I Forgot
I have many fond memories growing up. Some of my fondest memories are of my family when we went on vacation. My Dad would usually take two weeks off work at the end of August. Many times we would trek across the country in our car. We usually camped along the way.
One of our destinations was New Mexico. My father was born in New Mexico and his mother and his brother both lived there. Grannie, my grandmother, lived in Clovis, New Mexico. My uncle, Melvin, lived in Albuquerque. We would sometimes stop in Illinois at my aunt’s house. Often my aunt’s family and our family would form a caravan and head from Illinois to New Mexico.
New Mexico is a huge state. It is said that people have lived in New Mexico for thousands of years. The Mogollon and Anasazi were the ancestors to the Pueblo, the Native American tribes that thrived there. Today, in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the Native American culture is a huge tourist attraction.
In 1540, Francisco Vazquez de Coronado arrived, searching for the fabled seven cities of gold. He never found any gold, but, by 1598, he could claim New Mexico as a colony of Spain. One of the goals of these explorers was to convert these “savages” into Christians. Popè, a Pueblo leader, was able to push the Spanish out for a short time, but the Spanish would come back.
When Mexico gained its independence from Spain, New Mexico was one of Mexico’s provinces. The United States acquired most of New Mexico from the Mexican-American War. The southern part of the state was acquired as part of the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. New Mexico did not become a state until 1912. It entered the Union as the 47th state.
Despite its association with Mexico, to me, New Mexican food has a little bit of a different tastes than regular Mexican food. Don’t get me wrong, I like them both, but there is something special about New Mexican food. Maybe it just brings back memories, or maybe there is a little bit of a difference, but there is just something in New Mexican food that taste a little more special.
In Northern Virginia there is an eight-restaurant chain. This restaurant chain is called Anita’s and their biggest advertisement is that they serve New Mexican dishes. They also have a great breakfast of New Mexican dishes. When they opened a restaurant close to where I lived, it became one of my “go-to” breakfast places when I was taking a day off work.
Anita, Phil and their son Tom started the restaurant in 1974. Two of their secret ingredients are green and red chili peppers and their sauces that include them. Phil had to transfer to Virginia, from New Mexico, because of his Postal Service job and Anita missed her New Mexico home cooking, so they decided to open a restaurant to share their New Mexican cuisine heritage.
Sadly, I was not able to get to the Anita’s closest to me very often and apparently there weren’t too many other New Mexican food fans in the area. Anita’s closed that location nearest to me. My heart was broken when it turned into a 7-11.
One day, my wife and I were driving down Interstate 95 and my wife looked over in the direction where my former restaurant once sat. She said, “What was the name of that restaurant?” I thought and I thought, and then I thought some more. I could not remember the name of the restaurant.
Finally, after much frustration in trying to remember, I asked my wife to look up Mexican restaurants in Leesburg, Virginia. I knew there was still one there. She read through the list and both of us knew when she said, “Anita’s,” that I would now be able to get a good night’s sleep.
It was one of those defining moments in our history. Just like today, we were at each other’s throats. The election was just completed and most people sensed that it wasn’t going to get any better. The man who won the Presidential election was, at the very least, perceived as more of a divider than a unifier. Boy, was this going to be a long four years!
The election itself was a total mess. He was one of four candidates in the general election. His name wasn’t even on all the ballots in every state. If you added the other three candidates vote totals together, he would have lost by almost a million votes (953,214 to be exact). The entire population of the United States at the time was just a little over 31 million. Yet here he was, President-elect of the United States.
The man who would soon become the President of the United States was a very entertaining speaker. People would come from miles around to hear his speeches. He would write those speeches himself.
The future President knew these were very trying times for our nation. Although he had some very strong beliefs on the biggest issue that was dividing us, it broke his heart that we just didn’t seem to be able to get along with each other. He decided to put some of his heart into his inauguration speech in hopes that he could stir that patriotic spirit in even those who opposed him.
