It was five years ago today....February 4, 2020....'a dark and stormy night'.....as Snoopy would write....in our capital of Washington D. C. Actually it was about sixty degrees with a light rain. (I just looked that up) I remember the date very well for it was my seventieth birthday....which means that today is my seventy-fifth birthday. I remember distinctly only my fourth and my sixth birthdays....the fourth because my cousin Buzzy jumped out from behind a door to scare me....and my sixth because I had an apartment full of kindergarten friends for a party. We tend to remember dates that something extraordinary or different happens on them. So I remember February 4, 2020 very well....for something very ominous happened on that evening!
It was more of a party....definitely a celebration....for half of the people present anyway.....senators and representatives and Supreme Court justices and generals and admirals and cabinet members. Rush Limbaugh....that grand old man....he was sixty-nine years old at the time....(he would live another year)....was awarded....deservedly so....the Presidential Medal of Freedom on that evening.
That was the State of the Union Address where Nancy Pelosi did not introduce Trump with the usual...."It is my high honor and privilege".....and then he did not shake her outstretched hand....and then she ripped up the speech transcript....and he sent everyone off with the prophecy...."the best is yet to come."
An odd anecdote here....that same cousin who scared me....went on to become a famous disc jockey and radio consultant....so good that Time Magazine did an article on him in 1974. Well....he came to Pittsburgh as a consultant and turned the lowest rated radio station into the top rated station....changing its name to 13Q. In the process....Rush who was a disc jockey under the name of Chris Christie on the former top station...KQV.....lost his job....and we all know what he moved into.
I just got a text this minute from a good friend who I used to work with. Every text of his is always....Maga this or Maga that. Today it was...."Have a MAGA BIRTHDAY."
Here are some of the words from that S.O.T.U address....I've posted on them before.....
"Tonight I stand before you to share the incredible results....(of the past three years)....Jobs are booming....Incomes are soaring....Poverty is plummeting....Crime is falling....Confidence is surging....and our country is thriving....America's fortunes are on the rise.....America's future is blazing bright....our pride is restored....("Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" Proverbs)....we are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago....and we are never going back....we are advancing with unbridled optimism"....and the address ended with this...."This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Age, the American epic, The American adventure has only just begun. Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising, God's grace is still shining, and my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come."
As President Trump uttered those words of extreme confidence....the coronavirus was already beyond incubating....millions would die....thirteen of my friends....and the world would be changed.
The State of the Union Address for this year is schedule for March 4. Unless something happens....which it may very well....we will hear in essence the same speech.....and even more so as to the extreme confidence. The biblical Edom felt like this once....but God said of them in Malachi 1:4...."Edom may say, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins.' the LORD of hosts says, 'They may build, but I will tear down..."
This italicized paragraphs was added shortly after the first posting.
"it is Christ who redeemed me, it is the Father who chose the weakest, unsightliest jar of clay and it is the Holy Spirit who dragged me to belief, opened my eyes and gave me faith. And it is Christ again who keeps me, who keeps all of us, though we let Him down time after time. The modern church bears scant witness to the glories that underlie the gospel. Its doctrines permit man to credit His own choosing of Christ as evidence of his salvation. Christ is less than sufficient, the Bible is less than adequate and the Holy Spirit hastens to our beckon call. Large churches legitimize us, oblivious of the warnings to the Laodiceans. Reformed churches sit on the laurels of sound doctrine forgetting the command to the Ephesian church to return to their first love. Evangelicals pass out 'four spiritual laws' booklets with a place for a signature for salvation as if they were handling out coupons for a free Big Mac. Pray for a Reformation, that we return to the cross of Christ, that pastors would preach His glories, that fathers would teach His truths and that we would be salt and light to a destitute nation."
