A Post That Is Twenty Years (Or Longer) In The Making
As difficult as it may be to believe, some of the items that made the news at this time of the year twenty years ago sound eerily familiar. Perhaps the best example of this is that much of the news concerned a contentious and controversial presidential election in which even the United States Supreme Court got involved. Do the names Bush and Gore and the phrase “hanging chad” ring a bell?
The purpose of this post has nothing to do with major world events, news about powerful and important people, economic trends or any other matters that make national or international headlines. As I’m typing these words, my mind is on matters of a much more personal nature.
Without getting into too many personal details, some of the things going on in my life and the lives of other family members twenty years ago this month included the death of my father on December 16th, trying to prepare to begin working with the Central church of Christ in Paducah, Kentucky at the beginning of 2001, looking forward to the birth of our first grandchild in March of 2001, the increasing need to try to care for Donna’s parents, and a host of other things.
It would be a huge understatement to say that the last month of 2000 was challenging for my family. It would also be a huge understatement to say that there have been some major changes since then.
Before you stop reading, I can assure you that there is a “method to my madness” in mentioning a few personal things. It might be of interest that my “first draft” of this post included much more detail about some of the changes that have taken place in our family during the past twenty years. Upon reflection, I’ve decided to limit that material to what you’ve already read. Let me try to explain my reason for that in the following paragraphs.
Unless something changes, the fourteenth person to serve as the president of our nation during my lifetime will begin doing so next month. I can say without any reservation that, as important as that office is and as much as I may or may not have agreed (or do or do not agree) with these men, not one of them has had the kind of impact on my life that the “ordinary people” I’m around on a regular basis or those with whom I interact from time to time have had on me.
While my family is unique and special to me, most, if not all, of what we have experienced during the past twenty years has a lot in common with countless other families and individuals. I’m fairly certain that other families have suffered the loss of loved ones, the births of children or grandchildren, changes in location and/or careers, health challenges, financial advancements or reversals (or both), changes in family dynamics, and a host of other things.
In short, during the past twenty years, all of us have probably had some mountaintop experiences and have also probably spent some time in the valley. If we were to look back over the entirety of the last two decades, though, we would probably admit that most of our time has been spent neither on the mountain or in the valley. Most of us would probably agree that we spend most of our time “just living life” and doing the best we can to deal with whatever situation in which we find ourselves.
I hope that I’ve learned some things during the past twenty years. Maybe the appropriate word is “reinforced” instead of learned. They’ve been around much longer than twenty years and will have an impact on where I will be when I’m no longer here.
Here are just a few of them:
…what is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes (James 4:14).
…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first command. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37-39).
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10).
Come to think of it, maybe this post is closer to twenty centuries or so in the making.
To Receive Every Article from A Legacy of Faith through Email for Free, Click Here
AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
