Some Friday Encouragement

  I admit when it comes to politics and social/political/scientific issues, I am a bit of a curmudgeon. Perhaps this is because one truth that informs my beliefs is that humans are essentially sinful, and that truth should inform our policies and views. The lack of understanding this truth has led to much misery in the world.

 That being said, other truths inform my beliefs - one being that all people, being made in God’s image, have inherent worth and value. The other is that God desires to display believers, corruptible weak vessels that we are, His incredible love to humanity.

 To that I have two videos – one of which is from a piece on Good Morning America this morning. The second is from a center in Kenya which serves disabled children. I am very blessed to know both families in these videos, and humbled by their great service. Well, take a look for yourselves: 

The first video is from Good Morning America this morning, and it’s an amazing  story about some friends of ours, Jay and Beth Loecken:

Next, Tracey Hagman with Heshima Childrens Center in a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, called Ngando:

Interestingly, Jay and Beth were inspired by Eric and Tracey during a mission trip to Africa (which my wife and I have also been on). I was priviledged to know both couples, when we attended the same church. What strikes me about them both though is that they weren’t what I would would consider the stereotypical ‘missionary’ types – the were both realtively ordinary ordinary folks living fairly comfortable successful lives, who decided, with no little sacrifice, too obey God’s calling of a life of service and sacrifice.

As tempted as I am to comment further, I think their lives speak for themselves.

More than a day off

One of my few regrets in life is not having ever served in the armed forces. Unfortunately, at the time when I would have joined the military, I was a left-wing anti-establishmentarian, who despised any institutions I deemed authoritarian. Had I only converted a few years earlier, I may have thought differently.

Sadder still since I come from a family that has a long history of service; I am named after an uncle who died at age eighteen after stepping on a land mine in Italy during WWII, my father fought in the same war in Italy and Africa, another uncle, who died recently, served at both Normandy and Iwo Jima. My only brother was in the Navy, and served in Bahrain shortly following the Gulf War.

Today is their day, and now, despite my own lack of service, I want to express immense gratitude for their service and sacrifice, without which, we wouldn't have the freedom and prosperity we so richly enjoy. Thank you.

In Memoriam – William Delbert 1925 – 2006

My uncle Bill died last week, on a Sunday afternoon in New Orleans. "Paw Paw" as my nieces and nephews called him, finally gave in after struggling through two strokes, and ultimately a hurricane that took away what little vitality he had left. He was my last living male relative in my father's generation, making the loss of his passing all the more sad.

His life was a simple one, though powerful in a way so few are today. He lived through and survived the depression, only to be sent off to fight in the Great War, World War II. There, in the Navy he experienced some of the greatest battles of our time. Serving aboard the USS Blessman, he lived through and witnessed the invasion of Normandy and Iwo Jima, at the latter surviving the explosion of a 500lb bomb that killed 40 of his shipmates.  I don't think I began to appreciate his service until I saw the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.

Returning home, he went to work for New Orleans Public Service, working in electrical utilities, a job he would retire from. He bought the house he would live in most of his adult life (until Katrina took it), and was faithfully married to two women, the first my aunt Theresa, whom he lost to cancer, and the second my aunt Barbara, who died a few years before him. He had five children, all of whom are successful adults in their own right today.

His death, though not widely felt, marks the loss of one more connection of this generation to the past. As with most men of his generation, he didn't talk much of the things he had experienced; though looking back, he lived through and personally experienced some of the most incredible moments in recent history.

That perhaps is what most separates our generation from his; he strived to do simple everyday things well and faithfully, and ended up being a part of the greatest events of our nation. Our generation desires to do and say great things, but often fails to do the everyday things – having faithful, lifetime marriages, raising children into fruitful adulthood, and establishing homes and communities. These are the things which, founded in our faith, bring the most profound sense of accomplishment in the end.

The truth offered by Christ that, "He who is faithful in little will also be faithful in much" was profoundly exemplified in the life of my uncle, and others like him. I can only hope it will be true of me in the end.