Reaper Road

Sometimes I wish I would have written down all of the things I've seen or experienced down through the years in my travels to speaking engagements. I remember a lot of them, but I've forgotten some as well. I won't ever forget, however, when some gals put a fake mouse in my bed at a camp where I was speaking. Or when I was asked to return there a few years later and a couple of different gals put a fake snake and a fake frog in my bed. And then there was the weekend that I spoke at a retreat center where my cabin was located on a very secluded part of the property, and my car got stuck in the mud and I didn't have a flashlight or my cell phone ... that was fun for sure. I have some special serious memories, too, like when I first baptized a woman who was present at one of the retreats ... I baptized her in the hotel pool, and it was one of the most moving experiences I've ever had. I have many memories of deep and touching conversations I've had with ladies at events who were hurting or wounded or struggling in their faith. Maybe one day I'll write an "on the road" book of some sort.

This morning, I drove down to Leroy, Kansas, to speak for their Women's Day event ... Leroy is about an hour and a half from where I live, and it was a perfect day for a road trip. As I drove into the town of Leroy, I saw something that made me laugh out loud in my car. That is just awesome, I thought, just totally awesome. On the right-hand side of the road was the town cemetery ... one of those old-fashioned, small-town cemeteries with the large tombstones atop the graves located there. Now I'm sure you're wondering why in the world I would laugh out loud when I saw the cemetery, and you're probably thinking that I have a really sick and twisted mind. But it wasn't seeing the cemetery that made me laugh ... it was the name on the street sign of the road directly across from the graveyard that made me laugh ... Reaper Road ... as in the Grim Reaper of Death. Come on ... that's just plain old stinking funny.

When I stood to speak this morning, I couldn't help myself ... I had to make a comment about the name of the road across from the cemetery, and all day I've wondered which was there first, the cemetery or Reaper Road. Thankfully, the women in the group understood why that was so funny to me, and they laughed heartily when I told them that tonight they would be the subject of my blog. Two ladies came up to me after I spoke and told me they had lived in the town of Leroy for many years, and they had never thought about the connection between the cemetery and Reaper Road ... hmmm ... maybe those of you who were thinking that I have a sick and twisted mind were more right than you know.

As I left the town of Leroy this afternoon, I smiled broadly as I once again drove by the cemetery and Reaper Road. When I reached my turn to get back on the highway, I started thinking about the Grim Reaper ... the mythological figure who comes to whisk a person away from this life. He most often is portrayed as being dressed in a long flowing black robe with his face and head covered by a massive hood, carrying a large scythe ... a figure to be dreaded and feared. And the more I thought about the Grim Reaper, the more I thought about how different the Christian perspective is concerning death and the hereafter. For those who have a personal relationship with Christ, death is merely the avenue to eternity ... an eternity with our Lord in a place that He has prepared for us, a place where I'm sure there will be no dread or fear ... and no Grim Reaper.

"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'" 1 Corinthians 15:54-55