Luke 14 vs. 11 and Punk Carter

LUKE 14:11 and Punk Carter

Who so ever exalts themselves shall be humbled and who so ever humbles themselves shall be exalted!

Celina, Texas Christmas tree lighting on the square.

The town square was filled to capacity. Families reflecting the diversity of Celina, Tx. roamed the several blocks surrounding the square. They were joyous and full of holiday spirit. Vendors filled the streets and sidewalks. Family entertainment, foods and beverages, and holiday gift items that included many local artisan creations lined the surrounding two or three blocks.

In the central square a stage was raised large enough to hold a dozen. There were speakers and musicians taking turns entertaining the vast audience as they sat in the central lawn and continued to migrate to the center stage.

Celina was about to light a magnificent Christmas tree just across from city hall.

  Colleen Blanks and the Celina Tree

                                

I was watching the power level of my camera and regretting not bringing my battery pack. Texas at it’s glorious best was all around me from seniors holding hands to seniors holding grandchildren. A family affair! I was wishing mine were with me to share in this celebration.

Mayor Sean Terry took the stage and was surrounded by the guest of honor. They included Celina’s favorite son Punk Carter, his wife Rita, daughters Colleen and Caimey, and Yellowstone favorite Forrie Smith who plays Lloyd.

                

I worked my way through the crowd that was forming around the stage to try and get a good photo. The crowd was too dense to get a good photo so I worked my around to the back of the stage.

As I got near the stage, Colleen saw me and pointed me out to her dad. Punk approached me from the back of the stage and reached out his hand. I thought he was going to shake my hand but instead, he got a firm grip and pulled me up. “Come join us.”

Punk is a man of few words. I always picture him as a Jimmy Stewart version of a cowboy. If you don’t know Jimmy, just think of the Christmas favorite ‘It’s a Wonderful life.’

Punk is tall and lean and he is also a Hall of Fame cutting horse champion who was inducted into the rodeo HOF along with his father John and brother Roy in 2018. Carter Hall of Fame

It amuses me to see him in action and whenever I visit, I enjoy watching him work his magic. The art of Cutting is virtually ballet on the back of a horse. It amazes me that his long legs nearly touch the ground at times and yet he and his horse are one.

His family are all rodeo champions including his daughters and grandchildren. They operate the Punk Carter Horsemanship compound just down the road.

Many celebrities are sent to his care when they are preparing for a role that includes looking like you belong on a horse.

Forrie Smith aka Lloyd was visiting to tune up for a celebrity cutting horse event to be held in Ft. Worth that week.

So, there I was, a Sunray Bobcat on the stage with Celina celebrities as the grand tree was switched on by the Carters. Celina are also the Bobcats by the way. That’s certainly one reason I am fond of the town that is growing exponentially. In 2000 the population was less than 2000. In ’23 the estimated population grew to 43,000+. I should have bought when some friends told me to.

                   

I met Punk and Rita around ’08 and they have welcomed me as a friend ever since. I like to drop by if I get near and have gotten to know friends and family. We have very solid Christian/ Conservative leanings, and I regularly bring my candidate clients for the Carters scrutiny. They have a way of sizing people up that aligns with my own evaluations.

So, where does Luke 14 vs. 11 fit in?

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI around 1968

My father retired as Master Chief of the Navy (E-9) and when he had weekends available, he often preached at revivals or as a guest minister. By the time I was 10 or so, he would take me with him and have me lead the singing of the hymn he chose for his sermon.

One of my fondest memories was smelling the coffee around 6 in the morning. I would sneak out of bed and join him in the living room as he practiced quoting the scripture he would be speaking on until he could bring life to his telling by memory. He would allow me a small cup and it was awful. Strong enough to float your spoon he would say. ‘The Navy Way’. I hated it until I loved it.

We were Church of Christ and singing a cappla is the custom. No musical instrument at church! Only the spirit!

Because I stuttered a bit as a youth, but not when I sang, I was given voice lessons all the way to a vocal scholarship at Lubbock Christian College on the A Cappella Chorus.

