Keep Calm and Carry On

I dropped my daughter off at school this morning.  It is in a large school and unusual as pre-schools go.  The local high school contains a pre-school inside it.  Two classrooms of 12 children each, plus teachers, aides, and young high school students learning about child care.  There are a few interns from the local university.  It has a mix of children, some with speech delays, motor skill issues, physical disabilities, autism and down's syndrome.  There are also children who are typical children, but considered at-risk due to economic challenges. It is a wonderful room.  And they are all so very beautiful.

Today though, the door was locked.  I had to knock.  You know why.

And I had to take a deep breath as I walked away and remind myself of what I had told my children on Friday: "millions of children went to school today and came home safely.  Those who didn't are part of a horrible tragedy that happens in this sinful world.  Jesus is always with us.  He will make the world perfect someday.  For now, we must love each other and pray for those who are sad."

I tried not to listen to the coverage.  Certainly not around the children.  But it leaks in here and there and the horror has a near mesmerizing effect.  It is hard to look away.  It is hard not to place yourself in the role of the parent who stood there, waiting for their child to be brought to the fire station and then be told, "there are no more children coming."  We can place ourselves there for a moment, imagine their sorrow and pray for their comfort.  But we can't stay there.  We cannot be prisoners of fear.

Oh there will be arguments on policy on how to prevent this from happening again.  Some will want to arm the schools, others to disarm the criminals, and talks of preventing crime altogether.  Changes will be made. Some good, some not good. We've yet to have another plane flown into a sky scraper.  Prevention often works.  But it is like trying to hold back the tide--somewhere else something bad will happen, someone else will suffer tragedy, sometime again there will be grieving parents.  We can't prevent everything.  We can't stop sin.

So I returned to school, picked up my little girl from that huge brick building full of bright young people and dedicated teachers and with a sigh of relief.  The sun broke through the clouds on the rain-wet world.  It was still there, behind those dark low clouds.  It was always there.

During World War II the British Ministry of Information designed the poster that has become popular again: Keep Calm and Carry On.  It was all part of a huge effort to keep up public morale and courage. Which wasn't just to keep everyone "happy and sunny."  It was an essential part of winning the war. It took courage and fortitude and the iron will to not only survive, but to prevail.  It was why my grandmother laughed about diving under a dining room table during a bombing raid and joked with her three friends about how silly they must look and while they continued to knit the socks for soldiers the whole time.  It was those brave, brave men who carried on despite exhaustion, privation and fear.

We are called to no less.  We are called to endure.  We live in the one dark planet in the universe, torn by war and marred by sin.  But we have the bright hope of perfect days ahead and joyful times now.  Even when the dark clouds gather.  Even when we stand in shock at the news from Newtown Connecticut. Even when things might grow worse.

We can keep calm and carry on.  Not on our own strength, but in the strength of the promise that He is always with us.  He will come and fix it.  He will hold them in His arms until the times of sorrow is past.  He will hold us in His arms.

Michael Card wrote a beautiful song called "I will bring You home."

Though you are homeless,
Though you're alone,
I will be your home,
Whatever's the matter,
Whatever's been done,
I will be your home . . .
In this fearful fallen place,
I will be your home.
When time reaches fullness
and I move my hand,
I will bring you home,
Home to your own place,
In a beautiful land,
I will bring you home,
I will bring you home.

Unkindness

Oh dear.  Kindness was my last post and I was just unkind.  I'll explain.  Not excuse, mind you, just explain.

We pick up about three times more doggie-do than our dog makes.  The underground fence is a magnet for neighborhood pooches to come, visit, and make a deposit.  Yuck.  But today, one visited the front yard and was attached to a very nonchalant owner while it did the deed.

Oh I have had enough of this.

I'm tired.  The tired parents get when they are in the midst of temporary housing between moves. The tired that comes from the bottom-of-the-barrel patience that I have to dip into daily to deal with my very active, energetic, possibly ADHD, developmentally delayed child who may have other acronyms coming. Prayer slapping off the ceiling tired.  Tired of people trying to take advantage of me.  I want to shout; "Can't you see I'm fresh out of everything?  Money? Sleep? Patience? Help?  House square footage? Working cars?  EVERYTHING!  Stop asking me for stuff unless you have less than me!  Jeepers!" But I don't shout that.  I mumble it to myself in the shower.  I whine it out in my prayers.  I cry it out in my pillow.

