A Testimony About Down Syndrome

"God is great.  God is good.  Let us thank Him."  This was the theme that the University President had set for what was going to be my freshman year of college.  Growing up in a Christian home, going to a Christian school, and now on to a Christian college, this was something I knew.  Something that I probably even took for granted.

But did I really believe it?  Am I really putting it into practice?  And it was not until December, 2010, that I had to find out if this was more than just a trite Christian mantra.  As December, 2010, approached, we were anxiously awaiting a new arrival to our family.  After 3 boys, we were finally having a girl.  Needless to say, I was quite nervous.  I grew up with 2 brothers.  I had 3 sons.  I didn't know what I was going to do with a little girl in the house.  And Pam was looking forward to no longer being the only female in the house (or as she referred to it, "a locker room, with a refrigerator").

Then, in the early, early morning hours of December 1, the days were accomplished that Pam should be delivered, and Hannah was born.  As we was in the hospital that morning, admiring this beautiful girl that God had entrusted to us, a doctor and nurse entered our room.  They were rather blunt.  Bedside manner was not necessarily their strong point.  They told us, that due to some of the physical characteristics that they saw in our daughter, they believed that she Down Syndrome.

Needless to say, this news hit like a ton of bricks.  Here we are, with a newborn daughter that was not even 6 hours old, being told that she has an incurable genetic abnormality.  While this should have been a time of rejoicing, it became a time of fear and uncertainty.  I asked myself "Why us?"  What did we do to deserve this?  This is something that only happens to other people.  It can't really be happening to us, can it?

They drew some blood to send it out for testing.  We waited for what seemed like months to get the results.  Eventually, after a week, the test results came back and confirmed what the doctor had expected - Hannah did have Down Syndrome.

We struggled to accept this news.  It was difficult.  We did not know what we were in for.  We hadn't prepared for this.  How is this going to affect our lives?  What are we going to do?

After a few weeks, we finally let people know the news.  The reception that we received after this announcement was overwhelming.  We met people in the church who we had never spoken to before, who wanted to let us know that they had relatives with special needs, or that they worked with children with special needs, and that they would be more than willing to give advice, encouragement, and other kinds of help because of their experiences.  We received encouragement in the form of cards and e-mails.  Many let us know that they were praying for us.

I can't begin to tell you how much that meant to us.  It was encouraging.  It was a blessing.  It meant more than any of you could ever know.  Over the years, we have continued to see your kindness towards us, and towards Hannah, and I can't tell you how appreciative we are of that.

I want to thank those of you who have been Hannah's teachers.  I want to thank those of you who have given us advice.  I want to thank those of you who have given us encouragement.  And I want to thank those of you who greet Hannah personally and make her feel welcome.

Because of these circumstances, Pam has a job that she most likely would not have had if it weren't for Hannah.  She is able to help others who have children with special needs.  We both belong to several Down Syndrome  support groups, where we have a chance to offer advice, get advice, and encourage others who are in the same situation.  And without Hannah, I would not know what it is like to jump into 35 degree water on a 20 degree day in the middle of January to help raise money for Special Olympics.

I would also like to thank God.  We serve a God who wants us to have a relationship with Him, even though we fall short of His glory on a daily basis.  I'm thankful for a God who forgives us when we ask for it.  In America, when a Down Syndrome diagnosis is made while a child is still in the womb, the abortion rate is 80-90% (depending on the study you are looking at).  In Iceland, the abortion rate under these circumstances is effectively 100%.  Why?  Because the child does not live up to someone's expectations.

I'm so thankful that I serve a God that does not do the same thing to us when we fall short of His expectations for us.  As we have seen from our Pastor's messages from the book of Judges, even though we fall short, God will forgive us when we ask for it.

On December 1, Hannah will be 7 years old.  The time has flown by.  We couldn't be more proud of the person that she has already become.  We can't wait to see how she continues to grow and develop.  We look forward to what her future will be.

After these past several years, with all of the ups and downs that we have gone through, I can come before you and honestly say that "God is great.  God is good.  Let us thank Him."

What I've Learned From a Down Syndrome Diagnosis....

Yes, this is an odd title for a blog post.  Selfishly, it was meant to get your attention.  With that being said, I do not mean for it be a negative thing.  I want to express how things have changed for me, for the better, since we first received that diagnosis almost 4 years ago.  I want to let people know that it is not just the parents who teach the children; we, as parents, can learn lessons from our children, too.

This blog post is intended to express those things that I have learned from my daughter.  It is meant to convey the lessons that I have learned and the truths that I have learned.  I want to express those things that I already knew in the back of my head, but then were made real to me since she came into my life.  It is meant to be an encouragement to others who feel that their world has been turned upside-down due to a similar diagnosis.

It is so very hard to express the roller coaster of emotions over the first few days, weeks, and months of finding out that our daughter had Down Syndrome.  It's not something that you ever dream would happen to you.  You question why it happened to you.  You contemplate what the next years of your life are going to be like, now that you have a child that requires special attention.  You wonder how difficult your life is going to be.  You wonder how much this is going to cost you, physically, mentally, and monetarily.  You don't know where to turn to for help. You don't know who to turn to for help.   How are her brothers going to react knowing that she will be different?  How do you tell other people that she has Down Syndrome?  What will they think about it?  It really was difficult for several months.

But what we found was the loving support, first and foremost, from our families.  Just because she had Down Syndrome did not mean that she would be loved any less than any other member of the family.  Her brothers are more than understanding, and they give her special attention and are sure to include her in many things that they do.  We experienced the love from our church family: their many kind words, their thoughts and prayers, and the special attention that they showed to Hannah (and still do to this day).  [Granted, there are continuing issues that we are working on with Sunday School classes and the like, but the teachers have been great.]  

And then there were the Social Services that my wife worked with to help understand and aide in Hannah's development.  They were very instrumental in helping Pam know how to work with Hannah to help her in her development (I say they helped Pam because she was the person at home with her through all of the therapy sessions.  I was occasionally able to be there, but all of the thanks goes to Pam on this.).  Pam then got Hannah involved with CATRA (Capitol Area Therapeutic Riding Association).  It was there that Hannah learned to ride horses, which helped build muscle tone and helped with posture.  There were so many services available to us to help us, when we had no idea how to move forward.

And I cannot forget to mention the benefits of social media in all of this.  Yes, you can read books, which contain a more academic look at Down Syndrome and development.  But the wealth of first-hand testimonials on social media have been a tremendous blessing.  It's great to be able to read stories from others about how their child is developing.  It's great to be able to share stories about Hannah with them.  It's just a very good resource for information sharing.  And it is helps us to understand that we are not the only ones who are facing this situation.

So, what have I learned through all of this, you may ask?  The answers are many, and I can probably not name them all, or this would go on and on and on.  But I can tell you that I have not stopped learning.  I continue to learn new lessons, new truths, and new things about myself through all of this.

1.  Hannah is a gift from God.  Yes, I knew that anyway.  But the issue is that I need to continue to remember that.  We may not understand why God chose us as parents for Hannah, but she is God's gift to us.  Psalm 139:14a says "I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:"  Yes, even though, at times, we may focus on the imperfections, Hannah is fearfully and wonderfully made, too.

2.  All life is precious.  Again, I knew this.  But I was alarmed to see the statistics on the abortion rate for unborn children who were diagnosed with Down Syndrome.  Depending on the survey that you read, somewhere between 75-90% of all children diagnosed with Down Syndrome before their birth are aborted.  That is sad.  Life is precious.  And people choose to play god with these unborn children because they do not fit into what they think is "normal."  Shouldn't we, as Christians, be glad that God does not do away with us because we do not conform to what He wants us to be?  A few months ago, a man by the name of Richard Dawkins said that it would be immoral NOT TO abort a child with Down Syndrome.  How can a person possibly be so depraved to even let a thought like this go through his head, much less actually say it out loud?  Life is precious.  Just because someone does not fit into our idea of normal does not make that life any less precious.

