Veterans Day

On the eleventh day of the eleventh year at the eleventh hour – the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front – World War 1, and today is the 90th anniversary.

The date was declared a national holiday in many nations to remember the 20 million who perished.

After Word War 2, it was changed to Veterans’ Day in the United States and to Day of Remembrance in the British Commonwealth. In many parts of the world, people pause for a two-minute period of silence at 11:00 AM.

At 11:00 AM this morning, I invite you to take a moment for prayer:

Eternal God, whose love is our peace, whose mercy is our hope, I remember the 20 million who perished in the fateful days of World War 1, and I gratefully remember when peace was declared and war was no more, though only for a season.

O LORD our God, my heart is distressed, because we are a warring race, easily taking up arms against one another, convinced that peace can be won through might. But war and rumors of war plague our world, and in this moment as I pray, soldiers and civilians are dying in gunfire and explosion, others maimed for life all around this lovely blue planet – and the sorrows grow deeper.

Help me, O LORD to be a person of faith and peace. To refrain from all expressions of violence and ill-will. To embody peace in my own life; to apologize and to forgive quickly, rising above dark thoughts. To be of good cheer and to lift up struggling souls. To stand with the oppressed and the excluded. To pray constantly for peace and to work hard for justice.

I pray for the leaders of the world, and I pray that women and men of faith will boldly bear witness to the tasks of peace.

Help me to stand with Jesus first of all, to lift up before my world the larger vision of the peaceable kingdom, when the lion shall lay down with the lamb. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen!

Strength for Today, Bright Hope for Tomorrow

“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is one of my all-time favorite hymns; the last stanza reads like this:

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

And then the chorus:

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided; Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
I thought of this great hymn when reading Psalm 62 this morning.

The Psalm begins like this:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

Dear Reader:

When the winds blow and the storms come, we are safe.
When our own failures overtake us, we are safe.
When the hurt and harm of others injures us, we are safe.
When our hopes and dreams come to naught, we are safe.
When life is more than we can bear, we are safe.

God see us through the storm …
God forgives our sins …
God uses our suffering to mature our soul …
God always has something new in store for us …
God carries our burdens, too …

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

Yin Yang

Getting acquainted with someone of another culture is always an enlightening moment – not only do we learn of another way of living and thinking, but we gain insight into our own patterns of thought and life.

I’m reading a book about the Trinity written by a Korean Christian whose world and life have been shaped by Yin Yang thinking. In a nutshell, Yin Yang is a both/and way of thinking, inclusive of what we might call opposites. You’re probably familiar with the symbol:


Opposites not only intertwine, but they contain a bit of the opposite within them.

We see a lot of this in Scripture – Psalms 22 and 23; Genesis 1 and 2; 1 Kings 18 and 19 … the life of Jesus: Bethlehem and Calvary, joy and sorrow, silence and speech. Read Ecclesiastes 3 for a poetic grasp of Yin Yang.

Life is rarely clear-cut – mostly a little of this and a little of that, with most of our choices never totally clear, a downside, an upside, to everything.

We sometimes get trapped trying to make the “right” decision. In all likelihood, looking back on our days, it’s not about making the “right” decision, but making a decision, getting on with it, having weighed up all the factors with all the love for life we can muster, seeking someone’s counsel as well, and then, with prayer and hope, going for it, staying with it, modifying it as we go along, adding and subtracting from it as the process unfolds.

Have you pressured yourself to make the “right” decision, maybe petrified of making the “wrong” one? Hoping something or someone will come along and say, “This is the choice to make.” I’ve been there many a time. But no one can tell us, not even God, and no event or circumstance ever makes it totally clear.

We just have to choose as best we can and trust the power of life and love, the power of God, and the goodness of those around us. And in all of it, we will find grace finding us.

Faith Moving Mountains

Everyone has faith, in some form or other – values, hopes, maybe even a sense of God, to carry them through the hard times, to encourage self-giving in the good times – to look upon others with charity and do their best however they can, whether they be a single-mom in ER worriedly waiting for a doctor to see her sick child, or a Wall Street CEO caught up in the financial tornado of recent weeks.

Faith is what God looks upon … faith stirs the heart of God.

But just how much faith?

Jesus said it well, “faith, the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain.”
It doesn’t take much.
Even the smallest piece will do.
The mountain may not move overnight, or in two weeks, or even ten years, but it is moving! And beside you, God’s shoulder pushing.

Give thanks for your faith today - it's moving mountains!

I Have a Dream

I remember when John Kennedy ran for President. Some Protestant folks were adamant: “If a Catholic becomes President, the Pope will run the country.”

Yesterday, on radio, I heard a lovely, elderly white woman say, “If a Black man becomes President, …”

I’ll let you fill in the blank. What she said was irrational and deeply troubling. She wasn’t proud of it – that was obvious - but there it was – this incredibly ugly thought.

I write as a Christian, a man of faith, who knows the power of deep-seated ideologies – like anti-Catholicism, or any of the various forms of racism and prejudice that mar our character.

None of it makes any sense, but somehow or other, our minds, our souls, are capable of harboring the senseless, and believing it to be true.

Our great nation is broad-minded and generous – we are America the Land of the Free … our Statue of Liberty stands witness to a universal welcome – that in this great Republic, every human being can find a home and a future, regardless of race, creed or color.

This is what makes America great.

I end with some lines from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his “I Have a Dream” speech:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

...

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Pay Attention!

Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

When my children travel, I always say to them: “Stop, look and listen; see, smell and taste, and tuck it away in your memories.”

Pay attention! Don’t be inward; be outward.

The disciples where weary and ready to hit the sack, but they stayed awake, and look what they saw: the glory of Jesus and the “two men” with him. A moment of profound insight and energy. They saw Jesus in a new light (that’s a pun – read the story: Luke 9:28-36).

Today, practice alertness; don’t be inward; be outward.
Really see the person next to you in the checkout line … pay attention to their face (don’t stare. Ha!).
Turn off your radio while driving to work, roll down your window and listen to the sounds of LA.
Look up and see the mountains (if it’s clear); look at a tree and study it’s shape.
Look at the folks waiting for the next bus.
Watch your hands type something.
Pay attention to the food you’re eating – flavors, spices, texture, temperature.

It’s said, “the devil’s in the details.” So is goodness and beauty, truth and wonder, joy and marvel. So is God!

Today, “Stop, look and listen; see, smell and taste, and tuck it away in your memories.”

Who knows? You may see Jesus and the two men with him.

Don't Be Too Sure

They were all weeping and wailing for her; but he said, “Do not weep; for she is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and called out, “Child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and she got up at once. Then he directed them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astounded; but he ordered them to tell no one what had happened (Luke 8).

How certain they all were, that it was all over with, hope gone, no way through, or out.

Have you ever been “certain” about something only to discover later on that life was moving in another direction, with possibilities and options galore? If only you had been a little more alert, a little less convinced of your own take on things, a little more open, you might have gotten on board a little sooner.

Paul the Apostle writes of God: Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do no exist.

It says they laughed at Jesus.

Cynical … scornful … the laughter of the “knowing” – “Who does he think he is?”

The next time you hear yourself saying, “I know for certain,” remember this little story from Luke’s pen, and remember that God has plenty of things up the sleeve, more than we can ever imagine, for helping us through life.