Yesterday was a profoundly sad day for me as a chaplain. I recently had a death of a patient who except for one of our staff faced death alone. The man had been a recluse all of his life and never ventured off of the family farm for decades. He had someone shop for him and when the other members of the family sold the farm, the new owners evicted him from his trailer. In addition, a distant family member had cleared his checking account and left him nearly penniless. There was no visitation, no funeral service and except for the funeral home staff and cemetery personnel, his life ceased without being mourned.
I struggled with this for a couple of days and after attending another death found myself traveling home with tears in my eyes and praying to God for understanding. I stopped at a store and called another chaplain for prayer. Still sad, I called my wife to have dinner out with our daughter and afterwards went home to veg. I awoke this morning still saddened and did not know why.
I had Christian music playing and a song by Point of Grace came across my speakers. The title, "A Circle of Friends" made me to think about what it meant to be a Christian. A few miles down the road I came to understand the message God had for me. While I was sad yesterday, God had given me another Christian to pray with who understood my pain from a professional standpoint. God also gave me a wife and daughter to have dinner and while we ate as a family I played hangman with a nine year old who also knows the Lord. On the way home she asked me why God would give me a job like this. I told her to help others and in my sadness I would be able to cry out to him. His words came clearly through the voice of a child, "Then maybe you out to cry out to him more!" I had a wife to lay beside me last night and wish me a good day this morning.
But, God also has given me a church in which I can worship with other believers facing some of the same things I do in which we can share and lift up one another. I have a place of service to help others to mend or improve their marriages after I have helped families face the death of family members. So how did this all come about?
On the cross Jesus was abandoned by his Father because of my sins and all of the sins of the world. The sin of the world placed upon someone who had never sinned so I will never be alone. Imagine Jesus crying out to the Father about being forsaken. That lonely desperate cry in the midst of physical agony. All for the world! Surrounded by cruel detractors and fearful disciples and family, Jesus alone. I feel better now, because unlike that man, I will never be alone. My Savior, my friend will always be with me, even into the sadness of the world.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Oh No! Political Correctness Comes to The Duke!
My favorite Saturday afternoon movies were cowboy pictures and of course, John Wayne was a major star in the western genre. He was born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa but the family moved to California. The Duke was a strong American coming out against Communism and is continually listed as one of America's greatest male stars. So why has this great icon come under the Political Correctness Police?
Watching movies now on American Movie Classics helps me to re-connect with my younger days. They often feature John Wayne movies which even though I can almost quote the dialogue, I watch over and over again. One movie, El Dorado, featuring John Wayne includes greats like Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Ed Asner and Christopher George, and is a great character study of two friends on opposite sides of the law working together to face a man seeking to steal water rights from a family.
Recently one of the scenes I have noticed edited out of the film features James Caan trying to sneak up to the enemy guarding the back door of a saloon being used by Christopher George and his gang. John Wayne will keep them busy in the front while Mitchem, Caan, and a grizzly looking Arthur Hunnicutt come in the back. Caan, quickly puts on a blanket and the bottom of a flower pot trying to sound and look like a "Chinaman" to fool the foe.
We have the right of free speech in the United States but I cannot find the right not to be offended. In the movies of the past as well as today, someone can be offended. I hate the language and violence in today's movies. We do not go to anything higher than PG and even then something can slip into the film. Do we need a "police" to determine what we should see? I always thought it was my right and responsibility to choose!
Do you find this kind of censorship offensive? Years ago, school began with the reading of the Bible, a prayer, and the Pledge of Allegience and many of these are no longer done in schools because it might offend someone. Will it happen to my family one day in a restaurant when the manager comes to our table and asks us to leave because we prayed before eating our meal and someone was offended by our right to pray?
I like watching the AMC channel which stands for American Movies Classics. Maybe now it should be called Altered Movie Classics. Sorry John. You are now politically correct postumously. At least you finally made it.
Watching movies now on American Movie Classics helps me to re-connect with my younger days. They often feature John Wayne movies which even though I can almost quote the dialogue, I watch over and over again. One movie, El Dorado, featuring John Wayne includes greats like Robert Mitchum, James Caan, Ed Asner and Christopher George, and is a great character study of two friends on opposite sides of the law working together to face a man seeking to steal water rights from a family.
