donloyw's Journey Notes
Volume 17
December 2017
Dying to Get Ahead
Friends seeing me recently for the first time in a long while hugged me
and exclaimed that I was a miracle. They were referring to a report they heard
that I had a stroke almost two years ago, but which actually was vertigo-type
loopiness and nausea, a reaction to taking caffeine enhanced pre-workout
supplements which overstimulated my heart. I was set back for several
months, but recovered – not because God chose to “miraculously” heal me, but
because I stopped taking those damned caffeine enhanced pre-workout
supplements.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L30
Careless Parenting Confusing Children
Without Christ (his Life renewed
in us each day), every marriage is subject to failure and heartbreak. Attempts
at remarriage can have increased risks. Lost influence with children can be the
most disappointing. A man lamented recently that his children called their new
stepmom their “dad’s wife” and that her children called him “uncle.”
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L23
Meeting Carole, Seeing a Cow Up Close for the First Time
I came upon a cowbell while
walking thru J.C. Penny at the mall. I looked around to show Carole but
couldn’t find her, so I rang the cowbell. She told me later she heard the
cowbell but didn’t want to believe it was me. I told her I could use it at home
when I needed her. She asked why a cowbell. I said because I grew up in the
city and she on the farm and that I had never seen a cow up close until I met
her.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L16
When Pastoral Support for Experiencing God Becomes a Premium
I dreamed the world was hit by a
natural disaster of some sort resulting in massive destruction. As I looked
around I saw a large church building, damaged but still standing. A large crowd
of people was gathered around it. When I inquired, a group stepped forward to
ask if I would be their pastor. I awoke thinking that the time will come when
the ministry of GracePoint to support hurting people for experiencing Christ
will be a premium value, different from the entertainment and socializing the
Church clamors for today.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L09
Silly Humor at the Wife Return
Trying to be a hit with the checkout
lady this week at the mall, I asked if the black shirt I was showing her came
in black. I told her my Wednesday humor was not that good but that I could come
back on Friday. She laughed and said she thought it was pretty good. I asked if
she took returns. She said she did. I said that was good, that I would go get
my wife.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17L02
November 2017
In the Dentist Chair Learning to be Nice
Years ago I
began learning to be careful what I say to people when I told a young, newly-hired
dental hygienist that I was a runner. She said she used to run but didn’t any
more. I told her there should not be anything we ought to do that we “used to”
do. Suddenly she became very aggressive and set my mouth on fire.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17K25
Best Laid Plans to Get Eaten for Thanksgiving
I asked a staff member at the gym
this week if service animals were allowed. She said yes, although one lady
brought her poodle because she did not want to leave it at home alone. I asked
her if she had heard of matching pajamas for snuggling with dogs. She said I
would not want to know what her dog did in her bed. She said she read about a
lady who slept with a python. When the python stopped eating, she took it to
the vet who asked for more information. The lady said there was nothing else to
say except the snake just stretched out each night beside her. The vet
suggested the snake was sizing her up for a meal.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17K18
Little is Much When God Is In
It!
Jesus was supported by Provisions
that flowed from his Father, yet he was poor by worldly standards (so are the
best of ministers). When a recent report identified the wealthiest ministers,
my name wasn’t among them. So just to aggravate Google, I asked, “What is Don
Whisnant’s net worth?” Google understood me to ask “What is my old whiskey
bottle worth?” So I asked again, “What is the net worth of Don Whisnant?”
Google answered “God! What’s in it?”
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17K11
A Loser Getting It Right About God
The older I get, the more
embarrassed I am about my youthful
ignorance. When I was a youth, some considered me to be a child prodigy, but as
it turned out, I was more turned around and upside down than they thought. I
thought I could do anything, but in my arrogance, I tore up more than I fixed.
Most tragically, theologically I thought God was in a power position over me
and that his relationship to me was based upon what I could do for him. For the
past almost thirty years I have been learning that God is in a support position
beneath me (like a vine) and that his relationship to me is based upon what I
will give him opportunity to do for me.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17K04
Competing so my neighbor doesn’t get uppity
The tree guy I hired did a good job. I told him to put his
sign in my yard. He said it didn’t help because neighbors tend to compete. He
was right. We tend to compete because we have trouble with the possibility that
someone else may know more, have more, or do more than we do – especially if
they try to act all “uppity.” It’s an insecurity issue we have, rooted in our
unmet need for confidence that we are valued (not the same as valuable),
especially by God. In Atlanta ,
dead branches from a tree on my property sometimes fell on my neighbor’s lawn.
