ETHEL NUNALLY

The Lord and I were thinking about pride this morning, and Ethel Nunally's name came up.  When I was in third grade, she was our neighbor when our family moved into 805 Poplar in Jonesboro.  And when I left home after college, she still lived next-door.  Mrs. Nunally's house was long and narrow and had been made into two apartments.  She lived in the back.

When I think of Ethel Nunally, I think of a retired widow lady who was tall and slim with pretty white hair that she pulled back into a bun.  Everyday she wore a dress and orthopedic high heels that tied...and she moved at a fast pace wherever she went.  Her long body would lean forward with urgency.  Our kitchen sink looked out onto the side of her house where her concrete stoop had three steps down to the ground.  Many times I can remember standing at the sink and watching her screen door fly open and those orthopedic shoes hit the stairs to go out back to hang out clothes, or walk down the street.  When her husband was living, they ran a small neighborhood grocery and their kids would deliver the orders.  Mrs. Nunally's habit of answering the phone was instinctive from all those years in the store.  If you called over there, instead of saying "hello", she would slowly say "alll...righttt..."  (as if to say, "I have my pencil ready, what can we get you?").  I guess that was the only slow characteristic she had.

The other thing that stands out in my mind about Ethel Nunally was that we got along very well all the years we lived side-by-side.  We borrowed from each other and took her places and visited across the driveway.  But I can remember always just "knowing" that Mrs. Nunally thought our family was going to hell.  (Well of course at that time we WERE, but who knew back then?)  And as I look back, I coped with her assumption by somehow diminishing her in my mind... "Well, bless her heart, she goes to a church where they think everyone's goin' to hell but them.  We love her anyway."  

In other words, I put her down to lift myself up.  That tendency toward feeling superior does come so easily.  I had to ask the Lord to please expunge that from my record.  I don't think He likes it when we exalt anyone but Him.

"For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy.  I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."  Isaiah 57:15

PIRATES  AND PARACHUTES

CEOs are not the only ones getting golden parachutes these days. Did you see this picture of the $3 million dollar pirate ransom floating down?  Who'd have thought in our day and time that we would have pirates?  Arrh!

Long before Johnny Depp applied eyeliner and played a pirate, Barbary pirates were alive and well.  In the 1700's and early 1800's, they preyed on the coast of north Africa from the city-states of Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis (loosely governed by the Ottoman Empire) and the monarchy of Morocco.  Morocco harbored pirates and furnished markets for their slaves/goods.  These Muslim areas were called the Barbary Coast.

The pirates made a living by attacking trading ships going through the Straits of Gibraltar and along the coastline. They then asked for ransom for the passengers who were enslaved.  Christians were the best catch because they wrote pleading letters home asking for help. The pirates sold the cargo and the captured sailors, who were then put into chains beside an oar in the bowels of a foreign ship.  They also gathered black Africans from along the coastal cities and sold them as slaves.  Older people were of no use to them and were killed.  The women were sold for harems; young men were slave labor.  Children were made eunuchs (and many did not survive the "surgery") and were sold as well. Their belief system taught that they had a right to do anything they wanted to infidels...especially to Christians.

Many of our familiar books depicted these pirates.  Remember Robinson Crusoe, Master and Commander and The Count of Monte Cristo?  It might be harmless fun to read about them, but the reality was that these men answered to no authority and were cruel and ruthless.

In 1783, the United States was no longer under British rule and that was good.  But the bad news was our ships were no longer protected on the seas by the British policy of tribute payments.  So when we were attacked in 1784 and our ship stripped and people were enslaved, our brand new country had no resources to fight.  Against Thomas Jefferson's protest (he was then the ambassador to France and felt tribute only encouraged piracy)...Congress allocated money to pay the tribute.  And that remained the policy for 15 years, although the sum represented 20% of our annual revenue in 1800!

