Four Pulaski High School students—the star kicker and his cheerleader girlfriend and the star punter and his cheerleader girlfriend—are all born-again believers who have an unanswered prayer and a life dream not yet come true for them. One of them wants the Biblical crown of righteousness. One of them wants the Biblical incorruptible crown. Another of them wants the Biblical crown of rejoicing. And another of them wants the Biblical crown of life. These crowns are meant for giving back to God when one comes home to Heaven someday. But these crowns have to be earned in this life.
PULASKI VARSITY RED RAIDERS
By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
It was the first Friday evening in September, and tonight at Pulaski High School was the first home football game for Pulaski of the year. The football cheerleaders Mary and Annette and the rest of their cheerleader bunch were on the sidelines, cheering their team to victory. They were the Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders. And their school colors were maroon and white. Mary and Annette, the two head cheerleaders, were best friends and confidantes and sisters-in-the-Lord, both born again already for many years. Mary was in eleventh grade this year; and Annette, in tenth grade this year. Mary’s full name was “Mary Junior Miss.” And Annette’s full name was “Annette Sophomore Crush.” And these Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders football cheerleaders were dressed as follows: They had maroon and white
ribbons in their hair. Their cheerleader sweaters were thus: In front was maroon, with two white stripes, three inches wide, going diagonally from top to bottom and crisscrossing in the middle, and making four maroon triangles around them–one above, one to the right, one below, and one to the left;
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with the maroon chenille emblem reading in block letters on the one white diagonal stripe, “PULASKI,” and with another maroon chenille emblem reading in block letters on the other white diagonal stripe “RED RAIDERS”; with the top maroon triangle having another chenille emblem–a white megaphone with the maroon script letters telling the cheerleader’s first name; with the back of the cheerleader sweater being all solid maroon; with long sleeves and cuffs all solid maroon; with the bottom hem of the sweater, maroon, hugging the top hem of the skirt, maroon. As for the cheerleaders’ skirts, they could be described thus: On top was a maroon band, covered by the maroon hem of the sweater; the skirts were made of box pleats—eight main maroon pleats and eight contrasting white pleats; with a button-zipper closure in back and an abbreviated pleat in back below the zipper; the pleats reaching down most of the way toward the knees; with the first pleat to the right of center having a chenille emblem reading downward, white on maroon, italics, “P.H.S,” (standing for “Pulaski High School”); and with the first pleat to the left of center having a chenille emblem reading downward, white on maroon, italics, “VARSITY.” Covering these cheerleaders’ legs were sleek maroon tights. And covering their feet were maroon canvas sneakers with white shoelaces and white rubber soles. These were the Pulaski High School Varsity Red Raider football cheerleaders. And these were Mary Junior Miss and Annette Sophomore Crush.
Standing at the sidelines of the Red Raider football field, and in between cheer leading, Annette spoke to Mary, asking, “Should we look at the boys in the bleachers, or should we look at the boys on the field?”
And Mary answered, “I would say, ‘the boys on the field.’ After all, we are their cheerleaders.”
And they looked out upon the Pulaski football players. Annette said, “I wish that I could see their faces. It’s hard to see what they look like with their helmets on.”
Mary went on to say, “I wonder how many good-lookers there are playing for us tonight.”
“Lots. I’m sure,” said Annette.
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“Maybe God can find us two lonely cheerleaders some handsome ones,” said Mary.
“For boyfriends?” asked Annette.
“Uh huh,” said Mary. “Would you like to become a girlfriend to one of our own?”
“Uh huh,” said Annette, liking the idea of a football player for a boyfriend.
Then it was time for another cheer. And the varsity cheerleaders got together side-by-side, held their arms across each other’s shoulders, and kicked up their legs; and they sang forth good cheers and chants and songs. Then this cheer was done.
Then Mary and Annette saw that their Red Raiders were preparing for a field goal. “Is our kicker actually going to try for a field goal that long? Even Chester Marcol would be lucky to make that one,” said Annette.
“That has to be a good fifty yards,” said Mary.
“Our crazy special teams coach and his crazy play calls,” said Annette.
“Do you see his number on his jersey, Annette?” asked Mary. “It’s ‘01.’”
Annette repeated that, saying, “Yes. 01.”
“I see his name on the back of his jersey now,” said Mary.
“It’s ‘Nickels,’” said Annette. “Lets’ cheer him on!”
And the cheerleader bunch got together to cheer and prance and skip around in place for this number zero-one, this mysterious Mr. Nickels, whatever his first name was.
The Red Raider varsity kicker lined up; the center snapped the ball; the setter put it on the tee; and the kicker ran up to it. And he kicked it. Lo, the ball traveled straight and true for fifty yards, and it sailed right through the uprights, and number zero one made the big field goal. And all of the Red Raiders—the cheerleaders and the pom pom girls and the football players and the fans—all cheered this kicker in a whooping accolade, “Flanders! Flanders! Flanders!” Mr. Nickels’s first name must have been “Flanders.”
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Standing there in the midst of all of his teammates, this Flanders bowed before his fans in the bleachers, gave God the glory, and then took off his helmet. And Mary and Annette could now see what this heroic field goal kicker looked like.
“What do you think, Annette?” asked Mary. “Is he cute or what?”
“I’m not sure,” said Annette.
“Do you want to know what I think?” asked Mary.
“What do you think, Mary?” asked Annette. “Is he cute to you?”
“Yeah!” said Mary. “He’s so handsome.”
“Go for it, girl!” said Annette. “Go after him before any of us other cheerleaders go after him.”
“My first boyfriend, hopefully,” said Mary Junior Miss. “A field goal kicker.”
Later on in this game, late in the fourth quarter, the Pulaski Red Raiders lined up for a punt. They were deep in their own territory. And the punter prepared to punt. His jersey read number “99.” And the name on the back of his jersey read, “Coins.”
“Why, Annette,” said Mary, “we are pinned so far back that our punter has to punt from the back of our own end zone.”
“We’re liable to have it blocked,” said Annette.
“Our special teams coach—what’s he thinking?” asked Mary.
“I heard that this number 99 is the coach’s pet,” said Annette.
“We’ll see about that after this next play,” said Mary.
The center snapped the ball; the ball sailed wildly over the punter’s arms; the punter quickly ran back to retrieve it; and the punter was forced to punt under duress, and he shanked it. The football traveled only ten yards. The visiting team’s special teams was not ready for so short a punt, and they could not catch it and run. But for the home team’s special teams, a miracle happened. When the football landed, it was spinning in such a way that it started rolling very quickly downfield. Ten yards.
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Twenty yards. Thirty yards. Forty yards. Fifty yards. And then it stopped. And the visiting team then landed upon it to down it. And there it was, right at midfield.
No one in this stadium had ever seen so much good come from so much bad in a punt like this before. The punt had rolled a good fifty yards after it landed. The punter was an instant hero.
And Mary and Annette had their cheerleaders to cheer this Mr. Coins, as they danced and pirouetted and leaped and jumped and skipped about. And the spectators began to chant “Proffery! Proffery! Proffery!” Mr. Coins’s first name must have been “Proffery.”
Then, just as in the case of the kicker and his kick, this punter after having punted, now took off his helmet to enjoy his moment of fame here in the high school stadium, and he praised Jesus.
“Ooo, my handsome prince!” said Annette to Mary.
“I don’t see him as you see him, Annette,” said Mary.
“”He’s the cutest boy of our whole football team,” said Annette.
“Then go after him,” said Mary.
“I never went after a boy before,” said Annette.
“This punter could become your first boyfriend,” said Mary.
