Routine

Ah. . . It is good to be back. There is a specific comfort in the familiarities of home. The hills, horses, cows, dispersed population, red oak trees, and familiar sights all provide a parental security like no other. Only the heat and humidity accompanied us on this trip.

I still feel somewhat unsettled for being out of my routine and am trying to reorient myself to home. As much as I like to travel, I need routine to keep me grounded. And this "vacation” was filled with doctor visits and seminars which did not provide much to settling of soul. I didn't read as much as I would have liked. I'm a little over a third complete of John Adams, having almost 400 pages to read. Babe said that my ideal of a vacation would be to put me on a deserted island with a book and a pot of coffee. Closer to the truth would be put me in some remote cabin with a book and a pot of coffee. Too much stimuli frazzles my nerves. I believe that I would as soon be in a cabin in the woods as on the beaches of HI.

The very spot where grew the bread
That formed my bones, I see.
How strange, old field, on thee I tread
And feel I’m part of thee!

A. Lincoln
September 6, 1846

Shinning

Well, I finished 1776, an absolutely great read. Not because it's an untold story, one we don't know. But maybe because it is an untold story. We celebrated the 4th recently with our grand celebrations. It's become more about having a day off and gazing at the pretty sky at night with our oohs and ahs with little mention or recollection of why we celebrate. Kind of like Christmas. Even the local editorial page featured those writing to complain that the local mega-church prayed for fair weather so their event would not be ruined. "They should be praying for rain in our drought ridden area," they bemoaned. Ironically I read this while it was pouring rain here in the four-states.

We have grown complacent and taken our heritage for granted. We have grown soft, feeling entitled with no sense of the hardship others endured on our behalf, complainers that we are. I feel guilty. I feel motivated, inspired to rise above the fray and to become what they fought for me to become. It makes me want to rise to the occasion and do great things.

It is unfathomable what they suffered. As McCollough said it was not short of a miracle that they pulled it off given the circumstances of the times. I fear we need another miracle. Not to overcome our current physical conflicts around the world but to overcome this spirit of sloth, self-delusion and contention we find ourselves encumbered with. Abigale Adams quoting poet Edward Young wrote, "Affliction is the good man's shinning time." It's time for all good men to shine.

Salute to Great Men

We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged.
– Colonel Henry Knox

We salute you Staff Sgt. Raymond James Byron Anthony Charles Plouhar. May your honor be remembered by your men and may your mantle be passed with double portion to a willing brother. Father, grant comfort equal to his sacrifice to his family and be the Father to his fatherless children and a husband to his widow.

Sgt. Plouhar was the recruiter in the despicable mr. moore’s anti-war and anti-President Bush “documentary.” (To clarify, both are despicable.) The paper talked about how he cried when he realized this was not a piece for the Discovery Channel and was embarrassed to be seen in it.

He died on June 26, a couple of weeks before he was supposed to come home, leaving behind a wife, two sons, and parents. The way he sounds to me is that his only regret would have been that he couldn’t finish out his term. If it was predetermined for me to die in Iraq, I would want to die on the last day at the last hour, having served to the fullest.

I was moved by this piece after reading a few headlines before going off to bed. Maybe it was because it was late and I had been reading David McCullough’s 1776. Maybe it was because he was worthy of such honor and I should have been moved.

I’m 77 pages of being finished with 1776 and this is a truly inspiring work. I heartily recommend it. In fact, this is required reading for all Americans. Please e-mail me a 10 page report when you are finished. I can’t put it down. It was almost 1 A.M. tonight when I had to go to bed and then got distracted by the Sgt. Plouhar story. Even though I know the ultimate outcome and many of the details I am still on the edge of my seat while reading. My wife had brought the book home from the library for me to read while vacationing next week but I will be through with it before we leave town. I intend to get McCullough’s work on John Adams who is my favorite Revolutionary figure. My concern is that he leaves too much of the Christian influence out of his writings. He does give lip service by acknowledging how those who were there accredited it, but even the miraculous escape across the East River into New York is attributed to Washington and to luck. How can any sane person say it was sure lucky that wind changed direction the very hour needed and that very unseasonably thick fog was only over the area needed?

So we have it, the bookends. Holding up at the start of the bookshelf were the great men of our beginnings and now (for now) our current men of honor. Regardless of how you slice it, we’re doing ok. Don’t let the overly verbose loudmouths – despicables – distract you from the truth. I believe we will always have men who stand for the glorious cause. Pray that we will be accounted in their number.

Inheritance

When someone dies they pass on an inheritance – something gained because of someone else’s sweat, blood, and tears. We all have an inheritance of freedom in this country, passed on by our fore-fathers because of their sacrifices. It is a joint inheritance, one experienced within the whole and because of the whole. But somehow we see it as an individual inheritance – one to be consumed alone with no thought of passing it along to our children. This is generational wealth.

Our current selfishness is destruction/consumption of our inheritance with no thought for tomorrow – fools we are. This is the case because we have forgotten the whole. Therefore we are weak and wasteful. And our enemies scoff.

The Church mirrors this selfishness. Paul prayed that the believers in Ephesus “eyes would be enlightened” so that they would “know the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” The context is our inheritance in the Church. We have grown so individually minded – independent – we have forgotten our dependence on God and the Body. It is only through the Body that we gain the inheritance. It is only through the Church is Jesus glorified. You see this by how many can live without their church, switching churches like a junior higher switches girlfriends based on selfish reasons or only being their when it is convenient. Church attendance is only the bi-product of giving your heart to Jesus and your siblings. It is not the measure.

Many I see that live their lives alone with only a measure of the benefits of the Kingdom. The measure of benefits we enjoy is in direct proportion to the measure we give ourselves to each other, the Church. (Jesus, by the way, is the head of the Church.) We struggle along in our poverty, oblivious to our wealth in the saints. Their wealth is our wealth. Our wealth is theirs.

I’ve tried to introduce others to this, inviting them to enjoy the reprieve from the heat by the shadow of His wing. But, they would not. I offer them wisdom but they choose foolishness. The rebellion and pride in their heart is the vast expanse between them and me preventing them from partaking of the riches of the Kingdom. So they stand back in their jealousy and accuse me of not giving. How ungrateful. How arrogant. How poor. My dad used to say, “Poor people have poor ways.”

Come and I will show you the ways of the Lord. Come, experience the inheritance.