Christmas 2012 Greetings from The Singletary Family

Christmas 2012 Greetings
from The Singletary Family

24 December 2012

Dearest Family and Friends,

Soiled diapers, smelly wipes, odoriferous shirts and blouses reeking of an infant’s projectile vomiting, loads of urine soaked children’s laundry due to accidents, glaring volumes of kids television programming and radio, tripping over myriad toys throughout your house, repeated trips to the pediatrician, serving as a chauffeur and any other daily parental chores, all, are amongst the greatest gifts we have as we celebrate Christmas and other religious holidays this year.  In the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy, countless fellow citizens painstakingly strive to find “a new normal” as they rebuild their lives.  The recent tragedy of mass murder of twenty innocent first grade students and six undeserving adults in Newtown, Connecticut compels us to reassess our cardinal principles of faith, politics, finance and public policy.  As a father of a fourteen year old son and ten year old daughter, my heart bleeds continually for the parents and families of those victims whose lives have been ravaged with an unimaginable horror.

Utilizing the enduring and rich spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith, I pray genuinely for them and seek practical and pragmatic ways to concretize divine love and compassion.  I will join with like-minded people of faith and social justice advocacy to use the power of community to combat evil with the steadfast hope that we can spare other parents such an unspeakable atrocity.  Yet, chief among the Christian practices from which I draw strength, comfort and hope is gratitude.  I am most appreciative this holiday season for my two beloved children and gifts of parental obligations as I realize I am greatly blessed as a recipient of their unconditional love.  This year, my heart swells with thanksgiving for my family and their well-being with appropriate soberness as I consider the regrettable plight of my neighbors in the Northeast.

One of my family’s most recent joys is Curtis’ success in freshmen basketball tryouts!  His number is 44.  With all due humility and objectivity, if I may say, Curtis is a very good defensive player who refuses to allow taller and bigger players to intimidate him “in the paint and the post.”    As my basketball skills equate with my readiness for the next phase of the space program, I sit in the bleachers and marvel as I watch him play.  He is a quintessential athlete who strives for excellence.  Most fortunately, his efforts also extend to his academic subjects as he missed honors by a couple of points.  Personally, I wish he were in Ashburnham, Massachusetts yielding such academic and athletic achievements.  His mother, my beloved wife, will not entertain the thought!  Accordingly, I harbor this dream within my Walter Smitty flights of fantasy.

Our daughter, Sariel, spent the fall semester balancing soccer, swimming and voice lessons in addition to attaining honors in her classes.  A magnanimous creative soul which sings openly and freely and even literally in the morning as we attempt to leave punctually for school without familial drama, Sariel enjoys Disney radio (the Wakey Blakey Morning Show), fashion design books, and Archie comics of late.  It is a sheer joy to view the world through her innocent, generous and compassionate eyes.  What an antidote to the jadedness that emerges within years of adult living!  Her joy erodes the cynicism that easily overwhelms the optimism of my youth.

In February, Carol Joy and I will celebrate twenty years together.  Already, I am very excited about this milestone.  How amazing to spend 7300 days in relationship with the same person!  We look forward to another twenty years.  She serves as a Dean of Culture at a charter school in Brooklyn where she is able encourage elementary school students as they begin their educational odysseys and empower their parents as they collaborate with teachers and administrators in a very fluid and vibrant learning community.  As teacher and educator at heart, Carol Joy is suited ideally for her current position of service.

In addition to the drastic challenges of natural disaster and inexplicable, maniacal mass murder, this year has yielded other professional accomplishments and personal delights.  As I write, I reach the two and a half year mark at Cambria Heights Community Church.  My family’s return to our beloved New York City remains a progressive answer to a heartfelt prayer as I yearned for an existential space where each of our souls could be fully alive as we embrace our dreams and goals.  I continue to visualize the completion of a few goals which linger in the sanctuary of my mind and heart.  Inspiration spontaneously erupts in the middle of the night.  I am silly with enthusiasm as I enter the afternoon of life and willingly encounter life’s mystery and serendipity.  Admittedly, I agreed with the outcome of the presidential election but I particularly rejoiced when I observed the willingness of countless diverse American citizens to stand in line for several hours on end to vote.  As a student of history, I saw their relentless will to exercise democracy’s greatest gift to the common person as a vindication of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for which many of my forbears of the American South sacrificed their lives.  Mostly, I relish the accomplishments of my wife and children whose smiles, happiness and joy unquestionably yields the very same for me.

