Wednesday, November 28, 2012

52 Years Ago

It was my birthday yesterday.  Hip hip hooray!  Lots of well-wishes, blessings, messages and phone calls came my way.  The cockles of my heart were warmed.




I was born in 1960.  I always liked the fact that I was born on a nice even year like that.  It helps me keep track of my age easier.  I need all the help I can get.  You know when you're 16 and you can't imagine why old people can't remember how old they are?  The birthdays simply stack up after a while and it's harder to keep track of, that's why!  Today, I'm definitely 52 and I started to think, what was going on the month I was born?  I was the fourth child born to a rural Pennsylvania family, but what was happening in the larger world in November 1960?

Here's what I found:

 A new house cost about $16,500.  Stamps were 4 cents each.  An attendant would fill up your gas tank, wash your car windows and check your oil, all for the cost of 31 cents/gallon gasoline. A gallon of milk cost 49 cents, but it came in glass bottles with cream floating on top, that were delivered to your door by your local Milk Man. Butter was 67 cents per pound. A pack of gum cost a nickel.  You could buy ice cream in a 1/2 gallon box for 79 cents.  Minimum wage was $1.25 an hour, so those prices might not have seemed like such a bargain at the time.

"The Unsinkable Molly Brown" opened on Broadway-- the movie starring Debbie Reynolds came out 4 years later.   Elvis Presley released his recording of "Are You Lonesome Tonight."  Clark Gable died the day after he finished filming "The Misfits" with Marilyn Monroe.  Johnny Horton, famed singer (at least in our house) of "The Battle of New Orleans," died in a car crash at the age of 35. 

 Five bombs were set off in New York subway cars in October and November 1960, injuring 58 people and killing one. Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States. John F. Kennedy barely beat Richard M. Nixon in the presidential election.  The popular vote for JFK was only 1/6 of one percent higher than that for Nixon.  

There was a coup attempt in South Vietnam.  Nicaragua was invaded by exiled rebels and the U.S. Navy was called in to help defeat those rebels.  Both the U.S. and the USSR were launching nuclear submarines.  The Polaris sub was described as "the world's most credible deterrent system." Perhaps the largest solar flare ever recorded disrupted communications world wide.  Syrian security forces were believed to have started a fire in a movie theater filled with 152 children.   Leftist rebels attempted a coup in Guatemala which was put down with American assistance.  Dictator Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic ordered the murder of the three Mirabal sisters.  He was assassinated himself six months later.  The CIA director briefed JFK on plans to overthrow the Castro government-- later to become the problematic Bay of Pigs Invasion.  There was a crisis in the Congo.


Sammy Davis, Jr. married white Swedish actess May Britt at a time when interracial marriage was always scandalous and still illegal in some states.  

6-year-old Ruby Bridges and three other little girls were the first African-American children to attend "white" public schools in New Orleans.  

W.W. Hamilton died.  He was a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention who was forced to resign after he married his niece.   The second weather satellite was launched.  Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA record for number of rebounds (55) in a game which remained unbroken for nearly 50 years. 

 John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Amy Grant were born on the same day (the 25th). 


 And... I was born on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, my mother going into labor at a family Thanksgiving get-together.


Baby Me and my family
It's interesting to look at the total upheaval of the world then.  We like to think it was a simpler time and in many ways it was.  Yet, the world was fraught with both innovation and great danger at that time as much as it is now.  Revolutions, racial strife, atomic weapons, razor-thin election margins... these occurrences were going on then and they are going on now.  It makes me think of Ecclesiastes 1:9: " What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;  there is nothing new under the sun."  But another thing is the same and always will be-- God's in charge.  As we are told in Hebrews 13:5, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you."  God is with us.  I am very glad that statement was true long before 1960, has been true in the 52 years since, and will be true forever for those who trust in Him.




Friday, November 9, 2012

Just Follow Your Heart... Not Really.



How many times have you heard a character in a movie say that everything will be alright if the person in question just abides by the age-old advice, "Just follow your heart."  And it's not just screenwriters who think and say such rubbish.  Regular ole people say it all the time.  Should I take this new job opportunity?  "Follow your heart!  It won't steer you wrong."  Should I keep dating this person with anger issues?  "Follow your heart, sweetie!"  Should I get an iPhone?  "Oh my yes!  Just follow your heart!"




You can get the phrase on jewelry, plaques, posters, tattoos... you name it.




Every time we hear that phrase, my youngest daughter rapid-fires a Bible verse:  "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."  
That's from the King James Version of Jeremiah 17:9.  Or as the Good News Version puts it:  “Who can understand the human heart?  There is nothing else so deceitful;  it is too sick to be healed."  Then there's another bit of wisdom from Proverbs 28:26: "Those who trust in their own hearts are fools, but those who walk wisely will be delivered."

So what should we do?

How about what Proverbs 3:5-6 says?  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; and He will make your paths straight."  You don't need to place your trust in your own heart.  Your heart is quite capable of leading you astray.  Trust in God.  He is worthy of your trust and His guidance is based on sovereign, omniscient wisdom, not on the changable wind of your feelings.

Better yet, just memorize some scripture so you can shout back (in love, of course) at the screen that is telling you to follow your heart-- "The heart is deceitfully wicked!" and follow it up with "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean NOT on your own understanding!"

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

To Pie or Not to Pie

I get happy when I declutter my closet.  I also get happy when I buy something new and fun.  I am thrilled when the scales blinks a lower number today than it did yesterday.  I am also thrilled by the taste of a smooth, creamy slice of french silk chocolate pie. I enjoy living in a sparkling clean, freshly tidy house. But I find myself sitting in front of my computer even as the bathrooms cry out for attention.

Why do I sabotage myself this way?  Come to think of it, I think someone named Paul talked about this a long time ago.  In Romans 7:15 he remarks, " I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."  Well, that's not exactly what I was saying, because I want to both lose weight AND eat french silk chocolate pie!



I think the problem is that I forget that I am making a decision each time I eat the pie, buy something, or google some obscure topic.  My actions show that I have decided to value those things more than losing weight, owning fewer things and cleaning my house!  Uh oh.  

Isn't it distracting to have that picture of the pie sitting there looking you in the face?  That is really making this discussion difficult.



Maybe tomorrow I'll remember what I will like bestest and longest before I choose what's only best for a moment.

Maybe I'll actually exercise...