Perspective

 November 10, 2020

These nightly meditations began back in 2012 when all the political rhetoric was heating up between Obama and Romney. I was getting caught up in it, only to discover I was losing my soul. God confronted me with four simple words: “Where is your joy?” I had to admit, I didn’t know. I determined then to focus on that which edifies, particularly, the giving of thanks.

It wasn’t as easy as you might imagine. It often felt as if I were somehow shirking my duty to decline commenting on much of the stuff people were posting, even after realizing that few people care what someone else thinks. Social media is mostly preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, in the intervening years, it has been a seesaw struggle to disengage from political ruminations. This year’s election drama has been particularly difficult, which makes my determination all the more important. 

Today, we buried mom and her sister, side by side. Aunt Marion died two years ago, and her daughter had kept her ashes, waiting for this day when we could lay them to rest together. When years ago, mom and dad decided they couldn’t keep traveling back and forth to Florida each year, mom cried almost uncontrollably. Her sister lived near them in Florida, and mom’s words were, “I’ll never see my sister again.” However, when my uncle Ray died, aunt Marion decided to move back north to be near her only daughter. God gave them nearly eight more years together. 

These two women lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, segregation, Civil Rights...the list goes on and on, and through it all, they raised children to be men and women of integrity, industry, and character. All the “great” events that swirled around them certainly affected them, but didn’t deter them from being the women they needed to be to fulfill God’s purposes in them. Their lives weren’t defined by the politics of the day, but rather by the purposes of their hearts. The same holds true today. Albany and Washington want us to buy into their agenda, to genuflect reverently before their all-wise pronouncements. But they do not, and cannot bestow life and the meaning of life. That is found closer to home. 

We paid our respects, offered our prayers, said our earthly goodbyes. And we give thanks for these women, for the families in which we’ve been privileged to live, and particularly for the joy that comes when we step away from the world’s agenda and see life as a holy gift from God.