In that spirit of divine love, we wish you, your family and friends our heartfelt wishes for the genuine blessings of this sacred season.  I believe our most invaluable gift is God’s love as it is personified through our most precious relationships.  Ironically, the recent unimaginable and irreversible loss suffered by our neighbors New Jersey, Colorado and Connecticut forces us to re-examine life’s true riches.  As you celebrate the holiday of your respective faith traditions, Carol Joy, Curtis, Sariel and I hope love, joy, peace and wholeness will be your daily and constant companions.

With warmest personal regards,

Victor   

Say Goodbye to Guilt! - Romans 8:1-4 - Part One - Sermon in Outline Format

Say Goodbye to Guilt!

Romans 8:1-4

Salutations

·       Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

·       Welcome again to any Friends and Visitors

·       Read the Passage – Romans 8:1-4

·       Announce the Title – “Say Goodbye to Guilt”

·       Prayer

·       Humbly beseech the gracious bestowal of the anointing of the Holy Spirit who breaks every yokes that binds the people of God

·       With all due humility, I ask that I would decrease so that You may increase within me.

·       Open the eyes and ears of our hearts and reveal unto us Your “good, pleasing and perfect will” for our lives.

·       O most gracious and benevolent Master, give us knowledge of Your will for us and the mental willingness and spiritual power to carry it out.

·       May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and redeemer.  Amen.

Introduction

·       Paint the picture of the sentencing phase in a criminal trial for a capital offense

·       The jury slowly returns to the jury box

·       The bailiff takes the sealed verdict from the foreperson and hands it to the judge

·       The judge asks the defendant and his counsel to rise.

·       The foreperson of the jury rises to read the unanimous verdict aloud to the packed courtroom

·       Cameras are clicking endlessly.

·       The news media is having a feeding frenzy.

·       Reporters develop writer’s cramp as they furiously attempt to capture each rich detail.

·       Then the stunned silence of the room as the words, “We sentence the defendant to a life sentence so that he may daily and repeatedly recollect his guilt.  Should he die and when he dies, he shall know that he is guilty.”

·       That drama or should I say melodrama recycles through our minds and hearts multiple times each day.

·       Because we feel guilty about unresolved issues, we awake each morning and re-sentence ourselves to a lifetime of guilt.

·       Unconfessed sin

·       Refusal to repent

·       Willfulness

·       Self-justification

·       Cringing upon the mention and recollection of a given person or incident

·       Thinking we got away but hoping not to be found out

·       Trying to think of yet another way to elude responsibility for our actions or having to face the consequences of our choices.

·       Hoping the statute of limitations runs out.

·       Hoping to ward off double jeopardy

·       Allude to Al Sharpton and his 68-count indictment

·       Allude to the story of prosecutorial vengeance – 168-count indictment

·       Yet, we play this game with ourselves when we refuse to repent and fully receive the forgiveness of Almighty God

·       As 2003 comes to a close in a few days and 2004 begins, I hope

·       that we will say goodbye to guilt.

I.  Page One – Problems in the Text – Romans 8:1-4

·       The Story behind the Text

·       A thorn in Paul’s side

·       Speculate about the thorn – heavily utilize imagination

·       Physical infirmity

·       Emotional

·       Psychological

·       The desire to preach in Rome

·       The desire to preach in every crevice of the Roman Empire

·       I suspect the memory of persecuting the Church persistently plagues Paul.

·       I imagine that he cringes each and every time that he thinks about it.

·       I posit that the memory of standing over Stephen’s dead body and nodding with approval and having his bosom swell with pride torments Paul.

·       Until the day he dies and transitions to eternal life, I imagine that Paul fights a daily battle to receive genuinely and completely God’s enduring and unquestionable forgiveness.

·       Paul awakes each day to the struggle of forgiving himself for such an egregious error.

·       His battle with this sin remains an open wound.

·       He festers like a thorn trapped in the skin.

·       I suspect that Paul’s unrelenting and tireless efforts to spread the gospel is a personal atonement of sorts.

·       Paul daily negotiates with this emotional pain.

·       Will he ever find relief?

·       Is inner healing and spiritual wholeness possible?

·       Why does God allow Satan to torment Paul in this way?

·       Why does God seemingly ignore Paul’s persistent pleas to remove this thorn?

·       Where is God?

·       Satan uses guilt to manipulate Paul

·       Accuses him each and every day

·       Memory

·       Guilt

• ·         The vivid and indelible images of persecuting the church and gleefully giving his assent to the death of Stephen and countless others.

