This is how I know that God goes before me: because long before I even had the questions, my Granddaddy Herbert was doling out answers.
He used good things as a vehicle for passing down wisdom. He’d catch us baby goats to play with or find us a muddy pond to splash in or slice us sweet chunks of sugar cane to suck on. And while he had a captive audience, he’d spin us fabulous yarns about tornadoes that lifted ladies in their bathtubs clear to the next county or wily foxes that fooled the cows . . . stories that seemed fact but were most likely fiction. He would take us to look for Rudolph in the winter sky and take us to catch Catawba worms on a tree next to the grain bin. As he was doing all these things, he was constantly slipping in advice that made me straighten my back and say “Yes, Sir” even though I didn’t have a clue what he was really talking about.
He had a lot of “pearls of wisdom,” but one of the things he liked to say on repeat was: “Never say what you won’t do because you never really know what you would do. You never know until you’re in the situation.”
I would nod like I was full of understanding, but really – this one always confused me. Don’t say what you wouldn’t do? Of course you can say what you wouldn’t do! For instance, I’d never commit murder. I’d never cheat on my spouse. I’d never become an alcoholic. I’d never cheat. I’d never steal . . .
As I got a little older, I’d argue a little with him about this. I’m not sure he liked me “talking back” in this way. But generously, he’d expound a little. “Pray about what you don’t want to do,” he’d tell me, “because you are capable of doing any thing. Any person can do any thing. Good or bad. Never forget that.”
I’m ashamed to say, I think I took this as a personal insult at the time. Didn’t he know that I would never do some of those things? And yet, as I’ve grown up I’ve learned that he was right, of course. I have done lots of things I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing at the age of 10. I’m not proud of this. But it has shown me that he was right – any person is capable of any thing. No evil is so evil that it can’t creep into your life. You have to be on guard all the time. No person is too good for bad actions.
These last few months, I’ve seen a lot in the news that has made me think of my Granddaddy and his “sugar cane wisdom.” I think that we all naturally assume that we are good people. Good people that sometimes do slightly gray things, but mostly – good people. But I see statues in parks of other people applauded as good people, and I understand that being a “good person” doesn’t preclude you from doing hurtful things. Being mostly right doesn’t mean that you’re not sometimes wrong. Being commemorated in a statue or on a coin doesn’t mean that you are beyond reproach.
All around me I see things that are praised today that are not praise-worthy . . . things on both sides of the political aisle. Things that in a different context would make us shudder and throw stones. Even as we tear down yesterday’s statues, I see us erecting new monuments –celebrating people or things that cannot stand. Things that may do some good but still perpetuate hurt and oppression. Things that are not beyond reproach.
And as I see these things, I hear my grandfather’s voice: any person can do any thing. You have to pray. You have to be on guard. Being popular does not equal being holy. Being good does not equal being God. Being right today does not equal being righteous. Being on the “right side of history” is, at best, a temporary and fickle thing.
Any person can do any thing.
Be on guard.
Never stop praying.
Actions have ripples into contexts that we can’t imagine today.
There’s often more at stake than what we can see.
Jill says
Melissa,
So beautiful. I have always lived with that same knowledge, “we are capable of anything,” because, of course, two brothers learned at the same knee. I loved the story of grace for that very reason. And then I BECAME what I, as a tee-totaller from birth, never even thought to imagine. I have been beggar, broken, and worst of all a hurter of those I love most. How could I ever stand up after that, except by the Bridge-Builder who crosses every divide in life by His total sacrifice. Still fighting the good fight…staying on guard and praying, just like Papa taught me.