Category: Blog

Heading to the Barn

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

by Dr. Grant Scarborough

A marathon is a long way. Twenty-six point two miles. That can take hours in Atlanta traffic and longer when you are running. I remember a 16-mile training session. That’s a long way also. We left at 3:30 in the morning. I wasn’t sure if the cars we were passing were coming in from a long night or getting up early for the day—until we were yelled at and whistled for. They were obviously drunk because we were three ugly men. The other thing about running that early in the morning is that you can almost run down the middle of the road without concern. The other interesting thing is that the waffle house is the only option when your bowels start talking. They might just try to lock you out—just saying—I have heard of that before. I would not know.

That late night early morning, we ran around the airport. That just hurts to write—around the airport. The runways are very long. Rounding the terminal, the phrase rang out from each one of us, “Heading for the barn.” When you are running for hours, you have to get into a zone. When you run three miles, you can keep saying the entire time that you are almost done—just a little longer. But running for hours, you must realize that you are in for a long haul. If you are running 16 miles, just settle in. But there is a point in the run when you realize you are heading home. You are no longer running away from home, you are running towards home. You are getting closer to finishing. You are heading to the barn. In fact, you get excited—sometimes the pace picks up a little—you can picture sitting down, feet propped up, food on the table, and laughing about the long haul. In fact, good runners should be picking up some speed in the second part of the run. It is always good to hear the words, “Heading to the barn.”

A couple of days ago, my wife and I were attempting an 18-mile run. We are not good runners. Our second half was not nearly as good as the first half of the run. But when we turned around, I yelled out the phrase, which got me thinking. I am heading to the barn. I am past 40 years old. I am heading to that great wedding feast in the sky. I am heading to eternal fellowship with God our Father. I will enter into the home Jesus has been preparing for me. And we will laugh about the long haul of life.

But how am I doing on my spiritual run? Am I picking up speed? Am I more in love with Jesus? Do people see more of the aroma of Christ in me? Am I becoming less and Christ becoming more? Am I less concerned with the things of this world and more concerned with Christ? I wish I could answer yes for all those questions or even one.

The first 40 years were very fast—the second I hear is even faster. I want to cross the finish line and finish well. Finish with eyes set upon the Lord, sprinting to expand his Kingdom, picking up speed to make His name great.

Lord change me. May You that began a good work in me, finish it. Give me the humility to see where I need change and the strength and courage to ask you to help. And may I run with joy these last 40 years to the great barn paved with gold streets. Wow! Let’s head to the barn together!

Enoch was no more! Genesis says, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” My father-in-law, in one of his sermons once said that as God and Enoch walked, God looked at Enoch and said, “you are closer to my home than yours, just come on with me.” Sounds like Enoch walked to the barn.

Let’s walk with God and head to the barn.

Biscuits and Gravy

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

by Dr. Grant Scarborough

I love meeting people.

And lately Piggly Wiggly has made it really easy for me. Thanks Pig.

Their employees wear name tags. That gives me their names – check one. But they also give you a conversation starter. Under the name, it says something like, “Ask me about cheerleading” or “Ask me about school” or “Ask me about my daughter” – check two – a great conversation starter.

So I started the conversation the other day:

“Hello, how is your daughter?”

“She got suspended from school yesterday.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

Well – Piggly Wiggly – that one did not work out too well. “Ask me about my daughter” “She got suspended and I don’t want to talk about it.” But Pig, I appreciate you trying.

I opened up the Bible and started reading the book of James yesterday. It had a great conversation starter. All the books of the Bible seem to. James, and then underneath the name is a little comment. James could’ve put anything. If I was James, my nametag would’ve read “James – ask me about my brother.” James was the literal brother of Jesus. But his started differently.

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.”

Something was not right with this verse – I read it in a different translation of the Bible. It is not how my dad use to say it. That’s my problem with the book of James. I have a word association problems. You know when you hear a word and you immediately associate it with another idea.

I say chips, you says salsa.

I say biscuits, you say gravy.

If I say the Book of James – You might say book of the Bible.

But I say my Dad walking around the house in his boxers.

I know – not the normal thought. I just cannot get it out of my head. He would walk around the house – pacing might be a better word – in his white boxers. And only his white boxers. He would say the book of James out loud from memory. He tried to memorize the entire book and he got a long way. In fact, he would say it out loud so much in those white boxers, that I myself had almost the entire first chapter memorized by osmosis. But his version started differently. His started, and yes this is from memory, “James a Bond Servant of God and the lord Jesus Christ to the twelves tribes dispersed abroad: Greetings.”

So when I read James the other day – His nametag conversation starter was wrong. The new translation I read from threw in the word dispersion, and that messed me up. What’s a dispersion? If I was playing word association with dispersion – I got nothing. I literally just stopped reading.

Introductions are important – James is writing to the dispersion – or better yet the tribes in the dispersion.  Whatever he says next is to this tribe – in their dispersion. His words are intended for these people.

Dots slowly started to connect. I went back to My Dad’s Version (MDV) “to the twelve tribes scattered abroad.” Why were they scattered?

They were being persecuted.

