Sent and Made – Giving up the Credit

We are in the midst of the political process that will ramp up to the presidential election. It is rather remarkable, a process culminating in a change of leadership with no tanks rolling through the streets nor fear of an incoming coup. In the midst of this change, it seems we are provided a bevy of each candidate touting their beliefs and qualifications as loudly and proficiently as they can. At times, to my ears it becomes a noise of egos and polls to me.

 We all have some ego involved in our life; this is the sense of self-importance and self-respect we need to act with healthy confidence. It impacts how we decide to treat ourselves and others, to distinguish our identity. A healthy ego helps us create the needed sense of respect which establishes good esteem and helps us to pursue wholesome options. An unhealthy ego could show itself with a range of issues; bottoming out by seeing ourselves as disvalued and damaged or ratcheting up to a point where the self is more important than others around them.

Joseph was sent to Egypt as a sold slave, betrayed by his family and placed through what must have been a terrifying sequence of events. That would have been an ego blow, confidence and identify would seemingly be completely devastating. Yet, with every twist and turn of Joseph’s story, when he had supposed justification to throw his hands up in disgust at the situations or the opportunity to claim the credit of preserving a people through a drought, he instead pointed always back to God.

Nearly at the end of Joseph’s story, as the loose ends are being tied up, Joseph’s ego perspective is clearly displayed.

“And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come near to me.’ So they came near. Then he said: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.’”

Genesis 45:4-8

God sent, the phrase is said over and over in these words. In just a few strokes of a pen Joseph displays a maximum amount of confidence along with great humility; giving God credit for all of the good things and in giving God faith through all of the bad things. Joseph’s sense of identity and trust, of being able to focus on using his talents for the good of the people around him did not falter. That is a healthy ego attitude of credit. 

President’s Day

   Yesterday was President’s Day, which I enjoyed having off from work. In the face of all the historical happenings around the world, it was a striking thing that in the midst of our own turmoil, the powers that be are really quite stable. It’s not a perfect system. There are flaws of people; both arrogance and inadequate information. There are flaws of economy as we have all participated in the economic rollercoaster of the last few years. Differences are vast, in philosophy, communication styles, expectations, and hoped for outcomes.

   In all of this, we have a wonderful connection within our government of stability. Think about how even now, with protests in Wisconsin, there are no tanks rolling in the streets. When the whole hanging chad thing came about with ballots several years ago, there was not a coup d’état or a militant uprising.
   From a collection of men, longing for their families and putting their lives at risk, came a system of government that was impassioned and yet separated to maintain control of power levels. From this small group of ministers, lawyers, businessmen, farmers, and others who went to do their best. They inspired a nation and created documents which are still of great importance. Thank you to all of our Presidents, all of our founders, each person who has worked in the government from the clerk to the senator. I don’t always agree with you, but thank you for serving.

I Am Blessed

   “I am blessed, I am blessed, every day I live I am blessed.” The familiar words are from just one of the songs that reflect the attitude of Thanksgiving where we recognize blessings regardless of the day’s situations. The Thanksgiving holiday is one that we celebrate with memories of Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, and Wampanoag Indians. However, it was not something that happened once and then just simply was repeated as an annual festival since. Instead, the colonists declared a time of giving thanks in 1620. They invited Indians that had helped them survive the first winter without their complete population being lost to disease and starvation. It was not repeated until a drought broke in 1623 following a prayer service asking for a long rain. In the late spring of 1676 another thanksgiving was declared. With such separation between them, we can hardly call this a regular occurrence. Instead, it was more of a special declaration to mark something that really impacted everyone.

