May 21, 2023, column in the Amarillo Globe-News:

Giving thanks for Chesterton, Shelburne, blessings

By Mike Haynes

                G.K. Chesterton is one of those writers I’ve been vaguely aware of for decades, but I still have not read one of his books. Sometimes he’s mentioned in the same breath as C.S. Lewis, who is much more familiar to me.

                Chesterton (1874-1936) was a British social and literary critic and a Christian writer. He also is well known as the author of the Father Brown detective stories.

                I attend a monthly meeting where fans of Lewis read and discuss short portions of his books, and some of the more well-read members of the group occasionally throw Chesterton into the discussion. I’ve intended to read some of the renowned English intellectual’s Christian writing, but my serious introduction to him keeps being put off by more immediate interests.

                I did finally get around to a more recent book that’s been on my shelf for eight years and that I heartily recommend: “The Key Place,” by fellow Faith section columnist Gene Shelburne. It’s about a family home place in Coke County, Texas, where Shelburne and his three fellow preacher brothers still return to read, study, rest and fix up the old house.

                Shelburne skillfully uses items from his past – such as the gates on the property – to illustrate biblical truths. “The Key Place” and other books by one of Amarillo’s treasures were available on Amazon when I looked this week.

                While enjoying West Texas wisdom from possibly the region’s most talented writer, I also came across a snippet of Chesterton’s insights that Shelburne quoted:

You say grace before meals.

All right.

But I say grace before the play and the opera,

And grace before the concert and the pantomime,

And grace before I open a book,

And grace before sketching, painting,

Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;

And grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

                First, that little passage told me, “I really need to read one of Chesterton’s books.” And second, as I equate saying grace to thanks, it echoed recent thoughts of my own that everything we enjoy in this world – unless God clearly tells us to stay away from it – is from above. We should thank the Creator for every good thing as both the Old Testament psalmist and the New Testament apostle Paul encouraged us to do.

                I have many more significant blessings to thank God for, but following Chesterton’s pattern above, I give thanks for Amarillo Little Theatre and the 2022 “Elvis” movie (I’m not an opera fan.); for the 2014 Paul McCartney concert in Lubbock and “The Andy Griffith Show”; for John Burke’s book, “Imagine Heaven”; for the chances I have had to take travel photos, to edit family photos with Photoshop, to swim, to play tennis, to attend hometown basketball games, to walk on a treadmill, to play Catch Phrase with family and to dance to Jackson Haney’s oldies band at a class reunion.

                I thank God for the opportunity to use my keyboard to write about things I notice as I advance through life – using those observations to present Christianity in a positive light.

I’m still no Chesterton scholar or even a Chesterton reader. I can Google with the best of them, though, and I love this guy’s thoughts on thanks:

                “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

                “When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

                And I’ll bet you’ve heard this one. I had but didn’t remember who said it. It’s attributed to Chesterton:

                “The worst moment for an atheist is when he feels a profound sense of gratitude and has no one to thank.”

Thank you, G.K. Chesterton. Thank you, Gene Shelburne. And for everything, thanks to God.