Wednesday, July 01, 2009
They Call Her Blessed
This is a re-posting of an article I wrote for Mother's Day 2003. Mom really appreciated it and had asked that it be included as part of her funeral service. As things transpired, it wasn't, there was, in our family's opinion, a much more appropriate statement needed.
In tribute to Mom, on this what would have been her 81st birthday, I'm again offering it for review. Mom, as the first time, this is offered in love to honor, and now remember, the person you were.
Nearly 75 (can you believe it!) years ago a little girl was born to T.O and Edna Evans in the small southern village of Darlington, South Carolina. She was the 9th (I think) of what would be 12 children to this Pentecostal Holiness preacher and his wife. They supported his ministry and their family by farming cotton in the post-depression and World War II south.
This little girl, Mildred they called her, found joy on the farm as she grew and matured in the shadow of her strong willed father, nurtured by her gentle mother and guided by her sister Ruth. Millie loved to please her brothers and believed anything they told her, even to the point of jumping from the hayloft, flapping her arms as she tried to fly like her brothers told her she could.
Her childhood was filled with days in the fields, evenings playing with the imaginations of a farm child, cold nights warmed by hot bricks, and field trips which included natures call to the outhouse out back. The kitchen was filled with the aromas of the farm bounty and the tables filled with the wonders of the visitations of traveling preachers and missionaries. As she grew up, she grew strong in character and will and when the time came she was sent to school in Greenville. It was there she met her love, her promise, in the person of Bill and in time they were married.
After the wedding in June 1950 they headed out into the ministry armed with the surety of their calling and the adventure and abandon of youth on a mission. In just under 10 months, despite the best efforts of "the book", their first born, Billie came into the world. As they continued to minister and travel, a few short years later a second, Steve came along and they decided that a family needed a place to call home so they entered the pastorate, ministering first in Oklahoma, then Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and back to the Carolinas.
As life and God carried them on, she grew strong in her faith and sure in her virtue. A third son, Dan came in Oklahoma, and a daughter, Jana, in Illinois. Through the struggles of life, the loss of her beloved parents and in-laws, the financial setbacks, the toil and joy of raising a family, she never lost her trust in God, her determination and strength of will.
The loss of her first born, Billie, was heartache. Yet still in that heartache, she saw God's love and lessons to be learned and lessons to be shared. Neither gall bladder nor oral surgery would take her smile. A heart attack and subsequent bypass surgery would not diminish her love of life. Knee replacement would not stop her from running the race of life and eye surgery did not diminish her ability to see the best in others.
As she raised her children, she always loved them, even when they failed to follow her guidance. As they struck out on their own, she continued to love and support, encourage and comfort as they to struggled with life, trying to find themselves and finally finding God on the road to destruction. Lifting them up in prayer, counseling and supporting and loving and admonishing as they married and failed in marriage. Married and won in marriage then lost in death that beloved spouse. They struggled with the imponderables of life and living and not just knowing about God, but knowing God…and truly finding Him. Her children knew that Millie would always love them, and pray for them, laugh with them and cry with them. Give, and sacrifice, and hold and support and never fail to be honest with them, even when it hurt. Because even in the hurt, there is love.
Even now as she approaches 75, Millie is still giving to her family. She works so that the healthcare costs don't ravage the retirement of her beloved and herself. She, in spite of her own bodily struggles, gives more than she physically has to help and care for her children and grandchildren. Does she complain? Perhaps some, but rarely to anyone other than her Lord. She simply puts on a smile and keeps moving forward, loving and living.
Has she lived a wonderful, exciting, successful life. Many would look and say, "not really." But they don't measure with the same stick as her friends, family and most importantly her Lord. She has the joy of a life well lived, she has four children who love the Lord and honor her, one who has attained the goal. She has a husband who worships her, loves her, adores her and would give all he has and all he is for her. In the words of Solomon in Proverbs 31:
10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Mom, the words of Proverbs were written about you. No, you are not perfect in all things, but you are perfectly...MOM.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: character, family, hero, Millie, Mom, prayer, tribute, values
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Determining value...
Every individual has intrinsic value. When we get in the business of assigning value to an individual based on an arbitrary standard we come perilously close to adopting the standards of regimes such as Hitler’s Nazis who viewed the sick, homosexuals, and non-Arians as undesired objects to be destroyed.