“I’d like that, Mary,” said Annette. “I promise not to let him get away.”
Then the cheerleaders began to sing and to cheer and to animate the crowd. And by the time the game was done, the Red Raiders won big.
And from this first home game for the Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders, the kicker and the punter quickly became the most popular boys at school. Indeed Flanders Nickels and Proffery Coins were not strangers to each other. They had been best of friends for all their years at school. They were both seniors. And they were also both born-again believers, having been Christians now for most of their lives, even for more years than Mary and Annette had been Christians. This same Flanders and this same Proffery got together for study hall in the high school library here in sixth hour one school day.
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Flanders said, “Brother, you said that you had something to tell me.”
And Proffery said, “And you had something to tell me, too, Brother.”
“Yeah. There seems to be a girl that I want to ask out for a date,” said Flanders.
“Is she a good-looker?” asked Proffery.
“Truly the prettiest girl in eleventh grade,” said Flanders.
“Stay with the twelfth graders,” said Proffery. Then he asked, “What’s her name?”
And Flanders answered, “She is Mary Junior Miss.”
“You mean the cheerleader?” asked Proffery.
“Yes!” said Flanders in zeal. “I get to see her every school day in three of my classes.”
“Which ones?” asked Proffery.
“In first hour class…that’s American Literature…she sits next to me to my left in the back of the column of desks. And in third hour class…that’s Seminar in French..she flirted with me and teased me about my different-colored socks in front of everybody the other day. And in seventh hour class…that’s Modern Chemistry…the other day, when the teacher handed out to us finished tests of the students for us to help him correct it was myself who was lucky enough to get Mary’s test to grade.”
“Novio y novia,” said Proffery in Spanish.
“Boyfriend and girlfriend,” translated Flanders. “Remember, I’m in Spanish IV class like you, also.”
“Too bad your Mary is not in Spanish IV class with you, also,” said Proffery.
“Does she seem six foot tall to you?” asked Flanders.
“No. I would say just like you and me–five feet eight inches,” said Proffery.
“She seems six feet tall to me,” said Flanders.
“You must like them tall,” said Proffery.
“She seems taller than life to me,” said Flanders.
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“That’s probably because you’ve got a crush on the girl,” said Proffery.
“A major crush, Brother,” said Flanders.
“But what if she is not a born-again believer?” asked Proffery. “You know how God says in the Bible for saved people not to date unsaved people.”
“I think that she is a Christian,” said Flanders. “I see her in the cafeteria bowing her head before she begins eating lunch.”
“That’s a good sign that the girl is saved,” said Proffery in encouragement.
“Brother, what did you have that you had to tell me today in this study hall?” asked Flanders.
“Your best friend is carrying a torch for a cheerleader in his high school life, too,” said Proffery.
“And I’m sure she’s saved. too. I saw her reading her Bible in lunch today in the cafeteria.”
“Which cheerleader is she?” asked Flanders.
“Annette Sophomore Crush,” bragged Proffery on his pretty cheerleader.
“Isn’t Annette a tenth-grader?” asked Flanders.
“Yep!” said Proffery in assurance.
“But didn’t you just tell me that my eleventh-grade girlfriend was too young for me a twelfth-grader?” asked Flanders with a happy laugh.
“Do as I say. Don’t do as I do,” he said in self-effacement. “Annette is so pretty that she is not too young as a tenth-grader for me a twelfth-grader.”
“Annette is a nice girl,” said Flanders.
“A pretty nice girl,” said Proffery. “I mean a nice pretty girl.”
“I know what you’re saying,” said Flanders. “We men think alike. For us, ‘pretty’ is the most important; and ‘nice’ is the second most important when it comes to girls.”
“Guess where I first saw her?” asked Proffery.
“At our football game?” asked Flanders.
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“No. In bowling class in Phy. Ed.,” said Proffery. “We were at the bowling alley in town in our class, and that day was a football game day for us, and she was in her cheerleader uniform in the very next lane to my right.”
“A real pretty cheerleader was bowling right next to you?” asked Flanders.
“Lucky me!” exclaimed Proffery.
“How did your bowling game go, Brother?” asked Flanders.
“Not so good. I kept looking at her pleats,” said Proffery.
“How did her bowling game go?” asked Flanders.
“I don’t know. I kept gawking at her pleats,” said Proffery.
Both men laughed out loud. Soon this sixth hour study hall ended. There was one more class before the school day ended. And Flanders and Proffery both promised themselves and each other and the Lord that tomorrow sometime here at Pulaski High School they were going to ask out their varsity football Red Raider cheerleaders out for a date.
The very next day at school, Flanders came up to Mary right after Modern Chemistry class ended and the school day finished, and he asked her out. He said, “Mary, it is written, ‘The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.’ Proverbs 10:22. Would you like to go out with me on a walk from Kunesh to Anston?”
And Mary Junior Miss adeptly and affectionately answered him with Holy Ghost wisdom of this Bible verse and what he meant with it now, saying to him, “For a cheerleader like myself, I would consider it a blessing to walk with our team’s star kicker. From God can come from our date much riches of joy and no sorrow of the world.” Then she said, “I was dying to get to hear you ask me out for a date, Flanders. Yes! Yes!”
“Amen, Mary!” said Flanders Nickels.
Earlier that day, in bowling class, Proffery asked the big question to his Annette. He saw the
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attractive cheerleader bowl a strike in the last ball of the last frame. And he came up to her, and he said, “Annette, in Proverbs 13:12, Solomon says, ‘Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.’ Would you like to go out with me to the quarry on Quarry Drive and have some fun in the Lord?”
Herself saved and also knowing this verse, Annette replied with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and with the savvy of a woman who admired him, saying to him, “Proffery, this cheerleader cannot turn down our school’s star punter. If your hope for me makes you ill with infatuation, I shall not keep you waiting. Your wish is my wish. Let us make a tree of life and go out tomorrow and play in the quarry.”
Further she went on to say, “I was just about to ask you out to the Pulaski Town Library down the road from our school. But the Quarry Drive quarry sounds like more fun to me.”
“Praise the Lord!” said Proffery Coins.
The next day, the cheerleader Mary and Flanders met at his parent’s place in Kunesh, and they began their three-mile-walk to Anston and back. And right away these two Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders bonded in the Holy Spirit with most satisfying fellowship in the Lord. The cheerleader said, “Flanders, I have a life dream in my walk with Christ.”
“A life dream!” said Flanders. “Can you tell me what it is that you want from the Good Lord, Mary?”
“The Holy Bible calls it ‘the crown of righteousness,’” she said.
“Ah, that crown of righteousness,” said Flanders. And he recited II Timothy 4:8 right now from memory: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
“You know about that crown?” asked Mary.
“I love that crown,” he said. “We Christians who love the imminent rapture of the believers all will have this crown when we get to Heaven.”
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“You’re going to get that crown?” asked Mary in admiration.
“I hope so,” he said. “Only those Christians who love the Lord’s appearing will have this crown in Heaven.”
“Alas, Flanders, your Christian cheerleader girlfriend does not yet have this crown of righteousness waiting for her in Heaven,” said Mary.
“I can see that, though you are living for Christ, you are not yet ready to meet Him in Heaven,” said Flanders in kindness.
“I think that that is it, Flanders,” said Mary. “Most of me still wants to live down here for just a little bit longer before I get raptured up to Glory. I know that the rapture is imminent, and that I am not ready for it yet in such a way that He will give me that crown.”
“Pastor often preaches that sometimes we believers have it so good down here, that we are not looking for something better Up There,” said Flanders.