James is writing a book to Christians on the run. He is writing a book to modern day Iraq – “James a bondservant of God and to the Lord Jesus Christ to the Christians in Iraq being tortured by ISIS: Greetings” Well that takes on a whole new meaning. WOW – What does James say next?

It was true back then as well, immediately after Jesus died. Stephen was stoned to death for being a Christian. Then Saul took out to capture and kill Christians and then all of Rome made it their mission to destroy Christianity. People had their property stolen and their houses confiscated. They could not be employed. They lost their status in society. They were crucified, set on fire to be a torch or a light, fed to the lions, and beheaded. These were the Christians in the dispersion. These were the Christians James was writing to. Now with them in mind – or maybe the picture of the beach in Iraq when ISIS beheaded the Christians: Read on.

“Count it all joy” Shut the front door – he did not start with Joy. Are you kidding me? That’s sure as heck not how I would’ve started it.

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” Trials of various kinds???? Do you mean beheadings? That is what I call murder. The Grant Scarborough Version (GSV) would have read “Be ticked off everyone, when they try to feed you to the lions – fight back – put up land mines – blast them to hell!”

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

What a great beginning – Joy – various trials – faith produces steadfastness. By definition – steadfastness means firmly loyal or constant or unswerving or fixed or unchanging. And your faith in the midst of trials makes you firmly loyal.

Oh Lord, I desire to be firmly loyal. I desire to be fixed upon you, never ever swerving. But to be honest, I do not want to do this in a dispersion. I want to do it in my nice air conditioned home, with my wife and kids, with clothes over my boxers. I want to do it while keeping my reputations and my wonderful job. And I can do this, but I do think my loyalty gets tested. I find myself being firmly loyal to my Lord and my job – and my house? And sometimes these things compete in small ways that makes me put one or two, for a brief moment above my Lord. The more I think on this, stuff really complicates my loyalty.

And this joy – various trials – firmly loyal – leads you to “being perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Really James. That’s how you want to start. I can see him in heaven right now – YEP!

So here is my GSV Grant Scarborough Version

‘James, a bondservant of God, Jesus’s little brother – firmly loyal in Jeruselum for Christianity – in the end – beheaded – yeah they cut my head off too.

To the dispersion – to the people on the run – to you whose mother just lost her house – to you, yeah you, whose sister was just forced to be a slave – to you, yeah I am talking to you too, who are waiting to be fed to the lions. …….’

Then James’ next statement ends with being “perfect and complete lacking in nothing.” How can you be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing? There is only one answer.

Jesus.

Knowing, being one with the Messiah, abiding with him makes you perfect; makes you complete; makes you lack nothing. But wait I just lost my house, my property was stolen, I was thrown into slavery, I am being fed to the lions – ‘You lack nothing,’ James would still say.

I struggle big time with this thought – this struggle led me to write.

Lord help me to believe that you plus nothing is everything. Lord help me to believe you are more valuable than house, property, status, family, job, money – in fact if I lose everything, I have actually lost nothing. Because you make me perfect, you complete my greatest desires and longing and in You I lack nothing.

Your job does not give you an identity, your spouse does not complete you, your status does not perfect you – only Christ. He gives you His identity – you are a son and daughter of the King. It “almost” gives me a desire to go back to the times of the dispersion to understand this firmly loyal faith in Christ that leads me to lack nothing in spite of losing everything including my health. But the question I must wrestle with is how do I do this in the midst of this culture of wealth, self-preservation, and self-promotion.

I have no answer today. It might be time for you to take over. Strip down to your boxers and memorize a few more verses. Create a nametag with your name on it and then underneath write “firmly loyal.”

And keep reading James. The next verse is my only answer, “If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all.”

Lord give us wisdom!

Useless

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

Dr. Grant Scarborough

 

Useless.

It was the only way to describe him. He was useless. He used to be a nurse and a doggone good one, but the gorilla had climbed on his back. He fought it off once – for eight years he fought it, but it climbed back up again. He was sober for eight years and then one day he had a little extra time. He thought, “It has been eight years, I can have a drink now.” Sitting on the beach with a six pack by his side, he never felt the gorilla, but 20 years later after losing his job, his family, his home – he knew it was back. When do you know that you have hit rock bottom? Is it when the sister shows up with him at the office? Is it when the wife is long gone because they do not know what to do with him? His physical health has deteriorated to the point where my medical eyes thought he would be dead in the next 2 months. He was mumbling incoherently. He had the smell of death. His sister dropped him off at a homeless shelter, and I don’t blame her. I would’ve dropped him off years ago.

Here at rock bottom, pick either definition of useless and it fits:

“not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome”

“having no ability or skill in a specified activity or area”

His mind, his health, his family, and his career were all gone. Yeah, I do not think he was achieving his intended purpose. And yes, he had lost all ability and skill. He was a blob of mass filling space and time. He was useless.

Some cases are not as severe as this one – but you cannot tell that to the person experiencing it.

