Grandparenthood!

This is my youngest granddaughter.  Her name is Noelliah.  She is now just past five months old.  As a grandfather I have been blessed with an abundance of granddaughters.  If you think a daughter can wrap her father around her little finger, well, then, just try to hold your own with a granddaughter.

Little Noe (as she is called) came into this world on a fateful anniversary, September 11, 2010.  That makes it easy to remember!  She, like her sisters, is full of life.  She is constantly in motion, always looking around, engaged in what is going on in the room or nearby.  To look into her eyes is to look into the breath of life itself.  Here is energy, optimism, hope, and a curiosity about the world unleashed.  Here is a little child touching the hearts of all she comes into contact with simply because she is.  Her sisters exhibit the same magic and when they are all together, there is an energy for life that can be felt.

It is not the energy of simple motion, but the innocent energy of life that we all once possessed.  At one time in our lives we were all this innocent, waiting to learn everything there was to learn about the world around us.  We stared in amazement at the faces of those seemingly large giants who happened to stick their faces in our face and make ridiculous sounds and facial expressions.  We weren't sure whether to cry or laugh or just frown in wonder if we would look like that some day.  We were all at the beginning of life, ready to take on come what may.

When you are a grandfather or grandmother, you have the privilege of years lived.  You have the perspective that life experiences have given and you may be somewhat beaten down by what life has doled out up to this point or by what you have done to life!  Life may seem very wearisome on certain days and you wonder how much farther you can go.  And then you look into the eyes of a little granddaughter filled with the energy and zest for life you once possessed and it all comes back: this is what life is all about!  Oh sure, there is the humdrum of everyday life.  Bills to be paid, problems to be solved.  The car is broken down again or a horrible day at work can leave us looking for the nearest exit.

I think one reason that God gives us grand kids is to help us keep the proper perspective in life.  He reminds us that life isn't, after all, a burden that we seem to turn it into through our own efforts.  That life is about living, enjoying, and giving everything you have every day.  It isn't about how bad things are.  It is about the possibilities of how good things can be.  That is what grandchildren remind us of.  The potential of the future.

Noe knows nothing of her profound effect upon her loving grandparents.  She does not know the joy of seeing a recent photo posted on Facebook.  She isn't aware that we're willing to travel whatever distance necessary just to spend a short amount of time with she and her sisters and parents.  Yet, in all her beauty and innocence and, yes, zest for life, she does this and so much more.

Aliyah

Thank you to all my grandchildren for being such great witnesses of the love that God has for all of us.  If we didn't have grandchildren, the world would certainly be vastly empty and our knowledge of God so much more limited!

Kiki

The Most Dangerous Place for an African-American

Recently, in the crowded streets of New York City, a billboard, sponsored by an organization called "Life Always," was erected to coincide with the celebration of Black History Month.  The billboard, featuring a picture of a little African-American girl, stated simply, "The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb."

On the surface, this would seem to be a very shocking statement, almost, some would say, outrageous, that is until the statistics are examined.  

The City of New York's Department of Mental Hygiene recently released its vital statistics from one year ago.  The numbers are alarming and prove that the Big Apple is the abortion capital of the United States.  The Department's report revealed that a chilling 41% of all pregnancies in New York City were aborted.  Forty-one percent!  That is a tragic and phenomenal number.  Reading further in the report, an even more startling statistic is revealed.  The report revealed that a stunning 59.8% of all African-American pregnancies were aborted!

The group who placed the billboard said it did so to point out the fact that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States, targets poor, African-American neighborhoods by putting more clinics in those neighborhoods than anywhere else.  Planned Parenthood in a statement said the billboard was "a condescending effort to stigmatize and shame African-American women."

The Reverend Al Sharpton rose up in furry and threatened to protest the billboard.  He demanded that it be removed from the side of the building upon which it appeared.  So much for freedom of expression that the Reverend claims to be such a champion of!  Remember Don Imus?  

Outcries came from all liberal circles, demanding that the billboard and its stark and alarming message be removed.

Buckling under pressure, the billboard was removed and now Al Sharpton and the howling liberal pack of wolves are satisfied, having successfully squelched the awful truth of the genocide that is taking place in what some call the Capital of the World.