Next came those who opposed his philosophies. They met their deaths simply because they didn’t agree. Millions gave their lives to bring that regime to its knees.
The idea of human value came up in our own constitution where a black man was only worth 3/5th that of a white man. That awful determination was legally corrected at the end of the Civil War with the 13th and 14th amendments. Though socially things have improved dramatically, there is still struggle in some hearts and minds.
The concept of superiority of one individual over the other, and thus of superior value, is not new. Margaret Sanger’s writings stated the purpose of her 1939 Negro Project that ultimately became the Planned Parenthood of today was that it be a vehicle of “discouraging ‘the defective and diseased elements of humanity’ from their ‘reckless and irresponsible swarming and spawning’.”
When we as a society devalue one segment where their destruction is preferable, it becomes a simple matter of extending that valuation to other “unwelcome” elements.
Healthcare, is it too expensive for everyone to receive healthcare in a government administered program? Triage those desiring help by a standard that determines their worth.
Under that system, those needing the most help, the elderly and chronically ill, will be at a severe disadvantage and the cheap “cure” is sodium pentobarbital. It’s called eugenics.
For those of lesser health issues, perhaps mitigating factors such as political philosophy or income level could be factored in. If you don’t agree with the current ideology in power, if you are of minimal productivity, you’re manic/depressive, you’re outta here.
I know those on the pro-abortion side will say that can never happen. Well, it did, Sanger proved it could happen. Hitler made it part of his party platform. Any time we begin to rationalize our actions we are on the cusp of serious personal moral decline.
And make no mistake; this is a personal issue even more than a social/political issue. It is a matter of what we as individual value. What we consider important. It is individual beliefs that eventually become policy, not the other way around.
Yes, I can justify abortion from a purely economic vantage point, but that places me in a position of arrogant superiority, not compassion. For if you can’t “afford” a child, the burden is placed on society and on me as a taxpayer.
Why would I want that burden? Because a child is more that a bit of tissue whose value hangs in the balance of emotional stress. That “tissue” has the power to become an important individual with all the possibilities afforded him/her in this nation. That “tissue” can achieve any goal desired if given the chance. His or her importance is determined not by what they become, but that they can become what they desire.
In April of 1822 there was a bit of “tissue” growing in a French woman’s womb that grew to study immunology and eventually Louis Pasture discovered vaccines for anthrax, cholera, smallpox and rabies.
In August of 1878 a 20 year old German Jew had a bit of “tissue” growing inside of her. She may have preferred to study the arts or piano, but her focus was on raising her family. Eventually that tissue grew and among other things invented a refrigerator that uses principals still used today in RV and mobile refrigeration.
Had he not moved to the US in 1932, Albert Einstein, who is celebrated as one of the greatest minds of the last century and developed his theory of relativity and unified field theory would probably have fallen to Hitler’s ovens.
In December 1960 another bit of “tissue” began to grow in the womb of a 19 year old single girl. She could have sought out an abortion; it certainly would have been more convenient. The baby’s father was a black man and such a liaison was unacceptable in society at the time. Few would have faulted her, abortion would be the lesser of two “evils.”
But she married the father, kept her child and later raised that child alone after being abandoned by her husband. On January 20, 2009 that child, that bit of “tissue,” Barack Obama, became the 44th President of the United States.
In February 1986 another bit of tissue began to grow. This time in the womb of a young girl from Illinois. She had lived across the mid-west United States, her father was an itinerate worker. She had graduated with honors from college and had a bright future ahead of her. Part of that future included marriage and she and her husband moved to Virginia where he was stationed in the Navy and she worked in a local bank.
Yeah, raising a family was hard work, and would get in the way of plans, but that bit of “tissue” was vastly more important than her original plans and desires. She kept it, raised her son when he was born, struggled through broken marriages where it would have been simpler to not have to deal with children.
Eventually that “tissue” grew into a magnificent young man with more potential and possibilities before him than even he could imagine. Yes he struggled through experiences that no young man should have to, but grew out of them to become talented with multiple abilities even as he struggled to find himself.
No one really knows what this bit of “tissue” will do with his life, he’s not really sure. But one thing is certain, he will have the opportunity to pursue whatever course he desires because his mom, that young girl with so many possibilities, put her life on hold to bring him into the world and give him the opportunity that 30 million other “bits of tissue” have been denied since he first appeared in his mom’s womb. She saw in that bit of “tissue” a value far above her own plans and circumstances.
