Today I would like to share a story that comes from my family up in Kansas. It is one my grandmother still enjoys telling to this day. It’s a little long, so bear with me!
The McVey family has been farming up in Wilson County Kansas since the 1870’s and even to this day my cousin Brad still lives on the family farmland and works the fields. My grandfather, Bob McVey, followed in his father Clyde’s footsteps and began to work his own farm shortly after he and my grandma Vera were married.
My grandfather had been brought up in adversity, he had been born with spina bifida which made every day activities an ordeal even at a young age. The doctors told him he would most likely not live past 30, and that he wouldn’t be able to have children. He was constantly plagued with pain and the condition had kept him out of the service during World War II as the rest of his friends went off to fight. He lost one of his best friends to the war serving in the Pacific, and lived with a subtle guilt that he was not able to serve while his friend lost his life.
Despite all these pitfalls he continued to pursue his goal of being a farmer. He and grandma were married after the war and he began to work the land while my grandma served as a teacher in a one room schoolhouse in Middletown Kansas. He purchased a used Farmall f-20 tractor and relished in the work, for several years they prospered on the farm, but once again adversity reared its ugly head. After pouring money into buying new farming equipment such as a combine, the county was hit with some of the worst rainstorms in its history. The Verdigris River that flowed along the farm swelled out of its banks and some of the worst flooding in the state’s history occurred. Grandpa Bob was washed out completely of his crop, two years in a row.
There was nothing left to do but try and find work elsewhere so he heard that the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad (the ATSF) were hiring. So he went to the depot in down and got a job as a yard Brakeman. This was a very dangerous job that required back breaking effort, which was already difficult for someone in Bob’s condition. He was responsible not only for the braking of switch engines and railcars, but also the managing of the track switches that guided the trains into the right rail-lines. One false move could cost a person their wellbeing or their life.
On one rainy night, after working for the railroad for nearly a year, there was an accident on the mainline. A wreck had occurred in which the engineer was mangled so badly he lost his arm in the process. This meant that the man would lose his career and livelihood. When word got back to the main office about the accident, many of the old-timers blamed “that new young brakeman,” which was of course Bob. Bob had been working the line that night and when he heard that the accident was his fault he immediately went to the company office and resigned his position. Though they attempted to talk him out of leaving he simply remarked that he could not work at a job in which he was responsible for taking a man’s livelihood. He left the railroad that day weighted with a guilt that plagued him continuously.
Shortly after that tragic event he got a job working at American Standard Oil Refinery in Neodesha Kansas. He excelled at this work and was able to buy a house in town and provide a home for his family. But even with all this his soul was weighted with the guilt about the accident he had caused and the man whose life he had ruined. This guilt hung around his neck like an anchor, chaining him with unmovable grief.
One day, after working for several years at the refinery, he was giving a safety lecture to a group of young new workers that were about to start their careers. He shared the importance of safety with them and used his own experience from the railroad as an example of what not to do. He told them about the accident and his responsibility, and how the same thing could happen to them. After the lecture the men went about their business but one young man walked up to Bob and introduced himself. He then asked, if the railroad he had worked for was the ATSF? Bob replied that it was and in turn the young man replied, “The man who lost his arm that night was my father-in-law, and he has been looking for you all these years.”
In that moment I’m sure my grandfather was filled with dread, standing before him was family of the very man whose life he had ruined. All the guilt and shame came welling up within him as he prepared for the retaliation that was sure to come. The young man then said, “My father-in-law has been looking for you for all these years, he wanted to tell you that it wasn’t your fault that the accident happened last night.” “You were in no way responsible for what happened and he felt so bad that you left your job because of it.” Bob was stunned, he had expected retribution from the young man, but instead had received absolution, forgiveness and a removal of all the guilt he had carried with him all those years.
As my Grandma tells it, Grandpa walked a little lighter after that experience, the guilt he had borne all those years vanished in an instant. He was a different man after that, a changed man.
Why am I telling you this long winded story? Simple, there are two reasons. First, the grace and forgiveness of God is instantaneous and without cost. We burden ourselves often unnecessarily when that weight has already been taken upon the shoulder of Christ. And how joyous do we feel once we realize that weight of sin has been removed? We must then learn to move on from that guilt and not reclaim it as our own, the price has already been paid upon the cross.
Second, we never know how our story is going to end. Events in our lives that may seem horrific or tragic one minute, may in time become something beautiful and glorious. We can never know in the moment, but we must have hope and faith that in the Kingdom of God all things will be made right.
Whatever trials or tribulation you’re facing right now, whatever burden of despair you are carrying, lift them up into Jesus’s capable hands. And remember that though this day may seem dark now, joy comes in the morning. With Christ each day is a new dawn of redemption and restitution, if we will only allow Jesus to do his work within us.
As to the final closing of the story. Grandpa Bob was told he would never have children, and never live past the age of 30. He and my Grandma Vera had four children (including my father, Kent McVey) and lived to be 51 years old before he succumbed to his chronic ailment. He provide for his family all those years in spite of all the ailments and trials he faced. Which is a reminder to us all, we don’t know how the story will end, only Christ has the final say.
So in all the adversity we meet, let’s face it with the firm certainty that God will have the final word, either in this life or the life to come.
Remain steadfast in the faith and firm in the love of Christ my friends.
Have a blessed week.
Sincerely,
Pastor Mike McVey
First United Methodist Church, Fairfield TX
ASC Chaplain – United States Coast Guard
Chaplain – Texas Game Warden Service
(P.S. If you would like to contact or receive Pastor Mike’s weekly newsletter simply email him at pastormike@fumcfairfield.org)