“I am not at all real comfortable in this life,” said Mary, in doubts about what Flanders had just said to her in her case. “I think that in my case, Flanders, all that I know is down here in this life. I have been living my temporal life now for seventeen years, and I know all about it. But this eternity to come for me in Heaven for being a born-again believer: What’s it like? I’ve never been There. How good really is it? I don’t even have a clue what Jesus looks like. I don’t even know what the crown of righteousness looks like. How much less do I know what Heaven looks like.”
“Maybe you cannot tell what you’re missing out on down in this life, because you are not yet in the life to come, Mary,” said Flanders.
“Yeah. Something like that,” said Mary. “I have no clue about Heaven, so I don’t desire it in this Earth as I ought to as a Christian.”
“Do you daydream about the crown of righteousness, even though you cannot daydream about Heaven?” asked Flanders.
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“I do,” she said.
“What do you think about?” he asked.
“I see a crown full of gold and silver and bronze,” said Mary.
“And platinum, too?”asked Flanders.
“Yes. Platinum, too, now that you say it,” said Mary.
“You love the crown more than you do the rapture,” said Flanders.
“I look forward to wearing the crown more than I do seeing the Lord,” confessed the cheerleader.
“That’s no way to earn the crown of righteousness,” said Flanders.
“That’s what I have been praying for all of these years,” said Mary. “That I learn to love the Lord’s appearing with all of my heart.”
“I’ll be much in prayer for that for you, Mary,” said Flanders.
“What about you, Flanders?” asked the varsity cheerleader in maroon and white. “Do you have a life dream in your walk with Christ? Do you have an unanswered prayer that you are waiting for God to answer for you?”
“Yes. And yes,” said Flanders. “My daydreams are for a crown of my own as well.”
“Ooo, Flanders. Which crown is it?” asked Mary Junior Miss.
“It’s the incorruptible crown,” he told her.
“Ah, the incorruptible crown,” she said. “That’s the one in I Corinthians 9:24-27.”
“Therein it is written, ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.’” he
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recited these four Bible verses by memory.
“That’s the crown for those Christians who let Christ control their lives,” said the varsity cheerleader. “I learned that from Pastor.”
“I heard Pastor also say that it is the crown for those who let Christ control their bodies,” said Flanders.
“How does a saint do that?” she asked. “How does a believer glorify Jesus with his body?”
“I would say, ‘by not giving it to the world or the flesh or the Devil,’” he replied.
“I know that my own body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, because I got born again, Flanders,” said Mary.
“Mine, too, as well,” said the born-again Flanders. “When you and I got saved long ago, immediately the Holy Spirit of God came to indwell us. And He has been in us ever since.”
“The Bible says to ‘grieve not the Holy Spirit.’ and to ‘quench not the Holy Spirit,’” said the varsity cheerleader. “That sounds like a good way to earn this incorruptible crown.”
“Yeah, Mary. That is a good way to see it,” said Flanders.
“I’m sure that the man Lot never got this crown,” said Mary.
“Hardly Lot,” agreed Flanders.
“I heard Pastor preach to us that Joseph and Daniel, both of the Old Testament, had nothing in the Bible that said anything negative about them. The Bible has only good things—and not one bad thing—to say about Joseph and Daniel,” said the Red Raider cheerleader.
“Then surely Joseph and Daniel have this incorruptible crown,” said Flanders Nickels.
“It is the Christians who can ‘eat the meat of the Word,’ who earn this crown,” said the varsity cheerleader. “It is not for those who can only ‘drink the milk of the Word.’”
“No backsliders and no carnal Christian will get this crown, Mary,” said Flanders.
“And you, Flanders, are no backslider and no carnal Christian,” bragged Mary Junior Miss on
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him.
“Be that true or false, the fact is that I can only pray for the incorruptible crown and cannot wear that incorruptible crown,” confessed Flanders.
“I can wear that incorruptible crown,” said the cheerleader in confidence and sincerity.
“And you can wear your Pulaski Varsity Red Raider cheerleader uniform,” he said.
“Yeah,” she said in incomprehension.
“I wear my Pulaski Varsity Red Raider football uniform on game days,” he said.
“Yeah,” she said in confusion.
“You make a boy wish that he were a girl,” he told her.
“Yeah,” she said in mystery.
“And I have not an incorruptible crown because of it,” said Flanders.
“How come?” she asked in seeking his revelation.
And he said no more for now. And she wondered and prayed inside. Then they were there—in the town of Anston. They wandered around and went shopping inside the Anston Store, a small family grocery store. And they began to fellowship again. And on the whole way back to Kunesh they fellow shipped sweetly about the next big football game for the Red Raiders. He talked about her cheer leading. She talked about his kicking.
The next day was the day of the first date for Proffery and Annette as boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord. They met at the quarry of Quarry Drive. Again Annette Sophomore Crush was in her cheerleader’s uniform. They both looked out upon the great pit in the earth before them and below them. To the one side up here on the level earth was a range of little mountains of loose gray gravel stones. And to the other side up here on the level ground was a range of little mountains of fine brown sand. Today was a day off for the workers of the quarry. So that made today a good day on for these two seekers of fun at this quarry. They rolled up hill and down. They somersaulted across the hills.
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They had sprints from mountain top to mountain top. And he got stones and sand inside his pants. And she got stones and sand inside her skirt. And they had a grand old time, being big kids acting like little kids. And when they were done with their frolic in the quarry, they both sat down side-by-side on top of the middle mountain of sand, the tallest of the peaks of sand in this quarry. They regained their breath and got their energy back with this little rest where they sat.
Then Annette spoke and said, “Proffery, have you ever heard in the Bible about something called ‘the crown of rejoicing?’”
“I have indeed, Annette,” he said. “This crown of rejoicing is the soul-winner’s crown.”
She said then, “’For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy.’ I Thessalonians 2:19-20.”
“That’s a great verse,” said Proffery. “I look forward to giving my crown of rejoicing back to Jesus the first thing I’ll do after He gives it to me Up There.”
“Proffery, I will not have that crown of rejoicing waiting for me in Heaven,” confessed the varsity cheerleader believer. “And I want it so much.”
“You never led a lost person to Christ?” asked Proffery.
“Not yet,” she said.
In encouragement Proffery said, “Pastor often preaches that the purpose of Christians is to make more Christians.”
“I’m just too chicken,” she said. “I’m too afraid of angry faces when it comes to sharing Christ with the others at high school.”
“You’re a timid Christian,” said Proffery in query.
“Maybe more like an ashamed Christian,” confessed Annette.
“Joseph of Arithamaea and Nicodemus the Pharisee were a lot like you when it came to Christ.”
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said Proffery Coins. “Yet they both served the Lord with all due glory and took care for Jesus’s dead body from the cross and put Him in His tomb in the cave.”
“I need to be bold like Paul the Apostle,” confessed Annette.
“Annette, did you hear about the mystery person who is leaving salvation tracts everywhere in school?” he asked her. “No one knows who is doing all of this. No one sees the one who is setting all of them around. We are all wondering who this witness-warrior might be.” said Proffery.
The varsity football cheerleader smiled at him in reply.
“Is that person you, Annette?” he asked.
She reached into her purse and took out a salvation tract and held it up in the air before him.
“That person is you,” he said in reply.
She put that tract back into her purse with all of the other tracts, and she said, “With these salvation tracts I do give out the Word of God in a little way, Proffery. But secretly, where no one can see me where I put them.”
“I should say, girl, with all of those salvation tracts that you do give out, that the Word of God goes out in a big way,” exclaimed Proffery Coins.
