we, like Paul, determine to live for Christ and experience the eternal gain.”
Amen to that………………
The Snooze Button
Written June 2005
With the daily newscasts screaming the reports of the unspeakable acts of violence – murder, suicide, child molestation, rape, kidnapping, etc. – on top of the reports of the anguish and distress among the nations of the world, eruption of civil wars, terrorists on the loose and threats of nuclear attack made weekly on neighboring countries as well as the United States and Israel, it is astounding to realize that the church is asleep!! We have been lulled to sleep by the powerful influence of materialism, comfort and ease and idleness.
St. Paul wrote to the church at Rome (Romans 13:11-12): “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent and the day is at hand.”
Paul is crying out to us, “Wake up!!” The answer to the problems of this storm-ravaged world is Christ the Lord, but this message cannot be sounded by a church that sleeps!
Again, St. Paul blows the trumpet when he says, “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Ephesians 5:14.
Don’t hit the “snooze button.” See you in church.
Happy Birthday, Dad
Today would have been my Dad’s 76th birthday. On May 5th, 2008, the Lord considered his earthly work done and took him home. His years among us were bittersweet for there were years of wandering and estrangement. Years of pain and separation.
But he finished well. His last days were spent in relative isolation in Danville, VA, where he spent untold hours walking and praying, calling on Heaven for those with whom he came in contact.
Upon entering his little apartment just hours after his death, my brother and I found list after list of names and concerns about which he had been praying. On his dresser beside his bed rested surely the last things his saw this side of eternity – they were pictures of family and a prayer list.
I’m so very thankful that God allowed me to have him for those last years – those good years.
And I’m even more thankful for the knowledge that my father is through with the earthly birthday celebrations and is praising his Heavenly Father around the Throne.
Ole Bill’s Perspective – “Divine Disappointments”
Divine Disappointments often precede Divine Appointments!
Disappointments are ‘divine’ because they are the methods God uses to bring us face to face, in full surrender to the only one who is not a disappointment! We try in our own strength to find and perform the will of God, but like Abraham going in unto the handmaiden Hagar only produced an Ishmael, which was a curse there and ever since! Oswald Chambers reminds us of the important truth! “Waiting on
God for His instructions, then obeying those divine orders implicitly produces the Isaacs of holy purpose in God’s grand scheme of redemption.” Oswald Chambers underscored this great truth, “That our way is the way of the flesh and brings forth the Ishmaels’ of failure or second best, while obeying and waiting on God for the divine miracle, which truly happened in the loves of Abraham and Sarah when Isaac was born; that our God is glorified and the work of the kingdom is enriched beyond measure!”
So God lets us fall on our faces and this is ‘divine’, for it is His way of getting our absolute attention so He can really help us help others. How many times did we fall as babies in our attempt to walk instead of crawl? The mother eagle lets the eaglets plummet nearly to their death before breaking their fall by her powerful talons and wings. Oh, how helpless and how powerless we feel when we have fallen short of the mark of God’s first and best plan! Romans 8:28 kicks in which reminds us, “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
Thank God for the ‘all things’ that He has used in my life, even the failures have been transformed from stumbling blocks to stepping stones that have led me higher and closer to Him. Thank God for the ‘divine disappointments’ that have preceded His ‘divine appointments’.
Like Abraham of old, who had his ‘Ishmael experience’ of the fleshly second best, we cry out in desperation and total obedience to his word of promise, and by faith there emerges the miraculous Isaacs of ‘divine assignment’.
My mother, Frances, used to say, “Self-sufficiency is insufficiency! Christ-sufficiency is all sufficiency!” She found it true, and I did, too! Now how about you?
All for Jesus,
Ole Bill
Daily Dying
Occupying a prominent position on the small kitchen table in the breakfast room of the old and somewhat delapidated house where my Dad spent his last years of this life was this picture. The caption, scrawled on the reverse in the almost illegible hand of this wonderful man, explains it all, except possibly that he had very carefully added the white tape in the shape of a cross. This was his hiding place – at the foot of the cross. He died here daily until God called him into the next life.
What an example………
The Return of Christ
In 1973, Hal Lindsey wrote a series of signs that would indicate the immanence of the Return of the Christ.