3.  Down Syndrome is not a death sentence.  Many years ago, the outlook for people with Down Syndrome was not good.  They were basically written off as members of society.  They were not viewed as people who could contribute to society.  They were viewed as a drain on society.  They had a rather short life span, because they did not receive the necessary care.  But over time, that viewpoint has changed.  The average life span for a person with Down Syndrome has nearly doubled.  We've learned that people with Down Syndrome can learn and can be productive.  Tremendous advances have been made, and continue to be made.  Last week, I read an article about a woman that wishes she would have had an abortion 47 years ago, had she known her son was going to have Down Syndrome.  I wonder if she knows that people with Down Syndrome do have the ability to understand.  I wonder if she ever told her son (who she says she loves) that she wishes he had never been born.  You know, nothing says "I Love You" more than wishing death on that person.

4.  People with Down Syndrome have the ability to learn.  This was one of those things that I might have known, but didn't know that I actually knew it.  There are so many stereotypes out there for people with Down Syndrome, many of which are just not true.  Yes, they learn more slowly than others of their own age, but they definitely have the ability to learn.  One only needs to see Hannah with our iPad or with my smartphone to realize that she can outdo many adults on one of those devices.  She has learned sign language, which she uses as a means of communication.  She knows more sign language than me, that's for sure.  You can find many stories on the internet about people with Down Syndrome who have found success in life, whether it is as a business owner, a teacher, or even an MMA fighter.  We cannot simply write-off people with Down Syndrome.  They have a tremendous capacity to learn and grow.  We just need to give them a chance to do so.

5.  The love of a child is incredible.  First, let me say that this does not mean that the boys do not love us.  But love is expressed in different ways.  Hannah will give me a hug before I leave for work.  When I get home, she will greet me with a hug.  When I pick her up as school or after Junior Church, she'll run to me and give me a hug.  That's an incredible feeling that I just do not even know how to explain.  When she does something that she's not supposed to and gets punished in some way for it, sure she's sad for a little bit.  But in a few minutes, she'll come right back and give you a hug, forgetting that it ever happened.  Wouldn't it be great if adults had that same sort of short-term memory?

6. There are people who are ready, willing, and able to help us when we need it the most.  Again, something I probably knew, but just did not care about.  As I said earlier, the family members, our friends and neighbors, people from church - they were incredible in helping us deal with the initial shock.  We found out that several in our church had worked in environments with people with special needs.  They were able to give us good information and advice.  Our Pastor's wife read many books about Down Syndrome and gave us some much needed advice and encouragement in those early months.  We were truly blessed to have a network of people who were there for us, to pray for us, to encourage us, to simply be there to talk to when we needed it most.

7. We are blessed.  Hannah has not had many of the physical problems that other kids with Down Syndrome have.  She wears glasses, she has tubes in her ears, and she had to have her tonsils removed.  But these are things that many parents of children who do not have Down Syndrome have to go through, too.  We constantly hear stories of children, whether with Down Syndrome or not, who are stricken with life-threatening diseases and injuries.  We have not had to face anything like that, and for that, we are truly blessed.

I could probably go on and on.  But you get the idea.  We are blessed to have a child that we love, and who loves us back, unconditionally.  The diagnosis of Down Syndrome did not bring the world, as we knew it, to an end.  Instead, it opened up our world to opportunities that we never even knew existed.

Today's Establishment GOP - The "New Coke" of Politics

Let's go back to 1985.  Coca-Cola was losing some market share to Pepsi.  Coca-Cola, in order to try to regain market share, came up with what is considered to be one of the biggest marketing mistakes in the history of marketing - they re-formulated the ingredients in Coca-Cola to try to make it taste more like Pepsi.  Needless to say, it failed miserably.  The people at Coca-Cola thought that since Pepsi had gained some market share, the best way to get it back would be to change your drink to have it taste more like the competition.  Well, the Pepsi drinkers were not going to change their drink of choice.  Why should they?  If they liked Pepsi, why would you change over to a soda that was trying to imitate what you already liked?  Coca-Cola drinkers were mad, and would not purchase the new product because they liked the old formulation.  If they would want to drink Pepsi, they would buy Pepsi.  The last thing that they wanted was for their favorite drink to taste like the competition.

This marketing failure of almost 30 years ago is now being repeated by the Republican party.  Over the past several years, Republicans have viewed it in their best interest to think like and act like Democrats.  Instead of standing on the principles and the beliefs that got them into power, they have sought to compromise those principles in order to gain "market share" in the political world.

Amazingly, Republicans used to win elections based on their principles (just go back to Reagan, as well as the Contract With America).  But somewhere along the way, Republicans saw Democrats gaining ground, and thought that they needed to become more like them in order to win elections.

Here is the problem that the Republicans now have.  They are trying to become more like the Democrats in order to try to curry favor with the Democrat base.  But those Democrats are not going to vote for Republicans.  For one thing, they probably don't trust the Republicans.   But why would they vote for someone who is trying to be like them?  They will just vote for the real thing.  In this example, the Democrat Party is like the Pepsi fans.

The other problem is that the conservative, Republican base will not vote for them.  They do not like the fact that these officials are so willing to give up their principles in order to be like the competition.  They do not like that these officials are willing to sell them out in order to try to gain a few more votes.  The Republican base are the Coca-Cola diehards.

So, when will the Republican establishment leaders learn from this terrible miscalculation?  The problem is that they are deaf to the complaints coming from their own party.  They listen to the media and the Democrat Party when trying to "fix" the GOP's problems.  They continue to push deficits and spending and amnesty and other liberal issues, even while their constituents are loudly protesting these actions.  At least the Coca-Cola management relented, and went back to the original drink formulation, because they started to lose even more ground to Pepsi.  I am not sure that the GOP establishment leaders are smart enough to do the same thing.

Just ask John McCain how well this strategy works.  When he ran against George W. Bush in 2000, he was the media darling on the Republican side.  He catered to them and moderated his views, and the media wanted him to be the Republican candidate.  They couldn't get enough of him (even thought the rest of us has more than enough of him).  Fast forward to 2008 when McCain ran against Barack Obama.  He was not the media favorite any more.  In fact, they did whatever they could to sink him.  So much for being a fan favorite.

This is just one of the reasons that Republicans need to stop trying to be like the Democrats.  People that you think are on your side really are not - they'll stab you in the back at a moment's notice.  Also, there were many, many Republicans who did not vote in the 2008 election (even though I believe McCain might have been a slightly better President than Obama) because they felt that they were sold out.

Now, the Republican Party continues to push amnesty.  Some may be doing it out of the pretense that it is the right thing to do, regardless of politics.  But the overwhelming majority of them are doing it because they see millions of potential Republican voters becoming citizens.  This idea is foolish, because that is one thing that is not going to happen.

The Tea Party was established several years ago as a grass roots movement to protest the way that the government was headed and to show that there are indeed a lot of conservatives in this country.  It was also to protest the Republican Party, which was leaving their base behind in order to try to be more progressive.  Apparently, the leadership of the GOP has yet to understand this, as they continue to brush aside the Tea Party.  Why would they brush aside those same people that helped them get into office in the first place?

The answer to the GOP's problem is that they need to do what the Coca-Cola management did after they made their near-fatal mistake - get back to the original formula that made you the leader you were in the first place.  Otherwise, they will continue down a path to eventual destruction.

Let the Blog Continue.....