Dr. Alveda King, niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, said in a statement released today, "Its an outrageous act of censorship that this billboard was taken down.  This billboard should be posted in every city in America."

Planned Parenthood, Al Sharpton, and all the liberal organizations should be outraged, but not because, as they claim, the billboard is racist, but because of what is going on the African-American community.  These numbers are staggering.  Two out of every three African-American babies in the city of New York were deliberately killed through the process of abortion in the time span of a year.  If this kind of butchery were taking place on the streets of Tripoli, Libya, the world would be in an uproar.  And its not just the African-American community!  Remember, 41% of all pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion.

Is it not possible for the supporters to see abortion for what it is?  Are they blind to the truth that life begins at the moment of conception and that the result of this conception is a human being just like you and I?  Are they incapable of thinking about that life in the womb as being human, preferring, rather, to think of it as some inconsequential cells to be discarded like the day's garbage?  Can they look at their children in the eye and see before them only a group of inconsequential cells?  When they found out that they were going to have a child, did they think of that tiny life as anything but a living baby?  Or, rather, did they, in all honesty, see that  offspring as just an inconsequential bundle of cells?

We have cheapened life, at all stages, through the scourge of abortion.  We, as a society, think of ourselves as having liberated women, but have we?  Look how women are viewed today.   Commercials on television testify to the fact that we see women as something to possess, something to use, and then, when we are done or they are too old and "unattractive," to be discarded.  The most popular comedy on network TV (CBS' "Two and a Half Men") is a show dedicated to see how many women the main character can get into bed!

We must take an honest look at what we are doing to ourselves as a society.  No terrorist could ever dream up a plot to kill as many people as abortion claims year after year.  We devote billions of dollars every year to defend ourselves from another terrorist attack similar to 9/11.  But the number of abortions on a daily basis pales in comparison to the tragic numbers of that horrible day in September, 2001.  

Millions of children have been sacrificed in the name of providing women "health care services."  Who would these children have become?   Why weren't they given the chance that all of us were given--life?  And who says that you can't tell someone what they can or can not do with their bodies?  We do it all the time!  We make laws regarding self-inflicted pain.  There are laws that make suicide a crime.  We have laws that prohibit the use of drugs even though we only ingest those substances ourselves.

It is time for America wake up to the genocide that is taking place across this land.  It is time for us to realize that if we treat the most innocent citizens with the callousness of travesties such as abortion, it isn't long before we begin having open and honest discussions about things like euthanasia of the elderly.

Polls testify to the truth that America is changing its mind where abortion is concerned.  A majority of Americans see abortion as wrong and that it should not be permitted.  But the battle is far from over.  The African-American community is suffering more than any other, but we all suffer from the complete  of human life.  There is a price tag on all our heads and we need to fight back.  We need to pray, become active in the community in educating the public what abortion is and what it is doing to the fabric of society.

Abortion is the great evil of our society and, if we are not very careful, it will be the complete undoing of who we are as a people!

Immediately, when the billboard was put up, shouts of protests arose.        

Profound

There is a certain luxury to being a grandparent that one never has when the parenting duties are your main preoccupation in life.  That luxury is the ability to look upon your offspring, now adult, and reminisce in your own mind about their lives through the filter of their current life.  I had such an opportunity today and it left me thinking that this day was, indeed, profound in nature.

This morning, at Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois, my son Josh and my daughter-in-law Melissa presented the newest member of our family to be dedicated to God.  The ceremony, a rather simple affair, gives the parents the responsibility of seeing to it that the child is reared in the Word of God and that Word becomes the basis for their lives. 

For the ceremony itself, the entire family was called to the altar.  As the minister proceeded with the ceremony, I must admit that I did not take in many of the words he was pronouncing over the family.  Rather, my mind shot back through time to days in an era that was much simpler than the times in which we live.  There, I saw Josh as the little boy growing up with a sense of curiosity and wonder of the world that were so unique to him.  Then my glance led to Aliyah.  She is so like her father and I could not help but notice how similar the two are today.   Younger sisters Keirah and Noelliah, rested in the arms of each parent as the dedication unfolded.

