Today I will make my annual trek back to a place that I love, the place that I call home.  I was blessed to grow up in a very cool little town called Williamston. I love my town and all of the people who helped to make it special for me growing up!  Today is the annual Spring Water Festival.

A festival that celebrates the founding of the town by West Allen Williams.  The story goes that one day while riding across some of his land, he became tired, laid down to rest for a few moments and fell asleep.  While he was sleeping he had a dream about a spring that people from all around would come and drink from and experience healing and miracles.  When he woke up from his dream, he found the spring in his dream and you know the rest of the story – a town grew up around it.

That spring is still there and folks are still drinking out of it.  It is has been surrounded for years by a beautiful park that family and friends have enjoyed celebrating at, for as long as I can remember.  I have more special memories there than I can count.  It was a special and magical place for me growing up as a boy and I still love being there today.

Back when I was getting ready to leave Williamston and head off to college, I remember Leo Glasby, one of the older and wiser men in our community saying to me: “Don’t ever forget where you come from!” He was reminding me to always remember and be influenced by who I was, not what I was becoming! He knew then, what I am just now beginning to learn, and that is this: Our value is not something out there waiting to be earned!  We are valuable right here and right now, not because of who or what we are going to be, but because of what we already are:  A unique. one of a kind, special creation of God!

Don’t Forget Where You Come From!  We were and are sinners – people lost without any real or meaningful direction, but with Jesus we are sinners saved by Grace – people that now have a special gift that they never dreamed or imagined possible! The devil wants us, but He can’t have us, because we belong to God and His Kingdom. I am not of this world, I am only passing through. I am headed back to where I came from! I came from God and I am headed back to God and every day I get a little closer, a little more fulfilled and a little more excited about all that I am right now, right here today!

One of the exciting things about going back to Williamston is getting to see family and friends.  God created us as special in this life, so that we could share the specialness with special people!  I am looking forward to seeing some special folks today in Williamston!

A few months ago we got a QT Gas Station & Convenience Store.  As an opening promotion they had all 32 Oz. Fountain Drinks, Slushies, Cold Beverages and Ice Cream Cones on sale everyday for 49 cents.  This special deal was only supposed to last a few weeks, but they continued the deal throughout the summer.  While the “Red Solo Cup” has become Toby Keith’s best friend, for many of us the 32 Oz. QT Cup became our friend.  There was just something about walking in and getting a big ole cup of refreshment for 49 cents that put a smile on your face.

Yesterday was the end of the 49 cents smiles.  Fountain drinks are now 69 cents and slushies are 79 cents for a regular cup and 89 cents for a styrofoam cup.  When I stepped up to the counter with change in hand to pay for a couple of slushies last night, I was taken back just a bit when the clerk said with a sly smile:  “That’ll be $2.10!”

We all knew the day was coming.  In fact there had been some warning earlier in the week, but how do you prepare?  Things change and life moves on.  I did not run out this morning and begin my day with a QT Slushie and I am not really sure why?  It’s not the extra 20 cents.  It’s not that I am mad or upset.  It’s just that things in life have a beginning and an ending and that is part of life and when we get that, we start to get life.

It reminds me of what a wise man named Solomon once said in Ecclesiastes 3: 1-14 – “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:  2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.  9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.”

Things begin and things end.  People come and people go.  The time that we have right now, is the time that our Creator has given us and we should do everything we can to make the most of it for His glory.

I think a good way for me to do that right now is by checking the cushions on the couch for that extra 20 cents and going to get me a QT Slushie – hope to see ya there???  😉

God speaks to us from the depth of who we are and this is why it is so important to become comfortable with who He has created us to be.  This is why we cannot allow ourselves to get caught up in the conforming power of the world around us, but must seek to be transformed by the continual renewing of our mind through His Word and Spirit.

God speaks blessing, peace, love and grace into our lives all the time, but we often fail to hear it, because we have allowed so many other sources of noise to become a part of who we are and what we do.

Do not listen to the other voices.  Our listening only empowers them and instead of lifting us up, it tends to press us down.  God’s Spirit will often speak conviction, but not with the purpose of crushing us, but of convicting us, so that we might get free of the restraints of sin that so often hold us down and keep us back.

God does not just hang around the one who has received Him.  God is around and in those of us that have received Him and this should always lead, grow and empower transformation in our lives.  The holy life is the life that allows God to live in and through it.

I Corinthians 6:19-20 ask the important question and then commands the right direction when it says:  “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

 Lord, Help me to live in You, because you live in me.  Give me understanding and belief of Your equipping power in me.  Help me when I respond to the world around me, to respond according to Your will and not according to my plans.  Please inhabit my life and all the moments of my life.  Let Your grace influence my thoughts, Your love control my words and Your Spirit guide my behavior in all that I do.