It is important to listen with all the senses, and to feel. Awareness is a way of learning, too. In these days to come you must be alive and aware to everything. Let the days leave tracks upon your memory.”
–Louis L’Amour (The Californios)
“And there are different activities, but the same God is active in everyone and everything.”
–1 Corinthians 12:6 (HCSB)
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“When I think about them good old days my eyes with tears do fill,
I think of the tin can by the fire and the coyote on the hill,
I think of riding night guard while the stars were shining bright,
But now instead the wire fence guards the herd tonight
Bid ’em all adieu, we can’t turn the world about,
The cowboy left the country, the campfire has gone out.”
No one knows for sure who wrote the song, Jack Thorp said it was written by Eugene Manlove Rhodes while Ben Arnold Connor says the song was written by him. Who knows, it’s the thought of the words that count.
I’ve been around many campfires, some I’ve stayed up watching the embers finally die out. Others had already been reduced to ashes. I’ve stayed up a night keeping the fire burning, and I’ve also wakened to a campfire that was just ashes left to blow in the wind.
Life can be something like that. A person, once aflame, shining brightly, heat emanating from them, now gone–cold, lifeless, just ashes waiting to be scattered. A sad thought. Well, it could be it all depends upon who the fire touched when the person was alive. How bright was his light? Did he leave a trail worth following?
Memories can be like that campfire as well. Some dwindle away turning into just a wisp o’ smoke. Others are bright, still burning deep in our souls. Maybe you can remember some of those flames that reached up to lick the sky. Ahh, a smile is on your face; you do remember. The flame may no longer be flickering, but there are still a few hot coals of remembrance.
September 1 is the day I normally call my Paine or Echo anniversary. It was around this time, twenty years ago, that I started writing a daily morning devotional. It’s hard for me to imagine that I had that many thoughts in my mind. I started in 2001, sometime in September, and since you are reading you know that I’ve continued. Oh, there have been a few breaks, and I changed the name from the “Daily Paine” to “Echoes From the Campfire.” I reckon there are still some flames flickering in this ol’ noggin’ of mine.
I do have a record of the first time I wrote about Miles Forrest. It was February 19, 2010. Amazing that it has continued on for this long. In fact I have two books out with him as the “hero,” along with three others with him as one of the characters.
My prayer has always been to bring God’s truth to the reader in some fashion. I used to write in a more academic tone, but have soothed that down some. Of course, the Perc is rowdy, Miles is steady, and who knows what will come from the Echo. I want to exhort, make you question, inspire, and force you to be steadfast in the midst of storms and calamities for the glory of the Lord. Even in Miles, I seek to relay some truth about God.
Some of you have been with me from the beginning, and I thank you for your prayers, your support, and your comments. Others have joined along the trail. I don’t plan on retiring from writing any time soon. Perhaps it will be like the campfire and slowly burn itself out as my thoughts become less and less active. I trust it is no time soon. I pray that the Holy Spirit will keep the flame alive until the Lord decides it is time to quit. Then there will be just a little smoke, some embers that will eventually burn cold.