Say Goodbye to Guilt - Romans 8:1-4 Part One - Sermon in Outline Format

Say Goodbye to Guilt! – Romans 8:1-4 – Part Two

II.  Page Two – Problems in Our Lives and the World

·       Guilt

·       Secrets

·       Memories

·       Unconfessed sin

·       “Down low”

·       Petrified sin

·       Thorn

·       Ghosts – Ebenezer Scrooge

·       Past “rap sheets”

·       Failure to extend and receive forgiveness

·       Trampled upon other people and their feelings

·       Unrequited love

·       The duplicity of love – the number of people who stayed together for the holidays but will break up before Valentine’s Day

·       We are more like Jacob than we care to acknowledge – we have used people

·       Jung’s idea of the shadow

·       “If you can name then you must claim it.”

·       Check our motives – those dangerous ulterior motives which go unfulfilled

·       Secrets – “You are as sick as your secrets.”

·       Unconfessed sin – “Your sin will find you out.”

·       Willfulness

·       Refusal to repent

·       Arrogance of self-reliance

·       Self- justification

·       Rationalization

·       Guilt

·       We hope never to be discovered

·       Don’t want to be found out

·       Our guilt manipulates us

·       Guilt and fear tag team us

·       We are afraid to reach for certain positions

·       Some people forego public life

·       Some people isolate

·       Some people never get close to other people for fear of being found out

III. Page Three – God’s Grace and Redemption in the Text

·       Return to the courtroom scene.

·       The verdict and sentence are announced.

·       Yet, someone walks in and insists that all of the evidence is not in!

·       Allude to the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53 – quote it

·       We have an advocate and an excellent defense counselor who has never loss a case.

·       Experience the grace of God

·       “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

·       because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death

·       For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,

·       God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

·       And so he condemned sin in sinful man,

·       In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us,

·       Who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”

·       “The gospel through grace was able to due what the law could not do.”

·       Christ removes our guilt!

·       Rejoice – we are free in Christ

·       Romans 8:31 – “What, then, shall we say in response to this?  If God is for us, who can be against us?”

·       Romans 8:33 – “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  It is God who justifies. 

·       1 John 1:9

·       Hebrews 4:12-16

·       1 John 2:1-2 – We have an Advocate in Christ Jesus, our Lord

·       There is no remaining guilt or condemnation for anyone who is on Christ Jesus!

IV.  Page Four – God’s Grace and Redemption in Us

·       Experience the liberty from guilt, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, manipulation, emotional extortionists, and fear that Christ offers.

·       Tell the story of the image of the weight on the shoulders and using it to balance one’s self to reach the other side of a stream with a fierce current

·       Similar to crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land

·       Practical steps

·       Confession

·       Repentance

·       Forgiveness

·       Live into it

·       Daily grace

Conclusion

·       Say goodbye to Guilt!!!

"Of His Increase, There Shall be No End" - Isaiah 9:1-7 - Part One

“Of His Increase, There Shall be No End” – Isaiah 9:1-7

Imagine on Tuesday morning that you found a few gifts from heaven underneath the Christmas tree for you.  What would they be?  How would they look? Who would have brought them?  How would you ascertain their authenticity?  What would you want from heaven?

Imagine further what the ideal gift for each member of your family would be.  Would you like for each person to be totally debt free?  Would you desire the latest technological gadget?  What about the most impressive designer clothing wardrobe that there is?  How about a 2008 model of a luxury sports car?  Then, there is the dream house that all of us would like to have some day.  Again, what would the perfect gift be for each member of your family?

The crass commercialization of Christmas, specifically, and the holiday season inclusive of Chanukah and Ramadan which our Jewish and Islamic brothers and sisters celebrate respectively, generally, greatly eclipses the spiritual and religious nature of these celebrations.  We risk becoming robotic consumers incessantly swiping plastic in devotion to the god of commerce and in narcotic obedience to the wizards of Madison Avenue rather than disciples of our Lord who are truly grateful for the gift of eternal and abundant life which His birth offers us.  Dwelling upon the possibility of material acquisition obscures our ability to desire gifts of eternal value.  The true eternal riches of life are faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, joy, kindness, love, peace, patience and self-control, the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Additionally, there is truth, honesty, integrity and justice.  Imagine receiving these as gifts under the tree on Christmas morning rather than earthly and material items that moths and dust corrupt and that thieves assuredly will break in and steal.  Consider the possibility of receiving inner healing and wholeness for a Christmas gift.

