2-3-20<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWe tend to think\nthat our times are special, I have noticed: our moments in the long\ntimeline of history; or events in our lives. A natural attitude, not\nreally selfish. We just see most things through the perspective of\u2026\nour selves. I am trained as a historian, yet I realize that, while\nnot impossible, it is difficult to be separate from our ancestry, our\ncultural heritage, our environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIn\nhistorical matters, it is wise to remember how many things are not<\/em>\nnew \u2013 Solomon told us, correctly, that there is nothing new under\nthe sun. In spiritual terms, of course, human nature does not change.\nThere has been sin, there is sin, there will be sin. Short of\nsalvation, which frees us from the eternal consequences of sin, that\nwill not change either. A big step forward would be humankind\u2019s\nrecognition of that fact so that we at least might alleviate the\nmisery of life around the edges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nIn\npersonal terms, 21st-century people tend to think they are the first\ngeneration to discover compassion and curiosity, rights and reform.\nYet \u2013 especially regarding the bloody century we barely escaped \u2013\n\u201crights\u201d are proving malleable, and compassion often is\nweaponized and selective. In the balance, has \u201cprogress\u201d been\nmore a matter of calendar pages than substantial improvements in our\nlot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nAnswers\nto these questions are debating-points. I don\u2019t think there are\ndefinitive answers. Nor should be: let us keep questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nIn\nvery personal terms, thinking about where \u201ctimes are special\u201d or\nunique, I have observed lately that we pass some sort of milestone in\nlife when our thoughts of the past start outnumbering thoughts of\nthe future. Not something that happens on every<\/em>\nbirthday, but, well, eventually. Again speaking in spiritual context,\nI am assured of my future home, and trying to realize that my\nexperience is not at all special \u2013 but part of the Bible\u2019s\n\u201cscarlet thread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nI\nimply, without being certain, but am more and more persuaded, that\nhumankind\u2019s life is not better, and not worse, considering the\nsweep of history. All<\/em>\nthings considered, we generally are in about the same situations as\nearlier generations, and other civilizations. Medical advances are\nblessings, but we devise better ways to destroy life (and give those\ndestructive innovations acceptable names). Societies grow more\nprosperous, but foster crime, misery, divorce, addictions, abuse.\nWars were fought to end slavery\u2026 but there are more literal slaves\non earth now than ever before. Nations are \u201cfree,\u201d but\ntotalitarians and corrupt cabals proliferate. We might be kinder to\nanimals, but we are crueler to unborn babies. And so forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nSo far, I say, in\nthe game of life \u2013 again, except for the game-changing fact and\nfactor of Jesus \u2013 the balance-scales have not changed much through\nhistory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nLately,\nI have met two people whose fiancees died. It is hard to imagine a\ncrueler time to suffer such a loss (other than\u2026 well, you know).\nSeriously, in the bloom of a relationship, planning for unknown and\nexciting things\u2026 oof. How awful. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nMy\nwife had been sick for years, so \u2013 as the cliches go \u2013 it was\nmerciful and expected when she died. At the end of my mother\u2019s life\nshe was sick and bounced back a couple times. Then she was listed in\nhospice, and lived another year. Each time I traveled to Florida to\nsay good-bye. I was grateful for her \u201cbonus time,\u201d of course, but\nI do remember running into one of her neighbors. Sympathetically, she\nsaid, \u201cIt must be hard to lose your mother…\u201d Almost\nunconsciously, I replied: \u201cIt\u2019s almost impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nBut in some\nsituations when we are \u201cleft\u201d alone, or to pick up pieces, I\nthink it takes a superhuman strength \u2013 or a Holy Spirit enablement,\nthe only way I know \u2013 to move on. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThe\nbest example I think of is that of the singer Eva Cassidy. She lived\nin the Washington DC area all her life. She loved to sing and play\nthe guitar. As an amateur she hung around Blues Alley, a little club\nin DC, and she sang. She met other aspiring musicians and got noticed\nlocally, and then by scouts. Nobody did not love Eva Cassidy, but\nthere was a little bump in the upward road when frustrated record\npeople could not classify her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither could she classify herself. Eva loved all kinds of music, and sang them: folk, country, pop, gospel. She just kept on singing, recording two albums and being recorded, occasionally, by friends on video cams (this was the early 1990s). Then, strange back pains revealed bone cancers, also melanoma spreading quickly. Before people knew it, Eva Cassidy died at the age of 33.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nA\ncouple years later one of her songs was played on a London radio\nprogram. Yes, an \u201covernight sensation.\u201d Her few songs have seldom\nleft the charts; her albums have been mastered and re-mastered; she\nis a major star through recordings in many countries; and American\ncritics have said she had one of the great voices in American music.\nHer version of \u201cSomewhere Over the Rainbow\u201d is amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nA\nvideo is attached here, and I return to my subject. As tough as it is\nfor others to deal with death, the emotional dynamic always has been\nthe same. Unique, wherever and whenever, and whoever. Harder \u2013 of\ncourse, and I am not joking \u2013 when it is ourselves, and we know\ndeath approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nSuperhuman\ncoping, I have said. When death was close, Eva performed at Blues\nAlley. With no tears, she sang a song she hoped was someone\u2019s\nfavorite, and she sang it beautifully \u2013 \u201cWhat a Wonderful World.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nWhat a Wonderful\nWorld<\/em>???\nWas Eva\u2019s world wonderful? She was in pain, dying, and she knew it.\nWas she nuts? No\u2026 she was blessed. She trusted God, and somehow\u2026\nWell, hers were probably the only dry eyes in the room. Watch the\nclip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nAre\nour lives special? I would say that\u2019s up to us\u2026 and to God, for\nwhen He sees Jesus in us, He does regard us as special. In the\nmeantime, in this vale [valley] of tears, we remember that \u201clife is\nreal, life is earnest,\u201d as the poet said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n