I liked to ask him when he planned to pick them up. He would laugh and say I
could do it when I mowed his lawn.
October 2017
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace
Perspective 17J28
Blessed Not to Have a
Crooked Nose
People with unmet temperament needs (for leadership support
in the home and Church with regard to information, affection, and
decision-making) become either fearful (insecure so that they are offended by
advice) or angry (including otherwise good church-going people and even
ministers, especially performance types). So, in my early years, I was angry. I
had not experienced enough of Christ to be able to forgive like Christ forgives
– that is, to withhold punishment and minister to the brokenness (Ephesians 4:32).
I was not a bully or aggressive towards anyone, but people did well not to
aggravate me or get in my face. I was a fighter and knocked the daylights out
of at least a few people. Others saw the look in my eyes and backed down or got
away. But given the times I was outnumbered, if not outsized, I was
Providentially watched over not to have gotten killed or injured. My dad was
not so blessed. He told me the reason his nose was crooked was that, as a young
minister, he took on a man who got in his face and the man broke his nose.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace
Perspective 17J21
Celebrating
Contentment and Health
I won’t tell how old I am, but can report that last year I
was a year younger than I am now, and also that I am contented and, by all
reports, healthy.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace
Perspective 17J14
Bantering, Having Fun Picking on People
We Melancholies sometimes think too deeply, get tense, and
seek relief through humor, even at someone else’s expense. We may also be
trying to be a hit. Or it may be because we are happy! Whichever, on the way
out of the mall this week, I asked the little lady at the check
out if she had a layaway plan for my $3 purchase. She laughed and said she
didn't. I ask if that meant she would need the full payment today. She said she
did. “Even if I promise to come back tomorrow?” I asked. Her laughter
encouraged my nonsense. I said I was having trouble remembering where I parked
and asked if she remembered which door I came in. She laughed again
and said I made her day. I may not have but her sweet
nature brightened mine.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17J07
September 2017
Dreaming About Heaven
Living in a Mansion on a Hill
During a recent post exercise nap, I had a short dream that
I lived in a mansion on a hill and it was filling up with happy people coming
in. I was just beginning to lead the excited gathering in singing “Isn't Jesus
My Lord Wonderful!” but I woke up when a man entered to discover he no longer
needed his wheel chair.
“In Heaven there are many mansions which God has prepared
for us” (John 14:1).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace
Perspective 17I23
Losing sleep dreaming about leaving church members high
and wet
I dreamed last night
that a former co-pastor and I were flying a plane filled with church members.
At some point we decided we needed to take care of some business on the ground,
so we parachuted out of the plane. When our business was done, it occurred to
us that the plane was flying out over the ocean without a pilot. The rest of
the night I tossed and turned in and out of my sleep worrying about how I could
get back to the plane before it crashed.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace
Perspective 17I16
Before assisting me, the receptionist said into the phone,
“Bye, I’ll see you at church tonight!” I asked if she were one of those “mid-week
go to church” persons. She said she was and asked about me. I said I wasn’t,
that I pastored a grace renewal church which follows the model of the first
century church in the book of Acts - that is, we meet five and six days a week,
sometimes twice a day, with different groups of two and three members in order
to provide support for learning how to make wise choices for health, especially
to experience Christ to a fuller measure each day.” I told her she would need
to make an appointment. She looked interested, but confused.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17I09
August 2017
A Dog Gone Way to
Make Life Better
I dreamed this week that I was visiting a neighbor. He
excused himself for a moment leaving me with his little dog. But the little dog
irritated me (gave me an allergy). When a sales person came by, he said he
loved the little dog and wished he could have it. I told him if he wanted to he
could take it. So that took care of that.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17H26
“They must be dating!
And so happy, they’re holding hands and counting dates!”
The mall kiosk saleslady wanted to comment on Carole and me
holding hands as we passed by.
“First date?” she called out.
“No!” Carole answered, “28!”
“You’re counting!!!” the saleslady said.
“Years!” I said.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17H19
Carole Insists She Wouldn't Be
Not Fair for Us
Carole said she would be back later. I asked her if she was slipping out
for nefarious reasons. She insisted no, that she was definitely not having an
affair. I said good because that would be not fair for us.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17H12
AKA Ron and Shirley
My neighbor spoke to me when she walked past our house recently. “Hello!”