Let’s let our minds wander as we further consider this question.  In the approximately fifteen hospitals in our area, what do you think that all of the patients would like for Christmas?  How many persons living with cancer would like a clean bill of health?  How many parent of young children at Monroe Carroll Hospital in Nashville and St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital in Memphis would like the gift of a completely healthy child?  How many of those children would prefer the gift of health to enable them to ride a used bike instead of a sparkling new one that they could only visually admire?  Now, let’s travel to the thousands, perhaps millions, of houses where broken, divorced and dysfunctional families will gather for Christmas.  How many children will whisper silent prayers to the baby Jesus asking Him to repair the torn relationships in their families?  With the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, we can take the mental flights to places of bereavement, failed businesses, automobile accidents, psychology and psychiatric wards, termination from employment, and the myriad rejections and thwarted attempts to accomplish a longstanding heartfelt goal or dream.

"Of His Increase, There Shall be No End" - Isaiah 9:1-7 - The Conclusion

“Of His Increase, There Shall be No End” – Isaiah 9:1-7 – The Conclusion

We can expand our imagination to national and global dimensions.  How many military families would like to turn on the television on Tuesday morning and learn that Iraq conflict is over?  How many of them would like a date for the complete withdrawal of all American troops?  What about ending the strife in Northern Ireland, the genocide in the Sudan and Somalia, the pervasive Middle East turbulence inclusive of the Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs, the tragedy of Darfur, and the protractible economic injustice in Central and South America?  What if all of a sudden the Christmas spirit permeated the minds and hearts of Western disciples and motivated them to share food, medicine, clothing, technology and other resources with the developing and impoverished countries of “The Third World?”  What if the global church saw it as its mission to resolve the HIV/AIDS scourge that takes the lives of tens of thousands Africans each day and orphans countless children?  What incredible gifts these would be on this Christmas morning?

Speaking many years before the birth of Christ, the prophet, Isaiah, offers the Lord forthcoming birth as the solution to all of the foregoing problems, individual, familial, national and international.  In the opening verse of this enduring passage, the prophet asserts triumphantly “There will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.”  The coming of Christ offers humankind the ultimate solution to all of its problems.  Consider this bold pledge articulated to an audience who has experienced the colossal lost of everything that they held dear.  Solomon’s great Temple which symbolized Yahweh’s presence and contained centuries of their religious worship, rituals, literature and history was destroyed summarily by the Babylonians in 587 BCE.  Their culture was nearly lost as King Nebuchadnezzar subjugated the “middle class,” learned and trained professionals by coercing them into service of his empire.  One imagines that extreme disillusionment and seemingly infinite emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual distress that they suffered.  Yet, Isaiah promises the dawning of a day in which their agony will cease.  This brilliance of this day will forever eradicate the deep shadows under which they lived for seventy years.  In the birth of the long awaited Messiah, Almighty God would restore the dignity, respect and rule of Israel.  She would be great again!

Consider that these people expected a gift from God for many years.  They did not want something material per se.  They greatly desired the restoration of their way of life.  A price tag could not be placed upon that dream.  Each day, they rose with the heartfelt prayer that perhaps this would be the day that Messiah would be born.  The very news of His birth suffice to reassure them that Almighty God had not abandoned them in the midst of their deepest distress.  Messiah’s coming would signify the beginning of the reversal of the tragedy of exile.

The latter half of Isaiah 9:1 contains a very significant footnote of sorts.  Contrary to the popular anticipations that Messiah would be born in a setting that would facilitate his ascension of a successful military career, Isaiah informs His audience that God envisions a different purpose.  Instead of a palace or noted city, Messiah will actually be born in “Galilee of the Gentiles” adjacent to the Jordan river.  Imagine this incredulous possibility that the Jewish Messiah will be born among the Gentiles!

I Will Restore What the Locusts Have Eaten - Part One

I Will Restore What the Locusts Have Eaten

Part One - Joel 2:18-27

Would you like the lost years of your youth and young adulthood back?  Would you like the years that you wasted in unproductive relationships and jobs that did not match your personality and skills set?  The locusts of time have eaten many days of our lives.  Consider the various false starts of your life.  Think of the years of sweat equity in business, school, marriage, family, organizations, service and other worthy causes that did not yield a harvest.  You concur with the characterization of “failure.”  You greatly lament the swarm of locusts: finances, fear, anger, frustration, impatience, apathy, blame, indifference, reputation, resources, doubt, and cynicism.  Calculate the colossal lost of time, talent, treasure and temperament that these locusts consumed over those years.  Possibly, this swarm of emotional, psychological and spiritual locusts continues to consume your potential harvest by eating away meticulously and steadily your belief in Almighty God and yourself.  Each day, you lose countless of amount of money and immeasurable success because you fail to sow seeds of creativity and ingenuity.  However, the immortal words of the prophet, Joel, encourage us that God will restore all that has been lost!

