08/28/2026
LESSONS FROM DOLLY PARTON’S PASSING
PASTOR RUDY SHEPTOCK AUG 28 2026
I volunteer weekly at the Shamokin Area Elementary School helping at lunch and recess because it is much less stressful for me than trying to teach them math and science. Two subjects that I never had a hard time with growing up were eating food put in front of me and playing outside. I always marvel when I still see kids bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the table. To this day, I enjoy a good PB&J on white only now, I never hold back and apply the elements liberally on both sides of the bread. I do the same with ice cream. Any dish or cone of your favorite flavor should be supplied in abundance since dessert is one of the best ingredients to a happy life. Nobody should ever save for a someday that may never come what they could enjoy right now! We all have witnessed clothes never worn, gift certificates to nice restaurants never enjoyed, ballgames never played and adventures never experienced because somebody thought waiting for another time was a good idea. I don’t believe it is ever God’s best for us to put off until never what He wants us to taste and see in the present moment. What do you need to get busy participating in now what you might just miss forever if you don’t get a move on?
I witnessed the first day of school for quite a few kindergarten children on Tuesday. Did you know that Mary Poppins was still playing at the theaters and Walt Disney was still alive and hosting Disneyland on television and this band from Liverpool named the Beatles were dominating our radios when I went to school for the first time in Whippany, New Jersey? Mothers used to dress us up, even making us wear ties back in those days. The one thing they don’t do anymore which I need more today than I did when I was five years old is nap time. We all were required to provide a rug so that sometime during the school day, our teacher would turn the lights out, play some soft music and make us rest! Who wants to take a nap when you’re young? But give me any small window of opportunity to rest my eyelids these days and I’m in and I don’t even need the carpet! Did I mention that I always strategically placed my rug near the cute girls? Jenny is all I remember of this blonde, blue eyed princess who was in my class. When she smiled at me, my whole day was made!
Do you know that the kids who began school this week will graduate in 2038? We lost Dolly Parton this week at 80 and then Tim Burton the next day at 80. My Dad died 26 years ago this month at only 68. I will be 68 soon. When I was a younger man, I never even thought that I might not be around when my grandkids graduated from high school. But I know that I have more years behind me than I before me. My faith in Jesus has taken the fear out of death. If I am alarmed about anything, it would be how I die and not that I die. I’m not a big fan of lots of pain. I’m what nurses call a “big baby.” As a Pastor who visits people in the hospital, I beg the patients to spare me the details. I may not even know the body parts, but when someone gives me the run down of a surgery, I want to fast forward to the commercial. Can you imagine that someday in Heaven, there will be no pain, no shame and no loss. I can live with the confident assurance that because Jesus lived and died on the cross and rose from the dead for me and for anyone who believes, there is no end to the process. My last breath here will only open the door for my first breath in eternity and there will be nothing to steal my joy again. Plus, I will have my hair back! Every time I dream, I have hair to comb so I am banking on the reality that baldness will be a past tense in the light of forever!
My Mom turned 89 today and talking to her, she sounds like she’s got plenty of time left on her dance card. She’s selling houses and buying houses and starting new projects and all I can do is listen. I stopped arguing with my mother years ago. It has saved any relationship we were destined to have. If Mom wants to climb Everest and set the new world record for oldest woman on the moon, more power to her. I must admit that on the days that I am not serving as a minister, I am pretty content to sit on the rocking chair on my porch and watch my Tharptown neighborhood as the seasons change and the days go by. I love my neighbors. Cathy on one side and Trish on the other. They are wonderful people and I enjoy time with both. I love that Cathy loves the oldies like I do. I sat on her patio, and we played “Name That Tune,” with the oldies cassette tape she had going in the background. Jan Bradley singing “Mama Didn’t Lie” and Santo and Johnny’s instrumental “Sleepwalk,” were just a few of the gems we listened to together. Claudine Clark’s “Party Lights,” might have had us guessing for a moment as we were not sure if it was Dee Dee Sharp’s version, but we got it right! What good is living if we don’t share it properly with those God has placed around us to interact with? I don’t want to be someone who doesn’t know his neighbors or isn’t proud of his town. I can’t wait for Christmas in Tharptown! You can be sure that I’ll be the disc jockey when that Saturday in November rolls around.
One of my favorite Dolly Parton’s songs is, “The Light of a Clear Blue Morning.” It is a gospel tune for sure because of the hope it cries out for.
The lyrics go something like this: “It's been a long dark night and I've been a-waitin' for the mornin'. It's been a long hard fight but I see a brand new day a-dawning. I've been looking for the sunshine, you know I ain't seen it in so long. But everything's gonna work out just fine. And everything's gonna be all right that's been all wrong. 'Cause I can see the light of a clear blue morning. I can see the light of a brand new day. I can see the light of a clear blue morning. Oh, and everything's gonna be all right. It's gonna be okay.”
Every life is hard and nobody escapes these years without their fair share of scars. But I have learned that my scars tell a story and are living proof that I played the game with all my heart. I have a scar that is on my left wrist, it is a remnant of the day that I put my fist through the glass screen door because I was in such a hurry to get out to the Mr. Softee truck. Blood squirted everywhere and all I cared about was ice cream! Some people say that we will have no scars in heaven but that is not true. We have already been told that when Jesus showed up in His glorified body after His resurrection, the nail scars in his hands and feet and the marks that remained from the spear in his side were all still clearly visible. Maybe not all bruises are bad. Maybe some of what we thought held us back actually launched us forward. Would we still be the same men and women we are without skinning our knees and keeping band-aids in business?
Dolly Parton was 80. Tim Curry, who I will always remember as the sinister Valet in Home Alone 2, passed the next day. Whose death has made the biggest impact on you? Why? Have you ever cried over a celebrity’s passing? When my baseball idol, Tom Seaver passed several years ago, I was a basket case. Our heroes aren’t supposed to die. What a rude awakening to realize that life this side of heaven is temporary no matter how you slice it. Tom Terrific is supposed to be on the mound and never age a minute. Maybe we really all do need a strong dose of eternity. If Heaven isn’t real, then these tears will never be wiped away, and our story won’t end in triumph! Thank God, He didn’t just script a wonderful life but a solution for the big finish! And yes Dolly, I can see the light of a brand-new day! Do you?
