Another Giant has Ceased His Labor.

I have now lived long enough to begin witnessing the passing of the great men God has brought into my life. Evidence of this can be seen in this blog. Sometimes I think it borders on a tribute page. At any rate, I am very much aware that significant people in my life are leaving this life at an ever increasing pace.  Their earthly race is done and now their heavenly journey has begun.

You probably have noticed that I seem to be influenced most by what most of us would call "ordinary" people. If that is your assessment you'd be correct.  

To be sure I have met over my lifetime some of the giants of our faith. These are men who I appreciate and who have honor enough for the way God has used them to touch my life.  I suppose I could become a name dropper and by association imply that I breathed  the same thin air as did they.  

Suffice it to say, I have known and worked with the greatest names in the kingdom of God in my time and each has had their impact on my life.  Names that you would recognize immediately. And yes, I am grateful to God for the role they have played in my life and ministry.   

But, I have learned that God puts us in the places He wants us to be.  I remember when I registered for the draft back in the 1960's my dad, among other things, saying to me, "Son don't volunteer for anything. If the Army wants you to do something they'll tell you."  I sort of feel that way about God . . . . He puts us where he is going to use us or get us ready to be used. 

I have learned through the years and as I reflect on my life journey that I have walked among giants and many of those giants were what we might call "ordinary" men. Jack Roachell was one of those giants. God placed me in Lomax as Jack's pastor and used Jack to show me something else important about the work of the real Deacon . . . . namely, "By their fruits you shall know them." 

Well, today, I lost another of my personal giants.  His name is Jack Roachell. Jack was a deacon in one of the four churches where I was privileged to serve as pastor. By trade he spent his early years as an ordinary laborer and the last half of his life as a Barber. He was the only man I knew who was strong enough to use an 8# hammer head with a 1.4 inch rebar handle.  

On of my fondest memories of Jack Roachell was standing on the front porch of the church with him, James Furlow, Jack Briggs, and Dudley Andrews and I I said, "The grass here at the church sure does look like it could use cutting." With all four of us looking straight ahead I believe it was James Furlow who replied, "Well preacher our former pastor used to cut the grass." I quickly replied, "Well, I spoken with him about that and he said he didn't think he wanted to do it anymore."  I thought Jack was going collapse in laughter. From that day on we shared many a joke and a lot of understatements. 

I used to call him "Jack mustard seed" . . . . a play on the Johnny Appleseed legend.  He seemed to always have a sack of mustard green seeds from the Smith's La Porte Feed Store and he regularly seeded every bar ditch from DuPont to Spencer Highway.

 He drove a church bus for years and it was almost like a cartoon as his little 38 passenger bus

bounced up and down the half-paved roads of our little Lomax community. He's stop by the house on Sunday mornings for coffee and sometimes I'd join him on that ride.  

He'd sing and the kids would join in. It was loud but it was fun. I remember when we dedicated our new education building and we had a lot of former  members attending that a young woman asked me, "Is that Jack Roachell over there?" I replied, "Yes it is." She immediately walked over and gave him a big hug.  A few minutes later, Jack knowing I'd witnessed the whole scene came over and asked me, "Who was that woman?"  I teased him a little about his bad memory and then pointed out who it was and added, "Jack, she road your bus to church every week for three or so years and she was telling me how much you influenced her life."  Only eternity can tell how many other lives were touched in the exact same way. 

I mentioned he was a Barber. He cut my hair and every other preacher in the areas hair as well. No charge was ever made. It was something he, as an "ordinary" man, could do for those who labored in the preaching of the gospel. But that's not all. He also regularly cut the hair on every boy's that lived at Boy's Harbor. Then, somehow he found the time to visit the local Nursing Home  and do the same for the men who lived there. Oh, an each man there that wanted one got a "Barber's Shave."   

Jack never missed visitation and he was always giving me  a name and address of some troubled couple. Sometimes he told them I was coming and sometimes (most of the time) he didn't bother with those kind of minor details. 

Hardly a Monday went by that you couldn't find Jack and myself on Day Lake. Two men can share a lot of thinking sitting in a Jon boat floating. Such memories cannot be manufactured they are God given, 

I learned a lot of things from my journey with Jack but what I learned most was what a real Deacon looked like.  Jack was not interested in power and influence in the church. He was content to be a servant. Quietly he was the hands and feet of our Lord walking in our town doing good. I wish every Deacon could have had the view of the life of this Godly man as he lived out what it means to be a real Deacon.

Among the last thing I said to him, as we sat together in hall at the First Baptist Church in La Porte just before he left the next morning for Arkansas was, "Jack, I want you to know that your lifetime of quiet ministry has not gone unnoticed. I have taken note and more importantly the Lord has noticed every head of hair you cut at Boy's Harbor and the nursing home; He saw every face you shaved and every kindness you showed a child; and every home we were permitted in because you cared." 

Just before the party ended that evening I told Jack, "Jack I am going to be praying for you because this move is a big transition for anyone but it is even bigger when you reach our age." He said, "I know and I am a little afraid of it but Brother David I have told the Lord I am going to make the best I can of it." Then he added, "Besides it will not be that long anyway." 

May the Lord give his church more men like Jack Roachell! 

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”