What Matters Most

Normally, I write something for the blog no later than Saturday afternoon. But this weekend, it just didn’t seem like the thing to do. I don’t know why, but one sometimes just gets the notion that what has been done many times in the past just shouldn’t be done this time in this way. However, I do want to maintain the connection with you, so am writing now, on Sunday afternoon.
I noticed a couple of things worthy of my blog (if you’re a regular, you know that isn’t a very lofty goal). The first was something I saw yesterday evening as I was making my way to our son’s place where Grandma was already there watching the grandkids. I stayed behind to catch up on some work and mow the yard.
While on the way, I saw a bicycle-built-for-two and, of course, it had two riders on it. However, the bike was constructed differently than I had ever seen a tandem built before. The first seat was of regular size for regular people. The second was clearly built for the smaller among us, our children. There was a dad, I presume, and his daughter riding on this thing and having a good time, it seemed.
What struck me was that someone had the foresight to think of such a thing and either build it or have it built. There probably aren’t that many of that kind of tandem bike in the world, but what a great idea.
The second is all the talk about the economy, health care, and other assorted ills of the world and of society. Much of that talk is negative, and much of it, I think, is fed by the 24 hour so-called news channels on cable TV. I say so-called, because what they do isn’t news; it’s commentary and opinion.
I’ve written about this before, but I’ll say it again. All I have to do to get away from the negative and the bad is go out on the back patio. There, I find that fish are still swimming in our pond, trees are still growing and waving in the breeze, birds still feed at the feeders, and frogs still croak in the quiet of the evening. In other words, the bad news isn’t all there is to life, and life, indeed the creation, will go on regardless of the value of the dollar, whether a democrat or a republican is in the presidency, and whether or not Rush Limbaugh says anything stupid (a half-hearted pardon to those who listen to him).
I’m reminded of what Dr. James Dobson says at the close of his “A Father Looks Back” tape. He says something to the effect of, “When all of my life is boiled down to its basic roots, what truly matters is whether I have loved the Lord God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and whether I have loved my neighbor as myself.”
If we can continue to have that first and centered in our consciences, all of the rest will seem rather superfluous and like the “sounding gong and clanging cymbal” of I Corinthians 13.