My Final Column for the Lexington Dispatch

A Final Word for A Final Column

For over a quarter of a century it has been a rare privilege and a great joy to share my thoughts and reflections with you through the pages of The Dispatch.  It was almost 30 years ago when a young Dispatch reporter by the name of Chad Killebrew stepped into my office on a Sunday morning.  He explained that Dr. Lee Jessup, who had written a weekly religion column for a number of years, was leaving First Reformed and while he would continue to write a weekly column, the paper wanted to find new writers for the religion column.  Chad asked me if I would be one of those writers.

I hesitated for two reasons.  One, Lee Jessup was legendary in Lexington and I knew no one could replace him.  Indeed, it took four of us to take his place! Secondly, I never really saw myself as a writer, but since the commitment was once every four weeks instead of weekly, I agreed.  I soon found myself enjoying the opportunity to reach into your hearts and homes each month through Saturday’s religion column.  

I have written almost 400 columns and I’m proud to say that I never missed a deadline.  (I almost missed one a few years ago, but Jill Doss-Raines emailed me when she didn’t see my column by Wednesday).   Many of my columns have been serious, many have been light-hearted.  Some have just been downright crazy! (Does anyone remember “Joe, Mary, the Baby and the Mall?)  

It has been my privilege to walk with you during times of crisis: The Y2K scare, 9/11, the close of our furniture plants and textile mills, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and most recently, the COVID Pandemic.  I have shared Lexington history with you and I will always appreciate Editor Bob Stiff endorsing my proposal for our community to promote Lexington as the first Lexington named after the “shot heard round the world.”  (We were, you know.  I can prove it!)  

I have reflected on community events:  the BBQ Festival, the Davidson County Fair, Kamp Kiwanis, American Legion Baseball, MLK Celebrations, the Palm Sunday Community Celebration and more.  Together we have shared holidays, the changing of the seasons, and our mutual losses.  I have written about the deaths of my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, and my beloved dog, “Little Buddy.”  

I’ve had a wonderful relationship with The Dispatch and all of the staff.  I remember the old days when I would hand deliver a printed copy of my article.  It was always exciting to walk up those stairs and hear the buzz of the newsroom in action!  I will never forget meeting with Joe Sink in 1999 and asking if The Dispatch would sponsor our New Year’s Eve production at the Civic Center, “False Alarm at Midnight.”  I didn’t really know Joe and I was scared to death.  Joe not only graciously supported our effort, but Joe and Libby became good friends and we traveled together several times.  In 2003 The Dispatch provided the funding for the first MLK Worship Celebration to be held in a white church—First Baptist on West Third.  The Dispatch also generously sponsored the highly successful 175^th Historical Celebration at the Civic Center that Evelyn Harris and I produced and directed.  

Your comments, your encouragement, your words of affirmation have meant the world to me.  It was always a blessing to meet someone in the community who told me they appreciated my columns.  Now, I’ve had a few detractors along the way.   Remember the “Bricks and Bouquets?”  I had several bricks hurled my way as well as a number of letters to the editor.  That comes with the territory.

But now that my final column is coming to a close, I will leave you with a word that I hope has been evident in every one of my 400 columns—kindness.   We are all children of God, we are all equal in the eyes of God.  We must respect all people and most of all, be kind.  There is something more important than being right and that is being kind.  Kindness is a gift.  Kindness is a blessing.  Kindness will not just make a difference in this world, it will transform it.  

Farewell, my friends.  Be kind one to another.  

Ray N.Howell III is Senior Minister of First Baptist Church on West Third Avenue in Lexington

Waiting with Patience for the Hope we Cannot See

I keep thinking about our New Testament lesson this past Sunday from Romans 8.  Paul is talking about the promise of redemption not just for us, but for all creation.  He speaks of creation being set free from its bondage as it is “groaning in travail” awaiting its glorious redemption as a mother “groans” in labor pains awaiting the glorious birth of a child.  

Ancient man didn’t have a scientific world-view, but he did understand the precarious state of the created order.  The ancient world-view was a three-tiered universe with a heavenly ocean above us and another underground ocean beneath us.  Looking at the beautiful blue sky, our ancient ancestors thought they were gazing at the bottom of the heavenly ocean.  What was holding it in place?   The grace of God.  

When God sent rain to the earth, he simply opened a “window” in heaven and the rain came pouring down.  But creation would suffer when God did not open the windows of heaven.  Drought and famine were common in the ancient world.  Then, there was disease.  

Creation suffers from famine, drought, pollution, waste, viruses and diseases.  Viruses are a part of life, something we live with every day.  Our bodies have built up defenses against most viruses.  But the Coronavirus is new, our bodies don’t have any built-in defenses to stop it.  Here is one of the best analogies I have heard to explain the virus.  It’s from Dr. Dan Pastula from the University of Colorado Medical School.

So, the virus isn’t more powerful, per se, than other viruses. But when it enters the human body, we have no pre-existing defenses since our bodies don’t immediately recognize it as a dangerous intruder. Imagine an old, walled medieval town. If this virus were a disguised attacker arriving at the town’s protective walls, but open gates, the guards would not immediately know to be suspicious. With this coronavirus, it’s as if the guardians of our cells have kept the gates open and let the coronavirus in without immediately recognizing its danger.

Then the virus starts to spread.

“It gets in and hijacks the human cell’s machinery. Instead of the cell doing what it’s supposed to do, the virus overrides the cell’s normal programming and turns it into a machine to make more of the virus. It goes and goes and goes until the immune system stops it,” Pastula said.

I am sure that all of God’s creation is “groaning with travail” to be set free from this Coronavirus bondage.  The promise in Romans 8 is that it will happen!  There are so many unanswered questions right now, but Paul reminds us that “hope that is seen is not hope.”  We hope for what we do not see and--this is important--we must wait for it with patience. (Romans 8: 25).  We can wait with patience because we know, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (vs. 31)

As much as we don’t know, there is something very simple that we do know.  We know how to stop the spread of this disease.  All we have to do is Wear a mask, Wait six feet away from others, and Wash hands frequently.  You may have seen Tom Hanks interviewed on TV yesterday.  He and his wife were both ill with the virus.  He urged everyone to do their part, saying that it’s very simple.

"Wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands. That alone means you are contributing to the betterment of your house, your work, your town, your society as a whole and it's such a small thing," Hanks said.

And I would add, it also means we are following the command of Jesus to love our neighbor.