Unlikely Sources of Gold

“If you listen carefully you can hear the truth from the unlikeliest sources, especially from the unlikeliest sources, from an enemy, from a stranger, from children, from nuts, from overheard conversations, from stupid preachers… Are not great discoveries also made at the unlikeliest moments?” (Walker Percy, The Second Coming, p.181)

Hello family and friends,

It might seem strange sometimes when you think about all the different influences mom and I have enjoyed through the years. The truth is that we have been blessed with hearing the truth from everywhere and everyone imaginable…  from a street church with a Jewish convert for a gospel teacher, to a sacramental church with the highest of liturgies, and every Bible-believing church in between; from the youngest of children, to the most feeble of the aged; from ill-mannered agnostics, to stone saints; from ridiculous preachers, to the most profound of expositors; from liberal lunatics to conservative geeks; from novels to journals to biographies to memoirs to works of theology; from mean-spirited people, to those who wish us nothing but the best; from inmates in the local jail, to the residents of nursing homes; from Bible studies and prayer groups that included everything from Baptists to Orthodox to Catholics to fundamentalists to charismatics. The trick is to ask God for the ability to open your mind in order to close it on something solid (thank you, G. K. Chesterton), regardless of the source. I think John Prine was right… There’s at least a nugget of gold inside of everyone: you, me, whomever, wherever. So, we like to look at people and situations as if there’s gold in there somewhere. Peace,