tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59164944149193650452024-03-05T04:20:49.089-08:00Head and HeartRoger Lovette writes about cultural concerns, healthy faith and matters of the heart.Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.comBlogger1268125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-82902963013721784102024-02-13T13:28:00.000-08:002024-02-13T13:28:53.566-08:00Ash Wednesday, Etc.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4mKXHrA1c12NfW9SSlh-f03X_mnBicKBP2eW1P8S7hj-3cAuSeL5WmY06H2Lr88myyaDbRo2d12Qh84vRPgej3QhTUq88y-HZ6BnybVLOE2T3s7exYHWriObFvYIrAXUwyeoSRt8FUpQeDC25q_SVtA5JamMh4FFZjLWbfrSpMDMgKRTTwAR-blmQjcju/s320/Rending%20-%20Ash%20Wednesday%202023.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="320" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4mKXHrA1c12NfW9SSlh-f03X_mnBicKBP2eW1P8S7hj-3cAuSeL5WmY06H2Lr88myyaDbRo2d12Qh84vRPgej3QhTUq88y-HZ6BnybVLOE2T3s7exYHWriObFvYIrAXUwyeoSRt8FUpQeDC25q_SVtA5JamMh4FFZjLWbfrSpMDMgKRTTwAR-blmQjcju/w400-h345/Rending%20-%20Ash%20Wednesday%202023.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">ASH WEDNESDAY, ETC.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“…you neglect and belittle the desert</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>The desert is not remote in the southern tropics,</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>The desert is not only around the corner,</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>The desert is in the heart of your brother.</i>”</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">—T.S. Eliot, Choruses from the Rock</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ash Wednesday. Didn’t we do that? Oh yes, again and again and again.</p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why do we keep doing this year after year, decade after decade—centuries too.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We stand in the line with all others. And when our time comes some preacher or priest will mark our foreheads with the smudge of the cross. He or she will whisper: “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” And we move away and find our pew again as the line goes on waiting for their sign. Waiting for the strange words. Maybe just waiting.</p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is why most of us have come through the years. It is a somber time. It is a holy time. It is a painful time.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If you are like me you remember the promises you made year after year on this day. And you also remember how you washed that smudge off your face as if that settles it all. But you broke those promises you made this day and this season.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And old T.S. Eliot is right. This day and those that follow are the desert times.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even those set free slaves in Egypt. They crossed the water and found what? Desert. And the whole book came out of that cursed place where water was scarce and hunger was real and fear seemed, like the desert to cover everything.</p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And marked sometimes I remember that we all berth mark not of the beast whatever that means. But another mark like all our brothers and sisters the world over where one day sooner or later we really will be dust.</p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But the desert brings dust and it can choke us. And does. It can be a lonesome<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>place where we remember that, as Mark Connelly reminds us “even bein’ God ain’t no bed of roses.” So we walk the winding trail that he walked. Where the ups and downs and the ups and downs seem to go on forever.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So we bring our burdens to lay them down. The old song :”take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” But we don’t. Like the Pilgrim in Pilgrim’s Progress we stagger with our own burden. All of us.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You name it. Old age. Cancer. Heart. Pain.That baby grave you left behind. Grief of a zillion sorts. Fear. The anger that just comes seemingly out of nowhere. Or the pettiness that cripples and diminishes us. Or the black dog that follows us one and all.</p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We wash off the mark—we think. But it is there. But lurking around us, too are those stained glass windows that tell us of faith and hope and love too. And Jesus hanging on the cross. And somehow those windows tell everybody’s story.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gloomy yes. Darkness yes. But we leave the shadowy church and walk out into the sunshine. It’s so bright we find it hard to see. But life is there—despite the ashes. Kids throwing frisbees or footballs. Wearing the bright orange hoping every game will be won. An old woman leaves behind you. On a walker. Knowing somehow she will get in her car and go home maybe to an empty house. But surrounded by her pictures and memories and a pictured cross she got at the Dollar Store. She goes on with her faith, with her hope and most of all her love.</p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Maybe that’s why we keep coming on this day. To be marked. And to know this matters terribly. Even in the desert.</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-74736603310542956132023-10-22T13:34:00.002-07:002023-10-22T13:36:11.287-07:00Saying Goodbye to the House<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHCxeywLliV72Hd7EGFzjiVKdDZpeqBDpuzLtsQYrPizZtxfOma1H9sBfmCH3-AuiTCmRXuMkS-c-5hBDzTkxjEtYARuj2sBlR2czokxFunUWZPMx8zSZZlazeBwDsjWjXa92LqJpFHmu-I4HAafCI9a5oHcGLqoC6nYjnm-iqtOSFQVsUFoLNrs0tbyt/s640/IMG_0630.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHCxeywLliV72Hd7EGFzjiVKdDZpeqBDpuzLtsQYrPizZtxfOma1H9sBfmCH3-AuiTCmRXuMkS-c-5hBDzTkxjEtYARuj2sBlR2czokxFunUWZPMx8zSZZlazeBwDsjWjXa92LqJpFHmu-I4HAafCI9a5oHcGLqoC6nYjnm-iqtOSFQVsUFoLNrs0tbyt/w640-h480/IMG_0630.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><i>“How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you—you leave little bits of your self fluttering on the fences—like rags and shreds of your very life.”</i></p><p><i> --Katherine Mansfield</i></p><p><br /></p><p>The house is almost empty except two garbage bags and a few items to give away. Moving from four bedrooms to 4 rooms takes some adjusting. Understatement. </p><p>We looked at an empty house about twelve years ago. As we walked in the living room filled with light. I told Gayle: “This just might be the house.” And she agreed. We moved in December 15th that year. “It’s too late for a Christmas tree.” But my kids said, “You gotta have a Christmas tree.” And so we hauled down from our new attic our seven-foot Christmas tree. And when it was decorated we just stood back, saying little, just “Ah.” </p><p>And that was the beginning of a slow but sure love affair with this house.</p><p>And so this morning walking trough quiet empty, empty rooms memories swirled. Moving Gayle’s seven-foot grand. Adding shutters to the windows we could afford covering. Putting carpet down those 15 streps so we wouldn’t kill ourselves. Buying a few things but not much. We moved in our stuff. But hopelessly sentimental so many things we brought had a history. And we hung the paintings. Matthew’s art work. Some huge and some small. And Cecile Martin’s work and Carol Tinsley’s and LIz Smith’s and Susan Wooten’s too. We tacked up prints and paintings from trip after trip. And we loved them all. </p><p>I took a room upstairs for my office, dragged up heavy book cases and began to fill them up. I had filing cabinets to house my too-many sermons.and there was my computer and big old walnut desk that someone gave me. </p><p>We filled the place with furniture from garage sales and consignment and antique stores. And there were two or three TV’s and a great CD player. And a dining room table that could tell a hundred stories. </p><p>Outside I tackled the tiny yard around our patio. Ferns and hostas and ajuga and inpatients and begonias. Out back I hauled in good dirt and compost and began to plant. Many things. Roses. Shastas and phlox and so many yellow daisies that my wife kept saying: “Don’t you think you are overdoing it?”</p><p>So for twelve years we loved the place. But in my late eighties it seemed a good time to move. From four bed rooms to four rooms. And the sorting out and trying what to decide what to take and not take was overwhelming. But somewhere I learned a lesson as we packed up books and called the Goodwill and filled a zillion black garbage bags. And struggled with what to do with all this dishes my wife loved and so much more. But what I learned was that we semi-hoarders began to realize we did not really didn’t need all those treasurers. </p><p>And so the tears ran and there were huge lumps in our throats and we wondered if this was the craziest thing we had ever done. But maybe the weariness of packing and moving helped us know so much of what we thought was important was not really was precious as we remembered. </p><p>And so everything is out of the house. We close on the house in two weeks. Thank God it sold. And there are days as we remember grief comes trickling back. But it doesn’t stay.</p><p>We’ve done this many times. And every time the leaving behind is hard. But we began time after time to open a new chapter. Every one proved to be different. And we found ourselves doing things differently than before. Looking around at all the emptiness we wonder. </p><p>Buechner once told of a wonderful trip his family spent in the mountains. And after several weeks they had to pack and move on. And somebody said, “Why do we ever have to leave this place? Why can’t we just stay.” And Buechner said he learned that they left it all behind to become human beings and discover there would be fine things out there they had yet to know.</p><p>And this is where we are. Closing a chapter and opening up with new pages fresh and yet to be filled. In leaving I remember something Dag Hammarskjold once wrote: <i>"For all that has been thanks. For all that is to be yes.” </i>May it be so not just for us but for the people out there whose names and faces we do not know. </p><p style="text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-45781192196036671662023-10-19T08:29:00.000-07:002023-10-19T08:29:14.941-07:00Bill French--He Left a Mark<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cn2Jjv2eYis2mmc42hmaXxf7RXOUqwbDSU_yVXJ5txrp9fEvlQdN8Sg8QiLzOnDyNP8NQ8FMKObGi-jTfRIzEqb5U7VRCaNfAPT__4VkKPY-W-tjfTOfHygRAcXF__v57GKV7p2WRLQYL2y6x21N7tHPngkJsXYiJgksS3_2Ci71XnH3QDWK_XHlTdtF/s640/IMG_1923.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cn2Jjv2eYis2mmc42hmaXxf7RXOUqwbDSU_yVXJ5txrp9fEvlQdN8Sg8QiLzOnDyNP8NQ8FMKObGi-jTfRIzEqb5U7VRCaNfAPT__4VkKPY-W-tjfTOfHygRAcXF__v57GKV7p2WRLQYL2y6x21N7tHPngkJsXYiJgksS3_2Ci71XnH3QDWK_XHlTdtF/w480-h640/IMG_1923.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">In a world that seems to have gone mad we all need some sustaining grace. Many of you have never heard of Bill French. Unless you live in Upstate South Carolina around Clemson.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;">But this man in his quiet ways left a mark on so many lives. He and his parents moved South from New York in the 1960’s. His parents both developed progressive Alzheimer’s disease and Bill found the resources to keep them at home. What a Caregiver. As a devoted son he made sure his parents had physical and mental stimulation and because of his hands-on care his father and mother found meaningful quality of life.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Only those who have experienced the hard work of caregiving know how difficult this task must have been for both his parents with dementia.But he took them on car rides, local outings, brought good friends into his home and at local facilities. He learned to cook nutritional meals for them.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So he cared for both parents until the end of their lives. His father died in 1980 and his mother died in 1997.But this was not the end of his story. He began to work as volunteer at the local Retirement Center called Clemson Downs.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I remember reading that when the nurse, Florence Nightingale moved through the hospital the sick loved her and many would kiss her shadow as she passed by. She changed the lives of the sick and the dying.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bill French learned the names and faces at the Downs and their families during this most vulnerable time in their lives. You could see him leave his car in the parking lot bringing in homemade cookies, entire meals, soup and ice cream, cakes for special occasions and flowers. He led monthly care giving support groups at this Nursing facility.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I saw him attending funeral after funeral for those he had loved and cared for.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I could go on and on talking abut this man who never married but spent his whole life giving, encouraging, loving. He will be missed by so many of us. For once upon a time a man named Bill left his mark and made an incredible difference.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In our day when so much seems so wrong—whether you knew him or not remember this guy named Bill and all those cadre of angels in many places we have never heard of. Turn off the TV, push aside the newspapers and thank God that in this world there are still angels of mercy who leave the mark of love on whose in need.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so Bill we do not say farewell for we will remember that light you brought into the darkness and how it shone and how much it helped.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I leave Bill with this Benediction that comes from the Roman Catholic Prayer for the Dead:</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>“Into paradise may the angels lead our brother Bill,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>at his coming may the martyrs take him up</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>into eternal rest</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>and may the chorus of angels lead him to that holy city,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>and the place of perpetual light.”</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</i></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-14669444285504716402023-10-04T04:25:00.000-07:002023-10-04T04:25:05.295-07:00Attack on Books, Teachers, Librarians?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh__Kf5n5mClKeBE5vakCLxePuLBJC2aGyth-6ZJFtm6e3j8itAp_ppPWw6iw1ai1JGmeItNIl9Qoh6ILXQyfnZWe6bBVezeJKCaFqkHoY4WVErXYvDPZusz27J38bwqJtNb5_YZ0FDicXmaFPDI-gP7jfbKno0cyck1RNb45M5mdFUE0aIZbQr2D04beZ0/s640/IMG_3390.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh__Kf5n5mClKeBE5vakCLxePuLBJC2aGyth-6ZJFtm6e3j8itAp_ppPWw6iw1ai1JGmeItNIl9Qoh6ILXQyfnZWe6bBVezeJKCaFqkHoY4WVErXYvDPZusz27J38bwqJtNb5_YZ0FDicXmaFPDI-gP7jfbKno0cyck1RNb45M5mdFUE0aIZbQr2D04beZ0/w480-h640/IMG_3390.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;">I grew up in a cotton mill village in the 40’s in Columbus, GA. Neither of my parents finished high school. They had to drop out and helped with the farming in the middle of the depression. But both were readers. The Bible, 0f course but also books, books, books about everything. My mother</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;">even subscribed to the Book of the Month Club then. Monthly all kinds of books found their way to our mail box. Salespeople knocked on our door and talked them into buying the one-volume Lincoln Library. Another person told my parents that the World Book Encyclopedias would make their children smart.