Good morning…
“Good evening, my dear friend Sue,” he wrote after our recent posts about the turbulent turmoil and torment swirling around and within us. “I hope you are fully recovered after your illness earlier in the week. I read with interest your messages these past two days. You are right. We live in challenging times. But our loving God has seen our country through many difficult times. Thanks be to God.”
He went on to explain in more detail: “For example, our founding fathers and other colonists who longed for independence from Great Britain lived in fear of death or imprisonment for many years during the Revolutionary War. Then there was the War of 1812, and the burning of Washington, D.C. by the British. Then our nation was racked by a terrible Civil War from 1861 to 1865, where hundreds of thousands of Americans on both sides died. The War culminated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, perhaps our country’s greatest President. Then there was a depression in the 1890s and many Americans starved. Then there was the horrific carnage of World War I from 1914 to 1918, when many millions of people perished. This was followed by terrible influenza epidemic worldwide. Then there was the Great Depression, and the suffering and loss of life of many people in the United States and around the world. Then there was World War II from 1939 to 1945, which included the unimaginable murder of 6,000,000 Jews by Nazi Germany in the Holocaust, and the ushering in of the uncertainties of the Atomic Age. Soon thereafter we saw yet another bloody conflict with the Korean War, followed by the long decades of the Cold War where Americans awakened each morning to the threat of one mistake resulting in the destruction of the United States and other countries in an exchange of thermonuclear weapons.”
His email took a breath, before continuing to teach: “The 1960s were a remarkably turbulent decade. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought us to the brink of war with Russia and in 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Then the Vietnam War divided the country and resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 young American servicemen, many of whom were drafted. Meanwhile, the civil rights struggle wracked the nation and we saw riots and the beating and murder of activists, as well as the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., whose memory we will honor this Monday. Of course this list is not exhaustive. But it gives perspective and illustrates that our nation’s history is one of many crises, struggles and challenges. God has smiled on the United States and seen us through many difficult times. I believe He will continue to bless our nation. We all need to put the Lord first in our lives.”
I guess what this week’s blog posts are all about. Throughout the history of civilization, our focus is refined in the fires of turbulent turmoil and torment: “We all need to put the Lord first in our lives.” We are fed by our focus. Focus on the numbing negativity of swirling around and in us, we go down, down, down. Focus on the powerful presence of God within and among us, we are lifted up, up, up.
Each generation is invited to engage and to keep gazing upon God’s ever-presence in every struggle, every strife, every stressful situation. Trials and tribulations teach us to open our eyes wider on any given day. “On that day you will realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you,” reminds John 14:20 (NIV). In the powerful presence of Almighty God, the step-by-step pathway through our painful predicaments emerges right before our expectant eyes. Jesus whispers into our open ears, “…for I assure you and most solemnly say to you, if you have [living] faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and [if it is God’s will] it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20b, AMP).
…Sue…
