Lunch and a Show
“Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.” Matthew 27:54 KJV
I have really been enjoying my retired life. Gone are the fears of getting bored. In fact, I think I’m going to have to tap on the brakes a little bit. Maybe I was so afraid of getting bored that I have been planning out things to do for every minute.
This week my wife and I decided to take in a show at a dinner theater in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was a cute little show called Margaritaville and it basically blends many Jimmy Buffet songs into a single show.
As I sat at our table, when we first arrived, I noticed one of the band members carrying in several cases with several different instruments. One by one he unloaded them. Then he carried the cases back outside so he would have room in the small band area they set up.
The stage was a pretty elaborate setup. It was set up like a wharf with a Tiki Bar in the back. The stage was much higher than any of the shows I have seen there before. We were seated in one of the front tables which meant we had to look way up to actually see the “stage” the actors and actresses would be performing on.
From our seats you could tell the stage sat up a foot or two from its normal height. The front of the stage was made to look like a wharf and some piers. The further you looked back under the wharf you could see that they used 2×4’s to raise the stage. They painted the 2×4’s black and this gave the illusion that they were just more piers.
Before the show started, I decided to take a bathroom break. I walked past the area where the band was staged, which was on the opposite side from where we were sitting. When I came back from the bathroom I stopped by where the band was going to play, and I saw the young man who was carrying all those instruments in.
The young band member was trying to arrange all the instruments. I asked him how many instruments he played. He responded, “For this show, I play nine.” Now he really had my curiosity up. How was he going to keep track of all those instruments? I couldn’t wait for the show to start, if for no other reason than to watch him do his craft.
Right from the start the show was lively, bouncy, and fun. I didn’t have much time to look over at the band member I talked to. Then there came a moment in the show where there was a lot of dancing, fast movement, and a lot of different instruments. It was in that moment my thoughts turned toward the band member I talked to before the show. “This would be a great song to see him work his magic,” I thought.
As I turned my attention toward the band member, I had a hard time seeing him. The piers had blocked my direct vision of him. I turned my head a little bit to get a better look. A tear was about to come out of my eye, and I had to look away. “This happy song has no place for tears,” I thought.
Many, including myself, have wondered how our nation has gotten into such a mess. We can’t seem to agree on anything. It’s not just a conservative versus liberal, republican versus democrat, conflict. It’s abortion, legalizing marijuana, what to teach or not teach our kids in school, urban verses rural, racial divide, and on and on you could go. No one seems to see the big picture as anything other than their own way.
How did we get here? Surprisingly, it’s not unusual for us. What often happens, when you look back on our history, is we tend to look at the “good times” and think of them as normal times. Quite frankly, our “good times” are usual a period when we have a strong leader who offers us a vision, we all buy into. That buying into is not directed at one group, but our nation as a whole.
The problem, right now, is we haven’t had that type of leader in a long time. We have had a lot of leaders convincing a little more than half of their people to stubbornly stick by their “principles” and in the long run it is going to be better for the nation. In other words, there is no room for opposing views.
Deadlock is often what results from that sort of stubbornness. Stubbornness is a strange animal. You would think that stubbornness would reach a point where it realizes it must give a little to get what it mostly wants. Instead, stubbornness plants its feet in concrete and refuses to move. The more it gets challenged, the more concrete it demands around its base.
No one wins. In fact, everyone loses.
We start to resent our neighbors. Our differences become bigger than our similarities. One opposing thought can change our opinion of someone else. “It’s us versus them,” becomes our battle cry.
The Bible is full of happy stories as well as sad ones. There are stories that convict us and there are stories that leave us puzzled. Often, we are eager to cast judgment on some of the Biblical characters, but I highly doubt many of us could do much better in the situations they faced than they did.
One of the puzzling ones to me is Peter denying he knew Jesus three times when Jesus was arrested and put on trial. Why did Jesus pick three times? If a curious Peter was determined to go see Jesus’ trial, why did he not do a better job disguising himself? If he thought a revolution was going to start, why didn’t he have any weapons, backup, or courage?
One of the convicting stories for me would have to be when the religious leaders tried to trap Jesus with the woman caught in adultery. Basically, they said to Him, “Prove Yourself. If you are this great Messiah, and You can clearly see that his woman has greatly sinned, You start the punishment of her by throwing a stone at her. Then we will see You as a man of justice.”
Jesus didn’t even look up at them when He offered his comment. He said, “If it is justice you want, then you throw the first stone. But remember, that in order to do that, you first must not be guilty of sin yourself.”
