Josey Butcher is the Director of Evangelism and Communications at Clarkesville First United Methodist Church.
The culture in which we live encourages a fast-paced lifestyle. I have found myself on many occasions getting caught up in the busyness of everything going on around me. I am already a type A, task oriented person so the tendency to measure a day’s success by how much I have accomplished is very easy. This attitude can lead to feeling overwhelmed and burned out within a short period of time. This is why I love Psalm 46:10.
Psalm 46 starts off with a reference to God as a refuge, an ever-present help in times of trouble. The chapter goes on to talk about other forms of violence and struggling that the Israelites have experienced. We know from verses 8 and 9 that God has been faithful before, but the Israelites are again appealing for an intervention. God intervenes. His voice breaks through their trouble with a command to stop them in their tracks,
“Be still and know that I am God.”
“Stillness is not an uncanny ability to keep from moving a muscle. It is not an environment or an arrival point. Stillness is an attitude—a condition of your heart, mind, and soul.” This insight from Andy Stanley has challenged me several times since the first time I heard it my senior year in high school. I am reminded that in ALL things, even in busyness, I can choose to be still.
Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6 to not be anxious about anything. Our attitudes can greatly affect our approach to our day and the tasks, errands, and events that make it up. We can choose within our hearts and our mind to be anxious, worried, and overwhelmed towards the day or we can choose to be at peace, to be still, and to trust in the God who has been faithful to intervene on our behalf before.
That’s not to say that being physically still and spending quiet time with the Lord is not important. It absolutely is. It’s this time that lays the foundation for a still, peaceful attitude when busyness and trouble creep in.
Be encouraged today that in all things, God is for you. He desires for you to seek in Him in order that your attitude may be still and at peace in your calm and in your busy.
Macon, GA – The Piedmont College Men’s Basketball team hit the court for the first time Friday night taking on Division I Mercer in an 88-48 loss in what was a non-counting exhibition match for PC. The Lions saw all five starters from the end of last season resume their roles with Peyton Luken leading the charge with 16 points.
Luken ended the night as the second leading scorer in the game adding 3 rebounds and an assist. Chase England was tied as the second leading scorer on the team with 8 points and three rebounds as well, as the starters accounted for 30 points in Friday’s contest.
The Lions also saw four freshmen earn playing time off the bench in their first outing in the Green and Gold. Piedmont had 18 points off the bench with sophomore Trae Gaines contributing 8 points while freshman Justin Vallejo added 6 points and a team-high 5 rebounds.
It was Piedmont who struck first as both Luken and England made layups to give the Lions the 4-0 lead, and Luken tied the game at 12 all on a 3-pointer with 12:17 left in the first half. The Bears then took control of the game as they rallied off a 15 point run while keeping the Lions from making a basket for over seven minutes.
At the half, Mercer had twice as many points as Piedmont as the score was 42-21, but the Lions made back-to-back 3-point jumpers to start the second half thanks to Luken and England which forced a Bears timeout. The Lions were 5-of-6 from behind the arc to begin the second half as the first 15 points PC put on the board in the second half came courtesy of 3-pointers.
In the final stretch of the game, Piedmont was unable to connect from anywhere on the court but the free throw line as 10 of their final 12 points in the game came from free throws. On the night, PC was 10-of-14 at the line, connecting on 71.4% of their free throws.
The Lions will officially begin the season on Tuesday night as they head to face another Division I opponent on the road taking on the Presbyterian Blue Hose. The Blue Hose opened the season against the last team Mercer won against a year ago as they were downed by the Duke Blue Devils in Durham 113-44. Piedmont will have their chance against Presbyterian on Tuesday in Clinton, S.C. with tipoff at 7:30 p.m.
Habersham Central High School senior Lindsey Brown (center) sits on her bed at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta surrounded by friends. The 18-year old Brown was critically injured in an automobile accident on Oct. 20 in Hall County. She spent more than a week in intensive care and is now undergoing therapy. Lindsey’s mother Alice Roland Brewer – a teacher at HCHS – says her daughter’s recovery is going well and that Lindsey is “getting stronger each day.”
Pictured, left to right, Olivia Rowe, Katie Ann Morrison, Lindsey Brown, Rebecca Rowe and Katie Kitchens.
