Last week I mentioned I'd been suffering a bit from gout. In case you don't know what that means, I’ve got an ailment that makes my feet hurt. In my case it tends to be just one foot, my right. Ya know how your hands can get really really cold and when they start to warm up it hurts deep down in the joints? That sharp, painful, let-me-get-your-complete-attention jangling that really wakes you up? That's gout! It comes on when I eat rich foods, thus it is often referred to as the "rich man's disease" because in olden times it was a tendency that only those who were rich ate the kinds of foods that brought this on. I also hate to admit this (is Dave listening?) but it's usually something that happens to old people. How it happened to come upon me, someone who's not even 40 yet, is obviously a mystery! <grin!>

Now, if you were here last Sunday night you know I led the singing. While it's true I grin a lot while I sing (I love to sing!), I was grinnin' and grimacing at the same time. I beat out the tempo by tapping my foot - and you see where this is headed (or more precisely footed!) Every time I tapped my foot, I got a little reminder sent to my brain that I had gout. But I was kinda busy, ya know, leading singing and all that, so I'd try to focus on the task at hand. In a moment or two I would forget about the foot, which would start tappin' again almost involuntarily.

Ha ha. What I really want to consider today though is not that my foot hurt, but what song I was singing. One of the songs happens to be my favorite all time song, When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. It's no secret that I think this is the best song in the book (and it is!) There are two very good reasons that stand out in my mind why I hold this tune in such high regard.

Maybe you didn't grow up in a house where your parents were Christians. I did. It just so happens that my grandparents on my father's side of the family were Christians, too. My grandfather, a wonderful skinny balding kindly old man (who Mr. Mo just happens to highly resemble) used to putter around the house humming one of two songs. One was In the Sweet By and By and the other was, you guessed it, When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. Now are you ready for this? It just happens to be one of Mr. Mo's favorite songs, too. Coincidence? Hmmmmm.....

And here's the second reason why I love this song, because of a memorable event that happened in my life. Before I'd ever become a Christian, back in that little Village of Lisbon, Ohio where I grew up and mention occasionally, I attended services regularly. The church there was, as I have also mentioned before, a tiny congregation. One of the members used to bring their mother, a trail wheelchair bound woman of advanced age.

There came a day when we were singing away, our few voices blending together as best we could, when a voice I had never heard before chimed in. It was loud, it was strong, and it was way outta sync. We had just started singing the last verse of When the Roll is Called Up Yonder and yes, this little old lady had jumped in singing, but singing the chorus. At first everyone (except her!) stopped for a moment or two, and then we all joined in with her. We didn't sing any more verses, just the chorus over and over many times. It was some of the best singing we'd ever done, and even the most serious of my relatives (which was just about everyone else there) had a smile lighting their faces.

Would you be amazed if I told you this little lame woman was blind? Would you also believe this lame, blind woman was deaf?

She'd "heard" us singing a song she knew, because she recognized the vibrations of the song through the floor. She hadn't always been deaf, obviously. She was not ashamed to serve God as best she could - and I can't help but crack a big fat grin thinking when the roll is called up yonder, she'll be there! No longer blind, lame, or deaf. You might ask how a woman in such a physical state could be serving God? Well, her example had more than a little impact on me. And maybe, just maybe, the report I bring you today of her act of rejoicing to God will make a difference in your life, too.

A little soreness in the foot seems pretty pathetic in comparison, doesn't it? What other physical things might we sometimes use as excuses from serving God?

Randy