Welcome to Ray Flatt's Weekly BubbaGram September 06, 2006 Everything's been quite around Possum Bottom, Tennessee until this past week. The center of the town is Flatt's General Store which also serves as the local Post Office as well as having a few rooms to rent. The other morning an elderly gentleman came wondering in the store and sat down by the checkerboard. His clothes where ragged, his shoes were well worn and he looked like he was in dire need of food, bath and rest...just another nameless homeless person. The first patron to arrive that morning was old retired Sargent Johnson...he was called Sarge for short. He walked with a cane because of a very bad limp...something to do with his injury during the Korean War. Sarge observed the elderly gentleman and was instantly moved with compassion. He told the store clerk to fix the man a big ole bologna sandwich, some chips, extra pickle, Moon Pie and an RC Cola. The elderly man nodded in obvious appreciation. A few minutes later, Earl came in the store complaining about his arthritis. All of sudden in the mist of his complaining, he caught a glimpse of the old man and he stopped in his tracks. He too was moved with compassion and told the store clerk to buy the man a clean set of clothes and a new pair of shoes. Just put it on his account, on account of he didn't have NO money. That he would settle up the account when he sold his fall tobacco crop. The elderly man again nodded his obvious appreciation. Finally, Bubba wondered in the store walking gently complaining about his bad back. Being a quick study, he sized up the situation of what Sarge and Earl had just done. He too was moved with compassion and wanted to help, thus Bubba offered to pay for a room for the nameless homeless man to have a bath and a good night's rest. At this point the elderly man stood up and was transformed from an elderly homeless man into a glowing shining being. He said, "My name is Gabriel and I'm one of God's angels. Because of your un-merited compassion and generosity, God would like to reward each of you with a Gift." Gabriel turned to Sarge first and touched him. Instantly Sarge leg was healed. Then Gabriel turned to Earl and touched him. Instantly Earl's arthritis was healed. Finally Gabriel turned to Bubba and started to touch him. Bubba jumped back, threw his hands up in the air and said, "Lord, don't let him touch me. I just came in to pick up my disability check!" Sometimes we just get comfortable with what and how we survive. Change for the good is not always recognized. Who is your source? Is it work, generosity of others, government or God. It's a no-brainer, but we so easily miss out. ------ An unemployed man is desperate to support his family of a wife and three kids. He applies for a janitor's job at a large firm and easily passes an aptitude test. The human resources manager tells him, "You will be hired at minimum wage of $5.35 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address so that we can get you in the loop. Our system will automatically e-mail you all the forms and advise you when to start and where to report on your first day" Taken aback, the man protests that he is poor and has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this the manager replies, "You must understand that to a company like ours that means that you virtually do not exist. Without an e-mail address you can hardly expect to be employed by a high-tech firm. Good day." Stunned, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having $10 in his wallet, he walks past a farmers' market and sees a stand selling 25 lb. crates of beautiful red tomatoes. He buys a crate, carries it to a busy corner and displays the tomatoes. In less than 2 hours he sells all the tomatoes and makes 100% profit. Repeating the process several times more that day, he ends up with almost $100 and arrives home that night with several bags of groceries for his family. During the night he decides to repeat the tomato business the next day. By the end of the week he is getting up early every day and working into the night. He multiplies his profits quickly. Early in the second week he acquires a cart to transport several boxes of tomatoes at a time, but before a month is up he sells the cart to buy a broken-down pickup truck. At the end of a year he owns three old trucks. His two sons have left their neighborhood gangs to help him with the tomato business, his wife is buying the tomatoes, and his daughter is taking night courses at the community college so she can keep books for him. By the end of the second year he has a dozen very nice used trucks and employs fifteen previously unemployed people, all selling tomatoes. He continues to work hard. Time passes and at the end of the fifth year he owns a fleet of nice trucks and a warehouse that his wife supervises, plus two tomato farms that the boys manage. The tomato company's payroll has put hundreds of homeless and jobless people to work. His daughter reports that the business grossed over one million dollars. Planning for the future, he decides to buy some life insurance. Consulting with an insurance adviser, he picks an insurance plan to fit his new circumstances. Then the adviser asks him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically. When the man replies that he doesn't have time to mess with a computer and has no e-mail address, the insurance man is stunned, "What, you don't have e-mail? No computer? No Internet? Just think where you would be today if you'd had all of that five years ago!" "Ha!" snorts the man. "If I'd had e-mail five years ago I would be sweeping floors at Microsoft and making $5.35 an hour" Which brings us to the moral of the story: Since you got this story by e-mail, you're probably closer to being a janitor than a millionaire. Sadly, I received it by e-Mail as well. ----- The reality is that everyone's journey or path is not the same. But every Journey should include "Bubba's Motto": No matter the traps in life's long road, watch out for the potholes, and don't carry to heavy a load. Treat others with kindness, love and fairly, while trying to complain seldom or rarely. Do what you can, do it your best. Trust in God and he will make up the rest When all is said and done, you should be able to say, "I had a bunch of fun!". ------ One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So God called one of the angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time. When he returned, he told God, "Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not." God thought for a moment and said, "Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion." So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time too. When the angel returned he went to God and said, "Yes, it's true. The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good." God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% who were being good because he wanted to encourage them give them a little something to help them keep going. Do you know what the e-mail said? Okay, just wondering; I didn't get one either. ----- Bubba-ism of the week - " God Himself does not propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?" ----- Please pass this along to friends (and enemies). You or they can subscribe or unsubscribe at www.rayflatt.com