Musings

Written on June 4 and 5:

My friend Hank has been volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse for the past few years, helping those in disaster areas try to put their lives back together. I asked him this past Tuesday how things are in Panama City, FL, and he told me that the people there have years of rebuilding ahead of them.

“Years of rebuilding…”

Yesterday, June 3, the best man I ever worked for, Earl Ferguson, died. Earl truly had a heart to provide affordable housing for those who needed it – Earl and I didn’t always agree, but I never questioned Earl’s heart. Vickie, who also worked for Earl, and I loved him.

Fifty-two years ago today, on June 4, 1968, my Mom, Alice Frances Grover Withers, went to be with Christ. My last glimpse of her was seeing her wheeled on her hospital bed from her room to ICU.

Yesterday I called my brother Jim, who is battling a rare form a cancer – he was in too much pain to talk.

Our prayer list is long, and it includes those at home and abroad; those we know and those we don’t know, from Richmond, VA to Syria and beyond.

Then, of course, there are the double vees, the Virus and the Violence.

What does one do when one is in a tsunami? Perspective can be difficult. Frames of reference can be fleeting.

Of course, since we are a society addicted to instant gratification the thought that anything could take “years of rebuilding” is repugnant to us. Hence our political and social and religious leaders tend to focus on the short term in order to placate us, and also not to demand too much from us – after all, both votes and Sunday offerings are important.

I am reminded that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride” (Psalm 46:1 – 3).

This life is fleeting. We have a friend who is 102 years old, even his life is fleeting.

When the Cross is wrapped in a national flag the Gospel cannot breathe.

If professing – Christians are not clear that their citizenship is in heaven, but they rather align themselves with political power, when times of national crises arise they have little or no credibility to speak God’s Word to a nation for they are not identified with the Gospel, Jesus Christ, and God’s Kingdom, but rather with political agendas.

How can professing – Christians read the Bible and ignore that “inasmuch as you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it unto Me”? Show me how a church, or a nation, treats its poor and powerless and disenfranchised and I’ll show you how the nation or church measures up to the Word of God. This is true of home and abroad – of domestic and international thinking and behavior.

Can we identify with the psalmist, “Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war” (Psalm 120:6 – 7)?

The Prophets never apologized for God’s Word. They trembled, they wept, they feared, but they never apologized. Why do we apologize for God? He is holy, outside of Him we are depraved. This is good news, our affliction has been diagnosed – Jesus Christ, our cure, has been offered. Jesus Christ is not a vaccine against sin, He offers us a blood transfusion – His life eternal in place of our death.

Panama City, FL. How can a nation as wealthy as we are allow our fellow citizens to remain in a desperate situation? We can ask the same question about our inner cities, and about our Native Americans, and about our poor rural regions. How can much of the professing – church mirror society in this regard?

This is a good day for me to pray and ask God to search my heart.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23 – 24).

Let nothing in me hurt others or myself, and let me know that Jesus Christ is the Everlasting Way. Let us speak peace – peace in the words that flow from our hearts, and peace in our actions. Let us be islands of peace in a tsunami of fear, hatred, and vitriol. Let us remember that, if we profess Jesus Christ, that He is the Prince of Peace – and that when people touch us that they should be touching Peace.