“You’re just saying that to make me feel good,” said Annette.
“More people learn about the saving Gospel through your tracts than they do from my tongue,” said Proffery.
“I didn’t see any of the other kids coming up to me and telling me that they read my booklet and got saved from it, though,” said Annette.
“Pastor preaches and lives and wins souls with his tract ministry, Annette,” said Proffery. “He’s bold both in tracts and tongue when it comes to sharing the Gospel of salvation.”
“My salvation tracts are complete,” she said. “They tell the Gospel and tell the plan of salvation and tell a sample sinners’ prayer. And they are full of King James Bible verses.”
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“Only good can be said of any tract ministry, O Annette,” said Proffery. “Keep up the good work.”
“Maybe even a shy witness-warrior who gives out tracts when no one is looking can still get a crown of rejoicing if someone reads that tract and prays the prayer in back,” said Annette.
“Quite indeed, O girlfriend,” said Proffery. Then he said, “As for myself, I’ve also been praying for a crown from God.”
“You want a crown, too?” asked the cheerleader.
“Yeah. Mine I want to be the crown of life,” he said.
“That one, Proffery?” she asked. “A Christian has to go through a lot of bad things to get that crown.”
“Pray for me that I am accounted worthy for that crown someday,” he said.
“That’s the crown for those believers who are faithful in life’s trials,” she said.
“Job’s crown for sure,” said Proffery.
“If you keep asking God for the crown of life, God is liable to make you go through a great deep valley,” she said. “The crown of life is not a fun crown to earn.”
“If I did go through a valley and did persevere and did prevail, then I will have proven to myself and to God that I love him,” said Proffery.
“I know the verse, It’s James 1:12. And it goes like this: “’Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him,’” said Annette.
“And also in Revelation 2:10,” he said.
“There, too? How does it go?” asked the varsity cheerleader.
And he told her by memory, reciting thus this verse: “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall
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have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
“Now I can see that this crown of life you so want can also be a martyr’s crown,” said Annette.
“I do not want to earn the crown of life by dying. I do say,” said Proffery. “In this verse it talks specifically about the saints who overcome in Jesus in the persecuted church of Smyrna.”
“That’s not you then,” said Annette.
“I never had to die for Jesus,” he said.
“Would you rather endure a valley in this life for Jesus?” she asked.
“To live for Jesus, even if it be in a valley, would be easier for me than dying for Jesus,” he confessed.
“That’s being so honest,” said Annette.
“It must hurt bad to be dying,” he did say.
“How are you at murmuring and complaining?” asked the varsity football cheerleader.
“Oh, I’m real good at both,” he confessed.
“That’s bad to be good at that,” she said.
“I know. I’ll never get the crown of life by murmuring and complaining,” said Proffery.
“If it is any help to you, Proffery, I know five words that can help you through any temptation or trial or storm or valley,” said Annette Sophomore Crush.
“What are those five words?” he asked her in wonder.
“And it came to pass,” she answered him.
“And it came to pass,” he said, savoring these words of great hope in Christ. Any temptation or trial or storm or valley that were to come to happen to him would some time have to come to pass away from him, too. He said, “That’s a happy saying, pretty Annette. Thank you for telling me that.”
“I’m glad to help my boyfriend-in-the-Lord,” she said to him.
Having enjoyed today’s fellowship, the cheerleader and her kicker then went down into the
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great vast and deep pit of the quarry and walked around, singing hymns by memory together. Then they went back home.
A week later, the four Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders went on a double-date to the skeet-shooting range on Brookside Drive. The two men had been here before. The two girls had never been here before. The men knew all about clay pigeons. The girls had never seen clay pigeons. And both young women held a little shotgun in their arms, holding them somewhat away from themselves where they stood.
Mary asked, “Is this a real rifle?”
And Annette asked, “Does this shoot real bullets?”
Flanders said, “It is a shotgun.”
And Proffery said, “It shoots shells.”
Flanders then recommended, “Mary, it is best not to hold the gun so far away from yourself when you shoot today.”
And Proffery suggested, “Yes. Annette, do bring your gun closer to your shoulder when you shoot.”
And both girls said, “Yes. I’ll do that.”
Then Mary saw the skeet targets. So did Annette. “What are these?” asked Mary.
The men said, “These are the clay pigeons.”
“They don’t look like pigeons to me,” said Annette.
“These are the targets,” said Flanders.
“One must shoot the clay pigeons down as if they are real pigeons.” said Proffery.
“How do they get thrown?” asked the two girls.
“We have a machine that throws them,” said Flanders. “Just say, ‘Pull,’ and we will make the machine throw them for you. That’s when you shoot.”
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“Do we girls have to do this?” asked Mary.
“We might get hurt doing this,” said Annette.
Flanders said, “Mary, you don’t have a chance against me. I’m the champion of Kunesh when it comes to clay pigeon shooting.”
“And you cannot beat myself at this, either, Annette,” said Proffery. “I’m the champion of Anston at skeet.”
“Oh yeah?” asked Mary. “We girls will see about that.”
And Annette said, “Anything that you men can do, we women can do better.”
Then Mary said, “All of these clay pigeons are either light red or white. How come?”
And Flanders said, “The light red ones are for daytime. And the white ones are for the darker times of evening.”
“There is writing on all of these clay pigeons,” said Annette. This one says, ‘Blue Rock.’ This one says, ‘Black Diamond.’ This one says, ‘White Flyer.’ And this one says, ‘Herter’s.’”
And Proffery told her, “Those are the brand names of the clay pigeons that we men brought here today.”
“Let’s play,” said Mary.
“I heard you ask if you had to play this, Mary,” teased Flanders.
“Let’s bring it on,” said Annette.
“I heard you say that you might get hurt doing this, Girlfriend,” teased Proffery.
And the girls said to the boys, “You’re on!”
And this clay pigeon range was the sight of a boys vs. girls skeet competition alone with these four Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders.
Every time the inexperienced girls were to say, “Pull,” each time they spoke in error. One time one of the girls said, “Push.” Another time one of the girls said, “Tug.” Another time, one of them
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said, “Throw.” And one of them once said, “Hurl.” Not one time did the girls say, “Pull,” as the rules said. The one thing that the women did do right, though, was to hold the stock of the shotgun right up against their shoulders when they fired. Other than that, they showed the men how poor shooters that the women were who had never done this before. Every clay pigeon that the cheerleaders shot at was a clean miss. And the only thing that broke their clay pigeons was the ground upon where the whole clay pigeons landed after being thrown. As for the men, they hit more clay pigeons than they missed with their skeet ammunition. Some of the hits were a chip off of the edge. Some of the hits were a large section blasted out. Some of the hits went right through the middle. And many broke up the whole clay pigeon into pieces. And in the end, the men showed the woman how good shooters that the men were with their championship experience.
And their game of skeet was done. The men were happy. The women were happy. Flanders and Proffery thanked the girls for this good fun in this double-date. And Mary and Annette thanked the men for having taught them all about clay pigeons. And then they went back to their homes, glad with the romance of clay pigeon shooting on a double-date as boyfriends-and-girlfriends-in-Christ at play.
They all agreed to do this again sometime not far from now.
A week later, Flanders and Mary went on a single-date together. This time they chose her place to go: they went to the Pittsfield Dump, just down on that same Brookside Drive where the clay pigeon shooting range was, and just beyond it. Mary loved to go to the dump and pick out treasures which she could take home. And when she told this to Flanders, he also came to want to do the same thing. And now they were here together, looking for good free things to take from the dump. They had fun that day as scavengers of a big pit with all manner of things thrown out and dumped here. Mary found a pile of old Reader’s Digests from many decades ago. Flanders found a whole pack of large playing cards meant only for those who were somewhat visually impaired. Mary found also a real neat tiny
glass bottle with a tiny little brass screw-on cap. And Flanders found just the same kind of thing, but
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with a shorter stem and a wider screw-on brass cap. And Mary found a nice stuffed griffin. And Flanders found a nice stuffed unicorn.
