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“Love your neighbor as yourself.”  – Matthew 22:39 

Loving America

On a road trip a few years ago with one of our granddaughters we stopped in St. Louis to visit the Arch.  While there I found myself standing in line next to an elderly gentleman on a walker wearing a baseball cap bearing the Stars and Stripes.  In a gesture to be friendly I remarked to the man, “I like your cap.” Smiling back at me, this was his reply.  “I still love America, don’t you?”  Ironically, when that occurred I happened to be in the midst of reading If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty, by Eric Metaxas, which included a chapter entitled “Loving America”.

Prior to these simultaneous experiences I’m not sure I had given much thought about loving my native America and what that means, especially in light of the widespread ideological polarization and negative political rhetoric we are exposed to today.  But Lincoln believed, according to Metaxas, “that love of country is necessary, that America cannot and will not survive without it.”  To do so, though, requires taking a realistic view of America as being both heroically great, yet also deeply flawed.  We should, for example, feel a healthy sense of pride for the “greatest generation” who saved our country and the world from tyranny in World War II; or the courageous responders to the 9/11 attacks.  By the same token America has made shameful blunders in its history, the most obvious and egregious being slavery and the racism that continues to plague our culture.  As Metaxas points out, “Heroism and ignominy both are part of our history.  The only question is whether, having seen both, we can repent of the one and rejoice and be inspired by the other.”  Considering both, then, can we still love America?

But there’s another factor yet to be mentioned, which has to do with Jesus’ command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Despite the negative political rhetoric and polarization that is so indisputably prevalent in our culture today, except for the news headlines it is not the America I awaken to each morning.  Instead, I encounter people who are warm, friendly, helpful, encouraging, and industrious – friends, neighbors, and strangers alike – who care for each other, their families and communities.  Those encounters make me feel loved, inspire me to love my neighbors back, and keeps me loving America. . . Happy 4^th of July, and may God bless America!

“Jesus stopped . . .”  – Luke 18:40 

Traveling in rural West Texas over the weekend, not too far from our destination, suddenly we heard a clattering sound that seemed to be coming from beneath our car.  Quickly pulling off to the side of the road to inspect we discovered one of the tires had gone completely flat without warning, something I haven’t experienced in years.  Now, while I like to think I am physically capable of changing a tire, the problem that occurred was that I would need to resort to the owner’s manual in order to study exactly how to locate and use the equipment properly, either that or call a professional for help.

Never mind all that, though, for before we even had a chance to consider our options a large black diesel pickup truck pulled up right behind us and out stepped a stout handsome young man who walked up and introduced himself as Casey asking if we needed some help changing the tire, said he managed a ranch nearby and was accustomed to changing flats, something he did frequently on the ranch.  We accepted his offer immediately, of course, with deepest gratitude, and Casey went to work, needing no owner’s manual for instructions.  Ten minutes later we were back on the road.  Except that’s not all.  I noticed in the rearview mirror Casey following us from a distance to ensure we arrived safely at our destination – an act of compassion above and beyond.

An amazing story is told about Jesus traveling to Jericho when he encountered a blind man begging on the side of the road who, when he learned that Jesus was passing by, called out to him for help.  But those in Jesus’ entourage rebuked the man and told him to quiet down.  Ignoring his travel companions, though, scripture tells us that “Jesus stopped,” offering compassion for the man and healing his blindness.

Several years ago a friend of mine, after reading that scripture passage, looked up with the most puzzled look on his face.  “Isn’t that amazing,” he said, “Jesus stopped!”  Exactly what I thought about the young rancher Casey, he stopped!  It’s not so much what he did, although I am extremely grateful, but the mere fact that he stopped to help two total strangers, that’s what is so amazing.  It got me thinking, if a busy rancher can stop to help a stranger, not to mention the King of kings and Lord of lords taking time to stop and offer compassion to a blind beggar, shouldn’t we all be doing more of that?

Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again.” 

– Psalm 71:20 

The young man sat across from me, his face buried in his hands sobbing.  I had just fired him, on the grounds of poor performance, and he was understandably devastated, explaining between sobs how he had never before failed at anything in his life.  Sometime later I approached the young man with an idea, an offer to keep him on but in a lesser position at a much reduced salary.  He jumped at that second chance.  Before long he became a rising star, and eventually a successful professional.  Some years later another young man applied for a position I had available, but the interview did not go well.  Realizing he had blown the interview, the next day he called begging for a second chance.  That second interview landed him the job, and he too eventually grew to become a successful professional.

Lest my arm break from patting myself on the back for my gracious deeds, let me hasten to admit that whatever benevolence I may have offered those two young men is minuscule compared to the number of second chances I have received in my own life, few of which were the least bit deserved.  But by the grace of God and the help of many fine people I’ve been blessed with countless second chances.