I have not posted much to my blog over the last year.  I can't exactly pinpoint any particular reason for it.  Some of it is due to laziness on my part - I just didn't feel like taking the time to do it.  Some of it could be the fact that I was annoyed with our nation's leaders that I didn't know what to post and what to leave alone (after all, there was so much to comment about).  Some of it is due to the fact that my posts do not automatically post to Facebook, and I did not want to take the time to write a blog post and then link it to Facebook (it seems so self-centered, I know). Some of it is due to just being able to post a link to a news story on Facebook and then making a couple of snide comments about the article.  The truth is that there were just a variety of reasons that I could give for not posting anything.

But I would like to get back to posting more about what is going on today, whether it is just local news, politics, sports, celebrity news, or just anything that garners my interest.  So often, we complain that out voices are not being heard.  Well, this is a chance for my voice to be heard, even if only by a small audience.  Maybe, the right person will see my blog someday and that will vault me into some sort of popularity.  Who knows.  In the meantime, enjoy my thoughts and opinions on what is going on the world around us.  And feel free to comment if you see fit to do so.

Remembering Tim Coomer

Last Sunday, December 1, I lost a good friend - Tim Coomer.  I must admit, I was stunned when I received the news.  Tim was a good Christian man, a teacher, a husband and father, and a friend to many.  It was hard to fathom that he was no longer with us.

I first became friends with Tim several years ago when I was asked to join a fantasy football league with several other men from our church.  I didn't really know Tim before that.  At first, the trash talk bothered me, and to be quite honest, he annoyed me.  But as the weeks went on, I started to realize that Tim was just having fun.  He was enjoying the league, and he wanted us to enjoy it, too.  And while the league was all about fun and camaraderie, he was still very competitive.  He won the championship that year, and the next year.  He then won it again a few years later.  He never passed up an opportunity to let anyone know that he won the league championship 3 times.

Along with the fantasy football and the trash talking, there was the friendship and fellowship that he enjoyed.  He would hold a fantasy football draft party at his home.  He would hold an end-of-the-year party at his house.  My family and I would be able to join in these fellowships on several occasions.  He enjoyed being with people.  And we, in turn, enjoyed being with him, and his family.

Outside of the fun and frivolity of fantasy football, Tim and I had the opportunity to serve together on the Deacon Board for one year.  This was a job that both of us took seriously.  Tim was very sincere as a deacon.  He was deliberate in the decisions that needed to be made.

Tim and I enjoyed going back and forth on Facebook.  I am sure that there were some innocent bystanders scratching their heads and wondering how the two of us could even be friends, given some of our Facebook conversations.  I enjoyed "checking in" at various places, just so I could get a some kind of response from Tim.  He would generally reply back with a comment like "thanks" or "I'm glad I know what you are doing.  I was getting worried."  If I we were eating out, I liked to take a picture of my meal and post it on Facebook, knowing that this annoyed him.  I liked to find news articles about the failure of the public education system, knowing that he would have a reply indicating he disagreed with me.  Yes, we had a unique friendship.

Tim was a teacher, by trade.  He enjoyed teaching.  He had a passion for teaching.  While I did not share his appreciation for the public education system in this country, I could tell from talking to him that he was passionate about his job.  He wanted to help young people succeed.  He wanted to help young people learn.  He wanted to be a mentor and role model to these young people.  He also enjoyed being a Sunday School teacher, for all of the same reasons mentioned above.

But it was not until about 3 years ago that Tim and I forged a closer friendship.  When my wife and I asked the church to make an announcement that our daughter had Down Syndrome, Tim was the first person that sent me a message.  In what seemed like only minutes after this request went out via e-mail, Tim sent me a text letting me know that they were praying for us.  He let me know that he was there if I ever needed to talk to anyone.  He tried to encourage me that even though it seemed daunting at the time, we would be able to get through it.  And over the course of the next 3 years, we spoke several times about this.  He like to check up on Hannah to see how she was doing and advancing.  He always had words of wisdom and encouragement.

For the last few months of his life, Tim had some health problems.  He was frustrated that they could not find the source of his health issues.  He was frustrated that these problems were keeping him from church.  He was frustrated that these problems were keeping him out of his classroom.  I could see at this time that he really did have a passion for teaching.  He had a desire to be back in the classroom with his students.

It's been difficult to deal with the loss of a good friend.  I would be lying if I said I did not miss him.  I would be lying if I said that I have not shed some tears about this loss (and I do not think that this is a bad thing).

But I do not need to dwell negatively on this.  I can find encouragement in the fact that Tim was a born-again Christian.  Because Tim knew Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, I will be able to see him again in heaven.

I can find encouragement in the fact that Tim is no longer suffering from any physical problems.  While his last few months on earth were spent in some serious pain, he is now in the presence of the Great Physician, who is watching over him and caring for him.

I can find encouragement in the fact that even though his death was sudden, his life had a lasting impact on those around him.  Because of his faith and testimony, at least 20 people accepted Christ as their personal Savior at his memorial service.

I am encouraged to know that, even in times of grief and mourning, Jesus cares about us.  This is captured in the words of a song, written by Frank Graeff.

Does Jesus care when my heart is pained
Too deeply for mirth or song,
As the burdens press, and the cares distress,
And the way grows weary and long?

Does Jesus care when I’ve said “goodbye”
To the dearest on earth to me,
And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks—
Is it aught to Him? Does He see?

Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares,
His heart is touched with my grief;
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary,
I know my Savior cares.

Tim is going to be missed.  I will miss zeal for life.  I will miss his humor.  I will miss his friendship.  But the separation will only be temporary, because we will be able to see him once again when we get to heaven.,

Book Review: The Fourth Apple Tree by Joseph Scotto

I recently finished the book The Fourth Apple Tree by Joseph Scotto.  It is a very interesting book about a boy's summertime adventures with his friends.  It also tells of the boy's search for truth.  What is very interesting is that you see a kid that just finished 6th grade, searching for truth.  It's rather amazing, considering many adults search for truth and don't seem to find it.

The author, Joseph Scotto, is a former teacher of mine.  He was my teacher for Biology, Advanced Biology, Chemistry, Physics, German II, and he filled in for a while as my Geometry teacher.  He is a Christian man, and his lifestyle reveals that.  He wrote this book as a novel, as fiction (which is somewhat odd, considering that this book is about the search for truth).  Yet he admittedly uses many actual circumstances in his own life to tell this story.  Let's just call it autobiographical fiction.

I cannot help but think (because I really do not know) that the search for truth is the actual story of how he found Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.  The storyline surrounding this truth is filled in with intimate details of the games they played, the emotions that they experienced, the exploits they pursued, and the "enemies" they made that particular summer of 1968, which were probably made up to some degree to fill in the details.

The book starts out as school lets out in late spring of 1968.  Joe and his friends are playing "The Game," an amped-up game of tag.  They play this game this throughout their neighborhood.  Sometimes, the storyline gets tediously detailed in its description of "The Game," but you get a sense of the personalities and character of Joe and his friends.  Throughout the book, Joe and his friends play this game often.

They also play little league baseball.  The group of friends play on different teams, but they all come out to support each other.  The author also uses baseball to help to reveal the character of Joe and his friends.  The author also shows how the proverbial bench-warmer, Joe, uses his time in the dugout, as well as 1st or 3rd base coach, to think about his search for the truth and to ponder the events going on around him.

While at a baseball game, Joe's brother, Phil, has his bike stolen.  Joe, along with Steve, and the rest of the group, try to find who stole Phil's bike and what they did with it.  Along the way, they find out that the group that stole Phil's bike has also stolen many other bikes and are moving them around the neighborhood trying to hide them from everyone, including the police.  They also discover that this group of bike thieves is dealing marijuana, which only complicates the situation.

Joe and Steve spend a lot of time trying to spy on the bike thieves to find out what they are doing with the bikes.  They want to turn these people into the police, but they need evidence of where the bikes are being kept.  While the other friends are involved, Joe and Steve do the bulk of this spying.  They are eventually caught spying by the bad guys, and are on the run from them for a good portion of the story.