Our future President was also a bit of a family man. As a lawyer, he was often on the road. At that time, that was about the only way you could make a living in that occupation. When he was home, though, he loved playing with his kids.
The future President’s oldest son was named Robert. Robert wanted to attend Harvard. Harvard was the gold standard of college education at the time. At the time, you had to interview to attend Harvard. Let’s just say Robert’s interview did not go well and Harvard would not admit him. Robert was very disappointed.
It was decided that Robert would attend Phillips Exeter Academy. Phillips was like a prep school for those who wanted to attend Harvard. Greats, like Daniel Webster and President Pierce, attended Phillips. Most of the students who attended Phillips were very prepared when they interviewed at Harvard and most gained admittance to Harvard once they completed their education at Phillips. Robert was no exception. As soon as he finished at Phillips he was successful at gaining admittance to Harvard.
It was during Robert’s schooling transition that Robert’s father ran for the Presidency and won the general election. Robert, who was rather modest, would have to endure his new crowned celebrity status. He would gain the nickname of “The Prince of Rails.”
Robert’s father was very proud of his son. When Robert would come home for visits, his father would spend time with him and even discuss some of the issues he was facing. Robert was like a trusted advisor to his father. Although Robert was probably very mature and very responsible, he was still just seventeen years old at the time of his father’s election.
Sometimes I feel like the Bible has taken a story right out of my own life and slapped it on its pages. I find myself saying, “Oh, yeah! I know exactly what you are talking about. I’ve been there and done that.”
One thing that frustrates me more than anything is when I misplace something. My wife will sometimes help me look for the item I misplaced, but sometimes, when my frustration gets the best of me, she knows to just let me look by myself. She will go into another part of the house to stay out of my way until I return to my “normal” self.
My frustration, with losing something, sometimes gets compounded by my “knowing” where I last had the item I misplaced. Of course, it is never there because then there would be no need to be frustrated. To keep my sanity, I begin a frantic search. The search will not end until I find the lost item. It seems that the more determined I get the less likely I am to find the missing item.
About this time, I’m not real pleasant to be around. My wife has probably resorted to hiding mode. I have swept the scene like a thorough crime investigator. When I get this way, most of my efforts are in vain.
It is about this time that I have to have a little talk to myself. You might think talking to yourself is strange, but at about this point, I’m the only person who will talk to me. Nine times out of ten I tell myself, “Just walk away for a little while and things will be clearer.” Nothing else is working, so I will usually listen to myself at this point.
The strange thing about walking away for a little while is that when I return to my search, I almost always go to the missing item. The place I “knew” it was at becomes the “Oh, I remember moving it over there.” No matter how small the item is, I just feel like celebrating when I find it.
As a trusted advisor, the future President probably discussed with his son, Robert, some of the ideas he had for his inauguration speech. I’m sure the future President wanted to cure our divide and give the greatest speech ever. The future President would write and rewrite the speech several times. When it was completed it would be the fifth longest inauguration speech up to that point. Even after the speech, there would only be five more inauguration speeches in our history that would be longer than that one was.
Finally, the President-elect would put the speech in a black oilcloth handbag for safe keeping. He would tell no one what was in the handbag, not even Robert. He then handed the handbag to Robert with only the simple instructions of, “Take care of it.”
The President-elect’s long ride by train route from his hometown to Washington was changed when information became available that there were serious indications that the President-elect’s life might be in danger. Robert and his two brothers would take the original train and then the father would be on a different train that would take a different route.
Robert and his two brothers were having so much fun with all the attention and celebrations. Young kids, at every stop, elevated Robert to celebrity status. When Robert and his brothers arrived in Indianapolis their room wasn’t ready. Robert wanted to go out into town and celebrate with some of the others his own age. So they unloaded their baggage and let the clerk store the luggage behind the counter. Off Robert went.
The President-elect arrived at the hotel a little bit after his sons. He looked around for Robert, but Robert was nowhere to be found. The father started to get a little concerned. Finally Robert was tracked down and brought to the hotel.
