Seeking the Joy!

I find myself watching less and less TV news for an array of reasons. It continues to amaze me when I watch a live speech or action on TV and then watch as the day goes forward to see clearly the slants and biased introduced to the new viewers detached from the original viewing by the news producers and writers.   As I see more and more of this I find myself convicted of investing far too much time due to my insatiable need to understand what is happening and why on the emptiness of television.  To go through over 300 channels to record something of an iota of value for my wife and I to watch later  is more and more frustrating.  Am I whining this morning? Would have to say, yes!

 

Let me move on.  Given the context of the opening paragraph, this week has afforded me several flavorful portions of joy from an eclectic tray of morsels.  Being part of five worship services at my church for our Summer Bible Conference was exhilarating and uplifting on a grand scale.  Being with hundreds of friends and fellow worshippers made the experience rich.  The four preachers, including our own pastor for one evening, brought messages that burned into my heart in a most unique way. I felt this overwhelming call to more action in my Christian walk and as I sit here on this rainy Saturday morning, I find the slow burn of the messages still churning in my heart.

 

Thursday night was a powerful adrenalin pop as my quartet, The Pathway Quartet, conducted a concert at a local assisted living facility for several elderly people.  Many could see and hear the singing and some were too infirmed to be able to hear but not see.  But the power of the Holy Spirit was so evident during that time that I left lifted but exhausted.  What a blessing and yes, what a JOY to be able to do that sort of ministry to a hurting and oft times forgotten people.  The Quartet will be singing in several similar audiences in the next few weeks and I cannot wait to feel the Holy Spirit work powerfully.  I love singing with these great men of God, Dave Richards, Norm Farley and Bob Park; what a JOY!

 

Today, this afternoon, my wife and I will attend the wedding of a son and daughter from families from our church.  In light of my week as outlined above, I know this wedding will only add to my JOY-account in someway. I usually do not care to attend weddings but am believing God has special anointing on this event that I will get to witness.

 

I will keep this blog short but as importantly as that shown above as my heart feels overflowing, I also know there are so many people I know and know well that are hurting and worried about events in their lives that are not experiencing the raw, wonderful bounty of JOY this day.  I also realize just how instantaneous that JOY can be snuffed away medically, emotionally, financially and on and on.  I ache for my friends that are going through the fires of worry and doubt and those I mean know that when they read this.  God is in control of this valley and well as the mountaintops. We all have and will experience both poles as this life unfolds; that is, after all, life. The issue is not the poles but in how we choose to deal with the journey to or from the mountaintops, right?

 

I wish each of you a JOY of special portion this day. Tomorrow will be an extremely busy Sunday for me for I will be giving my testimony at my church to include two songs that bookend my journey of life "Thus far.."  To know my family is safe and loving our Lord is JOY unspeakable. To know the work I get to do is a blessing to so many. To know that if I did not see the end of this day on this earth and that I would spend eternity in Heaven is, well, JOY unspeakable and full of mercy. That is what I call the Blessed Assurance!  My former students updates and seek for my input is a special JOY to me and I appreciate each of those great young people more than I can imagine; a JOY!

 

Seek the Joy!!

Killer Angels

One hundred and fifty years ago, the Battle of Gettysburg was concluded 3 July 1863.  Three days of hell were played out in the rolling ridges and hills of that small township that was tactically flawed but strategically vital for the United States of America. I have just read the last page of Michael Shaara's classic, Killer Angels. Three hundred forty-five pages that I could not stop reading; amazing.

 

The movie, Gettysburg, was made in 1986 and was shot on location on the Gettysburg battlefields and the Shaara book was the foundation upon which the movie was put together.  It was amazing to me having seen the movie numerous times and having walked the fields myself written about and filmed about this great battle that changed the world forever.  As I sit here today, I long to return to Gettysburg and stand on the eastern crest of Little Round Top where my relatives from Alabama were repelled by the 20th Maine and the infamous Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. I have stood behind Devil's Den and found the location where my great grand father and his two brothers fought and were fired down upon behind Devil's Den down a slight hill by a New York artillery battery as they moved south to ascend Big Round Top as part of the 15th Alabama; but repelled in a blood bath.