So when miss sorority sister lets her German Shepherd squat on my lawn I'm done.  I shout out the open window, "don't let your dog do that again."  So she calls back, "do you have a bag?"  And I graciously reply:

"No, you are supposed to carry one with you."  Slam.

Lovely.

There is still foreign dog poo on the front lawn.  My unhelpful spirit left it there.

I probably startled her.

She probably deserved it.

But I am better than that.  I could have been gracious.  I could have said please.  I could have brought her a bag and watched her clean up the mess.

But I was mad and I just walked away.  I'm not proud of myself.  Oh, I know, it isn't like I murdered anyone.  I feel like I'm running out of nice.  I'm running out of everything, just like the Sidonian widow who sheltered Elijah.  Oh. Yeah.  That's right.  She was on her last meal and a cruddy one at that and she gave to the one who asked.

Great.

I know God directed her to.  He told Elijah that he'd already cleared things with the woman and to go get some food.  What was He thinking?  Send starving Elijah to the poorest of the poor, the least of the least, the woman at the end of her rope.  What must she have thought?  Even though God directed her to, the pangs of hunger were there in her words, Sir I have no bread, just a little flour and oil.  Her last resources.  The last thin barrier between her son and death.  And God shows up and does some interesting math.  The Elijah who drank his last drop from a dying stream and his last meal from a crow.  The woman with no protector or provider who was skinny and tired and out of options. The flour bin that never was full, but never ran out. The oil that kept flowing.

God has strange math.  And I'm so much richer than her.  I have a roof, money for food, a husband to protect and love me, a car that still works, a bank account.  Three beautiful children and two that have no problems at all.  And the one who taxes me the most, is also the most full of love and sweetness and life.

So maybe God wants to bring people to me and for me to give them the last ounce of patience I have.  He restores my soul. He leads me beside still waters.  My cup runs over.

So I don't need to be the cranky old lady who yells get off her lawn.  I need to break out the shovel and be grateful I have a lawn.

Kindness

Sam's club needs smokers who can stick to their regularly scheduled breaks.  I had to stand impatiently waiting for an employee who had sprinted to the family bathroom just ahead of me and my public-toilet-terrified child and slammed the door.  Ten minutes and clouds of tobacco fumes later, we finally managed to accomplish our goal with a fair amount of stress and panic.

So my nerves were completely frayed by the time we had our cart full and were checking out.

"I'm sorry, there seems to be a problem with your membership card." Sigh.  It appears my card isn't working and they need to make a new one.  So we head for the desk.  Snap.  New picture.  No, still not working.  By now I've lost my place in line and have transferred my (hopeful) purchases to the cart.  The account is good, but my card isn't.  Finally we figure it out.  My card was through my father's business.  And he died.  And his estate is still being settled.  Oh the joys of disassembling a life, one precious memory at a time.

What must I do to please, oh please check out?

I need a new card.  Fine.  At this point my daughter is attempting to turn somersaults on the floor and climbing the help desk simultaneously.  I'm going to miss my precious rare lunch date with a human over the age of 20--my husband. And the Sam's employee claims she "has to" give me the sales pitch.  Oh mercy.  You don't say?  Free boxtops for my school? A hundred?  Wow.  Amazing.  Please tell me more.  (That's what I said in my head.)  Finally I broke in, "please just give me the cheapest membership where I can still purchase gas."  She swore she had to finish the sales pitch.  Heaven help me.

Just then C darts away from me.  I track her down, chatting merrily with one of the volunteers who watched children for the MOPS chapter I attend.  I exchange the needed pleasantries and cart my wiggling child back to the un-help desk to finish whatever I must do to, if I am very lucky, purchase all this STUFF and get out.  Then the MOPS volunteer, called Miss Lynn approaches me politely.  "It seem you have your hands full, could I help entertain her while you finish your transaction?"  Oh goodness yes.  Thank you.  She listened to all of C's happy prattle and kept her out of the danger while I finally managed to purchase the membership and check out.

Miss Lynn says some kind and gracious words and then goes on her way.

And without listing the litany of our troubles right now, I can say that act of kindness, at that moment, was the world to me.  Maybe, just maybe, things would be looking up.  Because a person decided to be kind.