Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Robbed By a Gang in Broad Daylight
There were three of them.
They were powerfully built and white. In hindsight I can see that I was
clearly outnumbered and really didn’t stand a chance. These gang members were all younger, more
agile and definitely more aggressive than I am.
Their assault left me feeling cheated and vulnerable. The attack was completely unprovoked and
unexpected.
It all happened toward the end of summer. My wife and I were enjoying a rare day off by
the beach. We felt safe, as we meandered
down a famous boardwalk not far from the Big Apple. We had just enjoyed a hamburger at an outdoor
cafe. The boardwalk was not crowded, but there were quite a few people milling
around the vicinity. I felt safe. Since
I was guessing it to be one of the last warm days of the year, I was
contentedly devouring a double scoop ice cream cone. I had eaten most of the ice cream and had
begun to take pity on the sugar cone when I was viciously attacked.
My only warning came from my wife who suddenly looked my
direction and blurted out my name. Immediately I caught movement out of the
corner of my eye. The first gang member
came at me from behind - over my left shoulder.
He knocked my half-eaten ice cream cone out of my hand. Before I had a chance to even absorb what had
just been done, two other gang members swooped down, snatched the cone and ice
cream off the pavement and flew off to find their next victim.
When it was over we laughed. My loss was less than two dollars. But the experience did get me thinking; with
seagulls that aggressive, how was a person supposed to eat an ice cream cone
without being robbed. I was not luring
the birds, nor was I giving them easy access. I was safely holding my cone just
a foot or so from my mouth. Would
someone need to cup their hand over the ice cream, or hunch over the tasty dessert
in order to protect it? I suddenly felt
at risk and life didn’t seem fair.
That is when my mind wandered to a much more serious
issue. So many people have been hurt,
robbed or abused in ways far more serious than I had just experienced. The emotions and thoughts that ensue from a
tragedy, a serious assault or years of abuse have left millions of people
feeling unsafe, devalued, vulnerable and afraid. This is the result of mankind ignoring God’s
counsel and allowing things like greed and selfishness to drive them to hurt,
abuse and steal from their fellow man. They
rob them of far more than money or innocence.
Our world is reeling from the effects of selfishness and sin. How can a person find peace and joy in such a
world?
Jesus warned us that the world would be like this and that
it would actually get worse and worse. But, He also promised that He would fill
those who would believe in Him with the love and power necessary to live fulfilled
lives in a broken world - even when robbed and abused. Are you feeling vulnerable… alone… hurt? You may be surprised to discover that a relationship
with Jesus can change all that. He is
not offering you religion; He is offering you a relationship that will change
you from the inside out. He also offers eternal life in a place where no one
steals, abuses or hurts anyone.
Friday, November 18, 2016
Say "Thank You!"
All great parents feel like broken records… “elbows off the
table… chew with your mouth closed… say thank you.” Children need to hear these admonitions
regularly. We all need to practice these
things - especially the last one. An attitude
of thanksgiving can change the whole atmosphere of a home, a town or a nation.
Great presidents have also been vulnerable enough to give
obvious advice to Americans. In 1863
President Abraham Lincoln went a step further and declared a national day of Thanksgiving
to help a divided nation overcome it’s greatest challenge to date. We would do well to heed this advice in 2016:
“The year that is drawing towards
its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful
skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to
forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so
extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the
heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of
Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity,
which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their
aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been
maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed
everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has
been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful
industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or
the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines,
as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more
abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding
the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and
the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is
permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No
human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great
things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing
with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has
seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and
gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American
People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United
States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign
lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of
Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to
Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble
penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender
care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the
lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently
implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation
and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the
full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.“
This Thanksgiving will be a great time to say “Thank You!”
to God, friends, family and fellow Americans.
It is an attitude that makes for a better world.
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