 

This blog is not built to lift praises to the movie, the book nor the great battle but rather to focus on the horrific realities we face today in this nation on so many fronts. The American Civil War was fought for several reasons with states' right being at the top of the mountain from the Southern perspective.  The amazing reality for me in 2013 is realizing how powerful the forces and similarities are today as they were in the early to mid nineteenth century that led to the horrific War.  It was the sense of the Southern states that were generating nearly 80% of the United States Gross Domestic Product with tobacco and cotton industries for export to Europe that were feeling more and more like subordinated, minor states to the Federal rule and arrogance of the Northern States.  One can, even today, understand the anguish and anxiety that such a situation would trigger.

 

The means to fill the expanded export market needs to generate the great wealth of the South and thus the United States treasury was the terrible issue of cheap labor to farm the products for sale; slavery.  Slavery was a very normal, horrific yes, but normal way of life for millions during that period of our history.  But that awful way of life formulated a second strategic initiative for the initiation of hostilities by the South at Fort Sumter in 1861. Nearly 700,000 dead Americans later across the next nearly five years, an assassinated President, destroyed national infrastructure that had to be rebuilt and our posture in the global village demeaned and destroyed for nearly another fifty years formulated the terrible logarithm of the time.  We have the history in word, in film, in papers, in letters, in novels, in song to affirm what it written above. Sad but so very true!

 

The really sad but so very true prism is that in 2013 the same demons abound on a grand scale. The parallels are striking and startling to me at times.  The most recent glaring example resides with the simply terrible Trial of Zimmerman and the aftermath.  The trial was conducted fairly, fully and ruled by a most competent judge.  The jury that was selected by both the defense and the prosecution and they were apparently stellar in their attentiveness, their deliberation detail and their professionalism  during the awful sequester.  The jury rendered a verdict!

 

Some of the same people I watched and listened to that were praising the greatness and fairness of the selected jury before the verdict are not attacking the jury, the decision, the process, the prosecution ... and I seek to step above the whole matter and try to understand the great Why!  The great Why, I believe, resides in the metaphor of the opening paragraphs of our nation at almost one hundreds years of age, your remember the "four score and seven years .."  that is eighty-seven years Lincoln referred to in his Gettysburg Address!

 

Being a Southern born and reared man, I recall vividly the great Civil Rights battles and issues of the age in Birmingham, Selma, the Freedom Riders, the Mississippi killings, the burned buses in Anniston, AL, and on and on; clear, real, tangible realities of the 1960s in the South. To this day it elicits a sense of hurt and embarrassment to me but it is not the 1960s anymore, is it?  Certainly not and I am not stupid enough to believe racism is a dead issue in any state  or county or city or nation for that matter.  It is a horrific blight on mankind. This blight has been made fervently clear to me personally with our precious adopted grand daughter from Ethiopia we have been blessed to have in our family for just over three years.

 

As a family, we have seen the "looks," the "stares," the "whisperings" and some not so polite comments my son's family have experienced as well as my wife and me. With each I find myself more proud, more honored and more blessed that God delivered this child destined to die in an orphanage in Ethiopia due to lack of food that has changed every person in our family in many different hues and shades.  Her glowing smile, magnetic personality, unbounded energy and her unique way of making everyone she encounters smile is unbelievable.  We are blessed!  But the blessing I realize more and more is how God has used that precious child to ferret some feelings and beliefs and stereotypes that I held and would have fought someone if they had brought them to my attention. Ms Hope has brought a mirror to my soul about other people that are different that me in a way I could never have imagined. Thank God for that mirror!

 

My concern for our nation is at fever pitch on the whole issue of race. When I was in my mid teens I was too dumb to really grasp what it all meant. Now in my mid sixties I believe I fully grasp the issues that reside and resound due to life, maturity, experiences, living.  Racism is STUPID!  As this "after the Trial" battle tries daily to be ratched up as a Civil Rights issue by those from the 1960s that rode the coattail of Dr King, a great man, I have come to realize, with the shadows of the 1960s rhetoric we hear loudly today, I would have hoped we as a nation had move farther along the pathway. I believe many have but not all and certainly not enough!