Wow! Just think of the consequences of that. Let’s get personal for a moment and apply that truth. If you don’t want people gossiping about you, don’t gossip about them. How about, you don’t want people to take advantage of you, don’t take advantage of them? It can also be applied to blessings: if you want God to bless you, be a blessing to others.
Sad stories could include Cain killing Abel, or even Noah having to leave everyone who mocked him or didn’t believe him to their upcoming deaths. Happy stories could include Jesus healing people or raising them from the dead.
Why would such a happy show, you might think, cause me a moment of sadness? Well, I remembered another show I saw here. I sat in about that same spot that band member was now performing. See, the stage and band area had pushed out into the dining area. The table I sat at, during that show, was at about the exact same spot as this band pit now resided.
During that show, my wife and I had taken my Dad and Mom, and her Dad and Mom to see a show. I believe it was a Christmas gift we gave them. That was another great show, and everyone seemed to have a great time.
It was a good thing we picked that day to celebrate, because the next day they were calling for a big snowstorm. When the show was over, there was a light snow that had already fallen on the ground. After my parents had gotten back home, they called to tell me that they got home safely.
The very next morning I got a frantic call from my Dad. He had lost his wedding ring. He said he had searched the house and car over and over again. He was sure he lost it at the theater. Now my panicked father was going to head back over here, and he wanted me to go with him, in the snow, to the theater and see if we could find it.
I’m not afraid of too many things but driving in the snow is one of those things that might just be on that fear list. Once, when driving home from work on Interstate 95, during a bad snowstorm, I spun out of control. The only thing that kept me from going into a deep ravine was one of those wire guard rails. I remember thinking, as I was spinning and seeing that wire rail, “I hope it holds, I hope it holds.”
Now my Dad was determined we needed to go look at that very moment. So, when he got over to my house, we got in my car and we headed over to the theater. Slowly I went, but we got there. I called before we went to make sure someone was going to be there. I explained the story and they said no one had turned anything in, but we were certainly welcomed to come look.
My father was determined he lost it in the bathroom. So, it was off to the bathroom. We looked around and didn’t see it laying on the floor. My Dad looked at the trash can he threw his paper towel in, which hadn’t been emptied yet. He said he would look there. I told him I would go back to the table we sat at and see if he might have lost it there.
On my way to the table, I said a little prayer. I begged God to help us find my Dad’s wedding ring. I couldn’t stand to see my father in such distress. The theater area was a little dark, but it was lit well enough for me to see.
I looked across the table, which had pretty much been cleaned off, and saw nothing. I was about to give up hope when I decided to look under the table. I moved the chairs out so I could get a better look. To my great surprise, and relief, there it was: his ring.
Slowly I walked my way back to the restroom. I wanted my father to savor the moment that he was having with all those dirty paper towels. Not really. I headed back slowly because I was thanking God over and over again that my Dad’s ring had been found.
I have never seen such joy, and relief, as when I showed my Dad the ring I had found. All the way back to my house, it was all he could talk about. Little did I know that it would be one of the last shows I would see with my father. Of all the shows I have ever seen, this one, at least from a personal standpoint, definitely had the happiest ending.
As I looked over at the musician playing all those instruments, I thought not of the show I was seeing, but I thought of the choir my father must be listening to in heaven.
I think back to earlier in my life, one of those periods of great divide in our nation. Many saw the doom of the present as being something that pointed to our demise. “We are too broken, divided, or are we just too opinionated enough to be fixed,” was the thought process. Maybe democracy or even our nation itself had served its lifespan.
A hopeful solution didn’t seem possible. How could it? People were taking to the streets, buildings were getting burned, and no one seemed to like their neighbor. “It’s us versus them,” was the rallying call.
This was the period of the late sixties (1960’s) to the late seventies (1970’s). Just before this time, we seemed to be headed in the right direction. President Nixon, despite the Vietnam War, won the election of 1972 with over sixty percent of the popular vote. Ronald Reagan’s election victory in 1984, with over fifty-eight percent of the popular vote, is the only other recent presidential election since that time that has even come close to the sixty percent mark.
In a shock to the nation, our vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigns almost overnight with a quick forming scandal. Gerald Ford is selected to take Agnew’s place, but shortly after that process, President Nixon gets caught in the quicksand of Watergate. A little over two years after he incredibly received over sixty percent of the popular vote, Nixon resigns. Gerald Ford becomes president.
Ford tried to get the nation to look past Nixon’s resignation, but it was all the nation seemed to want to talk about. So, Ford stops the conversation by pardoning Nixon. Many cried, “Foul.” “Ford must have made a deal with Nixon,” many claimed. Ford’s popularity plummeted.
