A Pilgrim’s Odyssey

Every Grain Of Sand

You never know where you’ll find some grace filled truth. I found some last week in a Bob Dylan song that I had somehow overlooked from his 1981 album, Shot of Love.

Paul Williams said about the song: 'The song is about the moments in which we accept our pain and vulnerability and bow down (and are lifted up by) the will of God'.

There might not be more poignant words ever written in pop music. Enjoy these lyrics as we discuss on today's The Pilgrim's Odyssey.

"In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need

When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed

There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,

Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair.

 

Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake,

Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.

In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand

In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

 

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,

Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.

The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way

To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.

 

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame

And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.

Then onward in my journey I come to understand

That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.

 

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night

In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light,

In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space,

In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.

 

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea

Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.

I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man

Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand."

Moving America's Soul On Suicide

This week, a series of short documentaries launched focused on Moving American’s Soul on Suicide. The first episode is on me and my family, “Anyone Can Get Broken.” You can watch it at the website masosfilm.com or on Youyube. As the website says, it’s time for hope.

The idea came from a friend, David Covington, CEO of RI International and one of the world’s biggest advocates for suicide prevention.

He had seen me speak years ago at a conference, and after being frustrated attending a suicide prevention meeting in DC that just wanted to keep doing the same old things, he thought of my talk and the idea of this series was born.

We had a long talk, I agreed to participate, and we were off!

Rush Limbaugh And The Power Of Hope

Rush Limbaugh died yesterday. The greatest radio broadcaster ever. You can read about his many accolades, his many fans, and his many detractors, on many other places. But today I wanted to talk about why Rush meant a lot to me. And it had nothing to do with politics.

I first learned about Rush from his TV show watching in the ready room of my flight school squadron while in the Marine Corps. He seemed odd at first, pudgy and soft. But when he spoke, fire, All-Marine.

Little would I know how important his words would be to me in the upcoming years as I struggled to find hope after a jet crash.

Rush made sense, and he made me believe I could make sense of my life off the rails. He also made me believe I could still make a difference in the world. As bad as I might feel, he wouldn't let the fire of American spirit die, "pick yourself up and keep going" exuded with every breath he spoke. I felt it my duty to not give up.

On one of his last shows he talked about his faith and his relationship with Christ. In the spirit of that, this Bible verse is for him, and us.

John 14:1-3 1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

Conquering 20 Foot Snow Drifts!

After yesterday’s podcast on the Blizzard of 2021 and my adventure picking up my daughter as my dear wife prayed, my mom reminded me of the Blizzard of 1978. It starting while I was in class at Van Rensselaer Elementary. It hit so fast busses couldn’t run, and my dad had to come in to town to pick me up. I remember the harrowing trip home, I didn’t think there was any way we wouldn’t get swallowed by snow.

Now '78 was a true blizzard. It hit hard and fast on January 25^th, 1978.

There were 20-foot snow drifts, 50 mph wind gusts and temperatures that plummeted from 36 degrees to zero overnight. The National Weather Service says the epic snowstorm had little equal in the climatological record for Indiana. I can remember a snow drift making it to the roof of our house. My brothers and I scaled it to see the view from the roof, and we dug snow forts in the drifts that you could stand in.

More than 70 people lost their lives across the region because of the storm, including five souls in Kentucky, 11 in Indiana and 51 in Ohio.

The roads were so bad, the National Guard used 14-ton armored personal carriers to rescue stranded drivers and get food to people.

Earlier in the day before mom had reminded me of this, I had written down a Bible verse I wanted to share, and then she texted me and it was even more poignant.

John 16:33 “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

You will suffer, it is inescapable. So how do we respond? By being courageous! And what allows us to be courageous? Faith in the God who has conquered the world, and investing in those things that rise up to help us when we suffer – family, friends, and community.

Remembering To Pray: The Blizzard of 2021

Well, they said it was coming and it came - The Blizzard of 2021. My daughter was in town at college when it started and then went to work at Target. She was one of the few they had work till close, so at almost 10pm with the roads drifting over I trekked in to get her, sure her old Honda Accord wouldn’t make it home.

I sent my wife a message that I didn’t know if I’d make it to town and back, her reply was a reminder of faith:

“Oh my goodness. I prayed as soon as you left for a herd of angels to surround your car to Mother Mary!”

I was worried, but I wasn’t praying. My wife who is a prayer warrior was. It reminded of the following verse:

Ephesians 6:18 “Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.”

As I Mary and I drove home at no more than 20mph through drifts and wind and snow, I looked at her and said, “Every father and daughter need a good adventure together!” And I should have added prayer.

It reminded me of a lesson I teach in my leadership classes, “do the little things, and you are more likely to rise to the occasion of the big things.”

Well this goes for prayer, pray daily, for everything, and prayer is more likely to be your refuge for the big things at the most dire moments.

Finding Life, Eyes Wide Open

Last Friday we talked about the new original sin of Chinese Forced Labor, we all benefit with cheap goods and it encourages us to lie and ignore our conscience.