While Joe spends his time scared that these bad guys are going to eventually catch him and hurt him, he finds consolation in a place you wouldn't really expect to find it - with a former hippie named Larry.  Larry was visiting a friend in Joe's neighborhood when Joe crossed Larry's path.  Larry was talking about how he lived a life of drugs, but hit rock bottom and eventually found Jesus Christ and got saved.  He is sharing his story with people in Joe's neighborhood.  While many of Joe's friends laugh at Larry, Joe listens to him.  This is what Joe wants - he wants to know the Truth.

Joe and Larry cross paths a few more times that week, and Larry continues to share the truth of Jesus Christ with Joe, and whoever else he comes in contact with.  This causes Joe to go home and start reading his Bible to find out who this Jesus is.  As Joe read his Bible and talks with Larry, he has more and more questions.  Quite remarkable, considering that this kid, who just finished 6th grade, is this involved in a search for truth when many adults don't even care about the Truth.

Anyway, it wasn't until Joe thought that the bad guys were surely going to catch him, and he is running for his life, that he stops and puts his trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior.  After this, a tremendous calm comes over him, because he knows that God will protect him.  And this changes his perspective throughout the rest of the story.

So, as the story comes to a conclusion, we find Joe and a couple of his friends in the dugout after a baseball game.  The bad guys have them cornered.  The bad guys want Joe and his friends to smoke some marijuana, and then they said they will let them go.  Joe refused, even after his best friend, Steve, did it.  Still trying to find a way to get away from these guys, Joe and his friends wait until the bad guys get distracted, and they make a run for it.  Joe then goes and hides in the woods.

This is where the 'fourth apple tree' comes into play.  Joe knows these woods very well, and he navigates his way through the woods, at night, to get away from the bad guys who are chasing him.  He finds a narrow corridor that leads him to this tree, the 4th apple tree.  The people chasing him are not able to find this corridor, but Joe knows they are very close - he can hear them.  Joe finds a place to hide at the base of this tree.  It is a place where he finds comfort and protection.  A place where he can pray to God for safety and delivery.   A place where he can wait out the bad guys and experience God's protection.

Eventually, the other friends who got away are able to contact the police, who then come and arrest the bad guys, and Joe is free to come out of hiding.  While this would be a traumatic experience for anyone, especially someone of Joe's age, Joe uses the situation to draw closer to God and rely on Him for safety and protection.

Throughout the story, we see how Joe's curiosity about the truth led him to a real search for the truth.  We see that even though Joe's friends did not take Jesus seriously, Joe still wanted to know more about him.  He avoided the negative peer pressure in order to pursue this truth that he was longing for.

We see how people can be used to further the cause of Christ.  No one would think that a hippie would be a good witness for Christ, but it was because of him that others came to know Christ.  God can use anyone.

And we can see that knowing God can give a Christian peace that only God can give, even in the face of difficulty.  While Joe's human emotions of fear want to take over at the end of the story, he prays to God and relies on him for his protection.  How much can we learn from this 12-year old kid who turns his life over to God and relies on him for protection from his enemies?  We would all do well to follow his example.

This book is long (501 pages, to be exact).  While at times it was tedious reading (in describing "The Game" or talking about nearly every pitch in a baseball game), the overall storyline will hold your attention.  As I got into the book, I wanted to continue reading it.  It did not get boring.  It held my attention, and I continually wanted to come back to find out what was going to happen next to Joe and his friends.  I congratulate Joe on his 1st novel, and look forward to a possible sequel.

Abortion - The Massacre That No One Is Talking About

As we continue to watch the events in Newtown, CT, we are saddened for the needless loss of life.  We are saddened that 26 people were killed by a man who was most likely out of touch with reality.  We are saddened that these families have to go through such agony and grief.  Instead of these families sharing the Christmas season opening gifts and spending quality family time together, they will have the unfortunate task of burying a child during a time that is supposed to be filled with joy and happiness.

As Americans, we find the slaughter of 20 innocent young children and 6 adults to be an atrocious act committed by a completely deranged person.  How could anyone do something so horrendous?  To what depths of depravity can someone reach?

As horrendous as the murders of these children are in our eyes, it pales in comparison to the greatest massacre that we face today.  And that massacre is abortion.  We should not have to see even 1 case where a child, or anyone else for that matter, is murdered in cold blood.  Yet, the unborn are aborted every day by the thousands, in cold blood, and no one bats an eye about that number.

In Newtown, there were 26 people murdered in cold blood.  Since the legalization of abortion in 1973 in the United States, there have been more than 50,000,000 innocent, unborn children murdered through the medical procedure we know as abortion.  Yet, no one is on the news today, talking about the number of children that are aborted each and every day.

For some reason, our society today does not seem to have a problem if we kill innocent children, so long as they are still in the womb.  I, for one, would love to know why a child outside of the womb is more valuable than the potential of the child that is still in the womb.  We even have the terrible procedure where a child is allowed to be partially born, then killed before it is completely out of the womb, a 'procedure' we know as partial-birth abortion.  And while there are pro-abortion people who are against this procedure, there is still considerable support from the pro-abortion movement for this kind of child-murder.

Our society has killed off the unborn at an alarming rate.  And while the numbers have slowed down a little bit over the last 10 years, we are still aborting close to 1,000,000 unborn children every year.  While the pro-abortion crowd cheers the fact that there are not as many abortions, the pro-life crowd continues to mourn that there is even 1 abortion every year, much less 1,000,000 abortions.

Abortion is an atrocity committed against the helpless, defenseless, unborn child.  While we are appalled when someone goes into a school and kills children, or someone goes into a movie theater and randomly shoots and kills people, or we hear that a dictator in some third world country kills thousands and thousands of his fellow countrymen, why are we not as equally appalled when we find out that abortion providers have legally taken the life of millions upon millions of unborn children since the legalization of abortion?

While we need to take time to stop and mourn for the loss of life in Newtown, CT, and pray for these families that are directly, and indirectly, affected by this tragedy, we also need to stop and pray that this senseless murder of the unborn comes to an end in this country.  No society should accept the loss of innocent life, even if it is legal.

Abortion stops a beating heart.  It kills a living being inside the womb.  The fact that this kind of act is legal is sad.  The fact that there are people who do everything within their power to keep abortion legal is even sadder.  The fact that we do not seem to care enough to do anything to stop it - well, that is a problem that we need to address.

We need to stop abortion.  Until then, our society, as a whole, will continue to devalue human life.  Because if we do not even protect the most innocent and helpless among us, who will?

A Time To Mourn, A Time To Weep, A Time To Pray

On Friday, December 14, an unspeakable act occurred - 20 children and 6 adults were shot to death by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.  We look at this act in utter disbelief, trying to understand why someone would do this.  To take a gun and use it to kill 20 helpless first grade children and 6 teachers who were doing what they could to protect these children.

We cannot help but mourn the tragic loss of life in Newtown.  There was absolutely no need for this.  There are 20 families grieving for the loss of their 6 and 7 year old children.  It is so hard to fathom what it must be like for these parents to have to bury their children, and it is happening only a week before Christmas.  Usually this is a time of joy and happiness.  It's a time to spend time with those closest to you.  These families will now have to lay that aside and mourn over the loss of their children.

There are 6 adults who perished in this massacre.  By all accounts, they died trying to protect the lives of the students.  They died taking heroic actions against a man intent on killing.  These people died heroes.  We read in John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  These teachers and administrators exemplified that Bible verse - they showed love to those children by trying to protect them, even to the point of giving up their own lives.  Yet, just as the children who perished, these teachers are people who have families, who have children, who have parents.  These families also mourn at the loss of their loved ones.

We cannot help but mourn for the families that lost loved ones that fateful Friday.  We cannot help but mourn for other school children, who lost their friends and siblings that day.  We mourn for the teachers who lost their co-workers.  We mourn for a community that lost 26 people to a senseless act of violence that did not have to happen.

