Encouraging Words
Redemption In Any Language
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Chapter Seven
Watching You, Watching You!
“Following tradition, when he made the parachute team he acquired a discreetly placed tattoo with a small parachute and the number 288, signifying that he was the 288th cadet in the fifty-year history of the Academy to make the Wings of Blue team.”
Sometimes the dots just can’t be connected. Or maybe I just don’t know how to connect them. Or maybe they don’t need to be connected.
In 1917, twenty-two-year-old Ernest Howard Discher left his engineering studies at the University of Detroit to answer a patriotic call to duty in World War I by enlisting in the U. S. Army. Because of his college work, he was commissioned a Lieutenant, assigned clerical duties, and then made an artillery spotter. When the war ended, he was being trained to go up in the rickety wood and canvas airplanes of the day to observe and report the trajectory of the enemy’s artillery shells.
“About all I know about #288 is that I like it better than #666.”
Returning to his hometown of Wheeling, West Virginia, he began arduously courting Florence Hannahs. They married over the strong objections of his Roman Catholic and her Church of Christ families, forming a union that would last 72 years. Their daughter, Dorothy Anne, attended David Lipscomb College where she met and married Mack Wayne Craig. When Florence’s sister died, she left two babies who went to live with the Dischers as their own daughters. Phyllis, just over a year old, died at age twelve, and Mary Margaret, the newborn, became my wife after we met at college twenty-two years later.
Ernie became City Engineer for Wheeling, then Vice President and later President of a wholesale heating and plumbing supply company. Always a patriot, his World War I uniform would come out of the garment bag so he could wear it proudly on special holidays. His life was saved in 1948 by a young surgeon recently returned from World War II. At a time when radical surgery for colon cancer was almost unknown, Bill Hershey performed the operation that let Ernie live another 45 years.
Fast forward to 2003 when Florida Senator Bill Nelson appointed one of our grandsons to the U. S. Air Force Academy. Joe thrived in that environment and graduated near the top of his class in 2007. He became a member of the elite sky-diving team, the Wings of Blue, where his precision team won numerous competitions while at the Academy. Following tradition, when he made the parachute team he acquired a discreetly placed tattoo with a small parachute and the number 288, signifying that he was the 288th cadet in the fifty-year history of the Academy to make the Wings of Blue team.
Before Joe’s first deployment to Afghanistan, Mary Margaret decided he should be the one to have his great granddaddy’s World War I uniform. He and his mom took it out of the storage bag one day so he could examine it thoroughly. Bryn said that Joe suddenly became very quiet, turned pale, and just pointed. He had turned the uniform pants inside out, and there, on the fabric forming the watch pocket, was the number 288, hidden for nearly a century.
“At that time in my life I had an inordinate fear of God. I just knew God was keeping a record of every time I said a bad word, or every time I looked at a pretty girl, and especially the time I lied to Mrs. Philpot, my third-grade teacher.”
When Joe asked me what I thought, I replied half seriously, “I think it means Ernie Discher’s guardian angel is riding on your shoulder!” Lieutenant Discher #288, meet Lieutenant Kreidel #288, born 90 years and who knows how many wars apart. Two soldiers, two numbers, an unsolved mystery. About all I know about #288 is that I like it better than #666.
As I tried to find meaning in what logic tells me is a remarkable coincidence, I kept remembering a church song from my childhood. I can still hear those shrill voices: “Watching youuu, watching you; there’s an all-seeing eye watching you.” At that time in my life I had an inordinate fear of God. I just knew God was keeping a record of every time I said a bad word, or every time I looked at a pretty girl, and especially the time I lied to Mrs. Philpot, my third-grade teacher. I dreaded the day when God would pull out a long list of my sins and demand that I explain each and every one.
But what if the all-seeing eye is not there to condemn us but to protect us and guide us? What if there are guardian angels, or other representatives of God’s love and care? A very public sinner who could have been stoned to death, instead heard encouraging words from Jesus himself after her accusers drifted away:
“Neither do I …
condemn thee; go and
… sin no more”
(John 8:3-11, KJV)
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About the Book
I’ve known Phillip Morrison for four decades. Each encounter I have had with him has left me impressed with his kindness and wisdom. To know that he has collected his thoughts in a book is welcome news. May God bless this work and all who read it.
– Max Lucado, Teaching Minister, Oak Hills Church, San Antonio;
Missionary and Christian author.
Phillip Morrison is a wonderful storyteller. I regard him as a wise friend of empathy, compassion, and integrity. Phillip has faced more than his share of life’s struggles with faith and dignity. These qualities come through in each of his regular “Encouraging Words” emails which have attracted me and many other readers across the years.
Now, “Encouraging Words” has become “the book” … a collection of “Phillip’s top hits.” Enjoy reading and finding encouraging words in every chapter.
– Lynn Anderson, retired minister, church consultant, and Christian author.
Reading Phillip Morrison’s writing is like a bear hug from dear ol’ Dad. He embraces you with truths that won’t let go. Thank you, Phillip, for gifting us with a lifetime of wisdom we can hold in our hands and refer to over and over again. This book is gift-worthy for anyone.
– Laura Savage-Rains, EdD, Founder of WomensMinistryCoach.com
Author of the multi-award winning book, “God Chose a Woman First.”
I was born at the end of the Great Depression, eight years before the United States became involved in World War II. In our small town, caught between the pain of depression and the horrors of war, almost everybody went to church. Much of the preaching I heard as a small boy was judgmental, harsh, and unforgiving. People were as likely to be scared out of hell as loved into heaven. Although tempted to adopt the pulpit style of older preachers, I soon learned that people were hungry for a more hopeful message. The ministry of Jesus was characterized by the magnetic drawing power of the cross, and his encouragement to “Go, and sin no more” was a welcome message of forgiveness. When my pulpit ministry was curtailed by age and illness, I began the email ministry of encouragement. This book is a compilation of some of those messages. I hope and pray that you will find, in every chapter and every sentence, truly encouraging words.
About the Author
Phillip Morrison was a “circuit rider” preacher in small churches while still in high school. By the time he got to David Lipscomb College, now Lipscomb University, he was preaching every Sunday at a rural congregation. After college, he and Mary Margaret Grounds married and began their ministry at a small, mostly military church in South Carolina, forming a partnership that lasted until her death almost sixty-two years later. Although they served churches of Christ in Detroit, Miami, Washington (Falls Church, Virginia), Memphis, and Nashville, Phillip always considered himself a non-denominational preacher, calling people to Christ rather than a church.
Although encountering multitudes of people with a variety of needs, all had one thing in common: the need for encouragement. Desiring to be a “son of encouragement” like Barnabas (Acts 4:36), Phillip invites you to read this book with encouraging words on every page.