Harvey

Growing up, my family would take frequent trips up into the woods of East Texas. For most of my childhood my granddaddy lived in the Kirbyville, Hemphill area near Lake Toledo Bend. My brother and I loved getting out of the city and going out into the woods. My granddaddy had an old bird dog named Sport and an old chevy truck named Old Blue. There were woods for squirrel hunting, the lake for fishing, pine cones for throwing at each other, and peas for shelling (I hated that job). Needless to say, the only dull moments at my granddaddy's house came at night. I think they went to bed somewhere around 6:00pm and the only thing ever on tv, remember this was pre-cable, was baseball or the news. We played a lot of cards and knee football in the living room.

One of our favorite things to do was to go visit Uncle Harvey. He was actually my great uncle, but everyone just called him Uncle Harvey. His family had kind of disappeared and my granddaddy was left to look out for his brother Harvey. The thing was, Harvey was a hermit. For real! He lived in an old cabin in the woods by himself. As long as you went out there with my granddaddy you were safe. I never tried going out there without him because every time we went, Harvey was sitting at the ragged old screen door that was his front door, with a double barrel shotgun....locked and loaded.

His truck, lawn mowers, air conditioner, garage and everything else within range of the shotgun had been blasted several times. Uncle Harvey had a problem with hallucinating that people were trying to steal his stuff. So I was not about to run the risk of mistaken identity.

Harvey had long gray hair, and a long gray beard and was always wearing some old overa

lls. There was a massive tree in his front yard with vines that had been growing for decades hanging from the top of the tree. My brother and I would climb up in this tree and swing out of it like Tarzan until Harvey started shooting at the people living in the tree that were trying to "get" me and my brother.

As a kid we never thought about it, but Harvey lived a completely lonely, isolated life. Outside of my granddaddy taking him into town occasionally for groceries, he never left his cabin. If he did the tree people would probably steal everything he owned. He had none of life's finer things, and really didn't care for any of it.

I thought of Uncle Harvey the other night at the movies when I saw the trailer for a new movie starring Robert Duvall and Bill Murray titled Get Low. Duvall looks exactly like I remember Uncle Harvey, and it triggered these memories. But as I thought about my old uncle and his reclusive, lonely life, it made me think of the people that I pass daily that are just as lonely.

Even in the midst of all that goes on around them..... loneliness. In spite of millions of people, and the ability to connect with people around the world....loneliness. Many people live in the same, reclusive, lonely place that Harvey lived. They are looking for connection. They desire interaction. They want to be used. They want to know that God created them for a purpose and for a reason. The question is....

What are we doing to put them in the position to find that connection? How are we helping people realize the gifts and abilities that God has given each of us and how those gifts can be used to love and minister to others?

When people feel that there is no place for them, or that they are useless, many of them look to the church for answers and help. Our responsibility is to help them find the path and direction that God has planned out for them, with the gifts that He gave them in the first place. People want to be used and needed. Some are sitting at their door right now guarding everything they have from the tree people. Our challenge is to get them to let down their guard long enough to venture out and put those gifts to use for the Kingdom.

I'm out....