He may become an engineer, a chef, a General, a titan in business, a politician, perhaps even a President. But one thing is certain, Billy Montgomery has the opportunity to do so because his mother didn’t simply consider him an inconvenience, an unwanted expense, a barrier to her future, a…a bit of tissue.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: abortion, Albert Einstein, Barack Obama, healthcare, Margaret Sanger, political philosophy, values
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Hangings in America
The recent degeneration of political discourse in the form of effigies of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and now twice reported effigies of Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama are a sad commentary on the state of America.
Chad Michael Morrisette, the creator of the Palin effigy that has hung since the weekend, says its art and humor. At the same time he acknowledges that such an image is distasteful and offensive, "The image of a hanged black man is a lot more intense than the image of a hanged white woman, for our country and the history of our country," he told a local station.
Yet the effigy remains despite outcry from local official as well as across the nation. The local sheriff says there’s no law against “bad taste” while the FBI responded, "It's clearly distasteful, but it doesn't appear to be a violation of federal civil rights statutes." A special agent with the Secret Service says, “incident seems to be a harmless, though unusual, Halloween display.”
Meanwhile, effigies of Obama have had brief appearances at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and at George Fox University in Oregon. Both effigies were immediately taken down, there were no references to free speech or art, only offered apologies and disgust.
The students who allegedly confessed responsibility for the GFU incident will be punished according to school officials while the president of KU, Lee Todd, “says that he plans to personally apologize to the Obama family on behalf of the university and that he is ‘personally offended and deeply embarrassed by this disgusting episode.’"
Why the disparate difference in response to these equally despicable acts of feigned violence? Do we in America, in the interests of “tolerance” fail to understand the significance of the act of hanging someone in effigy? Is good taste, or conversely abhorrent behavior, solely dependent on the political position of the one so depicted?
Perhaps so. The Islamic world well recognizes the power of the image of hanging one in effigy. We have seen images almost ad nauseam of President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Many Americans have found these images disgusting and disturbing, yet we have never heard outcries against them from those on the left who now find such images of Obama offensive.
From this lack of response one can infer that as far as the left is concerned, it is just fine and even acceptable practice to disparage, demonize, and disgustingly depict anyone on the right, or for that matter anyone who disagrees with the left.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: effigy, election, liberalism, Obama, offensive, Sarah Palin, tolerance, values
Monday, August 04, 2008
What's your Issac?
After listening to the August 1st edition of Steve Brown etc. I had to share it on this blog. So often we get caught up in our lives and our struggles, forgetting that we, that I, am not all there is.
I, we, forget that there is a world of people out there struggling to live their lives and very often they get slammed with events that don't come near our, my, own distractions and disturbances to our routine.
The trash didn't get out, horrors! The dog wet on the carpet, life ends! The car breaks, I'm ruined for the rest of the month! The routine at work changes, I'll pull my hair out! The kids get the sniffles, my whole plan for the day is finished.
Carol Kent was living a life most Christians look to and consider an ideal. She was a writer and speaker. She traveled with popular Christian singers like Point of Grace, Sandi Patty and Nichole C. Mullen.
She was sought after for her insights, humor and biblical perspective on life. She was president of a Christian speakers bureau and traveled the world sharing her insights and faith with crowds of people.
Then came the call that changed her life. I don't want to give it away and lessen the impact of what she has to say. Just let me say listening to her caused me to pause and rethink the stuff I was upset about, the stuff that made me so mad and I had to conclude my distractions were merely dung.
What about you? Do the things that bother you really matter that much? If the events that happened to Carol happen to you, what would your response be?
Maybe those disturbances in your routine aren't really that bad. If that's your conclusion, maybe you need to take a moment and thank God for your blessings. Who knows, it may be harder to do so in just a few minutes or hours or days.
But then, maybe, like Carol, in the horrors or life, you too, will find God's blessings. Listen in...
"A New Kind of Normal: Hope-Filled Choices When Life Turns Upside Down" is the sequel that tells the rest of the story. Building on her story she will help you see how you can make hope-filled choices.
Through the eight chapters in this book, Carol will use her story, the story of Mary mother of Jesus, and stories of women who have experienced their own "new normal" to share how God has led them to choose life, gratitude, vulnerability, involvement, forgiveness, trust, and action.