After a while of this treasure-hunting at the dump, the two Christians again began to talk about the crowns that they wanted in Heaven. Mary said, “It’s been two weeks since you said that you would pray for me and my elusive crown of righteousness, Flanders. But I still do not ‘have it on my head.’”
He knew that she meant that she did not yet have it waiting for her in Heaven, her heart not quite made right by God about the rapture yet. With some thought here at the edge of the great pit of the Pittsfield Dump, Flanders asked her, “Have you any idea how God might change your mind about the rapture and teach you how to love the Lord’s appearing, Mary?”
“I’ve got some ideas,” she said. “One idea I had was that maybe God might do a miracle and show me just a glimpse of Heaven as it really is. Maybe if I saw but a glance of Glory, then I might want all of Heaven forever after, and then I have my crown. The other idea I had was that maybe my own Saviour might show Himself to me in His regal glory for just a moment. Maybe if I saw the real living Lord for just a moment, I might want to see Him all the time from then on. Then I would surely have my crown ‘on my head,’ for now and for later.” Here she was again speaking figuratively about the crown of righteousness.
“I have that crown ‘on my head,’ right now, as you know,” said Flanders. He, too, was speaking allegorically about this crown. “I love the coming of the Lord. And I do so, because I have a fond fantasy of what Heaven might be about for me with Jesus. I love to sing in my heart the great hymn, ‘In the Garden.’ And when I do, I make-believe of a beatific garden waiting for me in Heaven with Jesus. And to me, ‘in the garden,’ is ‘being with the physical Presence of Christ Himself in His Heaven.’ What does this garden in Glory look like to me? It in my imagination is a farmer’s field full of rows of ripe big green seeded watermelons and rows of ripe big orange pumpkins. When I think of being with my Saviour There, then I always wish to be with him There.”
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“That’s a beautiful hymn. That’s a beautiful garden. That’s a beautiful daydream,” said Mary Junior Miss.
“I sometimes daydream about eating watermelon slices and pumpkin pie with Jesus at the marriage supper of the Lamb,” said Flanders.
“I am beginning to think now upon a dream garden of my own in which I can walk with Jesus and talk with Jesus Up There,” said the cheerleader.
“Oo, tell me, Mary,” said Flanders. “What is in your fantasy garden There?”
“I am thinking maybe horsetail plants and cattail plants,” she said in reverie.
“Do tell me more, girl,” said Flanders.
“Well I remember now how Annette and I went to the clay pigeon shooting range the other day—she and I alone. We two girls went down the steep hill beyond the edge of the range. We found a creek flowing there and broken clay pigeon pieces from who knows how many years and also lots of horsetail plants among the flora down there.”
“Horsetail plants,” said Flanders in thought. “What do those look like?”
“They’re real neat weeds made by the Creator,” said Mary in fervor. “They stand about one foot tall or one-and-one-half feet tall. And they are hollow. And they are green. And they are made up of little segments connected by tiny partitions top to bottom. I did not know what these were, but Annette knew. And she said that they are called, ‘horsetails.’ I fell in love with all of those horsetails at first sight, Flanders.”
“And cattail plants, Mary. Did you fall in love with them sometime in your life?” asked Flanders.
“Oh, I have, Flanders,” she said. “Ever since I was a little girl.”
“I know a little about cattails,” he said. “They are very tall plants with thick brown heads of some furry stuff on top.”
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“Yeah, Flanders,” said the varsity cheerleader in fervency. “The first time I discovered cattails was on that verytfirst time we went to the cabin up north. Lots of gravel roads off of the highway led to our cabin. And in a left turn from one gravel road to another gravel road there they were in the shade of many trees alongside the road off to the left. It was a thick patch of cattail plants. They were swaying in the wind, tall and strong, and all brown on top. I loved the cabin. But I loved these cattails more. I even spent more time here down the road from the cabin admiring and touching these cattails than I did jumping in and splashing around in Left Foot Creek by our cabin.”
“Mary, you’re talking now more excitedly than you do about cheer leading,” said Flanders.
“I am. Aren’t I, Flanders?” asked Mary.
“I have never heard such a joy in your tone before than now in your words about horsetails and cattails,” said Flanders.
“Do you think that Heaven might have a garden for myself full of horsetails and cattails, Flanders?” asked Mary.
“I believe that it could be so,” he said.
“Do you think that Heaven might have a garden for myself and Jesus that is full of horsetails and cattails, Flanders?” asked Mary with bated breath.
“I do believe so very much,” he said.
“If that is so, then I wish to be with my Saviour in that garden in Heaven right now,” declared the Red Raider varsity cheerleader.
“Mary, do you know what you just said?” asked Flanders.
“I do! I do!” she said. “I now love the Good Lord’s appearing!”
“You have found for yourself your much prayed-for crown of righteousness, girl!” exclaimed Flanders in great gladness for his girlfriend and her life dream.
“Amen and amen, Good Lord Jesus!” prayed Mary. “Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!”
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Too excited now even to do and chant a cheer, Mary Junior Miss went and gave her boyfriend the biggest hug of her life. And when she let go of him, she said, “And thank you, too, Flanders. I would not be surprised if God answered your prayer here at the dump as He has answered my prayer at the dump.”
“I have faith now,” said Flanders in his own hope and in his own heart. “God has given you your crown this day. And He can give me my crown this day.”
“Your crown that you want is that incorruptible crown. That’s the crown for those believers who let Christ control their lives,” said Mary, remembering his confidance to her.
“You’re right, Mary,” said Flanders.
“What do you think might be the reason for your heart to not live as God would wish you to live in order to earn that incorruptible crown, Flanders?” asked Mary.
“You are a most kind girlfriend-in-Christ to me for going ahead and trying to help me like this with questions, Mary,” he said in humility. “To answer that question, I believe that it is lots of little things that I do every day for all of my years as a Christian that keeps that crown ‘off of my head.’ as it is in my life. In the Song of Solomon 2:15, the Bible calls these little stubborn breaking of God’s commandments ‘foxes, little foxes, that spoil the vines.’”
“So you think that is is repeated self will and self-centeredness and selfishness that keeps you from living for God in His will,” said the cheerleader. “That is why you think that you do not have that incorruptible crown waiting for you in Heaven.”
“That has to be it,” he said. “I am so sure about that. I cannot imagine repenting of all of these nasty little things that I do for myself that makes God not pleased with me, Mary.”
“But what if it is only one big thing instead, Flanders?” asked Mary.
“One big thing?” he asked.
“Yes. What if it be one big sin and not lots of little sins that keep you from earning your dream
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crown, Flanders?” asked the Pulaski Red Raider cheerleader.
“You mean like a backsliding kind of sin?” he asked.
“One real bad sin that keeps God from answering your prayers for the incorruptible crown,” she said in conjecture. “Wouldn’t it be so much easier if all you had to do was to repent of one sin instead of to repent of many sins?”
“I don’t feel like a backslider,” he said.
“Do you feel like a carnal Christian, maybe?” she asked.
“I do feel like I should be growing in the Lord, and I do not think that I am,” he said to her.
“Surely you have to know what it is that you are doing that you should not,” said Mary.