When Jefferson became President in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli demanded $225,000.  Jefferson refused; the Pasha declared war on the US and his Barbary buddies joined in.  Our navy had been up and running since 1794, so Jefferson sent frigates into the area to seize the Pasha's goods.  When our ships arrived, all the city-states but Tripoli folded. Congress never declared war (the President had not consulted them), but they did fund the effort.  The ships blockaded the Tripoli harbor and there were raids and skirmishes until 1803 when the USS Philadelphia was captured and their crew taken captive.  More fighting.  Then in 1805, the Marines came to the rescue overland with the help of Greek, Arab, and Berber mercenaries.  That action was why we sing in the Marine hymn "to the shores of Tripoli".

It is strange that in the treaty that was signed to end this First Barbary War, we still paid $60,000 for the 300 sailors who had been taken prisoner.  Jefferson felt there was a distinction between ransom and tribute money.  Some felt buying sailors sold into slavery was a reasonable way to end the conflict, but others felt the State Department caved.   Either way, within two years (1807) Algiers began to attack our ships again.  And because we were distracted by the beginnings of our War of 1812, we did not take action until 1815, when the Second Barbary War began.

That war was a quickie...just from March to June of 1815.  We sent ships under the command of veterans from the first war.  They used the pirates' tactics against them as they attacked and took pirate prisoners.  Algeria ended up saying they wouldn't ever attack our ships again, and paid us $10,000 to get their people back.  Everything was signed and we left and then they decided "kings X...just kidding".  So we had a nine hour bombardment of their harbor and they changed their minds BACK and even threw in a promise not to capture Christians anymore.

When I read all this stuff I wonder how in the world fact has flipflopped into fiction.  How did this part of the world become seemingly mysterious and charming...even romantic?  Pirates were murderous thugs!  I guess movies like "Casablanca" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" helped promote that idea.  And of course, Disney has the multi-billion (with a B) dollar pirate theme park ride that kids love.  The enemy sure pulled a fast one as the pirates of the Barbary Coast were glamorized.

"Deliver us from evil" Matthew 6:13

GETTING OLDER
Hmmm...getting older is so strange. The age that registers in your brain in no way matches what's going on with the rest of you. And you have out-of-body experiences! It's like you are outside yourself watching as you do things you used to snicker at your parents for doing. Payback! Now you are the puppet and Father Time jerks your string.

Take, for instance, when something is coming up on the schedule for the next day. That's a guaranteed partial night's sleep. Or consider how laughing/sneezing/coughing could seem harmless, but might be the "easy button" for clearing out the underwear drawer. What a dignity thief! And how about when you look down the grocery aisle for one of your friends...and you realize that you are only looking for dark-headed people? Or when the Prize Patrol doesn't show up with balloons and a big check, but your prize is either a crepe-y chin...double chin...or crepe-y double chin. And don't forget the jolt as you pass the mirror and see a deceased relative.

But my all-time favorite opportunity for humility associated with aging is when you are talking to your daughter and out of the blue she remarks: "Mom, are you aware that you did not finish that last sentence?"

"General indignities" used to be one of the boxes you checked for divorce filings. Certainly aging is an indignity, but I'm not headed down to the courthouse to file just yet.

"We are citizens of the homeland which is in heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform and fashion anew the body of our humiliation to conform to and be like the body of His glory and majesty, by exerting that power which enables Him even to subject everything to Himself." Philippians 3:20,21

THINKING ABOUT 2008
Would you agree that our election was THE story of 2008? This fall Mike and I had that bronchitis where your throat hurts like a big dog and you lose your voice. Similarly, since November 4th we feel like we've lost our voice. We're not whining because our party lost and we want to take our toys and go home. We're scared because our country reached for "pie in the sky" without connecting any dots. When did America quit thinking?

The country seems to be on a crazy cycle with all the thought process sucked out. You know that's true if you've seen Jay Leno go out on the street and ask the simplest questions. People are busy emoting rather than deliberating. "How does that make you feel?" they wonder. Well, we feel like hollering "use your head!" When Grandmother said someone didn't have sense to come in out of the rain, she was talking about folks who lacked plain ole good judgment. Onto that palette, Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber "popped" like shining stars.

