16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. Psalm 74:16 (NKJV)
By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”
I can’t think of any exciting stories to tell you today. I’m just having a regular day. There’s nothing out of the routine happening here. It’s a most ordinary kind of day.
When I was a little boy, my father (who wasn’t a very big talker) used to ask my mother to bake him a cake. When pressed for what kind of cake he wanted, he would say, “Just make me a clear cake.” To him “a clear cake” was a yellow cake with no icing. If the day I’m having today was a dessert, that’s what it would be. I’m having a “clear cake” kind of day.
When I was a younger country preacher, it used to bother me to have an ordinary day. And it seemed like I had an awful lot of days when nothing exciting happened. I wondered why it was my lot in the universe to do the same things over and over every day, when there were other people in the world having adventures and exploits like Indiana Jones. It didn’t seem fair to me at all. I’ll bet you’ve had this same thought. Mothers probably have more” clear cake” days than anybody else.
Then one day I was reading a sermon written by another country preacher. He said we shouldn’t feel sad about being in the same place every day, doing the same things over and over. He said there’s someone else in the universe in the same places every day, doing the same things — and that someone is God. You know, if you think about it, that’s the absolute truth. It’s good to know we’re in the best of company.
I’ve found too that this ordinary day I’m having today is still filled with extraordinary blessings. Springtime has arrived in the middle of winter, and the trees are budded out and full of brightly-colored singing birds. I have good digestion and something to digest. God has forgiven my sins through His Son, and keeps me in His constant care. I have a purpose in life, work to do, people who I love, and people who love me. “God is in His heaven, and all is right with the world.”
On second thought, perhaps our “ordinary days” are not so ordinary at all. Maybe our job isn’t to long for excitement, but to make the most of our everyday blessings from the Lord. After all, when you’ve got a “clear cake”—you’re still eating cake.
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 25 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days he works at a public school.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 19) and Seth (age 16) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Preacher doesn’t remember ever seeing a plain yellow cake at a fellowship dinner.) He would love to hear from you in an email sent to jcash@scott.k12.ms.us.