I said, but I called her by the wrong name. I was embarrassed and quickly
apologized. Then I told her that while Carole and I were walking recently, we
came upon a group led by favorite fellow-walker who came to know us as D and C
to help her remember our names, but that, on this occasion, she said to her
group, “These are my old walking buddies, Ron and Shirley!”
When we first moved to our neighborhood, an elderly neighbor came over to
introduce himself. I said we are Don and Carole Whisnant. He said he had a hard
time remembering names. I told him to remember D and C. He said that wouldn’t
help. Recently he stopped by to chat and to say that we might soon be family
because his granddaughter was getting married to a Stedman. “But my name is
Whisnant,” I said. “Oh!” he said, “Well then that won’t work will it?”
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17H05
July 2017
Forgetting Where to Put What,
When, and Why!
I supplement with lots of
antioxidants, so will be disappointed if my mind fails. My memory seems to be
okay - enough to quote a growing number of Scripture, about 300 verses. But I
may have some short-term memory issues. For the first time several months ago I
pulled away from a gas pump without removing the nozzle. I have not worried too
much about that until yesterday when Carole stopped me from walking out of
Burger King carrying my food tray.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G29
Sanctifying the Small Intestine
Noting in the news this week that
an aging politician called President Trump “Bush” for the fifth time, I
remember not too long ago in a presentation on health I repeatedly called our
small intestine the New Testament.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G22
Finding Myself a Misfit for the Modern World
I enjoy some modern day conveniences,
but they are not necessities and have certainly not added to my contentment or
experience of Christ. There is no place I’d rather be than home, no place I
need to go I can’t walk to, and no need to be there faster than a horse can
take me. And nothing which has not been available to mankind since the
beginning (John 1:1-3) enhances my experience to read the Scripture in order to
hear and experience Christ.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G15
Missing Out Knowing Everything
When I Was Born
I learn new information almost
every day. Most of the helpful information I know now I learned after I was 40.
(Either I was really dumb or I have become extraordinarily smart!) But I have a
friend who did better than I. He says he knew everything when he was a
teenager, and that he had looked forward to being a father so that he could
teach his son. But he said he missed out on that because, when his son was
born, he already knew everything.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G08
Living Long Enough to be 100 If I Don’t Die
My wife assured me that if I
lived long enough I could live to be 100. Especially if I do what my
friend did: He skipped his 69th birthday. He thought it was an
achievement to be 70, but not wanting to chance he would live that long, he
decided to go ahead and celebrate it a year early. He could be 100 in a few
more years. That is, unless he dies. I remember a minister friend
forewarning his church that if they lived long enough they were going to die.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 17G01
June 2017
Becoming a Zero Trying
to be a Hero - Again
If we attempt to attain a goal or
status that is not God’s redemptive plan for our lives, we can expect that the
outcome will not be good, but will result in brokenness and failure and loss, taking
us back to the starting point – and even further back.
That happened at Babel , you know, when the
attempt was made to build a tower that reached to the heavens. The result was
loss.
It has happened to me at least
twice, once in my earlier ministry when I attempted to be a hero for Christ - with
the result that I became a zero, and most recently last year in my exercise
routine when I, with disregard to my age and family history (genetics), attempted
for several months to improve my strength and endurance using caffeine enhanced
pre-workout supplements.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace
Perspective/Journey Notes 17F24
Disappointed Making the Same Mistakes Experiencing the Same Results
I accepted my first pastorate as
a 22-year-old in a church which had 7 deacons and trustees who were grieving
the retirement loss of a seasoned pastor. I had church growth skills but did
not understand leadership. The church attendance boomed, but the deacon board
did not appreciate my disregard for them, so they resisted me. So I resigned.
Later, God allowed me to try
again in an almost exact circumstance. Again, although the church attendance
grew rapidly, I had learned nothing, so experienced the same outcome. I
resigned again and started a new church which became the state’s fastest
growing Sunday School. But I still did not understand leadership, so I lost my
marriage and consequently resigned the church.
