A Season of Change

To everything there is a season,

a time for every purpose under the sun.

A time to be born and a time to die;

a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

a time to kill and a time to heal...

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance...

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to lose and a time to seek;

a time to rend and a time to sew;

a time to keep silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate;

a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

It's still settling in - Barack Obama is the next president of the United States! I'm listening to his acceptance speech as I write this. I'm moved by his words - he brings hope and vision to a country that is in need.

I couldn't stay awake on Tuesday night to watch the final results, but I felt good about going to bed when I knew that all Obama had to do was win California to become the next president of the USA. I felt confident in that news, and headed to bed, but then kept waking up throughout the night thinking "could it really be true?" And sure enough, it's true! It was confirmed for me, too, when my friend Rachel sent me a text page saying "Yay!!!" -- thanks, Rach :) Even though you woke me up, I'm glad you helped me rest more peacefully.

When I got up Wednesday morning, I was filled with excitement and pride. I brought a radio into the bathroom to be able to listen to NPR while showering. Most of what I was listening to reminded me of the above scripture from Ecclesiates. The words I heard coming from Obama brought tears to my eyes. I also heard an interview with an African American woman who is 109 years old and never believed she would see this day come. She was the daughter of a slave, and she spent the early years of her life in a country that permitted oppression and segregation. How incredible it must be for her to be alive today! How incredible for all of us!

Something else I heard on NPR referred to a young woman who refused to vote for Obama because he didn't put his hand over his heart during the singing of the national anthem. I did some reading about this, and the long and the short of it is that sometimes Obama puts his right hand over his heart and sometimes he doesn't. I don't fault Obama for doing this, and I recognize a plethora of bigger issues and factors that should have been considered in choosing where to cast your vote (fortunately millions of others thought so too). In fact, I firmly believe that if we're going to pledge our allegiance to anything or anyone, it should be to God and His Son... not to a flag or a single nation, but to the Father of ALL nations. Despite his own recent surge of controversy, I think Ray Boltz said it well in his song "Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb."

I've spent a lot of time travelling all around the world and had several encounters with folks who aren't big fans of the USA. It's often been far from pleasant. I remember living in Spain and trying to hide the fact that I was an American, because I didn't want to face the negative attitudes and comments about our country.

After this monumental event in our country, a new sense of pride wells up inside of me. I'm excited to see how the world's perception of our nation and our leadership may change. I'm hopeful for the change that has been promised. I'm encouraged by the energy and enthusiasm that our new leadership brings to the table. I'm thankful for a leader who seeks to unite and not divide. I'm anxious to see how our foreign relations improve all over the world. And I look forward to a day when we won't be involved in war, and peace will be more of a reality.

To everything there IS a season and THIS is the season!

25 Hours in New York

I made a trip to NYC this past week - not for it's glamour or to sightsee, but rather to spend some time with a very close friend who's grieving the loss of a friend who just committed suicide. I was only in New York for about 25 hours, and despite the fact that I didn't go with any intentions of sightseeing, we certainly managed to chalk up some interesting experiences, just by the nature of being in the "Big Apple."
Shortly after I arrived, we went to visit a local falafel restaurant, where one can get a super yummy falafel sandwich for just $2.50. This place has a signature hot sauce which is one of their 'claims-to-fame,' which we accidentally used a little too generously. Ooops! Heartburn...
My friend lives in a communal Quaker home in Manhattan, and I met some interesting housemates of hers. They are teachers, dancers, potters, business folk, models, international exchange students learning English, writers for Japanese newspapers and much, much more. They live together, sharing chores and housework. Thursday night is my friend's night to clean up after dinner, so after a delicious organic, gourmet meal in the house's dining room, we went to work on washing and sterilizing all the plates and utensils and cleaning up the kitchen. I have a whole new appreciation for industrial sized sinks and water sprayers - and so do my clothes that ended up wet!
In times of such terrible sadness and lack of understanding about life, there wasn't much I could say to my friend that would ease her pain or help her to understand why someone would take their own life. Mostly I was just there to love her and be with her, listen to her recount the stories of her friend's life, cry, laugh, or just be silent. Life seems so fragile... And so many people are broken, yet we aren't even aware of the pain and suffering they're experiencing inside.
Our time together was spent walking the streets of NYC, hopping on the subway, walking past homeless people who were asking for money (and my friend always gave them the loose change she had in her change purse), stopping by coffee shops, or looking at old photos of her friend who just died. I took some snapshots of some of the images of New York that I experienced in my 25 hours there, which you can see above. I'll have to share my experience with "The Best Back Rub" in Chinatown in another entry... coming soon!
My prayer for my friend is that she would feel God's love and PEACE surround her in these difficult times, that she would be able to REST in the assurance that God is GOOD and MERCIFUL. May she know how to process her thoughts and her grief, and may she know how to interact with other friends and family members who are suffering as well.
Romans 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.