Virus Software for Life

As is always the case in the final days of the year, I find myself reviewing it and mentally evaluating my "performance". One thing I always pray for is that I would be consistent in my faith and I find that I consistently fail in this area. Like St. Paul I find that the things "the things I would not do" I have done and "the things I would do" I have not done. So I now have two choices. I  can grieve over my failure or rejoice that I serve a God who can perform a reset.

I am not sure how theologically correct this might be, but I believe if we allow him to, God can do sort of a ctrl-alt-del on my failures. In so doing, he gives me a chance to enter the future without the viruses and malicious cookies of life that have crept into my "operating system". Assaults from the evil hackers of life can still be expected... but we have God's master virus protection system to protect us. Just like our computer systems, the key to staying protected is to keep our virus "software" up to date. Phillipians 4:8 gives some pretty good instruction on how to do that.

So for 2013, my prayer is that I can keep my life's virus protection up to date.

Proud to Be a Corinth Warrior!!

Youth and arrogance have a propensity to blind us to what really matters. When I first went to the Naval Academy in 1965, I was ever so glad to put Corinth MS and the "provincial life" behind. Unfortunately, my Mississippi accent quickly earned me the nickname of "Missip" and also earned a lot of assumptions about me based on where I came from. That fact nothwithstanding, I was proud to now be swimming in a "bigger pond" than I had come from. I was pretty vocal about how I felt about Corinth... which in the summer of '66 led Donna Stewart to throw a coke in my face when I made a snotty comment about the "small pond of Corinth". (Donna, if you read this, I certainly deserved it! ) Fast forward through a lifetime of 45 years, and I now realize that in the word's of Bob Dylan's song My Back Pages "...I was so much older then, I'm younger that now."

In the past year or so, Facebook has allowed me glimpses into the lives of my former classmates and friends at Corinth High School. It's obvious that many of them have been extremely successful by the world's standards. However, what stands out to me are the values and relationships that seem to guide and inform their lives. Thinking back I realize that my values were formed in the "small pond" community of Corinth MS and that I was truly blessed to grow up there. We have a young female civil engineer in my office here in Nashville to whom I was very quickly drawn because of her outgoing personality... and her accent that would make Corinth natives proud. She is a giving person and very involved in her church and in community service with Habitat for Humanity. In the course of getting to know her, I discovered that she went to CHS... a long time after I did. I wasn't surprised...it seems that they are still pouring good things into the students!

All this to lead up to the fact that I have never been as proud to be from Corinth, Alcorn County, Northeast Mississippi than I was when I returned home in March for the funeral of my nephew who was killed in Afghanistan. The outpouring of love, respect, and honor that was afforded my sister's son SSGT William Ricketts on his return was nothing short of amazing. From the time his body arrived at Corinth Airport until his internment at Corinth National Cemetery, the communities of Alcorn County celebrated a life well lived and mourned a hero's life cut short. As a family member, I was awed and humbled by the 100's of people who came to the funeral home for the viewing, the 100's of people who attended the funeral in the Crossroads Arena, and the 100's of people who lined the route from the arena to the National Cemetery. It seemed as if everyone in town was there including employees from some stores along the way such as Lowe's who allowed their employees to line the road for the procession.

Seth Ricketts was a genuine hero... an example of the best that of Alcorn County MS has to offer. My home town is a community that still produces wonderful people, a community that values honor and patriotism, and a community that I am proud to say is where I grew up.

P.S.- The April 12 Time magazine had a respectful piece on Seth's homecoming that you might find interesting. :-) lph

What Can I Learn Today?

I love the idea of blogs! Blogs are so democratic. They are based on the premise that everyone can say what they wish and disseminate it as broadly as they wish. Whether or not it is read is pure consumer choice… “I like, I read… I don’t like, I don’t read”.

That said, why would someone need or desire to read what I have to say? Good question! First, whether from good experiences or bad experiences, everyone has important lessons to share. Often we fawn over highly successful people… what I would call the “I’d really like to spend a day with Donald Trump syndrome”. In truth, lessons learned from failure are often as valuable, perhaps even more valuable, than lessons learned from success. The significance of this fact is that we need to be extremely careful about “blowing people off” because we feel they have nothing to offer. I remember counseling a young man some years ago and in the course of the discussion I said, “Bob, if you can’t respect me for my successes, respect me for my failures”. Everyone has something to offer. Our job is to seek it out.

I have not always done that very well. In fact, I have generally been very quick to judge and make a decision on whether a person was someone from whom I could learn…or was someone who needed to learn what I knew. As a result, in my younger days, I was viewed as a pretty arrogant person… which was quite correct! I still have a need for growth in this area… and will until the day I die. However, now when I meet someone, I always seek to learn… as opposed to “sharing my infinite wisdom".

The model I would like to emulate is Jesus, “ Your attitude should be that of Jesus Christ, who being in very nature God, did not did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” Phillipians 2:6-8

That’s a tall order, but I think it is what I am called to do... and if you are a Jesus follower it's what you are called to do also.

On His Blogness

One of my favorite poems is On His Blindness by John Milton. As the title suggests, it was written on the occasion of his blindness. The poem starts off with Milton contemplating "When I consider how my life is spent, ere half my days in this dark world and wide, and that one talent which is death to hide, lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent to serve therewith my maker..."

Milton's expresses fear that somehow his blindness will keep him from using his talent in God's service, thus separating him from God's favor. This idea is that somehow we need to "earn" favor with God through our service. The poem's blunt reponse to Milton's lament is a reminder that "God doth not need either man's work or his own gifts...who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best."

In a world that is obessively concerned with performance for gain, Milton's poem is a stark reminder that our job is to "bear the yoke". But what is the yoke? I am currently rereading Dietrich Bonhoffer's classic, The Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoffer makes the case very elegantly that our our response to call of Christ's saving grace is not "to do", but rather to "follow"... wherever he calls us to go. Bonhoffer's discipleship cost him his life. He was hung by the Nazi's in a Third Reich prison. The cost of true discipleship is summed in lines of the classic hymn, "Where he leads me, I will follow".

" God loves...God calls... therefore I serve." I wish I could honestly say that describes me. It doesn't, but I want it to. :-)