When did you let go?
One thing you can count on about life is there will always be change. You drive by the house of your youth and it never looks the same. That small little tree you planted with your father now reaches into the sky. That big pile of dirt down the street, that you use to think was a mountain, is now level and a school sits on that lot. Yeah, everything changes.
Recently one of my uncles died. He had been sick for quite a while. He was my Dad’s older brother. I must admit, I hadn’t seen him in many years. But I do have a lot of very fond memories of him on trips we took to see him and his family. He always went out of his way to show our family a good time.
My Dad and Mom wanted to go to the service his family was having for him in New Mexico. This involved flying from BWI to Albuquerque. It was rather short notice, so my parents needed to get things together pretty quickly. It was through this process, for the first time, I had an eye opening notice pass in front of me.
It hit me when I took my parents to the airport. They were standing in line to go through security. I stood there watching them. I watched them hand their boarding passes to the agent. Then I watched them actually go through the security. I didn’t leave until I saw they made it to the other side and slowly drifted up the terminal and out of sight. I don’t believe they even knew I was there watching them.
My heart turned a little soft and I felt a tear well up in my eye. I knew it was time for me to leave and get my mind on something else. If I stayed there any longer, I knew I would feel the pain of their hand slipping out of mine.
When you’re a little kid, it is always a great comfort to have one of your parents hold your hand. Whether you are scared or you are just looking for their approval, there is something about your parent’s strength that brings you confidence. The rest of the world may look at them as just people, but you look at them as super heroes.
Then you start getting older and you develop a life of your own, apart from them. You suffer through the trials, the triumphs, and the everyday lessons of life. They are always there for you; loving you no matter what stupid things you do. And when things get really tough or you do those stupid things, you can always find a listening ear, words of wisdom, and that comforting hand to hold once again.
I helped them, over the phone, pick out a flight to take to New Mexico. They had question after question. Not flying all that much myself, I would look up the information and email it to them. They finally picked a flight and they had their ticket information ready when I arrived to take them to the airport. When we got to the airport I found parking that was reasonably close. I walked them through the boarding pass and baggage process. We got their luggage tagged and checked in. Then I walked them over to the line where they stood to go through security.
It was as they stood in that line that I saw them, for the first time, getting older. They no longer had all the answers to the questions I asked. No, I was the one who was answering their questions. It was the first time in my life that I felt like they needed me more than I needed them. It was a weird feeling to be the one with the hand to hold.
“Beep! Beep!” went the sound of the horn. The older couple in the car just smiled as the motorist passed them by. Another couple came up on them, too. “Hey, that looks like someone famous,” the husband said to the wife. “Yeah, it does, but wouldn’t they at least have a personal driver?” the wife replied.
Retirement is one of those blessing most of us hope we can live comfortably through. We have worked so hard for all those years and we just want the chance to enjoy life without all the stress. He was no different.
He was a Senator. He had been a Senator for ten years. Party leaders convinced the President to dump his current Vice President and the President picked this Senator as his running mate. The President was reelected. Two months and twenty days into that term the President died and the former Senator was now the President of the United States. Almost four years later he was elected to his own term. When the next four year cycle came around he decided he had had enough and decided against running for reelection.
This decision to retire probably came from the fact that his life in the White House was one of the most eventful of the former residents. He got us out of one war, only to get us in another one. One of the generals from one of those wars decided to run for President and he criticized his handling of the second war we were now involved in. It was the start of a long cold relationship between the two of them.
It might be the greatest sign of maturity in the whole Bible. It’s the story of an older brother really getting tired of antics of a younger brother. The older brother was probably justified in his feelings because the father really did show favoritism to the younger son. And the younger son wasn’t afraid to flaunt it.
I can hear him now, “I’m Dad’s favorite! I’m Dad’s favorite! You better not mess with me because I’m Dad’s favorite!” This older brother wasn’t the only one who was disturbed by the younger son’s behavior. No, there were nine other brothers who were just as upset. In fact, there was only one brother who wasn’t upset and that was probably because he was too little to experience the taunting yet.
Joseph’s brothers would sell him into slavery to get rid of this pesky nuisance. The brothers’ joy, at finally ridding themselves of that brother, was quickly extinguished by their father’s broken heart.
Joseph would have the opportunity to get his revenge on his brothers, though. After he became one of the strongest leaders in Egypt, his brothers came to buy some food during a severe drought. They did not recognize him. He set them up by having some valuable items stashed in the younger brother’s grain bag without them having any knowledge of what he was doing. This made it look like the brother stole the items. He acted like he was very upset at them. He ordered the guards to arrest his younger brother, Benjamin.
Judah, one of the older brothers, pleaded with Joseph to release the younger brother. “Take me! Take me! I just can’t bear my father’s pain over the loss of another son. It will kill him and it will be my fault because I didn’t take extra good care of his youngest son,” Judah would beg.
Joseph would see the reform and regret in his older brother’s eyes and he would have to leave the room for fear of them seeing him breakdown. Judah, for his part, no longer, selfishly, looked for a hand to hold. No, he was looking to offer his hand to his father and his brother, Benjamin.
The new President was just inaugurated. The former Senator, turned President, was now an ex-President. After all the ceremonies, his body guard took him to Union Station in Washington DC where he would board a train to head home. The body guard would shake his hand and say his goodbyes. The ex-President was now, literally, just an average American. There was no more body guard, driver, housekeepers, secretaries and all the other staff he had when he was President. Nor was there a pension he could rely on.
His hometown couldn’t even afford to offer him police protection. Whenever he would go out to eat or even go to the store, crowds would push against him. He had no bodyguards to push them away. He even had to drive himself around and would have people honk, wave and yell out his name as he drove down the road. At home, he had 7000 letters from people and he had to personally respond to each one.
Harry S Truman was a man of very modest means. He did not have the funds to hire anyone to help him or protect him. Once there was even a crazy man who came up to the gate in front of their home. He demanded to see Truman. The police were called and the man was found with a loaded .45 revolver.
Harry Truman had held the nation’s hand through some of our roughest years. His decision to drop the bombs on Japan, which quickly lead to the end of World War II, was one of the very tough decisions he had to make. Then a new war, a war with North Korea, would send his popularity to the basement. He never believed he should run again anyway, but he probably would have lost to Eisenhower anyway. There were no perks, like there are today, for ex-Presidents.
In 1958, Congress, probably with a little encouragement from Truman, passed the Former Presidents Act. Two former Presidents were alive at the time: Harry Truman and Hebert Hoover. The Act provided a lifetime of Secret Service protection. The Act also provided a taxable pension to be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury. The Act also provided funds for staff and office needs. The Act entitled the former Presidents to medical treatment in military hospitals.
Sometimes we get so dependent on others to help us through life, we forget that they aren’t the only ones that have hands that are capable of helping. Whether we are called to help the parents who have always been there for us, or we are that brother that realizes life isn’t only about us, or we, as a nation, realize we do need to help our Presidents who have, whether we agree with them or not, served and worked hard to make this a better country. We need to be grateful for those who offer us a hand to hold and sometimes we need to be the one offering our hand to hold.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Thank You so much for placing me in a family with such loving parents. Thanks that they have always had their hands there ready to help me. Please let my hands always be there to help them or others You call me to help. Amen.
