Son, remember how in my story DOWN TO THE BANKS OF THE WARRIOR, the little boy,  "John", asks his Daddy, "Daddy, why do people always say, 'God help me' ?" 
Well, this was the daily devotional for yesterday, August 7, from "Strength For Service to God and Country", a book written by preachers in 1942 and given to draftees the first time they went back to church after being drafted. Each devotional is oriented to appeal to an enlisted G.I. stuck in a foxhole. (I can tell you so much about this little book and all of it related to Abingdon, Maryland, a few miles from our place in Aberdeen. The book was printed by the Abingdon-Cokesbury Press. Cokesbury College in Abingdon was the first Methodist college on the face of the Earth and the man who named the State of Alabama and sponsored the statehood legislation, Charles Tait, went to school there and later taught @ Cokesbury before returning to Georgia.) 

Read Ps. 91  August 7

HOW DOES GOD HELP US?
"He shall call upon me, and I will answer him." ~ Ps. 91:15

Thirty years ago an American boy was studying theology in the University of Berlin. Having learned that the external world is governed by immutable laws, he had tried in vain to solve the riddle of divine aid: How can God help us? Then one November afternoon as he was walking down a side street in Berlin the wisdom he had been seeking flashed into his mind. That moment of illumination was one of the great moments in his life.  If he closes his eyes today he can still see, in clear memory, that little Berlin street- a fruit store, a tailor shop, a shoemaker's window and at the end of the street a purple and white sign above a subway station.

Those surroundings-and into the boy's mind flashed this wisdom: "God helps us, not by changing our external situation, but by changing our inner life. He leaves our external situation just as it is, makes no effort to perform a miracle there. But into our mind He thrusts new wisdom; with our heart He rouses new courage. THIS IS GOD'S HELP. It is a change, not in the world without, but in the world within." Gradually that new wisdom became the core of that boy's religious faith. For the past thirty years that faith has been to him a source of unfailing strength. He is now trying to share that faith with you. For he knows that to you as well as to him it can be "the victory that  overcomes the world."

PRAYER

Teach us, O God,
To serve Thee as Thou deservest-
To give and not count the cost,
To fight and not heed the wounds,
To toil and not ask for rest,
To labor and not seek for any reward
Save that of knowing we have done Thy will. Amen

James Gordon Gilkey, South Congregational Church, Springfield, Massachusetts.
James Gordon Gilkey http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Gilkey%2C%20James%20Gordon%2C%201889-

DOWN TO THE BANKS OF THE WARRIOR by Robert Register

The odors as we walk down the hill from River Road change with each step. John is the first to notice the tiny toads hurriedly jumping away from our muddy trail. There are no footprints. John and I are the first ones to come down since the flood.

Creek warriors fought the Choctaws for this riverbank. The Muskogee Nation claimed as far west as the east bank of the Tombigbee but they were lucky just to get Choctaw permission to stay on the east bank of the Warrior. A few city blocks from the river birch log upon which I sit, Chief Eufaula humbly made his farewell address to the Alabama legislature in 1836. He was about to take a long walk to Oklahoma.

Bald eagles once nested on this riverbank. Maybe they will nest here again. Maybe one day we can sit in a restaurant on the crest of River Hill, clink a few ice cubes together and watch the sun go down through eagle's wings.

There are no boats on the river this afternoon. I sit here and supervise my son's Tarzan tricks. He is climbing upon the leaning trunk of an old willow tree that stretches out over the water. I make him climb down and then wade out to check the bottom for trash. He points to the willow limbs above him and asks,"Can we build a tree house there?" I don't answer him.

He walks over to me and exclaims,"Daddy, look what that beaver did! He tore down that whole tree with his teeth!"

"What kind of tree is this?," I ask.

"I don't know. I sure don't know."

"Look at the bark."

He peels some off and says,"It seems like it's paper."

I say,"It's named after a place we used to take you when you were a little boy."

"River Birch?"

"Yeah."

John goes back to the willow tree and again climbs out over the river. He counts his footsteps. After twenty-eight steps he asks,"Should I go any farther?"

I don't answer. He goes out three more steps. "You're gonna bust your butt!," I yell.

"I'm not trying to. You know how I learned to climb so good?"

"How?"

"I watched Discovery Channel."

"What does the Discovery Channel have to do with climbing?"

"The monkeys. But I don't climb exactly like them. I move slowly."

I hear the traffic on River Road. The noise never went away. The novelty of the Black Warrior caused me to ignore it for awhile. I wonder how many people think about the river as they drive by.

My son had now penetrated the sandy peninsula that juts out into the Warrior here at the mouth of Marr's Creek. He is building a fort with logs deposited by June's high water. John returns with a piece of driftwood. "Look at this cool piece of driftwood, Dad."

I have now changed my desk. I did this by moving my clipboard from the beaver-downed river birch to the leaning willow. My son prepares to climb out on the willow once more. He needs to get by me. "Daddy! Daddy! Excuse me, Dad," he says politely.

I move back over to the river birch and John climbs all the way out to the very end of the tree. He calls to me,"Hey,Dad, look at me!" He gathers leaves in his hands and drops them into the water. "Daddy, why do people always say, 'God help me' ?"

"Well, 'God help me' is just a part of it. What they mean to say is, 'God, help me to do it.' 'It' being whatever they're trying to accomplish."

"I don't get it."

"Let me put it to you another way: God helps those who help themselves."

"So you have to try to do something before God can help you to do something."

"Rome wasn't built in a day."

"Oh, I get it. That's what we pray for each morning."

"That's right son." I sit on my river birch and John sits on his willow branch. Both of us look out over the river.

I yell, "Let's go, Buddy."

"Dad, will you bring me here tomorrow?"

"I don't know, son. We'll see. We'll see."