Thankful ... And What Exactly is "Right"?

Again, we are so thankful... for a great report from doctors!  My CT scans showed no evidence of any cancer and the few biopsies they took came back negative. Woohoo!  We go back in three months.  And four days after Bruce and I were there, Mom and Dad went for her 4-month scans - which were great!  On Monday, Feb 4th, she will be 8 years out from her big surgery - Praise God!  A funny aside:  I was a little miffed at Bruce on the way home as I blamed him for leaving my half-read Garden and Gun magazine in the hotel room... then received a message from my Dad when they were in the CT scan waiting room four days later: "picked up a Garden and Gun magazine to read while we wait... and it belongs to YOU".  haha!  Glad that was solved.  Sorry, Bruce. :-)

Silas and Avery are hilarious.  When they get upset if they can't find something (i.e. their juice cup, snack, etc), I tell them to look for it and find it.  They each then take off in opposite directions as if they were Jack Bauer or James Bond and yell for wanted object: "Juice, where are you?!" Cracks me up every time.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of hearing Supreme Court Justice Scalia at the annual Men's Ministry event Hawgs and Horns (Bruce is in charge of it and it is not all men:-).  What an intelligent, insightful, deliberate, educated, wise person he must be.  I told someone that I was excited to be there, listening to him address 1,000 people... but we all knew exactly what (or what he would not) say.  He did a fantastic job talking about the Church and State and made some excellent points, some that I agreed with, some that I did not. Overall, he was right: Christ commanded us several times to obey (and Justice Scalia used a good bit of scripture in his lecture), as Ms Eve proved hard to do in the garden.  I sat there, though, thinking how much I'd love to have lunch with him and pick his big brain.  Or, better yet, I'd love to listen to he and my dad discuss a few things;-)

On that note, with all the second amendment talk on the news these days (see D.O.D post HERE) (and if you aren't familiar with Dear Old Dad, enjoy perusing through some fantastic posts and hilarious conversations between my sister and my DOD), there's a lot to talk about.  Basically, the tragedies that spurred on much of this talk have occurred for decades - well, for centuries.  As time marches on and Israel remains under fire, we Americans seem to be more concerned with limiting our control as citizens all the while choosing to forget our commitment to Israel. Have we become that self-concerning that we begin to ignore our commitments from long ago?  When we read writings of the wise Samuel Adams, George Washington, George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Jefferson, and so many others... we see they battled the same convictions and challenges 250 years ago as we do today.  What foresight and wisdom these men had!

It got me thinking:  Some things just doesn't fit. Don't seem right.

I read a daily devotional by David Jeremiah with this theme and it got me thinking again: (and I elaborate)
Silas and Avery have a toy in which one must find the right shape to put into the little elephant before you can crank it's tail and it spits the shape back out.  As the adage goes:  You can't put a square peg into a round hole.  Yes, how true.  The things of this world will never be "right".  If so, why would we look forward to Heaven!  The things here simply do not look like God. i.e., world hunger, school shootings, lying politicians, lying neighbors, human trafficking.  Another aside:  Did you know that this weekend (Super Bowl) is commonly known as the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States?  (SOURCE) So, while we all laugh at funny over-priced commercials, literally hundreds of children and young women become vulnerable to evidence of our moral decay and won't be laughing.  All this to say, again, the things of this world do not look like God.

We talk about big government, global crises, theorizing about what is "right".... and trust me, I'm a believer that a little healthy banter is good for you (or so I was taught by the plethora of vocal, opinionated attorneys in my family!). But... how do we change ONE?  Looking at the big picture is quite dismal and overwhelming... literally depressing.  Doesn't change start with one person?  I think several scholars are credited with that quote.  Just think about Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Paul... or Stalin, Hitler, or Reagan, or even Jim Elliot.  Does everything we say point others to Christ? Or away from Christ?  It's all about the individual person:  He sings with joy when a person believes (Zeph. 3:17).

Everyone has had people of influence in their life, whether good or bad - there are moments each of us will never forget, people we will never forget... people who have said things or done things that help mold our hearts to what we are today. Was it a teacher, a coach, a parent, a friend, a mentor, someone you don't even know?  I have several of these in my life - some of whom know who they are and some don't have any idea what an impact they've made on my life. We can talk about the "big" things all we want, but our big theories about what is "right" don't concern our Lord. Instead, what are we to focus on?  "...to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world..." (James 1:27)

Let's not miss the big beautiful trees (or the saplings!) for the forest.

Ultimately, He wins.

(Can you tell being off the interferon keeps me awake at night? ha. )