The Rev. Kempton D. Baldridge

America’s most unlikely ‘Founding Father’

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Glimpses of the Kingdom at Customer Service: Treasure Found in a Travel Day Lost

“There but for the Grace of God go I.”

These are often my thoughts when I pass some poor fellow with a breakdown or a flat tire on the shoulder of an Interstate.

“I’m sure glad that’s not me…”

For chaplains, car trouble can mean missing getting underway on a towboat or being a “no show” as guest speaker or preacher. And while changing a flat tire is a simple task, it often results in soiled clothing, dirty hands, scraped knuckles and an occasional wrenched back. On top of aggravation and inconvenience, breakdowns are stressful. Even the most confident travelers can’t avoid feeling vulnerable, exposed and on-edge when stranded in their car late at night, all alone and miles from the nearest town.

Late one Sunday night I became that “poor fellow” at the side of the road.

While driving on the interstate, a dashboard light showed one of my tires was low on air. I pulled over and saw immediately the left rear tire was nearly flat, and what little air remained was audibly hissing out. Owing to the remote location, I opted to try to make it to the next exit. I emptied a can of aerosol “flat fixer” and coaxed the ailing vehicle 11 miles to the next exit, unsure how, when or if my journey would resume.

Not surprisingly the service stations at the exit were already closed. I nursed the car to a hotel parking lot, hoping for a room. Luckily, they had one. I checked in, but slept little from dread of the day ahead.

The following day I sat in the waiting room of the Honda dealership as Craig, their service technician (and choir director at the local Cumberland Presbyterian church) worked on my Honda. The dealership is about 10 miles from the Interstate in downtown Clarksville.

Through all of this I was reminded of the goodness in ordinary people, no matter how dismissed or disrespected they may be by the wealthy and powerful.

In all candor, I had a most pleasant morning, due in large part to the willing and even cheerful self-forgetfulness in evidence at every “service desk” at which I alighted. Even though her store didn’t stock the tire I needed, I hold up the example of Kirsten, the wife of an army sergeant, who holds down a day-job as an auto service cashier at a Wal-Mart in Oak Grove, just outside the gates of Fort Campbell.  Despite numerous other things going on, Kirsten took time to call more than a dozen other places where I would have looked for a tire. Even though she came up dry, she could tell me where NOT to go. Her Wal-Mart colleagues, Julio and his assistant, cheerfully removed my old tire and neatly mounted the “donut” emergency spare tire. I tried to pay them but they refused. They seemed sorry not to be able to fix what was wrong, and all three smiled and waved as I headed out on my quest.

The same was true at Firestone some 11 miles further down the road. At Firestone’s service counter was Matt who, despite a filled waiting room and the many needful items on his list, was eager to help me. Matt didn’t have my tire in stock either, but determined where I could find the needle-in-a-haystack tire my Honda needed.

Long story short: much to my surprise, even those who did have the tire I needed,  who could easily have exploited the situation and used my relative vulnerability to ramp up the cost, did not. Marty, Honda’s service manager, despite a lot filled with cars left for servicing by his regular customers, squeezed me in (and on a holiday!) and even gave me a veteran’s discount on the tire.

Sure, I was behind schedule but I’m on God’s time anyway. And I am surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses … if I have eyes to see, that is.

Wanted: Peace (understanding not required)

Our culture has a peculiar fondness for definition in the negative. For some reason, we choose to describe a thing by pointing out what it is not: fat-free ice cream, smokeless tobacco, no fault divorce, painless dentistry. And while definition in the negative is temptingly easy, it is often wholly inadequate to provide understanding. One common definition of water is “a tasteless, odorless and colorless liquid” with the chemical symbol H₂0. While correct it is also entirely inadequate. We still know nothing about water: that ¾ of the earth’s surface is covered by water, or that the human body is 60% water, or that water is the key ingredient for all forms of organic life. And anyone who claims water has no taste clearly hasn’t spent much time in the desert. Nothing tastes quite so delicious as cool, clear water when one is really parched, agreed?

I suspect if asked to define the word “peace”, most people would start by defining it in the negative: peace is the absence of conflict, the opposite of war, or thoughts along those lines. And I think most of us would agree that while not incorrect it is also quite inadequate.

Yet, in John’s Gospel, when Jesus speaks of peace – His special peace at that – He defines it in the negative. “Peace I leave with you,” He says, “My own peace I now bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.” And when Jesus adds, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” we cannot help but draw the connection to the peace the world gives. Thus, when Jesus says, in effect, “Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful, intimidated, cowardly or unsettled,” He is referencing a worldly, corrupted and fraudulent peace wherein such things are common and expected. Jesus says, “Whatever it is you call peace? That’s not peace.”

Ask anyone who has been in a war and they will tell you peace is much more than the absence of war.

Jesus gives us a peace so rare and exceptional we’re told it “passes all understanding.” We know Jesus spoke in allegories, but that’s not the same as empty rhetoric. This was His solemn promise to us, nothing He took lightly. Peace was no mere abstract to Jesus either. He understood peace as both a noun and verb – and as a noun peace was tangible, and had weight, definition, strength and integrity. This peace is light years from the ubiquitous bumper sticker slogans and trendy social greeting of a generation ago. Jesus’ peace is of inestimable value, timely in its application, timeless in its profundity, and demanding little more of the recipient than a thankful heart. Such peace Jesus bestows informs and transforms what might otherwise be our darkest hours, and why He says, “Let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid.” Jesus knew what we might choose to forget that life will cause us to be fearful and worries and grief will threaten to rob us of any semblance of peace in our lives. Jesus’ gift, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, is the vehicle of that peace that will see us through and beyond our troubles, our fears, our doubts and even death itself.

Admittedly, many of us find that peace of any kind is frustratingly elusive and short-lived…no doubt, because we keep looking to the world’s flawed version of it. The Peace Jesus promised and Jesus gives is beyond our ken but not beyond our reach. It’s beyond our words but not outside our embrace, and available to all who trust and believe in Him.

Maybe we imagine that if we just try hard enough we will arrive at some formula, equation or procedure to achieve peace ‘on demand’ – when it suits us, as it were. We invent so-called ‘labor saving devices’ intended to give us more leisure time whereby we might have more peace. Yet all that results from all the labor saved in one task is more time to devote to other labors – and anything but peace. We work hard in order to be freed up to play hard – thinking that will bring peace. Yet, people who work hard always seem to be the ones taking ‘working vacations’ – an oxymoron to be sure. Wealth has no connection to peace, nor does free time or leisure. True Peace has but one source, and it results from the relationship between a loving God and God’s beloved – meaning us.

We can claim that peace, share that peace, live in that peace and serve that peace but our art, music or literature cannot adequately convey the meaning of the Peace that passes all understanding. Nevertheless, a well-loved old hymn, taken from Psalm 107, comes close to capturing its essence:

Peace is flowing like a river, Flowing out through you and me,
Spreading out into the desert, Setting all the captives free.
Let it flow through me, Let it flow through me,
Let the mighty peace of God, flow out through me.

Let that Peace flow through all of you working on the rivers, and through those loved ones awaiting your return.