As the family stood on that stage, my heart swelled with pride not in anything that I had done but in the kind of man my son has become.  He is first and foremost a man who places God at the center of his life.  He has made a commitment to guide his family using God as his compass.  He is a husband who is fully dedicated to his wife, loving and embracing her for all that she is and all that she brings to his life (which is considerable).  He is a father who embraces his children every day with a deep and abiding love founded upon his love for God.  His girls are his life and you can be sure that they will always be under his watchful eye.   And then he is the son who has given his father a love that is unearned but surely welcomed.  This love has given and energy to my life that is beyond words.

All five of them-Josh, Melissa, Aliyah, Keirah, and Noelliah-bring pride to this baby-boom father like nothing else in his life.  As I looked upon that family I realized just how much God loves me by favoring me with this vision of family.  Encapsulated in that moment was the message of just how much He loves us all and how much He has sacrificed us all so that we may share these profound moments in life.

I am profoundly grateful to Josh and Melissa for their bringing into the world three little lights that will grow into shinning beacons of God's love for man.  And I am profoundly moved that God would allow me to glimpse this remarkable manifestation of His love.  Profound, in reality, doesn't even begin to describe it!

On Being Civil

Since the tragic shooting in Tucson which left 6 dead and several more injured including the intended target, Cong. Gabrielle Giffords, nearly every politician in the land has proclaimed that we all must be more civil towards each other.  It must be reflected in our speech as well as our actions.  As an example, several congressmen and senators from both sides of the aisle with be sitting with each other in an attempt at showing their civility and willingness to cooperate with each other.  A noble gesture, perhaps, but a gesture that has very little, if any, meaning.  But that is fodder for another time.

It is all very well to speak of being more civil, more tolerant of each other but until we become more civil towards the weakest and most defenseless of our society, everything else seems rather inconsequential.

In the shadow of the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling Roe v Wade which formally legalized abortion, I would like to point out that we have hardly been civil to the over 53,000,000 babies that have been aborted before having the chance to be born.  This slaughter of the most innocent among us sure must rank amongst the most inhospitable act any one society has shown toward a segment of its population in the history of mankind. 

Only recently, with the arrest of the abortion doctor and his staff in Philadelphia, has there been any real outcry about this continuing abomination and we certainly have not heard one story about this nightmare in the mainstream media (ABC, NBC, CBS).  The violence of abortion stuns those who first begin to understand how abortions are performed.  The mere thought of someone killing an unborn child is simply too much for most to fathom.  But the fact of the matter is is that abortion is pure and simple an act of butchery.

So Mr. and Ms. politician, until we can find a way to be more civil to those who have no voice and no choice, you can sit together all you want.  You can tiptoe through the tulips night and day.  You can hum "Everything Is Beautiful" at all hours.  However, no one in the world would ever believe you meant it as long as the abortion mills continue to produce the horrors that we witnessed in Philadelphia.

I am sure your actions will be praised by the President of the United States during his State of the Union Address this Tuesday night as an example of civility and cooperation.  Meantime, across town in some abortion clinic or "Women's Health Clinic" a child will be killed before having the chance of being born.  How civil are we really if this continues unchecked?

A Priest of the Culture of Death

Take a look at the photo above and you will be looking into the face of unbelievable evil.  It is the likeness of the Philadelphia physician who now stands accused of killing seven live babies and one mother in his chamber of horrors that is called an abortion clinic.  Dr. Kermit Gosnell along his with wife and several staff members have been arrested and indicted on eight counts of murder including the death of a mother during a botched abortion. 

Inside the clinic, investigators found what they described as a "house of horrors."  Among other things, they found bags and bottles filled with aborted babies.  Seth Williams, the District Attorney for the region, said that several jars containing "severed feet that he (Dr. Gosnell) kept for no medical purpose."  There is speculation that the doctor has, over the years, killed hundreds of babies born live with a pair of scissors.

The babies included in the indictment were killed after the doctor and his staff had induced labor in the patient and then given birth to a perfectly live and viable newborn.  The babies included in the grand jury's findings were six, seven, and eight months old.  Once they were born, perfectly capable of living outside the womb at this point. the doctor took a pair of scissors, jabbed them into the back of their necks, and the sliced through the spinal chord, killing the infants instantly.

