Escape from the Moment
Everywhere we look in our culture we see how much we have adapted to living in the moment. Every Christmas advertisement I have received for electronics is making the pitch for cell phones with email and text messaging capability. I have had several friends who expressed amazement that I don’t use (or even know how to use) IM. In business the "just in time" approach has become the standard for inventory control and long range planning has been compressed to mean planning for the next calendar quarter. More and more families, even families with above average incomes, are living paycheck to paycheck. Savings in America is maybe at an all time low. In short, we are a culture that lives for the moment and gives little concern for the future.


Today in Sunday School we looked at the life of Abraham. God promised to bless his descendants for a thousand generations. He believed this promise and looked to a future he would never live to see. Also in class today I mentioned a book I purchased this week. It is an outline of the Book of Church Order prepared by a PCA elder in North Carolina. The reason I mentioned it was that he dedicated to book to one of his ancestors who was a pastor and one of the founders of Concord, MA in the 1500's. The reason for the dedication was that there is some documentation (either journal or sermons) that this future-conscience pastor was faithful to pray that his descendants would respond to the Gospel and accept Christ.


Yesterday, I visited the cemetery in Clarksville where my mother’s family is buried. While I was there it struck me how unlike our generation was my great, great grandfather, Patrick Joseph Savage. He immigrated with his family from Ireland in the mid-1800's. They settled, along with a number of other Irish families, in Montgomery County. I don’t know much about him but I do know he had a view to the future. Not too long after Greenwood Cemetery opened in 1872, he bought a relatively large number of burial plots all in the same area. I have no way to know what was on his mind at the time but there are now representatives of three generations buried there and still room for more. Whether it’s a good idea to purchase burial like my ancestor I don’t know. What I do know as a believer is that I should be so future oriented I regularly pray that my family for all generations to come (until Christ returns) will remain faithful to the covenant.

Special Days

The Andy Blog: On this rainy, foggy winter day we mark the 11th anniversary of Andy’s death. The weather is a vivid picture of my heart today: chilly and heavy. I have been feeling the gravity of this day all week and I guess I wasn’t expecting it, at least not to this degree. People ask if the pain ever gets better. I know that it does for most of the year but on those special days — birthday, Christmas (which Andy loved so much) and today — it seems I get sucked back in time to that most horrible of all days. I can walk through that Sunday moment by moment remembering with great clarity almost every thought, every encounter and still feel the same emotions with the same intensity as I did that day. Dianne has a plaque hanging in the kitchen which says "We don’t remember days, we remember moments." I my particular case this is true but I am remembering almost enough of these moments to make a day.

Of all the pictures we have of Andy (and I have looked at a lot today) this one probably says as much as any about his love for life. Andy had been decorating Christmas cookies to take to kids at church and school. If the cookies look so good with icing, why not decorate himself? And of course he did. And he loved every minute of it. This was probably the week before he began celebrating eternity with his heavenly Father. Andy, we laugh with you and we still miss you very much!

Fishing in the Low Country
I’m not sure there is such a thing as a bad fishing trip but I just returned from a great fishing trip to Edisto Island, South Carolina. Edisto Island is located about an hour southwest of Charleston and is part of what is known as the "low country." The trip was suggested by my son Mickey several months ago as a time for the three MET’s to spend some time together. So last Thursday afternoon Mickey, Michael, and I drove 600 miles to the home of John and Mandy Snow. The Snow’s have a wonderful house on the island adjacent to a saltwater creek. I have never felt more welcome anywhere I have stayed. John and Mandy love having company and have an extraordinary gift for hospitality.

I had never done any saltwater fishing so everything was new to me. First on the agenda each day was catching your bait. John has minnow traps which stay in the water almost all of the time. We also went out each morning and used a cast net to catch shrimp. John is very proficient and could fill an minnow bucket in less than an hour. Mickey had learned to use the cast net during their summer vacation and he added to the shrimp count. I realized quickly that I would certainly embarrass myself and probably fall out of the boat trying to throw the net. After the bait was on board, we went up the creek to some of John’s favorite spots. It was windy on Friday but we were sheltered fairly well on the creek. Just after low tide, we began to catch some fish. We caught about eight speckled trout which were keeping size along with one redfish. For my other grandson Sean, I caught a stingray (nasty creatures!). Saturday morning a front moved through and the fishing was not as good but it was still great day. Saturday night we feasted on fish, crab, and shrimp.