 

The American Civil War was fought to, in essence, legitimize the young nation and our Constitution.  Here we stand one and one-half centuries later fighting the same ghosts, inhibitions and deterrents to real societal improvements and growth. It is my prayer that the same images in the mirror of the 1860s do not ultimately have to be rendered or evaporated with civil and / or military force. But the clouds are there!!  But lest we forget we are the greatest economic force on the face of the earth and not an 1860s loose grouping of states / colonies.  No, we are the huge elephant in the refrigerator and the world is watching as are our enemies.  As a nation, we are weak diplomatically, politically, militarily, economically and societally and where there is weakness, there is danger; NEVER forget that!!

 

Are we better than this? Absolutely!  Our future as a nation, as a democracy and as a People reside in large part on how we reconstruct ourselves an a nation screaming for reconstruction and there is certainly no pun intended for Reconstruction is a dismal period of our post Civil War period far too many have forgotten. We are better than this but the world is watching!!!!

Defining Joy!

Well believe it or not, the sun has come out ... for now! So with that inspiration, I found myself thinking about the "joy" in my life and began to put the wallpaper of reality to be able to reflect in real time what comprises joy.  I think that is important for there is more than abundant evidence in our world, our city, our own families that read this that would dispel the positive force that goes with "joy." 

 

I  believe it Biblical to rejoice when the world that comes to confluence of your own life is smooth and tastes good, smells clean and pure and you can see physical and spiritual evidence. I wish, therefore, to rejoice this early July day.  Those that know me know that I do love music and, well yes, especially, Southern Gospel music. I do not nor will I be moved off that high ground for the message of the songs alone provide the beauty of the song but then you add four blended parts and, wow, how can that be bad, right?  I said that to talk about a "joy" that I have found with the advent of YouTube.

 

The lift I receive in finding some of my all time great songs being sung by some of the great singers is joy unlimited for me.  I can put my ear buds in and the time literally flies and I go from smiling to tears in one chorus. I can find myself in a place in feeling close to loved ones that have left us and the story of a song matched to that person is precious.  A great one for me is from the old Red Book song, "The Lifeboat."  Most of you have probably never heard it but you can on YouTube by typing the song title and then Gaither vocal band next to it and you will land at a place that brings tears tome each time I think or tell the story of that song.  Last night at my daughter's house as we sat around her kitchen table just enjoying each other's company, we were talking about music.  I began to tell her the story of that song and her grandfather, my wonderful father-in-law.  With in moments I felt the tears welling and I could not stop them; did not try very hard either. 

 

Mr. Stone gave me his baby girl almost forty-three years ago. He loved music, loved instruments, was a kind, gentle, sweet, servant-hearted man and he loved me in ways I had never experienced before. He was quiet but strong and vibrant.  We used to spend hours around the piano with my wife, his daughter, playing from the Red Book. He taught me that song, "The Lifeboat," many years ago and I always loved it.  On one of the Gaither Homecoming Videos, Eva Mae LeFevre and David Phelps sung this song. Each time I watch it the tears flow for this is the story of that song ...

 

The summer before Mr. Stone left this world, my wife and I spent several weeks in Alabama with him to give my wife's sister some caring relief.  The Alzheimer's was very present in Mr. Stone which was so sad on many fronts.  One thing I learned that summer is that when you truly love someone as I did Mr. Stone, caring for them, cleaning them, loving them when they are unaware is worthy of the years a person will invest in you. He invested much in me and that joy of getting to be part of his now very different world was a blessing.  

 

The day came when we had to return back to Ohio so we awoke and busily was packing the car.  Mr. Stone, pretty much oblivious of what we were doing, got up, put on clean clothes quietly and watched up loading, checking the house, etc.  He, with that booming voice, called my name, "Jim."  I went to his side, sat next to him and he said, "Jim, do you remember that song I taught you years ago.?" I said, "I sure do" and we both knew it was "The Lifeboat." He asked if we could sing it once more before we left. Yep, am tearing up already just thinking about it.  I got down on my knees in front of him, held his gnarled hands in mine and we began to sing that song:

 

We’re floating down the stream of time

We have not long to wait

The stormy clouds of darkness

Will turn to brightest day

Then let us all take courage

For we’re not left alone

The lifeboat soon is coming

To gather the jewels home

 

