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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
The older I get the more I seem to enjoy my trips to Blue Grass Christian Camp. This past Saturday I went over to the camp for a personal work day and got to wash dishes during the morning and then spent the afternoon helping a group of men run wire, bolt on light posts and place light boxes for a series of lights which will illuminate a trail between the two sides of the camp. What always draws my attention during my visits to the camp is what separates the two side of the camp.
Right between the two sides of the camp (the well known camp side and the recently added out camp and retreat center/lodge) is a creek. If ever there is a geographic attraction which goes to the youth of many men it is a creek. It reminds me of the times I spent as kid growing up in my home town. A creek kind of quartered the town circling from the Northwest to the Southeast. Sugar Creek was a boy's best friend. It provided an unending resource of play opportunities.
In the Spring there was a place to catch carp. One section of the creek narrowed to a thin rivulet through which the carp would travel to spawn. We boys would straddle the creek at that point and catch the carp by hand as they made their way through. Just upstream from that area was what we considered our multipurpose area. During the Summers we would swim in an area where the water made a curve in the creek and eddied. It was deep enough to swim in and rich enough in fish for us to fish as well.
The Winters would provide some of the neatest times. In the cold of those winters back then the water would freeze in the creek and snow would cover the nicely sloped banks of the creek. Old Sugar Creek became sledding central then as we used the banks of the creek to shoot us out onto the iced over surface. That creek was our playground but it was also our place of discovery. We learned about the habits of carp in spawning and the times that fish would not bite. We learned about the different kinds of fresh water fish and marine life that inhabited the creek as well as the critters that called the high grasses on the banks their home.
The Bible is much like that creek of my childhood. It is filled with fascination and mystery as well as romance and excitement. It is many things to many people; comfort, encouragement, correction, discipline. But if the Bible is anything it is what the psalmist swore it to be. "Your word is lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105 The Word of God illuminates life for us. Oh, it is a good read. "Good for what ails you," as my Granny used to say. Good for a lot of things to everybody.
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...He was the Minister of the Minorsville Christian Church located near Stamping Ground, KY.
...Becky and Tom have three children; John, single and in worship ministry in Nicholasville, Kentucky; Sean, married (Jennifer, elementary school teacher) with twins (Grace and Patrick, b.d. 10/31/04) and regional director of Papa John's Pizza in Central KY; Kara, married (Vince Taylor, prison guard) and working with Hospice East in Winchester, KY.
...Tom went to be with the Lord on November 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer. If you have been touched by Tom's writings please send an email to Tom's son at jkelley@catalystchristian.net
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