The Portrait

There has been a situation in the local area the past couple of months that has involved a portrait that hangs in a local high school. This portrait is the famous portrait of Jesus. It has been hanging there since it was given to the school by the first graduating class after the new school was built in 1963. Yes, over 40 years.

A local lawyer has applied to the Harrison County School Board to force the principal to take down the portrait because it is offensive to HIM. He was recruited by the ACLU (the Associated Communist Lawyers Union...I refuse to call them American, and they are not there to defend civil liberties, but to take them away).

When this happened, a small group of students started standing across the street from the school every morning before class to "protest" the attempt by this one man to take away something that they want left there. They have been there in the rain, snow, and cold, bravely standing up for what they believe. One of these teens is a member of the youth group where I attend church. There has been a lot of honking of horns in support for what these young people are doing, but there has been a lot of rude remarks, gestures, and vandalism of their signs. Their reply has never been anything rude or inappropriate. It has, instead, been "Jesus loves you" or "We're praying for you."

Dennis Swindle, the minister at Meadowbrook Church of Christ (where I attend), found out about what these young people were doing and went out and started standing with them along with a few others from the congregation. As a result of this, he got very sick and was not able to get out at all for several days. He is doing better now, and is able to participate again.

But here's the best part: Dennis wanted to do more to support these few teens who have been out there from the beginning. He set up a morning for anyone who could to go out and stand with them. That morning was April 13, 2006. Posters were made, printed and passed out to churches, individuals and put on bulletin boards encouraging everyone to come out that morning. Well, it has come and gone. There were 400 people out there from 7:00 to 7:30 am. Although we were wanting to get 1,000, it was still a great encouragement to the teens who have been there.

What a way to show support for the Lord! Just think what could happen in this country if believers everywhere decided together to stand for what they believe!

Why are there disasters?

This is just one of the many questions that Emily has asked. Actually, it's in a different form. The question actually goes something like this: "If God is so loving, why does He cause (or allow) so many bad things to happen in the world...illness, death, floods, hurricanes, etc.?"

Let me explain, first of all, that Emily isn't a cynic or a skeptic...she just wants to know. She realizes that there are some things that we can't know the answer to, but she is curious to a fault. She believes in God and knows that He loves us, but she just has a mindset that questions a lot of things that go on around her.

One time, she surprised me. Instead of asking a question, she offered an answer to the question at the heading. She was mainly thinking about Katrina and Rita (the two most destructive hurricanes of last year). Here's the basic idea of what she said (I won't use quotes, because it isn't an exact quote from her):

God (who doesn't cause bad things to happen, but allows it, even though He has the power to prevent it from happening) is giving us a chance to find out how real we are and what we are willing to do to help those in need. Many have gone to the affected areas to help, many others have provided funds for materials, supplies, food, etc. for those who are in those areas. Still others have taken in some of the people affected by these disasters so they can get back on their feet. These are the people that Jesus was speaking of when He said, "As you did it to the least of these, you did it to Me."

It may seem cruel to some that God would allow so many to die to put others to the test, but it was man who gave in to temptation in the Garden of Eden that brought about the bad things in the world. If it hadn't been for that, we would still be in the garden and communicating with God. However, He doesn't want puppets on a string, but He wants us to choose to follow Him and love Him as He loves us. If it wasn't for the sin of Adam and Eve, we wouldn't need faith...we would know. We wouldn't need hope...we would still have Paradise. All we would need and have is love for God and each other. We wouldn't need to be tested.

However, sin came in and now we need our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to cover us with His blood that was spilled as He made the greatest sacrifice the world has ever seen or ever will see.

Therefore, when we see something happen where people are hurt or killed, we need to act by coming to their aid just as Christ saw our need and came to ours. The only real motivation for this can be love...otherwise, it isn't worth the breath to say, "This is what I'm going to do."

I Met My Wife Online

I was telling my wife, Emily, about this blog and she asked me what I had written on it. At the time, I had just written the welcome, and hadn't thought much about what I would write. Then she reminded me about how we met. Actually, we met online. It wasn't at a dating site, but in a chat room that I frequently went to when I got home from work when I was living in Washington State. She lived (and still lives) in West Virginia (I moved here to be with her).

Her youngest child, Rachael (yes, the spelling is correct...just ask my step-daughter about it), was a senior in high school at the time.

To put it mildly, life has been interesting since the day I arrived in West Virginia. There have been challenges that would drive many men away, but I'm in this for the duration. With one grandson, Ezra, and a granddaughter on the way (her name will be Rosalee), there has also been (and will be even more) good times...and I wouldn't trade any of it for anything.

There will be more about the family as time goes on, but this will give you a start on my family and how I got here.

Why "Uncle Roger"?

Someone may be asking, "Why do you call yourself 'Uncle Roger'?" That's a valid question with a valid answer.

I'm an uncle. Now this is nothing new to me. I was literally born that way. My oldest nephew is older than I am (he's also taller - and I'm not short). I have six nephews, six nieces, 21 great-nephews and great-nieces and another on the way...and I'm not even 50 years old yet.

Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate.

I have a wonderful family. One sister and three brothers.

My sister is the oldest of the five of us and it's her son who is older than I am. She also has three daughters. The oldest of the girls is about a year younger than me.

Does this sound confusing? It isn't at all. Three of the five grew up together, then came the other two of us. The younger of the first three was 14 years old when my brother was born, and I came along a couple of years later.

Anyway, I was born that way, and I'll die that way...there's no getting around it.