Barrett Freeman, Mount Carmel Baptist Church, "Cultivating the Spirit"
Cultivating the Spirit ---- Barrett Freeman “O God, you are closer to me than I am to myself. O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, you were within and I was outside myself .” I don’t know if any of the preschool teachers witnessed it happen, but if they did, I imagine it was an awful site. One minute a 5-year-old boy is chasing friends across the church playground, the next minute he’s gone. Vanished. Although somewhat fragmented, I still vividly recall the scene. The sound of metal and concrete scrapping together, the earth giving way, and then, approximately eight feet later… cold, wet, and dark. That’s what falling into a manhole feels like. I know because that’s what happened to me. I can’t say I remember specific feelings and thoughts, but I do know the general details of the story because it’s...