The book of Joel centers upon a plague of locusts which the Lord allows to punish His people.  The opening verses details five types of locusts which can devour viciously the much-needed crops any potential harvests.  The people to whom Joel spoke were dependent primarily upon the land and its yield of crops.  Because of the density of the population in this region, the land produced just enough food.  The lost of a year’s harvest easily threatened a famine.  More unfortunately, ravenous swarms of locusts remain indigenous to Africa, Asia and the Middle East where Joel’s audience resides.  Mostly, their merciless consumption affects sixty countries which equate withy one-fifth of the world’s surface and one-tenth of the world’s population.  More specifically, a desert locust swarm could comprise four hundred and sixty square miles inclusive of forty to eighty million locusts per one-half square mile.  Numerically, a plague of desert locusts potentially totaled eighty to one hundred and sixty million locusts per square mile resulting in a possible minimum of 36,800 million to a total of 73,600 million locusts.  Hence, Joel speaks with the vivid imagery of the sky darkening with a plague of locusts.  Their sheer number covers the canvass of the horizon enroute to a plague.  This vast army of predatory insects consumes 423 million pounds of crops per day.  Arguably, this plague greatly exceeds the damage that any human army, however fierce and formidable, could perpetrate upon an enemy.

Biblical scholars debate the historical verifiability of Joel’s prophecy.  Scarce extra-biblical evidence exists to corroborate independently Joel’s assertions about the plague and its devastation.  Yet, we have the privilege of allegorizes this intriguing passage.  Many of us have experienced plagues in our lives reminiscent of the destruction of the desert locusts.  Perhaps, your recollections of your childhood years do not conjure pleasant and satisfying memories.  Honestly, the average American family does not resemble the Cosby, Brady or Walton families portrayed on television.  Maybe, you were robbed of feelings of love, admiration, affirmation and security due to the incapacities of your parents, siblings and extended family members.  If you grew up in an impoverished environment, you probably have a hard time trusting Almighty God for your daily bread.  You may think that you cannot give to charitable causes because you fear that you will not have enough for your family and yourself.  Tithing is simply out of the question.  Someone with such a background, undoubtedly, watches every penny and fears that the ends of the months will not meet harmoniously.  This type of individual harbors the deeply held anxiety that his or her quality of life and standard of living will not exceed measurably the childhood years. 

I Will Restore What the Locusts Have Eaten - Part Two

I Will Restore What the Locusts Have Eaten

Part Two - Joel 2:18-27

Further, there are those persons for whom the quest for love repeatedly terminated in disappointing and hurtful relationships.  Quite possibly, you may have invested years into relations with people hoping to achieve the ultimate experience of God’s unconditional love as evidenced in time, trust and feelings with people.  The failure of these interactions hurt so deeply because time is something that we can never replace not repay.  What an incredible waste of emotions, money, time and energy!  In response, one may be afraid of other relationships.  Should regret and depression solidify in one’ heart and mind, one may often think about the invaluable lost of one’s time and self in those relationships.  On a good day, one would want that time back.  Nevertheless, this scenario happens in business and one’s attempt to succeed in a given profession.   Failed businesses, bankruptcies, termination and false starts are as hurtful as broken engagements, divorces and relation breakups.  Then, you can always take the wrong side at a fork in the road.  Perhaps, you invest years in a given job, project, specialty, or pursuit to discover that it is not as fulfilling as you originally imagined.  You may obtain a certain level of expertise and a favorable reputation with it.  Yet, if you are not happy, joyous and free, you cannot resist the feeling that you are wasting your time and your abilities as life passes by.  In direct response to this dilemma, Joel offers one of the most encouraging prophecies found in the Bible.  He affirms that God will restore the wasted years!

The great British preacher and revivalist, Charles Spurgeon, spoke of the mystery of God’s handiwork while discoursing upon this text.  He succinctly describes the essence of Joel’s encouraging words to the people.  The locusts did not consume any time; they devour the fruit of years of hard work and toiling.  But, God “has a strange and wonderful way in [He] can give back to you the wasted blessings.”  Almighty God supernaturally and majestically restores “the unripened fruit of years of over which you mourned.  The fruit of wasted years may yet be yours.” 