HCHS head football coach Michael Pollock resigned his coaching job on Thursday, Nov. 13. He led the varsity Raiders for two years.
Mt. Airy, GA – Habersham Central High School head football coach Michael Pollock says he will coach again somewhere after resigning his position with the Raiders on Thursday. Pollock says he is actively pursuing other coaching jobs outside of Habersham County. “I’m a football coach. I’ve been doing this for 20 something years. I’m going to be coaching somewhere next year – that’s the plan and the goal.” In the interim, Pollock says he’ll continue to teach at Habersham Central. His teaching contract runs through May 27, 2015, but Pollock is leaving the door open for the possibility of an early exit. He says he’s got some leads on available coaching jobs and says more opportunities should open up when playoff season ends. “I’m looking at each job individually to see if it will be a good fit for me.”
Pollock turned in his letter of resignation to HCHS Athletic Director Geep Cunningham on Nov. 13.
Pollock insists he was not pushed out as HCHS head football coach. He says he decided to leave for personal reasons. “It was no one thing that prompted it (his decision to leave). It was just a family decision that we made. We felt it was time.” Pollock and his wife Shannon have five children. “We’ve got children growing up and moving around and we just needed to step back at this time and try to see what the future may hold on a different path.”
It’s been a tough two years for Coach Pollock. He entered the job at HCHS under a cloud of scrutiny after being fired from his coaching job at Americus-Sumter High School in south Georgia and immediately took on the challenge of leading the Raiders through the highly-competitive Region 6A football schedule. The Raiders posted back to back losing seasons, winning just once in the second to last game of this season. “It’s been tough and it didn’t move as fast as we all would have liked but there’s definitely a foundation for a new coach to come in and build on and continue what we started,” Pollock says.
The former UGA walk-on came in with great promise. He joined Raider Nation with a 36-17 overall record and 16 state playoff appearances under his belt. Before coming to Central Pollock had never posted a losing record. He says the highlight of his time as the Raiders’ head football coach came when the team broke it’s 21-game losing streak on Oct. 31 in a region game against North Forsyth in front of a hometown crowd.
HCHS football players pass around the High 5 Sports Team of the Week trophy from Fox 5 in Atlanta. The trophy was awarded to the team on live television after they won an online poll following their win over North Forsyth on Oct. 31. It was the Raiders’ first win in 22 games.
“It was nice to break through and get that victory after we had struggled so long. We were light years ahead of where we were when I got here,” he says of the team and its performance that night. “They hung in with the coaches and the coaches hung in with them.”
Hanging in with his former players is something Pollock says he intends to do. “We’re going to continue to work hard in the weight room preparing for next year. I’m going to work with the seniors and others in the recruiting process, making phone calls and writing letters.” He adds, “During this transition it’s vital we continue to work hard so that when the new coach comes in he has a team ready to go to the next season.”
“For fans, football is a game but for coaches it’s about relationships. We’re tyring to grow young men. I’ve built relationships. Just because you change the colors of your team doesn’t mean you change your relationships.” ~ Coach Michael Pollock
Pollock says he’s grateful for the two years he spent leading the Raider football program. “You couldn’t ask for better fans. I’m grateful to the fans and, though the result wasn’t what we always wanted, people cared about and loved the Raiders.” He adds, “There is nothing but great things I can say about HCHS and Habersham County. People have been great to me. The school system has been great to me.” Pollock says the coaching profession is full of constant change. “Just because you’re leaving doesn’t mean you’re upset or mad about anything, it’s just time for the next step and that’s where I’m at right now.”
Pollock’s resignation letter will be presented to the Habersham County School Board during its next meeting on Monday, Nov. 17.
Funeral services for STELLA MAE WALL HOLBROOK, age 80 of Clarkesville will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2014 at 2:00 PM from the Hillside Memorial Chapel.
Tallulah Falls, GA – Tallulah Falls School Athletic Director Scott Neal is shown receiving an award from the Georgia Independent School Association (GISA) in recognition of 25 years of distinguished service in independent education. The award was presented by TFS President and Head of School Larry A. Peevy.
Neal is currently in his 16th year at Tallulah Falls School after teaching for 12 years at Albuquerque Academy in New Mexico.