CHORUS

Then cheer, my brother, cheer

Our trials will soon be o’er

Our loved ones we shall meet, shall meet

Upon the golden shore

We’re pilgrims and we’re strangers here

We’re seeking a city to come

The lifeboat soon is coming

To gather the jewels home

 

The lifeboat soon is coming

By the eye of faith I see

As she sweeps thru the waters

To rescue you and me

And land us safely in the port

With friends we loved so dear

“Get ready,” cries the Captain

O look, she’s almost here

He did not recall all the words and I could hardly sing for sobbing for as we sung his grip on my hands grew stronger. I felt "Joy" and that moment that is burned into my hard drive forever.  You see, the lifeboat came to Mr. Stone not very long after that moment.  Let the lyrics ask you the question, are you ready for that hallowed arrival?

 

In a world seemingly totally out of control, it is hard to find that sense of real "joy" isn't it.?  When you are hurting or have been hurt, it is very hard to find that joy.  When the doctor has shook his head and walked away, it is hard.  When relationships have failed and disappointments abound, it is hard, isn't it?

 

I think each of you as you read this should take some time and add up your "Joys" and for a few minutes, abandon that dreads and hurts and worries of the negative side. I have some very dear friends just this weekend stumbling through the hot coals of bad choice and decisions and my heart aches for all that are involved. I yearn for "joy" to return to their lives. All I can do is pray for God's Will to be done; and it will!

 

I will close simply by requesting you take a "Joy" inventory and I bet a smile will return to your face. Now that smile may have to trod through tears of joy but, you know, that is okay too. I have found myself writing this missing Mr. Stone so badly but  as well, I long to have time with my mother that is there in Heaven as well.  But in knowing where our loved ones are makes it bearable, doesn't it?  I want to take this opportunity to again say thanks to Alicia's sister and her husband for the hours of tireless caring they gave and to two my sisters for caring for our mother in those last days.  Those thoughts as well bring "Joy" to my heart this moment.

 

Be blessed!

The Arc of History ...

A quote from the late Dr. Martin Luther King has become much popularized again in the last twenty-four hours when he said:  “The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice.”  It is a quote I have heard many times on my sixty five year arc so I feel at least chronologically qualified to make a few comments.  My comments, no doubt, will be met by those that will praise the thoughts and a few that will probably raise the racist moniker yet again but I wish to put my heart in 2013 to words. 

 

In the last two days, forty eight hours, two landmark decisions by the United State Supreme Court have thrown on Scriptural doctrine on the definition of marriage that dates back  a few thousand years and the Voting Rights Act is overturned eradicating a much heralded and painful era in which I lived my teen age years in, yes, Alabama.  Two major democratically and theomatically doctrined bodies of law cast aside by basically five men in two days.  There just seems to be something wrong with that as I have pondered and sought to gain a degree of understanding of these forces.

 

One of the things I came to realize in graduate school years ago was really eyeopening for me as to the learning I thought I knew from civics class in high school.  There are three arms of our Government: Congress that makes laws, Executive that manages the organizations these laws create and a Judicial that gives the citizens the Constitutional means to right wrongs by other citizens. That was hard to put into my brain at an early age but I finally figured it out. But then a strange thing happened one day when I realized the Congress is not the only branch of Government that can make laws for law is created when the Supreme Court rules on a Congressionally legislated law.  I found that most interesting. In light of the last forty eight years I find it downright frightening.

 

Our Founders, as I understand their mindset, was to use the prism of Checks-and-Balances as the three arms of Government were put into structure and operationalized.  So here we are since 1776, still a relatively young nation by the way, struggling with: “The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice” --- Martin Luther King Jr. 

 

Some of us remember well the Freedom Riders. the Selma Marches, marches in our hometowns, the dogs in Birmingham. Some of us remember Leroy Gray, a young 17 year old black man forced to attend my high school in the graduating class of 1966 so our 265 graduating group would have one black; 264 plus 1.  It seemed sto wrong then and I grew to really like Leroy and hurt to see his plight. I could not begin to imagine what he felt each day in getting up knowing what faced him as his sun rose in a sea of angry white kids.  He passed away several years ago as I understand but I never had the chance to sit with him years after that chaotic year for ALL OF US to hear his thoughts on the world of the late 1960s.

