So, Marty has been bugging me the last few Wednesdays about posting something. I suppose that’s valid. After all, the Martin Mondays, Wobert Wednesdays and Francis Fridays thing was my idea; and I’m the last one to actually post.
If you’ve been listening for long, you probably realize that I wing it way more than my erstwhile compadres. It’s not a lack of fondness for what we do so much as I tend to get caught up in a ton of different things. Plus my day job has been absolutely crazy for the last few months. Also, I can be lazy.
My point is that my posts are far more likely to be random and veer from topic to topic each time. I don’t have a “This Day in History” theme or a “Francis’s Favorites” type of thing. I’m approaching this like I do Code of Honor… Whatever strikes my fancy on any given day.
I know you’re dying to know… What strikes my fancy this day?
Well, this one’s going to wander a bit and touch on a little theology, but bear with me. Today is my mom’s birthday, so I guess I’m thinking about her. She passed away in 1987 from breast cancer, so she’s been gone for quite a while. This time of year is not as hard on me as it is on Mrs. Robert. She lost her dad in 2006, and his birthday is right after Christmas. It’s a mixed bag for December, really.
When I think of my parents, I also think of what my life was like when they were both alive. I was much younger, of course. Back in a time when almost no one had a cell phone. If you did, it was your workout for the day just carrying one around. There was no social media except CompuServe, AOL and GEnie, depending on the exact time you’re talking about. Gas was cheaper. Everything was cheaper. I was way more shallow and materialistic than I am now. Everything seemed simpler.
I wonder if every generation always feels that way about their young adulthood and childhood? Do we all long for a simpler time that wasn’t really that simple? Is it just nostalgia? Do we gloss over the bad stuff as we long for the good?
Maybe.
Maybe it’s more a desire to be young again than it is any real fondness for that time. Sometimes that realization that I am closer to death than birth is sobering. What have I done with my life? Do I have enough time to do the things I wanted to do that still matter to me? Have I done a good enough job raising my kids and providing for my family?
Maybe yes, maybe no.
Ultimately, it’s not a good way to live though. Honoring the past and remembering my mom on her birthday is one thing. Getting swallowed up in pointless nostalgia for a time that I really don’t want to return to anyway serves no purpose. Doing anything differently would change everything. Who I am, where I am and even likely whether or not I have the same wife and kids. No way would I change those things.
Christmas is a great time to honor the past while looking to the future. That’s what the season of Advent (you know… those 4 weeks leading up to the start of the real Christmas season on December 25th) is all about. We remember that Christ came to become one of us, while looking forward to the day that He returns. In between the First and Second Coming, we prepare. We get ourselves ready.
That’s the essence of life. Or it should be. We honor and respect those who have come before us and we prepare ourselves and our families for the world to come. This one and the next. We want to make those before us proud of who we are and to make things better for those who come after us.
Do we?
Do you?
As a country… Right now in December 2020… I’d say we’re failing at that. Inherent in this idea of respecting/honoring the past while preparing for the future is my favorite drum to bang on.
Respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.
We are all deserving of respect and dignity because God has created us to be in His Image and Likeness. Christ then came and sanctified that existence for all of us. When we act as we do, as so many across all political, social and economic divisions do, we trample on that inherent dignity. We spit on it and we spit in the face of our Creator.
If you’re saying to yourself, “Robert, that’s true, but what about….” STOP. Stop right there. That’s part of the problem. We have and are “what-abouting” ourselves to death as a people.
That’s enough about that. This has gone on too long and if you stayed with the post this long, I thank you. Next time I promise a more uplifting Wobert Wednesday.