Neal’s extensive resume includes teaching physical education from grades 6-12, coordinating strength & conditioning programs, as well as coaching football, basketball, cross country, and track & field. He was also part of a team that started a sixth grade interdisciplinary program and played a prominent role in developing the Hoops for Heart initiative which is now a national program with the American Heart Association.
Aerialist Nik Wallenda set two world records during a skywalk between two skycrapers in Chicago on Sunday, Nov. 2. (Photo courtesy of the Discovery Channel).
Aerialist Nik Wallenda set two world records during a skywalk between two skycrapers in Chicago on November 2, 2014. (Photo courtesy of the Discovery Channel)
Daredevil aerialist Nik Wallenda is expected to visit Tallulah Gorge soon to discuss his plans to skywalk across the gorge next year. Wallenda announced to the world earlier this month he intends to cross Tallulah Gorge on a high wire to commemorate the 45th anniversary of his great-grandfather Karl Wallenda’s famous gorge crossing in 1970.
Executive Director of the Rabun Tourism Development Authority Teka Earnhardt is one of the driving forces behind the Tallulah Gorge Skywalk Celebration.
Executive Director of the Rabun Tourism Development Authority (RTDA) Teka Earnhardt is leading the local drive to bring Nik Wallenda to northeast Georgia next year. She traveled to Chicago to watch his record-breaking tightrope walk between two skyscrapers on Nov. 2. Earnhardt called the experience “incredible.” She says “you could feel his confidence” as he walked across the wire 600 feet in the air.
Earnhardt says a commemorative walk across Tallulah Gorge would be even more spectacular because of the natural beauty of the terrain and the history behind it.
Karl Wallenda was 65 when he skywalked across the Tallulah Gorge. His great-grandson Nik will be 36 next year.
Nik Wallenda never met his great-grandfather. Karl Wallenda died in a tightrope walking accident in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1978. Still, the younger Wallenda has made a successful career of carrying on – and building upon – his great-grandfather’s legacy. “Nik has been to the gorge three times and has camped at the campground at the state park,” Earnhardt says. “He loves this place. He feels a connection with his great-grandfather here.” She says it gives her a good feeling, “to be part of letting him be a part of his great-grandfather’s legacy and to help him accomplish something so important to him. ”
Earnhardt says she and RTDA member Gail Darugh met with Wallenda’s manager while they were in Chicago. She says, “We are ready. We’ve asked for a site visit. You can’t negotiate exactly what he wants, where he wants to walk and whether it is even possible for him to walk where he wants without looking at the site.”
Earnhardt says organizing a second Wallenda walk is more complicated today than it was 44 years ago. “When his great-grandfather walked there was no state park, no EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), no DNR (Department of Natural Resources); it was a different world. And,” she adds, “the terrain is different; it’s changed a lot in 45 years.”
Spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Parks, Recreation & Historic Sites Division Sally Winchester says while the department is aware of Nik Wallenda’s intentions no formal applications have been filed:
“We are in very preliminary stages of beginning discussions. We are excited about the possibility of the Wallenda event happening but many conversations need to take place and details worked out before we have anything to report.” ~ Sally Winchester, GA DNR
If Wallenda’s walk happens – and at this point there is a strong likelihood that it will – it most likely will take place next June. Earnhardt says the Rabun Tourism Development Authority is planning a four to ten day-long celebration that will, hopefully, culminate with Nik Wallenda’s skywalk. The celebration will encompass events and activities throughout the region. That leaves less than eight months to finish planning and preparing for an event that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to northeast Georgia.
The RTDA has been working on the commemorative celebration for over a year after latching onto the idea when it first was proposed by Gail Darugh. Darugh, who owns the Beechwood Inn Bed & Breakfast in Clayton with her husband David, now serves as chairperson of the Tallulah Gorge Skywalk Celebration Committee. Members of the committee and RTDA recently met with Habersham County leaders and are also reaching out to other elected, business and community leaders throughout northeast Georgia. Earnhardt says, “We are meeting with several counties not just Habersham only because, if the numbers come as we anticipate, Habersham can’t handle it, Rabun County can’t handle it.”
A representative from the Clarkesville Business Association, Clarkesville Councilwoman Barrie Aycock and Habersham County Commissioner Andrea Harper were among those who met late last month with event organizers. Earnhardt says, “We had a great meeting. They’re very excited about being a part of it. We’ve asked them to think of some events they want to have there in Habersham and to put together tour packages we can promote and sell online.”
