Monday, March 8, 2021

WISHING ON A STAR

                                              

 

I remember as a young man, lying on my back, on my parent’s lawn one warm late spring night in 1959. It was a clear; star filled night and a week before graduation.

From my early years growing up I was always an inquisitive lad, always worried about what was in store for me, when it was my time to go out into the world. I believed that somewhere beyond those stars, was a higher being who knew just what was planed for me and I could hardly wait to see what that was. I had always felt those twinkling stars were just holes in the floor of heaven. I also knew the boss up there was saying, “just wait and see.” I think that was the real start of a long faith filled journey that continues today, even though I know, I have traveled the greatest part of it. The road I took as I went out wasn’t always easy but it was always with a definitive goal in mind. I didn’t pray that night for money or notoriety as I talked to the man in the stars. I didn’t want to be anyone’s hero or conqueror. I just prayed for a life that would help me make a difference. That after I was all used up and gone, I would be remembered for being someone-- who had made a difference.

 

There is so much good in life that is there for the taking if we pay attention. You see there have been lots of people who have already made a huge difference in this world. I know because I’m old and I’ve met so many of them along the way. I didn’t always pay attention and so for some of them their good examples fell by the wayside-- wasted on someone who wasn’t listening at the time. You see they too wanted to help me make a difference but at that time and place I wasn’t letting them and I was so wrong. That’s what’s so wrong with our country right now as we struggle for survival. People in leadership are looking for answers that have always been there but they don’t want any help from others and maybe they just aren’t looking because they can’t handle the truth. 

 

Life isn’t a test we take where the answers are only in the teacher’s copy. The answers are right there in our copies if we pay attention and all we need to do is fill in the blanks. But greed, stubbornness and a grasp for power sometimes makes us not want to use someone else’s proven example. Today it’s all about me and I’m where the answers need to come from. Not right or wrong but my way and to hell with the consequences. We need all the glory to ourselves, or we don’t want any at all. Kind of sounds like a certain government department in Washington doesn’t it?

 

I read an article the other day that had to do with mankind and wars. It more or less said there will be more wars in the future because for some reason we are powerless to stop ourselves from doing just that-- and by the way, history proves that out. There are a lot of inflated egos out there that need to be fed in our Government and our military. Then there are those who get rich on the spoils of war. War has even been used to divert our attention from all of the other problems they don’t want to deal with or talk about. In the end innocent people are killed, countries are destroyed and there will be nothing called victory. I wish I could get them all to lie in the grass some quiet night, look at the stars and say, “what would Jesus do? “—But wait, that’s right. -- They don’t need his help.

No comments:

Post a Comment