Liberty

July 4th Fireworks

in Palos Heights

Palos Heights, like other small towns (I know, officially, it's a city) has a 4th of July tradition. Somewhere west of Lake Katherine, starting at 9:15 P.M., the fireworks begin. This year the booms and brilliant displays lasted only 15 minutes.

A Canada goose honked loudly as it sought what security it could find. A lone swan paddled near the shore – perhaps finding solace in human company.

People, many people, had parked their vehicles where they could find spots on nearby side streets and walked, sometimes several blocks – carrying blankets or folding chairs. After a great, if brief, show, hundreds of people gathered their blankets and folding chairs and headed back to their cars.

What’s it all about, this thing called liberty? While 1776 is important in the birth of the United States, that isn't what this little blog post is about.

Paul wrote of a more universal freedom, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Where the Spirit of kindness is, where truth, patience, good-will, and respect prevail – this is true freedom. For me, this is also what the annual fireworks celebrate.

Geraldine's poems

My friend Geraldine wrote a book of poems. They speak from deep within her heart. Many people write poems, and some of them are heartfelt. What makes this little book different is that she wrote it while on Death Row.

In a travesty of justice she spent seven years on Death Row before the Illinois Supreme Court overturned her sentence due to corruption in the judicial system.

She says the only way she kept her sanity was to know who she was in Christ. And her poems speak primarily of this relationship and how it lifted her above discouragement and depression.

Geraldine learned early on that bitterness, anger, resentment had no place in her relationship with God, and she let them go.

She found a mission within prison, to introduce Christ to women who didn’t know Him. Other prisoners felt her spirituality. Geraldine writes,

“A lady I never knew
asked me who I was.
I turned and looked at her
And as our eyes met, she said,
‘You are here to help us.’

Another time young women thought the Bible was for old people. Geraldine told them that God uses young people because they relate to Him. She told them how:

· Jesus at twelve years astounded the scholars in the temple.
· David the young man slew the mighty Goliath.
· Joseph the teen-ager thrown into a pit became a leader of Egypt.
· She told them about young Queen Esther who risked her life for her people.
· And about the 12-year old girl Christ raised from death.
· About Mary, the young mother of Jesus
· About young Moses the prince, and young Samuel and many others.

Fast forward to 2008. Fortunately there was a support system in place for her when Geraldine was released from prison.

She now works long hours on behalf of her community, getting kids off the street and into school so they can become leaders, not just drifters. She gives them tough-love, and they trust her. When she can find them, she mentors their parents. She has hopes for a Senior Center and an After School safe place for the children to do their homework.

Truly, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” St. Paul

Geraldine found her spiritual freedom while still behind concrete walls. And she brought that freedom with her into her new life.

Lesson from a bumble bee

A honeybee at work

An email arrived telling about a bumble bee.

It is said that a bumble bee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will die unless it is rescued. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the glass sides near the bottom. It will seek an exit where none exists, until it is exhausted.

Sometimes we are like the bumblebee. We find ourselves struggling against adversity and disappointment, too often looking for escape where there is none. Yet it is true that very often all we need to do is look up – literally and figuratively.

“Looking up” can have the meaning of looking beyond ourselves to what one friend fondly calls “the Higher Power.” She finds answers there too. She hears messages of comfort, patience, courage, and practical ideas for going forward.

The email concluded with this little reminder:
Sorrow looks back,
Worry looks around,
Faith looks up!

Indepence Day

Canada celebrated a sort of Independence Day July 1. But their departure from British rule in 1867 was gentler than had been that of those rebellious American colonies some 90 years earlier.

Maybe both Canada and Great Britain had learned something about the value of a peaceful parting of ways in the interim.

My sister and her husband, my Minnesota cousin, and I drove into Chicago for the July 3 fireworks display.

We found dinner at Taste of Chicago, listened to the Grant Park Orchestra, and oohed and aahed at the fireworks bursting over the lakeside treetops.

What does Independence Day mean today? I like to view it in broader terms – that it’s mankind’s independence from peer pressure, marketing skills, drug culture, materialism.

I believe mankind has a wonderful legacy of learning to lean on the Almighty – both for important and less important life decisions. That there’s a universal intelligence that cares about His/Her creation, and is constantly speaking to each of us with specific good, useful, and productive ideas.

If this is so, we don’t have to be dependent on selfishness, greed, ignorance, or fear for making individual or national decisions.

This is the Independence Day celebration I love to participate in.

Hundreds of thousands of pedestrians
exit Grant Park after the fireworks

Freedom - you and I can make a difference

One July 4th found me flying across the country at nightfall. I remember looking down and seeing from above all these amazing displays. Ahead and behind silent bursts of manmade color punctuated the darkness.

As I write, explosions pop and rattle this night. Bibs, the dark calico cat, isn’t exactly afraid, but she comes in and asks for assurance. I lift her up on the day bed where she commences a thorough bath.

These nation-wide community fireworks commemorate freedom – the American colonies’ successful break from their mother country, Great Britain about 231 years ago. The rallying injustice was taxation without representation.

Today different injustices demand our attention. We rejoice that Alan Johnston, the British journalist kidnapped in Gaza and held for 101 days, was released today. His sudden freedom symbolizes the release of all who in some way are captive to circumstances beyond their control. Enslaved by tribes, cultures, or businesses taking advantage of poor families willing to sell their children for cash, people with no voice are yearning for hope and freedom.

So what can we do? What difference can you and I make? I think it has to do with how we view God. If God to us is infinitely good, caring, and powerful, then we have hope that things can be better. If God is Love, Truth, and Mind as well, then we can expect our prayers to contribute to finding practical solutions for universal fairness and opportunity.

The God who requires His/Her creation to honor and praise Him, also provides us with the ability to discover how to do that. It is man’s nature to treat others as we wish to be treated. Deep down we are not at peace with ourselves unless and until we align thoughts and actions with that life-principle. Our universal need to be humane and to honor the dignity of all life will work its way to the surface and demand expression.

All people need to be free – more than personal freedom to do anything – the larger freedom to employ our intelligence and ideas on a broader scale to make the world a better place. Each of us can weigh in for good.