Tracking Jesus

The news has been filled the past week with stories of baby Jesus statues that have been stolen from their places in manger scenes throughout the United States. One church has lost three thus far: an $1800 imported Jesus made in Italy, a $500 replacement made in the U.S., and an inexpensive rubber doll. It is currently attaching a GPS system inside the 4th doll in order to track it should it also disappear. Evidently, teens think stealing Jesus is a rather amusing adventure during the Christmas season.

Today on Christmas Eve day, we are told by numerous weather people that we can also track the presence of Santa as he goes around the world with his sleigh and reindeer delivering presents to good little boys and girls. Currently, as I write, he is over Japan. While I think the use of GPS systems has kept many people on the right track, I don't think we need them to discover either the presence of Christ or Santa. As Christians, we know He has been in our hearts for many years.

This morning in the Bible I was reading from Acts, chapter 17, which is set in Athens, and centers on the Apostle Paul's sermon on Mars' Hill. Addressing both the Athenians and the foreigners, Paul speaks the following words: "He (God) is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being . . . ."

Although we are assured of these words, many of us act as if we need a GPS system to find Christ. We go about our tasks each day rather blindly, depending upon ourselves and our own strength to accomplish our goals. It is only when we perceive Christ has somehow disappeared from our lives that we begin fretting and seeking Him once again. For 2009 we need to hold Him close so that He doesn't seem so far away. We do not need a GPS system.

Justice--In a Minute

America has traditionally been known as being a nation in a hurry. This fact has been borne out in many areas recently such as driving by a fast food establishment for a take-out dinner, driving by to leave clothes for cleaning, driving by to check out a DVD, and even driving by to go to church or to get a flu shot. I suggest that we also consider drive-by courts, similar to Judge Judy's, but much faster--perhaps to obtain justice in a minute or so.

My first experience, after sixty-four years of life, within a courtroom took place this week in Little Rock. A very close relative had made an accusation and filed a police report a few months back with the police department. The charge for the defendant was aggravated assault and third degree battery. My husband and I chose to observe the proceedings and lend as much moral support as we could. We had assumed testimony would be heard and then a decision would be rendered by the judge. Instead, when we arrived in the courtroom, we were all informed that the decision had already been made by the judge, the defense attorney, and the prosecutor BEFORE the trial. My relative was asked if he still wanted to proceed with the testimonies; he said "yes," knowing the outcome ahead of time but wanting to get the trial on record. The judge ruled shortly that the trial would be suspended for a year. Evidently, this move is to allow the defendant either to behave and quit threatening to kill everyone involved, or to go ahead and be violent again. Frankly, I would have preferred that the three decision-makers take more seriously spousal abuse and violent attacks. I now see why the police get discouraged with the judicial system.

Other observations I have about justice-in-a-minute decisions are that most of the defendants in court that day were minorities--either African-American or Hispanic. I am not one to say that shoplifting, petty theft, not paying rent, and other crimes are related to race or culture. I do believe, however, that the relationship between economic need and crime is strong. Until we as a society can provide decent wages and an adequate standard of living, this trend will continue.

Another observation I have concerns the number of domestic battery cases that came before the judge for their minute of justice. The women, without fail, claimed that whatever violence that took place in the family structure was their fault. I somehow doubt it. Once again, we see the difficulty of abused women actually testifying against their significant others. It is simply easier to claim fault and walk away with the accused hand-in-hand, the no-contact order forgotten, only to wait for the next violent fight.

Perhaps I am naive to believe justice can exist in America. I do not believe, however, it can be doled out in a minute, or less.

Extreme Measures

Due to the challenging economic times which America, and the rest of the world, finds itself in, many are taking extreme measures to make ends meet. The media have been reporting on a number of stories that might give us pause. One occurred on the Today show yesterday morning concerning a baby who died because his mother was trying to stretch his baby formula by adding an overabundance of water. The baby evidently weighed two-thirds of his ideal weight when he died. The mother had no idea that her baby could die from such a measure.

