Today would have been the 79th wedding anniversary of my dear mother and father, and here I sit, just ten days short of my 78th birthday. My how time flies by!
My bonus grand daughter Hanna Clinton gave me a little book for Father's Day. It is entitled "Tuesdays with Morrie." So much wisdom is such a little book! What a special gift! A former student visits his old college professor every Tuesday as the professor slowly succumbs to ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease. Wisdom for life drips off every page. You want a yellow highlighter to mark every drop.
Although his faith tradition was Jewish, Morrie's shared wisdom was basically an application of the "how to live and love" principles Jesus taught His disciples. One such principle was to love others and have compassion for those who suffer, and if you can, do something about it. Help. Love. Give. Live as if each day might be your last. Giving is Living.
This week my law license is being reactivated, after eight years of being in a non practicing retirement status. Why do this when others younger than me are hanging it up to enjoy retirement, golf, fishing, even cruise ships? I want to give. I want to help the suffering through my dual status as a lawyer and pastor. For over two years I have been doing mediation of family law disputes, couples in distress, ready to call it quits and start a new chapter in their lives. There is a great pain, even anguish, and sometimes refusal to forgive. Even by those who profess to be Christians. But I do not judge. I try hard to love unconditionally. I pray for our client couples. God is the only One who can change hearts.
The photo above shows me with one of my spiritual daughters, Erica Baez. We share the same passion for steering couples towards mediation rather than litigation. If required, she is a real fighter in court. But both our hearts see law practice as ministry to the hurting.
I am a bit sad this morning. All over my country, evangelical Christians are celebrating the Supreme Court's overruling Roe v. Wade. I am sad about that. Our Supreme Court will forever be damaged, seen by two thirds of our citizens as having a political agenda dressed up in legal rationales. Whether or not one agrees, it is a judicial earthquake to abolish in one fell swoop a Constitutional right upon which women in our country have been relying for half a century. That's more than two generations.
To my Christian brothers and sisters, I respectfully say that your witness has been damaged to an extent that you will likely never appreciate. And perhaps you do not really care. I will not try to judge your hearts. Being "pro life" is much more than just opposing abortion. It is about compassionate care for young women who become pregnant in a whole range of difficult circumstances. It is about helping those in need who are unable to help themselves. About loving unconditionally.
To a growing number of my fellow citizens, evangelical Christians are being seen as mean spirited, racist, misogynistic, hypocritical, and on a mission to "save" the country from people who are "different" from them. That mission includes using political power to legislate their religious beliefs, something Jesus would have found abhorrent. I certainly do. I am very sad, but trying hard to stay positive and live selflessly as Jesus taught. May God have mercy upon us all.
Switching gears, I want to thank God for convicting me of the need to reconnect with my Australian family. Three decades ago, my dear wife Betty and I visited Australia to commemorate our 25th wedding anniversary. I spent time with my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Rory, two of their children and other cousins. I was in the Department of Justice at the time, and at some point shared with a cousin how God had led me out of the Air Force and into the Justice Department.
Fast forward 21 years, Betty is with Jesus, and I am in Ireland with new wife Mary Lou, and I email my cousin Kim asking if she could give us the address of her husband's family in Ireland, in case we might be close enough to visit. She quickly sent an email that shocked and disappointed me. The import was that she would never give us her husband's address, as she would not subject them to the kind of God talk to which we subjected her during our visit. I was completely floored by this. Betty died without ever knowing that we had so offended our Australian cousin. Something deep inside me said forget it, don't look back, forget Australia. And so I did.
And then God recently nudged me. I sent an email to my cousin Martin, with whom I never had any problems, and he replied very graciously, and we reconnected. It turns out my dear aunt was still alive although very frail, and I was able to share my heart with her through my cousin during his visit to his mother. Such a blessing! I am so happy that I did not wait longer. I might have missed the chance to tell her how much I loved her.
There are still members of my family that I need to forgive, and ask for forgiveness, but it's on my agenda now, as I try to live each new day in ways that bless others. Giving is Living. Morrie was right.
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