An Ordinary Day

October 26, 2018

In the news today: A male stripper is arrested for sending bombs through the mail to leading Democratic political persons, and the media’s response is predictably blaming the president. The caravan of Guatemalans and Hondurans seeking asylum here in the states is growing in numbers as it crawls along through Mexico. Honduran authorities meanwhile have arrested some of the wannabe illegals for human trafficking. More young black men are murdered in Chicago with no one even noticing, and the Russians are still trying to influence American elections. The stock market is still strong and unemployment is still down. Liberals are rabidly furious at Trump, while Conservatives praise his accomplishments. Los Angeles is actually ahead in the third game of the World Series.

Reading most of the newspapers, we would have no idea what’s happening in Great Britain, Germany, or China. Momentous events often have innocuous beginnings. Who knows what might trigger a major war, stock market crash, or revival? 

Meanwhile here in Sinclairville, the sun rose and set, Linda and I had a leisurely breakfast with good coffee and conversation, I fixed the wobbly supports of our bedframe, our granddaughter had a good swim meet, and our dog Emma was glad to see us when we got home. The remodeling project is going well, jazz band rehearsal was fun. Our home is warm and dry, we are in good health, Jesus Christ is the heart of our home. The little ghosts made from cloth-covered lollipops sitting on our kitchen table were gifts from six year old Gemma. 

Nothing of seeming importance happened today, but who knows? The movers and shakers in Albany and Washington woke to the same sun, but not necessarily to the same peace and joy that is mine every day. An exaggerated sense of self-importance afflicts many of them, and lately I haven’t seen an angrier bunch as they trade verbal blows while they vie for supremacy. I am thankful tonight to be living on the outskirts of a backwater town with people whose names those movers and shakers will never know, much to their own impoverishment. St. Paul told us to set our affection on things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Isaiah said, “Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.” (26:3) Wealth, fame, and power don’t hold a candle to peace. The movers and shakers will soon enough sleep the sleep from which they will not awake, while God lives forever. It is the perspective that gives me reason to be thankful tonight.