“It sounds to me that what you are saying would be bad enough a sin to be called ‘an abomination.’” he confessed.
“Tell yourself what such an abomination might be,” rebuked Mary.
And he showed understanding in his features as he looked upon her.
“You know what it is,” she said. “What you do must be abominable. Isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he said. “It is a real bad thing. And I have to confess that that has to be why the Lord does not have the incorruptible crown waiting for me Up There right now yet.”
“Can you tell your girlfriend-in-the-Lord?” she asked.
“Till now I have not even told it to myself,” he said. Then he said, “I have to tell it to God.”
“He knows already,” said Mary.
“Let me tell it to you now,” said Flanders.
“Are you sure that you need to?” she asked.
“I am sure that I want to,” he said.
“I promise not to tell anyone,” said Mary Junior Miss.
“I trust you with all of my secrets, Mary,” he said. And he began to tell this girl his big sin as he
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saw it now before her here at the dump: “Last year, Pulaski High School had a used sports uniform sale in our big gymnasium. It was on a Saturday. It was for us students. There were lots of tables with lots of our high school sports clothes. I went to that.”
“I remember that sale. I was there,” said Mary. “The whole gym was full of tables. There were tables for football uniforms and for baseball uniforms and for basketball uniforms and for wrestling uniforms and for track and field uniforms and for cross country uniforms.”
“And there were tables for sports clothes for the girls of Pulaski High School,” hinted Flanders.
“Yeah,” said Mary. “There were tables for used cheerleader uniforms and used pom and dance girl uniforms. All of us girls went to those tables.”
He waxed silent for a moment.
“What do you have to tell me, Flanders?” asked Mary.
“I know a boy who went to those tables that were meant for the girls,” said Flanders.
“It was you. Wasn’t it?” asked Mary. He nodded. “Why would God keep back a good crown from you for looking around at cheerleader uniforms and pom pom girl uniforms?”
“This boy did not just look around,. This boy went and bought one of them. That’s why this boy had gone there,” he confessed.
“What did this boy buy?” asked Mary with a coy grin.
“A girl’s cheerleader uniform just like the one you have on now,” he said. “Only this one was a size fourteen.”
“Neat!” said Mary.
“I put it on everyday,” he told her.
“Oh. Not so neat,” she said to him.
“It’s my fun in life,” he told her.
“My boyfriend the drag queen,” said Mary.
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“I prefer the word, ‘cross dresser,’” he said.
“Cross dresser or not, I can tell that you still like us girls,” said Mary.
“I am so straight,” he bragged in truth.
“What do you think about homosexuals?” she asked.
“Perverted sinners who need to repent,” he said.
“Then what do you think about lesbians?” she asked.
“I wish that I were one,” he said in sincerity.
“Well, there’s your problem, Boyfriend,” said Mary Junior Miss. “You need to repent of that cheerleader uniform for God. If you keep doing what you’re doing with that cheerleader uniform, you’re liable to turn yourself into a transgender woman.”
“So, do you think that if I repent of my cheerleader uniform that I will get the incorruptible crown, Mary?” he asked.
“It surely couldn’t hurt,” she told him.
Again he said, “But that is my fun in life.”
“How bad do you really want the incorruptible crown that you’ve been praying for all of these years?” she asked.
“I do want to give something back to Jesus when I get to Heaven,” he said. “I cannot give Him my abomination. He would not want that. But I can give Him back His crown. It belongs to Him.”
“Choose now which one you want now, Flanders,” said Mary. “The Pulaski High School Varsity Red Raider cheerleader uniform or the incorruptible crown for those who let Christ control their lives? Pick one of the two for the rest of your life.”
He said, “I choose the incorruptible crown.”
“Are you positive?” she asked.
“I shall prove it now,” he said. “This is the dump. This is where my cheerleader uniform
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belongs. And this is where my cheerleader uniform is going right now. Come back to my home with me, Mary, and see how I mean business with God. And be with me when I come back here and repent of my sin. And rejoice with me that I will never put on girls’ clothes again.”
“Flanders, I can see that you are most positive in your choice,” said Mary. “You have just earned your dreamed-for incorruptible crown.”
“Wait until it is official,” he said, confident and penitential and sincere in Christ. And they went back to his house to pick up the abominable drag and went back at once to the dump, and he tossed it into the fire. And he watched it burn. “Now you can say what you have to say, Girlfriend,” he declared.
And she declared it again, this time most officially, “Flanders, you now have your incorruptible crown ‘upon your head.’”
“And I will make sure that it will ‘never fall off of my head,’” he promised girlfriend and God.
“Amen!” said Mary.
“Amen!” he said in equal ardor.
A week later, Annette and Proffery went on a date together to an old abandoned silo on a rural road right next to Highway 29. Annette knew about this silo from her much bicycle-riding in these countrysides. The two stood before this tall silo and looked up at its top. On this exterior of this silo was a ladder of rungs connected to the cement, and extending out from the outer wall. An adventurer could climb up this silo on the outside and reach the top and look down from way above. He could even climb out and stand upon the roof of this silo. The two then went inside this silo and looked around in it. In here was a ladder of rungs also climbing upward. But with this ladder each rung was fastened to both sides in an open space between two cement walls. On this side of this ladder of rungs was an open passageway for climbers of this ladder. On the other side of this ladder of rungs was the empty interior of this silo. A venturesome climber could climb to the top of this silo from inside and
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also come out upon the roof of this silo outside. The two looked up at the top from down here inside the silo. “Should we go for it, Proffery?” asked Annette.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
“I want the inside ladder,” said Annette.
“And I want the outside ladder,” said Proffery.
And both Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders went ahead and climbed this abandoned silo in the countryside to its top and sat down upon its roof way above the ground in the brisk wind out here.
“What should we talk about for fellowship, Proffery?” asked Annette.
“Let’s talk about our crowns that we want and do not have yet,” he said.
“My crown of rejoicing and your crown of life,” agreed Annette.
“Your soul-winners’ crown is a most praiseworthy crown to pray for,” said Proffery. “It is written about soul-winning, ‘And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.’ Daniel 12:3.”
Again it is written about witnessing,” said Annette, “’The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise,’ Proverbs 11:30.”
“You know the verses about witnessing to a lost and dying world, also,” praised Proffery his girlfriend.
“Oh, but Proffery, you live them; I just memorize them,” said Annette in self-effacement.
“I may be a more bold witness than you are, but, remember your tracts everywhere in school. Those count, too, for witnessing,” said Proffery in hearty encouragement of her thorough tract ministry.
“Am I still ‘the mysterious tract person’ at Pulaski High School, Proffery?” asked Annette.
“Yes. That you are, Girlfriend. And nobody knows who it is but you and I,” said Proffery.
“Not even Flanders and Mary,” said Annette.
With a sigh of gladness, Proffery went on to say to her, “Annette, something happened
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yesterday that only Jesus could do. You are the first person whom I tell this to.”
“If Jesus did it, it has to be good,” said Annette.
“It happened in the school office, and I was there to hear all of it,” he told her.
“It happened in the office?” she asked. “Is it something bad?”
“It is something real good,” he told her.
“What were you in the office for?” she asked.
“I accidentally left my key to my locker home when I went to school. So I stopped by in the office to get a duplicate just for the day,” he said.
“I was kind of in the office just the other day. I was sneaking around and putting tracts all about. I never dared to put tracts in the school office like that before,” said Annette.
“Well I heard our principal and our vice-principal talking in the office when I was waiting to get my spare locker key,” said Proffery.
“What were they saying?” asked Annette.