This barbaric crime is more revolting and heinous than most people have heard of up to this point.  These babies could very well have lived and been adopted out had they not had the misfortune of being born into this "house of horrors."  Instead of being given to the care of parents who would love them and nurture them to adulthood, they were cruelly and coldly dispatched by a doctor and willing staff with a simple, every day instrument, namely a scissors.

What amazes me (and I don't know why) is that nowhere in the mainstream media has this story been given any air time.  This monstrous crime deserves the attention of the American people.  It deserves to be exposed because it is an icon of the Culture of Death.  This is what abortion is and there is no disguising it with words or phrases that have some sort of soothing sound.  It is a barbaric act and outrage needs to be expressed.  Our lawmakers need to be bombarded with demands that something needs to be done regarding abortion in this country.  Human treasure has been destroyed in this instance but the sad thing is that human treasure is freely and openly destroyed in abortion mills throughout this country every day.

What does it say about a society when something like this abhorrent crime committed in Philadelphia, the city that gave birth to the Declaration of Independence in which all men were declared to have been created equal by their creator, gets no attention from the major media outlets in this country?  Have we grown so callous to such obscene violence that it just doesn't effect us any longer?  Does it reflect on our lessening dependency on God and greater dependency on ourselves?

This kind of story deserves the kind of attention that American Idol generates.  More than that, really!  This slaughter of innocent human beings has to be stopped in some way.  A society can be judged by the way it treats its least significant members.  If that is the case, then we are in big trouble.  The Culture of Death, a culture that promotes the ego and the self must be reversed so as to head off this kind of unthinkable crime.  We need to once again adopt the Culture of Life, an atmosphere that celebrates life in all of its forms.  Only then shall we be able to rescue what we have lost, although those innocent citizens who have been killed before even having the chance to be born are beyond mortal rescue.  May they all rest in the peace of Christ.

Tragic Absurdity

The absurdity that we have witnessed since the brutal and senseless violence in Arizona last Saturday provides a sad commentary to where we are as a society.  Nearly forgotten in the verbal sparring has been those who died and were wounded by the obviously deranged gunman.

Those on the left have accused the right of causing the shootings through their continual criticism of the liberal point of view in the American body politic.  Those on the right have risen up against these accusations, pointing out the hypocrisy of the left in that the left has a long history of vitriolic language itself.

The liberal argument holds no water whatsoever.  The actions of the would-be assassin had nothing to do with the political tenor in this country.  Here was an obviously mentally disturbed individual whose mental illness went unchecked for years only to bubble up in violence last weekend.  The chances that he was inspired somehow to go on a killing spree through right wing media types like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are nothing.  He acted in such a violent way because of the mental illness that undoubtedly has plagued him for years.

We need to slow down and take a deep breath and understand what we are doing to ourselves.  We have already cheapened life through the legalization of abortion.  Stem cells extracted from human embryos after those embryos have been destroyed has placed one group of human beings (those born) over those who have yet to be born.  We need to see that we have chosen a route where human life is concerned that degrades and devalues human life.

What caused last Saturday's savage attack on those gathered in the parking lot of a Safeway supermarket?  I am not qualified to answer that but I can say that our callous disregard for the marginalized in society, those who are homeless, mentally ill, and those who have been lost, contributed far more to the violence than did the tone of the political debate in this country.

We have turned our backs on God for any number of reasons.  When we do this as a society, we lose our compass.  We drift.  There is no truth.  There is no anchor.  Right and wrong become relative and each person lives out their own version of right and wrong whether or not it agrees with other versions.  We are not connected to each other as we once were.  Oh, we do have the Internet with facebook and twitter and the like.  But is this really being connected.  No!  We cannot be connected merely through a computer keyboard!  To be connected we must have personal relationships based upon reality.

The gunman in Arizona was clearly marginalized.  He was detached from the rest of society as a result of his mental illness.  His writings reveal a mind that is incapable of putting together coherent thoughts.  He became anti-social and apparently fixated with the congresswoman he tried to kill.  In his savage outrage, he revealed his complete disregard by indiscriminately shooting so many others, killing six including a nine year old little girl.