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">AsI grew older maybe twelve or thirteen I would board the bus on Saturdays and head for the Carnegie Library three miles away. I discovered a treasure in that Georgia library. I would pilfer through the stacks and brought home Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys series. But these beginnings expanded to all kinds of books. And my mind was stretched and my imagination was deeply stirred.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My parents never checked the books I read. And in some of those volumes I learned about our country. These who believed and sacrificed for the rest of us. But I also read the way Indians were treated. Those awful days of slavery and the terrible Civil War. Curious I read books about sexuality, other religions besides Baptist and all those who lived beyond our borders. The door opened wide to a larger and wonderful world.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so when I read that this is Banned Books Week I said yes. The theme for this year’s week is “Let Freedom Read.” I have studied the multitude of banned books from schools and libraries and been appalled. Over 3,362 books have been banned in the last year. And the list continues to grow.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I have read many of those books they now call dangerous.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I find myself furious that school administrators and teachers have been charged with ugly names like groomers and pedophiles. Some have even lost their jobs. Others have even faced death threats. School Board meetings have become a nightmare. All because of books? I have known librarians in many places where I lived. They are mostly kind and helpful even when many still make only a pittance. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When both my children left home for college it was scary. We dropped one at a dorm in Louisville and another in Chicago. And this was a grief. Night after night we wondered if they were safe. But we had to let them go discovering that freedom is scary but so important for maturity. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This country was founded on a dream of freedom. Since our beginnings we have struggled to make that dream a reality. But I do not want some group out there badgering teachers and administrators and monitoring how children must think. But not only children.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So I applaud this year’s Banned Books theme. “Let freedom ring.” Let it be so for your land and mine. And for us all.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-83088562797902267302023-10-03T14:08:00.000-07:002023-10-03T14:08:06.135-07:00Who's Blessed?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgscKC-reP397ccujEzXsfJc_-AaIQxA98jRVfRBr1YRgA7qVlj__XdnhfeT2IR2ydEI5BsjhJ-EMH-qA7irArvf01_JblPPfoH4kjLAjqvZ-spQTU9Mo9OGDRD0U5ZEJipn2TWveyHdAxChKZ7HgCLrs10vkzFA4ndf1AvxWzeA9M2egI53g846WRtcJSl/s640/IMG_0635.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgscKC-reP397ccujEzXsfJc_-AaIQxA98jRVfRBr1YRgA7qVlj__XdnhfeT2IR2ydEI5BsjhJ-EMH-qA7irArvf01_JblPPfoH4kjLAjqvZ-spQTU9Mo9OGDRD0U5ZEJipn2TWveyHdAxChKZ7HgCLrs10vkzFA4ndf1AvxWzeA9M2egI53g846WRtcJSl/w480-h640/IMG_0635.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />I want to talk to you today about a word we all know. Bless. And we Southerners say:"Bless yo' heart" whether we mean it or not. Or simply: "Bless you!" Some time people come up to me and say: "Ive been so blessed!" And I stand there thinking: "Hmm. What about me? Don't you think I've been blessed?" Leaving a restaurant the other day I looked at the tag on the back of a huge Mercedes. "I've Been so Blessed!" Well, I thought, I guess so. Folks, blessing is not just for the well-heeled or the pious--but for everybody.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>The Power to Bless</b></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One of the books that has meant a great deal to me is a little book called, <i>The Power to Bless. </i>It was written by a Pastoral counselor, Myron Madden. He said that the great power of primitive religion was the power to curse. This was a most fearful thing—to be cursed. But beginning with Abraham a new dimension was added to religious history. It was the power to bless. And over and over we read through the Bible these wonderful words: “I will bless you and I will bless your descendants.”</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now the great news is that the power to bless is much stronger than the power to curse. This is the heart of Judea-Christian religion. Instead of giving us some curse for our cussedness, God graciously holds out a blessing instead.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>The Curse</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Now we all know something about the curse. It’s those crippling messages we have heard all our lives. That we don’t count. That we’ll never amount to anything. That we are dumb, lazy, sissies. Dead-beat. Maybe foreigner or illegal. It is the feeling that we are just not important. And this curse cripples us. It shrivels our self-image. Sometimes it makes us too dependent </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">and we spend all our lives just hoping for a blessing a father for mother could not give. Hoping, hoping somebody will bless us.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>The Blessing</b></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But we also know something about the blessing. To be blessed is to be accepted. To be blessed is to be brought into the circle. To be blessed is to belong—to be a part. When her parents gave their blessing to your marriage, your career, your dreams. It is to be accepted by another person—though they know us warts and all. Bless is really is amazing grace. Remember how the old father blessed that boy that came back home in rags and shame. What did the father say? “My son…my son.” And standing at the door was the prodigal’s brother. Seething. Furious. While he was out there doing God knows what I have been here. Working. Working. Working. I took care of the crops. I have kept this house from falling in. I paid all the bills. And the father turned and said tenderly to that other son: “My son…my son. Don’t you know you have been a blessing to me all these years.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So the gospel holds out a great promise for all of us. We are blessed despite all sorts of obstacles that are thrown in our path. Or that we throw in our own paths. You are blessed even if you didn’t not get your share when the will was read. Or your brother has a shelf with all those trophies and you have no trophies. And continually at the dinner table you have to hear over and over again about when your sister was crowned Miss Anderson and in bitterness you say:”Huh, I never got crowned for nothing except up beside the head.”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Opening the Door</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;">But you know the Gospel opens the door and says everybody is welcomed and everybody is important. The New Testament reminds us that little group of scared believers—always in the minority—always seeming a little strange by most folks. Always looking into the plate glass window but no money to go inside. Paul knew this feeling when he first came into the fold and everybody in church turned their backs except Ananias who reached out and called him brother. And so later, much later this same man would write over and over:”We do not lose heart.”And some of those sitting there listening thought well, he has never been in my shoes. But that did not stop Paul for he told them: “we regard no one from a human point of view…” No one…no one. We are all blessed whether we know it or not.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Everybody</b></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The common people kept following Jesus because he made them feel good about themselves. You know how it is when you are around somebody who accepts you helps you feel good about yourself They make you laugh and you find all your defensiveness just melts away. You are accepted and you know it. This is to be blessed.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But after all these years some of us still feel the sting of: “You’ll never amount to anything.” “You are just a woman.” Or a Democrat or a Republican. Or just a C student to never made the first team. Or queer. Or never had one of two or three of those little strings around you neck the night of your graduation.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Never mind. This gospel really is good news. For us all and nobody is left out. That’s what we call it the blessing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A Pastor named Dean Snyder told a story. He said that Norah came to stay for a few days at the emergency shelter on the first floor of his church. Her hair was colored like a rainbow. She wore tight plastic slacks, and a see-through blouse. She must have been no older than 16. Her parents had tried everything with her and finally threw their hands up and locked her out.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">She chained-smoked, flirtatious, troublemaking—smart and stupid at the same time. Norah made sure she was the center of attention. Always.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One Saturday afternoon the preacher said he was alone in the kitchen when Norah came in and sat down across from him. She was quiet for a long time and finally she asked him a question: “I heard a priest say once that Jesus loved everybody even prostitutes Is that really true?”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Yes</b></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He said he almost went into sermonette drive about how God loves the sinner but not the sin. But he didn’t say that. And to her question about Jesus loving everybody he said the only thing he told her was ,”Yes.” And Noah wept and wept.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s our story too. Jesus loves us all. And we are blessed whether we know it or not. We prodigals. We Elder Brothers. We Elder Sisters. Pass it on friends. Pass it on.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(This sermon was preached September 24, 2023 at the Mount Zion Presbyterian Church, SandySprings, SC.)</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--RogerLovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-83509343345291803472023-09-17T13:17:00.000-07:002023-09-17T13:17:37.626-07:00Moving Yet Again...<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihPUULpLTXdw-6rkWXRHZVVnaEt8__6KSGumbhrN_uLYcdArW0BZxFTu4B3YfoZCzlaiBTzbObHgadrxPyIIlLCKt1qO6QWtIjRXhf3vN-1tcbVLoUcKKyvlNI4K-MdWanuPKaHcTTiZm9vQMS3YIQ2RQ7RPkOwJdmrUffOG7ZPZez5AeyoQNYoyg67uB3/s640/IMG_0520.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihPUULpLTXdw-6rkWXRHZVVnaEt8__6KSGumbhrN_uLYcdArW0BZxFTu4B3YfoZCzlaiBTzbObHgadrxPyIIlLCKt1qO6QWtIjRXhf3vN-1tcbVLoUcKKyvlNI4K-MdWanuPKaHcTTiZm9vQMS3YIQ2RQ7RPkOwJdmrUffOG7ZPZez5AeyoQNYoyg67uB3/w480-h640/IMG_0520.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Somebody out there is going to say:</i><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">“I thought you were gong to write about moving and this may be the weirdest piece of your writing I have ever read. What’s all this talk about crabs?” “Well, bear with me and see how I hope this comes out.”</i></p><p><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><b>Crabs, Huh?</b></i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><i></i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;">I have discovered that sand crabs move from shell to shell. But first they do what is called molting and then they grow a shell which acts as a protective cover. As the crab continues to grow the molting process begins again,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and slowly it will leave the old shell.This is a vulnerable time because w fish could attack and destroy a naked crab. Eventually the molting process begins again, and the crab forms a larger shell. Then when it is too large for the new shell, the process of shedding begins again and the crab finds a new home.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For us surrounded by boxes, trying to keep and give away, dealing with the lump in your throat, hoping you have made the right decision to move on knowing you have to stop and deal with your kids, saying goodbye to some of the closest friends . You put all your peculiar treasures in a moving van, look back at an empty, empty house—and the memories swirl. So many fine things happened in this house you are leaving.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so you move to what will be a vulnerable time. Will your family say goodbye to the old and welcome the new? And what about you and your wife or husband or partner. Truth be told you have outgrown that house and that place. Like the crab you have moved beyond where you were. And it is time to leave.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Saying Goodbye</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Saying goodbye is a hard thing, And there is a grief that we take with us to this new place that we cannot deny. Hopefully our molting will begin again and in time a larger shell or place or position. And home will take on a new look and a new growing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But it isn’t just putting your belongings on a van and moving to another place. It’s outgrowing where you are forced to deal with with life’s changes.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Moving to a new place is only one of a myriad of changes that happen. You lose a loved one, you say goodbye to your child who leaves for college., you might lose a job and with it you lose status. Retirement is a dread for many. Watching slowly your body change or losing something vital. It could be the death of a friend. Or watching too much news and thinking My God, what is happening to this country? Why all this anger and rage? And violence?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It looks like our whole nation has lost something valuable. The old hardened<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>comfortable place is no more. You go back to where you started. The old house looks so small. Downright homely maybe. Or that huge brick building where you went to grade school is not as large as it used to be. And that school auditorium filled with kids, hundreds it seemed. Well, the place looks downright restrictive and maybe seats less than a hundred. You go to your 50th Reunion and look around and ask yourself, “Lord, what happened to them?” Maybe never asking ,”What happened to me?”</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Hope</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The danger is that you can get stuck in some old shell. It has long since quit making you stretch. It’s safe But you don’t move on. You stay close to the shore where you will never encounter the wonder of blue-green water or the waves and the swimming and fishing. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But the moving van unloads all your stuff. The place is smaller. Strange. No neighbors yet. And you find you don’t need half the stuff you surrounded yourself with. This is the vulnerable time for you. Without the shell of yesterday it is scary. But you put your things in place and begin again. Different. But a good difference. One day you will grow another shell and it will be maybe the most comfortable place you have known. Isn’t that the hope we all have? </p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkN9GFl9Wvb1U4LfYTKLLhF-8QjD7XtxZ-ANo6qMK8CkAg0UEx8Uk334DlLQXzmBLMRsgMSKcfy7PXaP5jZN_XkTlgY0DJ5SRYcHWI--vX0KQTCgIoldsCrVViulZGkr6ZpPkj4U2PxBwHm_9ZGODYKP8vna8e1Juk-mGoVnJXnmmFdqUIVuOT_JMkoRiN/s640/IMG_0550.