So why did I use the term original sin? Well biblically, that sin from Adam and Eve impacts us all. Sin brought death and we all are subject to the consequences of death.

Chinese Forced Labor, for decades unchecked - I doubt you can go to the store and avoid something made in china, maybe or maybe not, made my slave labor - brings consequences we'd rather ignore.

How do you find life when you have become burdened by things you turn a blind eye to – all the things culture tries to sell us – new clothes made by slaves, a million diet products to look pretty, the newest version of a phone that works perfectly well, and I could go on. Obviously, not everything is black and white, so many things we can buy that can vastly improve our lives, yet so many things that can take our focus off of the things that matter.

I still think that late Thomas Merton nailed advertising and our consumer culture back in the 50s and 60s:

“Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments.”

Being sold contributes to the noise of modern life. Again, written over 50 years ago, think of the implications of the following quote today:

“The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of contemporary violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activity neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”

Our New Original Sin - Chinese Forced Labor

Right now, in some way, you are probably enjoying the benefits of forced labor, some would say slave labor.

It is evil, yet you and I are complicit. It is also, in my opinion, a great factor in the current culture of lying and deceit in our news and media. If you can’t be honest about the great lie, eventually will be tainted by lies.

Now, is all Chinese labor slave labor or forced labor? No, but the surveillance powers of the Chinese Government make it really hard to know what is and what isn't. But ask yourself, if people weren’t exploited, how could they afford to make products in China, ship them overseas, and still be much cheaper than if we made those products in our backyard? Factory workers here mostly make living wages, but they aren’t rich. What is happening to Chinese workers?

In March 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) published a report "Uyghurs for Sale": ‘Re-education’, forced labor and surveillance beyond Xinjiang, which identified 83 foreign and Chinese companies as allegedly directly or indirectly benefiting from the use of Uyghur workers outside Xinjiang through potentially abusive labor transfer programs.“

ASPI estimates at least 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang and assigned to factories in a range of supply chains including electronics, textiles, and automotives under a central government policy known as ‘Xinjiang Aid’. The report identified 27 factories in nine Chinese provinces that are using Uyghur labor transferred from Xinjiang since 2017.

Here are some of the brands that the report found benefited from Chinese slave labor: Abercrombie & Fitch, Acer, Adidas, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, BMW, Bombardier, Bosch, Calvin Klein, Candy, Carter’s, Cerruti 1881, Cisco, Dell, Electrolux, Fila, Gap, General Electric, General Motors, Google, Hisense, Hitachi, HP, Jaguar, L.L.Bean, Lacoste, Land Rover, Lenovo, LG, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, The North Face, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Samsung, Sharp, Siemens, Skechers, Sony, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Victoria’s Secret, Vivo, Volkswagen, ZTE.

It’s going to be hard to live in truth if we keep participating in the sin of slave labor, that by the way, makes China and its communist ways more and more powerful and influential in our society.

Make Yourself Heard!

So it looks like the NBA has instructed the Dallas Mavericks to play the National Anthem. Good, the people have spoken!

It is a small example that if you make yourself heard, sometimes, people listen. Especially when it’s big business and they are worried about their pocket books.

In some ways, there might not be a better time to make yourself heard. Entertainment, TV, Sports, all are hurting financially. They can’t take a lot of hits. See an injustice, make yourself heard and be fearless.

Let me remind you of an old Bible story you might not have thought about in a while:

From the book of Joshua:

"When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city."

Make yourself heard! Don’t be afraid. The Walls Will Fall!

O, Say Can You See!

I saw today that the Dallas Mavericks have quit playing the National Anthem before games. It got me thinking:

Taxpayers fund or help fund sports stadiums.

Between 1990 and 2010, 84 new facilities were built for the 122 teams playing in the four largest professional sports leagues. The combined construction cost was $34 billion, with $20 billion coming from public funding.

In fact, there are few policy topics on which economists agree more – only one out of 35 of the top economists polled by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business believes that the benefits of sports subsidies outweigh their costs to taxpayers.

If we subsidize sports for the “public good” they better recognize the fact they should promote the public good. Getting rid of the National Anthem is a slap in the face. It’s the one reminder who that stadium is supposed to be for, the public.

Let’s just examine what offends the Mavericks so much:

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory.

Verse 1 of 4 actual verses:

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Take A Leap! And Get Busy Living

I was reviewing the upcoming mini-documentary on my battle overcoming suicide and life with my family. It was done at the end of last summer and one of the main scenes is us cliff diving into a lake. Looking outside at the snow, it was a warm, fond memory!

Right before the family jumps, I tell about writing the following poem when I was a young man struggling to find his way:

Took a storm

To crack the mortar

The stone, the aged clay

The walls I’d built to shield myself

From rains I feared to face

 

Took a storm

To clear the rubble

The remnants of my home

To find the lost foundation

Poured before I dwelt alone

 

And the waters flow

So today

I think I’ll swim

 

It may be winter, it may be a dark time in your life. But you can always make a leap and decide to start living.

As Red said in the Shawshank Redemption: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”