Faith

FAITH

by

Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (May 23, 2015)

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, King James Version [Paul expostulateth with Peter]).

Greetings In The Holy Name Of Christ Jesus,

My sisters and brothers, there was a dog named Faith---quite a lady in her own right born to carry a message to the heathens oftentimes called devils of neighbors who lived across the street. I am more than sure you understand what I am telling you when I say they were oftentimes called devils---neighbors that appeared with hate in their hearts and without Christ Jesus in their life. Faith escaped her own disenchantment with her sisters at her farm---the farm where she was born, lived a good life and belonged but she; like her sisters vied for the head female dog position of the farm. Faith spent time away at the farm across the street with the “devils” until she won favor from the head male dog who received head from his father. Faith's opportunity came when the head male dog insisted she must stay at her family's farm---he came every day to gently force her back every time she left, so she gave in to his will and returned to sit among her two sisters.

One day under the subtle pressure of Faith not to let him mate until her sisters left the farm her brother forced the older female dog to leave the farm---even though she cried each time he barked in her face---he did not stop barking in her face until she left---so she left. Faith's success grew even more when her other sister who the head dog mated with and bore puppies with left before her puppies reached six weeks old [the usual time that the mother dog weans her pups] soon to reject caring for them except to sit with them in the garden sunbathing for they were born in the winter time. Faith raised her sister's and the head male dog's puppies and raised her own puppies she bore with the head male dog. Yet, she did not abandon the “devils” across the street. She visited with them and took her now husband the head male dog with her to visit and sit with them.

This story could not have a good ending because the “devils” of neighbors practiced hate and they could not love Faith the way she loved them in God's love forgiving the wrong they did and the wrong they said each and every day. Faith expostulated with them the message of God's unfailing love each and every day each time she visited them and witnessed their evil ways and thoughts---she still sat and brought the head dog now her husband with her [as Paul and Peter did with the churches in Galatia to exalt Christian freedom above the law permitting doctrine and practicality of marvelous works to light their way] . She checked their property to keep snakes back and all creatures that should not go inside their dwellings. She especially felt the need to care for one of the visitors of their farm who also visited at her family's farm but it was hard to love him because he practiced hate so much so he felt driven to check everything everyone said and everything everyone did; constantly he focused on “checking”---to the point of madness---obsession, he had to out pace and out do everyone even though he was a dropout from school, he fantasied that he was better than everyone else.

Faith loved this visitor who went around to all the farms---a menace and a busy body “ whimsically checking without thoughts of the perceptions of others. He could not hear them saying, “What is he doing, he is just a dropout from school.” He still like Faith aspired to be the head among the men and women and led into conversation when he met me with, “You think you are better than me.” I did not realize at that moment that it was a cliche' phrase used by the locals in their culture of hate---colloquialism. He meant he challenged me and I came away from the risky welcoming communication accepting his words as a friendship gesture with warning.

Faith did not care how he threatened and how some days he brought treats and some days you could

2

see and feel so much hate coming from his gestures that he tried to hide--- it made the dogs run and

hide and those he visited grimaced with apprehension of his intentions, “Was it peace?”---he even made Faith who carried the message of God's love to the “devils” run and hide. The “devils” licked out their tongues like “snakes” do and twisted their bodies in sharp and abrupt halts like they were training animals. It was as if they captured the motions the men of the past made as they worked with their animals and their land on their farms then extracted the movements of their bodies, practiced their way of speaking with their bodies, their manly way---their casual dance of lifestyle that gave a man either class or absurdity---in order to fit in the passageway. However, the men like the visitor to all the farms practiced hate more than anything else and mistreated the animals---they waved fishing rods with fish hooks in their faces until they bit at the hook so that it landed in their mouths cutting them; they threw gasoline or lighter fluid and matches to set them on fire; they hit them with their cars, trucks, S UV's, just any vehicle they drove and checked back to see if they died, if not then they hit them again; they poisoned food with cyanide or food poisoned with anti-freeze---if they could not get the dog to come to them to eat the poisoned plate, then, they threw the food inside their property line or near them to draw them to eat the poisoned food, here in this part of the diaspora of the deep south in southwestern Georgia.