Current Thoughts

We spent a significant amount of our vacation last week in Wolfe County Kentucky sitting on the porch, talking and drinking cold, sweet ginger ale. (They call it Ale-8 in Eastern Kentucky). We enjoyed the hot tub a little. We hiked in the mountains some. We visited Hoedown Island a few times. Lois and I had a date night at the Hemlock Lodge, halfway up the mountain to the Natural Bridge. They were serving a dish called “Kentucky Brown” and they were featuring Blackberry Cobbler. Oh, my. We visited Emmanuel Baptist Church, a fine church in Stanton pastored by an equally fine man, Pastor Gregg Webb. Holly and Chuk sang. Holly and her sisters sang in the park in Campton on Thursday night. Mostly, though we just sat on the porch and talked.

One night we were out on the porch listening to the frogs and crickets and silence and looking out into the unusual darkness.

Chuk broke the silence and said; “Down at Natural Bridge I noticed some writing on the bathroom wall.”

“It said; ‘Susan Johnson is a whore.'” (name changed)

“Someone had crossed out ‘whore’ and written ‘daughter of God.'”

Then it read “Susan Johnson is a daughter of God.”

Sitting on the porch in the dark looking out on the stars and hearing Chuk’s simple story touched a deep place in my soul.

Satan could write some very damning and embarrassing things about me for all the world to read. That is true for all of us–no exceptions. He would even accuse me before the Father’s Throne, but Jesus Christ took all the evidence against me and nailed it to the cross. He cancelled my debt. He destroyed the evidence. He is changing me inside-out. I have a dark past, but I have a bright future.

John wrote: “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:10-12 ESV)

Over all my guilt and shame and the accusations against me he has written: “Ken Pierpont is a child of God”

If you would like to listen to a message on this theme here is a link to my Good Friday message: Cosmic Blackmail. https://kenpierpont.com/2012/04/cosmic-blackmail/

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
August 20, 2012

Hope you and yours are well. God has been especially kind to the Pierponts lately. We are all well and working and enjoying life and trying to nudge people Godward. We have many loyal friends. We have enough hardship to keep us on our knees. The street in front of Granville Cottage is lined with cars every day like it is most other places only on Holidays. It’s a lively place full of love–lot’s of laughter and plenty of pizza and one small, spoiled Yorkie. God has been especially good to the Pierponts lately.

Here’s a little something for you to think about:

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Do You Ever Do This?
by Ken Pierpont

It’s may day off. I’m writing this little piece at the counter at our local Starbucks. I like to write here sometimes to be where I can write without much distraction and be near Chuk. Chuck is our third-born, our second-born son. He is a making coffee and conversation. He’s good at it.  

He has the “never-met-a-strager, never-at-a-loss-for-what-to-say” gift. He has a ready wit and a quick mind. He knows when to talk and he knows when to listen. He has his mother’s gift of understanding people. This makes for interesting conversion. He leaves most people with a smile on their face.

He told me once of a brief conversation he had on an airplane. He settled into his seat and started to make small-talk with his seat-mate–a young businessman going places. The young man was a veteran traveller. He wasn’t on an adventure or a journey or a vacation. This was not a social event for him. This was just a part of is workday. He was just earning a living and doing business. 

Chuk offered a line of conversation. He responded; “Look I’m tired. I’d really rather not talk, OK?” He plugged earbuds in and went to sleep. When Chuk told me this story a felt a sharp pang in my heart. At first I felt sorry for my son but after I thought about it for a while my pity shifted to the young traveller–he squandered a perfect opportunity to connect with a delightful young man. 

I wonder how often I do that. 

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan 
August 6, 2012

The Forest

We have a small home in the forest, actually The Forest. When they planned our neighborhood someone did two brilliant things for which I am grateful every day. They left hundreds of old trees standing and they “bent” the streets. They call our neighborhood “The Forest.”

Within a few weeks of moving here about five years ago we settled on a name for our cottage in The Forest. It would be Granville Cottage, after “The Old Granville House” on It’s a Wonderful Life, only on a more intimate scale. Ours is not a Italianate-Revival three-story, but a small home made of brick the color of limestone, a sort of Stone Cottage if you have an imagination.

A Discovery

Let me tell you what we recently discovered about Granville Cottage. We have a nice screen-porch on the back of the cottage shaded by an Elm and a couple of Bald Cypress, a Red Maple and a Pin Oak. Outside is a tiny gurgling pond ringed with stones and ivy. This porch has been underutilized for the last few years. We never spent a single evening there. We never ate there. We put some rockers on the porch, but no one ever sat there.

Then, one afternoon a couple weeks ago, we found the missing piece. It was serendipitous. I was resting myself while Lois puttered among antiques and photo props over in Ann Arbor. It was a warm day so I found a nice chair under a shade tree. There was a breeze and there were people to watch.

The chair was surprisingly comfortable. There were three others just like it surrounding a matching glass table. The set was green. Six or eight hours later when Lois finished shopping she found me there content in the shade and the breeze beneath the tree in the comfortable chair.

She walked up and said; “That set would be nice on our screen-porch.” It was very reasonably priced. After a short deliberation we claimed it for Granville Cottage. It was the missing piece to our screen-porch. Now we have a perfect place for the family to gather during two or three seasons. We’ve grilled burgers and eaten there, had pizza picnics, and enjoyed some pleasant conversations already in those comfortable chairs around the green glass table. It’s like we discovered something we already own.

Look Around

I got to thinking about how many things we already own that we haven’t really discovered. I wonder how many places nearby we have not explored or enjoyed. Is there quiet street where you could walk, or a park where you could pray, a bit of water that you could look upon that would calm your soul? I wonder who is in our lives whose stories we really don’t know. How many undiscovered treasures are all around us waiting to become a treasured part of our lives? There really are already ours, but they are waiting to be discovered.

You could say that contentment is discovering something you already own in a fresh way. You might give a coat of paint to that little rusty wagon and put some geraniums in it. You might wrestle your old bike down from the hooks in the garage and dust it off and clean and oil it up and ride around the neighborhood, pulling some evening air into your lungs. You might meet some new friends for coffee.

Discover something you already have.

Have you heard this: “Contentment is realizing that God has already given you everything you need for your current happiness.”

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
June 24, 2012