Another report tells us of the dropping sales in the meat industry, including poultry and fish. People are eating less meat and more potatoes and pasta. Obesity rates are destined to increase yet again. Though I do not have direct evidence, I am assuming also that people in retirement are also trying to conserve on their food in order to buy their prescribed medicines. Since my husband was in the "doughnut" hole the final three months of this year, I have been sharing my blood pressure medicine with him until 2009. At that time he can buy more at his plan's regular prices. A couple of his doctors were gracious enough to provide him samples for his other two prescriptions until the new year.

All this is to say that, at this point, my husband and I have made few sacrifices, i. e. eliminating Starbucks lattes from our list of preferred activities, cutting down the number of restaurant meals per week to one, and trimming our Christmas gift budget. Economists have just announced that we have already been in recession for one year. My prediction is that we will be in a depression for the next five years or more. I hope I am wrong.

The government is simply printing billions of dollars in order to flood the economy with money. I believe Germany also took these extreme measures back in the late 1930's. Let's just hope, and pray, that history does not repeat itself.

Bushes Burn

As we discussed a number of topics at the conference I attended on the weekend, one of the Scripture passages came up that we all know. It is found in Exodus, chapter 3, where the angel of the Lord appears to Moses through a burning bush. In a desert, of course, that image might not be too unusual, but as I think about the California wildfires for the past week or so, perhaps it is. Unlike the hundreds of homes and miles of landscape that have been consumed, this particular bush was not consumed. God, it seems, wanted Moses to stop, take time to listen to His words, and respond. I wonder how many times God has either spoken to us in His still quiet voice or through a dramatic situation and we have simply continued on our tasks ignoring Him.

It seems now that I am in my sixties I have more time to reflect upon lost opportunities of the past than ever. I do not believe God wants to to feel guilty about these, and I do believe He still speaks to us and give us new challenges at any age. I go to a church downtown that participates in numerous outreach activities in conjunction with other churches in the city. It provides a number of opportunities for its members to learn and grow spiritually. It does not, however, seem to have any evangelistic programs to bring in new members.

The church essentially has four missions: to grow closer to God personally, to participate within the church community in rituals and activities, to help others through social outreach programs, and to evangelize. I believe the latter is equally as important as are the other three. As I look around the congregation each Sunday morning, I realize again the need to bring in new people. How to do that exactly I am not sure. I trust that I will listen to God's voice should He speak in a burning bush, or otherwise, to me personally.

Something to Live For

This week, as part of our Bible study, we discussed a famous chapter from Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. It's the one entitled "The Grand Inquisitor." The premise centers around one of the brothers, Ivan, who is planning to write a literary piece about heavenly powers coming to earth in the sixteenth century to debate religion. Dostoevsky for many has challenged us through the years to wrap our minds around many fascinating ideas. This piece is no exception. At one point of the story, the grand inquisitor (representing Satan) says to the Christ figure, "For the mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for." This statement has made me rethink my own ideas relating to retirement.

I have always been a person who set goals consistently for myself from the time I was young. I guess it comes from being raised in a family that realistically had little to look forward to from day to day. Yet somehow, from our being exposed to books at the public library and a mother who read voraciously, my sister and I began to believe we too could go beyond the possibility of just staying alive in order to find something beyond ourselves to live for. We have both devoted ourselves to do our best to sacrifice and serve. My sister is a great hostess and caregiver for those in need, especially the elderly. Her latest project is to work with the homeless through a new church program. I have chosen to work for years in non-profit Christian institutions, spending many hours speaking to students on life development goals, cooking breakfast for them, taking them on field trips, and counseling them on a one-on-one basis. Now that my sister and I are both retired, however, I at least have wondered if I should sit back and let others do the work of the world. Could I be happy simply existing?

