Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Cross and the Twin Towers - A Reflection on 9/11




Having been raised in a protestant home and having spent the first twenty-two years of my life attending a church where the Cross of Jesus was always on display, it was a big cultural difference for me when I started to attend a Roman Catholic church where the same cross was always displayed but with one dramatic difference. Jesus was still hanging on the cross in the Catholic Church. This fact and this fact alone caused a lot of turmoil in my soul as I believed that Jesus went to the cross for me but at the same time came down from the cross, rose from the dead and went to prepare a place for me in Heaven. So why did the Catholics still have Him hanging there?

Sometime in the early 1990's as I was sitting in a Navy training room minding my own business working on my computer based instruction (CBI), God provided the answer to me. A lady came in and sat down in the learning station across the aisle from me and started to work. After a short while the CBI leader came in and greeted the first lady. A chit-chat session ensure from which I tried to distance myself as I found it very irritating and interrupting of my thoughts. Suddenly, I was shaken by the Holy Spirit to stop and listen. I did not pick-up immediately what they were discussing but the conversation became riviting when the CBI-Instructor said, "It's just like the Crucifix. I hate to look at it. I mean with Jesus hanging there all beaten, and bleeding, and crushed and dying. It's just so horrible, I can't stand to look at it."

In the next instant of a thought God spoke to me saying, "That's exactly what Satan wants. He doesn't want you to look at the cross and see the Redeemer, the price paid for sin, the pain and suffering offered for you redemption. He doesn't want you to realize the cost of saving your soul or the fact that there is nothing you could ever do to garner the same results as the time spent on that cross that Friday afternoon on Calvary by the Son of God."

Wow! I had my answer. The beauty of the Crucifix is in what it represents and what it is trying to make us remember, feel and understand.

I thought of this faith lesson on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States as I have listened to many discussions over the past several days as to what we should be watching in regard to the 9/11 news reels from ten years ago. Should we watch the Twin Towers being flown into? Should we watch the falling bodies? Should we watch the Towers fall?

To each of these questions I say, "Yes". We should watch. We should also encourage our children and grand children to watch and listen to the stories of those who survived or who lost a loved one that day. Watch but do not allow the pictures to stir up hatred for those responsible. Watch rather to help us remember the price paid by the innocent that day. Watch to learn the forgiveness that needs to be present. The price those who died paid was because we are a Christian nation. We are founded upon Christianity and we are a target to those who oppose our beliefs.

Just like the Crucifix, if we remove the vision of the act from our memory we have also removed the value of the price paid from our lives.

God Bless America! -DD

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Rainy Day People - That's Us



Gordan Lightfoot sang:
"Rainy day people always seem to know when it's time to call
Rainy day people don't talk, they just listen till they've heard it all
Rainy day lovers don't lie when they tell 'ya they've been down like you
Rainy day people don't mind if you're cryin' a tear or two
If you get lonely, all you really need is that rainy day love
Rainy day people all know there's no sorrow they can't rise above
Rainy day lovers don't love any others, that would not be kind
Rainy day people all know how it hangs on a piece of mind.

Rainy day lovers don't lie when they tell you, they've been down there too
Rainy day people don't mind if you're cryin' a tear or two.

Rainy day people always seem to know when you're feeling blue
High stepping strutters who land in the gutters sometimes need one too
Take it or leave it, or try to believe it
If you've been down too long

Rainy day lovers don't hide love inside they just pass it on
Rainy day lovers don't hide love inside they just pass it on."

Today Ann and I were blessed to be "Rainy Day" people. It's late now and we are tired but we are blessed. Today maybe for the first time since the end of May when I lost my job, I realized that maybe, just maybe I lost it for a specific reason and maybe that reason was to be a "rainy day people".

The day started out like most others recently. Micah and Seth left for school in the rain. Ann and I went to church to load the Equinox with donated food to deliver to the food pantry like we do the first of each month even though this month's delivery was delayed by two days because of the Labor Day weekend. It was for this reason that we missed Grandma Delp's urgent phone call saying that she could go swimming in her house even though she doesn't have a pool there.

Until we got home from our delivery and got the message water was rising rapidly in her basement and Uncle Tim was trying to "get everything up" that wasn't still up from Agnes in 1972. While in route to help out in Rutherford Jen calls and says she has 4" of water in the basement and it was rising. Help! Within minutes Grandpop reports the same thing even though it was not as deep. Help, Delp!

In order we 1) helped Tim move a washer and get everything secured, 2) provided instructions to Grandma Delp that she was to stay out of the basement, 3) she was leave the house if the water covered the washing machine that she could now see from the landing, 4) went to Grandpops house , 5) assured him that yes his carpets were wet but that he didn't have a problem, yet, 6) helped Nate set his freezer, washer, dryer and fridge up so as to keep them out of the water, 7) stopped home for 2-seconds to get a phone number to call about a pump, 8) checked our house for water, which was only seen in the fridge, in the sink and in the toilet. All places where water is normal and expected.

We met some very nice people at a plumbing supply house that we did not know existed until today. They supplied us with three pumps and many wishes of good luck in exchange for being able to use my Visa in their machine. They even helped us to the truck in the pouring rain with our pumps. Ann had a free lunch with them while we waited. The trip back to Rutherford with our pumps reminded me of one of those walks taken by the kids in the cartoon "Family Circus". We meandered all over the East Shore of Harrisburg trying to find a route from where we were to where we were going that wasn't impassable because of high water.

At our destination we hooked up the smaller of our pumps because it used a garden hose as its out-take. After a brief but frustrating battle with a window screen the pump was in action, pumping away. We were just trying the stem the tide at that point as the water was still rising. The hook up for the bigger of the pumps wasn't as easy. We had a 1 1/4" hose and a 1 1/2" fitting on the pump. To a plumber that is no obstacle but as you have read in my previous blogs, "I ain't no plumber!" Read my blog on the kitchen sink.

A trip to Lowe's then to Grandma Delp's, then to Grandpops, then to Nate's gave me time to think about what really need to be done. With enough time and with the Holy Spirit guidance one can always remember about going to R.F. Fagers plumbing supply. They know everything about plumbing and are always willing to share.

Five minutes and $6.12 later we are once again weaving our way back to Rutherford. Abracadabra, alakazam the bigger pump is put together, put in place and puttin' what is inside and should be outside, outside where it belongs flowing freely down the street. In what seem like a very short time, about the same time it takes a family of four with their Grandmother and Uncle to demolish two large pizzas and two orders of fries, the basement was emptied of standing water.

It was during the eating of the pizza that I spoke up and said that, "As bad as everyone thinks today is we really have been blessed. First Ann and I were around and available to help everyone. When we needed pumps, we got pumps, When we need fittings, we got fittings. When the water was at it's highest, we got everything working. When we needed pizza, we got pizza. We needed pizza too.

When the people who owned homes that were filling with water were down and very concerned, we were able to be there to help out and provide an encouraging word. We knew that they was nothing that we couldn't rise above no matter how daunting.

We are blessed and are glad to "pass it on". - DD