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkN9GFl9Wvb1U4LfYTKLLhF-8QjD7XtxZ-ANo6qMK8CkAg0UEx8Uk334DlLQXzmBLMRsgMSKcfy7PXaP5jZN_XkTlgY0DJ5SRYcHWI--vX0KQTCgIoldsCrVViulZGkr6ZpPkj4U2PxBwHm_9ZGODYKP8vna8e1Juk-mGoVnJXnmmFdqUIVuOT_JMkoRiN/w640-h480/IMG_0550.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-25610207986579822122023-07-29T13:57:00.000-07:002023-07-29T13:57:02.775-07:00What a night to get engaged!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJMfX7UMW0MZO-TyFcf4uVYytWcmz9n2ilbEv-jXq3jmM4Jy1uSVCVcyLaSG8WPYHQwmQjWQZyvM-UV1ajiCsoD2Gt-k-OrgSx-bs1iALuxrO8B_6yr-JDcF9kqRHuM7NbMj9QOAYGmZuAjLCKVYOsy3JM11t2jthtfZeYdXU-X9VUxaUYnMi9TRaxMor/s640/FullSizeRender.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="518" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJMfX7UMW0MZO-TyFcf4uVYytWcmz9n2ilbEv-jXq3jmM4Jy1uSVCVcyLaSG8WPYHQwmQjWQZyvM-UV1ajiCsoD2Gt-k-OrgSx-bs1iALuxrO8B_6yr-JDcF9kqRHuM7NbMj9QOAYGmZuAjLCKVYOsy3JM11t2jthtfZeYdXU-X9VUxaUYnMi9TRaxMor/w518-h640/FullSizeRender.jpeg" width="518" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><i>(My granddaughter and her boyfriend have talked about marriage for quite some time but they had never firmed up their promise. So Devon decided to surprise her with an engagement ring while they were in Savannah on a weekend trip. Libby had no idea about the ring. After Devon's surprise they traveled back to their hotel. Opening the door they found a room full of friends and relatives. Gayle and I could not go but Leslie, Libby's mother asked me if I would write a letter to be read that evening. Libby's sister, Natalie read my words that night.)</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"> * * * *</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dear Libby and Devon--Gayle and I are sorry we couldn't be with you to share with joy on this special night. But we are with you in spirit counting on all the days after day that holds so much promise. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is an old book called <i>Crossing to Safety</i> in which the author reminds us that there is no way that any of us can cross the choppy waters to safety alone. We have to have somebody with us. And this is really why you are here to remember how much we all need each other and how powerful for us to hold on to somebody else as they hold on to us too.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And you all have been together long enough to know of all the people out there you two have decided this is the person that you want to help you get through all the choppy waters. And they will be there swirling a lot of times in your lives.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Any relationship of two people is having a hard time today. But to one day you will stand there, holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes. And you will pledge and you will both promise.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This will be a holy ground and there are days when your cups will be filled and running over. And there will be dark days when the waters will be so choppy that you will wonder if your little boat will make it through the stormy weather which comes when you least expect it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So your marriage will be like a trip and a journey. There will be ups and downs. There will be pot holes and sometimes you all might just run out of gas. But so many days you will look out and hear birds that sing, and so sky so beautiful you can’t say anything. And you will move along. Why? Because of hope. That this partner that holds your hand will help you both through whatever comes.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I saw a cartoon one time in which this old couple sit at their kitchen table and look at each other. And she says: “Do you know what 30 years of marriage adds up to? 22,000 scrambled eggs, 4,680 loads of laundry, 10,950 beds made, 30,000 cups of coffee, 60 trips to the dentist…”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yep—she is right but also those years hold so, so much more. For love is really is a many splendored thing that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>keeps us going. And that means there is so much more to this “I do” that any of us realize.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One of my favorite love stories goes like this:</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>“It is something…it can be everything—too have found a fellow bird with whom you can sit among the rafters while the drinking and the boasting and reciting and fighting go on below; a fellow bird whom you can look after and find bugs and seeds for; one who will patch your bruises and straighten your ruffled feathers and mourn over your hurts when you accidentally fly into something you can’t handle.”</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My, my what a night of hopes and dreams galore! <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>—from Grandpa July 20, 2023</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-67911824705819206432023-07-04T12:57:00.000-07:002023-07-04T12:57:42.633-07:00July Fourth 2023 is a Strange Anniversary<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXTNnFhMT5jaIRiBw7ctyG6BY3ruxob07mfdSloORhy84bq8VU2SCwlPCJcTFPjvoRvjUywNAA6hbFOg-v-_YlCb16mnxHMhG6BqIIFV3r5ugZcQcBxTqv_8knTAmIJomVh9S_mw6JhADWOduxcPUE0dGfpO88ujvLb2EQjJ8g7UAb5o39tVBPtflUWPY/s3427/IMG_0425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1978" data-original-width="3427" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXTNnFhMT5jaIRiBw7ctyG6BY3ruxob07mfdSloORhy84bq8VU2SCwlPCJcTFPjvoRvjUywNAA6hbFOg-v-_YlCb16mnxHMhG6BqIIFV3r5ugZcQcBxTqv_8knTAmIJomVh9S_mw6JhADWOduxcPUE0dGfpO88ujvLb2EQjJ8g7UAb5o39tVBPtflUWPY/w400-h230/IMG_0425.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">On this July 4th I look out my window where flags wave up and down the street. It’s quiet. But fireworks tonight will lighten the whole place. But outside our peaceful bubble chaos seems to reign. Whatever our persuasion most of us know the dreams of all those who fought, prayed, loved and worked through the years are not so clear this Anniversary day.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">You’ve probably heard this quote. When he emerged from Constitution Hall, Benjamin Franklin was recognized by a woman who asked of him “What kind of government are you giving us?” “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.” </span><span style="font-family: arial;">And it looks right now that many of us are worried about keeping this wonderful land and all its promise.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What are we going to do? Just watch the terrible news that will not stop. Or just be depressed. Tune out and just think of personal stuff or anything, anything like videos, sports, reading and shopping. Anything to escape from all this chaos. Maybe we can just stay angry and be furious with all these on the other side of the divide.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I have been reading John Meacham’s wonderful book about Lincoln. <i>And There Was Light. </i>He tells the Lincoln story in a powerful way. How could a man called Abe with almost no resources became the marvelous leader of our country in the terrible days of the civii war.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I think maybe Mr. Meacham was thinking about us and our time as well as Lincoln. The country was so divided. The issue was slavery and the lines were so drawn. And war they lived through reminds me of where we are. I know people are talking about shredding the Constitution, longing for someone that can fix all of this.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As Lincoln began to talk about the wrongness of slavery he had an uphill struggle to get to the Presidency. And there were assassination whisperings everywhere. And there was a large group that decided even though Mr. Lincoln was elected, many would make sure the Electoral College went their way. They put every roadblock in his path that even though he was chosen by the people—this group was determined that Lincoln would never serve a day as President. And even when he did the hatred he endured would finally take his life.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sound familiar? We have been here before. Again and again. And these folk that want to hide behind that silly word, woke would erase our history and ignore our dark side.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But this is where we are with our fears and rage and hope and dreams.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I have a lot of dark days as I think of this July 4th. But Meacham’s book reminds me we have been here many times. Terrible things did happen. But somehow we endured. Not pollyanna style but with the stubborn hope that that light that goes all the way back to 1776 would not be extinguished.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So here all are. In the same boat. Like it or not. And I do believe like the blacks and immigrants and so many others we might just overcome again some day.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dear God, help us to keep our Republic.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</span></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-11143757778141207022023-06-18T06:21:00.000-07:002023-06-18T06:21:00.184-07:00On Father's Day this I Remember<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiG8boXUek055pdwtfSPzuezWHAlwJSH3GAtUaGxlrh5Miadt-nfjBgjk7yDQwHAGg594HNOpXQIGvPwlzPQMIdTtlE271-_D9bHWv9YL97sEEOpdCsXBEoaZrutWtnBTl3w3fe9p8CnzgSXbaUZe2QV7bGOwDqTCUHom6815ga09zyX0EX0nx9Tiw2Q/s1280/IMG_0405.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiG8boXUek055pdwtfSPzuezWHAlwJSH3GAtUaGxlrh5Miadt-nfjBgjk7yDQwHAGg594HNOpXQIGvPwlzPQMIdTtlE271-_D9bHWv9YL97sEEOpdCsXBEoaZrutWtnBTl3w3fe9p8CnzgSXbaUZe2QV7bGOwDqTCUHom6815ga09zyX0EX0nx9Tiw2Q/w300-h400/IMG_0405.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">On this Father’s Day I remember my Father, John Lovett. He was born in 1898. He grew up in a hard a poor farm. When he was a little boy his ears ruptured and his family lived way out in the country and had no way to get to a Doctor. So their home remedies did not work.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So my Daddy grew up with probably 90% hearing loss. I can only imagine how difficult were not only his growing up years but his whole life. Cut off. Not understanding those around him. He kept to himself most days because he could not hear. There were few if any hearing aids back then and when finally ordered hearing aids they hardly worked. They whistled all the time.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So he had a hard time communicating not only with his family but just about everybody. One heartbreaking scene I will never forget. The local Assembly of God Church (always suspect by us Baptists) advertised that a healing evangelist was coming to that church. So the night of the meeting my father told us about the service and that he hoped he would be healed that night. So he dressed in his suit and my brother, Mother and me went with him to the service. I don’t recall much of that evening but there came a time when people who needed healing would form a line some with crutches, some in wheelchairs, mothers with babies. They waited until their time came to meet the Evangelist. They came to be touched by the Evangelist. He would ask them their problem. And then he would touch their forehead and yell: “Be healed!” And almost every person in the line just collapsed as if in a trance. Ushers came forward to help those supposedly “slain in the spirit.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When his time came he told the Evangelist he couldn’t hear and wanted to be healed. And the Evangelist touched his ears and screamed: ”Be healed." As he touched my Father’s forehead my Daddy collapsed and we were scared. This is all I remember about that service except that long winding line of sufferers wanting desperately to be healed.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After the service we asked Daddy if he could hear. “Yes,”I can hear.” Tears rolled down his cheeks. But the next day he said he could not hear quite as well and the next day he was back where he had always been. I don’t remember what happened after that. I have wondered how he felt when his hopes were dashed and his dream was shattered.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is a religion that promises false hopes. That proclaims that God heals everybody if you stand in the line, trust the great Healer and repeat the right slogans. One of the worst things about holding out false hopes is what it does to the person who believes all things are possible. The false prophets have not gone way.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so on this Father’s Day that sad night comes rushing back. Remarkably my Father went on. He was still Daddy. After a long hard week in the mill he would take me and my brother up the street to where the houses ended. We would walk through the woods next to the river. He would point out wild flowers and birds and wild animals and scary snakes. We didn’t say much but I didn’t think much about that dark night until years later. But here was a Father, despite whatever disappointments he may have had, he took his two boys and together they walked though the woods. Isn’t it strange the things you remember?</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-69439924087006137812023-05-27T09:24:00.001-07:002023-05-27T09:24:15.862-07:00On Memorial Day we stop and remember. At least most of us.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtx0oQmQDTI2Egy8X24zpK1SeTA8ra_3DFVmRvNxahCeqeJl-RCuE40kBEkvfWWvW97_pWwOCj4dBi6w0Lgu2jOthx6qiOctRV1NUWAvK2qcVloLu0qu2OdiKGrlLee6N04KsX1UoRcOepby6mRW3Y7SP8EeqO56WXu3rPeVkd_E11I5SEqAoucDrNfA/s1280/IMG_0706.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtx0oQmQDTI2Egy8X24zpK1SeTA8ra_3DFVmRvNxahCeqeJl-RCuE40kBEkvfWWvW97_pWwOCj4dBi6w0Lgu2jOthx6qiOctRV1NUWAvK2qcVloLu0qu2OdiKGrlLee6N04KsX1UoRcOepby6mRW3Y7SP8EeqO56WXu3rPeVkd_E11I5SEqAoucDrNfA/w400-h300/IMG_0706.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Everywhere I go I bump into them.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">They almost all look alike.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Members of the same club.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Old.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Faces weatherbeaten lined.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Tired.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">In the grocery store pushing a cart.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Sitting on a bench smoking a cigarette. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Here and there at a ball game.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Shuffling in to see some doctor.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">They’ve lost a lot.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">They don’t say much.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Usually they ignore the questions we ask about the war.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Yes, they’ve lost a lot.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Buddies over there.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Limbs and sometimes minds.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Health.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">All the years that could have been.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Sometimes wives and children.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Not like it used to be.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">They ache.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">They don’t cry much.