Recently one of the scenes I have noticed edited out of the film features James Caan trying to sneak up to the enemy guarding the back door of a saloon being used by Christopher George and his gang. John Wayne will keep them busy in the front while Mitchem, Caan, and a grizzly looking Arthur Hunnicutt come in the back. Caan, quickly puts on a blanket and the bottom of a flower pot trying to sound and look like a "Chinaman" to fool the foe.
We have the right of free speech in the United States but I cannot find the right not to be offended. In the movies of the past as well as today, someone can be offended. I hate the language and violence in today's movies. We do not go to anything higher than PG and even then something can slip into the film. Do we need a "police" to determine what we should see? I always thought it was my right and responsibility to choose!
Do you find this kind of censorship offensive? Years ago, school began with the reading of the Bible, a prayer, and the Pledge of Allegience and many of these are no longer done in schools because it might offend someone. Will it happen to my family one day in a restaurant when the manager comes to our table and asks us to leave because we prayed before eating our meal and someone was offended by our right to pray?
I like watching the AMC channel which stands for American Movies Classics. Maybe now it should be called Altered Movie Classics. Sorry John. You are now politically correct postumously. At least you finally made it.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
A God Perspective in the Midst of Troubles
Watching the movie, Soul Surfer, I heard the idea that when we are in the midst of a trial we may be too close and need a new perspective. I saw a young girl loses an arm and yet continues to surf, and would become a professional surfer. I learned this same lesson twenty years ago.
I was planning to lead a missions trip to New England with students from across the country for Delta Ministries. I had figured the money I would need to support my family for the month I would be gone as well as the cost of the plane and the trip itself. After sending out letters and more letters for support, all that came was money enough for the plane fare. A friend suggested I go to his favorite place in the Blue Ridge Mountains called Petites Gap to pray. On the way, my heart became heavier and heavier. I sensed the enemy trying to stop me from getting there. Also, it was beginning to rain and clouds covered the top of the mountain. Finally, I said aloud, "Satan, you will not stop me from praying!" The pressure left my chest and I arrived at the place. As I walked through the woods I found this friend's prayer place. It was a little stone outlook built decades before and it overlooked the Roanoke Valley. I prayed Psalm 51 first and then I prayed for the need. It had begun to drizzle again, and I suddenly heard birds chirping. As a boy from the city I thought birds were quiet during rain. When I met with my friend he reminded me that if God can take care of the smallest bird he would take care of me.
On this overlook, the Roanoke Valley, the farms, the people looked so small. From my eyes they were tiny but in God's perspective they were important. I contacted Delta and told them what was happening and they said to come anyway. When I got to Portland, MA I had to sign a form for the trip and half was paid. I would be responsible to the balance when I got home. After the trip I got a letter back in Lynchburg and thought I would have a debt to pay. When I opened the letter, it was paid in full. What had happened?
I learned a few things from the prayer journal we were to keep. One, God had a sense of humor because I had gone to college/grad school in Rhode Island and our first place was a small inner city church in Providence, Rhode Island. Secondly, I learned to look into the eyes of everyone instead of their skin color. There was a song out by Sandy Patty which said she has her father's eyes. I realized I still had prejudice for people learned from my parents in the south. If I looked into a person's eyes I could see the eyes of the Father. God is color-blind and I would have to learn the same lesson to be a pastor.
I learned never to underestimate God's plan for me. In the midst of what I thought was a crisis I learned to God there are no problems. I also learned as a pastor to be I might have needs but God would cover them in his time and for my growing faith.
I didn't lose and arm nor have to struggle to stand up on a board with one arm to continue with my passion. I just had to learn in the midst of my walk with God to seek after his perspective instead of my own. If he has the whole world in his hands he can see far more than my view to the horizon.
A new perspective in the midst of trouble--get away and pray and seek God's voice.
