Breaking the Silence

A remarkable thing happened the other day, this in a year full of remarkable things, prompting me now to put it all in perspective.  That's what we will do at Thanksgiving and on Christmas Day and on New Year's Eve but why not at the end of Election Week as well?

The most remarkable things about this year will be, as it is for any  given time, about beginnings, ends and continuity.   All that matters is what truly changes or truly remains. The loss of a brother and the endurance of memories. And old barn wedding.  A New York engagement. All that doctors can and cannot do.  All that prayer does.

On the morning of Tuesday November 8th, before the polls opened, I sent my newly betrothed a text of what mattered most to me: health, family, time together and God in our lives.  Think about it, and apply that to everything momentous.  Six days before the Chicago Cubs had secured a World Series victory.  The end of a long drought, for sure; the beginning of a dynasty, perhaps.  But what mattered was the happiness in our hearts that night, the  chance we had to celebrate with friends, the unity of our Cubs nation in the days that followed and the stirred memory of all the Cub fans who continue to cheer alongside us.

Perspective.  On the evening of November 8th or the morning after, I sat stunned wondering what would happen next. And I will wonder tomorrow too, but at the end of that day and every day I hope I will remember what matters most.  Politics are temporary but I suspect not much will change from this year to the next. We won't have Obama to blame for everything that goes wrong, now we will have Trump.  And it never was one party or the other that caused climate change or shiite-sunni divisions or the immigrant working class or the latest social morality challenge, just as I suspect it will take all of us, globally, to do anything good about any of that.  I think we learned this year too that the media doesn't change much either, its cycle ever leaning towards the spectacular and its bottom line often more exploitative than informative.  How can they get it right when they're not really out there to get it in the first place?

So, how do we get it right?  Keeping perspective.  As my men's Bible study leader said this week, no matter who is president, Jesus is King!  As our Bishop Miller wrote this week with a rally call tone, our church will continue...  And as Cara and I have begun to say on a regular basis, God is good all the time.

On the evening of the 8th or the morning after, I went back and looked at my morning's reminder.  Health. Family. Time together. God in our lives.  That's what matters.  All the time!

- Jon