"...Jesus was so wonderful."

J Vernon McGee writes: “I have had very few real compliments since I have been a minister, but one I remember well. When I was a pastor as a student in Georgia, I used to preach in a church on the side of a red clay hill. One morning after the message everyone left but a country boy. He wore high yellow shoes that buttoned all the way, and he waited around, as timid as could be. Finally he came up to me with tears in his eyes. He took hold of my hand and said, “My, I did not know Jesus was so wonderful.” He wanted to say something else but he was too choked with emotion; so he turned and walked out of the little church. That church today is in the middle of a city, but in those days it was in the middle of a cotton patch. I watched that country boy walk across the cotton patch, and said to myself, “Oh God, let me so preach that people will know that Jesus is wonderful.” That was a compliment and I have not had many like it.”

It's all about the heart

I'm not one given to poetry so much. I honestly think if I'm ever told to explicate another poem my head will rip off and soar messily into space. But, this morning I came across the Appalachian poet Jane Merchant. Some may view her work as maudlin and sappy. Carl Sandburg seemed to approve, though.

I found her through J Vernon McGee. McGee just kills me (in a good way) because he was so very plain spoken and in your face, but then he'd turn around and quote anyone from Herodotus or Tacitus to Ogden Nash. And because of this, McGee is one who makes me stop and take note whenever he quoted someone (I like a well-rounded person). The following Merchant verse was offered up by McGee this morning:

If I forgive an injury,
Because resenting would poison me,
I may feel noble; I may feel splendid,
But it isn’t exactly what Christ intended.

Yes, once again, it's all about the heart.