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">But they feel—oh, how they feel.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">So now let us raise a salute.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Let us praise all the unknown guys </p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">with the crumpled hats.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">That say veteran.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p><p> </p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-28818196488129252262023-05-27T08:29:00.000-07:002023-05-27T08:29:19.956-07:00Let's Talk About Trans<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjez3yAaAU4QmjZAJr7NzLFCThrwMVcFMcdreusjmGMBVqk3oeW4fBhP2jvsY8O0bzSMrDuPWXNixsJzDAckAbT9-eJDpGbmuwPO8eJlAYHDku4_m4iXhnBT-R4BYybAMBWl3RT7X2ubh9RntdYAeRRLPB5dpbWLmuJSipeRaKfz6f3UUgByxRCKaOY6g/s1280/IMG_1486.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjez3yAaAU4QmjZAJr7NzLFCThrwMVcFMcdreusjmGMBVqk3oeW4fBhP2jvsY8O0bzSMrDuPWXNixsJzDAckAbT9-eJDpGbmuwPO8eJlAYHDku4_m4iXhnBT-R4BYybAMBWl3RT7X2ubh9RntdYAeRRLPB5dpbWLmuJSipeRaKfz6f3UUgByxRCKaOY6g/w300-h400/IMG_1486.jpeg" width="300" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I aways liked the slogan: “It’s a great day in South Carolina.” But I am beginning to have second thoughts.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Not all people in our state can say: “It’s a great day in South Carolina.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Why? So many people seem to be left out. Dreamers, poor folk, gays, blacks, immigrants or just non-whites.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Yet a last week a headline on Transgender folk in the local newspaper has given me pause. The State Legislators are trying to pass bills that would deny Trans people full rights and privileges in SC. The headline read: “Upstate Families Face Anxiety, Exit Plans.” This fear seems to be spreading to almost every state.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Transgender means “a person whose gender identity does not correspond with the sex registered at birth.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Which means that people are confused about their sexual identity. Some males feel more like female than male. The same can be said of females. All over the country young people and their families are struggling with this term transgender.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Couples have told me very early on they knew sons or daughters were different. Their child’s sexual identity gravitated to the opposite sex. They see themselves as not the male or female they find on their birth certificate. Many are involved in transition, meaning they are receiving treatments to change their sex.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Like so many others I do not understand this problem. Yet over 1.6 million identify themselves as transgender. This is a threat to legislators and ordinary citizens. 14 states prohibit transgender people from employment. 13 states protest the protection of transgenders and refuse them housing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There are 3,500 transgender youths (13-17) in our state. 18 bills in SC have been introduced attacking<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>transgenders. Their stated purpose is to stamp out health care for those in transition, changes in birth certification, adoption rights, use of bathrooms and sports teams.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">These bills would ban any instruction of expressions of gender diversity in the classroom. This is followed with the banning of books that even mention the term, trans. One Florida provision allows Social Services to scoop children from their homes if their parents give their under-age children access to gender-affirming care. Some parents are seriously considering moving out of the state to protect their children from hatred and harsh and unfair treatment. Others not understanding weep for their children.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The American Academy of Pediatrics revealed alarming rates of attempted suicide among transgender youth. 1.8 million L GBTQ youths (13-24) consider suicide every year.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The climate the parents and their trans children encounter enormous resistance. Just think your child comes home and tells you they are not the sex you thought they were. Imagine the struggle these parents feel in unlearning values they have always held. Shifting these gears is far from easy. And then there is the difficulty in dealing with their relatives and friends.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Many people charge these parents with indoctrinating their children to transgender. Teachers are warned to not mention this subject. Many churches teach these children are an abomination and live in sin. They say that God’s laws have been broken.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">What we need:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1) Bills to protect all our children. Every child needs a safe place.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2) Parents need encouragement and support as they struggle with all their issues.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>3) We need Legislators that are willing to sit down and listen to parents and their</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>children as they tell their stories.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4) Every person and family dealing with these issues should seek counseling in this serious matter.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5) Churches and other faith groups should welcome all people. No Qualification.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There are a multitude of references in the New Testament on the defense of children. <i>“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes “ me. If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, if would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck, and you were drowned in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the depths of the sea.” </i>(Matthew 18. 6.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">6) We also need to ponder the words of the 14th Amendment in our Constitution: <i>“All persons or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of the United States<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall the State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I close these remarks with the eloquent words of Wendell Berry:</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">“Though you have done nothing shameful,</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">they will want you to be ashamed.</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">They will want you to kneel and weep</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">and say you should have been like them.</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">And once you say you are ashamed,</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">reading the page they hold out to you,</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">then such light as you have made</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">in your history will leave you.”</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></i></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-847447392249336072023-05-26T12:41:00.001-07:002023-05-26T12:43:10.779-07:00Pentecost--Then and Now<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGQfMRcJMzmYJGEgKn_jqKu40vArSZzHbBMCdicDkysi7bjrDWa38FVzH4i-fCJjRyl0bKrDXM8pLaaG0YH1uNQapI6KYmt3BPqfQ-4tKb9QsaDgx3RoEa5McXcKT1rPCAr0fegaz1bHZiU35HjlhujE-HkzTlTipwS4D6aAswEWdYrcSwZv56IE5fhw/s1280/IMG_0193.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGQfMRcJMzmYJGEgKn_jqKu40vArSZzHbBMCdicDkysi7bjrDWa38FVzH4i-fCJjRyl0bKrDXM8pLaaG0YH1uNQapI6KYmt3BPqfQ-4tKb9QsaDgx3RoEa5McXcKT1rPCAr0fegaz1bHZiU35HjlhujE-HkzTlTipwS4D6aAswEWdYrcSwZv56IE5fhw/w300-h400/IMG_0193.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">When I read Pentecost story of the birth of the church there were no stained glass disciples. There were no great throngs singing something like the Hallelujah Chorus. No. Maybe that Pentecost birth was much like ours. Like mine maybe. Coming into the world in a four-room house to parents who barely finished the eighth grade and lived from small paycheck to paycheck.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Folks like us—weak-kneed disciples who on and off again tended that little fire that began that first day with the rushing wind.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Nobody knew where it would go or what would mean. And nobody would know back then that even though there would be whoredoms and Laodiceas and sermons and terrible actions that would smudge his name. Through the years pilgrims of all ages keep shuffling in to confess and cry and have lumps in their throats and whisper: "Help me! Help me!" They and we leave over and over with a hope strong and sometimes weak—but still hanging on that kindly light despite the ever flickering gloom. Nothing that the world could throw at them or us<span class="Apple-converted-space"> would stick.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And from that day only God knew that stubborn spirit would endure and sometimes be as wonderful as that fiery day when it all began. Crosses everywhere. Prayers even in funerals and weddings and dull-grey days. And rosaries and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>shame and fury. And it came to all. All flesh the book called it. And languages from all over the world. And the wind would blow and still blows and nothing could stop it' power.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looking back we marvel at the courage and love and commitment that kept them going. So in these strange days Pentecost is still celebrated. Because even with all the unfairness and the hatred<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and injustice that Promised Spirit still comes. And it<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>isn’t because of anything we do—but like rain on a parched-dry field it comes and all is touched. No wonder Jesus said: “I will not be here but I will send my Spirit." And we look back on that first day and look now on our difficult days and we will be glad because it is far from over. For that Spirit is hard to understand but it still comes. Even here…especially here.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>Lift up your hearts</i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>We lift them up to the Lord.</i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Pwu0QeyGAHutAciYpNA-iNKbxpE6kY8G9fJVFZKBHPi0UsMPYR2hY7tdpeu9m9_UBmYgH5PhemNtdQrW-4e88RJgqggwV_htcsV_iroQiWxMb1-MyDZcZn8fFV9Re6GwQmi3j7-hxVKbnARiaTzma83JVdRVte61QR6gUiA8tWDiyIagPwf_g34jxA/s1280/IMG_0197.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Pwu0QeyGAHutAciYpNA-iNKbxpE6kY8G9fJVFZKBHPi0UsMPYR2hY7tdpeu9m9_UBmYgH5PhemNtdQrW-4e88RJgqggwV_htcsV_iroQiWxMb1-MyDZcZn8fFV9Re6GwQmi3j7-hxVKbnARiaTzma83JVdRVte61QR6gUiA8tWDiyIagPwf_g34jxA/w300-h400/IMG_0197.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette/ rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-57622788566446277872023-05-13T11:55:00.000-07:002023-05-13T11:55:11.003-07:00Rod Davis - A Memory and a Eulogy<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFHo_czztS3D50bVA1QNejluvOVkx_K12BqE-jF-KP9LVOhGX8r1cfdMC5Agdt1xH0LhNzCo2kvNYiVPLTZAuu5y5gfbMEMJdQDJmJuWRSyjP7HYgd9kMKniO7tuHsrI1yhzT69CsAaKGcSP6XZEmPDcf7n5OXsN1LAxAvy0zPp0ZPRiwgORk4dA9X9Q/s2048/image0.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1150" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFHo_czztS3D50bVA1QNejluvOVkx_K12BqE-jF-KP9LVOhGX8r1cfdMC5Agdt1xH0LhNzCo2kvNYiVPLTZAuu5y5gfbMEMJdQDJmJuWRSyjP7HYgd9kMKniO7tuHsrI1yhzT69CsAaKGcSP6XZEmPDcf7n5OXsN1LAxAvy0zPp0ZPRiwgORk4dA9X9Q/w360-h640/image0.jpeg" width="360" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I was asked to give the Eulogy at the Memorial Service for Rod Davis in Birmingham, May 14 but I could not go. There was no other place I would ever be. So I wrote out this Eulogy and it was to be read at the Service today at the Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham.)</span></p><p><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Rod Davis - A Memory</b></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">May 14, 2023</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Marhy Oliver writes:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>“Someone I loved once gave me<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>a box full of darkness</i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>It took me years to understand</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>that this, too, was a gift.”</i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And here we are family, friends, colleagues, and more—much more.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And today crowded into this room are so, so many holders of our boxes full of darkness.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rod was 86 when he died. And his last four years were hard, hard indeed. This brilliant friend left us much too soon. And today we come to remember not that sad leave taking—but the gift, the amazing gift that we all find in our own box full of darkness.</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not darkness, really. Even in our own hard grief. But more. Light. Incredible light that streamed through the days of Rod Davis. I met him first at Howard College in 1954. He was one year behind me. I have tried to remember how it all started. I do remember he invited me up to his house in Horton, Alabama. I remember sitting in his bedroom and he asked , “Do you know the poet, T.S. Eliot?” I didn’t. He said, “Let me read you something that comes his ‘Choruses from the Rock.’” These words were written in 1930.</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>“Remember the faith that took men from home</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>At the call of a wandering preacher.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Our ages an age of moderate virtue</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And of moderate vice</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>When men will not lay down the Cross</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>because they will never assume it.</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Yet nothing is impossible, nothing</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>To men of faith and conviction.</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Let us therefore make perfect our will.</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>O God, help us.”</i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so I was hooked. He opened so many doors. Which led to more doors, and more doors. Martin Luther King’s, <i>Stride Toward Freedom. </i>Bonhoeffer’s, <i>The Cost of Discipleship</i>, Frederick Buechner—whom I had never heard of. Thomas Wolfe’s, <i>You Can’t Go Home Again.</i> And so many more. Thank you Rod for opening that magical door that has never closed.</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And what he did for me he has done for so many. His brothers, Phil and Gayron and his nieces and nephews. Eric, dear Eric and so very many others in this crowded room and beyond. We have all sloshed through the darkness of many things but Rod, Dr. Davis, Dean Davis helped us so many of us see the light which no darkness can ever put out.