And because we mourn for these affected by this tragedy, we should not be ashamed to weep with compassion for them.  Though maybe not considered to be a manly response, it is very understandable to want to cry for these families.  After all, Jesus Christ wept when his friend, Lazarus, died.  He wept, not only for Lazarus, but for His people and Jerusalem.  If it is OK for Jesus to weep, then I have no problem being able to weep in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

The people in Newtown, CT are experiencing unspeakable tragedy.  We weep with them because we see the tragedy that others must now face.  We weep because we see what unbridled evil is able to do in the heart of someone who allows it to be there.  We weep for the senseless loss of life.  We weep because there are those who do not necessarily mourn over the loss of life, but how they might be able to use this event to further their own selfish, political ambitions.

But as we mourn, and as we weep, we must also pray.  We must pray that those who are so closely affected by this tragedy are able to mourn.  We must pray that these people are able to heal.  We must pray for our schools, that they will be able to keep our children safe.  We must pray for our nation, that we do not lose sight of the fact that we need God's guidance and protection, not just in our schools, but in our communities and in our homes.

It's hard to understand why these things happen.  Why did God allow it to happen?  How could He let this happen to children?  How could someone be this evil?  What drove him to do it?  We may never find out the answers to these questions.  We can look up Bible verses all day long.  We can ask the most learned among us.  And we may never know the answers.

But I think we can take solace in the fact, that even though horrendous events like this happen, God still loves us.  He loved us enough to send His Son to die for us.  I think we would be wise to look at the words of a song written by Marsha Stevens, and heed them.

You said you'd come and share all my sorrows
You said you'd be there for all my tomorrows
I came so close to sending you away
And just like you promised, you came there to stay
I just had to pray.

And Jesus said, Come to the water, stand by my side,
I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied.
I felt every teardrop when in darkness you cried,
And I strove to remind you that for those tears I died.

I also think that we should not be afraid to talk to our kids about this kind of tragedy.  While most "experts" believe that you should not do this, it is important for our children to know that evil exists.  It's also important for them to know what it is like to mourn for others, to have compassion for others, to pray for others.

We also need to show love to our children.  We need to love them, hug them, cherish them.  We just don't know how much longer we have with them.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Hannah!

It seems so hard to believe that Saturday, December 1, will mark Hannah's 2nd birthday.  Where did that time go?  It seems like only yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital.

Of course, at that time, we had no idea what our lives would be like.  The preliminary diagnosis at that time was that she had Down Syndrome.  Further test results that we received a couple of weeks later confirmed the initial diagnosis.  Our lives were overflowing with fear and trepidation.  We did not know what to expect.

Needless to say, we went through a myriad of emotions.  The first couple of months were overwhelming.  We had so much to learn.  We had so many specialists that we needed to see.

It seemed so surreal.  It seemed as though we were living in some king of dream world.  Our reality had been turned completely upside-down.  We knew our lives were going to change by finally having a little girl in the house.  We just had no idea that our lives would change this much.

As time went on, we didn't need to see as many specialists.  We had more knowledge of Down Syndrome.  We had developed a network of people who either had people with Down Syndrome in their family or had worked with people with special needs.  I'm thankful for our Pastor's wife who went out and purchased books about Down Syndrome, and read them, and encouraged us with what she was learning.  What a blessing it was for these people who had offered us advice and words of encouragement.

Looking back, we have been blessed.  Hannah has not had any serious health problems.  Yes, she wears glasses, and for the most part, she does leave the glasses on her face.  She had to have tubes put in her ears, which definitely made a difference in her hearing, as well as her overall balance.  And she has braces that she wears to help strengthen her ankles.  Other than this, she has had no other health problems.  It definitely could have been much worse, and we are truly thankful that her health has been good.

While her development has been slower because of Down Syndrome, we could not be happier with the progress she has made this far.  She is finally starting to let go of the furniture and starting to walk.  While she does not make it across the room, she is getting better and going farther day by day.  And hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, she'll be walking all over the house.  Just think of how much fun she'll have tearing the decorations off of the Christmas tree.

Pam has been teaching her sign language.  We have a couple of sign language videos for kids that she watches, and Pam reinforces those signs with her.  Hannah has even been able to teach me a couple of signs.  I now know how to say "please" and "thank you" in sign language.  Granted. that's not very much, but it's a start.

She continues to see a couple of developmental therapists, and when the new year rolls around, she will be seeing a speech therapist.  I am not able to be involved in this part of her life, as these therapy sessions usually happen in the morning while I am at work.  But I do read the therapist's reports, and from what I can tell, they are pleased with her development so far.  Of course, they continue to push Hannah to do more, so that she can continue to develop.

Needless to say, I am so very proud of Hannah and the progress that she has made so far in her short-lived life.  Just because she has Down Syndrome does not mean that we have to sit back and resign ourselves to a hopeless future.  I have every intention of helping Hannah reach her full potential as she continues to grow and mature.

She has been such a blessing to us.  She is such a happy child (most of the time, except for when she is tired).  At times, she is about the only one that is happy to see me come home from work.  She is very playful, and she likes to play with all of her brothers.  And they like to play with her.  It's been a tremendous blessing to see how the boys get along with her.

Words can't truly express how proud I am of her and how much I love her.  I find it so refreshing just to be able to pick her up and give her a hug.  She is the only one of my kids that will allow me to do that any more (and yes, I still can pick up and hug all of my kids, should I choose to do so).  I love to see her laugh.  I love to see her try so hard to do new things.  I love to see her show love to her brothers and to her mother.  I love her to death.

So, Happy Birthday, Hannah!  We love you so much!!!!!

Where's The Outrage?

The last blog post that I made was back in September, days after a bad call determined the outcome of a football game.  In that post, I asked why there was such outrage about this bad call, considering that it only affected the outcome of a GAME.  Yes, only a game.  It had no bearing on the life of anyone outside of the 2 sports organizations playing in that game (unless people were wagering money, then it had an effect, depending on how they wagered).

Anyway, the press went berserk about this bad call.  They wanted the regular refs back and wanted the league to give them anything that they asked for.  This was all that the press (both sports press and regular news press) seemed to talk about for days.  Everyone was a critic about the NFL commisioner, and how he mismanaged this whole referee situation.  He was incompetent.  He needed to step down.  He was ruining football as we know it.

Yet, not even 2 weeks prior to that bad call, something much more important happened on the world stage that could have a much larger effect on this country.  That was the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  In that attack, several were killed, included our Ambassador to Libya.  We were attacked on the 11th anniversary of 9/11.

For many days, we were told that this attack happened because of some obscure video on the internet that insulted Mohammed.  We were told that those who attacked our consulate were not terrorists.  We were told that this was not an organized protest.  We were told that we need to be more tolerant and not insult the prophet of Islam.  We were told how it was the intelligence community's fault.  We were told how it was the State Department's fault.  Some even seemed to indicate that somehow it was Romney's fault.  I am sure the President was even trying to figure out how they could blame President Bush for what happened.

And now, what we find out today, is that the administration knew what had happened, mere hours after the events of that fateful 9/11 afternoon and evening in Libya.  They had intelligence that there was trouble in Libya.  We now have e-mail evidence that the administration knew what was going on, almost as it happened.  They have e-mail evidence of the group who took credit for the attack on our consulate.  And yet they have lied to this country for the last 42 days about the events of that day, and they continue to lie to us.  This is something worthy of our outrage.  Yet, the media chose to be outraged at Gov. Romney for correctly calling this an act of terrorism.

