The Club

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Last year was a year of firsts for me, most of them calendar holidays without Nate. Those firsts ended as we passed the one year anniversary of his death in November of 2010. But other firsts have occurred, and tonight was one of them.

Bob and Linda Miller next door invited me to an evening with The Economics Club of Southwest Michigan. This is a members-only organization that meets to hear well-known speakers half-a-dozen times each year. In the club’s 68 years, it has featured:

  • Ted Koppel
  • Margaret Thatcher
  • Elizabeth Dole
  • Cal Ripkin
  • President Bush 1
  • President Bush 2
  • Mary Tyler Moore
  • Barbara Walters
  • Sarah Palin
  • John Glenn
  • Tony Blair
  • Colin Powell
  • Julie Andrews
  • Peyton Manning
  • Gerald Ford
  • Barbara Bush
  • Laura Bush
  • Garrison Keillor
  • Bob Woodward
  • Bill Clinton
  • Bob Newhart
  • Tom Brokaw
  • Condoleezza Rice

Somebody in The Economic Club must have clout in order to garner such an impressive roster of guests, and there are hundreds more.

As we arrived tonight, there was a police presence, and Bob mentioned that some of the speakers have had security right on stage with them. Tonight we were treated to an evening with Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of England.

As I watched this celebrity answer questions, I wondered about the man behind the deep voice and easy banter. Yes, he’d been a prime minister with global political power, but who was he really, beneath the black suit and silk tie?

When I got home I “googled” him. Although no one mentioned it tonight, today was the one year anniversary of his stepping down from his powerful position as PM. Surely that was on his mind.

I also learned he was married for the first time at 49 and that his first child, a daughter named Jennifer, died ten days after she was born, of a brain hemorrhage. Although two boys quickly followed, one was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis while still a pre-schooler.

Learning of Gordon Brown’s recent tumultuous decade made me long to sit across a small table from him and get beneath his politics to hear his heart. I also wondered how many other Economics Club speakers had dealt with severe disappointment, failure and sadness. Probably all of them.

Life is messy, and our character is strengthened and then proven true through adversity. Does that mean our character is weak without it?

The Bible tells us to “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.” * And in referring to Moses, Scripture says, “The Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character.” **

No matter where we stand on the character continuum, there’s always room for improvement. God is interested in seeing that happen and arranges multiple opportunities for us. Thankfully, his character is stable at the highest level. It never changes and never needs improvement.

Last week a previous Economic Club speaker gave us a peek into his character in an interview with TIME magazine. George Bush #1 was asked what advice he gave his son, George Bush #2, after he left the White House. #1 told #2, “Don’t forget it’s your job to take out the garbage now.”

“God desired to show the unchangeable character of his purpose… We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” (Hebrews 6:17,19)

 

*Romans 5:3,4     **Deuteronomy 8:2

Look and See

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Many of us learned to read by way of the “Dick and Jane” readers, starring Mother, Father, Dick, Jane and Sally. Spot the dog and Puff the cat also featured into the plots.

Each page was three-fourths picture and one-fourth text. “See Spot. See Spot run. Run, run run.” I grew to love this family that was similar to ours, a boy and two girls, a dog that looked like Spot, and a cat named (yes) Puff. Virtually all American children in public grade schools learned to read with Dick and Jane, from the 1930’s to the 1970’s.

When I remember these books, the words “look” and “see” come to mind. The author hoped children would look at the world around them and observe all there was to see, learning life lessons while learning to read. But there were problems.

For one thing, all the characters were white, and their looking and seeing was all from that one perspective. Ethnic children didn’t relate to Dick, Jane and Sally. Their viewpoint was different and needed to factor into the stories. In the 1960’s, the books were finally expanded to include families of other races, which brought a richer depth to plot lines for all children.

Sometimes I wonder how differently I would see life had I been raised in a different country or been born to another race or faith. But this is an imponderable. We are who we are and have a limited perspective based on what we’ve looked at and seen.

Wise people expand their vision outside their experience with a desire to see beyond their own worlds. This can be really difficult, but there is a looking and seeing that’s easy to practice.

This picture of Nate and me was snapped before digitals (1985) by an eager little boy who had begged to take charge of the camera. We posed, and he centered the shot perfectly. Had he turned the camera or taken one step back, the result would have been different.

I decided to keep it, though. Even without any heads, the picture tells a story. The arms and hands say something, as well as the clothes, the plaque on the rock, the summer day, the long shadows. Had faces been visible, the other parts of the story might not have been noticed. It’s simply a picture from a fresh perspective.

God’s desire is that we look and see from his fresh perspective. This includes the way we look at circumstances and people, and especially the way we see him. In order to change our perspective, we have to look at how Jesus viewed circumstances, people and his Father, then copy him. None of that comes easily and takes years of practice, but as we try, we’ll see with new eyes.

The demise of Dick and Jane came in the 1970’s as phonics became the standard for teaching reading. But when we hear someone say, “See Spot run!” we know exactly what they mean.

“Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.” (Colossians 3:2 The Message)

Taking the Lead

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Last week I enjoyed writing about my mom and her mom, thankful for the upright heritage they (and others) left. Judging by worldly standards, Mom was an old lady of 92 who never worked outside her home or accomplished anything of note. Strangers might have said, “Hers was a wasted life.”

But those of us who knew her, know otherwise. Before Mom died, we used to joke she’d have a big funeral, and we were right. The crowds came in droves, filling the large room where her body lay, spilling out into the halls and out the front door.

The funeral director came running to us just before the service began with alarm on his face. Distressed that not everyone had a seat or had even gotten into the room he said, “Why didn’t you tell me!”

What he meant was, “Why didn’t you tell me this woman was popular? We don’t usually see this for old ladies like her!”

As we greeted guests, Mary and I noticed how most were from the generations behind Mom, people our age and younger. These were the “children” she’d loved and influenced throughout her life, loving all of them as her own. Rather than wasting her life, she’d used it for lofty purposes, leaving footprints that led them all to Jesus.

Here’s an important question for each of us still marching along on this side of our funerals: “Where will my footprints lead?”

Steve Green’s song “Find Us Faithful” says,

“As those who’ve gone before us,
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives.”

God gives us a simple but effective way to leave footprints others will find it worthwhile to follow: just track the steps of Jesus.

In Mom’s last year of life, she continually had her nose in a Bible. One day I asked if she’d looked at the biography of Julia Child I’d just given her, or her new book about hymn authors. She said, “Honey, I don’t have any time for those. I’m studying for my finals.”

Despite not owning a trophy case or being written up in periodicals, Mom finished well.

“After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we’ve left behind,
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find.” (Steve Green)

“God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21)