Who was wrong? I was. The deacons
in both churches were not worldly or self-serving, but godly. So was my wife. They
had given me opportunity to invest/serve the church in a way that would win
their confidence and gain an opportunity for influence. But my goal was to be the
world’s best Christian (a Champion for Christ) and to be the hot shot pastor of
a large and fast growing church.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective/Journey Notes
17F10
May 2017
Called to Greatness Only In My Dreams
I dreamed last night that I was
called on in the 7th game of the World Series to pitch the last
inning. I struck out the side and became an instant hero - at the game and in
all the news reports. What precipitated such a dream, I do not know, because I
learned many years ago that God does not call us to become heroes to be
celebrated in the world, but to be made holy (useful) in redemptive service to
others.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective/Journey Notes 17E19
April 2017
Silly Dream Refusing Money for Sharing Solution
I dreamed last night that I had
discovered a solution to the world’s problems. It was the simplest of
solutions, derided especially by religious thinking people, yet somehow it was
being considered at a meeting of the world’s most famous philosophical and
religious minds. One solution after the other was presented and considered with
much ado, but then rejected. The solution I offered was the words of Colossians
1:27 and Revelation 3:20 written on a small piece of paper. Reluctantly, the
solution written on the little paper was considered, but then surprisingly it
was accepted. I was offered more money than there was money in the world (which
was, my wife said when I shared this with her, “a lot of money!”). But I
explained I could not take the money because the solution was not mine but
God’s which he had revealed to me. Demonstrating how it worked, I walked to the
front of the esteemed gathering, bowed my head and invited Christ to live in my
heart. Then I woke up.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace
Perspective/Journey Notes 17D15
March 2017
Feeling Bad About My Dislike for Dogs
I had a weird dream last night
about a dog. This morning I have been recalling my encounters with dogs
(usually during morning runs through neighborhoods, but also on other
occasions) - that I have been
- bitten once in a frontal attack by a dog in a pack;
- gummed by a toothless dog which I didn’t hear or see coming from behind;
- charged at too many times to count - ignoring the loud little ones but charging back at and sometimes kicking the big ones, resulting in
- some dog owners’ cursing and threatening me (one telling me I was “less than a human,”
- being applauded by an irritated next door neighbor who shouted to me,”Good for you!” when I kicked their neighbor’s charging dog; and
- chased in my van (when I was just a kid preacher) while making pastoral calls. (Once when finally tired of one particularly irritating dog, I slammed on brakes and heard a thump. On my next visit the dog hid when it saw my van. I also thought I noticed a bare spot on its head.)
But my dream last night mostly
reminded me of a little dog in Atlanta
who began following me around a high school track. After several laps, to my
disbelief, it continued to follow. I tried to shoo it away but it continued to
follow. After a lot of laps (I forget how many), I got worried the little dog
might pass out, so I left the track to run in a neighborhood where I finally lost
it.
In my dream last night a dog was
following me every place I went. I finally managed to get away, but the dog
found me and was distraught. It began talking to me like a human, fussing and
weeping that I had abandoned it. In my dream I began to feel very bad for my
behavior and sad for the unhappiness of the talking dog which had taken on the
face of a person. When I awoke, I still felt bad and understood a little better
people’s attachment to dogs.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace
Perspective/Journey Notes 17C09
February 2017
Me and Ronnie! And Nancy !
I dreamed last night that I was buddies with Ronald Reagan. He
identified me as a resource for some purpose – maybe for spiritual support. But
then, when he was gone out of my dream (probably dead), his wife took a liking
to me. Only she did not look like Nancy ;
she favored a female Ronald Reagan (a forerunner of Bruce Jenner, maybe?). And
she was really old. Anyway, her liking for me turned flirtatious. I’m glad I
woke up.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective/Journey Notes 17B04
January 2017
A Passion for the Preaching at
the Old Baptist Tabernacle
The snow measured 9 inches on Saturday morning with a low temperature of
8 degrees during the night. Of course, the churches in the area were closed
today. But at the old Baptist Tabernacle in Danville , Virginia
50 years ago, I don’t remember any Sunday or Wednesday church service ever
being cancelled because of the weather, even though it sat at the bottom of a
hill. That’s because, what went on there was not boring church programs, but life-changing
preaching which no one wanted to miss. Of course, many wisely did not attempt
to attend during the severest of ice and snow storms, but I was willing to
drive as far as we could, then walk the remaining distance so that I would not
miss the experience. I was never disappointed.
DonLoy
Whisnant/The Grace Perspective/Journey Notes 17A08