 

Some of us remember clearly the White and Colored bathrooms and water fountains, back entrances to doctor and dentist offices that I, as a white man, never thought twice about for that was our culture. It sickens me when I think of that clouded, dulled time of my life as I view it through the rear view mirror of my life.  I can see it oh so clearly even now! 

 

So well do I remember playing basketball in high school against the first black high school player in Alabama, Danny Treadwell.  I can see now him playing in the State basketball tournament as the first black player and being so rattled that the first foul shot he took sailed completely over the backboard. My heart ached for him; but then I had to guard him the next day. I knew that next day that the world of white basketball in Alabama had changed forever. I was right!

 

It is not my intention to create a litany of Civil Right memories but until yesterday with the throwing out of the Voting Rights Act did I actually register on the term "Civil RIGHTS" and even more so, "Voting RIGHTS."  I well remember wrestling with the events of my decade of the 1960s most of which none of us really understood. Oh yes, we were seeing our friends go off to somewhere called Viet Nam and some not coming home and those that came home were not those that left; they had changed.

 

This week I have found myself deeply troubled by the "Arc of the Moral Universe" King spoke about for it is my assessment, today, that that Arc has somehow fallen into the ocean of rationalization.  See, I learned from a great mentor that what sets Man apart from the animals is that Man can rationalize and animals cannot. It is psychologically called Cognitive Dissonance Reduction. I call it rationalizing away any semblance of absolutes.

 

One of my guiding principles is that "if you do not stand for something you will fall for anything."  My pastor, rightly, holds his Bible up during sermons to exclaim that the Bible is the only absolute today. I say, AMEN. In saying AMEN I am saying that the principles and teachings create a fundamental body of knowledge within which Man must and can exist with each other. When those absolutes are rationalized away, then we will fall for the next snake oil product being peddled.

 

THAT, simply, is my greatest, heart felt concern for my children and my grandchildren and their children's children.  I knew in 1965 that what the black people faced was horrific but like most other white kids chose to ignore or it was just too big to attack. So we rationalized the wrong into a morphed sense of just not worry about it.  The marriage debacle of this week, for me wreaks of the same odor of rationalization.  Many have heard me say and read my words that Right is Right and Wrong is Wrong and no amount of Wrong will ever, EVER, make a Wrong, Right.

 

This week I feel we have taken a multi-generational step backwards that I will not see regained in my lifetime if ever. When I realize that there are more years behind me that there are in front of me, then the gravity of all of this takes on new meaning.  As a Christian man, I feel a sense of gut level concern about the tomorrows. But I also follow my Arc of History and believe by faith that my Heavenly Father is fully aware of all of this and therefore all of this is part of a grand plan only He can execute. I say, YESSSSSSSSSSSSS for that takes much of the angst from my intestines in realizing that all I have to do is stand on His principles He gave us clearly in the Bible and He will take care of the rest. It really is that simple. Thank you, God!

 

It is my hope that my words penned from my heart will find a place of solace for some that are agitated by the historical rumblings of our current times.  The IRS debacle was, for me, a metaphor for our government and its leadership in 2013.  Hands off, arrogant, pompous, corrupt and aimless with no accountability.  How could any organization have order with those tenets not nailed into place I ask?

 

We the People must focus on the principles given clearly in the Bible. I will take my stand on that absolute and that stand will be immovable.

Leading and Creating -- the twin Columns of Leadership

Earlier this week I found myself with this strange since of being a bit bored.  Boredom is a most interesting sense for it can do strange things to your sense of worth, well being, joy and a few other things.  All day I had felt just, well, under-stretched deeply inside and I did not like that sense.  I began to inventory all the things I am involved and invested with and even with all those balls in the air, I could not escape this strange sense of being bored.

 

Now mind you if I had expressed that to my wife, it would have been a rather short conversation for there would have been a significant laundry list, including laundry, that would quickly fill all my life for weeks yet to come. Enough on that but you get my point I believe! 

 

That afternoon my son came over and we were sitting outside watching the grand kids; always a joy.  In that conversation I expressed to Taylor that sense of being somewhat bored to which he summoned up simply, and correctly with, "dad, leaders, if they are not leading or creating, are always bored."   It was one of those moments where I found myself thinking about so many things one of which was realizing just how true and pertinent and well targeted his words were!

