Many Reasons for Thanksgiving

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, November 28, 2008



As you digested yesterday’s turkey and all the rest, did you reflect on reasons to be thankful? After all, thanks-giving is what this whole holiday is supposed to be about!! (No, it’s not just the day before the biggest shopping day of the year)

I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I returned from my mission trip to Haiti safely; and as a result of that trip, I am more aware of what we Americans so often take for granted.

I am thankful that I can turn on the water in my bathroom, kitchen, and outdoor spigot at any time and drink the water safely. I am thankful that I have (mostly) uninterrupted electrical service capable of turning on all the lights, electronics, and power tools and appliances in my house with no problem. I am thankful that our sewage system safely and consistently takes away waste products and keeps our homes and businesses clean and pleasant-smelling. I am thankful that I can go to a store and purchase just about anything I can imagine – as long as I have the money to pay for it.

In Haiti, one cannot assume any of those things to be true. The water is not safe to drink. Electrical service is inconsistent and low-powered (I’ve never seen so many 5-watt fluorescent mini-bulbs in my life). Sewers are only in the cities, and only partially effective. The market in Les Cayes (where I stayed) was well stocked with fresh fruit, rice and beans – but not much else. Our efforts to make certain repairs and build certain things at the school and orphanage were often stymied by missing equipment and supplies.

Haiti is a beautiful country filled with many beautiful people, but the country is at least 80 years behind the U.S. in so many ways – especially ones related to basic infrastructure. But I’ve never seen a more resourceful people. How they can do so much with so little is simply amazing! And the hospitality our team received was second to none. A simple “Bon jou!” would be met with mercurial smiles and waves.

I am also thankful for children. The kids at the school and orphanage were incredible – and they thought we “blanca’s” were pretty amazing, too. I sat on a bench at the orphanage as one child after another came up to me and tried to put their fingers around my wrist, upper arm, and ankle. They couldn’t do it – my “big bones” were too big. Then they had me put my fingers around their wrists, arms, and ankles – as Creole murmurs of astonishment were expressed between them. My hair also fascinated them. Straight, silky hair was mesmerizing. And I have enough arm hair that they simply wanted to stroke it like petting a cat. I could have basked in the attention for hours!

I’m thankful for my own family. My wife came to the Detroit Metro airport at midnight to help retrieve our team. By the time we reached home, it was after 1:30 a.m. – but my daughter stayed up to give me a tremendous bear hug as soon as I walked through the door.

Finally, I am eternally grateful to God. The circumstances that allowed me to go on this trip had to have been God-led. Touches of the divine surrounded me throughout my experience, and I am forever changed. What an amazing God to create us with such diversity and unity. American and Haitian, black and white, rich and poor – the differences mattered much less than the commonality we found worshiping the one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I pray that you, too, have many reasons to be thankful – perhaps some less obvious, but nevertheless important. In these uncertain economic times, we can still remember to thank God for all that we do have, for all that we can do with what we have, and how we can continue to improve ourselves and others by living in Jesus’ name. As you hang the Christmas decorations, don’t let go of Thanksgiving too quickly. An attitude of gratitude will make your Christmas spirit that much better during the next four weeks!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV)

Too Much Baggage

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, Nov. 14, 2008.


When our children were younger, packing for a trip was more exhausting than the trip itself. We were still living in Texas, and we came to Ohio for Christmas with my wife’s parents. Our kids were something like 6 months old, almost two years old, and five years old. We crammed the van full of diapers, porta-cribs, bottles and formula, clothes, toys and Christmas presents. It took up every open space in the van and a suitcase topper attached to the roof.

After that Christmas, we never attempted to take our young kids so far again. It was simply too much baggage!

Why do we carry around so much baggage? I’m not talking just about when we go on vacation or holiday, but also about what we have all around the house – collections of junk, clutter, and chaos! But even more, I wonder about all the emotional baggage we carry with us no matter where we go. Do you know what I mean? The resentment over something that happened last night – or even last century; the disappointment resulting from unmet expectations, broken promises, or plain bad luck; the fear of change, going into unknown situations and circumstances, and even wondering if the job will still be there next week.

I had to deal with a lot of baggage recently. Actually, I wasn’t sure how to deal with the baggage. By the time you read this column, I will be in Haiti as a member of a mission team. I will be there for eight days, helping to build chicken coops, repairing a school from the ravages of this past hurricane season, visiting with people in their homes, and worshiping together in the local church.
Haiti has been in the news quite a bit recently. Two schools in one week have collapsed, killing more than 80 students and injuring many more. The school I am assisting is not in Port-au-Prince, but in the “boonies” – even for Haiti! Port-au-Prince is the capital of the island nation – the poorer side of Hispaniola; the Dominican Republic occupies the other half of the island.

Haiti has a rich history and a poor present. The original peoples of the island were decimated by Spanish colonists – both directly through slaughter and indirectly through importation of European diseases. The population was reestablished through the importation of Africans as slaves to their European colonialists. Conditions in the island, however, prevented the population from being established through natural propagation. Too many died each year to ever establish a second or third generation of slaves. As a result, African cultures remained more intact as additional waves of slaves were brought into the country.