“We’re trying to bring together all the things these areas have to offer and spread them around the northeast Georgia mountains.” ~ Teka Earnhardt, RTDA
Although Rabun County is leading the charge and actually will be hosting the much anticipated celebration, Earnhardt says the event offers a unique opportunity to showcase neighboring counties. “We’re thrilled about that because we want to promote the northeast Georgia region.” She says when it’s all over the whole world will know that “the north Georgia mountains are a force to be reckoned with.”
The RTDA has hired an international event planning company called the WOW Factory to handle the major details. Event planners from the company’s offices in Atlanta, Colorado and Las Vegas are working on the Wallenda Tallulah Gorge project. A consultant in Rabun County also has been hired to assist with event planning. Earnhardt says the RTDA is raising money for the Tallulah Gorge Skywalk Celebration through sponsorships and advertisements.
Tickets, tour packages, shuttles and much more will be available for purchase online through the Explore Rabun website after the first of the year.
Looking at it as a whole, the size and scope of the event are overwhelming but Earnhardt, who is the sole paid staffer in the RTDA office, says, “We’re taking it piece by piece trying to do as much as we can ourselves in order to save money but we want to do it professionally and do it the right way.”
Karl Wallenda in one of two headstands he performed while skywalking across Tallulah Gorge on July 18, 1970.
Doing it the right way is the only way Nik Wallenda can do what he does; A single slip on the high wire could cost him his life. That element of danger is part of the attraction but Earnhardt says she’s not worried. “For you and me the element of danger is high but for him it’s his profession, his skill…it’s his heart and soul.”
Wallenda says he wants to re-create his great-grandfather’s Tallulah Gorge skywalk, headstands and all. Karl Wallenda performed two headstands while crossing the quarter-mile span across the gorge on July 18, 1970. He told reporters at the time that the first headstand “was to do better than anyone else has done,” the second was to honor the troops in Vietnam. Soon, his great-grandson may again show the world how the Flying Wallendas do it better than anyone else and, if he does, north Georgians will have a front row seat to watch him do it.
HCSO Lt. Tonya Elrod comforts Banks' mother shortly after the accident.
Sometimes in life there just are no words. Here, Lt. Tonya Elrod of the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office comforts the mother of a teenager injured in a wreck.
Today’s devotional is written by Sarah Beth Cody, daughter of Gerald and Britt Cody of Clarkesville.
There was only a pane of glass between us and the streets of Midtown, Atlanta; but there seemed to be a thousand miles between where we were and where we wanted to be.
I sat there with my sweet friend Katie, unloading pent up thoughts and frustrations and questions I have been asking God for weeks now. And finally, upon reaching the end, I concluded, “…we’ll see.”
We’ll see.
She didn’t flinch. “When do we reach that point in our lives when every.single.sentence stops ending with ‘we’ll see?’ When do we get to stop wondering and just know?”
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that tiny phrase had taken a huge reign over my vocabulary.
“I feel like my 20’s have been one long we’ll see. We’ll see if I get the internship. We’ll see if they actually offer me a job. We’ll see if this date ends up not making me want to crawl under the table.”
But just as Jesus always does, He showed up in our conversation and brought us to a couple of revelations. Because, we’ll never reach that golden age when we know what’s next and have all of the answers.
“We’ll see…the competition for that job seems tough.”
“We’re trying to get pregnant but it just hasn’t happened yet …we’ll see.”
“We really want community. We’re starting to meet some people, hoping to grab dinner with that couple sometime soon…we’ll see.”
If we do think we’ve reached that place, I would venture to say we are living too comfortably.
I love the way The Message so beautifully articulates The Lord’s assurance that He is and will be right there in the trenches with us in all things.
“…I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine. When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end—Because I am God, your personal God, The Holy of Israel, your Savior…I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you. So don’t be afraid: I’m with you.”
Isaiah 43: 1-5
He’s telling us, “So don’t wait around to ‘see’ what might happen. I’m with you right here, right now. That’s all that matters.”
And when you feel like you’ve been waiting forever; when you are so sure God has forgotten about you; when you think He has left you hanging in the balance for life:
“Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread.”
Psalm 37:25
Rest in knowing. Drink it like you do your morning coffee—quickly and with anticipation. Because we’ll seeHe sees.
