"Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done” - Reflections on Sargent Shriver - Part II

Memory is a powerful thing. Sometimes people say I can forgive but never forget. At other times, things seem to slip away and much of our past gets forgotten. Memories can bring a smile to you or they can cause you to weep. If you are from my generation, you can remember the day Kennedy was assinated and what you were doing at the time. You can probably still see in your mind, that young man in his early forties saying “ask not what the country can do for you, but what you can do for the country.” To test your memory even more, can you remember whom the presidential candidate was that Sargent Shriver ran with for the Vice Presidential nomination? For those who don’t know, it was George McGovern.

Shriver did many things from the Peace Corps to the Special Olympics. It all centered around a world of action, not cheap talk or empty promises. I always remember his smile, the enthusiasm in his voice that made him a motivational force. In later years and most recently, I have seen him as an old man. He still has some remains of his good looks, if you can look great at 96.

I am told he died of Alzheimer’s, unable to identify even his own children. Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease which sends chills up my own spine. How you can lose your memory and forget people in your life like your own wife or children makes me sad. I can only imagine how tough it is on family members. But if you are Sargent Shriver and can’t remember the tremendous life of public service, I can only say it’s tragic.

I grew up in a very conservative, Lutheran environment. Every day in school we had to recite from memory, versus of the bible. I chaffed under these assignments. Never the less, I can still recite passages from memory and of course recognize a lot more because of all of those memory work assignments.

In the end, when Sargent Shriver couldn’t remember his family or close friends or even his life, he could still say the Lord’s Prayer word for word. Perhaps when our time is up in old age and we have been divested of most of our dignity, surrounded by caregivers, we can hold on to the words of the only prayer that Jesus taught his disciples.

An invitation to break mirrors - Thoughts on the life of Sargent Shriver – Part I

Growing up in the 60’s was an adventure, especially in San Francisco. I can always remember the days of Camelot with names like the Kennedy’s, Martin Luther King and others. One name that comes at me out of the past is that of Sargent Shriver. He was lesser known to most because the Kennedy clan was so large and charismatic, but in his own right he was an enormous person. His good looks, his charismatic style, his deep faith and his boundless energy made him an astonishing leader. Even in the shadow of the Kennedy legacy he was a giant of his times.

He was known most for starting the Peace Corps in which he sent thousands of young Americans around the world to get involved in the lives of people of other nations. It still goes on today. He is also responsible for the “War on Poverty” under the Johnson administration. His involvement stretched far and wide into a world of action. He just didn’t talk about things he made them happen.

I was struck by something that I learned in the recent days since his death. A New York Times article reported that he told graduating students at Yale in 1994 to “break mirrors”. “Yes, indeed, “ he said, “Shatter the glass. In our society that is so self-absorbed, begin to look less at yourself and more at each other. Learn more about the face of your neighbor and less about your own.” I thought to myself, that’s good advice. Too often in our preoccupied self-absorbed universe we don’t have time to notice others. In some ways it echoes Jesus’ words, “lose your life to discover what life is all about.” Matthew 16:25

Today on January 20th, we observe the 50th Anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s famous inaugural address where he notes that the torch has been passed to a new generation. That same torch of selfless service, giving and caring beyond one’s own life, still rings true to this and every generation. Perhaps it’s time to break a few mirrors again.

“And What Have You Done” - Reflections on A New Year

You know how you get a song trapped in your brain and you keep repeating it over and over again? That is what has been happening to me. I’ve got that John Lennon tune “Happy Christmas” stuck in my head. Actually, it’s sort of appropriate and goes like this:

“So this is Christmas

And what have you done

Another year over

And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas

I hope you have fun

The near and the dear one

The old and the young”

It’s the question that is so right on as we approach the end of another year. “And what have you done?” Now that is an interesting question, especially for those of us who are “acheiver types.” If you look back with that question in mind, you may get some interesting answers. You may even say to yourself, “thank God I get another chance in 2011 because I couldn’t get it all done in 2010.” I’m not sure what 2010 meant to you, but as we begin to come against 2011, I can’t help but think of the past and an opportunity to do something more with my life next year.

It’s interesting that the lessons for New Year’s Day are from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13. That well known passage that Pete Seeger made famous in 1959. It speaks about there being time for everything and that our life is marked by time. There is a time to be born, a time to die and you know how it goes. The interesting thing about time is that you can’t get it back. Bobby Darin knowing that he had a bad heart and probably wouldn’t live to a ripe old age used to always use the poker term “let’s double down.” This meant of course to increase your bet or in his case the intensity to which he needed to live his life.

I often feel the same way. I don’t like to let time slip away without using it in a proper way. Sometimes it just slips through our fingers and before you know it, you’re looking back with regret about what you have missed or what might have been. New Year’s is an interesting time and people always make fun of those who make resolutions that they never seem to keep. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying. There is nothing worse than being appathetic or cynical about the gift of life that we have been given. And make no mistake about it, it is a gift.

I did run across a quote recently attributed to Malcolm Muggeridge who was an atheist much of his life, but late in the game became a rather devout Christian. In his spiritual autobiography he talked about his late in life conversion to Christ. He entitled his autobiography “Chronicles of Wasted Time.” There is a sense in which, until God shows up in our time, all of our time tends to be wasted time. It is an interesting thought and I’m not sure how I would respond to it, however even with the good fortune of having faith, I still find myself wasting time or at least not using it in positive and productive ways.

At the end of every year, I have to reiterate what is in our confession - “Lord forgive me for the things that I have done and for the things that I have left undone.” I’m not sure which phrases hit me harder but I am not a person who likes to live with regret, especially the regret of not doing something I should have done or missing out on something I could have experienced. I suppose it is all part of the game we call “life”, but my prayer this year is that 2011 will be a great year filled with opportunities. May you grab on to as many as you can.

HAPPY 2011 !!!

MEH