• Where was the outrage from the media when our consulate was attacked and US citizens were killed?
• Where was the outrage when the President and his people tried to blame this whole incident on an unknown video about Islam?
• Where was the outrage when the President blamed this on everyone but did not take any responsibility?
• Where is the outrage that the President went out of town on a fundraiser, mere hours after these events, knowing what had happened?
• Where was the outrage when Hillary Clinton fell on the proverbial sword for this administration and the President let her do it, knowing that it should have been him?
• Where is the outrage that the President still has not come clean on this?
• Where is the outrage at a President who cannot, and will not, tell the truth to the American people about what happened on that day?
• Where is the outrage at the now-public e-mails, that indicated the administration knew what was going on, yet decided to tell the American people a false narrative of the events of that day?

Isn't this just a little more important than the outcome of a football game?  Isn't this more important than what the Kardashian family is up to?  Isn't this more important than who various Hollywood celebrities are going to vote for?  In other words, why does the media choose to cover all of these secondary news stories, instead of covering a story that involves the security of our nation?

Simply put, they are covering for the President.  They want him to be re-elected, and they will do anything that they can to stifle news that does not put a positive light on the President.  Unfortunately, some still fall for the media narrative.  Thankfully, more and more people have figured out the media agenda, and they are choosing to ignore it.

John C. Maxwell has said that leadership is taking more than your fair share of the blame and less than your fair share of the credit.  This is something that our President has yet to learn.  He continues to blame his predecessor for anything that goes wrong, but he is more than happy to take credit for other people's work.

That is not what this country needs in a leader.  We need a leader who we can be proud to follow, not a leader who tells us that we need to be proud to follow him.  President Harry Truman once said that "The buck stops here."  Maybe that is a lesson that our President needs to learn.

It's Just A Game - It's Not Life

I’m having trouble understanding some of the outrage concerning the end of the Packers-Seahawks game on Monday night. I know that this opening statement probably creates controversy, and leaves many people scratching their heads and thinking to themselves, “Where is this idiot coming from?”

Let me explain myself. When I’m done, you may still think that I am an idiot (and you would not be alone in thinking that). Fewer may think that I am brilliant. Others may cast me off as a right-wing nut. And there are probably a few out there who will just not get what I am trying to say.

At the end of the game, while it looked like the Packers intercepted that last pass, the officials decided (after some discussion) to call a touchdown for the Seahawks. And now, for the last 2 days, no matter what you watch, they are talking about this last play and how that it is unacceptable that this could have happened.

After giving it some thought, I think that this game, in some respects, actually mirrors where we stand as a country today. Let’s pretend that the Packers are the “rich”, the achievers in society, those who have been successful. And let’s say that the Seahawks are the “poor”, the downtrodden, the suppressed. The officials are the government. And the game of football is analogous to life itself. Now, you are probably saying, “What does this game have to do with the rich, the poor, and the government?”

I see the Packers being analogous to the rich, in that they have been to 5 Super Bowls (and won 4 of them), they have been a consistently successful franchise, and they have a huge national following and excellent brand merchandising. I see the Seahawks being analogous to the poor, maybe like the Occupy protesters. They view themselves as the people being stepped on in order for the rich to get richer. The Seahawks have only been to 1 Super Bowl, which they lost, and they still complain about some of the calls made in that game to this day (which, by the way, was reffed by the regular NFL referees).

You see, the government often acts just like these game officials did. In order to be fair, they want to take from the rich (via taxes) in order to give to the poor, who they say deserve better but are just not able to achieve greater riches and success. No matter how much protesting the rich do, the government does not care. It’s all about fairness, not based on how hard you worked to become successful.

Isn’t that what the refs in this game did? They took from the more successful and popular franchise in order to help make the less popular, less successful franchise better. It doesn’t matter how much complaining that the more successful team does. The referees and the league have said that the play stands and the more successful team loses.

So why are people so upset? The Packers-Seahawks game was just that – a game. Nothing more. Nothing less. It has no bearing on how we live our lives day in and day out. Yet, the government wants to redistribute wealth and control our lives, and they want to do it whenever they get the chance. But people don’t seem to be as incensed about that, even though redistribution has a direct effect on their lives. Maybe it’s because redistribution benefits them and doesn’t hurt them. Maybe it’s because they just don’t care. Maybe they view sports as being more important than keeping our politicians responsible for their decisions.

Maybe it would be good for all of us to get upset at the intrusion of the government into our daily lives, trying to make decisions of what is best for us, instead of allowing us to play by the rules and letting the results work themselves out. No, the government wants to get involved in and have a hand in the outcome.

Maybe sports is a microcosm of life after all.

Searching for a leader with character

Character is a quality that is mandatory in a leader.  Without character, the leader will not be effective.  He will not be able to lead.  How can you follow someone who is lacking in character?  How can we follow after so-called leaders who say one thing, yet do something completely different?  How can we follow leaders who tell us that we need to act a certain way, yet they have no intention of acting in that same way?

Some have said that character is who you are when you think that no one is watching.  In other words, character is who you are, not in public and in front of others, but in the privacy of your home, when no one is around to watch you.  Anyone can put on a good show in public.  But is that who you really are when the people go away and you are no longer on the forefront?

Many years ago, in my freshman speech class in college, we learned the rules of the effective speaker.  The first rule is "The effective speaker is a person whose character, knowledge, and judgment command respect."  In other words, if you have character, you can have a commanding presence and can be a truly effective speaker and leader.  However, if you lack character, it will be extremely difficult to lead others, because you will lose trust with those who you are trying to lead.

Many Americans today are looking for leaders with character.  We often complain about the lack of character in our elected officials.  We complain about the lack of character in athletes.  We complain about the lack of character in entertainers.  Yet, many times, we do nothing to promote people of good character.  Instead, we continue to promote people of questionable or bad character.

As I watch the current candidates run for President, I am reminded of our nation's ongoing search for a leader with character.  We all want someone who can lead, but not everyone desires a leader that has impeccable character.

Why is that?  It is because there are people who do not value this important trait of character in a leader.  Some want a leader who will promise them a life where the government will give them whatever they want.  Some want a leader based on political party alone.  Some are content voting against someone instead of voting for someone.

But as I have observed the conventions over the past couple of weeks, I have seen a marked difference in character in the two men running for President.  I do not hide the fact that I am a conservative Republican, and some may think that I am biased in my analysis.  But I believe character is one of the most important, if not the most important, trait that our national leaders must possess.

During the Republican convention, many people spoke about Mitt Romney and his quiet way of helping others through difficult times.  He helped others as the were going through difficult financial times.  He helped families who were going through difficult health problems.  And he did so without drawing attention to himself.  He did it because he had the means to help.  He did it because he wanted to help.  He did it because he knew it was the right thing to do.  He does not like to talk about the ways he helped others, because to him, it is a way of life.

In contrast, President Obama does a lot of talking about helping others.  Yet, we never hear about how he has taken time to actually help others on an individual basis, before or after he became President.  He is very good at telling us that we need to help others, but where is his example?  His idea of helping others is to have the government help them, not get his own hands dirty and help them out.

It seems to me that Mitt Romney holds true to the motto "Actions speak louder than words."  He knows that you can say whatever you want.  However, you cannot be effective as a leader and be viewed as a man of character unless your actions back up your words.  If your actions do not back up your words, you will quickly be labeled a hypocrite (well, Republicans will be labeled as hypocrites, Democrats will not).

In contrast, it looks like the President lives by the motto "Do as I say, not as I do."  This is not an effective way to lead.  He is a man whose words speak louder than his actions (actually, they speak louder than his inaction).  The President says good things.  However, he fails to live them out in his own life.  If he does indeed live them out, why are we not hearing about it?

Character is important.  We need to judge our leaders based on their character.  Is Mitt Romney perfect?  No, he is not.  But in my view, he displays so much more character than the person who currently occupies the Oval Office.  And we need to take this into account as we head toward the voting booth in November.

