Nobody Gets Saved 'Round Here No More

Uncle Bill had to be visited. I had to do it. I wasn't even sure how he was related to me. He wasn't my mother's or my dad's brother. But around those two, four, and six hundred acre family farms where I was raised he was in the mix and he was Uncle Bill. He was somewhere around eighty-two, maybe eighty-five now. He still lived on his place eight miles out from "town." "Town'' had only nine hundred people. No one had heard from him in a long while so I guessed I had better check on him. I had saved the last two days of my vacation for recuperation from the first six days so I had the time to make the hour drive out to his farm. Might be a nice relaxing drive and visit to nostalgia. So I went.

Down the interstate to a state highway and then down the farm-to-market road and then onto the gravel road and then the part gravel, part grass, part mud lane that led to his old farmhouse. There he was, weeding his garden on the side of the barn. It looked like a good wind would blow that old barn over, but it had looked like that for thirty years. "Hey, Uncle Bill, howyoudoing?" (it's one word in the country) "Not bad for an old fossil, howyoudoing, Squirt?" He called all of us "Squirt." He would figure out my real name sooner or later. I took no offense.

We headed up to the porch. Uncle Bill went in to get coffee. Starbucks may have learned about strong coffee from Uncle Bill and Aunt Martha. Dad joked that Bill's coffee killed Martha twenty years ago but it kept Bill going. I asked for ice water.

"What brings you out here, Squirt? You know I ain't got no money."
"I don't need any money Uncle Bill. Some of us cousins were visiting and none of us had heard from you or seen you in a while so I thought I'd run out and see what's going on. So, what's been happening with you?"
"Nothing much.You don't think this old world would listen to an old dried up farmer from nowhere, do you? I don't even recognize this world anymore. It's like a foreign place to me."
"Do you mean because of the modern technology and electronic or the....
About that time an alarm went off in his pocket. He reached in the chest pocket of his overalls and pulled out an iphone. "S'cuse me a moment." Uncle Bill fired off a text and set his phone down on the old recliner he kept on the porch for sitting in the morning and evening. It was then I noticed he set it down next to an ipad.

"No, its not the technology. That's just a matter of desire and practice. Heck, it's all touch screen. If you want something hard try fixin' a Farmall planter box from 1955. No, the problem with this world is that no body gets saved around here no more."

"What do you mean Uncle Bill?"
"How long you been preaching, "Squirt?" (at least he remembered what I did) Must be thirty or more years now. You can't tell me you haven't noticed the change in people. You baptizing as many as you did twenty years ago? I didn't think so. So did you quit telling them about salvation in Jesus or did the world around you quit listening?"
"But Uncle Bill, more people come to Christ as Savior in the world now than at any time in church history."
"I said no body gets saved 'round here no more. Lots of folks in Asia, South America, Africa, and even Muslims are coming to Christ but not so much in Europe or the good old USA."
"How do you know all those stats Uncle Bill?"
"That's nothing. I'm connected. The problem is we've gotten so tolerant we even tolerate our own sin in our nation. We've gotten to the point where we think the government, Wall Street,  M.D. Anderson, Edward Jones, Tony Romo, Lebron James, Tim Tebow,  Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, the Kardashians, Snoop Dog or Ophra will fix our problems as if our problems were all just physical, emotional, financial or mental. We look to celebrities for wisdom and reality shows for adventure."
"Uncle Bill you kinda went off like a preacher there. I see people every week that really love Jesus and serve Him."
"You work in a church, Preacher! Don't be so naive, Squirt. Nobody gets saved 'round here no more cause they admire Jesus like all those other celebrities. There's a big difference between admiration and committed love. I "loved" Rita Hayworth as a young man. What an actress, what a beauty! I never held her, kissed her, made love to her. I never fed her, nursed her when she was sick, told her a certain movie was wrong for her, listened to her complain, or comforted her when she grieved. I never prayed with her or worshipped with her. I didn't love Rita, I loved your Aunt Martha. Nobody gets saved 'round here no more 'cause they don't think they got anything to be saved from. As long as they are eating, drinking, working, paying bills and entertaining themselves modern people think they are doing fine. They will go right on admiring Jesus to hell."

"Uncle Bill, that's depressing. What do you do with all that, that negativity? How do you cope with such a gloomy assessment? Do you just gripe about it?"
"Oh, no. I started a web site and blog. I have over five hundred regular readers and a couple of hundred guests each week. I do a question and answer session each week on Facebook and have over 1700 friends. The avg. age of the people reading and interacting with me is 23. They get mad, even belligerent, but they keep asking and talking. A few dozen have told me they have come to faith in Christ. I just keep telling them one way or another they need to be gloriously, radically, marvelously, miraculously saved. And some are."

The drive home was horrible. My mind was aching. I gave myself a headache. My wife met me in the kitchen. "How was your visit with Uncle Bill?... Hey, you don't look so good? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, nobody gets save around here no more..................."

Squirt Cos