Pastor's Column February 26, 2012

      The following is titled The Torch, and is written by our old friend Annie Anonymous.

   Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions? Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug, "It's their life," and feel nothing?

   When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my son's head. I asked, "When do you stop worrying?" The nurse said, "When they get out of the accident stage." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

   When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry, they all go through this stage and then you can sit back, relax and enjoy them." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

   When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, "They're trying to find themselves. Don't worry, in a few years you can stop worrying.  They'll be adults." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

   By the time I was 50, I was sick and tired of being vulnerable. I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle. There was nothing I could do about it. My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing. I continued to anguish over their

failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their disappointments.

   My friends said that when my kids got married I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that but I was haunted by my mother's warm smile and her occasional, "You look pale. Are you all right? Call me the minute you get home. Are you depressed about something?"

   Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another

handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown?

Is concern a curse or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?

   One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, "Where were you? I've

been calling for 3 days, and no one answered. I was worried."

   I smiled a warm smile. The torch has been passed. -DJ

PASTOR’S COLUMN Feb. 12, 2012

     Today’s sermon is another of recent sermons having to do with the theme, Jesus Makes a Difference. Today we’re looking at how Jesus helps us deal with the daily news. In prior weeks we’ve examined how Jesus helps us handle suffering and at how he helps in our relationships to others.

    Jesus also helps us with happiness.  David Davenport reviews the book by Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox. Easterbrook keys off the old cigarette commercial, “Are you smoking more now but enjoying it less?” But he asks, “Are you living more now but enjoying it less?”

   Outwardly things are great. During the last century our lifespan has increased from 41 to 77 years. “Indeed, as Easterbrook points out, the average American or European lives better than 99 percent of all human beings who lived before them, including royalty (better health care and higher quality wine edge them out).

   “But opening a window on the inner life reveals a different picture. The percentage of Americans who describe themselves as ‘happy’ has not budged since the 1950s, even though the typical person’s real income has doubled during that time. In a 1997 poll, 66 percent of Americans told pollsters they believed ‘the lot of the average person is getting worse.’ Depression and loneliness are both on the rise.” (Imagine what Americans are saying now!)

   Easterbrook goes on to probe why Americans and Europeans aren’t any happier than we are, but ultimately, says Davenport, the book seems stronger on diagnosis than on prescription.

      In my opinion, Jesus is the prescription. Jesus makes such a difference when it comes to happiness. As a church member I know once said, “People don’t focus on it long enough, but the knowledge that we are loved by no less than the Creator of the Universe changes us. How can we not be happy knowing that now and forever God is taking care of us?”  -DJ

PASTOR’S COLUMN Feb. 5, 2012

      Sometimes we have a hard time getting it right. This is why the Bible says, “For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle.” James. 3: 2.

      For example, Pat Robertson, spokesperson on behalf of the Prince of Peace on The 700 Club, once said while interviewing Joel Mowbray, author of a book critical of the State Department, “Well, it looks like Congress had better do something, and maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up.” (Foggy Bottom is the area in Washington where the agency is.)

   Or Kendel Ehrlich, when she was wife of the governor of Maryland, once said while speaking at a conference on domestic violence, “If I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would.” (Had to do with Ms. Spears being an unhealthy role model for teens.)

   Or after the Wright brothers were successful in getting their flying machine off the ground in December 1903, they excitedly telegraphed their sister Katherine: “We’ve actually flown 120 feet! Will be home for Christmas.” Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.” He entirely missed the real news!

     More recently, actor Mark Wahlberg said about 9/11 in an interview with Men's Journal, "If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we're going to land somewhere safely, don't worry.'"

      But then Mark admitted he crossed the line, "To speculate about such a situation is ridiculous to begin with. I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention." 

       It seems that almost every day some politician is caught off guard and answers in a way that he/she has to later retract. (I, for one, am less concerned about a questioner catching a politician off guard than I am about some of the well-prepared answers politicians givel.)

     The Gospel of John says about Jesus, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.” Given the difficulty we and others have getting it right when we speak, are we surprised? -DJ