A "CRAZY WISH"??

"For with God nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)

Today, September 19, 2013, is my 59th birthday. I've been doing a lot of personal reflecting during the past couple of days. The past year included some serious challenges- especially medical challenges. I've been blessed with extraordinarily good health for most of my life. For me, the year that I was 58 was a reminder that I'm not a kid anymore. It included two cataract surgeries, and emergency surgery for a detached retina. The scariest event of the past year was being rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night with blood pouring out of my bottom. Sorry for being so graphic! At that time, a number of diagnostic possibilities were being considered by the doctor, including cancer. I was well aware I could have cancer and that my days on earth could be seriously numbered. In fact, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, which is a nuisance and inconvenience in many ways, but is treatable with diet and medication. I am thankful that I am alive for my 59th birthday. I decided that on my birthday this year, I wanted to publicize and promote something which is very important to me. It would be my "birthday wish" as it were. There are honestly about ten matters I seriously considered writing about, but after deep thought, I've settled upon what's in this piece.

Now, this may seem like a very bizarre statement to make, but of all the poems I've ever heard recited during my lifetime and of all the poetry I've read during my lifetime, I think the most significant one is, "There Was a Little Girl" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which my very literary minded mother used to frequently recite. It goes like this:

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

There are many, many people I've know in life who were like that: when they were good, they were very, very good, and when they were bad, they were horrid! There are also many things I've dealt with in life that are like that, as well: when they were good, they were very, very good, and when they were bad, they were horrid!

If you can just kind of "slow it down" for the next few minutes- not skim reading this, but really soaking it in, and giving it some thought, well, I think that would be "very, very good"!

Modern technology and social media is like that. When it's good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid! I am aware of the power and blessing of modern technology. I'm writing this piece in cyberspace- I'll "post it" in cyberspace and I'll promote in using social media. Many, many more people will read it and be exposed to it than would ever have done so just a couple of decades ago. But, listen, there's so much we've lost due to this runaway technology! I have two (frankly humbling) part-time jobs right now. I know many of you know I work at a telephone answering service, but not so many of you know that I also hand out flyers a few hours a week at a "big box store". I find the latter job very depressing. It's not that I mind handing out flyers- I actually enjoy it! No, it's the number of people who walk into the store mesmerized by their (stupid) smart phones. They're staring down and inattentive as they're trying to navigate and push a shopping cart along. They're yelling things into the air at some invisible person (looking like mental patients!) and you do notice there's a "bluetooth" or some other such device enabling them to do this. It's all so rude, so intrusive, so distracting, and as I just wrote: so stupid!!

For some reason, I remember my 25th birthday very vividly- on September 19, 1979. I wonder if I had miraculously been transported forward in time on that day, from 1979 to 2013 what my reaction to "the future" would have been. The automobiles would all have seemed much more aerodynamic and much less "cool", frankly. The television sets would have looked ridiculous- FLAT and rectangular, albeit with much clearer pictures. But the thing of everybody walking around staring at some tiny box in the palm of their hand, squinting to read the screen or frantically typing ("typing??!!") onto it, and THEN some folks in very animated fashion talking and yelling into the air at nothing...well, it would have all been very scary and very depressing and going back to 1979 would have been very comforting; just like Dorothy returning to Kansas after her trip to the land of Oz!

I don't have his permission to use his name or give any personal information about this man, but I will call him, "Missionary John". Missionary John is an Assemblies of God "home missionary" (meaning a missionary to somewhere in the United States). He ministers to the Native Americans at a site in the west. When I was still pastoring at the small church in Framingham, MA, we used to have missionary guest speakers from time to time. We had Missionary John with us for a special Sunday night service. I think that was about nine years ago. I remember my wife and I taking him out for a meal at a local restaurant after the service. He was a very pleasant and a very friendly guy. Prior to our church's catastrophic financial condition, we used to send monthly financial support to a number of missionaries. I don't remember if we ever "picked up" John and his wife for monthly support, but I don't recall that we did. However, I was amazed that on every birthday and every wedding anniversary, there was not only a greeting card which would arrive in the mail from Missionary John- in addition, he'd handwrite (essentially) a letter in the card. Yes, he'd write at least ten sentences telling about what was going on with himself, his family, and his mission, and wanting to know how things were going with us in Massachusetts. Some missionaries do send e-mail newsletters and some send U.S. mail newsletters, but personal greeting cards with long, handwritten letters; well, nobody else did that!

You might expect that after the church was closed in March of 2010 and after I was out of pastoral ministry, those greeting cards and letters would stop, but they did not! They have kept arriving, on my birthdays, on my wife's birthdays, and on our anniversaries. We received an anniversary card and letter in August and I received a birthday card and letter a few days ago. Usually, I just kind of read it, look the card over, and think, "that's nice" and then, that's about it!

For some reason, after I read my birthday card a few days ago, I got kind of "choked up". It hit me that this missionary is not going to receive any financial support or any publicity from writing and mailing this card. It was just something he was doing out of love and care. I gave that a lot of thought! Lest you think this Missionary John is just sitting around in some tiny Native American village listening to native songs and smelling the aroma of peace pipes being smoked; in fact he is a teacher to the Native Americans who carrys a very heavy course load! He pretty much has "no time"! Yet, here he is handwriting a personal letter in a card to me, from which he is going to receive nothing!

This high-tech, "social media" society was supposed to give us much more free time- much more leisure time- much less stress and pressure. Instead, just the opposite has happened. Nobody has any time. Everybody is stressed out! Everybody is in a hurry! We're rude, irritated, and defensive! We've got no time for anybody! We've got no time for what's truly important! It's "funny" that the people of one hundred years ago had time to work 60 hours a week in factories, and yet had time to donate untold hours to charity work and to write long and beautiful letters to family and friends. These precious letters give tremendous insight about history to those who study history. When I was in Bible College in the late 1970s, I would use Sunday afternoons as a time to write letters to family and friends back home. Recently, my sister found some letters I'd sent home during that period. I was amazed at how "good" my penmanship was then, and how much thought and detail I put into the letters. I actually wrote them on special Central Bible College stationary which was sold at the school bookstore largely for the purpose of writing letters home to family and friends. In this day of smart phones and texting, would anybody write letters like that on a Sunday afternoon?! I doubt it! I am quite a writer, but I must confess that I write very few "real" letters anymore.

Missionary John really touched me this year. His handwritten card really touched me. I thought, "What if there was less of this high-tech foolishness and more people handwriting letters and greeting cards to those who'd appreciate them? What if we made a conscious effort to be a little less dependent on high-tech and social media and did more card sending and old fashioned letter writing?"

Listen, I'm not planning to stop e-mailing or get off Facebook, but I'm going to make a genuine effort to keep a lot of this stuff a bit more "at bay" in my life, and I'm going to make a conscious effort to set time aside and send cards and notes to friends and family. As "stupid" as that might sound, think about how we'd look to someone who'd travel here from 1979 to observe us! We need more Missionary Johns! How about it?! Is that a crazy wish?!