The plan was to be in Saint Augustine, Florida on Martin Luther King, Jr. Monday. The first Christian worship service in the "New World" took place in St. Augustine in 1565. That is reason enough for a Christian pastor on spiritual pilgrimage to visit. But I wanted to be on King street near the site of the 1963 sit-in at the Woolworth's Diner. In 1964 it was assumed the Civil Rights Act under congressional consideration would be filibustered, so Dr. King came down to Saint Augustine, ate at the Ponce de Leon Restaurant and made a spectacle of himself at the Monson Motor Lodge--the place where the owner had poured acid into the swimming pool where blacks were swimming in protest. I didn't know if I could find any of these historic places, but it seemed fitting to be in the town on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But the devil got in my way...
I passed a huge sign advertising gigantic Strawberry Short Cake and could not resist. I stopped at Pakersdale Groves in Plant City. The checkout line to receive my famous shortcake and famous strawberry shake took thirty minutes, but the sugar fix was worth the wait. Did I need both? Absolutely not. So why get them both? Because I could. Did I need to stop at Plant City. Absolutely not. Why stop? Because I could. Actually the answer may be more complicated.
Parkersdale Groves sells not only delicious strawberry products but also plants. Figures--"Plant City." One of the plants I observed is called "Devil's Backbone", a hardy looking plant with a crooked stem. I suppose it fits. We might call the Devil crooked. Really, though, the Biblical Satan was an instrument that Jehovah used in order to test God's faithful. Not crooked--just doing his job, thank you very much.
Maybe the Devil does a job on us. I didn't have time to visit one of the Civil Rights movement's hallowed grounds because the sweet sign--and yes, perhaps the Devil--called more loudly. Maybe the Devil was at work back in 1964 when Black women tried to attend a White church in Saint Augustine and were prohibited from doing so. Devils Backbone grows in Florida...and it thrives all over the country.
At the end of the day I enjoyed the hospitality of Lakewood United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, FL. They let me sleep in the church's youth room adjacent the full-sized gymnasium. Odd as it was trying to fall asleep while a men's group dribbled basketball well into the night, I rested peacefully remembering the sign in front of my host church: "Lakewood United Methodist Church--Let's Keep Doctor King's Dream Alive!" Indeed! This was redemption for the denomination whose Fort Myer's Church was choked by Devil's Backbone.
