On the rebound
It was a long, lonely night in the motel room. Everything I worked for seemed to be falling apart. I was confused and I didn’t understand. “Why me?” was my cry.
Yes, the view from the top is grand, but if you get too close to the ridge, the fall can be rough. You don’t worry about how much the pain hurts when the fall ends. The pain of each little rock you hit, on your descent, has to be the worst pain ever. That is, until you hit the next rock. Despite your thoughts, you can’t fully understand the true effects of the fall until you hit the rock at the bottom.
There is a description written on most passenger side mirrors. It read: “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” This might describe the feeling in America in the 1940s and 1950s. With World War II coming to a close you would think the winners would have had a team spirit of celebration of their victory over the Nazis. Such was not the case as the Western countries (including the United States) and the Russians did not see eye to eye about what to do with the conquered countries. The communist nation of Russia feared America and their new atomic bomb. They had spies that help them steal the American secrets to this great weapon and soon they developed one of their own. About this time the Chinese government also fell to communism. Many Americans felt the object in their mirror, communism, was getting much too close and it frightened them.
Soon two politicians, one from Wisconsin and one from California, were accusing many in Hollywood and the government of being communist. The politician from California was running for a House seat in their state’s 12th district. “Red-Baiting” was one of the successful themes he used on his opponent. “Red-Baiting” was the act of accusing someone, of having communist sympathies, without any real “proof” that they did. He was elected to Congress and quickly joined the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee). The Rosenbergs, Alger Hiss, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball, Groucho Marx, Henry Fonda, and more were being questioned if they were communist. Some were, some weren’t, and some we may never know. He made quite the name for himself.
Our politician from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, arrived on the scene in 1947 with his election to the Senate. At a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia on February 9, 1950, he announced that he had a list of 205 or 57 (there are no actual transcripts or recording of the speech) communists that were working at the State Department. No one actually seemed to have seen this list, though. This scared a lot of Americans and soon McCarthy became a very popular man. The power seemed to go to his head and soon he was accusing countless people of being communist. Soon, America grew tired of his antics and he was censured by the Senate. He died at the young age of 48 years old and many attribute his death or at least one of the main causes of his death to alcoholism.
Our other politician would dot our political landscape for some 30-40 years after these events. Because of the role he played in these events, this activity might have eventually lead to his own downfall. When you stomp hard on people’s toes, they don’t usually forget.
He was perhaps one of the most powerful kings this world has ever known. His name was Nebuchadnezzar and he ruled Babylon. A snap of his fingers could be the difference between your life and your death. He was known for some of his dreams. When he had these dreams, he wanted to know what they meant. He wouldn’t accept that it might have been the chili dog he had the night before, either. He had a staff of people who should be able to interpret them, no ifs, ands, or buts. When they couldn’t give him an interpretation of those dreams, he threatened their very lives and told them they better come up with something. They still had nothing and their hopes looked very dim.
Have you ever worked so hard for something? Your life’s every breath seems to be consumed with its fulfillment. If your efforts do not produce the desired effects, you are crushed. You don’t want to stop trying because you feel your very life would be gone if you give up. You overlook the pain because you know it has to get better. It never does.
Our California politician was eventually elected President of the United States. His reelection was a landslide. He was probably the most paranoid of all the presidents. As we have seen, he probably brought a lot of this on himself, but he would never admit to that. He worked all his life to get to this point and he was not going to give up now or at least not give up easily.
It was 9:00 pm on August 8. He sat behind a desk with a stack of white papers in his hands. It was the 37th news conference of his presidency. When he finished reading a page, he would lay the page on the desk. His eyes would return to the next page and he would stumble through the process again, glancing up every once in a while. “I have never been a quitter,” he said. Then came the “but….” He knew he had no support. So on August 8, 1974, Richard Nixon continued: “I will resign the presidency effective noon tomorrow.” The rock at the bottom had been reached. Now the choice was his as to what to do next.
King Nebuchadnezzar found an interpreter in Daniel. But Daniel’s interpretation had a strange twist. God was mad at the king. God was so mad, in fact, that he was going to make the king do something so lowly that I don’t think it had been done before or since. Not only was God going to take the king’s kingdom from him, He was going to cause the king to go crazy. The king would become so crazy that he would eat grass in the field like the cows. And sure enough it happened.
Being at the bottom has one advantage: you can’t fall anymore. You are also left with two choices. You can just reside there at the bottom. Here you can complain how unfair it is that you landed in this spot. Here you can hold the biggest pity party ever. Here you can convince everyone in the world how wronged you were. Or you can start climbing back up.
Daniel was very clear to the king. The reason he would eat grass is that he forgot there was no one, not even the king himself, who was more important than God. When something or someone, including yourself, becomes the air that you breathe, that upsets God very much. The fall begins.
April 27, 1994 was the day of Richard Nixon’s funeral. The five men who followed him to the Presidency would all attend. The President at the time, Bill Clinton, would add some emotional remarks in his eulogy. President Clinton proclaimed that Richard Nixon “…would not allow America to quit the world.” Clinton even confessed that Nixon “…gave me his wise counsel…especially on Russia.” Then he proclaimed what was somewhat his interpretation of the Nixon motto: “Unless a person has a goal, a new mountain to climb, his spirit will die.”
Lucky for us, our God is a God of second chances. Redemption offers a contentment that replaces the worry. For Richard Nixon, future Presidents would treasure his foreign policy experience and advice, even if he would have to come in the back door of the White House to give it. For King Nebuchadnezzar he would get his kingdom and sanity back. For me, I live in a beautiful house and have a wonderful wife and God has a special place in my daily routine.
Prayer: Father, Falling really hurts, but a life without You being in control would hurt even more. I thank You for each new day You place in front of me. Thank You for being the God of second chances. Amen.
