When Judy and I think about the various factors that brought about our getting married, bats would have to be near the top.  Yes, I'm talking about those scary looking flying reptilian cave dwellers!  I first met Judy in the hallway of Christ Center, an inner-city/college ministry in Lexington, Kentucky back in the late sixties.  Judy and I became friends and maintained our friendship after Judy left the Center to return back home to Chickamauga, Georgia.  

In 1972, I boldly asked Judy out for a date when she called to reach a mutual friend who lived in the same old victorian apartment house in which me and my roommate were living.  She was planning a trip to Lexington and was making arrangements to stay with our friend for the weekend.  We enjoyed our first date and the rest of the weekend.  On the last day as I let her out of the car, I leaned over and gently kissed her on the cheek.  Again, it was so out of the ordinary for me, a huge risk!  Judy says she knew her heart was for me at that moment.  She heard in her heart: "Jesus, John, and me!"

We corresponded over the months until she moved up to stay with our friend.  One night when our friend was  out of town, Judy invited my niece to stay with her over night.  Late that night they heard a swooshing sound in the room which terrified them, causing them to pull the covers over their heads.  My niece peeked through an opening in the covers, then cried out, "Judy, it's a bat!"  Other than hell itself, the worse image Judy could ever conger up would be a bat flying around in a dark room.  Judy reached out from under the covers, grabbed the phone and called me to come up and put a stake in the bat's heart.

I quickly bounced up, grabbed a boat paddle and ran upstairs to their room.  Unfortunately, I had forgotten my glasses, and also had chosen the worse weapon with which to ever strike a bat.  My niece had unlocked the door, I rushed in trying to find the intruder, though without my glasses everything was a bit blurred.  When I eyed the bat, I took swing after swing with the paddle to no avail, although I did successfully chase it out the door.  Where it went, I didn't know, but I did know I was so winded I could hardly breathe.  

The next morning, I sat with Judy in her room and assured her that it was a fluke, bats would never enter the apartment again.  We prayed, and let it rest.  That night, I got another call with a terrified Judy on the other end, telling me to get up there fast, there was another bat.  It had taken me forever to answer her call because I had been chasing a bat in my own apartment and after another exhausting battle finally killed the little demon by throwing a shoe, causing it to fall to the floor. I won, but was tired, and why I was in a deep sleep when she called.

I again ran up to her room with my glasses on and the best weapon of all, a tennis racket!  They can't evade something not solid.  I took care of the vermin in short order, put my tennis racket back in my holster.  Judy insisted she couldn't stay in that apartment again, so I called my sister and hurriedly took her to stay with them.  I went back to my apartment, opened the door and five bats were flying around.  I promptly shielded myself, grabbed clothes and toiletries and headed back to my sister's house.  

Judy and I had been moving toward getting married but I was dragging my feet, only because I was trying to logically figure out all the details in order to set the best time possible.  When I realized we both would not be staying at the victorian apartment house any longer, my logical mind said, "we should go ahead and marry now instead of the chore of finding two separate quarters."  Thus, I romantically asked Judy to marry me in a parking area of a shopping center as we walked to a Full Gospel Business Men's meeting.  We were married some six months after our first date.  How many couples would give bats a prominent position of influence in their marriage plans?  Truth is, if it wasn't for the bats, I would probably still be trying to logically figure how best we could find a time to marry.  I am so grateful for God's faithfulness to use whatever means necessary to cause me to ask the wife of my dreams to marry me, allowing us to celebrate this September a most wonderful forty years!  

Pressure plays an interesting part in our lives, particularly in the lives of Christians.  Watching a professional quarterback trying to score the winning points at the end of a game puts him under enormous pressure.   However, if he fails, the pressure is off, he goes back to his million dollar home and thinks and rethinks how he could have done better.  Singing the National Anthem at a major event is filled with unbelievable pressure that few will ever experience.  Yet, the singer, when the moment is over, will receive either momentous praise, or scant feedback.

 But a deeper kind of pressure is a couple facing financial collapse with the possibility of bankruptcy, or the pressure of losing a mate through divorce, or loving and caring for a child who has a severe mental or physical disability, or owning a business that could easily go belly-up, or the loss of a spouse or loved one.  These are the kinds of pressures that countless people face day in and day out, including those who are serious about their faith as believers.

I deeply admire those who are strong in their pursuit of God, strong in proclaiming and demonstrating their faith while facing unimaginable hardships and pressures.  The tendency, when facing such pressures, is to put God on the back burner.  Instead of pressing in with a greater desire to love and know the One who has answers beyond our own abilities, the trials become the central and most consuming part of life.  Hezekiah was one of Israel's greatest kings, one who trusted God in the most dire of circumstances.  There was literally no way out----yet, God performed a miracle beyond imagination.  Hezekiah trusted God! 

Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie, maintained their faith while in a concentration camp during World War II.  Though her sister died in the camp, she and Corrie lived true to their love and faith in Jesus.  Thousands of Christians today are dealing with trials and persecutions beyond what we can comprehend.  Though we are particularly blessed compared to most of humanity outside of our nation, we too face difficulties that cause us pressures, pain, and sleepless nights. 

Times of pressure will reveal the reality of our faith.  In my life personally and as a couple, Judy and I have had to choose either the path of fear, anxiety, and hopelessness or TRUST God.  It's been a struggle in the worst of times, yet ultimately we fall face down on the grace of God, trusting Him when the path of fear intensely beckons.  We refuse to isolate ourselves from His people, we refuse to go it alone.  We look to those who have our best interest at heart; those who know what going down the wrong path holds for believers.  

