Ole Zeke’s New Buggy and Team

I got a letter this week from my great uncle Tally Thompson. You may remember, he is a World War I veteran and my family’s revered storyteller. Now, Uncle Talley went home to be with the Lord when I was just a young man. At least I prefer to believe he’s with the Lord. But he knows I always enjoyed his stories, including some pretty tall tales, so he still writes me from time to time to tell me what’s what and what’s really going on back home in Neshoba County. He especially loves to tell stories that happened back when he was just a youngin’.

This time he told me about a fella back home that had purchased a brand-spankin- new buggy and a prize-winning pair of trotters. Ole Zeke drove out of Philadelphia down the Zepher Hill road with the wind blowing in his hair. As he went down one road and then another he became lost in the discovery of new paths, the smell of the trees, and the beauty of the wild flowers growing along side of the road.

Ole Zeke began to realize he was no longer in familiar territory. But, not to worry. He was enjoying his new rig and team so much he didn’t want to turn around. He would find his way home in time. Zeke trotted through the woods and past cotton fields and pastures. His buggy and team followed a creek for a while. Finally, he decided he had better start back toward town.

He came upon a white house with a little cotton patch out front. There was a shirtless boy wearing ragged pants chopping cotton in the field. He looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old. Zeke pulled his tired team over by the boy and called out. “Hello, there young man.”

“Hello, yourself,” responded the boy while continuing his work
“Where does this road go to?” Ole Zeke questioned.
“Hain’t never seed it go nowhars. Hits always been right cheer.”
“How far is it back to Philadelphia?” Zeke continued.
“Don’t know,” the boy answered. “Never measured it.”

Well, by this time, my Uncle Tally wrote me, Ole Zeke was quite frustrated. “You don’t know much, do you boy?” he said. ‘You must be about the most ignorant, uninformed fool I’ve ever met.”

The boy finally stopped his labor. He turned his head and spat out a wad of chewing tobacco. He wiped perspiration from his forehead with his straw hat and propped himself against the hoe handle. He looked up and smiled at the stranger sitting in his brand-new buggy. Finally he spoke. “I knows I know might near nothing. And I knows I is a fool. But I also knows I ain’t lost.”

Uncle Tally’s story reminds me that I need to be careful not to lose my way in this chaotic world in which we live. It is very easy to get so involved in the material things around us that we lose sight of the things of God. Often times the things I get lost in are good things. There’s nothing wrong with a ride in the countryside enjoying God’s creation. But sometimes these things are just not as good as the things God has for us.

A few days ago two Northwest Airline pilots missed the Minneapolis airport because they were engrossed in their computers. They got lost somewhere over Wisconsin. This made me think about how far off I might be from the flight plan God has for me. What about you?