After the father saw that Robert didn’t have the handbag with him he frantically asked him where the bag was. Robert told him he guessed it was behind the hotel clerk’s counter. Where was the speech that the President-elect hoped was going to save the nation? Was the speech laid on the ground just like luggage in a cargo area? The dream of a national recovery rested on that speech.
The President-elect darted to the counter like he was racing for a gold medal in the Olympics. The clerk started unlocking bags. One bag opened, nothing there. Another bag opened, nothing there. Finally, after about nine different bags had been opened, there was the black oilcloth handbag. One aide said it was the only time in his life that he ever saw the President-elect mad.
Our Bible story tells the tale of a woman who knew my frustrations in losing something. She has just ten silver coins. Then one of the coins goes missing. The missing coin caused her to become very frustrated.
The woman looks here and there and fails to find the item she has lost. The story doesn’t really go into details of what her frustrations involved, but you just don’t experience happiness in finding a lost item if that item is found right away. That lost items needs to be lost for a little bit and you need to feel the pain of “knowing” where you last had it in order to experience real joy in its recovery.
And pure joy is exactly what she experiences when she finds it. The Bible says that when she finds it she calls all her friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.”
President-elect Abraham Lincoln faced the biggest crisis in our nation’s history since its inception. He did not win a single southern state in the election of 1860 and he wasn’t even on the ballot in most of them. If the three Democratic candidates, who ran against him in the general election, had joined forces and just had one candidate, we would probably not be talking about what a great President he was. Almost everyone believes if the Democrats settled on one candidate, Lincoln would have lost the election of 1860.
Abraham Lincoln was known as the “Railsplitter” candidate when he was running for President. His downhome tales and his stories about his younger days when he was a rail splitter earned him that title. When he became President-elect, his oldest son, Robert, became known as the “Prince of Rails.”
Southern states started seceding once Lincoln was elected. Before he was even sworn in seven states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) had already left the Union. Four more states (Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee) would leave shortly after he was sworn in.
Lincoln believed we were a great country and we needed to be kept together despite our differences. He spent so much time on his inauguration speech hoping it would inspire the southern states to change their minds. The 3637 word speech spends most of it words trying to reassure the south that our differences weren’t greater than our strengths.
In Lincoln’s address he states: “Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this.”
Lincoln, toward the beginning of his address, tries to reassure the south that he is not a threat to them. Lincoln states: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” He suggests that changes should come through the Constitution and though the legal system.
Lincoln worked very hard on the speech because he knew it was an effort that was worth taking. For all of his efforts, his son didn’t understand the importance of the message his father gave him to carry. Robert Todd Lincoln even forgot where he left the message.
Sometimes, in life, we forget things, important things. We forget things like the name of that old favorite restaurant, or where we placed the silver coin, or even where the little black bag, that holds the Presidential address, is. That forgetting often causes us, or someone else, much pain. When our eyes spot the lost item or our minds remember it was, our hearts feel like rejoicing.
Sometimes we forget the most important thing in our life: God. That loss creates the biggest hole in our spirits. We complain that He is not listening. We try “so hard” to hear His voice, yet we just go ahead and try to search “our way.” We get frustrated when we can’t remember how He has saved us before. We turn over every rock thinking that it will yield our missing piece. We get upset with others who don’t respect the things we value or they don’t understand our stress at its misplacement. But sometimes our biggest mistake is to forget the most important piece: God.
Maybe instead of placing God where He can be lost, we should place Him in front of our life where he can always be seen. Maybe, instead of relying on our memory, we should turn toward God and let Him place the things that are important to Him where they can never be misplaced. Maybe the answer is not in the people we trust, but in the Lord we trust.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Please be with me in those moments of frustration. Instead of me looking to find the missing piece, let me look to You to guide me in the right direction. Please keep me calm and keep me focused. Amen.