If that were the only problem, the nation might have been able to handle it. But in the backdrop, even before he took office, sat a nation of protest. Some were peaceful, many were not.
We think the racial protests of today are bad, back in these days the protesters, mostly in city areas, set the cities on fire. Police beating protesters and protesters looting and setting fire to stores filled the newscasts on TV.
The Vietnam War was also getting on everyone’s last nerve. College students were protesting, draftees were dodging the draft by going to Canada, and hardnosed opinions on the other side claimed communism was a cancer and if we didn’t stop it, it would consume us, too.
Then on April 30, 1975, Saigon fell, and the United States was forced into a final evacuation of the Vietnam War. The scenes of US helicopters rescuing scared individuals from rooftops left many questioning the mighty military strength of the United States.
Let’s add another element in the equation: inflation. It was totally out of control. Interest rates skyrocketed. No one’s paycheck seemed to keep up with the rising prices.
With all this doom one might expect a blow-out election in 1976. Nothing seemed to be working. There was not one place you could look and see a positive. After the Democratic Convention nominated Jimmy Carter, Carter had a 33% lead in the polls over the eventual Republican nominee, the current president, Gerald Ford.
To make matters worse for Ford, he did not come into the Republican Convention with enough delegates to secure the nomination. California Governor Ronald Reagan was challenging him, and Reagan just didn’t want to let go of his chance, however so slight, of being the Republican nominee himself. This was the last time one of the major parties opened the convention with the presidential nomination still being undecided. Ford would, however, claim the Republican nomination.
Ford would go on to lose the presidential election of 1976 to Carter. With all those bad things happening, you would have expected a blowout. It wasn’t. In fact, for only the second time in our history, a presidential candidate, Ford, won more states than his opponent, Carter, yet lost the election. Ford won 27 states and Carter only won 23, plus the District of Columbia.
Why was the election so close? One of the biggest reasons is an event that had actually started being planned for over ten years prior, in July 1966. On that date Congress created the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission. Congress thought there should be one huge event to celebrate America’s 200th birthday, which would have been on July 4, 1976.
But cities began to argue about who should host that event, what the event should actually look like, and a host of other things. After 6-1/2 years, Congress dissolved that Commission and instead form the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, which would encourage local communities to set up individual celebrations.
That Administration set in progress countless events that would occur between April 1, 1975, to July 4, 1976. They even came up with their own logo. Stamps and Coins donned the Bicentennial logo. Foreign countries even got excited about the celebration and many even issued stamps and coins of their own in America’s honor.
See, Gerald Ford didn’t close that 33-point gap by changing all the bad things happening around him. One of the major reasons Ford lowered that gap was by participating in Bicentennial celebrations across the country. Americans got to see their president appreciating the country we had, and we all had a chance to honor the sacrifice of those who got us going in the first place.
Even though Ford would be one of ten sitting presidents (as of 2023) to lose a presidential election, he captured 48% of the popular vote (Carter captured 50.1%).
One of the greatest facts about the Bible is that it is a story of love. Most of all, it is a story of God loving us so much that He would do almost anything to have a relationship with us. The funny thing is, during our worst moments, when things are absolutely not going our way, we forget about that love He has for us.
When times get rough and we are looking to cast blame, often the first place we go look to place that blame is Him. We see Him not as a loving God, but a God who lets bad things happen to us. The standards we set for God often mirror that of a spoiled child who doesn’t get his way. We pout, yell out outrageous personal insults, and refuse to stop until our emotions are satisfied.
Sometimes, I believe it is not answers we seek, but getting our way at all costs. Do we really want what is best for us, or are we just looking for the newest, greatest toy that in a few months will gather dust in our toy box? What have we done to cause or even improve the situation?
When we grieve or lose something close to our heart, we hurt. We are looking for answers. The present is often all we see. Why won’t a loving God fix this and fix it right now? Understanding and faith are not logical answers. In fact, if God wants the right answer, He should just ask us, or so we think.
One of the most puzzling things for people to understand, though, is why is it that young children die? They get no chance to live a full life. Their passing affects so many people, especially parents and siblings. To us it makes absolutely no sense.
One of the most famous characters in the Bible teaches us how God wants us to respond to those situations where we have absolutely no control. Even though our heart breaks and we can’t comprehend no better solution than our own, this character teaches us what true faith looks like.