However, God calls us into a process of discernment, personal development and spiritual growth as a prerequisite for His grand purposes of restoration.  It begins with public and private repentance and fasting.  Practically speaking, repentance means to turn around and go in the opposite direction.  Sin, rebellion and disobedience, all, lead to a dead end road which forces one to make a u-turn.  Likewise, years of unrewarding rewarding investments of time and abilities necessitates a comprehensive analysis of one’s goals and purposes.  A new way of thinking and being becomes necessary.  The old paradigm no longer works.  A fresh outlook reveals previously unseen vistas of possibilities for a productive use of one’s time and talents.  Nonetheless, the humility and willingness to re-evaluate one’s choices and action is the first and non-negotiable step to discovering these latent possibilities for a more fulfilling and rewarding life.

This repentance motivates God to take pity on the people.  Accompanied by a righteous act of fasting, this decision to return to the Lord leads to His relenting of sending judgment upon the people.  The prophet tells them to rend their hearts instead of their clothing.  The usual customs led people to tear their outer garments as a demonstration of their sorrow and horror in the face of calamity.  This outward display of religious piety proved utterly meaningless to Joel, if it were not matched with an internal and genuine desire to change.  Thus, the combination of the sincere repentance and authentic fasting yield the Lord’s gracious bestowal of grain, new wine and oil.  Furthermore, He promises that the people will never again be the objects of scorn or the victims of such treacherous judgment.

I Will Restore What the Locusts Have Eaten - Part Three

I Will Restore What the Locusts Have Eaten

Part Three - Joel 2:18-27

If we are willing to abandon our self-made plans and exchange them for the wisdom and guidance of Almighty God, He will bless us as bountifully as He did Joel’s hearers.  In the wonderful phrase of one biblical commentator, the Lord requires the cessation of “our vain efforts at self-reform.”  It is so easy to try plan after plan after plan when we encounter hardships, disappointments and failures.  The myth of the self-made person deceitfully encourages us to stay the course in the midst of adversity.  In contrast, God lovingly recommends that we develop the spiritual discipline of daily consulting with Him about His “good, pleasing and perfect” will for us.  As our Creator, the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves.  He knows perfectly what will make us happy, joyous and free.  He knows our passions, talents, abilities and interests.  He knows the types of work and activities in which we will find the most fulfillments.  Accordingly, God will lead us in the direction of this abundant and eternal life if we trust Him by following His lead.

Conceivably, a percentage of the wasted years could have been salvaged had we diligently asked God for His daily will for our lives.  In the midst of unfortunate situations, God will grant graciously His guidance to bring about a reversal of fortunes.  As I write, I immediately conjure a memory of a time when I knew that I was making the wring choice in a matter.  I allowed fear to become larger than life itself.  I proceeded in this relationship when every sign that I could see warned me that I was headed for disaster.  Yet, I was afraid that if I let this “opportunity” pass that I would not receive another.  As this choice unfolded in my life, I actually tolerated unacceptable circumstances all the while fearing that if I let go I would be left empty.  I could not have been more wrong!  Years removed from that experience, I can testify that God does indeed restore what the locusts of time have eaten.  If only, I had trusted Him sooner.

Joel expands this remarkable prophecy to include all of nature.  God’s promises of restoration extend to the animals and the open fields which will yield a heretofore immeasurable harvest.  The land shall rejoice and be glad.  Flourishing green pastures await the animals of grazing.  The fig tree and vine will produce untold riches.  Abundant rains will come and wipe out the drought.  Both the fall and spring rains will descend to yield a bountiful harvest.  The former rains ensure the year’s harvest and the latter one prepares the soil for next year’s yield.  Accordingly, the threshing floors overrun with grain and the vats overflow with wine and oil.  These vivid and positive nature images depict spiritual and material blessings of restoration for us.  Although we may sow in tears, the day will dawn when we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves. 

I Will Restore What the Locusts Have Eaten - Part Four

I Will Restore What the Locusts Have Eaten

Part Four - Joel 2:18-27

In the twenty-third verse, Joel speaks of the gift of “the autumn rain in righteousness.”  That saying describes the bestowal of a teacher of righteousness, one who instructs us about living in right relationship with Almighty God.  This teacher’s lessons and wisdom resemble the torrential downpours of the autumn rains.  For us, he will aid us in finding creativity and ideas that previously eluded us.  His teachings will re-ignite our imaginations.  We will think of ways to better ourselves.  We will not despise the day of small beginnings.  We will take the first step toward a life of inner healing and wholeness which include the merciful restoration of material blessings that lacked fruition before. 

