Southside Scoop - 9.1.2024

Southside Church of Christ

800 Elmira Avenue Durham, NC 27707

info@sside.org | www.sside.org

919.688.3535

STAFF

Orlander R. Thomas Senior Minister

William A. Stephens Minister Emeritus

Candice P. Blount Church Administrator

Quentella Williams Executive Assistant

John Merriweather Online Campus Minister

Dineen Merriweather Online Campus Director

DEACONS

John Alcox

Anthony Green, Sr.

Arthur Hackney

John Mathis

Chester Mayfield, Jr.

Roger McDougal

Joe Williams

Keith Wright

Tremendous Loss to Sensational Reformation

By RICKI FULLER

Horrendous! Imagine receiving an emergency call from a dear loved one beckoning you to come to them in a hurry. Not knowing what is wrong or what to expect, you dash over to where they are. Once you arrive, you find them lying flat on their back in the restroom with their head positioned under the sink and legs stretched to the left side of the toilet bowl.

Prior to the call she had not long gotten home from work where she was a talented, proficient and loved/respected supervisor. Even at that, the job was stressful most likely because she had to live up to being the best she could be for the company, the employees, and for herself. So, after briefly relaxing in her home, she prepared and ate dinner. A severe headache ensued such that she became incapacitated. Yet, she had enough strength /stability to call for help.

That was hard seeing Effie Mae Fuller, my mother, stretched out on that floor. She was able to respond to me stating, “I want to be seen by a doctor!” That strong woman was laying on the floor asking for help, which I had never before seen from her. She’s the mother who had taken me aside a few years prior when she realized that I was looking too intently at the wonders of a preacher and his congregation. She saw I had become mesmerized by them and failed to see the true GOD. To get my attention to GOD and away from the ‘hoopla’ she Psalm 37 with me (especially verses 3-7,23,25-26).

This woman, Effie Mae Fuller, who was while birthing me, who had redirected my GOD and away from man’s ‘religious’ glamour, strewn across the floor in pain that was horrendous. And, I could not fix it! Oh Lord, oh Lord!

My having gone through this tremendous pain does not mean I’m pretending to understand what Naomi experienced when she returned home to Bethlehem from Moab without her beloved husband and sons. She told her friends not to refer to her as Naomi (Pleasant) but to call her Mara (Bitter)! However, one can imagine she was bereft and even empty of any good feelings/thoughts. At that point of return to her home, Naomi was (what we would say today) a mess-downtrodden and filled with hopelessness.