Some thoughts about the trip — Yes, it was a long way to travel for two days of fishing but it was worth the effort and then some. Our time in the car allowed some good catching up with each other and the two adults learned much from the 9 year old philosopher. What about unwinding in such a short period of time? I have had week long vacations that did not relieve the pressures of life like this trip. I attribute part of this to the nature of fishing but a good portion of this result came from the low country attitude we experienced. Everything about life was down a notch or two from the rest of the world. The relaxed attitude was so pervasive that it affected everything. I’ve been back to the normal busy schedule for three days but I still feel relaxed. Not only did I come back refreshed and renewed, I came back encouraged. I knew before the trip that I would enjoy getting re-acquainted with the Snow’s and I was not disappointed. The encouragement came from experiencing the blessings of a committed and loving Christian family and observing how they live out their faith moment by moment. So to John, Mandy, Preston, J. R., Cooper, Carlton, and Mollye, (and of course that wonderful dog, Chester) thank you for reviving an old soul.

The War about Illegal Aliens
America has this interesting habit of declaring war on social issues (I can’t remember a single one that declared war on us first). In the 1960's we declared War on Poverty. This was part of President Johnson’s Great Society initiative. There were many well intentioned folks that took a look at the richness of America (dare we say blessedness!) and decided that we could make a meaningful difference in the lives of many that lived below the poverty level. We did make a difference — we made them feel like second class citizens. In the process of waging this war on poverty, we took substantial funds from the more affluent citizens and funded programs that demeaned the recipients of assistance and undermined many non-governmental charity programs. Result: we still have poverty in America and many programs that assisted the poor with compassion and Christian charity were forced out of business.

In the 1970's we began the War on Drugs. A quick survey of modern America will confirm that we did not win this war. What did happen was that, in support of this worthy effort, we surrendered many of our rights. The Constitution promises that we will be secure in our homes and our possessions. The "no-knock" provisions gives the police the right to kick in your door if they think you may flush drugs down the toilet. RICO allows the government to take your property and keep it until you can prove that you are not a drug dealer. Granted, these are simplistic descriptions but they are accurate with respect to the rights we have surrendered in support of this war.

We all are familiar with the War on Terror. While I am a big supporter of President Bush, I think history may judge his administration as the one that presided over the greatest deterioration of constitutional rights since the adoption of the constitution. I believe the Patriot Act would be considered grounds for a new revolution to many of our founding fathers. Yet, we embraced its provisions in order to feel more "safe" in our homes. Shame on us.

We are now engaged in a War about Illegal Aliens (not a war on illegal aliens). For at least 20 years the Federal Government has failed to enforce the existing laws on immigration. As a result we have 20+ million illegal aliens living in the county, most from Mexico. These people have been a blessing to business and a curse to the average citizen who sees his tax money being spent to support services for people who should not be in the country. Some conservative politicians have seen this as an issue to champion to improve their standing with the electorate. One of the worst consequences of this is the "Anti-Sanctuary" legislation presently pending before Congress. This legislation would penalize any city or state that does not modify the operation of the law enforcement agencies to make cooperation with the immigration service a top priority. Under this legislation Federal funds can be withheld from cities if they continue to instruct the local police to enforce local laws and protect the citizens. The Mayor of Detroit was quoted in USA Today (10/26/07) as follows: "I want Detroit police officers out there catching people who are stealing cars and mugging old ladies, not asking people for their passports." Cities who take this approach have been branded "sanctuary cites" by certain members of congress and conservative talk show hosts. In my opinion, this is just one more case where we are being asked to allow the Federal government to intrude in local affairs, contrary to the intent of the Founding Fathers, and surrender more of our rights. We don’t have many left — when will we take our stand?

Jonathan Who?

It been a while since I posted. My excuse: I have been both busy and lazy. I was shook out of my inattention during a trip to Borders last Friday night. I was in the literature section immediately adjacent to the religion section. There was a high school girl and her mother standing at the divider between the two sections. The mother asked "Now who is this man we’re looking for?" The girl responds, "Jonathan Edwards." The mother is unfamiliar with the name and asks, "Who is he and what’s so special about him?" The girl responds, "In the colonial days he was a preacher who used guilt manipulation and terror to try to force people to convert to Christianity. He would tell stories that were like horror movies about what will happen to you if you didn’t join his church." She said a good bit more along the same lines but those words are lost in the fog of my memory.