The Politicization of Tragedy

As you have probably heard by now, a gunman went on a shooting rampage at a movie theater in Aurora, CO early this morning.  It happened shortly after the midnight showing of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises" started.  There are 12 dead, and at least 50 more injured.  This is a tragedy beyond comprehension.  What would drive someone to do such a dastardly thing?

We mourn for the families affected by this tragedy.  The only thing that these people were guilty of was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  They were simply gathered in a movie theater, waiting to watch the movie that they had eagerly anticipated.  And out of nowhere, someone comes into the theater, protected by body armor, and starts shooting, without any regard for human life.  It is a tragedy, but that word does not seem adequate to describe the totality of the events that happened in that theater.

But not everyone sees this event as a tragedy.  Some see it as a chance to try to gain some sort of political advantage, or to affix blame on a group of people that they do not like.  George Stephanolpoulus interviewed James Ross on ABC this morning, and Ross floated the theory out there that this might have been someone within the Tea Party (the same tactic they tried after Rep. Gabriel Giffords was shot).

His "extensive" research was finding a person on a Tea Party website that had the same name as the gunman, and saying that this Tea Party guy was the shooter.  Really??  This is the best that this "investigative" reporter could do?  Let's ruin someone's life by affixing the blame on them when they had nothing to do with it.  I can see a lawsuit coming on this one.

I have seen several message boards and Twitter feeds where people are blaming this on the Tea Party, or Rush Limbaugh, or conservatives in general.  Yeah, let's just blame people we do not agree with, because that will make us feel better about ourselves.  How can people be consumed with such hatred that they would think this way?

As I write this, the police are at the gunman's house trying to find clues as to why the gunman did what he did.  He has booby-trapped his house.  This gunman obviously had issues.  But we do not know what was going on in his head.  We do not know why he did what he did.  Why do people fell the need to point fingers at others when tragedies happen?  The only person to blame is the person that committed the crime.

The dust has not even settled at this point, and there are already people out there trying to make political points out of this.  The illustrious mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, want more gun control laws.  He has already demanded of President Obama and Mitt Romney their plans for tighter gun control measures if elected to office.  Piers Morgan has come out in favor of tighter gun control laws.  So has D.L. Hughley. And we all know that the U.N. wants global gun control laws, and they will use this incident as an example and a rallying point for why that should happen.

We can argue the merits (actually de-merits) of tighter gun control measures, but now is not the time to do that.  We need to let the families mourn.  We need to let people heal, both physically and mentally.

Many years ago, the current mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, said that you should never let a tragedy go to waste.  In other words, use tragedies to your political advantage.  This is the unfortunate mindset of a lot of politicians today.  Do what you can to retain your office, even if it means taking advantage of other people's misfortunes.

But we do not need to make this a political battle.  The gunman did not care if the people that he shot were Republican or Democrat or Independent or Libertarian or Green Party.  He randomly shot people, not caring about political affiliations, or race, or gender, or anything else.  He had a complete and utter disdain for his fellowman.

The media today tries to link all news to politics - how will this help/hurt President Obama or Mitt Romney?  Well, many of the events that happen on a daily basis are outside the world of politics.  They have nothing to with politics, but we live in an age where the media attempt to link tragedies such as this to politics.  We need to understand that events like this happen, not because of politics, but because of the sin that we all have within us.

There will be a time in the future where we finally know what happened and why this man decided to shoot people at that movie theater.  And we will be able to hopefully have a rational discussion about how to keep this from happening again.

But will it require more legislation?  I doubt it.  It will only require us to be more vigilant in enforcing the current gun legislation that is already in place.

But this unfortunate tragedy happened in an election year and politicians are going to try to use this to their political advantage.  And that is unfortunate.  And sad.  And it only compounds the tragedy that happened early this morning.

Calvin Coolidge and the Declaration of Independence

As I am sitting at my desk at work, eating lunch, I came across an article on the internet (specifically on Breitbart.com) about a speech that President Calvin Coolidge gave regarding the United States and the Declaration of Independence.  I have never come across this speech before, but that is understandable, considering President Coolidge is not one of our better-known Presidents.

Anyway, in this speech, President Coolidge talks about the Declaration as not only a founding document, but also as a spiritual document.  Could you imagine if any politician would give this speech today, much less the President of the United States?  (Well, we know that the current President of the USA would never give a speech like this, but you know what I mean.)

President Coolidge delivered this speech on July 5, 1926 (88 years ago today).  Once cannot help but scratch their head and wonder what has happened to this country from the time this speech was delivered until today.

Here is the excerpted speech (copied from Breitbart.com).

"We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July. At the end of 150 years the four corners of the earth unite in coming to Philadelphia as to a holy shrine in acknowledgement of a service so great, which a few inspired men here rendered to humanity, that it is still the preeminent support of free government throughout the world.



It is not so much then for the purpose of undertaking to proclaim new theories and principles that this annual celebration is maintained, but rather to reaffirm and reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic of events have demonstrated to be sound.


We are obliged to conclude that the Declaration of Independence represented the movement of a people. It was in no sense a rising of the oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for the reason that colonial society had developed no scum. The great body of the people were accustomed to privations, but they were free from depravity. If they had poverty, it was not of the hopeless kind that afflicts great cities, but the inspiring kind that marks the spirit of the pioneer. The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.


The Declaration of Independence was the result of the seasoned and deliberate thought of the dominant portion of the people of the Colonies. It was in no sense a radical movement but took on the dignity of a resistance to illegal usurpations. It was conservative and represented the action of the colonists to maintain their constitutional rights which from time immemorial had been guaranteed to them under the law of the land.


It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance.


No one can examine this record and escape the conclusion that in the great outline of its principles the Declaration was the result of the religious teachings of the preceding period. They are found in the texts, the sermons, and the writings of the early colonial clergy who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live. They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit.


This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.


In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish.


Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.


Ours is a government of the people. It represents their will. Its officers may sometimes go astray, but that is not a reason for criticizing the principles of our institutions. The real heart of the American Government depends upon the heart of the people. It is from that source that we must look for all genuine reform. It is to that cause that we must ascribe all our results.


There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes.


No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first."

Now, don't you think they ought to teach stuff like this in our public schools today?  Maybe, if they did, the future of this country would look much brighter than it does right now.

Jerry Sandusky: A Sinner in Need of a Savior

Last night, the jury in the Jerry Sandusky case handed down a verdict that Mr. Sandusky was guilty in 45 out of the 48 counts that he was charged with in his now-infamous child sexual abuse trial.  Once the verdict was announced to those outside of the courthouse and eventually to the nation and the world, there was great rejoicing in the fact that a man who had violated the trust and the innocence of so many young boys was finally getting his just dues.  The man who physically and mentally abused so many boys is headed to prison, never to be released or to see freedom again.

As I watched the media circus last night, I saw people rejoicing in the fact that this monster is headed off to jail.  People were cheering the decision that the man who performed such heinous acts on young boys will now be locked up, unable to violate any more boys.  There is justified outrage at this man, who started a charity to help young people, but used his charity instead to meet, and susequently take advantage of, the young boys he was supposed to be helping.  Instead of helping these boys, he was helping himself to these boys.

As Jerry was being led from the courthouse in handcuffs, he had a dumbfounded look on his face.  I had to ask myself, "What is he thinking?  He shows no remorse for what he did."  Was he in shock at the decision of the jury?  Was he so arrogant that he thought that the jury would never convict him?  Does he really have any remorse for what he has done?

As they were putting him in the police car to transport him to prison, the TV microphones picked up voices of those who were yelling at him and taunting him.  One of the people who was yelling at Jerry Sandusky in the background could be heard saying, "I hope you rot in hell!"  This is a natural human reaction, as we tend to view those who violate the trust and innocence of young people as scum of the earth.  But as Christians, is this to be our reaction?  Should we actually hope that a human being is sent to an eternity of torment in hell?