Miss Scarlett may have gotten away with "thinking about it tomorrow", but sometimes you HAVE to think responsibly...and on the spot. Take that spot in a New Jersey WalMart, where the crowd stomped an employee to death. Was that not crazy, criminal mindlessness? Then there's a new song out this month called "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow". A couple of governors from New York and Illinois danced like there was no tomorrow. Those boys embodied "to thine own self be true"; accountability must have come like a bolt out of the blue. It's hard to feel sorry for either one, but how devastating and humiliating for their families. Who could forget Mrs. Elliott Spitzer's ashen face at his press conference? Unfortunately, it's not news that power or sex or greed have often trumped logic. But this year we're talking about something else...two HUGE examples of rational disconnect.

First, some folks apparently thought you could lend money to people who couldn't afford it and somehow they could pay it back. Then compounding that, just keep rolling those bad debts into big wads of debt and one day it will either be all better...or at least it will be someone else's problem down the line. We seem to be down the line now, and the solution is to just print more money? This is nuts! Doesn't anyone know there's a day of reckoning?

Secondly, the big three carmakers are paying wazoo salaries to CEOs. Certainly there's nothing wrong with paying well, except they are paid millions to lose billions. And CEO pay is not the only problem; unions pushed contracts that are impossible. Who actually thought they could pay Saturn workers in the Columbia, TN plant for a whole year NOT to work? How many generations do we need to go backward to find some common sense people who would have KNOWN that dog wouldn't hunt?

We need to be saved. Saved from leaders who turn out to be profiteers, making decisions based solely on their gain...saved from corporate's greedy who show no regard for faithful employees' pensionless future...and saved from Democratic Santas with faux compassion who legislated economic collapse and now turn around and point to Wall Street.

This IS a wonderful life, but we sure need more George Baileys. Wonder if even George's angel, Clarence Odbody, could tackle our complicated dilemma? These days the non-thinkers and corrupt thinkers seem to have outnumbered the rest of us. We need a man to step up to the plate and "do the right thing"...a patriotic leader who can problem solve and do it with good judgment and common sense.

God grant us one.

"'Come now, and let us reason together' says the Lord." Isaiah 1:18

BARACK OBAMA

Seems even-tempered...certainly not the temperament of a radical. Seems sophisticated...understanding global nuances. Seems accomplished...a Harvard lawyer and United States Senator.  Seems to call for change...at just a glance he embodies change.  So what's all this about obamanation?  

Breathe in.  Get a whiff of The Wizard of Oz.  Remember how the front didn't match what was behind the curtain?

See with pragmatic eyes.  "Change" will come out of Chicago's corruption? See with spiritual eyes.  He found Christ where?  He took his little girls where?  See with eyes researching the records.  Senator Obama was unbridled in his votes for all abortions, even the worst type.  No one dared go that far left...no one but Barack Obama.

Now in our country we have reached for a man because he is black and because he offers hope. Those in the womb might argue about the hope part.  We have logged in a racial vote...to show we are not racist.  We have asked for a man whose "pro-choice" vote is an abomination to our Maker.

When theocratic Israel demanded a king, God gave them what they wanted.  Ah, the heady empowerment of free will.  Now we have asked for and received our choice.  But perhaps you are saying..."but I didn't vote for him!"  Either way, we are in this together.

At Christmas, no one wants doom and gloom.  But this is no ordinary year and we need to be on our knees praying for this man from a very bumpy upbringing who has landed at the top with quite a lapful.  If Scripture is right, the king's heart is in Jehovah's hands.  And like water, Jehovah God can turn it wherever He wants.  We need to be begging the Lord to change the heart of this man...to give favor to whatever godly voice might be available to our President-elect's ear...and to have mercy on our country.

"if My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land."  2 Chronicles 7:14

WEANED ON HATE

It breaks my heart to see videos of children in Muslim countries who are brought up in schools where all they hear are untruths about Westerners.  They are taught to hate something that they really know very little about.  My frustration for them is that I wonder how they can ever learn to evaluate if all they hear is one side.  And besides, how hard is it to hate?  Doesn't hating come a lot easier than loving?  The extreme madrasahs are factories for little haters, ripe for the next escalation.

