Danger stalked Winnetka, a wealthy Chicago suburb, in the early morning of May 20, 1988. A woman delivered poisoned snacks to dozens of people. Then she moved from one location to another trying to trap people in fires she started. She shot children at an elementary school. After that, news reports told the city that her location was uncertain, but she was believed to be in a particular home, holding the family hostage.
When my teen-age son got home from school, he asked us to drive him to Winnetka. With common teen-age audacity, he was certain he could confront the killer and end the day-long siege.
Who among us hasn’t fantasized of some highly visible way we’d like to be heroic? Maybe rescue someone from a burning car. Or pull a drowning child from an icy pond. Isn’t some daydream touched when you hear about the three American men, friends from their youth, who restrained a terrorist on the Paris-bound train and were awarded the Legion of Honor Medal?
Those are big deals. Television news big. But most of us don’t live out such grand daydreams.
Jill Stanek
My friend Jill got a brick thrown thru her window. Sounds like some random act of vandalism. But it wasn’t. She was targeted.
She’d been a nurse, so it was strange she was sent a note on a brick. An ordinary nurse in the Labor & Delivery unit of an ordinary hospital ~ until the night a co-worker was carrying a small baby to the soiled utility closet to die. You see, this tiny boy lived through an abortion. Typically when that did happen, the parents or hospital staff held the child until it died. That night, the nurse didn’t have time to hold him.
Dr. Alveda King
So Jill held the hand-sized child. And as he slipped away, Jill’s determination to protect life grew. She’s become a prominent pro-life activist. One might say she’s reached that rarefied air of fame. She’s spoken around the world, testified before the US Congress, attended signing ceremonies at The White House. I mean, I learned about the brick incident when Dr. Alveda King ~ a woman I dearly love and respect & Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s niece ~ posted it! (Does Alveda King tell the world about your life? Not mine either.) But Jill’s fame also brought her a brick through the window. Being well-known isn’t always fun. And it isn’t Jill’s goal. But it is a consequence of her taking a stand.
I’m convinced that as Jill went to work that day, she had no idea a David-and-Goliath battle would appear.
And, dear sisters, neither do we. Yes, God prepares his children. Perhaps occasionally we sense that “something” is coming. But every day we’re given opportunities to be prepared. Opportunities to build our faith muscles, practice right thinking. Right attitudes. Right responses. I know I’ve missed noticing the majority. They often come disguised.
They look like my friend Clarice getting lost in the hospital parking garage visiting her husband who is fighting leukemia. They look like being asked to provide an excuse for your boss when s/he’s late to a meeting. Getting your finger slammed in the closet door. Knocking over the bottle of olive oil.
Your calling, your path and mine may not lead to invitations to The White House or the Legion of Honor Medal bestowed by French President Hollande. But as discussed in last week’s blog, the little acts matter. Choices in routine matters multiply in impact. Let’s go forward in that confidence. Stay faithful, keep reading and applying Scripture, being on the look out for the choice points in your day ~
So that we may be prepared ~
When a friend looks at you through tears and says, “I can’t hang on any more.”
Or in the night hours, your child telephones saying, “It’s all falling apart. I don’t know what to do.”
What obstacles are you facing today that may be opportunities in disguise?
If you’d like to learn more about Jill, Alveda King, or Clarice James, click on their name & you’ll connect with their blog or Facebook.
Photo credit, Legion of Honor: Alexvonf, public domain on German Wikipedia
[originally posted Feb. 4, 2016]
Last week we talked about nature speaking of God and focused on redwood trees. Those magnificent giants live hundreds of years, grow hundreds of feet into the heavens, and have roots as shallow as 5 to 10 feet. But those relatively shallow roots stretch 60, 80, even 100 feet out and intertwine, sometimes even fuse, with the roots of neighbor redwoods. They literally hold each other up. What a perfect metaphor for us.
And like redwoods, most of us thrive in a supportive community. This should be no surprise, I guess. Jesus has commanded “Love one another as I have loved you” [John 15:12, KJV]. We’re even told why He chose to link humans together: Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. [Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, KJV]
Like the redwood’s roots, we reach out from where we are planted. There are countless ways in which we can be part of such a network of support ~ giver and receiver. And like the myriad, intermingled roots, each of them is important and amplifies the others.