 

So you can know, with that brief but potent conversation, my spirits lifted and that cloud moved on out that was dulling my senses that whole day.  I do love to lead which means to plan, organize, direct, coordinate and control; the Principles of Management.  I believe in the definition of Leadership as the process of influencing an organized group towards its goal setting and its goal accomplishment for Leading is about serving and is therefore about partnering for performance!  So many hundreds of my students have experienced that first hand during my teaching decade but to be reminded of the vital nature of leading was profound and felt so good to me.

 

I realize there are many people that really do not want to lead, to give direction, to assume responsibility thus avoid any semblance of conflict or confrontation.  For whatever the reason, I do enjoy leading immensely.  I realize that leaders will at times make others want to climb rocks or wish the leader would fall off a few but one thing is for sure; nothing happens without leading.  I love to study effective leaders and get very frustrated when I see evidence of weak or non-existent or even worse, misdirected leadership.  Yes, there are many examples of each category around to view if you choose to view for the evidence resides not with the leader but with the corporate gathering of those being led.

 

I did not intend to blog about leadership today but the brief conversation with my son earlier has remained with me so I must but assume that God had a purpose for me needing to put words to it via my blog.  Leading is a gift for it is founded on the touchstone of respect. There is no leading without  respect and importantly, respect is normally the gift provided by those being led. Leaders must earn the right for the responsibility.

 

I hope this means something special to someone reading this today!  Thank you Taylor; my wise son!!

Lost Faith in my Government

As I have now watched the hearings on the IRS, the continuing smoke generation on Benghazi, the now brought to light government over reaching of personal phone and data information I am simply appalled.  Then to see POTUS appoint an already publicly disgraced Susan Rice to head the NSA in the midst of all of this garbage was, for me, the capper.  My faith in our government has now plummeted to an all time low and I am the eternal optimist.

I have sought to trust the Administration for that is what my Bible tells me I am to do. I have prayed for my leaders and for their wisdom.  I have fought the convulsive anger welling inside me about the breadth of how bad all this really is and tried to rationalize that the issues are just news fodder and that we will all be alright.  That bubble of belief is for me shattered irrevocably.

My trust in this President and his henchmen is gone.  This all hearkens to the Kremlin or Gestapo abuses and misdeeds that none of us could ever have imagined, me at least, would in fact be part of my very own nation's leadership reality.  We anger at Wall Street and the bailouts or the billions given to Chrysler and GM while the big bankers were bailed out and then billions in bonuses paid for poor leadership.  All of that pales to the breadth of the poison, corruption and downright lying we the citizens and taxpayers of this nation are seeing exposed now daily.

Now there will be those, friends of mine, that no doubt view my words through the lens of racism because everything sense this man Obama has been in office, any opposing views have been countered by the stench of racism.  I may be called many things but a racist is certainly not one of them.  It is my now confirm belief that this man is vile, dangerous, demonic and with a socialization agenda that surpasses our worst nightmares for the facts are becoming blatant with these ever increasing revelations.  That is the good news for the bad is that I am convinced there are much and many more yet to be made public; but the depth of this debacle of a POTUS will come to light I am now convinced for the truth will, in fact, set you free.

For me, this POTUS is in a class far worse than Nixon ever could have been.  I realized as I sit here this morning and my anger is not anger at all but rather a final resolve that this man and his circle of truly vile and malcontents bent on some vision for this nation totally not conceived by our Founders.  My perspective on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dempsey, is more of a crony and less of a countervailing force to a POTUS bent on structurally changing this nation.  Nations need the military leadership to serve as a backboard to bring logic to an irreverent or aberrant political machine.  A great nation needs both meaning strong, clear, forward focused political and military leadership to create a balance. I see no evidence of balance, frankly. That is scary!

I will close with my belief that any American in any way watching the morass unfold undeniably feels fear.  The IRS is in and of itself an agency of fear.  To see how mismanaged and arrogant the leadership blatantly is sickens us all.  To know our government openly lies to we the people on murders of our Ambassadorial staffs or stiff arms commercial enterprises to give over we the peoples' personal information is beyond the horizon of fear.  In my lifetime, never have I felt such disdain for a POTUS personally and professionally as this POTUS has managed to elicit so deeply inside me.