The bottom line is this:  We must press into the One who loves us more than we can articulate or comprehend.  We must rely upon those who love us and will help us get through to the other side.  And yes, prayer, scripture, and fellowship play an enormous part in living through difficulties with a renewed mind.  What we say (confess/declare) can make or break a day.  Reining in vain imaginations are essential for those who refuse to yield to doubts and lies from the enemy.    

Why is all this important?  So we won't be taken out of the game!  When circumstances become the central issue of our lives, the call on our life; our magnificent mission which is impossible apart from Him becomes secondary, and we simply take our place on the bench rather than out on the field.  A life decision to Trust Him keeps us in the Game!

One of my favorite and most fun times of the year is the evening of my birthday.  It's on the 20th of December, a few days before Christmas when all the lights are up throughout Albany.  After a phenomenal meal consisting of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green peas, and a coconut cream pie with coffee; we all cram into the van and begin our journey critiquing the current year's lights.   It's an absolute blast!

Being able to act silly and laugh uncontrollably with friends and loved ones is a great joy in life.  Think about it!   There is such emotional health in having those with whom you can be totally free.  I've always imagined Jesus walking down the road with his arms around the shoulders of two of His disciples, while the twelve joked around, teasing one another without mercy.  Sometimes laughing so hard, they are bending over with tears in their eyes, unable to breathe.  I am sure mealtimes were not always solemn events, but times of great hilarity, a joyous time among friends.  

Be honest, how many of you have recently laughed so hard your insides ached?  You cried out, "No more, I can't handle it!"  Those are some of the richest times in my life.  Years ago, while in Virginia, Judy and I were going through a very difficult time.  Our pastor was visiting, and we shared with him some of the anguish we were experiencing, a very painful time for both of us.  He made a simple statement, "Just laugh at it!"  An amazing thing happened the moment he said it.  I began to laugh uncontrollably.  People were all around, but it didn't matter, I couldn't stop laughing!  I leaned against the wall holding my belly, literally trying to catch my breath.  By this time, Judy was also laughing uncontrollably.   Later that night while in bed, we were still laughing, yet the painful situation had not changed.

There are times when the Holy Spirit initiates such laughter.  Great belly-laughs don't always indicate it's a God moment, but when it's of Him, there is genuine release and healing.  He can also initiate times of crying, even wailing with such depth that we can sense a real cleansing in our soul.  It is God producing an inward healing that gives us hope, fresh belief that He is indeed in control.  I've experienced both, and I love the laughter more, probably because I needed it more.  Whether it's hanging out with friends or a God-ordained moment, it's one of the healthiest activities for our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.  If a "cheerful heart can be good medicine," how much more benefit a heart of pure, unadulterated, falling down laughter?

With the joy of the season, there may also be a lot of pressure, worries, and even sadness.   I pray each of us have God encounters, however they come, that will produce what we all need----LAUGHTER!  Not just this time of the year but throughout the year.  Everybody say, "May it be so!"

It’s amazing what lodges in the deep fabric of your life as you live out what is called the, “the senior years.”  When I listen to some of my oldies music, I can tell exactly where I was and what I was doing when each song became popular.  I also remember so clearly throwing to third base for an error instead of first in a little league game, which would have been the third out of the inning.  I remember being passionately in love with Benona Brown in junior high school in Little Rock, but paralyzed to do anything but gawk.  And yes, her name was Benona.

One of my horrifying moments as a nine year old was during a Sunday school skit when all I had to say was, “My name is Butch, I’m really a louse; I scatter my clothes and books all over the house.”  I ended up saying something like, “My name is clothes all over the house.” It was an ultra moment of embarrassment for me, which is why it’s still lodged in my memory.   Even so, I can enjoy the good memories today, and laugh at many of the awkward, embarrassing, wanting to hide-in-a closet memories of the past.  My Sunday school memory is simply a good story today.

But some memories impacting our lives today rob us of a joyful, productive, victorious salvation.  I’ve indicated more than once how shame governed much, if not most of my adult life.  Hating my alcoholic mom, hating my parents getting a divorce when I was seven, hating being tossed back and forth between families in which to live, hating each time I had to start over in a new school, hating being poor throughout my high school years, allowed shame to easily embed itself within me.

When Jesus was so powerfully revealed to me in 1967 much of that shame was leveled.  I literally felt I was a new person and my life took on a whole new realm of freedom I had never experienced since my earliest memories.  I instantly had a love for my mom instead of having loathed her.  Months later after that momentous encounter, I received more inner healing by a gifted woman at a Christian camp in Georgia.  Shame has been reckoned with, though each day brings new tests and challenges.  Singing, “Oh Victory in Jesus,” is not just a nice little chorus---it’s the reality of breakthrough for any believer!

Today, there is help available for anyone who is willing to open up his life for the Holy Spirit’s precision work.  God’s Spirit will respond to a desperate heart’s cry, and often uses someone within the Body of Christ to minister a deliverance of freedom.  The key is a desire to be free no matter what!  Men are particularly stubborn when it comes to opening their lives to the Spirit’s work.  This is foolish and reveals how pride is the wall of separation from either genuine healing or continued self-inflicted misery.  One of the core values at WellSpring is freedom for each follower of Jesus.  Put another way, “Bondage Sucks!” 

Paul gives us a big clue when he says, “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.”  Grasping the reality of this goes a long way in our becoming the freest people on the face of the earth.