Man a year can certainly go by quickly when you get to be my age. As Holy Week 2026 has passed I’m reminded of Holy Week 2025 and the subsequent days thereafter. The evolution of the past year brought back memories of how I began to appreciate Holy Week in the way that I currently do.
I was not raised in the church in the typical way, but was raised by a church going family. My grandmother, great aunts and uncles and my Aunt Betty attended church nearly every Sunday. While I was not required to go I did witness them preparing for church, putting on their Sunday’s finest, singing hymns and having prayer in preparation for the service.
Between the ages of 5 and 18 I estimate that I attended church about twenty times. Upon high school graduation at the age of eighteen I realized that I was at a crossroads. I was working a part time job but anticipating going to college. As a high school sophomore, I qualified for concurrent enrollment, meaning that I could have been taking college classes while still in high school and possibly enter college having already finished my freshman and possibly sophomore year. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the family structure or the support to make that happen which dampened my outlook a little bit. But God had me……
The summer after I graduated a thought came into my mind. I needed guidance. And to a lesser degree, I need closure. As an adolescent I grew up in a small community which would generally be characterized as “the ‘hood”. Despite the poverty and lack of ideal living circumstances, my “hood” gave me power and wisdom the which you would have had to live through to understand. (ByH2O You Know!). I had long since moved away by eighteen but went back on a regular basis to visit relatives who still lived there.
In the home where I use to live there was a short field of about sixty feet wide in the back. There was a tree line and a creek just beyond with one particular tree that I would climb as a youngster. As I was not a great tree climber, this particular tree had branches that aligned perfectly for me to climb easily and at about twelve to fifteen feet up there was a perch where you could sit and no one would notice you were there. On the days when I didn’t wanna be bothered I would find humor in sitting in the tree and watching my friends come to my house walking up and down the field near the creek looking for me. When I finally did appear I would laugh my ass off as I told some grand story as to where I was as they were conducting their search. I have to admit I was a great “storyteller”.
So the summer after I graduated I went back to the tree for the first time in years. I visited my childhood home and met the people who lived there. They granted me permission to go to the backyard so I could climb the tree. Surprisingly, it was very similar to what I remembered and easier to climb than I had imagined. So I made my way up to my usual spot. And sat down just thinking about life. What was I gonna do moving forward? The first thing that came to my mind was to ask God for guidance. And that is what I did. I can still clearly recall myself speaking out loud and saying these almost exact words: God I don’t know if you are real. I hope you real and I think you’re real. I need your guidance. So if you do exist I need you to tell me where I belong at this point of my life. I’ve been the man of my house for a long time and now I need to know what’s best for me and my family. Real talk….
I sat there for a few minutes afterwards and then realized that I had to make my way down that tree. As I was climbing down, I suddenly remembered that I had a fear of snakes and decided to jump at about the eight foot mark to speed up my exit. I then ran from that field for the very last time.
A few months later when school started in September I was still working my part time job. My mother worked for a state agency in conjunction with the career center and recommended that I go speak with the career counselor. As fate would have it, this person’s office was located on the campus of the local community college, the very college where I would have completed concurrent enrollment in high school.
Upon arriving on campus for my scheduled date it turned out that the counselor was not in his office but was due to return some time later that day. With that in mind, I decided to walk across the campus just to check out the “student life” and also gather information for possible enrollment in classes. I barely made it from one building to the next before a middle aged lady came up to me and asked if I needed a job. Being a bit caught off guard I was somewhat hesitant, but I said yes. She literally took me by the arm down to an office where I started to work as a temp and eventually became a full time employee. Lo and behold one of the benefits of full time employment at the campus was free tuition. As my grandmother would say, “Hallelujah”. Full time job and FREE education! And that was just the beginning. Let’s get back to Holy Week.
After being on campus about a year or so I started to notice a group of well dressed gentlemen usually in pairs walking around the campus with the boxes. They would appear at certain times of the year. As people walked by, these gentlemen would hand out little green books that I didn’t recognize as I had never seen them before. Honestly I avoided these men on most occasions because I was usually busy working and I did not want to “buy” whatever they were selling. It wasn’t until maybe my third year on campus that I decided to not avoid these gentlemen on site. As I walked by one of them said to me, “Hey young man look like you’re walking with a purpose. Would you like one of these?” As he offered the unknown “book” I politely declined as many of the students before me had done. The gentlemen then said, “Why are so many young people afraid of the Bible? It is a great reference for showing how to be a better person”. I proceeded to walk by without responding, but I had to walk past again as I returned to my office.
As I returned course I encountered the two gentlemen once again, the one who spoke to me initially now having a confident, but pleasant, smirk. “Those are Bibles you’re handing out”, I ask. He replied yes. “For free?” He says yes. His extended hand reaches a copy to me. I accept it and say to him, “This is my first Bible”. He asks, “How old are you son?” I state my age. He nods approvingly and says, “Perfect. Let the Bible be a lifelong companion and you will lead a good life.”
I ended up collecting 3 of those bibles, later learning that they were given out by Gideons International. I kept one in my car, one at my desk and one on my nightstand. I did not start reading right away, but made a personal promise to read the book from beginning to end.
I never read the Bible in its entirety. However, I adopted the practice of reading scriptures recommended for particular circumstances. That started in my early twenties. Over the years I started reading scriptures recommended as Verses For The Day. In addition and for balance I later added reading my daily horoscope. I continue this to this day.
For some unknown reason, starting in the Summer of 2025, I stopped reading my morning scriptures and horoscopes. Every morning I’d wake up, grab my phone and start my day without my morning Word. I had so many distractions that I tried to do everything I needed to do all at once. I “didn’t have time” to read in the morning”. This went on for months. Until one day in February while mindlessly scrolling the above picture appeared in an ad. I got the message.
Easter was approaching. Great time to recenter my spiritual focus. I get back to my morning reading which I now do with my phone. I do not know the whereabouts of my Gideon Bibles as I have long since used my phone for reading. Also, the print had gotten way too small for “progressive glasses”! I watch “The Ten Commandments” as I do everything year. Cultural misappropriation notwithstanding, this is still a great movie.
I’m gonna make a personal promise to have my morning reading every day, not just for Holy Week.
The Real Life Corner 