I was a bit shocked and, although I was tempted to step around the divider and engage them in conversation, I remained frozen in place trying to figure out where this young girl got those ideas. It was clear from listening how quick and sure her answer was that she had heard this from someone. A few days later I shared this incident with a friend. He explained that many schools today have so "dumbed-down" the study of literature that almost all they read are excerpts. He further explained that there are curriculum in use in some public schools that contain a portion of Edward’s sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (the most graphic portions). The curriculum gives little context for the sermon as a whole or the portions read. It is very likely that a teacher who is no friend to Christianity could color his introduction to convey to the class what the girl repeated.

What a tragedy that so many young people can come away from high school with such a false opinion of one of our Nation’s greatest minds. But maybe the bigger tragedy is the way literature is being taught. It seems the curriculum writers have taken as gospel the notion that all teenagers have short attention spans and cannot listen (or read) for periods longer than a few minutes at a time. Computer games, music videos, text messages all train the recipient to "get it and go." A couple of movies I have watched (Example: Bourne Ultimatum ) change scenes so rapidly that it gives me a headache. This is what the kids get on video games. I’m sure somewhere the argument is used that if we try to teach literature the "old" way we will lose the kids and they won’t read at all. I just can’t believe that a good story has lost all its magic.

Whistling Jack Smith - I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman

Great music triva. This song made it to the Billboard Top 20 in 1967

Prayer for Our Birthday
On an earlier 4th of July, George Washington offered the following prayer: "Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that you will keep the United States in your holy protection; that you will incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow-citizens. And finally, that you will most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, peaceful mindset which are the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion and without which we can never be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Here’s my prayer for today: O Heavenly Father, what a wonderful legacy you gave this country in founding fathers who were men who proclaimed Christ as their Savior and were not ashamed to quote Your Word publicly.

Father we praise Your Name, a chorus of Your redeemed living in this wonderful country. We thank You that You have planted us in a very fruitful land and You have caused this land produce its bounty for us. No nation, with the exception of ancient Israel, has been more blessed than we. Yet, in many ways we have, as a nation, forgotten our first love. We have turned from serving and honoring You and have built idols of greed, self-gratification, personal peace, ambition, and sexual perversion. We have replaced justice with expediency, mercy with political correctness, compassion with a demeaning welfare system, and humility with the arrogance of success. We have scorned Your precious gift of life and have become a nation that murders our unborn, produces children that kill each other and themselves, and have stepped on that slippery slope where we decide which of our old and sick have lives worthy of living.

Gracious God, You would be fully justified if You withdrew Your blessings. Yet, You have not withdrawn Your hand and in that we find great hope. Therefore Father, we do pray for this nation. We pray for our President, our Vice President, and the governors of states. Be gracious to them in their persons and remind them that Your are the Ruler of the kings of the earth and that You hold their hearts in Your hand. Compel them, we pray, to live godly lives before the people and let them rule wisely and in accordance with Your will.

We pray for all of the legislators that they will use wisdom, reason, and compassion as they make laws.

We pray of all the judges that interpret the law, may they do so with fairness, honesty and impartially.

We pray for all those who work for the various agencies of government, that they will serve the people well and not let government become more of a burden.

We pray for all those who serve in the military, that they will be ever ready to defend this country but even more ready to preserve the peace.

We pray for the commerce of this nation, that You will continue to bless us with opportunities to work and support our families. Lord, give us hearts willing to share our abundance with those in need.

Gracious Father, we pray for the families of this nation. It was on the strength of families that this county was founded and now our families are under attack. We pray for husbands and wives that they will be committed to each other and to You. We pray that fathers and mothers will understand Your plan for families and be willing to reclaim childhood for their children. Bless our families with laws that are friendly to Your standard for the family and protect them from the Evil One who would undermine this very foundation of our land.

O Lord of the Harvest, we pray that you will fill our pulpits with men of godly character and calling; make them burning and shining lights, faithful to Christ and to the souls in their care. May they faithfully preach the power of the Gospel to broken and wounded people in desperate need of Your love and forgiveness. We pray for a work of the Spirit in bringing revival and reformation to our nation. Let our churches once more be full of Your people and may they once again raise the standard for Biblical character and integrity in this land. And Father, if we can be so bold, we pray that revival will begin with our hearts this day.

In the powerful name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.