And he told her everything that he had overheard between the high school principal and the high school vice-principal: “Our principal said, ‘Did you read the booklets?’
And our vice-principal said to him, ‘I did. I see that you have one in your hand, too.’
And our principal said to him, ‘It says that Christ died for our sins and rose again the third day.’
And the vice-principal said, ‘I think that I believe that.’
And the principal said, ‘This sounds like something that you and I need to find out more about.’
And the vice-principal said, ‘This sounds like something that we need to know all about.’
And the principal said, ‘It says that whoever calls upon God’s name shall be saved.’
And the vice-principal said, ‘This sounds like good news.’
And the principal said, ‘I don’t want to to to Hell.’
And the vice-principal said, ‘Nor do I.’
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And the principal said, ‘There is a little prayer in the back of this booklet that a man can pray.’
And the vice-principal said, ‘I saw that prayer, too.’
And the principal said, ‘The booklet says that if we pray that prayer, we can go to Heaven.’
And the vice-principal said, ‘I do not want to miss out on Heaven.’
And the principal said, ‘Neither do I.’
And the vice-principal said, ‘Did you pray it?’
And the principal said, ‘No. Did you?’
And the vice-principal said. ‘No.’
And the principal said, ‘Maybe we should.’
And the vice-principal said, ‘I think we should, too.’
You can tell pretty much what happened after that, Annette,” finished Proffery.
She paused in hopes and in doubts, and she asked, “Did they pray and get saved, Proffery?”
“Yes, Annette. They both prayed and got saved. I heard it all from beginning to end. You won two lost souls to Christ with your most thorough tract ministry at Pulaski High School. Way to go, girl! You did it! Glory to God!” said Proffery.
“Oh, I feel like singing hymns of salvation for the rest of my life,” said Annette Sophomore Crush. She put her hands to her head to “feel the crown that she had there now.” And she sang out in a cheer to God, “My wonderful and marvelous crown of rejoicing! I’ve finally got it! And I can never lose it! Amen! Amen! Amen!”
“I told you that your harvest of tract-distribution would reap a harvest someday,” said Proffery.
“Well, Boyfriend, I’m going to do it again. Only for now on, not only will this girl give out tracts personally to real people, but she’s also going to do some preaching to go along with it,” promised Annette. “And I will someday personally with my own words lead a sinner through the sinners’ prayer the next time.”
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“I am so happy for you and with you, Girlfriend,” said Proffery Coins.
Then a silent moment passed between the two way up here upon the roof of the silo. Annette spoke and said, “Mary got her crown. Flanders got his crown. I got my crown. But you did not get your crown. I am sad with that. Alas!”
“Do not be sad for me, Annette,” said Proffery in good cheer. “I see it differently than that. I see it like this: ‘Mary got her crown. Flanders got his crown. You got your crown. And I will get my crown.’ God has not forgotten me among our little Christian group of Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders.”
“That crown of life—for those Christians who are faithful in life’s trials,” said Annette the thoughts of the two of them.
“I wish to prove my love for God to Himself and to myself by suffering a long and deep valley and still being true to Him,” said Proffery. “Only by doing that will I have earned my crown of life.”
“Aren’t you afraid of how much that will hurt you, Proffery?” asked Annette.
“Of course!” he exclaimed. “I fear valleys and storms and trials and testings. I don’t like to hurt in any way. And that is why I love the Lord’s appearing so much, because once I get raptured Up to Heaven, I will never see another trial again, Annette.”
Annette said, “I can see that you see life’s fiery trials from God as strange things that happen to you, Proffery.”
“I Peter 4:12. You’re right,” he said. “And yet the Bible always says that God sees life’s fiery trials as necessary refiner’s fires for the believers like us.”
“You call all trials ‘the bad things,’” said Annette.
“And God calls all trials, instead, ‘the good things,’” confessed Proffery.
“As God says in I Peter 1:7 about trials, ‘being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,…,might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:’” said Annette.
“As Pastor always preaches what Christ wants to say to us Christians when we go through a
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trial: ‘I’m not trying to make you bitter; I’m trying to make you better.’” preached Proffery to himself.
“As Pastor says to us in Sunday School, Proffery, ‘God will never leave us, nor forsake us,’” exhorted Annette her boyfriend.
“Without that crown of life ‘on my head,’ I have not yet arrived in my walk with Christ,” said Proffery in humility.
“None of us children of God will have arrived until we come Home to Heaven,” Annette reminded him.
With a sigh of sweet reverie, he said, “I have faith in my prayer-answering God.” And he stood up upon this very high silo roof here in the wind.
“Proffery, I pray you sit back down. It is not safe to stand up here like this,” said Annette.
“My knees got stiff as I fellow shipped up here with you. I have to get some kinks out of my legs. I’ll be all right,” he said to her. And he bent and unbent his legs up here on the silo roof. And he felt better.
“Would you sit back down with me, Proffery?” asked Annette.
He peered over the edge of the silo, and thoughts came to his head. She could see his thoughtful expression on his face. “I just thought of something,” he said.
“You’re not going to jump to earn your crown of life. Are you, Proffery?” asked Annette.
“Never!” he said in great comforts to her. “It is something else that God has just brought into my mind,”
“What did God tell you?” she asked.
“It sounds like it could be the answer to all of my prayers,” he said.
“What came into your mind, Proffery?” asked Annette.
“I might have already earned my crown of life, and I did not even know it,” he said.
“Really? For real, Proffery?” asked Annette with hopes and wishes.
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“I had it all along, and I never knew it,” he said.
“Tell me all, Proffery,” said Annette in enthusiasm.
“All of my pining and desiring and wanting of the crown of life that I did not have, Annette—that was my valley in my walk with Christ. And this valley of sorrow over thinking that I did not have the crown of life waiting for me in Heaven, has in itself been the storm which I have endured that does end up giving me that very crown of life, Annette, in the end. God does work in mysterious ways!” claimed Proffery.
“I am not so sure that that is how God does things, Proffery,” said Annette.
“You do not believe me?” he asked, cautious.
“I do not agree with you,” she said, doubtful of his reasoning. “Can you tell me what you’re thinking in another way? I might understand you better that way.”
He thought of another way to put it, and he told her, “Annette, all of my prayers for the crown of life that were never answered by God, indeed, God was working on answering them all that while. And all of my doubts and misgivings of myself as to whether I would stay true to God or not were a valley to come my way were collectively my testing that can only prove that I did through the doubts and misgivings I suffered earn that crown after all in the end.”
“Proffery, I doubt and disbelieve and disagree,” said Annette. “Your words are non sequitur. And you do not truly have the crown of life ‘on your head’ with that reasoning that you are telling me.”
In stubbornness, he stood straight up in this wind up here on the top of this abandoned silo by Highway 29, and he put his hands on his head to “feel his crown of life on it” as if he were in Heaven now with it on.
“Proffery, the wind is getting strong up here,” she said. “Let us climb back down to the ground!”
“I am closer to Heaven up here than I would be down there, girl,” he told her.
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“I beg of you—sit down, Proffery,” she said in this dire moment.
“Annette, I have something to say to God now that requires that I stand when I say it to Him,” said Proffery.
“Do say it fast and sit down,” she said. The wind was getting very strong now.
“That I shall do for you,” he told her. And he looked up to Heaven from atop this silo, raised his arms up to Heaven, and declared, “Lord Jesus, I promise to give You back this crown of life that You have just given me first thing I get to Heaven. Thank You, O Heavenly Father. Glory to the Holy Spirit.”