Maya Angelou tells the story of Ms. Annie Johnson who lived in Arkansas in 1903.  Ms. Johnson had to take a new direction in the road of life.  Ms Johnson and her husband decided to separate.  He, a minister, felt called to leave Arkansas and relocate to Oklahoma to further his calling in the gospel ministry.  Ms. Johnson stayed behind with four children.  Having no idea how she would provide for them, she prayed to Almighty God for wisdom and insight.  In His infinite grace, He guided her toward a greater use of her cooking abilities.  Ms. Johnson began to cook for the workers in a mill near her house.  At first, she had few customers because most of the men brought their lunches from home.  Soon, she gained the confidence and patronage of a small percentage of the crew; they, in turn, told their coworkers about her delicious and affordable meals.  In time, her shack became the equivalent of a convenience store which later grew in numbers.  Ms. Johnson’s willingness to take a “U-turn” in the road of life enabled her to receive the financial and material blessings of God’s promise to restore the lost years.  I imagine that she looked back on those initial hard times with amazement at the Lord’s faithfulness and humor at her anxiety.

Joel concludes this grand prophecy with an incredible promise that extends beyond the finite realms of monetary substance.  He says that those persons who look to the Lord and heed His promises shall not be put to shame.  One biblical commentator posits a tripartite blessing for such persons.  First, they shall not be disregarded by Almighty God.  He will answer assuredly their prayers.  Second, they will not be disappointed.  Their expectations will be fulfilled.  Third, God will not let the circumstances of their lives debase them.  These believers have the full assurance of God’s unfailing love, unquestionable faithfulness and unending grace.  Summarily, God will restore what the locusts have eaten.

Utilizing Sympathy and Empathy in Historical Analysis

Utilizing Sympathy and Empathy in Historical Analysis

It is very easy for contemporary students of history to condemn past generations for their crimes against humanity.  How could not the people who legally, socially, politically, economically and religiously institutionalize chattel slavery in the United States fail to see moral repugnance and insidiousness of their actions?  How did Jefferson fail to comprehend the inherent and seemingly very apparent contradictions between his grandiloquent words in the Declaration of Independence and his status as a slave owner?  It remains startling to consider the historical reality that women were deprived of the right to vote from 1607 to 1920.  John Winthrop, the second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Puritan clergyman, who penned the immortal words referring to the burgeoning settlement as “a city upon a hill” also characterized the annihilation of Native Americans as service in the name of Almighty God. 

For a century following the abolition of slavery in the United States, the Southern system of legal and social segregation, undergirded by an uncritical acceptance of White supremacy, persisted without any formidable challenge from the federal government.  It created the conditions in which nearly four thousand people were lynched without any adjudication of those murders.  Perhaps one of history’s starkest ironies is found in the documentary accounts of White Southerners leaving church services and then attending a picnic in an open field where someone was lynched.  Consider the smell of burning and searing human flesh permeating the air as people ate fried chicken and potato salad.  Incredulously, countless murders of African Americans in the South during the height of segregation remain unsolved.  Nevertheless, as we evaluate those dastardly deeds, we quickly and facilely pass judgment upon the perpetrators and other people who indirectly supported their actions.  Yet, a frightening question remains.  Would we have chosen and acted differently?  Were we in the same set of circumstances, how would we have responded to the predominant worldview?  Moreover, are we any different than those persons?  Are our contemporary moral, ethical, legal, economic and political choices any different than theirs relatives to circumstances of a twenty-first century, global economy and village?

A scholarly consensus amongst historians posits the necessity of a minimum of a quarter century’s distance from an event in order to analyze it without emotion and undue influence from one’s personal prism of experience.  When we are too close to a situation, personal feelings and preferences inevitably invade our perspective.  Even in the grand academic discipline and study of history, without distancing one’s self, depersonalizing the topic and emotionally detaching from the object of study, any student will surrender fallaciously to moral superiority and arrogance in his or her assessment of the past deeds of humankind.  The benefit of hindsight fuels this myopic analysis in which a student of history fails to appreciate the inherent limitations of his viewpoint as he or she condemns historical persons for the same offenses.  Rather, as he or she grapples relentlessly with the hard facts and factors which reliable and authentic evidence demonstrates with which historical persons lived, sympathy if not empathy might taper the intensity, breadth, depth and certainty of analysis and judgment. 

I hasten to state and accept the formal and socially scientific respectable methodology of the discipline of history which insists upon requisite evidentiary standards as one analyzes the record of past events.  The historical method first requires thorough research and gathering of extensive and relevant evidence. Second, you evaluate the evidence for its reliability, authenticity and relevance.  Third, a historian synthesizes evidence thereby drawing logical, factual and collegially and intellectually respectable conclusions which instruct our understanding of past events.  Historical methodology does not permit historians to extrapolate a comprehensive understanding from a past era or event from meager evidence.  Erroneously, a historian attempted to detail the lives of wives of slave owners solely from the diary of one woman who acknowledged the fictionalization of certain details.  Parallel to the necessity of maintaining a chain of evidence in the practice of law, historians discard embellishments, hearsay and fictional details.  Conversely, an embarrassment of riches in which a historian peruses bountiful documents does not necessarily yield a more insightful or correct analysis. 

