William Dawes..Who are you?

“On a cool April morning, in the late 1700’s, 2 farmers named William & Paul , were horrified to learn that the enemy was planning to attack their camp/settlement in the very near future! They had been appointed to be prepared if the enemy should arrive by sea.

As the enemy came under the shadows of twilight, William and Paul set out to be the clarion voices of readiness!

They coordinated with the watchtower near the ocean, and waited for the signal = 1 if by land, 2 if by sea. And at midnight, when the lamps were lit, William and Paul, decided to ride into destiny, and warn the neighboring villages with voices sounding like a trumpet to the sleeping people…that ... "the British were coming! The British were coming!"

We are approaching that time of the year when we celebrate our country's independence from the British in the late 1700's. And being an absolute American History junkie and avid reader, many times I come across alot of stories of our Founding Father's and about those who were so willing to put themselves in harm's way for the future and vision of a new nation! It demanded sacrifice, courage, and perseverance through adversity mixed with blood.

The story of the Midnight Ride is one of those compelling stories. Read on, and I'll tell you why...

By now, its easy to guess that one of the riders was Paul Revere, whose timely announcement prepared the colonials to rise and be ready to the coming enemy advance!


BUT I WANT TO FOCUS ON THE OTHER LESSER KNOWN RIDER...

William Dawes performed the same actions that Revere had; was moved with the same "like" actions of patriotism; desired to help prepare his countrymen for the sure war of the Revolution…but his place in history is in anonymity!

When taking a closer look, we find the reason why Willian Dawes' place in American History is lost!!!

1) DAWES HAD NO DIRECTION!

• When Dawes started his ride, he took a lesser route…in other words, he went the wrong way! This simply means by having a message that could've prepared the sleeping colonials, he decided to go away from the areas where the general populace lived!



• By choosing to go the opposite direction of where he should have gone, convinces us that He didn’t see the priority to sticking to the main roads and to the populated areas!



• May I say that the message of Acts 2:38 still works! There is no need to go away from it!



• This trip down the wrong roads illustrates that he could've only wanted the path of least resistance!



• He traded the more important things of what he should have been doing for easier living of not being involved at all!

2) DAWES' WAS PARALYZED BY HIS FEAR OF THE ENEMY AND THE POTENTIAL OF BEING KILLED IF CAUGHT!

• 2 Tim. 1:7 says..."For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of love, power, and a sound mind!



• Sometimes, fear grips our hearts about the things that we KNOW we should do! Fearful, of living for God; of making a solid committment, and afraid of what the enemy would do to us, if we are caught trying to do right!



• The sad truth about it was that both William Dawes and Paul Revere did get caught! When Revere convinced his captors that he wasn't a threat, THEY LET HIM GO! Want to know what Revere did after this? You guessed it, he got back on the horse and rode, continuing on into American lore!



• But as for Dawes, he so shook with fright, that he was considered a non-threat...and was let go! OUCH!

3) DAWES GOT LOST WHILE RIDING! He became unsure of his direction on his way back home! Simply, he LOST HIMSELF!

• Jesus spoke in 3 Parables of something being lost. Sheep, Coin, Prodigal Son. Notice, in these parables, Jesus was speaking about the three stages of living for God, (The sinner, the saint, and the backslider). So, Jesus was trying to drive the message home! No matter what you're spiritual status is...we all can lose direction in our lives, and that applies to Christians also!



• Someone said, "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions!" No one intends to be lost, but if we dont have a "route of riding" like ol' Dawes didn't, you won't get to the spiritual destination that you desire!

4) Dawes was not a public man, he was unknown because he wasn't completely committed to the rebellion against tyranny! HE WAS APATHETIC IN HIS INTENT.

• During the planned rebellion and the response to the repercussions of the Boston Tea party, Revere was a member of the Sons Of Liberty, Dawes was not! Which meant that all Dawes was, was a casual spectator unwilling to engage the enemy when he was needed the most! He was committed just enough to ease his conscience, but not sold-out!



• Just like in the church, we need to make sure we are living what we say we are! Our warnings of endtime could be falling on deaf ears because of our lives and how we live them! It is very important to be who we say we are!