The answer to this question lies in this simple question - what does the Bible have to say about this?  John 3:16 tells us that God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us, and that anyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life.  There is no exception to this.  Salvation is for anyone who believes, even Jerry Sandusky.  We read in Romans 3:23 that all men have sinned and have come short of God's glory.  Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, but we have been offered the gift of eternal life.  II Peter 3:9 tells us that the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

What these verses tell me is that we are all sinners.  We have all committed sins against God.  While the Bible lists many sins, I have yet to find a sin ranking in the pages of the Bible.  In other words, any sin causes a sinner to be separated from God.  Sin is sin.  Just because I have not committed the same heinous acts as Jerry Sandusky does not mean that I am any more innocent before God or any less of a sinner.  We all need to ask for God's forgiveness for our sins, including Jerry Sandusky.

To say that we want Mr. Sandsuky to "rot in hell" is saying that we believe that he is not worthy of God's salvation.  That, however, is not our choice to make.  None of us can do anything to deserve the salvation that God has offered to us.  In the end, the only person who can choose whether or not Jerry Sandsuky ends up in hell is Jerry Sandusky.  The choice is his - and it is his alone.

So what should we, as Christians, do, now that he has been convicted?  We should pray.  We should pray for those who were abused, that they would begin to have closure.  We should pray for them, that they would be able to move past this horrific stage in their lives, and start to put their lives back together again.  We should pray for their families, that they would have wisdom in moving forward.  We should pray for Jerry Sandusky, that he would repent of what he has done.  We should pray that he would ask forgiveness from those he has abused and taken advantage of.  We should pray that he falls on his knees before God and asks forgiveness from the Almighty for the sins that he has committed.

I am not saying that if he has a cellblock confession that we should somehow completely forgive him and release him from the sentence that he will be receiving in the not-too-distant future.  Part of seeking forgiveness for your sins is paying the price for the sins that you have committed.  Mr. Sandusky should never be allowed to leave prison.  The acts he performed are unconscionable.  The sentence he gets is probably not going to be tough enough for what he has done.  But we have a God who has made salvation available to everyone - including Jerry.  And we should not wish an eternity in hell on anyone.

Marriage, Dear Abby, and Bad Advice

I do not usually read the Dear Abby column in the newspaper.  I usually do not even have the time to read the newspaper.  But for some reason, today was different.  I was perusing the newspaper at work today while I was eating lunch.  For some reason, as I approached the comic section of the paper (my 2nd favorite section of the paper, behind the Sports section), my attention was drawn to the Dear Abby column.  Maybe it was the heading of the article.  Maybe my curiosity got the best of me.  I don't know why I looked at it, but I did, and what I read took me by surprise.

First, I am not sure why people write into Dear Abby or Ann Landers.  The advice that is given by these columnists is not usually good advice.  I can't believe that these people that are asking for advice have no one else to go to, whether friends, family, co-workers, pastor, or anyone close to them.  In a nationally syndicated column, why would you choose to show how pathetic  you are by asking for bad advice from a stranger?

Well, here is the situation from a person labelling themselves as 'What Happened in Vegas.'

DEAR ABBY: "Darrel" and I have been married 28 years. I thought we had an easy, comfortable relationship. We have no children; it's just the two of us with a large family of furry animals. We don't take vacations together because one of us has to be home to care for the animals.

Last year Darrel took four trips to Las Vegas -- two for business and two for special sporting events. I'm beginning to get little nagging signals that he may not have been on these trips alone.

He shuts his phone off for hours at a time and changed the password on his computer after I had to get on it for a security update. The last time he went, he told me he had won two tickets in Las Vegas to a show, so I asked him to bring the extra one home so I could see it. When he returned, he didn't have it. He said he had misplaced it.

There are other things, too, and I don't know what to think. I don't want to hurt his feelings if there isn't anything going on, but I need to know. What do I do? -- WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS?

So, what is wrong with this picture?  First, there is a serious problem in this marriage.  They go on separate vacations.  As a married couple, you should strive to do things together, to draw closer together, to enjoy the company of each other.  Obviously, there is very little communication.  He turns his phone off so she cannot get in touch with him.  He does not do something that she has asked of him.

Second, in the place of children and in place of each other, these people have pets. And they allow these pets to get in between them.  They do not go on vacation together because someone needs to stay home with the animals that they call family.  Now, there is nothing wrong with pets, but if the pets come between you and your spouse, you have a serious problem.  How in the world do you choose to stay home from a vacation with your spouse because you cannot leave the pets under the care of someone else while you are gone?  How could you put the family pet above the relationship with your spouse?

I am not going to condone the behavior of the husband, but if the wife is rejecting him because the pets are more important to her, can you understand why he might stray in the marriage?  He is longing for attention, and his wife is not giving it to him. Spouses need to have the attention and love of the other partner in the marriage in order for that marriage to be successful.

The problem then becomes that she goes to an outside source for an answer to the problem.  Instead of approaching her husband to find out what is going on, she turns to a nationally syndicated columnist known for giving questionable advice.  So, in the tradition of giving bad advice, Dear Abby gives this answer to the wife in distress.

DEAR WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS: If your intuition is telling you that something is wrong, listen to it. Tell Darrel you're feeling insecure and why. Start going with him to Las Vegas. Hire a pet sitter if necessary. It will be money well spent. If your husband isn't open to it, hire a private investigator to tell you what's going on. Clearly, something is up.

Surprisingly, she does tell her to hire a pet sitter, so that she can go with him on vacation.  However, she does not give the advice until midway through her response.  The first thing she should have said is that this lady needs to go to her husband and apologize to him for letting the animals get in the way of their relationship.  She should be willing to give them up if it means restoring her marriage and getting her husband back.  It really is not enough to get a pet sitter for a vacation, for that only shows a short-term willingness to restore a relationship.  By being willing to to give up the pets altogether, you show a long-term commitment to your spouse.

They should seek counseling to help them in their relationship.  They need to talk, to communicate, to let each other know where they see the problems in their relationship.  They need to make a commitment to each other not to let pets, or anything else, come in between their relationship with each other.  They do not need to hire a private investigator.  That will do nothing to restore trust in each other.  That will only continue to drive suspicion and distrust.

Without proper communication in a relationship, it will be destined for failure.  Unfortunately, many married couples today do not see the need to communicate with each other.  We live our lives, many times barely even taking the time to say hello to each other, much less taking the time to have a deep conversation with each other.  We let work, or kids, or sports, or the news come between us, using them as an excuse to not have to communicate.  And then we wonder why the divorce rates are so high.

We need to learn to re-connect with our spouses.  We need to learn to communicate with our spouses.  This is a hard thing to do, especially for men.  We do not like to talk on an emotional level.  But we need to do that, because, in many cases, that is what our wives need from us.  Remember, the marriage is successful when both the husband and wife work at it, and communicate, and work to meet the needs of the other person.

We need to get back to this model in our marriages.  Not only will it help marriages last, it will show our kids that a successful marriage takes the hard work of both parties.  Marriage is not a one-sided endeavor, but a trip that a man and a woman take together.

Missions Conference 2012

Faith Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA, will be hosting their annual Missions Conference, beginning Saturday, March 10, and will go through Wednesday, March 14.  You will have a chance to hear missionaries from all over the world speak about the people they minister to, the countries they minister in, as well as the details of their ministry in those countries.


The service times are as follows:

• Saturday Evening: 7:00 pm
• Sunday School: 9:15 am
• Sunday Morning: 10:30 am
• Sunday Evening: 6:30 pm
• Monday Evening: 7:00 pm
• Tuesday Evening: 6:50 pm
• Wednesday Evening: 7:00 pm

If you are able to attend any of these services, I would encourage you to do so.  You will truly be blessed.