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I went to Seminary in Louisville but he went North. Yale and Ridgefield and Boston and New York and then back, years later to Birmingham. Dr. Hull called one day and asked: “What would you think of Roderick Davis as Dean here at Samford?" And I said, “Oh, that would be great if you could get him.” And so he came bringing with him a breath of fresh air and the students and faculty loved him. Yes, in time, he did become a legend. And on his retirement in 2001 his colleagues honored him with the J. Roderick Davis Lecture series which has brought scholars and public intellectuals from all over to the campus.</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When I was considering coming to this church as Pastor, he called<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and said, “If you come I will join your church.” And he did and like so many other things, Rod made a difference here. And he was a strong supporter of every Pastor.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I could talk all day about this friend mine. And if you had the chance so, so many of you could stand and tell your own Rod Davis story for we all have them.</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I want to tell you story which may seem like a diversion but bear with me.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>One of my mentors was Carlyle Marney, a great Baptist preacher. He served for years at the First Baptist of Austin Texas. And once a week he would meet with a group of minister-colleagues for breakfast. And one day he left that church to serve as Minister of the Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte. And one morning in Austin at breakfast one of the waitresses asked that group. “I have not seen Dr. Marney down here for a long time. Is he still down at the church?” Those gathered around the table looked at each other and one preacher spoke up and said, “Oh, yes Dr. Marney is still down at the church.”</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And as I think of Rod I would say he’s still here. In the hearts of his family. In the hearts of all those from place to place where he worked and taught. And at this University and others. And he is still at this church. And person after person here could say: Yes, he is still here.”</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let us, we grievers, lift up not only our prayers of thanksgiving for Rod. But let us also lift up his family and what a gift he must have been to you and Lynn and to us all. In the first sermon Jesus ever gave he said, “<i>I have come to heal the brokenhearted.</i>” And he also said, “<i>Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted.”</i>This box of darkness is only part of this story. But we remember Rod Davis and light…incredible light.</p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I want to close with a Benediction that comes from Dostoyevsky’s, <i>The Brothers</i> <i>Karamazof:</i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“What keeps me going is that I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that in the world’s finale something<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>so great will come to pass that it is going to suffice for all our hearts, for the comforting of all our sorrows, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity. And I want to be there when suddenly everyone understands what it is all been for.”</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>--</i>Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-61511340345776927562023-05-13T11:51:00.000-07:002023-05-13T11:51:01.122-07:00Mother's Day--My Favorite Memory<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiwWadgvcQENEbhlv0C6F82ZR7QM5BWnguiq1WxAjrpGVK34sxq8vjqd80MtruNtQnG83F_6eMV8x6jN2uCPJrPmU0bD_vtxoWEuRzOrDrorkucQu8tbNwkH1rkJIpFysU44mpizq0ey_GKyuzTp4LXiZeFvcJEgNmebSrUg5QauaYCZE5_JUjw9bFujw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1620" data-original-width="2157" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiwWadgvcQENEbhlv0C6F82ZR7QM5BWnguiq1WxAjrpGVK34sxq8vjqd80MtruNtQnG83F_6eMV8x6jN2uCPJrPmU0bD_vtxoWEuRzOrDrorkucQu8tbNwkH1rkJIpFysU44mpizq0ey_GKyuzTp4LXiZeFvcJEgNmebSrUg5QauaYCZE5_JUjw9bFujw=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: left;"><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: left;">(This picture takes me back to my favorite Mama story. This piece has been published in several newspapers and has appeared on my blog. Every time I see this photograph I remember so many things </b></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><b> about my Mother. As you read I hope your own memories of your Mother come back again.)</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.524px;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">One of he pictures in my study is a photograph of two red Gerbera daisies. One is in full bloom and the other is just beginning to open. The photograph looks like it must have been a sunshiny day. The flower’s foliage is lush and green. Occasionally someone will pick up the picture and ask, “Why do you have a picture of these two flowers on your desk?” And I answer with a story.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The memory goes back more than twenty five years. Coming home from a two-week trip I began to catch up on the news with my wife. She had traveled south while I studied up north. On her way home she had stopped by my Mother’s house in Georgia and learned she was in the hospital. In her eighties, Mother’s trips to the hospital were coming closer together.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“Oh, by the way,” my wife said, “your Mother sent you some flowers. Gerber daisies, she called them. Her favorite. Just before she got sick she said that she found two plants at a good price. She instructed me to go by her house when I left the hospital, get the daisies, be very careful with them and bring them home to you.” We were moving soon and she told my wife, “Don’t plant them now. Take the daisies with you to Memphis and plant them in your new yard.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When I talked to my mother on the telephone she wanted to know about the daisies. “Give them plenty of water. Keep them out of full sun until you plant them and take them with you to Memphis. Now don’t put them in that moving van—you put them in your car.” That was our last conversation. She died less than a week later.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Weeks later we moved to Tennessee. One of the last things I did as we closed up our house was to put the daisies in my car. On a Sunday morning I planted the green daisy plants in the Tennessee soil in our new side yard. It was a painful planting. Grief came surging back. As I mulched the flowers I remember praying, “Dear God, let them live. Let them live.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was late August.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My birthday fell on a Saturday in October that year. As I went to get the newspaper I was dumb founded by what I saw. One of the daisies had the prettiest red bloom and another bud was barely opening. I don’t know much about this flower except October is very late for a Gerbera daisy to bloom. I charged into the house and told my wife, “You won’t believe what’s outside. One of my mother’s daisies is blooming on my birthday!”</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It was her final gift of so many others she had given me through the years. Even after her death, the long arm of her love touches me still. That photograph reminds me of that birthday morning.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Frost came early that year. The flowers wilted. I hoped the daisies would live through the winter—but Gerbera daisies don’t usually survive the winter cold. The next spring the flowers never came up. But this I know: that daisy bloomed on my birthday. The flowers did their work in a hard time. And even after all these years, on this Mother’s Day I look at that picture and smile. Grace, stubborn grace, comes in the strangest of ways. I told my friend this was why I keep this picture of that red daisy on my desk.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK8_rXYDPJFuU7dqC8f0E-v0Vt2M2T9Kb41vKC9psPjh1pkhKCZXzX2riBsDGynenl3zeb_AgVoaBIr8Fs3nTVRQ_lOz0x3WKybFN1q47kJ1Fts1UoMzMENK1Pp9lag5UD3iFL7vuqdkKDUfygsAqyFb7T9UD1Jv4kcMIyvsuIoB5K1H9P0SWhLRdvnw/s1280/IMG_0305.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK8_rXYDPJFuU7dqC8f0E-v0Vt2M2T9Kb41vKC9psPjh1pkhKCZXzX2riBsDGynenl3zeb_AgVoaBIr8Fs3nTVRQ_lOz0x3WKybFN1q47kJ1Fts1UoMzMENK1Pp9lag5UD3iFL7vuqdkKDUfygsAqyFb7T9UD1Jv4kcMIyvsuIoB5K1H9P0SWhLRdvnw/w300-h400/IMG_0305.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><i> (My son drew this picture of his grandmother years ago. As I look at it--I remember Mama.)</i></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">--Roger Lovette / rogrlovette.blogspot.com</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-20905653055365743702023-04-18T15:01:00.002-07:002023-04-18T15:01:48.270-07:00Remembering Rod--He Was a Friend of Mine<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpgm7leasxtQyg_hxJOIN_J5FbLsElqrKQKXugKCUDu-e7nzSJj6LLucKPLnkIxbP1hO12w9OApqbx0DrUMt_aDvJBRpNMIFjZXLnIgitk3sQI_i8iXhhEok9QYX-zdMtVxabouJw7hw6kTqXGgxumftb9pfalfgw5V0j_oL6MMoq8OX5pMgmu82c98g/s1280/IMG_0416.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpgm7leasxtQyg_hxJOIN_J5FbLsElqrKQKXugKCUDu-e7nzSJj6LLucKPLnkIxbP1hO12w9OApqbx0DrUMt_aDvJBRpNMIFjZXLnIgitk3sQI_i8iXhhEok9QYX-zdMtVxabouJw7hw6kTqXGgxumftb9pfalfgw5V0j_oL6MMoq8OX5pMgmu82c98g/w300-h400/IMG_0416.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-family: arial;"> Rod Davis and my wife, Gayle in Five Points</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bob Dylan sings plaintively: “</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>He was a friend of mine<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>He was a friend of mine</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Every time I think about him now</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Lord I just can’t keep from crying</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Cause he was a friend of mine.”</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rod Davis, who left us much too soon was a friend of a whole lot of us. And though there is enormous sadness in many of our hearts, even in our sorrow,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">there wells up a gratitude because he touched us, he made us feel better about ourselves and loved so, so much.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My friendship with Rod dates all the way back to 1955. We were in college at what was Howard College in Birmingham. I remember sitting in his bedroom in Horton, Alabama while he told me about T.S. Eliot whom I did not know He read passages from <i>“Choruses from the Rock.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The desert is not remote in southern tropics,</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The desert is not only around the corner,</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The desert is in a tube-train next to you,</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The desert is in the heart of your brothe</i>r.”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So he opened a door to a world of books that I did not know. But there was so much more. Even from those early green days I found him kind, quiet, never making a splash—but there, making a difference in all sorts of ways.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He was quite a spiffy dresser back there. And he had this grey wool suit with time aqua stripes running through it. And with it he wore this aqua and grey tie. And I kept talking about that tie and he kept saying, “There is nothing wrong with this tie.” But I kept talking about that tie. Years later when I was about to get married, he sent me this same tie and said he thought it would dignity to the occasion.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Years later when he got married I sent the same tie back to him with some kind of a crazy message. I know you still would like to wear this tie at your wedding. No response.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But in the beginning of my first church—way down on Highway Alternate 54 in Kentucky—this are tie came in the mail. Saying he thought it might just add some class as I began my work. And he would send me books back then like Bonhoeffer’s <i>The Cost of Discipleship </i>with the inscription:”To Roger who knows the truth of this title.” He sent me a book by an author I did not know, <i>The Magnificent Defeat </i>by Frederick Buechner. Rod, at Yale Divinity School opened the door back then to this friend preaching in Philpot,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Kentucky. I think I have read about everything Mr. Buechner wrote, shaping my life in many ways. This came from Rod Davis.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the sixties, he and his wife spent a night with us in Virginia on their way to teach at a black college, Miles College in Birmingham. Later he went on to teach at John Jay College in New York and in his generosity invited me and some friends to stay in his apartment. Later he invited our family to spend a week there while he was gone. I am not sure he taught at John Jay College. He was a member of the Riverside Church and served on the Search Committee after Bill Coffin resigned from the church.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Much, much later Dr. Bill Hull, the Chancellor at Howard-Samford, my alma mater<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>called me and said, “We’re considering Rod Davis for Dean of the College here—what do you think.” I told him if we could get Rod to come he would do wonderful things for the students and the college. So he came back home to Birmingham and students said that he was a legend in his own time. He brought such a rich legacy to the school, during his tenure. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was considering<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>taking a church in Birmingham and he told me, “If you come I will join your church.” And he did. And he helped us immensely.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While he was still at Samford he established the Davis Lectures And through the years he brought great people to the campus. Taylor Branch, Eugene Robinson, Walter Isaacson, Marilynne Robinson and so many others.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He retired from Samford and I was asked to speak at his retirement dinner. And I told the story about a knitted aqua and gray tie that we kept exchanging.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After we left the church Rod stayed in Birmingham surrounded by many friends and colleagues. He was great asset to the larger Birmingham community. For years he has raised his voice for social justice, and so many issues that touched Birmingham and Alabama and beyond.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">About three years ago he started having some serious problems and slowly drifted away. Until a year or so we still talked on the telephone.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">His Memorial Service will be held at the church he loved, The Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham on Saturday, May 13th.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When you lose someone who has been a strong friend the grief is palpable and hard. Yet I remember so very much that friendship meant to me. I hope these words have helped to try to capture the life of a very great man. Many, many others could tell their own Rod stories.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnk1CFNnJFwkz5Fbm3lvpGiV3E83vq08RDrlFufjLmnuGq2ikaZKq0GJhI5KkcJ_1ASMqlQA-CdEILRfBRqH_sR_U29VdRV7sLt1r4W_xzRKUcSE5SEICUqxrAJ4KHomemDLb_drqPrnXrzW6aYHzPfPetOKkOWW5i_8AzzttI01C0IbMgTz5Nuzz1Q/s1280/00788_s_10aga79s5l0347_b.