There’s an episode of the Andy Griffith Show where The Women’s Historical Society has discovered the last living relative of some big war hero lives in Mayberry. If you know the episode, you know it turns out to be none other than Otis Campbell, the town drunk. That’s right. Otis Campbell, the cow-riding, Barney-teasing, hitting-his-wife-with-a-leg-of-lamb drunkard turns out to be the one to be honored. And as I watched that episode, my mind toward these devotionals. And I was torn by which way to take it. And I honestly couldn’t decide…so I decided to not decide. Here’s all the ways I thought of taking that episode, in no particular order.
First, as it’s discovered that Otis is the one that’s the descendant of Nathan Tibbs, all the town leaders start worrying about what others will think of them…to the point of wanting Andy to get a substitute Otis. Nobody had faith that Otis could show up sober and accept the plaque without embarrassing them all. This is where Barney does his HILARIOUS “where’s my plaque? Gimme my plaque!” impression of “drunk Otis”. In the end, Andy’s faith in his friend was justified when Otis shows up sober and groomed and ready to accept his plaque. Listen to the Whisper that tells you that when people around you abandon you, remember that there’s always someone that will stand beside you. Jesus will always be there for you. Make Him proud and give Him reason to stand beside you again.
And going back to the town leaders, the whole reason that the “fat little mayor” and the councilmen were ready to lie about Otis being out of town or try to find a substitute is that they were worried about what others would think of them. They were ready to betray the trust of someone they knew because of the opinion of others. The reason, of course, is that they are more concerned about themselves than they are about anything else. “What will others say?” “What will everybody think?” “They’ll all laugh at me!” We’ve all been close to someone that’s said or done something insanely stupid. If you’re a close friend of mine, then God bless you for standing by me!! Because I say and do stupid things ALL THE TIME…and not ALL of it is intentional! J Listen to the whisper that says don’t worry about what others think. Do the right thing. Stand up for your friends when they need to be stood up for. And encourage them to do better when they need that nudge. Nothing stopped those guys from going to Otis and saying, “alright, Otis, this is big, and we’re going to help you out today.” But none of them did it. Their first instinct was to distance themselves from him. Don’t turn your back on your friends when they need you most. Ever.
Next was when he actually received his plaque. That segment could have been called the Roman Epistle of Otis! The ladies from the Women’s History Society have handed a “shined and polished Otis” his plaque, and he tells them that he’d been thinking all day of what to say when accepting the plaque. But then he says that he hadn’t done anything to deserve that plaque. That being related to somebody famous didn’t mean he had done anything important. “A guy can’t take credit just for being born.” Which was exactly the stumbling block for the Jews. They came to believe they were owed God’s Grace by being God’s chosen nation. And for us as “Christians”, we stop doing what’s expected of us because we think that God’s Gift of Grace is something that’s owed to us. “Hey, I’ve said the words ‘I believe in Jesus’ so I don’t have to do anything else…can go on acting like any other hethen I know, because I’ve said the abra-cadabra of Christianity!” The devil believes that Jesus is the Son of God, too! James 2:19 says that even demons believe that God is One, and tremble with fear! Do you tremble with fear, or do you think that everything’s ok because your grandparents are really strong Christians and lived their faith and you “believe”? You’ve seen A Charlie Brown Christmas, and think it’s cool when Linus says that’s little spill when he’s on the stage. “Yeah, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God…really, Linus’ passage is from Luke? Huh? Who knew?” So Listen to the whisper that tells you to not take your salvation for granted. It isn’t owed to you for who you are or anything you’ve done any more than Otis deserved his plaque because Nathan Tibbs was a Revolutionary War hero.
And to get to the last point, we have to go back to the beginning. Well, not the actual beginning with the whistling and fishing poles and Opie throwing a rock in the lake, but back to when it’s discovered that it’s Otis that is the last living relative of Nathan Tibbs. When the ladies come in and tell Andy and Barney that the descendant is….”Otis Campbell”, Otis is in the jail cell passed out. At the first mention of his name, he roused just a bit, but then passed back out. After that, they say his name several times, but he’s passed out and has no idea they’re talking about him. And to that end, never get so caught up in your own self…whether that’s wrapped up in your own worries, or caught up in your own pride, or like Otis you’re just so blind drunk on alcohol OR yourself…but don’t get so caught up in your own self that you can’t hear the whisper. Sometimes you’re name will be called…over and over and over. Dwayne, c’mon stop that sinning. Dwayne, I saw how you treated that lady. Dwayne, I heard what you thought when you saw that guy. That’s not loving your neighbor, Dwayne…that’s thinking judgmental thoughts about your neighbor – whether you actually say them or not, it’s just as wrong.
God is constantly trying to shape us into the people we’re supposed to be. It’s called sanctification. And sometimes we need to have more than one thing changed. As much as we like the think that we’re perfect with the exception of one or two minor little things, we’re far from being Holy as we’re called to be. Sometime when we take the time to Listen for the Whisper, we’ll be told several things at once. Sometimes changing ourselves is like watching an episode of Andy Griffith and trying to find one lesson to learn. Sometimes the Whisper tells us that we need to work on several aspects of our lives as we live our Christianity. Instead of listening to what we think we need to hear, maybe we need to be open to looking at our incompleteness from every aspect. We’re far from perfect, but God’s doing his best to get us there if we’ll just step out the way and let Him work. Otis showed up gussied up and sober and made Andy proud. And there’s no reason we can’t do the same for Jesus.
~Dwayne