In Luke chapter 15 Jesus tells a wonderful parable about a young man who after asking for and receiving his inheritance from his father ran away and squandered it all on wild living.  Finally, broke and desperate he decided to return home in the hope that his father might at the very least employ him as a lowly servant.  Instead, his father ran out and threw his arms around his son welcoming him home, then had a grand party to celebrate his return – the gracious gift of a second chance.

I’m still convinced to this day that those two guys who crossed my path all those years ago deserved a second chance, as evidenced by their success.  (I’m less sure I’ve been equally as deserving.)  I’m also convinced that God is a God of second chances, whether we deserve it or not; for as the Psalmist says, “Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again” – to be given a second chance.

“. . . but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.”  – Philippians 2:7 

What makes us laugh at jokes and comedy is that they smack at the truth, do they not?  They’re funny because we see in the mirror our own flaws and absurdities, and how silly we are.  There is a novelty song you may recall performed by country singer Mac Davis back in the early 1980’s that goes like this:  “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble / When you’re perfect in every way / I can’t wait to look in the mirror / Cause I get better looking each day / To know me is to love me / I must be a heck of a man / Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble / But I’m doing the best that I can.”  

The intention of the song, of course, is to make us laugh at ourselves.  Yet, there is an element of truth in it, at least there is for me.  In fact, I must confess that for most of my life, unlike the song lyrics, I’ve never even tried to be humble.  For humility, as we’ve been taught to believe, is not what gets us employed in the best companies, gets us promoted, or brings in the top clients.  Instead, we’re encouraged to spice up our résumés or create clever websites that boast of our skills, accomplishments and credentials.  Humility, although a great virtue, just doesn’t sell very well in the marketplace.  Or does it?  But it’s hard.

Consider the story about George Washington, who at the conclusion of the American Revolution, many leaders supported to become monarch of the newly formed nation.  What would he do with such power within his grasp?  Would Washington yield to its temptation, or stick to his ideals of freedom and liberty?  But England’s King George III, though himself a monarch, was nevertheless convinced that if Washington resisted the power-pull he would be “the greatest man in the world.”  We, of course, know the rest of the story.  Wonder where we would be today if he had chosen power over humility?

The greatest story, though, occurred two thousand years ago when the Creator of the Universe visited our planet in human form, “but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.”  Yet, in complete humility and with no fancy résumé, He changed the world forever and ever.  So, what does it tell us when the father of our country and the King of the Universe chose humility over power or pride?  Did not Jesus offer the perfect example of how we should live?  But, oh Lord it’s hard to be humble.  Isn’t it?

“But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.”  – Jonah 1:3 

Have you ever run away from something unpleasant you needed to do?  I suspect, if we are honest with ourselves, we all have had our Jonah moments.  A common one might be avoiding going to the doctor when we really need to get checked out.  Even at my age when doctors’ visits occupy more and more of my schedule, I’m still tempted to turn and run the other way, and would if I could.  Except there is a second part of the Jonah story that prevents that from happening, a giant fish that first rescues him, then swims off in the direction Jonah should have been going in the first place, sort of like my wife putting me in the car and pointing it in the direction of the doctor’s office, whether I like it or not.

We all have Jonah stories in which we try to run away, sometimes in a dangerous direction, only to be rescued and pointed back in the right direction.  I remember sometime after going off to college suddenly rebelling against the more or less straight-and-narrow life I had been living, veering off in the wrong direction.  I’m not sure what I was rebelling against – not knowing what I wanted to do with my life perhaps, or simply not wanting to grow up.  Then, after being off course for a period of time, one day I received a letter in the mail from a man who had been sort of a second father to me.  His brief note, no more than three or four sentences, was like that giant fish that swallowed Jonah.  Except, while Jonah only spent three days inside that fish’s belly, I continued to wander for several months, until my life began to slowly steer back in the right direction.

I’ve often thought of the story of Jonah as one of the great comedies in the Bible.  The absurdity of a man being swallowed by a fish and actually living inside the fish’s belly for three days seems more like a fairy tale that belongs in a collection from Mother Goose or Dr. Seuss than sacred scripture.  I laugh every time I read it – a giant fish swimming along out of nowhere and swallowing up that runaway buffoon Jonah.

That is, until I go back to the beginning where it says, “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.”  Suddenly the story becomes personal because I’ve been there and done that.  Then I received the note from the man whose words swallowed me up like that giant fish and pointed me back in the right direction.  Now the big question becomes, if I’ve been Jonah, how can I pay it forward by being someone else’s big fish?