Stand a Little Rain

Yesterday, I learned the status of the DOMA bill.  I immediately logged off of Facebook and Twitter, and I turned off the TV.  I knew what was coming next because I know enough about our society.  I made the grave mistake of participating in such heated trolling after this past Presidential Election.  So this time, I just avoided it all together.

Where I stand on the issue of same sex marriage is probably the most insignificant thing in the world.  But where I stand on how I look at my fellow human being is very relevant and of the utmost importance.  I used to see things as black and white only.  You were either just like me, or you weren’t.  Boy, was I narrow minded…

Today I look at people through a different lens.  I try to look at people the way Jesus Christ looks at people.  And let me go ahead and break the hearts of some of you people who could probably qualify for immediate membership at Westboro Baptist Church…  My Savior does not hate homosexuals.  If you call Him your Savior, but tell others that He hates the ones He suffered and died for… you should probably be shaking in your boots.

But, when it comes to love, we like to pick and choose.  We like to try and dictate who we (and everyone else) should and shouldn’t be around.  We created the term “homophobia” (which is incorrectly used more often than not.  A phobia is a fear, hate is totally different.)  But this morning, I heard the term heterophobia for the first time.  Good grief…

But, as a Christian I am often told that I am not allowed to associate with a gay person.  Some of these same people tell me that as a white man, I am not to support my President.  People… please!

One of my favorite song lyrics ever says “If we’re ever gonna see a rainbow, we have to stand a little rain.”  That statement holds so much truth.  Nothing we have ever accomplished in life that was worth anything at all ever came easy.

The storm will rock you hard if you let it.  Whether you are for or against what the Supreme Court feels is the best for our Nation, the fact is that you’ll enjoy the storm so much more if you will just realize that you’ll most likely be alright when the clouds turn from dark to white.

Yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court… I look at it as an opportunity to practice civility.  To learn to love.  If haters could learn to love the ones they hate the way that lovers love the ones they love… we could all change the world.

What you want the most will come with a price tag attached to it.  But if it means enough to you, it’ll be priceless, and you will never stop until it’s within your reach.  That’s what yesterday was about to me.  But that was yesterday.  This is today.  Today, it’s time to teach each other how to love.  There’s a rainbow above us, and it means different things to different people.  See it as you will.  But, understand that it didn’t appear without a little rain.

When We All Get to Heaven

Last month held my mom’s birthday.  If she were still here with me, I would do the normal ritual of taking her to a Country Buffet and having a chocolate cake waiting at her house for when she got back home.  But instead, I left the tour for a few days so I could return home and put flowers on her grave.  This month holds her death day.  I lost mom back in 2010.  It’s had to believe its been three years already.

After she had her second stroke, I had to abandon the tour all together to be by her side as she lie helpless in the nursing home.  Many days were to painful to witness because the strokes eventually robbed her of most memories, including my identity.  I could have just been a nurse for all she knew.  But, I knew who she was, and that is all that mattered.

There were so many times that I would arrive and she was in such severe pain that all she could do is cry aloud.  Relief came when I finally brought in a CD player with select music.  There was one particular song that stands out .  When I would hit play on this track, mom would totally relax… and rest. Sometimes even smile.

“Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace;
In the mansions bright and blessed
He’ll prepare for us a place.”

My mom brought me up in a church that loved the old gospel hymns.  This tune was a regular on Sunday mornings for us.  There were many hand picked hymns on the CD I had prepared for her.  My intention was to bring her relaxation and peace.  This particular one just did something for her that no others could.

I have no idea what thoughts passed through mom’s vacant mind during this time in her life, but I like to believe that Jesus took that opportunity to speak to her… since it was easier to have her undivided attention.  I like to believe that he delivered her visions of what was soon to come for her.

“Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.”

There have been so many ideas of exactly what heaven will be like and look like.  Many are directly from scriptures, and many things are frankly quite exciting!  Mom doesn’t hurt anymore.  Al of the heartaches she endured here on earth are no longer part of her life.  Today, she just praises our Savior.

“When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!”