Surprisingly, here at home we have experienced in the last eight years a similar phenomenon.  There are several "schools" who instruct in our country...our liberal universities and politicians, but mostly, the media.  Collectively they flood many hateful untruths about our president and our country.  The things they say are spoken and repeated and repeated until they seem like fact.  Charles Krauthammer calls this hostility "Bush Derangement Syndrome".  President Bush does not defend himself against the defamation. Perhaps it is his idea that such nonsense should not be dignified with an answer.  I've learned a lot about grace under fire from George Bush.  He may not have done everything I wanted the president to do...but when all is said and done, he led our country through a crunching time that could have sucked America down the drain.  He was strong on his watch.  He kept us safe.

And what about the haters?  They seem victorious because they took W's approval numbers to single digits.  Their spew, which went largely unchallenged, caused people who do not research and think critically...to hate and then hate some more.  It is pure evil to fan that flame.  Now these Bush-haters all but foam at the mouth as they deride a good man.  We have to listen as everything (including the weather) is blamed on him.  Unfortunately, their lack of honest discourse and civility has damaged the office of the presidency.

But the presidency is not the only thing that has suffered under these libels.  Just as the little Muslim children are affected and their life's course determined by their hatred...so hate will eat away the insides of an American who sets his/her heart against another person and willfully chooses to enjoy hating and destroying.  President Bush will soon be back in Texas with his wife who adores him.  His career took him to the pinnacle of power and service.  George Bush will have the confidence that he has pleased the Lord to the best of his ability.  He can smile at the future.

What will the haters do with their well-oiled fountain of venom?

"'Let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,'  declares the Lord."  Zechariah 8:17

THE NEW JERUSALEM

Mike gave me a cross that I wear almost every day.  He bought it after we finished our Revelation study.  It says "Jerusalem" on the front and it makes me think about the new Jerusalem and what's ahead one day.  I'm grateful that the Lord left us a description of His coming kingdom to encourage our hearts; He knew we would need to have our eyes lifted toward the prize.  Here are some thoughts from our study that I love to run over in my mind.

Our teaching leader is named Bill and he told us about a time when he was in the family engine-rebuilding business.  He said that such a business was not all that glamorous, but it did afford a nice perk...a trip to a piston rings convention in Europe.  Bill's dad was not interested in going and so Bill and his brother went and took their wives.  They all tried to talk their dad into going along.  But the dad said he had been to Florida and California twice, so why would he want to go to Europe?

When the four travelers came home, they brought slides and stories about what Europe had been like.  And Bill said, "I must have done a better job of selling Europe than I realized because the next year he and my mother WENT!"  Then Bill continued..."in this chapter of the Revelation, God has done a wonderful job of telling us what it will be like so we will want to go".

I LOVED that.

Also, Bill said that when he and April were first married, they were in school up in Fayetteville and lived in a 350 square foot apartment.  The first time the parents came to visit, they spent three days cleaning to get ready.  At this point I am already killing myself laughing about meeting "in-law expectations" and the length of time to clean 350 square feet.  So Bill says he goes in and April is cleaning the commode for about the third time.  She's standing on her head getting under the rim.  And Bill says "why are you doing THAT?"  April replied "my mother will look".  He says "you are crazy, she won't look THERE!".  But later Bill goes by the bathroom door and catches his mother-in-law inspecting.

Bill went on to explain, "we spent THREE days in preparation for our parent's visit.  God has spent TWO THOUSAND YEARS preparing a place for us!"  

These thoughts and all the other new thoughts collected from the book of Revelation have renewed our minds.  I guess my previous understanding of heaven had been that I would "go up" somewhere.  Now I have a different scenario of what the Lord will do as He makes a new heaven and new earth...and the New Jerusalem.  For me personally, just reading about all the precious stones in the city was a trip.  I'm a beader and I find it exciting NOW to drive to North Little Rock and look around in the bead shop.  One day I will have access to dazzling colors and varieties of precious stones that exist to declare God's creativity and reflect His glory.  I can just "see" the gold pavement and clear sparkly jewels.

Our Revelation study has increased our sight and made us thirsty for the city whose builder is God. 

"And the city (the new Jerusalem) has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb." Revelation 21:23