Short Stories

The Outlying Light

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
11/14/18
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"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." (James 1:17)

Sitting here on the porch of my little cabin in the meadow just up the path from Ballengee I feel quite in my thoughts. My conscience is as the evening of this coming night and I feel that it is a solemn sacred night. On this day I have bid my farewell to a friend that I admired but never knew. His is a memory that I have held close in my heart for over thirty years that has been filled with a regretful neglect. It has always amazed me how slowly Fridays pass but the years fly like the wind.

So often I console my flaws here sitting in the old rocker on my porch. It is as the swaying back and forth addresses my mind as it passes from reason and emotion. It is not a religious or worshipful state that when my thoughts are cluttered that I look into the heavens to find the peace that I need to discern. I have often been stunned that here in Ballengee it is truly the Almost Heaven. As I look to the sky above the numberless stars that shine down upon me are in the billions. The stars are not handicapped as in the city where their presence is unseen by the glare of the light. Only the brightest can be seen and we miss the beauty of the dimmer stars.

It was long ago, in a dimmer time which still holds the warmth of a loving memory that I first met Brother Ricky Dee. As I have told you, Brother Ricky was the youth pastor of Grace Baptist Church here in Ballengee. It is a large Church and had a large youth group. Large Churches have more resource than the small Church like the Church on the Knoll. One summer thirty years ago I went with Grace Baptist to the Billy Graham Crusade in Capitol City. It was my first adventure from Ballengee and it was just that an adventure.

Brother Ricky led the group on the bus as we prayed and sang gospel songs together to pass the time on our eighty-mile journey to Capitol City. Brother Ricky really impressed me, not only because I was a young impressionable child, but his enthusiasm for the Lord. He sang with energy and prayed from his heart. Unlike the scripted ministers that I have met along the years. My heart near jumped for joy during the invitational of the crusade, when I was afraid to go forward, I felt the hand of Brother Ricky Dee on my shoulder. I always wondered how he knew, and I have always been thankful he was bold a courageous to ask me to walk to Calvary with him.

Last week Brother Ricky made that final walk up the aisle to meet his Lord and Savior. He was, as all way too young to leave us, as he was only fifty-two years. Today Brother John asked if I wanted to go to his funeral. Normally I would have told Brother John that I didn’t care to go. I know that sounds cold hearted to you but I have this thought that funerals are not for the dead but for the living. Funerals always make me feel guilty because I didn’t take the time to tell the passing soul how much I loved them when they were amongst us. That day at the crusade was the only time in my life that I ever met Brother Ricky Dee. It is strange that in a town of only 2800 hundred our paths never met. It is of no excuse that after thirty-two years I never took the time to go to Grace Baptist and speak to Brother Ricky.

This does not mean that I am not aware of what goes on in the community, what is happening in the other four Churches in Ballengee, or the activities of the youth Pastor at Grace Baptist. We have our always open line of gossip here in the community. Much of the reporting comes into my place of work at Tom Lively’s feed stone. Of course, the Ballengee Record will print that fact of the matter about what we have already heard. Brother Ricky over the years has had a very fruitful ministry.

Brother Ricky was for a short time involved with Youth for Christ but Grace Baptist could not support it. Not to be discouraged Brother Ricky started a shadow program of Youth for Christ at the community center at the Lodge at the Bottoms. He had a program for the elementary, the Junior High, and the High School ages. Kids from all over the county would come and they were inspired to help the community of Ballengee with needs. As the program grew quest speakers and evangelist and youth bands would come to the meetings. The High Schoolers actually formed a band and went around to other Churches and community centers and performed gospel music. This did make a positive effect in Ballengee and elsewhere for the better. Idle hands get into mischief but the youth group kept them busy. Brother Ricky called this youth program the Grace of Jesus. That is bold and courageous.

As the years continued to race along Brother Ricky had an opportunity to purchase a campground on Zion Mountain overlooking Bluestone Lake. It was quite an undertaking but by the grace of God, a way was provided to fund the purchase. Brother Ricky named the camp Grace Baptist Camp and they ran a two-week program through the summer months. Youth from all over the state and neighboring states came to enjoy the activity. As with the smaller youth program, many speakers and evangelist and youth bands participated. Every Friday night Evangelist Harvey Banks along with his friend Preston Morgan spoke and throughout the summer many are revived and saved.

Brother John and I arrived at Grace Baptist early today. We stood outside and greeted the people that we knew and of course spoke only kind words towards Brother Ricky. In truth I do not thinks there are any other kinds of words that could be spoken of Brother Ricky. Brother John and I went in and took our place early and it was a good thing as the Church was filled and there was only standing room for the late arrivals. I was glad to see that the casket was closed. I never like open caskets as the viewing tarnishes the memory of an otherwise perfect picture placed in the heart.

The service was much as I expected with eulogies after eulogies. You learn a lot about a person at their funeral. I lived most my life with my Father and Mother nearby. In my youth I spent most of my days helping my mom about the farmhouse and as I grew older helping my dad on the farm. I lived not too far from them here in Ballengee over the years. But at their funerals, I learned things about them I never knew. There was a greater sense of pride that had for each after their funerals. Over these years I had only heard of what Brother Ricky Dee was doing but I never really knew the impact he had made on so many lives. I know that for me the great impact was that he encouraged me to walk down and commit my life to Jesus. Oh, how great is that! Dr. Robert Williams gave the devotion that day and the point he made from the life of Ricky Dee was fitting for his work in the ministry of the gospel. To sum it up Ricky Dee was a gift, a gift to the Church, a gift to the community, and a gift to the many lives that he impacted over the years. If the impact was as great as the change he led me to, he is worthy of “Well done thy good and faithful servant.”

Now I find myself swaying between reason and emotion on the old rocker. I have come to some never before realizations. The reason should control the emotions and not the other way around. I could be here with sadness and regret of my emotions and miss the peace of my reasoning. Here beneath the stars, that were set on their course by God Almighty, some bright and fixed with others dim and vague. Perhaps it is not the stars themselves but from where we view them.

In the city, there are fewer stars to be seen. They are lost in the clutter of artificial light, the glamor of this world. Just because we cannot see them does not mean they are not there. The stars at the Grace Camp are in the billions and all visible for the world to see. They are free of the glamor of life and free to reveal their truth. I have been told that some of the stars that we see are not really there. That they are so far away that when they flame out it still takes years for their light to travel to here. That is interesting to me and its relationship to us and the life we live.

When I ponder the friend I have never known beyond a memory Brother Ricky Dee I realize the truth that Dr. Robert Williams was making about Ricky Dee. Brother lived his life as a star from God, a good thing given to a multitude of lonely youth searching for a light in the glamor of this world. Ricky Dee showed them where that light is. And the youth over their time will show other lonely youth where the light they search for is found, in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The light from Brother Ricky Dee may be seen for many years to come. Only in the end will we know how many people benefited from the light he shared. Yes, Brother Ricky Dee is a gift, a gift to us from a loving Heavenly Father. The light will be shared for many years even though he is now home.

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

Ballengee October 25, 2018