PASTOR DAVE

Pastor Dave Hogsett has been a United Methodist pastor for more than 55 years, serving nine years as conference secretary of the North Indiana Conference.  He is a graduate of Purdue University, Southern Methodist University, and McCormick Theological Seminary.  Pastor Dave is married, has three sons, and fifteen grandchildren.  Lion’s Club, ROTARY, ministerial associations, mental health association, United Ways and councils on aging are some of the organizations to which he has belonged.

MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

While serving as the senior minister of the Grace United Methodist Church in Kendallville, Indiana, Pastor Dave in 2004 started writing his Musings From the Heartland for the Sunday supplement of The Herald Republican (Angola, Indiana), The Star (Auburn, Indiana) and The News Sun (Kendallville).  When he retired to Plymouth, Indiana, the summer of 2005 he added The Pilot News (Plymouth) with his musings appearing first on Saturdays and then on Wednesdays.

In his Musings From the Heartland Pastor Dave shares observations, ideas, and insights that are positive and faith based.  The Musings are intended to enrich persons’ lives, provide practical advice for living and help bring people together.

HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

In his Musings from the Heartland Pastor Dave shares his observations from his house by the side of the road.  He would invite his readers to do the same from their house by the side of the road.

THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the peace of their self-content;
There are souls, like stars, that swell apart,
In the fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran;
But Let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road.
Where the race of men go by –
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner’s seat,
Or hurl the cynic’s ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

I see from house by the side of the road,
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of hoe,
The men who faint with the strife.
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears –
Both parts of an infinite plan;
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road
Where the race of men go by –
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong.
Wise, foolish – so am I.
Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat
Or hurl the cynic’s ban? –
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911)