Out of Coma

Out of Coma

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content" (Philippians 4:11).

            This writer, like many Americans, coming out of the coma of this week's Presidential election. Of course, I did not think Obama would be elected President the first time, a man with absolutely NO presidential credentials, just a political activist, a street organizer. But, that is what won the day, he and his ilk knew how to organize, get his vote out. Republicans-conservatives always try to play nice. Of course I could not see the debates but listening, Romney (and I had my doubts about him, mostly because of his religion), was just a too decent-moral-accomplished man.

            Once, a flight to Kathmandu, Nepal, the pilot came over the intercom saying, "This is the best view of Mount Everest that I have ever seen. I understand that there is an almost blind veteran on board, I am going to fly around the mountain and I want him near the window so he can see, if at all possible." The folks got me by the window with my camera. The isolated hulk of Everest came up through the clouds, bright sunlight. It was truly a remarkable picture. This week, many times, when it seems that our nation is collapsing around our feet, I have forced myself to think and visualize places in the world where I have traveled that most people have never seen...glaciers at both the North and South pole, the sand spaciousness of both the Gobi and Sahara deserts, the heights of the Himalayas and the Alps, The Great Wall of China, the great reef of Australia, the Taj Mahal Hall, Agra, India, the white wood frame house where this writer was reared in eastern North Carolina. As the world gets crazier every week in the political cauldron of another four year Obama experimentation, we must have something to hold onto. Other nations have come survived tyrants and conflict. I still remember lines of people outside stores in Russia. In Leningrad, they had not seen an onion in the city for four months. No shoes in the stores, desperate, hungry people, many of them drunk. As I said to a traveling companion, a news commentator with WOR NY, "Drunkenness is their only escape." As in other countries where the communist totalitarian movement took over, we can expect to see crosses removed from churches because they offend many who are just playing church, infringement on all areas of the constitution...freedom of speech, ownership of weapons, open evil by law enforcement. Already happening, nothing makes sense. Just think, printing money out of thin air, loaning to banks for almost nothing, then the banks re-loaning the money to the government at a high interest rate.

            In the warps and woofs of my life, your life, the life of our country, pity those who do not have something solid to hold onto. "But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]" (Hebrews 11:6). For centuries, men and women have continued to "carry on" not fully understanding the blueprint of the creator. What about Herod-who worshipped in the temple, killing all the male babies when Jesus was born? What about Hitler, killing six million of God's chosen people, the Jews? What about Nebuchadnezzar, several excursions, dragging 650 thousand Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon, 600 miles, a 70 year captivity?

            In my long night of blindness, I often asked God why I could not have seen the beautiful white hair of my wonderful mother and grandmother's before they were put into the ground. He has assured me that that the good-best, always rise to the top. That those of us who are his, will spend eternity with those who are his, that I will see my mother's again. We take refuge-consolation in the knowledge that letters after ones name, do not ensure knowledge. My mother, grandmother's and other unlettered women of past years, trusting in God, knew the simplicity of the butter churn (how milk, churched, turns into butter through the miracle of biology), the eggshell (miracle of physics), plants-weeds in the garden (how the roots of weeds will choke a good plant just as the roots of sin will destroy a child's life). Mothers have never needed a degree in psychology.

            Americans have always loved reunions, family, church, college. They often rent cars, clothes, to impress their classmates.  I have one aunt and uncle, now 95 in a nursing home, last of their high school class, who religiously attended the funerals of all their classmates. My college 60th reunion was this year. The same ones who were BWOC (big wheels on campus), still in charge. The time comes when the nation and its people have no one left to impress. Think of the fallen empires, nations, Roman, Greek, Persian, British, etc. When America comes out of its coma, looks at its debts, God talking through great storms (east coast), droughts (mid-west), floods, earthquakes, the message of David's 23rd psalm will come loud and clear.

            The sheep did not worry about anything, they had a shepherd who did all the worrying-planning. The shepherd led them to a pasture with green grass by still waters. The sheep did not tell the shepherd what to do, where they wanted to go. Today's parents are slaves to their children. God, the shepherd, would never argue with his sheep. He knows that he knows better than the sheep. The shepherd loves dumb sheep enough to keep providing for them. Just as God keeps providing for us INSPITE OF EVERYTHING, NATIONAL CALAMITY, LEADERSHIP IN THE WHITE HOUSE, ETC. But, God will allow his sheep to go to Hell if they want to go there.

            I have never been to a funeral that the 23rd Psalm was not read, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" (Psalm 23:4). For his name's sake, this verse reminds us that death is around the corner, that we are alive, free will to make decisions. God help us to make better decisions. Whether Wall Street, Main Street, your street, we must escape the delirium of self, Satanic, interest. A funeral is the last place that the 23rd Psalm should be used. Those of us in the struggle of life need the words of the 23rd Psalm, particularly for times like these.