In a somewhat controversial affair, one of the most unimaginable things happened. Chalk it up to carelessness or other reasons, this Bible character was faced with the problem of an unexpected pregnancy. What was he going to do? His reputation, his fame, or even his job could all be jeopardized by this act of carelessness.
He was the bigger man, though. There was never a question about what he was going to do. He realized integrity does not depend on how one might appear. No, integrity is who you actually are no matter what the conditions are around you.
So, the man decided he was going to be a dad, and a great one at that. He loved the little baby when he was born. The best father in the world was a title he was hoping to gain.
Then the most unimaginable thing happened. The baby got really sick, so sick it didn’t look like there was much of a chance that the baby would survive. So, the very distraught father turned to the only place he knew he could: God.
The father prayed and prayed and prayed. He stopped eating. Most believed he thought his world would be over if this child didn’t survive. Instead of getting better, the child took a turn for the worse and this poor little child died. In the days where it was a golden treat to have a son, the young boy was taken from this life way too soon.
No one knew how they were going to break the news to the father. If the father was so distraught with a hope, ever so small, that the child could survive, how would he take the news that the child had died. Most probably tried to put themselves in his shoes and tried to guess how they would respond.
I’m sure the person, or people, assigned to tell the father the news walked into his room with their nerves on edge. For the man they were going to tell this horrid news to was not just a man, he was a king. His name was David.
From David’s affair with Bathsheba there was given to them a son. The Bible never even mentioned the child’s name or even if he had been given one yet. Despite the entire situation of David’s affair with Bathsheba, David was determined to love this little boy.
When the little son becomes extremely ill, David goes to God and pleads with Him to spare the child. David refuses to eat and I’m sure, as emotional as David sometimes got, a few people saw David’s distress in the tears he shed.
Someone had to tell David that his little boy, the one he had pleaded with God to save, the one who he refused to take a bite of food until the little boy got better, the one that his heart was broken over, that this little boy did not survive. I’m sure no one wanted to be assigned that task.
Would this cause David to go into a deep depression? Could the bearer of such news fall to a king’s wrath for saddening him even more? How do you tell such news to someone you love so much, for all his subjects loved him?
David gives us one of the greatest examples of Biblical faith. When he heard the news, he lifts himself off the floor he had spent so much time praying on. The tears in his eyes get wiped away by the callus hands that had been worn by many battles. He shakes the dust off his robe as the scared attendant awaits David’s next move.
“How about getting me something to eat?” were his next words. Shocked, the world wondered how someone who had spent so much time in pain pleading for his little boy’s life, could even be thinking about something like food.
How could David behave such a way? There is just one word to explain it: faith. David explains to the people, “Why should I mourn any longer? I prayed to my God with all my heart for an answer and He gave it to me. Wasn’t it His choice, not mine? He, not I, knows what is best. He is a just God.”
Besides the touching story, where is our hope in a story like this one? Well, David goes in to console Bathsheba with her loss. After all, it was her son, too. From that encounter they have another healthy son. His name would be Solomon, one of the wisest men to ever live.
An even better part of that story is that through David’s and Solomon’s line would come our hope which we call Jesus. Jesus would teach us how to love, forgive, and live.
God Himself would feel the pain of death when His Son, Jesus, would die on a cross for us. One only needs to look at Matthew 27:54 (the verse at the beginning) to see how painful Jesus’ death was to God. God could have justly cried, “My Son, He doesn’t deserve this!” and He would have been absolutely right.
But God didn’t save His Son that way. Instead, He did the illogical thing and let His Son die on the cross. In the long run, He knew that was the best way to give all His children a path to foreverness in heaven.
When we look around it is very easy to see our country, and the world, as something that is falling apart. It’s easier to blame it on others and to shout, “If they would only listen to me and do ….” It’s much harder to look for good, especially in others, when they only seem to do what “we know” won’t work.
A play and a ring reminded me that life is short and the big picture isn’t about our time here on earth. President Ford reminds me that we live in a great nation with a great history. It is a rich history in itself that should encourage me to get along and love my neighbor. David taught me that it’s not about me. It’s about that loving God who let His own Son die so that I may one day experience that true paradise.
One final thought. Ten years before our Bicentennial, Congress decided to form a commission to celebrate our 200th birthday. It is already 2023, three years before our 250th birthday, and I have not heard a single word about a big birthday celebration. Isn’t it time we had a party to celebrate what we’ve got opposed to throwing stones at each other over our differences?
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, I look around our country and I see all the division. I’m sad, because all the greatness and beauty You have given us is getting overshadowed by our selfishness of just getting our way. Please help us to desire to help each other rather than rip each other apart. Amen.