My answer might have come a couple of weeks ago when I received an invitation from Joanna, our church deacon, to train as a facilitator for the DOCC program (Disciples of Christ in Community). It's an 18 hour program led by a bishop from New Orleans, William Barnwell. I have come to the conclusion, as our previous pastor for years, Cliff Palmer, used to say frequently, "One can never retire from the work of the Lord." I believe that, even in the retirement years, we can still be productive. All of us need to go beyond simply existing and find an area where we can go beyond ourselves and find new goals to live for.

Triple Standards

In an interview yesterday, Sarah Palin indicated that she had a word for future women who would run for office or seek to obtain a high position in a man's world. She must be prepared to work extra hard and expect a lot of double standards to be applied. The interview came in light of the presssure this week to answer charges from within the campaign that Palin was a diva. I submit that not only must a woman in today's world work hard, but she must also be prepared for triple standards as well.

It has long been known that conservative women face a tremendous uphill battle in the Republican world. These are standards imposed upon them by men. Ask any woman like myself who has also faced this battle, and we can give you many examples of double standards. For years we have been taught in our churches that women's places were in the home, nurturing their husbands and children and also participating in church ministries. I attended a retreat in the early 1980's at my former university only to hear an administrator claim that women's careers were not as important to them as men's careers were to them. Unfortunately, that double standard still continues a quarter of a century later.

The triple standard comes from other women who resent a newcomer's success for one reason or another. From conservative women critics, we hear that Palin is too attractive and young and obviously chosen by McCain because of her beauty. They speak these words only after being declared irrelevant themselves since their own beauty and youth have long faded. Liberal women, as Charles Krauthammer said in his newspaper column today, have been obsessed with "a psychodrama of feminist rage and elite loathing" of Palin. While they claim to represent all women, they simply represent women who are pro-choice only. Sadly, that representation excludes one-half of us.

While I am thrilled for all the African-Americans who now know that yes, indeed, they too can now become President of the United States, I wonder how much longer we women will wait for the same opportunity. Triple standards are not easily erased in American society.

What Would Mother Say?

For the past few weeks I have been reading Jan Karon's Mitford series and am currently in book two, A Light in the Window. The series was extremely popular among Christian women in the mid-1990's. Now that I am retired I have more time for reading books that I am not preparing to teach. This book features two main characters, Father Tim who is a sixty-two years old Episcopalian priest and his next door neighbor, Cynthia, with whom he has fallen in love. As Father Tim is searching for an amethyst brooch he had given his deceased mother, he asks the question, "What would his own mother say if she could speak to him now?" For all of us whose mothers have died, we sometimes ask the same question of ourselves.

If I could speak to my mother again directly, I believe my mother would be filled with joy for me. She would say, "Lisa, I am so glad you have the time now that you are retired to enjoy nature. You worked so hard through the years that the time just flew by. Enjoy the creation, especially in the autumn of your life. Like the trees outside your windows today, the leaves will slowly drop in preparation for the winter months. That should not diminish, however, the joy we have for the precious moments of today."

I believe my mother would also say, "Now that you are not so tired with work, getting your doctorate, raising your children, being a wife, and having various ministires, you can also enjoy stretching your mind and appreciating the Incarnation. You can actually think about what you are reading in your daily Bible reading and meditate upon the universal truths within it. You remember that I was a searcher all my life for truth, and now you are joining me in that search."

I have to ask myself also, in fairness, what I would say to my mother if we could miraculously once again sit in my living room or hers and have a long conversation. I would probably say more about sorrow than joy. I would have to give my regrets in this way, "I am sorry that I did not take more time when you were alive to appreciate your wisdom and just sit for hours listening as you talked about your love for my father, your love for us, and your desire to have us be faithful Christians." I am sure I would also say, "I regret that I did not fully understand how hard your life was as a single mother through the years working several jobs in order for us to pay our bills. It has only been in recent years through reading your letters to Kimberly [our daughter] that I began to understand the tough environment you lived in with Daddy [an alcoholic, womanizer, and compulsive gambler].

The Bible assures us in the New Testament that we will have no regrets in heaven, only joy. I look forward to that day.