In 2005, my Dad, after reading that work, took some notes and added some thoughts. Both the notes and the thoughts are worth the time to type here and read. The Second Coming of his Lord was a favorite topic of both contemplation and conversation during the final years of his life. He fully expected to be around to see the skies part and Jesus arrive. It didn’t work out that way. Dad made the trip and will watch the end times events from a higher plain.
| Signs:
1. Jews return to the Holy Land – became a nation in 1948. |
| Notes:
Oh! Oh! Are the signs of the times screaming at us? Every one of these signs would make a sermon! Hal made these predictions nearly 35 years ago – and we are seeing his interpretation of the Scripture fulfilled with warp-speed!Just started the third book on “Faith Undone”. Just reading several pages had given me that sick depressed feeling in the pit of my stomach. So sad what has happened to our “Revival-time Church”. Let’s pray harder for our families! God Bless You! |
A Grandfather’s Prayer
As I was going through the things of my Dad after his death, I came across these three pictures and my eyes welled up with tears.
These photos – all of the same statute of Abraham and Isaac just before the impending sacrifice - were all taken in the little cemetary in Virginia Beach where Dad spent so much time praying. It’s a beautiful statute in a pleasant setting but that was not the reason for my tears.
As I gathered these up to set them aside and move on through the mountain of paperwork, I turned them face-down on the table. A single word, written in Dad’s famous scrawl, caught my eye. On the top of the back of one was written, “Daniel” – the name of my oldest son.
Turning to the next one, I found, “Rob”.
“Jon” was written on the third.
My precious father, used these pictures and this statute to pray for my children. As Abraham of old prayed over his beloved son – the son of promise – and committed him to God, my sons were prayed over and for and committed into God’s hands on a daily basis.
I sat there staring at these pictures and weeping until the images swam before me. The magnitude of the mantle passed to me upon my father’s death was realized afresh. My children are precious gifts of God. I daily lift them to the Throne and plead God’s protection and blessing upon their lives. With Dad in Heaven now, I’ll have to double up – a task I readily accept.
Comment from Loraine Baxter
I know you don’t know me, but I just wanted to write a little note to let you know how much your father meant to our family. When we first attended the Bible Way Fellowship church and heard Rev Erickson preach, we knew that was where the Lord wanted us to be. He was so faithful about visiting my mother when she was sick. He would always make her laugh and she looked forward to his visits and so did we. My brother and Rev Erickson became very close during the last days while mom was in the hospital. He helped lead my brother to Christ. Mom would have loved it that her son had come to know Jesus. Rev Erickson preached my moms funeral and did a very good job. He was a very loving and caring person. I know you will all miss him as will we. The Baxters
Comment from Ruth Johnson
Hi Dan,
I thought that I would let you know of the passing of Gladys Cunningham (Rev. Roberts’s wife’s sister-in-law) on Tuesday. You would probably remember your dad telling you about the two widows that he visited at the nursing home every Sunday after the morning service. I don’t know if he told you of the stories of these two ladies competing for his attention. I am laughing just thinking of what he went through with those two! Can you imagine him sitting on the bed in their room and them asking him to rub their back? I would ask him why he did it and he told me that he knew that Jesus would have done the same thing for them.
There were only eight people at the graveside service yesterday, that’s not including Rev. Poteat and the two guys from the funeral home. Rev. Poteat had never met Gladys but he said the connection to Gladys was thru Bill Erickson, who had many years ago led Harvey to Christ and he never had the privilege of meeting Bill but because of him he would eventually get to meet Gladys in heaven one day. He said that Bill had led Gladys to Christ three years ago at the nursing home and that that was a miracle in itself. People in their eighties are very hard to win, but because of Bill’s love for Jesus and the deep desire he had that others would know Jesus too, these two people are in heaven today. He also challenged us that we need to have that same spirit of soul winning and compassion for the lost as Bill did.
You know, as I do that this is just one of the many victories of your dad’s legacy of soul winning. I thank God that I was there to hear this and I am able to share this with you.
We know that all things are possible with God.
God Bless,
Ruth
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Comment of Jami Withrow
Danny and Andy,
Wanted to send my thoughts to you on the loss of your Dad. Butch, Jodi and I know too well the sadness of saying Goodbye to a Dad sooner than we want. I have to smile though, because just a couple of weeks ago I had to opportunity to deal with a particulary difficult patient, who just happened to be named.. Mrs. Cotton…and I so vividly remember a particular sermon of your Dad’s that spoke of a Mrs. Cotton…and how we all have “Mrs. Cottons” in our life, but must still care for these folks with the heart of Christ. He did make quite an impression on me, as did your Mom. I am very impressed with the warm tribute that you have made for him here…and am sure that he is smiling as well…(and probably doing so as he and Rev. Rick are playing heaven’s back 9!) May your memories of your Dad and the lives he touched keep him close to you and your families
June 17, 2008 Posted by de | Comment | | No Comments Yet