Postcards From Myself

I got notification throughout the day today, at different times, that three people close to me had written articles for various publication. They are as follows:

First there was this one from my father – Laws – But Not Hearts – Have Changed on Racism. “As a child, I listened to wonderful people who spent their lives on the foreign mission field, yet black people weren’t welcome in our church”.

Next, one from my cousin, Don Gilliland – Inner Peace, Part IV on his visit to a Birmingham, Alabama, mosque. “The anxiety I’d felt earlier is beginning not so much to lift as to transform to an awareness of a closely-knit, healthy community. Not terribly different from the communities I’m more accustomed to.”

And last but not least, an editorial from my friend and high school class mate, Reverend Matt Tittle – Liberty University Dehumanizes Homosexuals. “This sort of ignorance, hatred, and hostility have no place in our society today. ”

Now it is not surprising at all to me that these three people wrote these articles. What does kind of startle me though is that they all came out on the same day. Talk about serendipity! The other thing these articles say to me is that I am surrounded by some great people – and you can certainly tell where the ideas that help make up my life come from.

Note: This review was published in the November 29, 2009 issue of The Post & Courier. The reviewer the Rev. Robert M. Knight, pastor of First Christian Church of Charleston.

Mitch Carnell, a lay leader at Charleston’s historic First Baptist Church, is concerned about a lack of civility in public affairs and church life. His concern has led him to edit an insightful book called “Christian Civility in an Uncivil World.”

The essays are written by notable church leaders representing various Christian traditions. John Gehring and Alexia Kelley are Roman Catholic laypersons who write about mediating and modulating too much inflammatory rhetoric and negotiating the politics of the church they know and love.

The Rev. Sally Dyck, bishop of the United Methodist Church, Minnesota Conference, draws on a distinctive Wesleyan tradition she terms “Holy Conferencing.” Dyck outlines an approach to negotiating and problem-solving designed to minimize the unfortunate consequences of a church life reduced to “winners” and “losers.” She has adapted this approach from Methodism’s founder John Wesley.

Another bishop, the Rev. Stacy Sauls of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington, Ky., who is also an attorney, writes with notable pastoral sensitivity concerning the conflict in the church he loves and serves surrounding the matter of one’s sexual orientation.
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In truth, I resisted this book for a long time. I saw reviews of Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup in some magazines. I also heard her interviewed online. Finally I saw a podcast of her speaking before a group. Then I walked into our local library and the book was sitting on an end display. OK already, I will read the book! In the end, I was pleasantly surprised.

Here If You Need Me is the true story of how Braestrup overcame the sudden death of her husband, took care of her kids, became a chaplain for the Maine Game Wardens, and basically put her life back together. But it is far more than that. It had to be, because I don’t normally go for warm fuzzy perseverance stories. For one thing though, Braestrup tells her story honestly but with a sense of humor. She never dissolves into self pity or the woe-is-me attitude that many would. She still asks the hard questions, but she asks them with power.

And that leads to another reason I enjoyed this book. Although she might deny it, Braestrup is a strong women. Outside events may happen to her, but she alone chooses how she handles the events and how she reacts. She refuses to be a victim and in the end actually becomes a champion for the victims. By choosing the road of becoming a Unitarian Universalist minister, as her late-husband had planned to do, she explores her faith and her strength. But by becoming a chaplain with the game and wildlife service, she puts that faith and strength to use together with her compassion. She makes a difference, pure and simple.

Here If You Need Me is not a long book and it is not a complicated book, but it is a good book. I would recommend it for anyone trying to find meaning in their life or for those who are trying to help others find that meaning. And truthfully, I would recommend it for people who are simply looking for a good read with a good story line that has some humor and human angst thrown in. And if it jumps on you from the end cap at your library, take the hint.

This was part of the reading used in church this past Sunday, and I liked it so much that I wanted to post it here. Enjoy!

It is only in the Creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a word of God can unite. The Creation speaketh an universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God.

Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible Whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not the book called the scripture, which any human hand might make, but the scripture called the Creation.

       Thomas Paine from The Age Of Reason

I recently picked up “Through The Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World” by Lynne Spears. Mrs. Spears is the mother of Britney, Jamie Lynn and Bryan Spears. What struck me first was the title, or should I say subtitle. A “real story” of the “tabloid world” seemed to be contradictory. But, as painful as it is to read and admit, this does ring true as a real story in exactly the same way that one could do a real story about cosmetic surgery.

Reading the book it also quickly becomes clear where the root of the families problems is. Lynne Spears is a mother who passed on to her children the need for fame and success without any real regards for the cost or the process. Turning true talent and personality into celebrity became the fastest way to do that.

There is a quote pulled out about two-thirds of the way through the book that says, “I wonder what Mama and Daddy would have said about all the craziness surrounding Britney, Jamie Lynn, and all of us. They were from another era, a time when character counted more than celebrity, and when you word was your sacred trust.” Those two lines about sum up this unfortunate story.

The incidents in “Through The Storm” show that the Spears girls, led by their mother, abandoned character and values for the glamor of celebrity. Equally as evident in reading this is that there is always someone else to blame or a prayer that God will bail you out. Instead of taking personal responsibility for actions, causes, and consequences, Lynn Spears always places the blame outside of herself. Showing still that character just is not there.

As for the book itself, it is a quick but disjointed read – very much like the lives of the pop celebrities it details. The style and content is about as filling as watching E! on television. If that is what you enjoy then you will enjoy “Through The Storm”. If however, you prefer real biographies, real stories, real news – then move on to something else.