I was planning to lead a missions trip to New England with students from across the country for Delta Ministries. I had figured the money I would need to support my family for the month I would be gone as well as the cost of the plane and the trip itself. After sending out letters and more letters for support, all that came was money enough for the plane fare. A friend suggested I go to his favorite place in the Blue Ridge Mountains called Petites Gap to pray. On the way, my heart became heavier and heavier. I sensed the enemy trying to stop me from getting there. Also, it was beginning to rain and clouds covered the top of the mountain. Finally, I said aloud, "Satan, you will not stop me from praying!" The pressure left my chest and I arrived at the place. As I walked through the woods I found this friend's prayer place. It was a little stone outlook built decades before and it overlooked the Roanoke Valley. I prayed Psalm 51 first and then I prayed for the need. It had begun to drizzle again, and I suddenly heard birds chirping. As a boy from the city I thought birds were quiet during rain. When I met with my friend he reminded me that if God can take care of the smallest bird he would take care of me.
On this overlook, the Roanoke Valley, the farms, the people looked so small. From my eyes they were tiny but in God's perspective they were important. I contacted Delta and told them what was happening and they said to come anyway. When I got to Portland, MA I had to sign a form for the trip and half was paid. I would be responsible to the balance when I got home. After the trip I got a letter back in Lynchburg and thought I would have a debt to pay. When I opened the letter, it was paid in full. What had happened?
I learned a few things from the prayer journal we were to keep. One, God had a sense of humor because I had gone to college/grad school in Rhode Island and our first place was a small inner city church in Providence, Rhode Island. Secondly, I learned to look into the eyes of everyone instead of their skin color. There was a song out by Sandy Patty which said she has her father's eyes. I realized I still had prejudice for people learned from my parents in the south. If I looked into a person's eyes I could see the eyes of the Father. God is color-blind and I would have to learn the same lesson to be a pastor.
I learned never to underestimate God's plan for me. In the midst of what I thought was a crisis I learned to God there are no problems. I also learned as a pastor to be I might have needs but God would cover them in his time and for my growing faith.
I didn't lose and arm nor have to struggle to stand up on a board with one arm to continue with my passion. I just had to learn in the midst of my walk with God to seek after his perspective instead of my own. If he has the whole world in his hands he can see far more than my view to the horizon.
A new perspective in the midst of trouble--get away and pray and seek God's voice.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
A Man's Momma
I lost my mom in 1996 five days before Christmas. It was a very hard holiday without her. However, over the fifteen years since she has been gone God has given me a mother in law. When I was a child I told my mom I would take care of her in her old age but death took her before I could fulfil that promise. A man's momma is not far from his heart but I have kept that pledge with Nan-Nan.
Paul commends Timothy to remain steadfast to the teachings given to him by his momma and grandma. My mother was also concerned for my religious upbringing. She even went against doctors orders four months before she died to travel to Massachusetts to see her son ordained. She could not be there for my graduation of college or seminary, so she was not going to miss this chance even if it would mean it would tire her because of her COPD and emphysema.
Mom's seem to have a extra gene for strength. They rise early and go to bed late taking care of their family. My mom suffered with back pain, heart disease, and difficult sons. She was devoted to a husband and taught us what forgivneness meant. Life was not easy for her but quitting was not a word she could use.
Mom, I miss you. I am caring for my mother in law in your stead. There is not a July birthday which passes we do not think of you. I cried a tear coming from the delivery room with Stefani for a child you would never know. You can take comfort knowing Stefani has a Nan-Nan, but I kinda wish she knew you.
Mom, I wish you were her but I know you are in the presence of God. Someday Mom we will see each other. Until that time, I have another mom to care for.
Paul commends Timothy to remain steadfast to the teachings given to him by his momma and grandma. My mother was also concerned for my religious upbringing. She even went against doctors orders four months before she died to travel to Massachusetts to see her son ordained. She could not be there for my graduation of college or seminary, so she was not going to miss this chance even if it would mean it would tire her because of her COPD and emphysema.
Mom's seem to have a extra gene for strength. They rise early and go to bed late taking care of their family. My mom suffered with back pain, heart disease, and difficult sons. She was devoted to a husband and taught us what forgivneness meant. Life was not easy for her but quitting was not a word she could use.
Mom, I miss you. I am caring for my mother in law in your stead. There is not a July birthday which passes we do not think of you. I cried a tear coming from the delivery room with Stefani for a child you would never know. You can take comfort knowing Stefani has a Nan-Nan, but I kinda wish she knew you.
Mom, I wish you were her but I know you are in the presence of God. Someday Mom we will see each other. Until that time, I have another mom to care for.
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