That foxhole of life

September 11, 2102

Today, most Americans are remembering 9-11-2001 ... the day the twin towers in New York City were hit by terrorists.  It's a day those of us who experienced this tragedy first hand will remember forever.  Dallas became a deserted city ... people were home glued to televisions waiting for news ... any news.  My daughter in law and I were driving to her job interview when our music was interrupted by (oh my gosh) news of a horrific incident.  As time has gone on, a new generation has been born that did not experience the uncertainly and fear of that day.  It has been up to us to keep that memory alive.

Many years ago now, I remember my grandmother and mother talking about WWII and how they gathered around the radio for news ... how they ran to pick up newspapers with any information about what was going on so many miles away.  They never forgot that initial news report that the United States was going to war.  Fear gripped families as their sons and daughters left home to protect our freedom.

When I was in grade school, I would take mementos that my father brought home from WWII to school for show and tell.  As I packed my box, I would ask him about the coins and various items including a German bayonet.  He told the same story over and over ... the story was mainly about the foxhole.

My father worked in the engineering division clearing the way for tanks, soldiers, and allied forces making their way through the European countryside.  One of the first things they would do is dig some foxholes to protect themselves.  My father would get a faraway look in his eyes as he talked about those foxholes.  God became friend, protector, and consoler as men dove for cover, their rifles never far from their sides.  My father - one time - mentioned that he was in a foxhole with a man who had his head shot off.  How horrific to be faced with death for hours on end ... to look at a maimed man, smelling the body as it decomposed before him.  War makes men and women prisoners -- the foxhole dug to protect them often became their cell.  How could it not affect them?

Do you pray in a crunch?  Everyone knows how it goes… the time for the dreaded test (Math, English, Science, that Real Estate Exam...) has arrived, and you begin to pray madly that God will help you pass it. Or maybe you’re in trouble, and you know you need help, and even if you don’t usually do a whole lot of praying other times, this time you do. You even try to make a deal with God. “God, if you help me, I’ll…”  "If you just get me out of this, I'll..."

Some people call those types of prayers “foxhole” prayers… prayers that are said when someone is in a lot of trouble, is maybe scared, and needs a lot of help. Everyone at some time or another has prayed a “foxhole” prayer.  We've all heard that saying, "There are no atheists in foxholes."  Many times, I think that people have come to know God as their savior at such times ... the times when they are at the end of their rope and there is no where to turn.

The real test comes when there is deliverance ... when bad times turn good ... when that business deal comes through to save the day ... when the bank account has money left over at the end of the month ... when that dreaded illness goes away ... when we pass that dreaded test ... that pregnancy test is positive.  We forget about our foxhole crisis and go on like nothing happened forgetting our own promises.

 

 

Do you think that God is up there in heaven thinking that we are like the boy who cried "Wolf" one too many times?  Do you think that he looks down and says, "That ungrateful child..."  Does He get angry?  Sad?  I meditated on that today and became very still.  Even when my mind began to wander, I brought it back to that foxhole.  There was a song that started ever so quietly and as time passed, the voice grew louder until it was all around me ... Onward Christian Soldiers marching as to war...

We are all soldiers aren't we?  We fight for what we think we want never resting, never satisfied.  We toil, we plead, we attain only to move up another rung on the ladder.  We pull those along behind us whether they want to go or not.  And, for what?  Do we serve God or man?  Do we seek our own agenda's or do we allow God's to come forth?  We dig our foxholes and jump in when threatened, rising when we hear, "The coast is clear!"

Never has this been more obvious as it has been the past years as our economy has spiraled downward ... the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer and the middle class.  Well, the middle class has been hit between the eyes.  Jobs have disappeared as companies find cheaper ways of managing by computer and outsourcing.  Oh, there are jobs out there ... plenty of them at minimum wage.  Problem is, it's pretty darn stuff feeding a family on minimum wage...

We have jumped in our foxholes for safety pretending that our government will protect us.  That's what they are there for, right?  We elected the men and women who stood up and told us what we wanted to hear.  We believed all the political hoopla.

Would it be so bad to go backward in order to go forward?  Would it be so bad to have to face the facts that in our greed we gave our freedom away to a government who has squandered and overspent?  How about our own habits of squandering and over spending?  Getting out of our foxholes might mean we have to start examining ourselves and making better decisions.  Being on the defensive and diving for cover isn't working.

My uncles on the farm would argue politics for hours on end.  They would shake their fists at each other and voices would thunder through the farm house.  I'm not sure if anyone ever changed sides because of the bantering and I've come to realize that IS politics.  Some believe one thing, others believe another.  Some people are Catholic, some Protestant, some don't believe in anything ... that's just the way it is.  I listened to the Republican Convention ... I listened to the Democratic Convention ... I wanted to puke.  The finger pointing ... the screaming, the yelling.  I wondered why we couldn't just get along ... why we couldn't climb out of our foxholes and shake hands working together for the common good.

As I meditated on the foxhole, all of a sudden, I realized that I was thinking about a make-shift grave not a place of safety.  I visualized climbing out of my foxhole into the sunshine and stretching my arms towards the heavens.  I felt the warmth of life return to my body that had been stuffed into this small space ... I looked down and began shoveling dirt into the hole.   I didn't want to be in that hole any longer ... I had my eyes open and my senses were keen to my surroundings.  I could deal with truth ... and, my journey?  To walk in the newness of light!!

As we gather as families, let us remember those who have lost their lives fighting for our freedom AND for those innocent victims who have been slaughtered along the way.  Climb out of your foxhole and make this day count!

Until we meet again, let's agree to disagree if we need to but let's never lose sight of what the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness really means!!

Miss Dottie