Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Things I remember.....

In these uncertain times, our trust cannot be in any one man or institution, but only in our Sovereign God.


Having said that, I just want to randomly and in no particular order, rant say a few things I remember.

The other Sunday night at church, our pastor was telling about standing on the grassy knoll in Dallas and seeing the X marks on the road where JFK was assassinated. He then said something that was very profound for me. He said JFK was assassinated a year before I (the pastor) was born. JKF was assassinated when I was 11 years old.


I don't say that to make the point that our pastor is young and I'm not....:) ....but to say 3 generations have passed since these and the things I talk about following have happened, and yet I can still remember not only the events, but the fear, horror and dread that accompanied those events.



I remember (or I remember hearing this talked about and probably learned it in school, since I was probably only about 5 years old when this happened) that Nikita Khrushchev said Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you! Or to put it as I've always put it, We will bury you with your OWN shovels! I challenge you to think about that, is that not what we're doing right now in America?

Our economy with our greed and our feeling that we deserve things that mean we will be living above our means. Things that we and our parents and their parent's generations worked years and saved to get? Taking God out of everything, challenging the Pledge of Allegiance.....for heaven's sake, the countries that hate us really don't have to do a thing. Just sit back and we'll bury ourselves with our own shovels.

I've always had a little saying I used with my children.....when you dig yourself in to a hole, STOP digging. American is in a hole. We've been digging for a long time. I think we should stop digging and begin to fill in the hole.


I think I must have been 10ish during the Cuban Crisis. Living in Florida with Cuba right below us, I was terrified. I remember the bomb drills! BOMB DRILLS! In my elementary school! Not 10 blocks from my home. My brothers and sisters and I are spaced 4 years apart, so several of us were in different schools. Daddy worked all over the county in his business. Mama was at home with a baby or three more. My biggest fear during that time was that we would be bombed (If you lived through that, you know that we really believed that could happen) and we couldn't all get together. That we couldn't find each other. I can remember that feeling even today.



I remember JFK being assassinated. I was in the 6th grade. We had a moment of silence and were then excused to go home for the day. I remember thinking what will happen now?



These are things people just 12 years younger than me didn't live through.



I know other things have happened, but I'm not sure I have actually felt fearful for our country on our own soil again in that way until 9/11.



Or until now, when it seems like we are indeed burying ourselves with our own shovels.

4 comments:

Dawn said...

Yes, very thought provoking - I remember Kruschev pounding his shoe on the desk and being so afraid of him. We have come a long ways, and are going backward.

Thanks for the award! I will acknowledge it soon!

thouartloosed said...

You said this so well-burying ourselves with our own shovels. And I agree, we are in a hole; we need to stop digging.

Dawn said...

Hey, if you need a good chuckle, check out Kristen's sarcastic rendition of her no-good, very bad morning recently! It'll do you good.

Sheryl said...

Whoa - those are some powerful words. We ARE burying ourselves with our own shovels. But always looking for "someone" else to do something about it. The Bible says that we (the people who are called by His name) are to humble ourselves and pray. It is up to us. Thanks for this post.

Love,
Sheryl