
FCFI
July 20, 2025
“Smoking And Drinking”
Recently, I had a conversation with an elderly gentleman. He was a kindly old man who sat at our kitchen table and shared with my wife and I the history of his life. He grew up in New England and moved to this area when he was 18 years old. He and his wife had five children, who have all launched successful careers in a variety of fields. During the course of our conversation, my wife asked if he’d like something to drink. “We have just about anything you might want, except beer,” she said. The man went on to humbly tell us that during his entire lifetime he had never had even one drop of alcohol cross his lips. I asked why – wondering what kind of conviction would bring a man to that conclusion. He said it was because when he was a child, his dad would drink occasionally – and when he did he got mean. “I decided that if alcohol had that effect on my dad, I didn’t want to have anything to do with it,” he said.
On another occasion, at the gas station as I was filling my vehicle, a young man at the next pump pointed to my truck and asked, “Does that thing burn E85?”
“No,” I said.
“I’d hate to be in your shoes,” he said. “It must cost you a fortune to fill that up. You know, you can convert your engine over to E85 pretty easily,” he said, as if I had asked him how easy it would be to convert my engine over to E85.
“All you have to do is open up your injectors a little and change the fuel lines to stainless steel.”
I nodded and said: “That does not sound easy. And honestly, if I’m going to spend that kind of money, I might as well pay a little extra for E10. Besides, this truck has almost 300,000 miles on it. If I’m going to do anything, I’ll probably just buy a new one.
“I converted my car,” he said. “It’s a 94 Tempo and now runs on E85 and I get 34 miles to the gallon.”
“Did you do that yourself,” I asked?
“No,” he said, “I have a friend who helped me. He also helped me change my transmission. We took the old one out, put in the new one and it didn’t work. So I took the new one out and took it back to the place I bought it from and the guy at the counter asked me if I changed the electrical connectors on the car before I plugged them in. I said, no. He said I had to do that or it wouldn’t work.
“So I took the transmission back home, re-installed it, changed the electrical connectors on the car, and it worked.”
“You put it in, took it out, and put it back in again?” I asked in disbelief. “Isn’t that a lot of work?”
“Yep – it sure is.”
By now my vehicle was full and the handle had clicked off. When I turned around, my unidentified friend was driving out of the lot puffing on a cigarette.
As I pondered these things I realized that my life has been enriched by real people with real lives travelling through, just like I am.
Psalm 90 is fitting. “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days… May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.”
(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).