Dear Friends,
The other day I walked into the room, took one look at the television screen, and screamed as loud as I could “Shut it off, shut it off.” (yes, pastors do scream occasionally) The television was on a station that will go nameless, but one which seems unable to broadcast anything but the worst scenario it could imagine about what it is reporting. For them it seems that the “sky is always falling.”
Forgive me if I am too much of a “pie in the sky kind of person,” but I wonder why so much that is now coming across the airwaves make you cringe and want to crawl up into a ball and hide?
Yesterday, in part of the President’s daily interview, he lashed out at the extreme negativity of so many whose eyes are closed to even the smallest hint of progress (good news) the kind that might engender some degree of hope. Our nation is starved for hope and yearning for something that will lift our spirts, but they aren’t going to get it through the air ways.
“Leaders,” said Napoleon, “ are dealers in hope", and I sure wish we had a few more Napoleons hanging around our television stations.
My kids have Jean and I quarantined, and they won’t let mom and dad travel outside the house. Like all of you are in similar situations, it is not fun, and at times it has proved challenging, but like all other crises we have had, and we have had plenty (33 national crises or disasters in the last 40 years)- anthrax, sars, west Nile virus, swine flu, zika, e coli, bird flew, oil crises, Viet Nam,Y2K, Enron, Twin Towers, and Isis are just a few to refresh your memories- and like each of them “This too shall pass.”
I don’t know who said it but he or she was right when they said "Every adversity carries with it the seed of equal or greater benefit," bit I would add that this is true only if one harbors the right perspective
Measles and polio were devastating diseases, but if we hadn’t lived through them, we would never have vaccines that guard us against them. Tragedy can lead to triumph, but only if we possess the right perspective. Not every light one sees at the end of a tunnel is on a train; it just might be a different light, one that offers freedom from our fears and hope for our heavy and hurting hearts.
I wish The Apostle Paul were alive today, and could broadcast our news. He has recorded some positive and hopeful words that all of us would do well to memorize. His life was far from worry free. Hunted down, stoned, imprisoned, and in danger of facing death, he writes “Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things. The things which put you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9)
I close by introducing you to a little boy who has a lot to teach us about living with adversity. He was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through the backyard wearing his baseball cap and toting a ball and bat: “I’m the greatest hitter in the world,” he announced.
Then he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it and missed.
“Strike One!” he yelled. Undaunted he picked up the ball again and said, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!”
He tossed the ball into the air. When it came down, he swung and missed. “Strike Two!” he cried.
The boy then paused a moment to examine his bat and ball carefully. He spit on his hands and rubbed them together. He straightened his hat and said once more “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!”
Again, he tossed the ball up in the air and swung at it. He missed. “Strike Three!”
He looked up to the sky and exclaimed, “Wow! I am the greatest pitcher in the world.”
May more of us be like this little boy, like the Apostle Paul, and like everyone who knows the recipe for making lemonade out of lemons.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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