It is time for the right and the left to just shut up about which side caused this horrible tragedy.  Rather than putting all this energy into these arguments, they need to focus their talents and abilities in solving the problems that led to an ugly scene such as was played out in Tucson.  If we fail to address these problems in a mature and honest way, another Tucson waits in the wings.  How many more people will have to die in senseless violence before our leaders disengage the childish finger pointing that we have seen this week.  I for one am disgusted with both sides and pray that the adults among our leaders (if there are any!) come to the surface and lead us to a healing that we are so desperately in need of. 

Look into the eyes of little Christina Greene at the top of this piece and see the future ended by this horrible act of violence.  When this picture was taken this little girl was filled with life, with hope, with the sheer joy of being alive.  Now she is dead, living forever in the arms of the Creator.  As you look into her eyes, ask yourself: is the dialogue that we are witnessing in the public arena worthy of this young and innocent victim?  We must honor her memory and those of the other five who died that day with dialogue that honors them and brings back this country and society from the brink of self-destruction.

2011

Another month has come and gone and as I turn the page of the calendar a brand new month and year stare me in the face.  Funny, isn't it, how ritualistic we all become over time.  Every year at about this time nearly everyone I know says something to the effect, "Where did the time go?"  Even funnier, when you think about it, the minutes, hours, days, weeks and months of 2010 actually passed no more slowly nor quickly than did the previous twelve months.  Yet, it does seem as though time continually picks up speed with each passing year.  Why?

All of us get caught up in the superficiality of life.  Our days are passed with endlessly meaningless tasks that we assign meaning to because we all want our lives to actually mean something.  So, as a result, we funnel our attention to trivialities such as the things we possess, not realizing that many of them actually possess us.  We take for granted the precious minutes that are allotted us and become impatient when the clock doesn't move quickly enough for us.  As we watch the time, urging it to move more quickly, we squander the here and now of the passing moment even though in reality that is all we have.

We go about doing things rather than being ourselves.  In our society, if we aren't busy, we aren't being productive and, therefore, are not contributing anything important to the world.  But just doing something to be doing it leaves us empty, without direction.  To be ourselves means that we have to know ourselves and there is precious little time in our lives for that what with all the doing that's going on!  We become bystanders to the parade of life rather than intimate participants and as the parade passes us by, so does life.

This new year is a perfect time to discover what it means to be!  What exactly does it mean to be a human being.  Are all we are is what we do?  Or are we something far more complex than our actions?  This may sound like the ramblings of a middle aged man seeking direction in his life, but I can assure you that in talking with many friends and acquaintances about this subject, I am not alone. 

All of us wants to get the most out of each moment that we live and breathe.  We have it within our own power to do just that but it will take courage because it is necessary for us to swim out of the mainstream of life and take in what society sees and non-productive elements of life.  Take time with your spouse.  Look at them through the eyes that you first looked at them with the first time you saw them.  Yes, they have grown older and may not have that youthful charm burning from within, but perhaps, just perhaps, if you try to capture them for what they have meant to you all these years, you will have a better understanding of who they have become and, consequently who the both of you are.

Look at your children.  They are the gems of life, yet how often do you lose patience with them as they struggle to grow up in a society that more and more often would deny them the precious years of childhood so they can grow up and earn a decent living?  Take them in as they are and see yourself in them.  They will never pass this way again and neither will you.  Drink in the moment and realize that they are reflections of you and are the hope of our future.  Nurture them because they are the greatest gift God could ever bestow upon a couple.

To those whom you call friend, give thanks.  Friends provide that necessary balance in life that keeps one from feeling alone.  The old saying about us not being able to choose our family but we do have the ability to choose our friends says so much about the value of a trusted friend.  They do not have to accompany us on our life's journey.  They have volunteered to be our companions and often prove to be our life rafts!  Friends, too, are very special gifts from God and one who has a friend has riches beyond anything the world can provide.

So as 2011 gets underway, take your first steps on the path to being true to yourself and your life.  Are you happy where you are?  Instead of worrying about tomorrow, next month, or next year, live in the moment.  Let tomorrow take care of itself.  Realize completely that the only thing we have at this moment is this moment!  The past is gone and the future is yet to take place.  Nothing can be done about either one of them.  However, by being in the present and living life to its fullest will make the past more meaningful and the future more hopeful!  Don't worry about the things we now call vitally important.  Worry about your relationships both with one another and with God.  They are truly the only reality that matters.  Happy New Year!