If you are struggling with the circumstances of your own life, you need the teaching in these books.
Carol Kent website...
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: Carol Kent, Christian living, prayer, religion, sacrifice, values
Friday, July 04, 2008
Independent musings
As I sat in our porch swing overlooking our backyard garden this morning, I reflected on this 4th of July holiday while observing the activity in my neighborhood. It seems that for many, the day our nation celebrates her independence from the tyranny of the crown holds little value.
While in our town such days as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday are observed and workers are given time off to celebrate, Independence Day garners no such honor. Specifically, while Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day and New Year’s Day and the afore mentioned Martin Luther King, Jr. holidays are honored by closing the sanitation department, on Independence Day it’s business as usual.
Now I’m not so much opposed to honoring a man who did much for the advancement of the dreams, hopes and civil rights of many of the citizens of this nation who were thought by some to be of lesser importance simply due to the color of their skin. What I am opposed to is the failure to recognize and promote the importance of the seminal event in history that made Dr. King’s ambitions possible.
Were it not for those brave men who placed not only their signatures, but their very lives on the line, there would be, in all likelihood, no United States of America today. With all its faults, the US remains the leader in democracies around the world. Since her establishment in 1776 and with her the beginnings of modern representative government, more than 120 nations have followed.
We are not perfect; indeed it is our imperfections, and our understanding of and tolerance of them that makes us great. We are a Republic that recognizes the importance of the individual freedom of our citizens and celebrate their right to be so. 
We celebrate our ability to freely become the people, the individuals we choose to become. We celebrate when others achieve their dreams and aspirations, honoring them for pursuing their goals when all hope seemed lost.
It is and was that ability to chase his dream, and a nation that, despite some detractors, supported his dream, that allowed Dr. King to make his mark in the history of this nation. But without the freedom to do so, exemplified in our Declaration of Independence, bought and paid for with a terrible price in the blood of brave souls, and protected by our Constitution, he would not have been allowed to reach for his dream.
That is why I find it so counter-intuitive that our city would honor the man, Dr. King, but not the very Declaration that allowed him to act on his dream. Perhaps it is another sign of the shifting of a society and education process where the shallowness of celebrity overshadows the deep principles of democracy and the lessons of history.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: holidays, honor, Independence Day, Martin Luther King Jr, values
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Bella, making a difference
A few months back while in Tampa on other business we went by the University theater and viewed the movie Bella. I was somewhat reluctant because my wife wanted to see it, had heard great reviews and I, prejudging, wasn’t all that interested in seeing a “chick flick.”
I gotta tell ya, I was wrong. It was a story with a deep plot line, plenty of suspense and twists and just when I thought I had it figured out, a surprise ending. All wrapped up in a story with an uplifting and positive message of life and relationships.
The really sad thing about this movie is that it was so narrowly distributed that the closest place we could find it was Tampa or Orlando. Ocala certainly isn’t a big town, population 46,000 with a metropolitan area of 316,000. Not huge, but nothing to sneeze at either. We have 24 indoor screens in Ocala and not one of them gave us a viewing of Bella.
What brings this subject to mind now is an interview with Eduardo Verástegui I just heard. I subscribe to a number of podcasts and regularly listen to them weeks after the fact. Recently I heard Steve Brown interview Eduardo on his May 23 podcast and was again impressed with not just the movie and the message, but the man.
Here’s someone who has so much going for him. Looks, talent, intelligence, he has it all and has used it in his entertainment career to go places many would only dream of. That coming from an obscure background in a backwater area of Mexico.
Yet, he one time thought to walk away from it all to pursue a path he thought to be less challenging to his values. Thankfully, wise friends and advisors counseled his otherwise. He makes no bones about it; his mission and life priorities have changed. His desire is to make movies that make a difference in the life of those who view them.
Many people make that kind of statement. They want to make a difference. In this case, Eduardo is fulfilling it.
If you want to hear the podcast just click the player below.
If you want to buy the DVD, get it on Amazon.com. If you want to save a few bucks buy it used. Many times I prefer to rent rather than buy a DVD, but this is one that it would do well to view repeatedly.
View the Bella trailer on YouTube where you can also view his Today Show interview.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: Bella, DVD, Eduardo Verastegui, movies, Steve Brown, values