As I placed the flowers on the marble slab that honors her earth suit, because that’s what you are expected to do… I breathed a sigh of relief.  She’s not in that grave… she’s in heaven.  She’s with Jesus.  Not hurting… not suffering.  Worshiping.  Rejoicing.  Can you feel it?  Can you enjoy the anticipation of what’s to come?  I sure can!  I cannot wait until it’s my time to join Him!  Won’t you join us?

Lord, You Reign (for the Boston Marathon)

Waking to tragic news is never fun.  It happens to me more often than I’d like.  I remember hearing a pounding at my door early one morning many years back.  I made my way downstairs to see my grandmother on my father’s side at the door.  “Your daddy’s had a heartattack.”  Wow…  The Iron Man is not as strong as I thought.  No one ever believes that their father will ever fall.  We see it happen to others all the time, but that’s THEIR dad… not mine.  My dad is strong.

But he was not too strong this time.  He was actually driving when the attack hit him, and he was able to keep his wits about him to make it off the road and call for help on his cell.  A surgery later, he was on the road to recuperation.

When I learned that my sister’s boy had a brain tumor… I was floored.  “He’s only 13!  Are you serious right now?”  This is something that only happens to grown people.  Surely there was a misdiagnosis.  But, the diagnosis was right, and the symptoms all couldn’t be ignored, either.  A surgery later, he was on the road to recuperation.

When my sister called and asked me to please get to the hospital because she’d just dropped off my mom, I rushed there immediately because it was said that mom had suffered a stroke.  “Wait, what?”  She’s only in her early sixties.  People don’t have strokes until they’re like… 80.  Right?  Well, after she was admitted to the nursing home, she was on the road to recuperation.  Right?  Wrong…

“Long before you ever said
Let there be light
To long after this world has had 
Its final night
Great god in heaven you’ll be
Where Youve always been
Seated on your holy throne
King of all kings
Looking down on men”

Mom suffered another stroke, but not before dad lost his battle to cancer recovery and pneumonia.  Tyler didn’t make it to mom’s funeral just a year later because he was too sick from another tumor that had grown back.  “Gammaw” didn’t make it to ANY of the funerals.  She met mom and dad in Heaven.  She left before they did.  In that time period, I also lost an Aunt and an Uncle.  I had never lost so many people at once in my life.  I was not accustomed to this.  Plus, I was dealing with bad relationships with others in my life at the same time.

“Morning and night the sky shouts
Your majesty
Saying the whole universe
Is under your feet
This is the peace in my heart
The strength of my soul
Whatever happens in life
This much I know
You are in control”

Tyler is still fighting the good fight.  He’s so much braver than I ever could be.  He’s going to graduate soon, despite the fact that his chemo treatments force him to take classes not from a school desk and classmates, but his kitchen table with a private tutor.  He’s lost vision in one eye, and peripheral vision in the other, but is determined to still beat the odds and drive his own car, even though the state doesn’t want to issue him a license.

Me, I have learned that when I wake up in the morning, I can still give Praise to the man who has been faithful to me through every breath I breathe.  I’ve learned that regardless of what card I am dealt, I can play the hand with confidence, because my Lord Reigns!

“You are ruler above all the nations
Sovereign through all generations
Lord you reign
One day
All kings will tremble before you
I will bow down to adore you
Lord you reign.”

Unless the Lord takes me Home to be with Him first, I will face more tragedy.  I’ll rush to another emergency room, or another deathbed, or another funeral… and in all the confusion I might ask “Why…”  But in the end, it won’t matter.  God’s plan is perfect, especially when we don’t understand it.  That’s when we turn to Him, and lean on Him, rather than our own understanding.  He Reigns.

Lord, today… it’s my prayer that You will give us all peace in our hearts for the things we don’t understand.  It’s my prayer that You will quicken us to turn to you in times of tragedy, and loss, and understand that nothing happens without going through Your hands first.  And Lord, it’s my prayer that you will remind us all today, that no matter what happened yesterday, later today, and tomorrow… You still reign.

“You Reign” by “4HIM” contributed to the composition of this story.