Why Am I Here? -- Part 2 -- Somebody Stayed

Earlier in the week I began a series that is somewhat personal in nature. It was inspired by a post by a fellow blogger who pastors up north in Childress, TX. If you are looking for a great blog to follow, I wholeheartedly recommend his to you. But enough of this shameless promotion . . .

Here is what I came up with and began exploring in my earlier post.

I am what I am because:

• Somebody Played
• Somebody Stayed
• Somebody Paid, and
• Somebody Prayed

I discussed the first point and I am deeply grateful for the impact that my 4th grade boys Sunday School teacher had on my life.

So today, let's consider the second -- Somebody stayed

This one is a little more difficult.  It evokes thoughts in my head of a famous Friedrich Nietzsche quote that became the title of a book by Eugene Peterson.  The quote is:

The essential thing in 'heaven and earth' is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.

Now, lest we get all worked up praising this insightful quote, let's hastily remember that this is the same Nietzsche that proclaimed that “God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed Him!”  However, Nietzsche has stumbled upon a theme that is true regardless of where one is on the spiritual spectrum.  And that is that there is something powerful about a sustained obedience or commitment.  Some would call it “Staying Power”.  Hence, my alliteration, “Somebody Stayed”.

The list of those who have “Stayed” in my life is long.  My generation was ripped apart by the sexual revolution of the 1960s.  In the midst of all of that commotion and noise, my parents remained faithful to one another and remain so to this day.  They stayed together.  They have been together now for more than 50 years!  And they ingrained that idea of what commitment was like into my brother and me.  He and his wife have been married for more than 30 years.  This June, my bride and I will have been married for 28 years.

There are other examples of staying.  My Mother stayed home with us boys and worked while Dad went off every day to his job.  At a time when many disdained the role of “housewife”, Mom embraced it and made it a Divine call in her life.  She stayed home rather than ship us off to day care and pursue a career of her own. But let me be clear about this, what ever she would have chosen she would have been great at because Mom is one of the smartest people I have ever known.  But, she stayed home with us.

So, what does all of this mean?  I don't know for sure.  I don't know what I would be like if my childhood had been different.  But, I know this.  I know that I benefited greatly from that model of what a mother was like.  And 20 years later, I found myself married to a woman with that same mindset that was willing to sacrifice an external career for an internal one.  And the following generation has benefited just like I did.

Thanks, Mom.

I Saw Love Today

I saw love today in the eyes of a man who at 75 years of age and after 53 years of marriage still knelt down beside his wife's hospital bed to pray with her before the nurses wheeled her away to surgery. This is the love of a man for a woman who models daily what it is to have a Christian marriage and loves a woman who continues to be his partner through life.

I saw love today in the way that a son took time away from his busy pastoral schedule to come and be at the bedside of his mother and secretly slip away and build a new ramp for her so that she will be able to get in an out of the car in the comfort of the garage. This is the love of a man for the mother who brought him into this world and cared for his every need for 18 years and continues to care for him and love him as he approaches his 50th birthday.

I saw love today as the doctors and nurses kindly and gently cared for a woman who was in great pain and who was suffering physically in the aftermath of major surgery. This is the love of a caring professional who takes their life's calling and vocation seriously and who treats human beings with dignity at a very difficult and vulnerable point in their life.

I saw love today as countless friends and neighbors stopped by to check on a patient and dear friend. This is the love of someone who wants to give back some of the love that has been given so generously to them by the one who now lays in the hospital bed.

But I saw another love today. It was the love of a Heavenly Father who hovered above the hospital bed and watched over one of His precious children. It was the love of the Holy Spirit who was the Comforter as the anesthesia subsided and the pain became intense. And it was the love of Jesus Christ himself of whom it was written, “by His stripes we are healed.”

I was fortunate today to be a witness to that kind of love. I am fortunate to be loved in return by that mother laying in the hospital bed. I am even more blessed to be covered by that kind of love myself as a Child of God.

God, thank you for watching over Mom and helping her through surgery. Thank you God for your blessings and for the way that you show me each day the many ways that you are at work in my life.

Get well soon, Mom.

I love you.