All of that is the good news for I am convinced that bad news is yet to see the light of day.  This Inspector General George has been stellar in his calm fact-based responses. The Congress via the hearings has actually restored a long lost sense of pride, especially Mr. Issa, that the process can and does work.  But the scorecard must read when it is all done, simply, okay, now what will be different? With this national leadership example, I think the workings will only be more dismaying and frightful and please know how badly I hate seeing those words come from me!

Our nation has lost its political, ethical footing; that alone is really sad.  But the complicity on a grand scale is appalling to me.  Having worked a nearly four decade career in a Fortune 100 company and the tough decisions that have to be made and actually implemented with measurable results and to see this lack of credible management systems and accountability on such a daunting scale is atrocious.  What I have witnessed via  CSPAN makes me angry and utterly sick to my stomach.  To see the fundamental lessons of Civics and American Government taught our children dashed to badly and so publicly is beyond reproach and a punishment commensurate to this arrogance should be exacted as example for future generations. But, alas, that will not happen.

We the Citizens are getting what we deserve unfortunately.  We the Citizens need to return to the principles of our God-inspired Founders wisdom and eradicate those that would choose to grow fat on our tax dollars and display complete uncaring for the citizenry of this once great nation.  Our legacy of greatness as a nation and calmer of the world is tarnished and not sure if this stain will be permanent or not. It is we that will determine that reality!

Heaven Will Surely Be Worth it All!

One of the great classics in Southern Gospel music was penned many years ago by Dad Speer with that title. Many of us have heard it and have sung it many times and I still love the song.  A few minutes ago I came across a YouTube video of Eldredge Fox, now deceased, that owned the Kingsmen Quartet and sang baritone for them for many years.  In that video, Mr. Fox and the Quartet sung this classic song very sweetly and I found myself melted into tears listening, really listening to the message of that song.   Please watch this video before reading further:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBnm8k-n-fQ

 

As our Sunday morning begins to unfold in a cloudy, rainy day, reflection again seems to visit me.  This week God has allowed me to view into some things in other's lives both inside a jail of bars and inside a "jail" of worries and fears about what the days ahead will bring.  I got to spend time with my grandchildren and watched my eldest play a baseball game yesterday afternoon. I love how he continues to improve and develop a real love for the game.  This week has been filled with singing, meeting new people, warming of talks of our history with old friends, seeing new life after high school begin via graduation, learned some new music; a busy week but a great week.

 

Someone asked me the other day how I was doing and my quick retort was that I got up this morning, did not ache and can still think pretty well.  That was such a short view answer to such a great question and I apologize to that person that asked me the question for she deserved much better.  So how am I doing, really?  That answer resides in that great song for with all the trials and tribulations, hurts and worries, pains and losses, wins and defeats of this life, I know little but I know for sure that Heaven surely will be worth all of this down here; I KNOW THAT!  In that knowledge I find refuge and strength daily and so easily take that for granted.

 

I know I at times I drive my wife crazy with my world of music but she knows how much I love it. But the real question I find myself asking myself is why does music escalate in my heart and my love for my Lord as life's days pass oh so quickly?  As I grow older and hopefully more mature, I find through seeing in the lives of others the touch of the Master's Hand through a song on a life hurting, in the flames of anger and distress or in a destroyed friendship bring calm and tears of joy and release.  For me it is less about the music per se but the music is more and more the medium to a hurting heart. So for me to be able to sing toward that end is, well, simply beyond measure in trying to understand. See, it is not for me to understand for it is but for me to do!

 

I love to study my Bible. I love to hear the array of sermons I hear at my church and in the jail work for each touch me in a most unique way as a artist brushstrokes on the canvas of my life.  I have used that analogy many times but that power of the reality grows daily and I love the growth.  So as we ponder the meaning of the fact that this life is made for trouble and strife, also the greater fact is that Heaven is very real and it will surely be worth all the strife of this life. On that I can reside for the rest of my days to be the best God would have me to be.

 

This is the day that the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad in it ... how long has it been since you rejoiced unabashedly, undeniably and with absolute release?  Let this day be the day you re-find the phenomenal sense of release that only sincere rejoicing can bring.  And remember, for we Christians, Heaven will surely be worth all of this travail on this journey!