Psalm 19:1 says "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork". As a young man in my early 20s I was suffering a broken spirit. I was lost and undone, happy to merely wander the Earth from day to day without direction nor guidance. I had attempted College, attending two semesters at The University of South Carolina which ended in misery when my grades showed up in May of 1984.
Mama and Daddy were less than pleased with the 0.8 GPA I had earned...the result of dropping all my classes to walk the streets of Columbia, searching for something that I had no clue of existing or even attaining! I had dropped all classes except for one, Psych 101 and I had only attended two of the classes in PSY 101.....the first day and the final exam!
Spring 1984 had started out with great promise as I was carrying a moderate load and had found a part-time job at Columbia Antique Mall/Chic Antiques, assisting Conrad Powell and his father, Mr. Leonard Powell with deliveries, moving items around in the Mall, setting up displays, cleaning up antiques and any other tasks that no one else wanted to attempt. I was pretty much their "Boy Friday" and delighted in the attention Mr. Leonard would pay me, which was as valuable as the minimum wage I received! I had been assisting them since my arrival in the Fall of 1983, and their business had grown steadily. January 1984 found their business expanding to the point of offering me fifteen to twenty hours of work per week, enough for me to rake in nearly $80 a week. I thought I was rolling in the dough, and dropped all my classes except for PSY 101 as I had learned from the first class that it was graded 100% on the final exam.
PSY 101 was a huge "lecture" class of over 300 students, held in a lecture auditorium in Gambrell Hall and no attendance was taken. The wheels in my devious head started turning so I decided that I could skip it and show up for the final and possibly come out alright so I made the decision to spend that time working instead of learning. Besides, eighty dollars a week would buy a lot of beer and checkerboard Van's "Off The Wall" skater shoes! Man, I thought life was good. I was free and easy, and left to my own devices in the "big city".....my first taste of a true wilderness.
Fast forward a few months to May of '84 when the grades showed up. Oh my gosh......Scooter was in big big trouble! I had wasted a bunch of money that my folks didn't have, and defaulted on a student loan I had acquired for my attempt at College. Daddy informed me that if I weren't going to be a student that I would get a job. I did get a job at McDonalds and at Pizza Hut to which Daddy replied "No, Son......a real job!" More on that later!
I plodded along for another year and found myself sinking further into the abyss of "slackerdom", a lost soul without direction when Mama sat me down and had one of her famous "Heart to Heart" talks with me. She explained that God has a plan for all of us, but it is up to you to accept His plan. We talked for what seemed like hours and then she laid upon me something that has stuck with me ever since. She said "Scooter, do you remember the story from the Old Testament about Moses leading the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years? Sometimes we all wander the wilderness to find our way, and right now you are smack dab in the middle of it!" She told me that she had a special place in the wilderness that she liked to go visit when life got difficult...a quiet place for praying, meditation and reflection. She had one, Daddy had one and even Matt had one. She said "find yourself a spot but reveal it to no one. It is your special place to talk with God and to open your heart to Jesus. It is a special place to seek guidance and wisdom but remember son.....reveal it to no one! It is between you and Him." She then said that, upon our death, our spots would be revealed.
I know our spots in the wilderness now, and can reveal them. It makes sense now that they are gone. Twice I had to go and rescue Mama out at Burnt Factory when she got stuck in the mud. I wondered what in blue blazes she was doing driving down there, down that muddy dirt road knowing she had no business there. I now know why Matt took me down to "Lucy's Lake" to just hang out a few times, and why he was willing to navigate the steep ravine to get in there. I now know why Daddy was adamant that I joined him to fish in the hidden pond behind Ed Pence's house when I was clearly not into fishing. I've never revealed my spot but I am sure Renee and Meghan will find it upon my departure from this life. I'll say this much about it.....it is a huge cross in a cotton field. I'm way overdue a visit. Have a "rice" day, y'all!