The Common Man

A visitor to the White House, during the Lincoln presidency, found president Lincoln sitting on the stair steps polishing his shoes. Answering the inquiry about polishing his own shoes, he said, “I wear them”. Perhaps Lincoln is considered the most popular U.S. president because he was a common man born in poverty, lost eight elections, including the 1858 run for U.S. Senate, just two years before he won the election of president, 1860. He failed in business twice, the girl he was to marry died, his son, Todd, died while he was president, revealed the dream he had a about his own death before he was killed, proved to himself and others that he was, in every respect, an uncommon man.

It has always been the common man, showing courage, who became the uncommon man, always, the son's of the poor who died on the battlefield. Before Colonel Gaddafi died, $200B in the bank, Saddam Hussein billions in the bank, Osama Bin Ladin, millions in the bank, or even a man like Prince Charles of England, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, George Soros, billions in the bank. Why the difference in these men from the ordinary common man? Is it a matter of blessing, luck, time, geography, or family birth? Evil or good, decent or corrupt, why do certain men stand out above the crowd?

Questioning such must have occurred to everyone. As a university student, sitting in the football stadium, looking across the stadium at the dignitary box (directly across form the press box on the 50 yard line), having seen the limousines which brought these elitists to the game, I thought, “what goes on up there, what does it take to get there?” Over the years I have learned, been informed, by those who are in that group. They were fat cats, power brokers, of state political and social activity. Mostly blue bloods, born at the right time to the right family, often selling there souls for preeminence. They first dined on the finest foods at the famed university athletic club, then welcomed by state and university officials into the viewing box, where the best in hors d'oeuvres and drinks were provided. I understand that even in private stadiums, box seats for the rich and famous are provided, from which they can look down at the common people. Visiting La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, I was shown the royal box from which royalty could view the opera and look down at the common people.

It has always been that way. The first 5000 years of man, until the great flood, Gentiles. Then God chose one race for Himself, the chosen race, Jews, Abraham, the first Jew of this chosen race... just gentiles and Jews until the Cross. After the Cross, Christians, Gentiles and Jews.

Before the Cross and after the Cross, wars and rumors of wars. Perhaps someone always asks, who really won?, what did we learn? If history has taught us anything, man's inhumanity to man, the suffering of innocent people, innocent animals. Among the casualties of WWII, Italy invading Ethiopia. The son of Benito Mussolini, pilot, described the bombing of Ethiopia, a nation without planes or warfare equipment. He said dropping bombs on the Ethiopian army riding horses, was “like seeing a beautiful rose come in to bloom”. The worst thing I ever saw was a brazen Canadian pulling back a mother's scarf showing a baby still nursing at the dead mother's breast. But, we expect the common man who has experienced warfare to pick up the pieces and move on with his life.

In the American experience, next to slavery, the shame of this or any nation, one man owing another, as great a shame, the treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. This writer, a totally blind veteran, never given a white cane by the government

Most common people just wanted daily bread. Man, through books and movies, have always recognized the Avenging Blade of God. In Europe, during the black plague, some church parishes were almost wiped out, one, 1700 dead, 170 deaths in one week, one church. God has never lied about anything, He will always have the last word.

It is not a matter of civilization or education, 40% – to 50% of people in America believe in ghosts, only 20% in Africa... a continent of voodoo, fetish, witch doctors.

The history of America has been highlighted with lurid headlines concerning corruption in every area of our existence. Wall Street to Main Street, military profits to bailouts of bankers, to sellouts of athletes. Such prolific, protesting, patriotic writers as Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, brought to the attention of the American people the whore-dom of politicians and lobbyists on the Potomac as well as the profiteering in the slaughter houses, buying and selling of college athletes...even until this day, college athletes, who cannot read and write, enjoying the splendor of college life because of their athletic prowess, not academic ability.

I have never understood where the atheist, agnostic, the pretenders go for explanation. The salvation of man, through Jesus Christ, grace through faith, is so simple and so easy to understand. It is a matter of sin's ruin and Christ's redemption and, even those who profess to believe cannot understand. Just as the veil of the temple was rent, top to bottom with the atonement of Christ, so our sins, which God hates, are forgiven... past, present, future, in our repentance, once and for all. If we as Christians, believers, are truly repentant, new creation, born again, it is not necessary to ask over and over for forgiveness, we have been forgiven. This is the gift to the common man, from his designer, his manufacturer, according to the manufacturer's handbook. (The Bible)