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="1280" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnk1CFNnJFwkz5Fbm3lvpGiV3E83vq08RDrlFufjLmnuGq2ikaZKq0GJhI5KkcJ_1ASMqlQA-CdEILRfBRqH_sR_U29VdRV7sLt1r4W_xzRKUcSE5SEICUqxrAJ4KHomemDLb_drqPrnXrzW6aYHzPfPetOKkOWW5i_8AzzttI01C0IbMgTz5Nuzz1Q/w400-h269/00788_s_10aga79s5l0347_b.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Rod Davis, Roger Lovette, Lizette Van Gelder (our teacher), Edward Gibbons</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Benediction</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>“Into paradise may the angels lead dear Rod; at his</i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>coming may the martyrs take him up into eternal rest,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>and may the chorus of angels lead him to that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>holy city, and the place of perpetual light.</i>”</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">—The Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-8431409044867029622023-04-08T12:05:00.002-07:002023-04-08T12:15:33.920-07:00Easter--Something Happened Here<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 1px 1px 5px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.524px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 8px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq-NfPGTXy55OfFMuDikmCPUcxbEeJsBeZUKieUnTAYAgRdWNdM090vS4NBSKqYoo4AMaosW4wV3HVvbN82VU5yRn1Bg4LbT1cNMbox5iRVr8Zeyfw-jNgdkh6HS4WVHl1i0sn15AvT_g/s1600/Daffodils+2-09+029.jpg" style="color: #cc3300; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1291" data-original-width="1600" height="515" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq-NfPGTXy55OfFMuDikmCPUcxbEeJsBeZUKieUnTAYAgRdWNdM090vS4NBSKqYoo4AMaosW4wV3HVvbN82VU5yRn1Bg4LbT1cNMbox5iRVr8Zeyfw-jNgdkh6HS4WVHl1i0sn15AvT_g/s640/Daffodils+2-09+029.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.8192px;"><span face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">I've had this picture in my office for years and years. I look at it when I need hope. Maybe it will help you too</span>.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A little boy stood with his parents at the Grand Canyon. He looked out at the vistas, the colors, the vastness and whispered, “Something happened here.” And when it comes to Easter I feel the same way.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Years ago my friend, Temp Sparkman lost his little girl to leukemia. I first read his words in the Crescent Hill Baptist Church newsletter where he was on the staff. I have printed his poem as a handout for many grief groups. This is my gift to us all this Easter:</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Was the Grass Ever Green</b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;"><b></b><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>“Was the grass ever green</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Were the sounds of birds really clearly heard</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And did we picnic in the park only six months ago</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Here in midwinter they seem so far away</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The naked trees, the laden skies seem always to have been</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And seem out ahead for all time</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Were things really ever green</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And will spring come back again?</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Yes, the spring will return</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The gray, dull days of cold will pass</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The routine now imprisoning us will be broken up</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>A new excitement will be awakened by new possibilities</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The despair which now engulfs us will subside</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>A word of hope will come to us</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Our presumption that all is lost<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>will be replaced by a new expectancy</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Future will become a possibility again</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The crush of demands will not dominate us forever</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Out of liberation we will learn to choose<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And in our choices to be secure.</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The sadness now weighing upon us will be lifted</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Joy will speak her acknowledgment of grief</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and will sound her call to us</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The cause of sadness will not have vanished</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>But joy will come in spite of it</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>We will laugh again</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>We will sing and dance</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>We will celebrate the life now given to us.</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The conflicts now engaging our energy</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>will be worked though</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>No wind will sweep them from us</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And we will survive</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Redemption will come of our transactions</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Relationships will be rescued and restored<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And where breaks are too deep to be one,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Healing will come in time, though apart</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The tensions tearing at our being will be resolved</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>We will not be destroyed.</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Were things really ever green</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And will the spring come back again</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Yes, yes as sure as e’re it were here</i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Yes, yes as sure as God is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The spring will return<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>And it will be green again.”</i></p><p><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-54899446394823077752023-04-08T10:00:00.000-07:002023-04-08T10:00:13.773-07:00A Holy Saturday World<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0uF1CCHWBWhKE47cHeqR7s4Xg8DYrrr--fuCvHjSo4CKoaPzz37MH7sdmqTpVwrrpmo89agm28nBt7BoRfFLmkgBD1Q5dLr1lVJvll56XtF8GZ_D0iWU3O90pyuBnXmRkLjR1BmZsZ-faR_JPR44Mg7xD5zBaaa16_-MGMELNZuBhU3uVAwaAgfGTkg/s1220/Stations--Jesus'%20death%20009_crop.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1220" data-original-width="961" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0uF1CCHWBWhKE47cHeqR7s4Xg8DYrrr--fuCvHjSo4CKoaPzz37MH7sdmqTpVwrrpmo89agm28nBt7BoRfFLmkgBD1Q5dLr1lVJvll56XtF8GZ_D0iWU3O90pyuBnXmRkLjR1BmZsZ-faR_JPR44Mg7xD5zBaaa16_-MGMELNZuBhU3uVAwaAgfGTkg/w504-h640/Stations--Jesus'%20death%20009_crop.jpeg" width="504" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If we live long enough we will find ourselves here. The morning after death. Quiet. Somber. Everything moves in slow motion. Some of the saddest words were those that said: “We had hoped he would be the one to redeem Israel.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The rainy season was winding down. The streams were swollen and everything seemed damp. Better days were surely ahead—or at least we thought. But on dark Saturday we have little hope. We have known it—or will. Jesus had said “It is finished” just before he breathed his last. But this Saturday what is finished? The crucifixions? The grief? The utter unfairness of it all. Then and now. We had hoped.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So with enormous sadness they took his broken body down. They pulled out the nails, wiped the blood away, put a linen cloth over his naked body. They hd no place to bury him until Joseph of Arimathea came and offered his tomb. Close to the Garden where he had prayed where the soldiers dragged him away. And they rolled a huge stone to seal his tomb.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All this took place on that Holy Saturday . Everything ran together. Mary holding her son close. Rain—the awful rain. And Judas dead. And the other disciples whispering hoarsely: “We had hoped.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s still that way. Take any country or village or town then and now. It seems like the end of all the goodness and grace and mercy. Just death. And like those then we know it too. The TV blares, the newspapers cannot write enough of all the out there, social media gone crazy. We had hoped.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But this is where we are—even though this is not the end. The long night will finally be over and the morning light will come. And the birds will sing and the trees will once again be green and somehow, like Noah we will find a dove that will come with an olive branch in her beak and the land will be dry again.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p><p><br /></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-74134682035453570762023-04-07T14:38:00.002-07:002023-04-07T14:38:56.583-07:00Holy Friday<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdyXLMymapl2g2SZFA3QLmP-r4_nrrmRojCBGujh9xrDERKv-0KU80KWppG2DsAQ-zFct42Ad8X6dYmcJjSCS66oRtJt_vzcw0HBrQ0JAs3z9HeGMzNlACavTqitFbK4skQ92wpAWe5Tdv576D3P_Q97jbk-30lZ3ztd7RC2nf31En9xnhqvPE2FmUA/s3024/IMG_0267.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2454" data-original-width="3024" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdyXLMymapl2g2SZFA3QLmP-r4_nrrmRojCBGujh9xrDERKv-0KU80KWppG2DsAQ-zFct42Ad8X6dYmcJjSCS66oRtJt_vzcw0HBrQ0JAs3z9HeGMzNlACavTqitFbK4skQ92wpAWe5Tdv576D3P_Q97jbk-30lZ3ztd7RC2nf31En9xnhqvPE2FmUA/w640-h520/IMG_0267.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"Even bein' God ain't no bed o' roses"</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">----The Green Pastures</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Today we come to that place where we all must come. That day when darkness settles down on us in the middle of our lives. But not just once but more than the admit. William Inge was right when he wrote there really is a dark at the top of our stairs. But we can’t brush over this day and cosmetize that cross and then rush on to Easter.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In our time we don’t want to deal with that dark road which is really ours. We don’t want to upset our children with dismal things. Why they might have nightmares. So we look back on that hill faraway but most of us don’t linger there. So we have diamonds in our crosses and some of us put this decoration around our necks or tattoos on our bodies not having a clue to what that day—and this day truly means.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We really do not face the evil, the blood and the gore, and the spittle and the brittle laughter out there. Or the jeers even from the religious leaders that should know better. This was the cross and all four gospels tell this sad story in their own ways.They crammed it full of all the things the eye-witnesses had told them. The dark moments in the garden, the kiss of Judas. Simon of Cyrene forced to carry the cross for Jesus. They say he fell three times dragging his cross up the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>hill. And Herod is there and Pilate is there and there blood-thirsty crowd is there. And criminals who will be punished with him are there. And all the scourging and the jeers and the injustice it all does not even come close to capturing that crucifixion.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so on our Good Friday we run headlong not into their story but ours too. Thomas Mann once said of great literature, “It is, it always is, however much we say it was.” We know pain. don’t we? And we know a world of unfairness. And we know too, too much about cancer and mental illness and the dreaded Alzheimer’s plus that long sad list of pain and tears.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And we know about those little girls in Nashville or all those other places. No thoughts and prayers—not yet.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We must face our own horror. And our own Herod's and Pilate’s and pious religious leaders. And all those homeless and the poor on food stamps.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We know about the waste of life that should not be taken away—slow or fast. The list of our sorrows is long. Clergy abuse of little children. Women abused and hidden behind those suffocating Scriptures that keep them in line. We know about money, money, money and power that is strangling us to death. What of those 20 states who’ve passed cruel laws that punish the transgenders and their parents. We don’t have enough time to write them all down. But that man of sorrows knew so much. Like us. And he was nailed to that tree—where even God seems to be silent.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It was not all dark. There were women that stood weeping and the thief who agonized but saw even there a goodness. Or that young man who lifted a spear<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of sour wine<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to Jesus’ parched and bleeding lips. We cannot forget that other Joseph who offered his own tomb. We cannot leave them out. Nor should we.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Somehow God was there that terrible afternoon. And like Jesus we forget that sometimes our own bitter cup cannot be taken away. This is not the time for happy-clappy tunes or jubilation or even preaching it’s Friday but Sunday’s comin’. Oh yes, its is—but not now. Not today. We have to stare at our own Via Doloroso—our way of sorrows.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We must not try to forget all the injustices out there today. Even in the dark at the top of stairs—a kindly light may just come.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thanks be to God for Good Friday. Then and now.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-53127082263252744692023-04-06T17:52:00.001-07:002023-04-06T17:52:51.414-07:00Holy Maundy Thursday<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsmbwX7vDMV2QekWjlDy8IwuEK1ZPVvOl9NaUJ4Pu2S6Hj_hgIwADsa5BqAg4V_U41mjsKLrl30_SGLR2-POhqLk4-WsLBP6jqUSr57t9U0SarKTmw7SLG4kyhOv8v6LVkIsnCapR2rzmhPgGgUmS39kB6YOjD5dgnOkAJrIeUDjSYprmIx8c5Hp-iA/s1280/IMG_0636.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsmbwX7vDMV2QekWjlDy8IwuEK1ZPVvOl9NaUJ4Pu2S6Hj_hgIwADsa5BqAg4V_U41mjsKLrl30_SGLR2-POhqLk4-WsLBP6jqUSr57t9U0SarKTmw7SLG4kyhOv8v6LVkIsnCapR2rzmhPgGgUmS39kB6YOjD5dgnOkAJrIeUDjSYprmIx8c5Hp-iA/w480-h640/IMG_0636.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There hangs on the wall by my desk a wonderful picture of this wonderful sculpture of the Loving father and his prodigal son. The old man’s arms are around his broken boy. The son despite all he has done and not done—he feels love and acceptance and forgiveness. