Front Runners

Good morning! My name is Charlotte and I am writing to help us give our first thoughts to the Lord.

There is very little written about Jesus from the time he was twelve until he started his ministry. We talked about Mary pondering these things in her heart. If we could see the things that Mary and Joseph saw, we would wonder. To see a sparrow fall and Jesus pick it up and send it on its way. And what else - I cannot imagine, but Mary knew. That is the reason it was so easy for her to say at the wedding in Cana when they ran out of wine, just do what he tells you to do. And they did, and Jesus turned the water into wine.

He could have made a fortune at that time just healing animals. The car of the day was the donkey or horse or camel. With one touch he could heal them. He could have made a living being a 'vet.'

That is the reason the devil tempted him with doing things that ordinary men could not do....like taking him to the pinnacle of the temple and saying to him 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,' and let the angels catch you.

On New Years Eve we watched a fellow jump a football field length on a motorcycle. They said he went up a high as a six-story building in order to complete the jump.

Evil Kneivel used his life to do spectacular things. Before his death it was reported how many bones he had broken over the course of his life to do these spectacular things. He had many fans.

This is what the devil was saying to Jesus. Be spectacular! With your gifts you can do whatever you want to do. You can use your gift to further yourself.

But (there's the but) Jesus didn't do that. With each temptation, he rebutted it with scripture and after three times - three temptations, the devil had to flee because he was getting nowhere.

The Word says that Jesus grew in favor of God and men. Jesus was well liked. But even though he was well liked in his hometown, when he started his ministry, it was impossible for him to minister in his hometown because they knew him as Joseph's boy. He even commented at one time that 'a prophet is without honor in his own country.'

Even his brothers and sisters did not believe in him. He was just Jesus, their older brother.

Sometimes it is next to impossible to do things when people do not believe in what you are doing. Preachers have left the pulpit because people would not follow them. It may not have had anything to do with the preacher, just people are hard to lead sometimes.

I was in an abusive relationship for six years and when I finally got out of that horrible relationship, I came to Conway where we could not be found. There was an ad in the paper that if you were interested in helping start an organization to help abused women, to meet at the Methodist Church, and I went.

I ended up being the director of that organization for five years. It was called The Way Out Program for Abused Women. Over the course of that five years we helped over three hundred women. We clothed, fed, counseled, picked up, dropped off, consoled and cried with them. I eventually became known at the police station as 'the friend of the woman,' which was a great honor for me. Many nights I was called in the middle of the night to the hospital, to the police station, to a home or other location to pick up a woman whose husband was on a rampage. Even the district attorney's office used us. Foster is a great supporter of abused women's services. I gave it everything I had because I knew what it was like to be in a situation like they were in. (I knew how to be a runner from first hand experience)

The amazing thing to me was that we could never get anyone else interested in it. We went out on limb making it a Christian organization when the Junior Auxiliary pulled their support from us because of it. We felt that Jesus was the only way. Even the churches would not support us....all except the Methodist church. We spoke to the Lion's Club, the Optimist Club, the churches, the United Way....to no avail.

You've got to know that abuse was a closet affair in those days, but the consolation is to know that we opened the door and educated the community so that today they do have a shelter and all kinds of help for abused women.

They have even changed the law to protect them including getting a protective order (without an attorney and without charge in a lot of cases). At one time in the state of Arkansas there was a law on the books that it was okay to beat your wife one time a year. That is no longer the case. The police at that time sided with the man or had to have hard evidence to support any charges. A lot of time women would be abused and file charges only to drop them because of fear of her husband/boyfriend. That is no longer the case. If the police officer observes the results of abuse, he can file the charges and stand by them because of what he observes and it doesn't have to be the actual assault.

We have come a long way, baby!

Our job would have been a lot easier if we could have gotten support from the community. Conway has changed over the last few years. It used to be a very tight knit community and if you were not one of the chosen few, you got nowhere....and that excluded us even though the board of directors were Conway people.

When we talked to United Way, they almost scoffed in our faces.

I am sure John the Baptist, like Jesus, faced a lot of scoffers. When you run out in front, you have to be strong enough to do what you know you are supposed to do regardless of the support you get or don't get.

We all have to stand before God with our lives...every man on his own bucket...I just want to know in my heart I stood for the right thing at the right time whether it was the popular thing or not.

Gotta go for today! Have a great day. We are heading to Rogers to take care of my little grandson while his parent celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.

Charlotte