Inspirations: A Time to Dig Under the Surface

Green Springs United

Methodist Church

Several years ago, while serving a church in Old Washington, Ohio my peaceful village life was rudely interrupted by the intrusion of I-70.

Just a couple miles away an old coal mine shaft caused a sinkhole which closed both sides of the highway. Small local roads were immediately turned into one-way detours of the busiest East/West thoroughfare in the nation.

Rolled-over trucks became common sights as the "big rigs" couldn't handle the steep hills and sharp turns. Local residents braved the heavy angry traffic at serious threat to life and limb.

Old Route 40, which ran behind our house, served to provide two lanes for the westbound traffic. To make matters worse, a stop sign was less than a block away. Braking, accelerating and gear-changing were non-stop. We were desperate for relief.

Uncle Sam came to the rescue. I don't know whether to blame the engineers or the bureaucrats, but a less than brilliant plan was devised.

They decided to drill holes through which concrete would be pumped to fill in the shaft. This sounded reasonable at the time, but a few weeks later they found that all that work was to no avail. It seems that moving water was washing all that concrete away.

They would have to start all over, dig down to the source of the problem, repair it and fill in the enormous hole. This substantially extended the frustration of thousands of vacationers, truck drivers and local residents.

This brings us to Clyde. I have enjoyed so much of what this community has to offer. We are blessed in many ways. But these local residents were also rudely awakened by an intrusion into our idealistic small town world.

This awakening is not attributed to some outside force, but by a shocking event involving our own youth. The local Ministerial Association met to discuss how we might address the issue.

This led to the exposure of other recent events and issues and how we might address them as well. But we dare not take the easiest and quickest approach; which always only treats the symptoms and not the source of our problems.

Someone needs to dig deep. And that needs to begin with the church. Jesus said that we need to get the plank our of our own eye before we can help someone else. II Chronicles 7:14 says, "If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and heal their land." (NKJV)

Do we start now or will we wait for our "quick" efforts to wash away? Something to think and pray about.

Green Springs United Methodist Church is located at 117 N. Broadway, Green Springs. Worship Service is 9:15 a.m. Sundays.