Random Memorial Day Thoughts
Hope you're enjoying your Memorial Day break. More so, hope you manage to remember, even pray for, those who died fighting our wars - the whole point of Memorial Day.
Sometimes we need reminding about that. For so many of us, life revolves around "me." Not that we humans haven't always been a selfish lot, but the scales have been tipped to extreme levels in recent years. These days, it's all about us. So maybe today instead of focusing on self-indulgence, self-congratulation or selfies, you remember them.
While we can always use a schmear of love of neighbor, there those who wallow in the delusion that our society's in a state such as has never been seen in the history of man. Of course, the really deluded amongst us lay this purported state of affairs at the feet of Donald Trump. So they spend their days scheming to rid the world of him whom they consider the most horrible-est president to sit in the White House - ehvur.
Over the holiday weekend, a conversation with a loved one touched on this. He commented about a colleague giving a speech at school graduation that referred to our society being torn in two, a state of enmity never before seen in this country. Said loved one - younger than I - inquired about how things were in the 1960s/1970s as they had done some reading and research that seemed to illustrate even worse times in the past, the most obvious being the Civil War.
Being a sharp-minded fellow, he understood that, while the Civil War should be the obvious example of worse times, there likely could be others. Hence he cited the Civil Right movement, the Vietnam War, and the Johnson/Nixon years. He suspected things may have just a tad more contentious than they are today. I heartily agreed, having some direct contact with events from those tawdry times. We concluded that folks today, uneducated about the past as they typically are, really have no perspective when evaluating current events. Thus they think we're in far more terrible straights than have ever befallen mankind - excuse me, humankind.
Besides getting back to actually learning something about history, the ultimate tonic to all this hand-wringing would be to lift our gaze from matters steeped in the world, the flesh, and the devil, and turn to God. If you're going to consider what's going on these days, consider first that somehow, some way, this is part of God's plan.
The thing we might remember here is that, while God permits bad things to occur, He somehow brings good from the bad. Short of getting into an extended discussion of what is a rather mysterious process, let's shift back to Memorial Day.
God permitted - and permits - some of us to die that others might live. Most of those who died didn't desire to die in war so that you and I might live in peace. But that's how things went. And that peace they bought at the expense of their lives is our current state of affairs.
Things may not be perfect right now. Some of us may not like our current president or the recent legislation in Alabama that bans abortion. Some of us may think we've gone off the deep end when we declare that children should be allowed to chose their own gender - from not two, but some dozens of choices.
You get the idea, so we'll cut the list short here. With all that's going on, it's tempting to get lost in the weeds and allow yourself to be pulled this way and that. Don't let it. Take a step back, take a deep breath, say a prayer to the Almighty. Thank Him for the blessings He's given you, one of which is the blessing of the relatively peaceful world in which you live. Thank Him for the sacrifice made by those who have died to establish and preserve that peace.
If we can all stop thinking about ourselves for a few minutes today, and turn our hearts and mind to God, it may turn out to be a blessed Memorial Day.
Sometimes we need reminding about that. For so many of us, life revolves around "me." Not that we humans haven't always been a selfish lot, but the scales have been tipped to extreme levels in recent years. These days, it's all about us. So maybe today instead of focusing on self-indulgence, self-congratulation or selfies, you remember them.
While we can always use a schmear of love of neighbor, there those who wallow in the delusion that our society's in a state such as has never been seen in the history of man. Of course, the really deluded amongst us lay this purported state of affairs at the feet of Donald Trump. So they spend their days scheming to rid the world of him whom they consider the most horrible-est president to sit in the White House - ehvur.
Over the holiday weekend, a conversation with a loved one touched on this. He commented about a colleague giving a speech at school graduation that referred to our society being torn in two, a state of enmity never before seen in this country. Said loved one - younger than I - inquired about how things were in the 1960s/1970s as they had done some reading and research that seemed to illustrate even worse times in the past, the most obvious being the Civil War.
Being a sharp-minded fellow, he understood that, while the Civil War should be the obvious example of worse times, there likely could be others. Hence he cited the Civil Right movement, the Vietnam War, and the Johnson/Nixon years. He suspected things may have just a tad more contentious than they are today. I heartily agreed, having some direct contact with events from those tawdry times. We concluded that folks today, uneducated about the past as they typically are, really have no perspective when evaluating current events. Thus they think we're in far more terrible straights than have ever befallen mankind - excuse me, humankind.
Besides getting back to actually learning something about history, the ultimate tonic to all this hand-wringing would be to lift our gaze from matters steeped in the world, the flesh, and the devil, and turn to God. If you're going to consider what's going on these days, consider first that somehow, some way, this is part of God's plan.
The thing we might remember here is that, while God permits bad things to occur, He somehow brings good from the bad. Short of getting into an extended discussion of what is a rather mysterious process, let's shift back to Memorial Day.
God permitted - and permits - some of us to die that others might live. Most of those who died didn't desire to die in war so that you and I might live in peace. But that's how things went. And that peace they bought at the expense of their lives is our current state of affairs.
Things may not be perfect right now. Some of us may not like our current president or the recent legislation in Alabama that bans abortion. Some of us may think we've gone off the deep end when we declare that children should be allowed to chose their own gender - from not two, but some dozens of choices.
You get the idea, so we'll cut the list short here. With all that's going on, it's tempting to get lost in the weeds and allow yourself to be pulled this way and that. Don't let it. Take a step back, take a deep breath, say a prayer to the Almighty. Thank Him for the blessings He's given you, one of which is the blessing of the relatively peaceful world in which you live. Thank Him for the sacrifice made by those who have died to establish and preserve that peace.
If we can all stop thinking about ourselves for a few minutes today, and turn our hearts and mind to God, it may turn out to be a blessed Memorial Day.
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