OUT OF THE BOX

DRIVING GRANDMA TO THE DEVER FIELD I was ten years old, talking with my grandmother (Ma Ma) in her back yard, when my grandfather (Pa Pa) came walking out the back door. She said to him, “Tharon, I have to do some work down at the Dever field, and I need you to drive me. The field was a half mile away at the end of a dirt road. Pa Pa did not want to drive her to the field and have to wait on her. Neither did he want to leave her there and have to guess at when to go back and get her. He thought for a few seconds, reached into his pocket and took out the car keys, looked at them, looked at the car…and then looked at me. “Son,” he said, “Can you drive a car?” I was 10 years old and had never driven a car, but many times I had sat in Daddy’s pick-up truck going through all the motions of changing gears while pretending to drive it. Without hesitation, I responded, “Yes, Sir. I can drive it.” I was not about to miss this opportunity. Without another word, he handed me the keys and went bac...

Steve was a homeless fellow at Myrtle Beach when one of the hurricanes came through a few years ago. Huddled in a corner alone and frightened he cried out to the Lord for mercy and said, "Oh God, if you will bring me through this thing safely, I will get rid of my cigarettes and my false teeth!” Then having made it safely through the storm, he got rid of his false teeth and went around toothless, but hung on to his cigarettes, profanity and whoremongering. When I asked him about his logic in the matter, he told me that it is a sin to wear false teeth because the Bible warns us about things that are false. He told one of his friends, “You don’t want to be wearing false teeth when Jesus comes back. But then again, you just as well go ahead and smile and look pretty because it will be too late then.” This story is true, and we smile at the ridiculous logic involved. How is it that Steve could think he was doing God a service by laying down his teeth while holding on to his lifestyle ...