The Midnight Ride poem written by Helen F. Moore in 1896"

The Midnight Ride of William Dawes
I am a wandering, bitter shade,Never of me was a hero made;Poets have never sung my praise,Nobody crowned my brow with bays;And if you ask me the fatal cause,I answer only, "My name was Dawes"
'Tis all very well for the children to hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere;But why should my name be quite forgot,Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?Why should I ask? The reason is clear --My name was Dawes and his Revere.
When the lights from the old North Church flashed out,Paul Revere was waiting about,But I was already on my way.The shadows of night fell cold and grayAs I rode, with never a break or a pause;But what was the use, when my name was Dawes!
History rings with his silvery name;Closed to me are the portals of fame.Had he been Dawes and I Revere,No one had heard of him, I fear.No one has heard of me becauseHe was Revere and I was Dawes.

The Memorial of a Memory

The human brain is one of the most complex, the most incredible organisms known to the history of the Earth. At the literal snap of a finger, the brain has within its power the ability to compute many thousands of reactions to the sound in a single second! It regulates our bodies' internal organs, blood flow, and temperature on the subconscious level while being ready to deliver when things become more intense on the physical!

But, in my opinion, the greatest and one of the comparatively least complex abilities of the human brain is the power in a memory!

Isn't it amazing when the environment around us introduces (or reintroduces) something that it triggers an extraordinary counter response of memories!?! Ever smelled a smell and thought of Mom's home cooking? Ever heard a song and you are transported back to a place where you first heard the song? Ever saw a picture or picked up an object and the memories flood your mind so much that it can be seemingly overwhelming?? Or how about when we drive by an old place we used to visit as a child, and the memories of that place flood our minds so much that it seems almost like we are there again!? It almost makes you long for that feeling of yesterday! Thus, it is the power and memorial of a memory!

I must be getting old. Nostalgia grips my heart more and more now and I can recall so many things good and bad in my past like it happened yesterday! Every time, memories explode into my waking mind....

I smile...

or laugh...

or even shed a tear ...about what has happened in my life...and it sometimes makes me wish (OH, I WISH!) that I could go back again and relive it for so many reasons!

Maybe to just enjoy those incredibly funny times with childhood and teenage friends; to sit and talk to my deceased grandmother again and hear her talk about her life and her love for "professional" wrestling! (True, too true!) Or how about going back and righting the wrongs of a stubborn youth or correcting the attitude of myself as an early adult. Or simply just reliving a time when you laughed so hard with someone you cried because your belly hurt!

It is also here, however, that I remember with clarity lost opportunities, missed chances of friendship or a kind word, a handshake, a hug, a kiss, living in the moment with that special person, time, or place and long for it to come back.

Just one more time...

Alas, I cannot! A writer once wrote, "You can never go home again." I think I know what they meant. Again, there are memorials in our memories!

I was reading the Bible the other day and I saw what God told the Jewish people to do when they crossed over Jordan for the first time soon nearing the Promised Land.

(Joshua 4:1-7, KJV)

(1) And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, (2) Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, (3) And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. (4) Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: (5) And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: (6) That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? (7) Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

I want you to see the significance of what God was telling His people to do. The river Jordan, and this particular place in history was important because God was bringing His people to a land of promise and the Jordan river was one of the last hurdles before crossing over! So when God was telling Joshua to bring up the stones from out of the midst of the riverbed, He was effecting in them a change from the past to the present with a look towards the future! The stones would be a memorial for generations to come! In essence, how I interpret this is that God brought them through and whenever they thought about quitting or giving up or even going back to their bondage...the memorial would remind them that God was their God!

A memorial is something that preserves a "remembrance." I might add that it is an object or marker for a boundary of land. In other words, something that divides and separates! I believe that God wanted the memorial to be put up because it marked a turning point in their stages of life. Furthermore, it marked leaving the bondage of the past, to the future of serving Jehovah God! How about that...leaving a bad memory behind to no more bother us? Pretty novel idea that God had , huh?

I'm sure those people didn't fully understand the reasons for the stones as a memorial then, but over the course of time, they would see it was more than JUST a bunch of piled up rocks! But in reality, it was a sign to never go back where they came from! They could not understand it then, but eventually, through the years, they could go back and explain to their children the memorial of a memory was and is a landmark of salvation!

My friend, let me remind you something! Although your memories may define your thinking and environment today, they do not define you! I love that God builds little markers or memorials at the former places of my trials and tribulations so that I can go back and view them to remind myself of God's saving, amazing grace in my life!