Mostly, historians detach emotionally thus they resist any statements of feelings and personal outlook as these undoubtedly skew anyone’s evaluation.  They restrict themselves to the hard facts, reliable documents and reasonable evidence.  Historians seek a logical conclusion based primarily and fundamentally upon foregoing methods.  Like scientists who submit willingly to peer review, historians offer logical assessments of the data that any reasonable, impartial colleagues can corroborate independently.  Assuredly, historians resist the superfluous notion that their analyses are “the truth.”  The historical method, properly employed, yields “a truth” which future discovery of evidence and release of relevant documents may expel, expand or revise.

Utilizing Sympathy and Empathy in Historical Analysis - Part Two

Utilizing Sympathy and Empathy in Historical Analysis

Part Two

I suggest we employ these lessons and techniques from the study of history to personal development and spiritual growth.  As we learn to forgive people, an appreciation of the vivid circumstances and hard facts in which they made choices that harmed us may help us to sympathize and even empathize with them.  An easier and less difficult assessment makes uninformed judgments of the actions of the people who have harmed you.  Immediately, we condemn them for hurting us and being insensitive to our feelings and pain.  Yet, if we exchange places with them, would we choose differently?  Are we better able to defeat our self-centered fears and self-seeking motives?  Do we possess a steadfast and formidable character whereby we are able to choose morally and ethically correct actions despite the hard variables in any situation?  Isn’t it less painful emotionally and spiritually to digress to moral pragmatism and utilitarianism in which we assure ourselves that we seek the best outcome for the most people using favorable and practical means?  In contrast, do we not possess the same moral cowardice and constitutional incapacities that we observe in others?

Consider a specific example.  Approximately forty-five years ago, a grandmother faced a critical decision relating to seven of her grandchildren.  They had been abandoned by their mother in the middle of a winter’s afternoon.  The mother left under the pretext of running an errand at a neighborhood store.  She never returned to her family.  Instead, she left to live with a common law husband with whom she carried on a relationship for the next thirty-eight years.  Her husband and the father of the seven children arrived home that night after a long day of work to discover that his wife and their mother had left them.  An abusive alcoholic, he knew he could not rear his seven children. 

He summoned his mother-in-law to the inner city public housing complex where they lived.  She assisted him and transporting the children to a Southern state where both sets of grandparents resided.  The father asked his mother-in-law to assume custody of his children and her grandchildren considering the fact that her oldest daughter and child had abandoned them.  The maternal grandmother said “No” in response to this request which probably was made as a conditional arrangement until the father could return to assume custody and care of his children.  Parenthetically, he never did.  In fact, he proceeded to acquire a common law wife with whom he would have two other children in addition yet another son with a third woman.  Nevertheless, the maternal grandmother straightforwardly refused to assume custody of the seven grandchildren notwithstanding the fact of her daughter abruptly abandoning and leaving them helpless.

Before rushing to judge the grandmother for her indifference to her grandchildren, pause and consider the very hard facts and context in which her decision was made.  Her husband was an active alcoholic who was not a professional man but the equivalent of a day laborer or tenant farmer in a rural Southern town.  They had late adolescent children who still needed a lot of resources and care as they had not yet graduated from high school which was the requirement for civil service and other jobs at the time.  Plus, they had already assumed custody of a niece and nephew meaning there were four teenagers in their household.  Even with public assistance such as food stamps and supplemental security income, it would have been very hard to provide food, clothing, transportation and other necessities for thirteen people not to mention the lack of healthcare, entertainment and adequate living space. 

If you are a parent of just one child, you can imagine how hard it would be to say “Yes” to the father’s request whether temporary or permanent.  Without any of the advantages or opportunities of middle strata and formally educated American citizens, how do you double the size of your household and provide sufficiently for everyone?  Honestly, would you have been able to say “Yes?”  Further, reflect on the possibility of extensive mental, emotional and psychological damage to the seven grandchildren had their maternal grandmother said “Yes” but eventually was unable to fulfill the obligations.  As wards of the state and rotating within foster care, they would have been prime candidates for criminal activity and other types of deviant behavior.  Notwithstanding her clear alternative to the contrary, arguably the maternal grandmother made the correct choice.