Time To Be Thankful

As the election goes on and on… with a political junkie like me watching every event and at times shouting at the TV, a couple of things happened, one, today (Thursday) and the other, over the last week, put it back into the proper perspective. The first event was this morning.  (I write the column on Thursday night and polish it up Friday morning and sent it in)  As I got up and flipped on the TV on Thursday, there was a aerial camera tracking the Ryder truck carrying the ballots from Palm Beach County to Tallahassee.  The most ridiculous use of TV time during a serious new event I have ever seen.  This was the ultimate and complete trivialization of CNN and any other news outlet that gave up their valuable pictures to give us live pictures of the caravan.  In fact later in the day CNN capped it off with “BREAKNG NEWS” with the arrival of the ballots in Tallahassee.  I thought to myself, perhaps this and my involvement is over the top!

The other item that helped frame the issue for me.  It is the long, perhaps downhill battle with leukemia of a member of our church and a friend of mine.  Not a close friend, but a friend nevertheless.  On Monday the family was asked to gather because the possibility of the eminent death of this fine man of faith.  At the time he was not able to communicate and the family gathered to give and get reassurance and get consolation from each other.

It dragged on Monday night and all day Tuesday.  Early Wednesday morning he rallied and was able to communicate.  He asked to see a close friend and church member, but also his attorney.  This mutual friend came out of a real estate closing and headed to Tampa to be at the side of our struggling friend.  I might note that he did call our friend as a friend, not a lawyer.   He just wanted someone he could trust, he could share his faith with and perhaps vent his fear and frustration. 

Wednesday evening my wife and I went to dinner with our lawyer friend and his wife. He related the day, the hard parts and the poignant parts.  One lighter moment was after a conference with the doctors, the family and my friend, they went over the options and or course there is fear, frustration and indecision.  Leukemia is a particular cruel disease on the patient and the family.  It CAN go into remission and patients can recover, if only for a time.  So there is uncertainty even at or near the end about what to do.  But after the session the doctor and the lawyer came out and walked down the hall.  The lawyer touched the arm of the doctor and reassured him that he was a friendly lawyer.  The doctor replied, “There is no such thing.” 

During this Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday time there is a lesson here.  The Bible tells us to be thankful in all circumstances.  It is difficult if you or a family member is suffering from leukemia or any life limiting disease to be thankful.  But he and his family should be thankful that he did have a friend like the “friendly lawyer” who would take the time to come to Tampa to hold the man’s hand, give the wife a hug and just be there. 

The Bible tells us in Luke through John the Baptist what we should do for our fellow man.  He outlined a number of things we should do and I might add “you go to Tampa to be with a fiend in time of need.”  

So we can sometimes get tied up in knots about some situation like the Presidential election, after all it is important.  But more important is to know and appreciate a friend like the “friendly lawyer”.  To know when you are in need he will be there.  He will do what he can and do it with a reassuring smile.  

If we look hard enough we surely can find something to be thankful for in even the most difficult situation.  

Even in the Presidential situation we can be thankful.  We have a peaceful system.  We fight with words, not bullets.  It may be messy, but we will have a President on January 20^th.  Perhaps the TV news media have embarrassed them enough to make a difference?  Well maybe that is too much to ask. 

The lesson for this wonderful season is to look for reasons to be thankful… they are there of only we look.   Would that Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore look for and see the many blessing they have even in this most difficult system.