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Churches all over the world meet this Thursday night. And we have followed that terrible journey that led to a table and unleavened bread and wine to the washing of feet. His followers sitting there with a lump in their throats<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>hearing Jesus say he would be leaving them. He knew what they did not know—soon, too soon there would be the place of the skull and the terrible cross.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Around that table he gave them a last will and testament. And so they called this night maundy, which meant mandate or command. Judas had slipped away. Simon proudly pledged that he would never, never do what he thought Judas must even be doing that very night. One gospel said they all forsook him and fled. Not only Judas or Simon but all for them around that table.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus said the strangest thing to those all-too-human -disciples. “<i>A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you.” </i>With all their flawedness he gave them their orders—they were to love one another.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And we know the rest of that story. Terrible things would be done over and over in the name of Jesus. And yet still after all these years the words are still our center piece: Love one another. Looking back on our tortured history one preacher said, “The church has dirty under-drawers.” And not only the church but all of us have fallen short of what we are to be.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The church today as in every age is having a hard time. People—especially the young—have drifted away. Some call them the nones. They wearily threw in the towel or just do not care. Many reasons but we think of clergy abuse of children and adults. The coverups. A whittling down of Jesus’ mandate. No wonder they feel like the whole Sunday thing is a sham.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>For they have not seen in us Christians—anything but love. How do the transgenders or their parents must feel today. Or the parents of those nine year old they buried this week. Or those immigrants think that find our doors shut. Or the poor living in old paper boxes. You won’t find many of these in church on this Maundy Night.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So that picture on my wall is not just a loving father and a prodigal. It’s us he has his arms around. All of us. I give you a new commandment, he said: love one another. No exceptions.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t have any answer to all our troubles. The Democrats. The Republicans. The political nones. But I do know it wasn’t only Pilate or Judas or Herod or Simon—but we have all forsook him and fled.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We still have a mandate folks. Love one another. God knows how hard it is—but still after all these years our charge has not changed. No wonder they named this holy night Maundy Thursday.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWsGYX1kZ5SYRam_QQUWZZ4ojcNSbM5_kV13fOr0y09P96BU90fjrgyehcfz4imsV-4UXWWgUbAsqdjgBkG0d7KwdsWxgGC0sQkNX_-juyvkFmgtaRwtCAJjzR4jHi4FiiT09YDX9VAS0MK2d-eIFpru_MhzujcRveMbhQa-FEvc5aP9VxjoYIPejqA/s1156/IMG_3416.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1156" data-original-width="961" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWsGYX1kZ5SYRam_QQUWZZ4ojcNSbM5_kV13fOr0y09P96BU90fjrgyehcfz4imsV-4UXWWgUbAsqdjgBkG0d7KwdsWxgGC0sQkNX_-juyvkFmgtaRwtCAJjzR4jHi4FiiT09YDX9VAS0MK2d-eIFpru_MhzujcRveMbhQa-FEvc5aP9VxjoYIPejqA/w333-h400/IMG_3416.jpeg" width="333" /></a></div><br /><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-31522137192981314192023-04-05T21:29:00.001-07:002023-04-05T21:29:38.148-07:00Holy Wednesday--Passover Time<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOAqtBNq6fyWgwWxYw3lBJmsK_UnzAx6J09oIojMXMnC5BoLIn7YgLPOJmHU4SQfjXRSvPsgN-_lsl3QI-p3jyigPYU1IQlqbOwuemf3KpS_yQ0OY_r58T2nWQPfOQhgoi8ol0sC7tVT2BOYIfW9R-v08AJNc12XX1kLcV2VV7ldzJWJLXsF_D244RDw/s640/IMG_1930.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="640" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOAqtBNq6fyWgwWxYw3lBJmsK_UnzAx6J09oIojMXMnC5BoLIn7YgLPOJmHU4SQfjXRSvPsgN-_lsl3QI-p3jyigPYU1IQlqbOwuemf3KpS_yQ0OY_r58T2nWQPfOQhgoi8ol0sC7tVT2BOYIfW9R-v08AJNc12XX1kLcV2VV7ldzJWJLXsF_D244RDw/w640-h390/IMG_1930.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">One summer at Princeton Carlyle Marney leaned over the pulpit and told 200 preachers, "Boys, if they ever find out Jesus was a Jew we're going to be in bad trouble." And we Christians often forget that Jesus was trained in the Synagogue. He followed all the Jewish rituals. And on his road to the cross, so near--like his fellow Jews he observed Passover one of the greatest days of their faith. He remembered this was the time when they looked back, back to those suffering slaves in Egypt. And they prayed and prayed and the muddy waters of the Red Sea did not stop them. They learned there was a power greater than anything the world could throw at them.They walked to the other side of the water to a freedom they had only dreamed of. Though their wilderness journey would last years and years they kept going looking for that place of freedom they had been promised</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And so every year on Passover they would light the candles and sit quietly around a table and usually the father would ask: "Why is this night different from other nights?" And once again as their forebears asked the same question someone would say: "It was the day when God's people moved from slavery to freedom." And though their year had been bad and suffering was seemingly everywhere they still would light the candles and remember their story. God was with them. God would always be with them. And even during those dark Nazi days when they were placed in concentration camps and millions of them were killed even there furtively they would keep Passover. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As Jesus' days grew darker and he knew where his rocky road would lead he took his disciples to an upper room to observe Passover. Surely his faith must have said God is with me--and God will lead all these all-too-human disciples too me through whatever was out there. And we know the Lord's Supper grew out of that remembering. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So we are really one with our Jewish brothers and sisters. We are all beset by many things--inside and out. Yet our challenge is to hang on to that slender thread of faith and go on. And the gift that the Negro slaves gave us were those spirituals we still sing:"Were You There," "Swing low sweet chariot," "Deep River,","The LonesomeValley," "Go Down Moses," "All God's Chillun' got Shoes."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So on this Holy Wednesday let us remember once again the troubled waters we have crossed and that old "I will be with you" keeps us coming back on the hardest of our days.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">That stubborn kept Jesus going all the way to the finish line and that faith will lead us too.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</span></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-74153385662225904532023-04-04T09:29:00.001-07:002023-04-04T09:29:36.026-07:00Holy Tuesday--In-Between Time<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Cpd2MHL1R-XEJLXUim8HuK_S7IHEPi_qvmiBaPjyYO5vSP74gzWWJg5DSr2M-tZuhqhddyVtEeX6tdkWz1n4Cw1FrRLw-oG3tdX_PzhBur40xIWm0f1cZK2F3mzGnnWA4yd3CN8lVb5JGHd7nYiLqMs_axDmaTLD7lZ3tA_pmLikkgr5q50hIUMhGQ/s1280/IMG_0308.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Cpd2MHL1R-XEJLXUim8HuK_S7IHEPi_qvmiBaPjyYO5vSP74gzWWJg5DSr2M-tZuhqhddyVtEeX6tdkWz1n4Cw1FrRLw-oG3tdX_PzhBur40xIWm0f1cZK2F3mzGnnWA4yd3CN8lVb5JGHd7nYiLqMs_axDmaTLD7lZ3tA_pmLikkgr5q50hIUMhGQ/w480-h640/IMG_0308.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>THEN</b></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Palm Sunday seemed to be so far away. There were rumblings everywhere. Jesus kept saying Be alert. Pray, brothers and sisters, that when the hard days come you will get through them.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The dark warnings troubled them now. Watch for what? He had said we would make it through. Sounded scary at the least. They knew this Holy Tuesday what Rome could do. They had seen the cruelty of those that should have known better—their leaders—the religious ones.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The power of cursed Rome seemed to be everywhere. And the roads many days had been lined with cross after cross after cross. Men screaming in pain. Dying while mothers and fathers and wives and sometimes children gathered there. They could not believe it had come to this.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus had begun his walk up that terrible hill where the blood had dried<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and pain and death were not far behind. Yes, they could believe the crowd that spat on him, hurled stones and laughed their fool heads off as their Lord stumbled and fell. We knew how the end would go up there where the soldiers already gathered with that mound of splintered wood and nails and cloth to wipe the blood from their hands.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They knew the end and all those hopes and dreams for a better life, a better world would be no more. What would happen to them. Dear God, what would they do.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It was only at the week’s end that they could hardly believe Simon and those women who came running, running saying over and over that he was not dead. Jesus was alive.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And suddenly their grief shed most of its power and hope, that wonderful hope came surging back. They did not know what this Resurrection would mean. Or all the stories they pieced together later would mean, but many of them would find surprises in their hard lives they did not expect.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>NOW</b></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So like them we are at that in-between stage. There is dark at the top of our stairs. Fear. Worries on top of worries. Heart-breaking things like the loss of a wife, the death of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>child, enormous disappointments looking back on what was and will never come again.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And even today with all its craziness we remember that first Easter and all the strange joy it brought. And how despite Rome still in charge and nightmares of Judas still warm and hardly enough to eat—they went on and told the story and believed it as well.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And this Easter despite our own way of sorrows, and all the heavy things we carry—hopefully we will be surprised at those did those first half-believers. Maybe Easter is not just another Easter. Colored eggs, cute bunnies and a little more finery than we usually wear. Crowded churches and Easter lilles everywhere.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Maybe is really a to-be-continued story for us too. Not knowing that on some Emmaus Road of our own despite the crutches and walkers, the grief and the pain and really wondering if this could be true—doors we thought were closed forever,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>slowly cracked and then opens to enough light that, like them our hearts will burn within us at the surprises we have not yet reckoned with.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">—Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-79305248834590700922023-04-03T11:32:00.001-07:002023-04-03T11:32:29.889-07:00It's Holy Monday and Our Hope is beginning to Fade<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnThT3l3vQlV2IPSft0nMQFDMDLgj_9R5ZEVDsRiGSisy6Fh4sYGwzb4f2XOi-siOq5ql_qggZyexZqXno-jtwCFxSaxiIL7J2Ig84PIGRR_gR_avTvIHwTVEzhnSx6A8FAPDMnhTNzo4jbBFaWbW4q9FTHhQToUPWhyRAz-Z-ZSI70e-7uQFiUyp5Og/s1280/IMG_1342.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnThT3l3vQlV2IPSft0nMQFDMDLgj_9R5ZEVDsRiGSisy6Fh4sYGwzb4f2XOi-siOq5ql_qggZyexZqXno-jtwCFxSaxiIL7J2Ig84PIGRR_gR_avTvIHwTVEzhnSx6A8FAPDMnhTNzo4jbBFaWbW4q9FTHhQToUPWhyRAz-Z-ZSI70e-7uQFiUyp5Og/w640-h480/IMG_1342.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">It was only yesterday, they told me and I squeezed into the crowd to see Jesus of Nazareth ride into Jerusalem. We yelled our hearts out. It was the day we will always remember—or so we thought. But here it is Monday. The palm branches we waved were tossed aside and some are beginning to wither. We found the garments we had thrown at his feet, bundled them up ragged as they were and headed for home.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The warm, wonderful sounds of the alleluias are still with us. But word came that he went into the Temple and turned the tables over and scattered the animals and the merchants. We also heard our leaders, Scribes and Pharisees—learned men—mumbled and whispered dirty things about him. Little did we know that these doings—his and theirs—were only a prelude.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If Jesus is the king we sought then where is the power and strength every king has? And why did he say so little about our Jewish leaders? He didn’t defend himself. In fairness maybe that will come. So even on Monday we began slowly to doubt. We even heard that some of his disciples like the Pharisees murmured and wondered.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Holy Monday. How fickle yesterday’s crowds were. Maybe us too, just a little. If King Jesus is who we hear he is—where is the thunder and the clouds? Where is the sunshine? Why do I not feel as hopeful as I did yesterday.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God knows we need someone to change all this blood and gore and Rome, cursed Rome who really have chains around us all. We live in fear always. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> Surely he will change all of this.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s Monday and somehow it just isn’t as clear as it was yesterday.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> --Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-46054062193300094752023-04-02T17:20:00.000-07:002023-04-02T17:20:59.558-07:00Palm Sunday for Me and You too.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI61lQK72uA7nZ9Qc7U8_xB0t8SDFNCNKdZYHeIkTcxZIJu2EXGxjVFIIQb3zPp9C91L2W-mWovljmXg1bFiTE8V7a_3H1YX_SfiKzufjWG3F3wX7ZSTOI7pHOlJX0V1a70JobP8ZXkcwrEIRLRMEEsFab8Vc6rdNBDwm1kWYU-d5Rz1u_ebz_hqMNrA/s1600/Jesus%20and%20Cross%20-%202023.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI61lQK72uA7nZ9Qc7U8_xB0t8SDFNCNKdZYHeIkTcxZIJu2EXGxjVFIIQb3zPp9C91L2W-mWovljmXg1bFiTE8V7a_3H1YX_SfiKzufjWG3F3wX7ZSTOI7pHOlJX0V1a70JobP8ZXkcwrEIRLRMEEsFab8Vc6rdNBDwm1kWYU-d5Rz1u_ebz_hqMNrA/w640-h480/Jesus%20and%20Cross%20-%202023.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s Palm Sunday. The day when we remember when Jesus slowly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The crowd that gathered rejoiced that hope had come again and things would never be the same. But little did they know that before the week was over he would be nailed to a cross. So many waved those palm branches had threw down their palms and turned away. Why? Because they discovered that this was not the promised Messiah they had expected. Riding in on a donkey. The poor<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>throwing their ragged clothes at his feet. First cursing a fig tree. Cursing? And if that was not enough he overturned tables and drove out the money changers from the temple. And that strange scene when his first act in Jerusalem was casting out the money changers from the temple. Upsetting the way things were.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So Holy Week begins not as they expected at all. No wonder the church early would call these days that followed the <i>via dolorosa</i>—the way to what? A cross. No palm branches there. No alleluias.