Jerry L. Schmalenberger

Object: A piece of purple cloth and an old, worn-out rag.

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) It is great to see you! Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Great!

Note: This installment was originally published in 2001.

Everybody likes payday. Of course, it's time to pay the bills and set some money aside for a rainy day or retirement; but most enjoyable is putting some of that hard-earned money in the billfold to be used on a whim later in the evening or on the weekend.

“I want to hold a picnic on the last day we’re having Sunday School before summer begins,” Janice announced. The three women standing around in the church hall after service turned to face her.

“Why?” Heather asked. “I mean, I know that we have always had a Sunday School closing and there were picnics in years past but we’ve only had one or two children in Sunday School this year.”

“If that many,” Susan said. “The truth is that many Sundays there was no one here.”

John was hanging around the gates of the big house, hoping he might catch a glimpse of Michael. They were the same age, and had played together when they were small, when John's Mum had been the cleaner at the big house.

A little boy named Jacob was getting ready for bed. He had brushed his teeth and washed his face; he had put on his favorite red pajamas with a picture of a panda bear on the front; he had fed his goldfish named Herbie and his hamster named Fred; he had hugged all of the stuffed animals at the foot of the bed; his mom had read him one of his favorite stories and now it was time to say his prayers. He knelt down beside the bed, and was about to bow his head and close his eyes, when he remembered to ask his mom a question that he had been thinking about for a long time.

Go ahead. Take a coin from your pocket. Hold it up and look to see where it says, "In God We Trust." It is quite a statement. Trust itself is something when it is actually accomplished. Think, for example, about the number of people in your life who have your full, unqualified trust. If you're like most people, the number is not high. Trust is hard. It requires vulnerability, and no one likes feeling vulnerable. Yet, the path of faith is the process of becoming vulnerable, not to a person, but to God.

Some of us are old enough to remember the old Cat Stevens' tune, "Father And Son." That song, as you might recall, is in the form of a dialogue. The father speaks first and tries to share with his son some of the wisdom he's gained from his years of living. He says that it's not yet time to make a change, relax, and take it easy. Perhaps the son ought to look for a wife.

Howard and Kopp with Real People celebrated its first anniversary on Adelphia Community Cablevision recently on the air with cake, candle, and terribly off-key duet. Joe Sorce, Robin Frick, Debbie Kurtz, Joann Scott, and the talented if unpredictable media students of Peters Township High School have made production a surprisingly painless as well as serendipitous adventure.

Now it's going national sometime this summer through "World Radio" (WRVG) in Georgetown, Kentucky, with the help of Pittsburgh's own WDUQ out of Duquesne University.

The weekend is shot (almost). Tomorrow it is back to the "real" world, back to the grind, at least for most of us. Where will God be in all that?