December 14, 2012

This morning, after meeting with a friend for coffee, I heard the news coming from Connecticut over my car radio. I thought, "Wow, another shooting." No details were given at that time, as news was just breaking. I went inside and talked to my wife as she was making breakfast, and watched some of the morning talk shows which were still in prerecorded broadcast mode, so we were not aware of anything developing in real time. After my wife left for her job, I turned it over to one of the cable news stations and saw the live coverage. At that point, there were two fatalities and one was believed to be the gunman. My hope then was that the other victim was not a child. As bad as it was for an adult to perish, the thought of child dying was troubling and the thought of a parent losing a child was very disconcerting for me, being a father of two girls.

It became apparent that the other victim was a child, and my heart sank for the parents of that child. I thought how life would never be the same for those parents. I prayed for them and the others involved, and after a few minutes decided to go back to my room and lie down as I needed to stretch out my back, which was in a little bit of pain.

As I lay there, I began to doze off when my iPhone went off on my nightstand. I came to, and looked at the display from one of my news apps: "27 KILLED, INCLUDING 18 CHILDREN, IN CONNECTICUT SCHOOL SHOOTING." The news was devastating. I got up, turned the TV back on, and watched the television in sadness, and prayed throughout the day as things unfolded. After a few hours of watching the updates, I had enough and needed to take a break and went about the rest of my day, trying to do something productive, although it was difficult to do.

There are many questions, the most of which I hear is: "Why would God allow this?"

As a believer, and as one who has studied the Bible for many years, I know this: God is not the one who allows this. This happened because evil reared its ugly head and created havoc in a place of peace and security. Because we live in a fallen world, things like this are bound to happen.

What was God doing then? Keeping 500 other students from suffering the same fate.

In order for God to protect those He loves, He needs people like us to carry out His plan for safety. The 500 children who did survive had teachers who loved them and chose to be responsible for their safety, and knew what was coming. And I have absolutely no doubt that the adults who perished would have done even more to protect those children, on top of what they did already to try and save them.

In fact, God cherishes children so much, He has considered them a blessing to the world, and He puts that love of children in people. Some scriptures in the Bible illustrate this:

"He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord." - Psalm 113;9

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court." - Psalm 127:3-5

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." - Psalm 139:13-16

"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." - John 16:21

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." - James 1:17

God loves the families of the Sandy Hook victims more than anyone can imagine, and I know that He will become very present in the lives of many over the next few weeks. May He bless them and keep them, may He make His face shine upon them and be gracious to them; may He lift up his countenance upon them and give them peace.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13

John

Crocodile DumDeeDum

In Australia, nearly thirty years ago, there was a man who entered a race, a long-distance foot race called the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon, which covered nearly 500 miles. This was a six-day event and nearly two hundred world-class runners had entered.

Including a 61-year-old man by the name of Cliff Young, and his racing attire consisted of overalls, work boots, and galoshes over his work boots.

Initially, he was not allowed to register for the race, so he explained himself to the officials. Throughout his life, he ran his 2000-acre family farm with thousands of sheep, and the method that he used to round up his sheep was his own two feet, running throughout the acreage and herding them himself. For years, his family was too poor to afford anything mobile such as a horse or pickup, so he would go about the task by foot, sometimes for two or three days at a time, and this continued on well into adulthood.

The officials relented, allowed him to register, and soon it was time for the start of the race.

The gun went off and the runners bolted from the starting line. Cliff was left in the dust, but he trotted on in his overalls and boots, in a "dum-de-dum" kind of way, while keeping on pace and not worrying about his position.

By the fifth day of the race, he had caught the other runners, passed them up, and eventually won the race, a few hours ahead of the second place finisher.

The key to winning was what Cliff didn't know. He didn't know that he was supposed to stop and sleep for the night. While the others slept, he kept trotting on and on…shuffling along…dum-de-dum...until the race was over.

He became a national hero in Australia and even had an ultra-marathon race named after him.

What was the key to his success?  In addition to his determination, persistence, perseverance, and tenacity, maybe a little bit of a "dum-de"dum" attitude helped too, to keep him from worrying about where he was in relation to his goal or the others around him.

By keeping his eye on the goal and not stopping in spite of the difficulties or obstacles, his goal was achieved!

Go out and make it a great day!

John

Landfill Harmonic

Today, there are no words that I can say that can explain what's on this video. It just shows that there is a purpose for everyone regardless of where they come from. It's about 12 minutes long.




If you have trouble viewing the embedded video, click directly to the link here.

Love Is All You Need

When my youngest brother Richard was 5 years old, he came home from kindergarten one day with something that he found on the street.

It was a tumbleweed.

My mother asked him why she brought that "nasty thing" home, and he said, "cause it's beautiful."

He loved that thing.  And even though he had to keep it outside, it sat outside in our front yard for a couple of weeks, until a wind blew it away, I think.

Beauty was in the eye of its beholder, my brother.

I received a picture today of a Christmas tree that was sitting in the middle of an Arizona hotel lobby.  What's unique about this tree is that it's comprised entirely of...you guessed it...tumbleweeds.

It's a great illustration of how anything (or anyone) can be beautiful and can serve a purpose with the application of loving attention.

It's difficult for many of us to look at a tumbleweed (or a person) and see what their potential is, because we're focused on that "nasty thing" in front of us.  What's even more difficult is making that effort to help transform it (or them) into the true potential within.

Love is not merely something we feel.  The feeling subsides.  True love is exhibited in the effort we produce, just as the love put into this tumbleweed was made for us to see.

We see this love manifested in people who were loved by their families as they were growing up.

We see this love manifested in people who were loved by others, when they had no family to love them.

We see this love manifested in people who were loved by no one, but somehow knew that God loves them.

Love is a powerful motivator.  When you start to take the time to do something because you love them, life starts becoming less burdensome.

Now that I wrote about it, I'm going to "turn my tumbleweed into a Christmas tree."  I'm going to go clean the kitchen before my wife gets home...

Go out and love someone today!

John