Then there’s my other friend. He hears voices, and he is paranoid that something is out to get him. Always in fear, he is incapable of completing any work. Imagine if you were hearing in your head to kill yourself or kill someone else. Maybe it is less subtle voices that say things like “you are worthless” or “someone is out to get you.” My friend was the less subtle type, but the voices were still incapacitating him. He was not fulfilling his intended purpose or reaching his desired outcome. His skill set was gone.

Or maybe you are more like another man – one who was imprisoned long ago. He was working as a slave, and he ran off. The law found him and he found a prison cell. There, he met another prisoner who was locked up for a more righteous cause, and his life was changed. He once was useless to his community. He was not just taking up space, he was dragging others with him into uselessness. That’s why I love this story – from 2000 years ago.

Onesimus met Apostle Paul in prison. He had run away as a slave and made bad choices which caused him to be imprisoned next to Paul. Now Paul writes in Philemon, “I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus – I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,” once a troublemaker – now Paul’s child, “whose father I became in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me) I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart… no longer a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother.”

Oh what blessed uselessness.

God is in the business of making useless things useful. Oh, what blessed God! Paul is sending back Onesimus, once useless, now a beloved brother.

My friend with the gorilla found Jesus in the shelter – then spent time in rehab. He then went back to the shelter a useful man. I saw him yesterday. He has been clean almost a year. He is not going to die. I have never seen a physical turn around as dramatic as his. Yesterday, after reading about Onesimus, we talked about giving back. I asked him to consider being an addiction counselor. I reminded him that God still had a purpose for him! Christ replaced the gorilla and life replaced death. Jesus comes to set people free.

My paranoid schizophrenic showed up as well yesterday. I will not say he is healed – neither is my alcoholic – these are life long struggles that people take one day at a time. But, I knew he was better before walking in the room. Our new triage employee, grabbed me before I walked in. “He tried to give me his shoes,” he said.  – “What?” “I told him I really liked his shoes and he took them off and gave them to me. I had to beg him to take them back.” I just laughed thinking of my paranoid friend walking around shoe-less. His mind is clearer today, thanks to medicines. He was the one responsible for this whole story – he said he felt so useless with all the thoughts in his head and thanks be to God he feels useful again. I too reminded him that God has a plan for his life and God can use him – even if it is giving your shoes away.

If I was really honest, I would toss myself in that group – and probably you as well because I do not want to go alone. So have fun wading in that alcoholic, schizophrenic pool I just tossed us in. The water is great!

I feel completely and utterly incapable of doing something useful for God. I know that sounds crazy from someone who started a clinic for the poor. But I fear, I get anxious, I want to quit, and I worry. Take this cup from me Lord. I am not as smart as I need to be, I am not as good a leader as I need to be, and I do not have all the skill sets needed to keep this clinic going. Man that is a lot of “I’s” in this paragraph.

Useless – not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome

So useful must be achieving our intended purpose. As believers, our intended purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him. Our intended purpose is give all to Jesus – to lose yourself in Christ. To lose the “I.”

Oh blessed usefulness!

My friends went from clouded minds to clear minds overcoming alcohol and voices. I desire to become clear-minded by overcoming myself and finding usefulness in loving Christ. Then, and only then, can we be useful. It is no longer about making my name great; it is about making God’s name great. It is about putting all hope and all faith in the Almighty and realizing that Jesus is better than a clinic.

My friend went to Afghanistan to do mission work, and  I asked his brother the obvious question: “Is he safe?” “Grant” my friend said, “ he views safety differently than we do. They may kill him, but he is safe. He is safe in the Lord.” And what a useful life he had. He lost the “I” for a better Jesus – even at the cost of death.

I desire to lose the “I,” lose the “my clinic” mentality, for something better — Jesus. Then, I reach my intended purpose of glorifying God. Then, I am useful even if the clinic fails, even if I fail. The reality is I will never fail if Christ is made glorious through me. I will never lose, because Christ will never lose. If this is true, I can take risks and I can take chances in the name of Jesus. God has made me useful.

Thank you God for making useless things useful. You did that 2000 years ago for Onesimus. You do it today for alcoholics and schizophrenics. Please do it for me, too.

 

June 6, Countdown to July

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

Phase one is nearly complete and we expect to start seeing patients in this new addition in July. Since last month, the nurses’ station is complete, paint is on the walls, AC is flowing, and the front door is up.

We are really excited. God is building MercyMed up, and equipping us to better serve our patients. Come and see us!

MercyMed Gala “Illuminate”

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

Saturday, April 23, MercyMed gathered with nearly 400 supporters, staff, and patients to celebrate those who make MercyMed a reality.

The “Illuminate” gala was the first event held at the Columbus Powerhouse after renovations were completed. The location treated guests to an inside look at the reclaimed powerhouses and a beautiful view over the Chattahoochee.

The evening flowed with laughs and entertainment that ranged from aerial acrobats to singing waiters. It was a night to remember.

MercyMed staff and volunteers were empowered to witness so many people supporting the mission of demonstrating Christ’s love by providing excellent health care to the under-served.

Thank you to everyone who came! We hope you had a wonderful time and felt our gratitude for all you do to help make MercyMed a reality. If you’re interested in supporting us financially, please click here.