Just then the wind picked up even harder. Behold, it blew Proffery clear to the edge of this roof, and over its precipice and down to the ground way below! In shock Annette squeezed her hands together in a painful tight grip. And she got down on her hands and knees and dared to look over the silo roof to the ground below. Proffery was yet alive. He was indeed conscious. But he was broken up in his form down there. Nothing so horrific had Annette ever seen before. Calling upon God for mercy, she at once climbed down the rungs of the outside ladder to Proffery below. In mortification, she could not call out his name. As she knelt there, all she could say was, “Are you going to be all right?”
As Proffery lay there in great pain, he gathered his spiritual strength from the Holy Spirit, and he declared in a vow to God like unto the words of Job himself in the Scriptures, saying, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Lo, this great fall and Proffery’s promise to God proclaimed just now had now given him his true crown of life in God’s way and in God’s will.
Further, as he went on to endure recovery and recuperation and restoration, he betrayed neither complaint nor murmur against the Good Lord for this terrible valley that he had brought upon himself.
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With such humbleness before God thus proven, his crown of life was duly “on his head strong and sure” and truly awaiting him in Heaven.
It is written in Mark 11:22-24, “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Thus was it so with Mary Junior Miss and her prayed-for crown of righteousness. Thus was it so with Flanders Nickels and his prayers for his incorruptible crown. So, too, was it so for Annette Sophomore Crush and her many petitions for her crown of rejoicing. And such was also so for Proffery Coins with his many supplications for his crown of life.
A few months later, the four Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders gathered together for fellowship at Memorial Park on St. Augustine Street in Pulaski. To please their girlfriends-in-Christ the men had on their football uniforms, and the women were again dressed in their cheerleader uniforms.
Once at the park, the men asked, “Shall we fellowship at a picnic table?”
The cheerleaders shook their heads.
The men then asked, “Shall we fellowship at a bench?”
The cheerleaders again shook their heads.
Then the men asked, “Where would you gals like us four to fellowship today?”
And the cheerleaders both pointed to a big sandbox.
Then men, of course, asked, “Shall we fellowship in the sandbox?”
And the girls both nodded their heads.
With joy in the Lord and with happiness for this day of this double-date, the four sat down in the sandbox, all of the Christians with their King James Bibles on their laps.
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“Boyfriend,” said Mary, “what should we talk about this time in our fellowship?”
And Flanders said, “I was hoping to share with you three what I found in my Bible study yesterday. It is a most different chapter in the Bible from any of the other chapters in the Bible. And it is really kind of funny, so that a man can laugh and commiserate with the writer at the same time.”
“The Bible is funny and serious at the same time?” asked Mary.
“Which chapter is it?” asked Annette.
“It’s Psalm 109,” said Flanders.
“Ah,” said Proffery, “the Psalm with a slew of insults.”
“You know it, Brother,” said Flanders.
“But we don’t,” said Marry.
“Do tell us girls,” said Annette.
And all four opened their Bibles to Psalm 109. Flanders gave a prelude to his audience, saying, “These are more like curses than they are insults.”
“Curses most terse,” said Proffery, knowing this Psalm 109 as well.
And Flanders went on to say, “Look at the first one—verse six.”
And the four read this verse out loud: “Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.”
And this elicited a round of replies: “Fighting words,” and, “Apollo Creed never said anything like that to Rocky,” and “Nor had Ali, to Frazier; or Frazier, to Ali.”
Flanders said, “David said this Scripture in prayer to God as an imprecatory Psalm against his enemies.”
“Tell us the next one, Boyfriend,” said Mary.
And he said, “Next comes verse nine.”
And the four read this verse out loud together: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a
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widow.”
This also wrought most fascinated remarks from the other three, with words such as, “What a way to say, ‘Death to him!’” and, “The Muslims all say, ‘Death to you!’ to the Christians and to the Jews and to the ‘infidels,’” and, “The Bible calls Arabs ‘wild people,’ the descendants of Ishmael.”
And Flanders said, “There are times in the Scriptures where the Almighty God does strike people dead for persecuting Christians.”
Proffery said, “Do I know the next one in this Psalm, Flanders?”
“Are you thinking about verse thirteen, Brother?” asked Flanders.
“That I am,” said Proffery.
And the four fellow shippers went on to read this verse out loud from their open Bibles on their laps in the sandbox: “Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.”
This brought forth another bunch of sundry comments among the other three believers: “Is it ‘posterity’ or ‘posterior?’” and “the end of a family line,” and “no more family tree.”
Flanders went on to say, “In the Northern Kingdom dynasty, royal lines ceased and new ones began. But in the Southern Kingdom dynasty, the whole genealogy is almost the whole unbroken royal line from start to finish.”
Proffery said, “The Northern Kingdom Israel lasted from 930 B.C. to 722 B.C. and was conquered by the Assyrian Empire. And the Southern Kingdom Judah lasted from 930 B.C. to 587 B.C. and was conquered by the Babylonian Empire.”
“Is there one more curse from the Psalm that we get to read?” asked Mary.
“You said that you knew about four,” said Annette.
“It’s the best one of them all,” said Flanders. And he told them, “It’s verse seventeen.”
And the four Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders all read this curse/insult out loud from their Bibles:
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“As he loved cursing, so let it come upon him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.”
This last one brought more chattering from the other three, responses such as the following: “David could have said this one for his foe Nabal, the man of Belial,” and “This verse is the exact opposite to a beatitude verse,” and “In I Chronicles, Jabez prayed that God give him an easy life, and God gave that easy life to him. This prayer of David for the fate of his enemy is far different from that prayer of Jabez for the rest of his life.”
And Flanders said, “All of this I discovered for my first time when I once again studied the Psalter yesterday on Mom and Dad’s hammock.”
Then Mary leaned toward Annette and whispered something into her ear. And after that Annette leaned over toward Mary’s ear and did whisper something back to her. And the varsity cheerleaders grinned at each other in a mutual ploy. But they said not a word right now. They just looked at their boyfriends and smiled in their countenances.
Proffery said, “You girls are up to something.”
And Flanders said, “You women are keeping a secret from your men.”
In a game, Mary said, “Tell them, Annette.”
And playing the same game against the men, Annette said, “You tell them, Mary.”
Flanders said, “You cheerleaders are frisky today all of a sudden.”
And Proffery said, “Brother Flanders, I do believe that our cheerleaders are flirting with us.”
“Shall I start out telling them and you go finish telling them, Annette?” asked Mary. “Or should you start out telling them and I go finish telling them?”
“Or should we just become what we say right away instead?” asked Annette.
Flanders said in flirt, “Say it first and do it second–whatever you two were whispering about a moment ago.”
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And Proffery said, “I feel coquettry coming into our fellowship right now. Am I right?”
In subtle hint, Mary said, “We two cheerleaders have an insult of our own to tell our football players, but the joke is really upon us two cheerleaders.”
And in her own innuendo, Annette said, “The curse we cheerleaders want to say to you football players instead falls upon us cheerleaders all along.”
With a grin wide and broad, Flanders said, “Tell me, Mary Junior Miss.”
And with a smile sparkling in his own eyes, Proffery said, “Tell me, Annette Sophomore Crush.”
Mary told her boyfriend, saying to him, “Flanders, may your eleventh grade girlfriend grow up to become your floozie.”
And Annette told her boyfriend, saying to him, “Proffery, may your tenth grade girlfriend grow up to become your own hussy.”
And caught up in the magic of sweet innocent romance, the four Pulaski Varsity Red Raiders—the men football players and the women cheerleaders—all took to roughhousing and wrestling and tackling and cheering and chanting and dancing– there in the large sandbox of Memorial Park.
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