Perhaps this stronger memory of freedom in Africa helped the slaves of Haiti to overthrow their European rulers in 1804 and establish the second oldest independent republic in the Western Hemisphere, trailing the United States by only about 30 years. But the Haitians seemed not to understand the principals of peaceful transfer of power, and so the nation has experienced continuous warfare, assassinations, military juntas, and dictatorships for most of its past 200 years.

The island’s fertile soils have been exhausted by overuse, the forests cut down for fuel, and now the island nation is especially vulnerable to natural disaster and human mismanagement. I will be in the area near Les Cayes, which was mostly cut off from the rest of the island after the hurricanes this summer. Thousands have died from starvation, polluted water, and lack of medical care. Although only 100 miles from the capital, it takes more than 10 hours to get from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes by car or truck. You might say Les Cayes is in the “boonies” of all boonies.

Just from my quick history lesson of Haiti, you can see the amount of baggage this nation carries. Somehow, it cannot seem to get past its past and get on to a brighter, more hopeful future. Our economic downturn in America over the last two months is nothing like what the Haitians have dealt with for more than two centuries!

My baggage getting to Haiti is severely limited. I get two suitcases that will be checked, and two carry-ons. But my suitcases aren’t “mine” – they will contain much-needed medical supplies that can only get into the country through bribery and bargaining. Everything that I need – clothes, toiletries, toilet paper, supplies, etc. – have to fit into the carry-ons. And that was not easy to do! I had to let go of a lot of “essentials” in order to take the really essential with me.

When I think about the difference between that family trip for Christmas and my trip to Haiti, I am humbled by what God has done in my life. I now know how little I really need on my own, and how much I rely on God to take care of the rest. I don’t have room for fear, distrust, resentment, and anger on this trip. But I have plenty of room for peace, patience, kindness, goodness, selflessness, and generosity. How about you? What is in your baggage?

Was God in the Election Results?

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, November 7, 2008


I promise that this will be my last column on the subject of presidential election politics. At least for a while. I am greatly fatigued by this presidential election season – and I feel like it’s gone on for next to forever. But I also feel strongly that there are a few more things to think about before we move on to the next election season.

Last week, I wrote that this nation will persevere and move on – no matter which candidate was elected on Tuesday. Now we will see if I’m right. Listening to some of the analysis and commentary on the election, however, there seem to be many who disagree with me. I’ve heard Obama supporters say that his victory over McCain signals dramatic change in this nation – change that will lead us from the brink of disaster to which Bush led us over the last eight years, and that would have become certain under McCain. So they thanked God that Obama won and brought new hope for America.

I also heard some reports on McCain backers who said that the Obama victory WAS the disaster – and there is no room for hope now that the “liberals are in control.” Even before the election, there were many who considered McCain-Palin to be “God’s Ticket,” and prayed ferverently for an outcome different that what actually happened on Tuesday.

So where was God in this election? Did God create an Obama victory? Or did the forces of evil prevail by defeating McCain? Can we even determine God was (or was not) intimately involved in the election outcome?

When the Apostle Paul talked about government to the Christian church in Rome, he told them this: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Rom 12:21-13:2)

I find it interesting that Paul talks about the government starting with an instruction: “do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” There are many who believe that government is evil – a necessary one, perhaps – but still evil. Yet, Paul says that we Christians should overcome evil with good. So even if government IS evil, we can’t run away from it or ignore it; rather, we must be God’s agents of transforming evil into good. And so Paul says to submit to the governing authorities, for they are in authority because God established it.

A lot of people are challenged by that statement. “How could God establish the authority for someone as clearly evil as Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany?” some might say. “If God is willing to establish that kind of authority – to put that kind of man in charge of a nation – then that’s not a God I want to follow.”

On the other hand, Abraham Lincoln is seen as either the greatest President of the United States of all time, or a close second right behind the Father of the Nation George Washington. Both of those presidents are often described as men God ordained to lead this nation in its crucial moments of birth and attempted division. “God brings great leaders to lead great nations. As long as we stay on God’s side, then we will always have a great leader.”

The problem with both of these perspectives is that they are based on our perceptions – and not on what God was actually saying through Paul. God does NOT establish the authority of specific leaders, or even specific governments. Instead, God established the concept of authority itself. “The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Paul says. He does not say, “Caesar’s authority has been established by God,” even though Nero Caesar was the absolute ruler in that time period. So God created the IDEA of government, but not how the government is organized, nor by whom it is led.

As much as I would love to claim that United States democracy is God’s specially approved and blessed form of government, I cannot. God himself is not revealed to us as a president, governor, senator – or even community organizer. God is revealed as Creator, Lord and King! We don’t get to vote God into office, nor can we vote God out. Rather, we can submit to God’s authority or rebel against it. And rebelling brings judgment against the rebeller.

So to answer the question that headlines this column, God was present in the election results – but only as far as we remember how Paul started his own discussion of politics: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. I have no doubts that Barak Obama has the capability to do good – he, too, was made in God’s image. I also have no doubts that Barak Obama has the capability to do evil – he, too, is a sinner who falls short of God’s glory. So no matter whom you voted for, please join me in praying for President-elect Obama, that he would more closely follow God’s authority as he lives into his own authority as president during the next four years.