Your breakfast is getting cold
My breakfast is sitting in front of me, yet my thoughts are on distant things. I try to shift back to the present, but those thoughts howl at me and I turn back in their direction. Distracted, upset and confused, I look at my eggs and take a bite. Such are moments consumed with despair.
Life’s residence is not always atop those high mountain peaks. Sometimes they are focused on that flooded basement in the lowland’s storms. We want the water gone, but, despite our efforts, it just doesn’t seem to get any better. We want life to be different. We want the bad things to head for closest exit.
Thomas Eddy was the Treasurer of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. His company was in real financial trouble. He was having trouble navigating his cargo through the rivers. The alternative was a long trip that cost about $100 a ton to move. He teamed up with Jonas Platt and took an idea, first proposed by Joshua Forman (a member of the New York State Assembly), and decided to push the idea of a canal. They preferred a route that would end at Lake Ontario because it was much closer to their land interest, but they also proposed an alternative route to Lake Erie. But they needed some political clout, some political muscle. Here’s where the mayor of New York City steps into our story.
DeWitt Clinton was the mayor of New York City several different times between 1803 and 1815. He was part of the commission that was established to determine the feasibility of this task of building a new, expensive canal. New York was excited, for the most part, about the idea. In need of funding, Clinton headed to Washington DC to present his idea to the US Congress. He found a very favorable response and before you knew it a bill for funds was headed to President Madison’s desk. President Madison vetoed the bill because he found it unconstitutional. For this project only benefitted the state of New York.
The castle of Shushan sat in a distant land that was ruled by King Artaxerxes. He was an exile and the cupbearer for King Artaxerxes. Kinsman had visited him and told him of the destruction and discouragement covering his homeland. His once beautiful city was now in near ruins. It all made him quite sad.
The world was King Artaxerxes’ and if you had any sense about you, you would be wise to remember that. Any little thing that could set him off could be the death of you. With someone like this you had basically one choice: put on your happy face despite your condition. If you made him unhappy you might not be around to feel your next heartbeat.
Politics can be such an ugly sport. The grasp for power can lead a man to demons that want to tame all who cross his path. They confuse public welfare with personal ambition. They crush discussion, unless it touts their ways. It was in this manner our future president roars into the scene. As a fellow New Yorker he was not too keen on Clinton’s Ditch, as some referred to the canal project. But, being the ultimate politician, he sensed the mood of the citizens of New York and switched to liking the idea.
One of the biggest problems our politician had with the project was that he wasn’t a big fan of DeWitt Clinton. The Spoils System was the prize the Tammany Society and the Bucktails most treasured. He was a member of both the Tammany Society and the Bucktails. The Bucktails were a fraction of the Democratic-Republican Party in New York State. It is said the Bucktail name came from the bucktail worn on the headgear that was adopted as the “official badge” of the Tammany Society. The Spoil System was a method of political rule that basically stated if your party won the election, it got to pick people for all the government jobs. So if you were a mailman before the election and your party lost the election, you probably were not a mailman after the election. Our politician knew how to work this system very well. In fact, he acquired the nickname of the Little Magician because of the magic he was able to perform under these conditions.
Like I said, he was no fan of DeWitt Clinton, so he had him in his political crosshairs. He and his fellow Bucktails won the election and voted DeWitt Clinton off his prized canal committee. Clinton had to be heart broken. Now the Bucktails could take the credit for a popular project they originally opposed.
The cupbearer couldn’t get over his sadness as he was about to enter the king’s presence. The king saw his sadness and asked him what was wrong. When someone as powerful as King Artaxerxes asked you something, you are very limited in the amount of time before you had to give him an answer. So what did sad Nehemiah, the cupbearer, do with those few seconds he had before he had to answer the king’s question concerning his sadness? If you look very closely you will see the shortest prayer in the Bible. In those couple of breaths he took before he answered, he prayed. Then Nehemiah told King Artaxerxes that his sadness related to the destruction of his homeland and of his dream of the great wall once again surrounding his beloved city of Jerusalem.
They are moments of discouragement, moments of despair, when no light seems possible to enter our dark, gloomy soul. Our eggs are getting cold because our thoughts are more focused on our torn hearts than our hungry stomachs. Our canals aren’t getting dug and our walls aren’t being restored. What’s worse? Our life seems to be drained of purpose. What is a soul to do?
I think the answer lies with Nehemiah. He prayed and God answered. You see, King Artaxerxes wrapped his arm around Nehemiah to comfort him, but he also let him use the royal credit card to purchase the material he needed for construction of the wall. He didn’t offer him execution but protection to his beloved Jerusalem where he could oversee the reconstruction. Although Nehemiah faced plenty more obstacles before the wall was completed, God’s answered prayer got him the start he needed to begin the project.
DeWitt Clinton might have gotten the last laugh with our Little Magician, too. DeWitt Clinton was elected governor of New York and he must have had a huge smile on his face when he set sail on the ship, the Seneca Chief, during the grand opening of the Erie Canal. That $100 a ton cargo trip would now cost about $10 a ton. Martin Van Buren, the Little Magician, must have been beside himself as his political enemy reemerged a hero.
I was caught a little off guard today as I had lunch with my wife. I told her I was actually a little excited about the upcoming week. This is probably the first time in weeks she has heard me utter these words about a Monday morning. When I started this blog, I was heading to a meeting I was really dreading. I stopped for breakfast when the efforts of Nehemiah entered my mind. I followed his lead and did the only thing I could think of: I prayed. To my surprise, the meeting went well and, even more surprising, I’m now looking forward to a Monday.
Prayer doesn’t always drain the water out of the basement right away. Sometimes things don’t seem to change at all. Then one morning you wake up to the smell of fresh brewed coffee. You look out the window and somehow the wall got built or the canal got dug, despite the Van Burens or King Artaxerxeses that stood in your path. And boy, do the eggs taste good that morning!
Prayer: Father, We have moments where life really gets us down. Hope seems a long way off. Please help me to never forget that hope is just a prayer away. Amen!
