The Rest of the Story

For Father's Day last Sunday I preached on "The Marks of a Godly Family."  At the conclusion of that message we showed a video on the amazing Chandler family of Prarie, Mississippi.  If you did not see that video let me encourage you to click on the site below and watch it or if you were there, perhaps you may want to watch it again.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=adsc6kW1Spk
I wanted to say more about that story and the award winning reporter Charles Kuralt but I did not want to take anything away from the story of this remarkable family.  So here is the rest of the story.

I found it hard to believe that in the report about a family he clearly was touched by, Kuralt made the statement, "There are probably no lessons in this..."  As I reflected on his statement, I had a vague remembrance of something, I went back and confirmed a bit of information about Kuralt.  Though he was an outstanding reporter and brought to light so many good and uplifting stories, he had a dark secret that only came to out after his death in 1997.

Charles Kuralt had a wife and family in New York.  During the processing of his will, it was found out that he also had another  family - a mistress and family living at a property he owned in Montana.  The "secret" family contested his will and won.

When he did the story in 1978 on the Chandler's, I am not sure where he was in the process of having two "wives" and families.  But he missed a big lesson there open for anyone to see in the Chandler family;  wisdom really is what builds up a home - God's wisdom.  Though we can be moved by the working of that wisdom in someone else's life (the Chandler's) we can miss it in applying it to our own lives.  Sadly, Kuralt did.  We can too.

To me there was a wisdom at work in the Chandler family that just cried out to be seen - that God was there holding them together and helping them overcome in a way that is truly remarkable.  It reminds me to not only ask for wisdom and seek it but also to ask to see it and be changed by what I see.  Will you join me in that today?

For the journey...

Tim