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So this Holy Week I think back on my own Palm Sunday journey. How old was I when first Jesus marched into my life? Here at the center of my little life there came one who was goodness personified. But ever so slowly he did not do what I expected.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I kept hearing the preachers talk about sin and judgment and the fires of hell and Jesus coming back when I least expected him. It scared me to death thinking I would be doing something secretively and he would catch me and I was be judged by an awful powerful God.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Little did I know my Jesus would change. Jesus became in time my friend. Jesus loved even me. But I did not know that he loved those with lint in their hair who work those twelve hour shifts. How he loved our church leader who divorced. He loved her? Later I discovered he cared deeply for those preachers who stood Sunday after Sunday not having a clue about those struggling black folks on the other side of our town. They shined our shoes, they cleaned our houses, they took our dirty clothes home and brought them back all clean and folded on a bus. But slowly I discovered he loved us all. Even the mean shift foreman and the broken man who stood on the street corner shining shoes and scaring us to death.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Slowly I learned that even the Catholics were his people. That all those other denominations, many well-heeled were in our camp. Like the spiritual went: “We didn’t no who he wuz.”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And even today there is so much about his Jesus that I still do not know. But I have come to see the crowd with the palm branches did not have the last word. Or those with folded arms and pursed lips that plotted his demise. Or the Pilates or the Herods and those that nailed the nails and gaped at the ragged figure caught between two thieves. And yet his arms were stretched out and even with all that pain and injustice he whispered forgiveness. And then that strange Sunday when a stone was rolled away and the world changed forever.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He still marches into my life. He still turns me topsy-turvy. He still pushes and pulls me in ways I<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>do not want to go.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So this Holy week I try to remember among all the things of my tired life—sickness, injustice everywhere, losing this weekend the best and brightest I have ever known—old age and its complications there may well be a via dolorosa who knocked on my door—my own way of sorrows—that forces me to know deep in my heart just as that cross was not the end—there is so, so much more that I<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>begin this week to remember. Faith which flickers so low sometimes—hope when comes and goes—and love that will not let me go even when I feel it not at all.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bring holy week on with all its twisting hard days—stretching me yet again to know this old tattered story may be the best there is.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-66464983411015267112023-03-18T17:09:00.000-07:002023-03-18T17:09:56.360-07:00Is the Bible Woke?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kjvH5EDANi2q0UN_jKJd-tSy_etwNYDTelU0iJgYN6oE3Cg2tybiSe8n5LESrUTV7KHb2GeSdfkhbafIE2WGHqf6m1Kl2aWwVAb3n9ustRu3W_umIQjcJTcy3LOn4aqwmepO-nQ-0y705mkyM-tvHiB4NQ6SXvosnm181Qt3mJ-e0LxcAvpI_mVVxA/s640/IMG_0100%20copy2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kjvH5EDANi2q0UN_jKJd-tSy_etwNYDTelU0iJgYN6oE3Cg2tybiSe8n5LESrUTV7KHb2GeSdfkhbafIE2WGHqf6m1Kl2aWwVAb3n9ustRu3W_umIQjcJTcy3LOn4aqwmepO-nQ-0y705mkyM-tvHiB4NQ6SXvosnm181Qt3mJ-e0LxcAvpI_mVVxA/w400-h300/IMG_0100%20copy2.jpeg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">The Woke Bible</span></div><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have been bumping into this strange word, woke a lot lately. I wondered what it meant. Woke? Digging around I found woke means to be alert to racial and social discrimination and injustice.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why is this woke considered such a bad thing? The term means that all lives matter. Woke also means that LGBTQ—gays matter. And everybody from transgenders to the victims of other systemic injustices in American society. Woke means open discussion about race and injustice and other systemic oppression, gender and sexual orientation. Unpacking the word means that school teachers are to teach history not cosmetize the past. Our Christian faith requires us to teach the good and dark side of who we are as a people. The <i>Dictionary of Contemporary Slang says woke </i>means to be socially aware and empathetic. The opponents of woke blame everything on it from deadly mass shootings, too bank failures to most of the problems in society. Opponents of wokeness<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>have politicized it and twisted its meaning until it scares a lot of people.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What does the Bible have to say to woke?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Old and New Testaments deal with this very human circle that includes all of us. Not only the dark at the foot of the stairs but also faith and hope and love.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Read the words for yourself.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">1—<b>Equality. </b>God so loved the world which was all inclusive. Jesus had no pecking order except for those who put up roadblocks and practice cruelty to any persons. No one was to be turned away. The word community meant just that—we all have something in common.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“<i>He has abolished the law with all its commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace and might reconcile both groups to God in one body.” (Ephesians 2. 15-16a)</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>“So we are claimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who are<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>near…So there you are no longer or aliens, but you are citizens<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>with the saints and also members of the household of God.” </i>(Ephesians 2. 17, 19)</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2—<b>Justice.</b> Jesus was a friend of publicans and sinners. Those hands refused to turn anyone away. Whether they were lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans or rich young rulers. This included those on the fringes of society and all of us in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the human family. He stood with the prophets who said: “<i>What does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy…” </i>(Micah 6.8)</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">3—<b>Hospitality. </b>Jeremiah 22.3 says:<i> “”…I will save the lame and gather the outcasts and I will change their shame into praise.”</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>“So his fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them.</i>” ( Luke 4.24b )</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” </i>(Matthew 11.28)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“<i>I was a stranger and you took me in.” </i>Matthew 25</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">4.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Servant. </b>Jesus turned the word power upside down when he washed his disciples’ feet, He said, <i>“Whoever would be chief among you, let him be your servant.” </i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">His followers later understood those words of Jesus when James wrote: “<i>If a brother or sister be naked, and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them,</i> <i>“Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith without works is dead.”</i>(James 2. 15-16)</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">5.<b> Love</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>this Lenten season we remember that Jesus died on the cross because he challenged the out-of-control power and the lop-sided values of his day. He was a threat to those who stood by and cheered and those leaders who gave the orders to nail him to his cross.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“<i>But I say to you Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">(Matthew 5.43)</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus made a hero of the Samaritan, challenging<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>which was unheard of. Answering the neighbor’s<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>question he elevated the Samaritans who had been Israel’s enemies for hundreds of years “<i>But a Samaritan…came near him: and when<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds,…Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him…Which was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? Jesus said, “The man who showed him mercy.”</i>(Luke 10.29-37)</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>“The greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13.)</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The word woke really is a threatening word. challenging our ease and contentment.The church has watered down Jesus’ actual good news.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jesus was a friend of sinners, which includes all of us. Today’s church, like so many that came before us, has misunderstood Jesus’ whole incarnation. This gospel includes us all. Any message that pares his message down to only our circle misses the many hard sayings of Jesus. Woke is not an ugly word but a challenge to us all.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus said to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. Reckon this means that we are not to politicize the things that are God’s or drag Caesar’s dirty feet into the Sanctuary. Ever.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">—Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916494414919365045.post-9688474098993950882023-02-22T17:05:00.000-08:002023-02-22T17:05:38.134-08:00Ash Wednesday--Standing in Line<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XQJ2MNR-b32tcMZQpaqGzvzrUrdvuVQg8mi8xahcQ4SOkQPSgl5D-jQ34R75MPLdmO5EYKDphuYgQZzmXJPBspYICAZ9Rl5yz5A5BuNoCBdwUfbYc9-124g8ol7T3LRWZJUmZ5t_ZnzAKh2Z50jMz0SVtBHGS_-4zHq92E9vewrZVtzE42w1C8v1Mg/s400/Grief%20photo%202023.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="400" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XQJ2MNR-b32tcMZQpaqGzvzrUrdvuVQg8mi8xahcQ4SOkQPSgl5D-jQ34R75MPLdmO5EYKDphuYgQZzmXJPBspYICAZ9Rl5yz5A5BuNoCBdwUfbYc9-124g8ol7T3LRWZJUmZ5t_ZnzAKh2Z50jMz0SVtBHGS_-4zHq92E9vewrZVtzE42w1C8v1Mg/s320/Grief%20photo%202023.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Today marks the beginning of the Lenten season. 40 days until Easter Sunday. Some say from the 8th or the 11th centuries Christians have been standing in line for some priest or minister to mark their foreheads with a smudge of a cross. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Why would Christians of all ages who carry some burdens and griefs and questions. Why stand in some line remembering those gloomy words: "Dust thou art and to dust thou shall return." Lord, how depressing.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Some say Ash Wednesday is nestled in the old book of Joel. Joel 2. 12-18 . He challenged the people to return with all their hearts...with fasting...with weeping...with mourning....rending their hearts. So Lent really is an inner word for us. A time to be silent. A time to spread out our lives before us. A time to remember our <i>back there </i>when we would do anything to erase the hurt, the anguish we caused--shedding all the shames we still carry. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Some time ago I looked back at the early green days of my own faith journey. How young I was. How hopeful I was. How naive I was. How confused I was. And I remembered the old <i>Broadman Hymnal </i>that I cut my eye-teeth on. All those gospel songs and hymns that lifted me up and carried me along. <i>"Blessed Assurance...Just as I Am...What a Friend We Have in Jesus...Happy Day, Happy Day when Jesus Washed my sins away. Turn your Eyes upon Jesus." </i>That was then,,,and year after year since then so much has happened to me as it happens to us all. Disappointment…victories…joy and delight and all the questions. Not to speak of all those sin and shames--whether real or imagined. Wishing that I could go back and make it all right. This might be why I still remember that poem by A.E Housman:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">"When first my way to fair I took</span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">Few pence in purse had I,</span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">And long I used to stand at look</span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">At things I could not buy.</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">Now times have changed </span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">To buy a thing, I can;</span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">The pence are here so here's the fair</span></i></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">But where's the lost young man?"</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Maybe all we poor sheep who have lost our way stand in this long line waiting our turn . Bringing with us some gloom and heartaches but strangely more--a glimmer of light. A word that is good. The old promise that keeps coming back. The Ashes are a reminder that we are all in the same boat--sinners one and all. But more. Children of God.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And so we come just as we are. Bringing it all to that holy line when our turn comes to be marked by the Ashes. To leave the altar with all those others knowing whoever we have done or not done this is not the end. We leave the church and was out into the sunshine.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So we bring with us as we walk down the steps our too-muchness. But outside life stirs. Daffodils. Quince. Forsythia...Crocus. And the birds singing their hearts out. And still we carry some of the terrible things we do not understand. But there is so much more to our stories. We keep going despite it all.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Why? Maybe remembering again that we have stood in this line with all our brothers and sisters knowing we all can go on. The old man who cares for his wife with dementia. The woman whose depression seems to have no end. The young boy with a mask struggling with leukemia. And the woman whose husband is in prison. It defies all reason why they come. But here they are standing in the line with us marked by the smudge of the cross. And we all go on.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1qjmbjkecIrov5_dFq-uJjqrFPkYn1yhCIOuC_t835H4kFSW10ueVGyUwyYEDGOhgF4cb4kOC-a7G78XKWbBVAySWQWCC2ZkVruKkCMjS_n_Vo9mOvwLaxnnTbMFAfPcVWMPmH_dgxkF1TXEioPJTtDvYcqbMghZs_yeKcm7qQKnW_tKzJbp5dJg-Ug/s320/Rending%20-%20Ash%20Wednesday%202023.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="320" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1qjmbjkecIrov5_dFq-uJjqrFPkYn1yhCIOuC_t835H4kFSW10ueVGyUwyYEDGOhgF4cb4kOC-a7G78XKWbBVAySWQWCC2ZkVruKkCMjS_n_Vo9mOvwLaxnnTbMFAfPcVWMPmH_dgxkF1TXEioPJTtDvYcqbMghZs_yeKcm7qQKnW_tKzJbp5dJg-Ug/w200-h173/Rending%20-%20Ash%20Wednesday%202023.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>Roger Lovettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741760794678455451noreply@blogger.com0