A Place in the Sun by Michael Phillips

Author:Michael Phillips
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC042030;FIC042000;FIC026000
ISBN: 9781441230782
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-11-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

Katie’s Outburst

Katie was still quiet and sober. Everyone greeted her kindly, but she didn’t say much. Uncle Nick looked a little nervous, and would glance at her now and then, although he entered into the spirit of the evening with everyone. I wondered if they had an argument, because they didn’t say much to each other.

Everyone but Mr. Royce was still there. The day cooled off quickly. Pa stoked up the fire, and we sat around the hearth talking and chatting. I don’t think I’d ever seen Rev. Rutledge so jovial and in such high spirits. Even he and Alkali Jones laughed together more than once about something one or the other said. Mr. Lame Pony was a little more reserved when Katie got back, and every once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of him glancing over at her, probably wondering what she thought. But he stuck around, visiting with the men, and I was glad of that. I hoped he and Pa might become friends!

As the evening progressed, the talk got more subdued and quiet, even serious at times. How different Pa was! He talked with Rev. Rutledge about spiritual things on equal footing, not as a miner talking to a preacher.

“What do you think, Avery,” Pa was saying, “about how God lets folks know what he wants them to do?”

“Do you mean how he speaks, how he guides in our lives?”

“Yeah. How can you tell if God’s telling you something or if it’s just your own thoughts? Like me being mayor. I figure something ought to be different about my mayoring if I say I’m trying to follow God in what I do. It ought to be different than me just following my own nose like most folks do, and like I spent most of my life doing.”

“That’s exactly what being a Christian is, Drummond, bringing God into all you do.”

“It’s easier for you, because religion’s your business, ain’t it, Reverend?” piped in Uncle Nick.

“Just the opposite, Nick,” replied Rev. Rutledge, turning toward him. “Maybe you’re right in one way,” he added slowly. “It is easier for me to talk about things of God because people expect it of me. But it’s no easier for me to have God’s attitudes inside than anyone else. And, you know, I sometimes think being a preacher is a handicap.”

“How’s that?”

“Because my very presence gets it into people’s minds that there is a difference between religious and non-religious people. Like I said, they expect me to be religious. After all, I’m a preacher, I get paid to talk about God. I can never go into any situation, any discussion, any group of people and just be myself—Avery Rutledge, a man with feelings and thoughts like everyone else.”

The others were silent for a minute. Even the quiet showed that what Rev. Rutledge said was true, and that they hadn’t thought of him as anything but a preacher. I knew that was true about me. The only ones among us who had really seen him as a person beneath the minister were probably Almeda and Miss Stansberry.

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