   President George Washington proclaimed a day of giving thanks, but not everyone supported this. It still did not stick as the national day we are familiar with now. Instead, it was Sarah Josepha Hale that wrote editorials and letters focused on gaining the attention of this date and succeeding with President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. Sarah Hale thought that in midst of a brutal Civil War, in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation bringing a new struggle to the freedom issues within the war, the fighting at Vicksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, and then riots following a draft proclamation; the entire county was much like a powder keg dangerously close to being blown to bits in the midst of the sparks. Sarah Hale wrote in the Northwood publication, “Thanksgiving like the Fourth of July should be considered a national festival and observed by all our people. There is a deep moral influence in these periodical seasons of rejoicing, in which communities participate. They bring out… the best sympathies in our natures.” In the midst of a brutal war, a politically charged climate which presented dangers to the union which were very real, and with many families mourning the loss of husbands, brothers, sons, uncles, cousins, nephews, friends, neighbors, wives, daughters, aunts, nieces, communities, leaders, health, ways of life, homes, crops, jobs, traditions, and stability. In the midst of this, there was someone proclaiming the need to give thanks.
   It was in this very dark time that this woman persuaded enough people to throw their support behind this holiday, that President Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation. The President issued a proclamation which identified how we are “prone to forget the source of the bounties of fruitful fields and healthful skies.” He did not leave out the war, but instead, “In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nation’s, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict… No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gift of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sings, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.” The proclamation turns into a prayer asking for the “wound of the nation to be healed, restoration consistent with the Divine purposes, and the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union.”
   That was many years ago and in 1941; Congress finally sanctioned this as a legal holiday. Our nation has seen wars, famines, and losses since the early intrepid pilgrims gave thanks for their survival of a winter and since the terrible battles and ramifications of the Civil War. However, in the darkest of these days, we had leaders who stopped to give thanks. I would urge you to stop today as well, no matter your situation, and give thanks.

Stating the State of the Union

A few nights ago, our president shared his perspective on the State of the Union.  Maybe it’s just a new year, or perhaps it having this sort of Self-Assessment of our leadership, but I thought it was a good reminder to me of the importance to assess the state of our own personal unions from time to time. 

Thomas Paine was referenced in that speech by President Obama, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”  Yes, these times are hard.  Every day, I hear about more jobs being lost, more economic issues, out of work, food pantries being harder, charities that are barely functioning when they are needed even more.  The stress can really get to me, I am even avoiding watching the news – it’s just too overwhelming.

The overwhelmed feelings don’t go away when I look at my own life.  Lord, can we just talk about the future and what is going to happen?  Did you see that over there?  Is that going to be fixed?  Will you heal this?  Will you take away that?  Each day brings it’s own challenges and triumphs. 

I think one of the biggest struggles that I face when doing a self-assessment of my heart and spirit is the quickness to compare myself to someone else.  Whether it is admiring someone and feeling like they are gifted or achieved beyond something I can aspire to, or if it something more of a prideful nature – humph look at them.  That is when I have to be careful to “remove the plank from my eye first and make sure I am seeing clearly.”  Luke speaks of looking at someone else and pointing out what we see as a flaw, an error, a mistake, a weakness – a “speck of sawdust in their eye,” (Luke 6:42).  Sawdust in the eye – ouch!  I don’t even like the feel of eye goop in my eye.  Sawdust would be painful, I would be blinking and my eye would be watering, maybe hopping up and down.  My eye waters, the next thing I know the other eye will water in sympathy watering, my nose will run, and there goes the mascara.  But, that is just the sawdust – let’s keep reading.

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?’”

A plank?  Wait just a minute, I’m having enough eye goopy watering, nose running, by now I have stubbed my toe from running around and not being able to see.  But, a plank?  That makes me think of a sliver of wood that is wedged in that delicate area.  Forget running eyes and nose – we are talking out and out can’t see – and desperate to get that out.  How in the world am I supposed to help someone else while I’m running around trying to get this gigantic wood sliver out of my own eye? 

So, why don’t we all do this?  Why does it get easier to point out somebody else’s speck?  Our souls are quite delicate and strong as well – and the plank that gets wedged in hurts. But, over time it takes less and less attention, I get used to the pain.  I get better at ignoring it, at looking around the painful area to avoid making changes. 

Lord, please point out my planks to me.  I know I have them.  And, would you walk with me all the way, because I think the removal of them is going to hurt.

I wonder what the state of our personal and national union would look like if we worked on our planks.