We had monthly Singings on a Sunday evening when all the little boys lined up to lead the congregation in a verse. It turned out that I had a very good voice and looked forward to any opportunity to lead a hymn.

As a side note, by the time I was a teenager, I often was chosen to lead services. By then, I was singing at any event my mother could find for me including regular guest appearances on Amarillo’s Saturday Farm and Ranch show with Roy Boddifer who was a friend of my mom.

I was actually getting a little full of my self and was treating church service as a chance to show off my voice.

One Sunday, an elder at the Sunray Church who was a wonderful tenor took me to the side and taught me an important lesson. “Our mission as song leader is not to show how well you sing. It’s to stare at everyone that isn’t singing until they join in!”

POT LUCK SUNDAY in JACKSON

We were passing through on the way to our new home in the Texas panhandle when I was 11. My dad had just received his E-9 and was headed to Vietnam. We were moving from Jacksonville Naval Air Base to be near my mother’s mother in Dumas. We ended up 18 miles away in Sunray to a house we bought for $8,000 by the owner who lived next door. $80 a month. We would live there till my mother’s passing.

The minister in Jackson, George Darling was a friend of my dad’s, and he was invited to be the guest preacher that Sunday that would feature a good old fashioned Pot Luck lunch filled with all the wonderful favorite dishes of the ladies of Mississippi of the ‘60’s. Pot Luck dinners are truly feast. The ladies bring out their best dishes. Roast beef, fried chicken, casseroles, and all the other favorites. But the real treasure was the pies and cakes! These ladies are showing off and each dessert is a huge point of pride. It’s a competition!

George Darling was a short, plump, and jolly man. He took me by the hand and told me to go with him. He would teach me an important lesson if you are going to be a preacher one day.

When prayers were said and the people lined up to fill their plates, George led me to the dessert section and we grabbed two plates each. We got a sample of every cake, pie, cookie, brownie, and then he took me over to his office where he explained. “Everyone of those ladies out there are going to ask me what I thought of their dessert. If you don’t have the right answer, you will get ‘the look’! You don’t want ‘the look!’

We then went back in line and sampled the food line. I never forgot that lesson. Over the years, I would always go to the desserts first. They say the way to a man’s heart is through their stomachs. I am not sure that I would have married my wife if her mother, also Church of Christ, wasn’t the author of some of the best cakes and pies I ever had!

SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE

As was his habit, my dad liked to stay at the entry to the church greeting everyone as they entered. I stood next to him in my Sunday best. Back then, everyone dressed in their best clothes for Sunday services. Of course, I had been taught how to politely look people in the eye, give them a firm hand shake, and offer a courteous greeting. Another lesson that stuck.

George took the podium and called for my dad and his fine son to come forward and had us take our seats on the side bench where the men who would lead the opening prayer, lead the singing, and offer the communion sat. He relieved the men on the bench so we could join him on the stage.

Later, my dad taught me Luke 14 vs. 11. I now realize that he had a purpose in waiting in the back until he was called up. Another lesson I never forgot.

I have been a journalist most of my life. My best work is making other’s look good. I hated reporting on sports events, but I found myself writing human interest stories on the athletes. I made some long time friends of chefs and restaurant owners as a food critic because I wouldn’t criticize.

This led me to working on campaigns for Judges, mayors, sheriffs, and nearly all of the elected seats all over Texas especially in the DFW metro-plex. I take pictures, write bios, tag along on campaign events to lead my candidates around, and become their friends. I will get myself in a few photos to show I was there, but I stay in the background for the most part. I am very good at it and my guiding light is to not be like the ones who don’t really know their candidates well enough to support them.

But in the back of my mind is that many times I will be called to be in the photos by the candidates themselves.

PUNK’S HAND

When Punk Carter reached out to me among the thousands and pulled me up to join the distinguished people on that stage in Celina, Texas, I felt the full effect of Luke 14 vs. 11 and it filled my heart with incredible honor and yes…a lesson from Jesus that will always guide me. Don't invite yourself, Be worthy to be invited.

    

I ended the night being invited to join the Carter’s, Anselmo’s, the mayor, and others at a private BBQ for close friends.