A sour start to a new week. A sweet response.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that the Lions had lost over the weekend. Now, the new week was getting off to a sour start. 

Sipping a delicious cup of hot coffee and getting ready for the day/the week, this old newsman started sampling his news sources. Nothing sounded good! 

-Temperatures in our area had fallen to single digits, and would remain there for a day or two. (As a senior citizen, I have concerns about possible loss of electricity and water.) 

-A local area TV reporter showed videos of the homeless, in tents and under bridges, struggling to survive in this incredibly cold weather. (My heart was broken with exactly the same emotions I feel when seeing tiny children in war zones and beautiful people starving in third world countries. I immediately said a prayer for the homeless, but couldn’t stop thinking about them as I enjoyed the heat of my own furnace.) 

-Our President-Elect, in his inauguration address, said terrible things about the former President, who was sitting right there in his audience. (I wasn’t brought up that way.) 

-Santa Ana winds were again whipping up, causing more wildfire problems in California. (One cannot fathom the pain of losing loved ones, pets, homes, artifacts, etc., in one of the nation’s worse natural disasters.) 

I headed to my office to begin preparing the February edition of Humanity for Prisoners’ monthly newsletter. Things didn’t get any better! 

-The police scanner on my desk was crackling with reports of accidents, fires, slippery streets and highway closures due to the inclement weather. 

I began my review of newsletter material. 

-A prisoner’s description of Christmas Day in his corrections facility (I use this label with tongue in cheek!) was incredibly depressing. 

-HFP’s oldest client finally walked out of prison, on parole, at the age of 95. (Apparently, at the age of 94, she was still a “threat to society.”) 

-A prisoner complains about new visitation rules: No more sitting next to each other. Guests must now sit across from the prisoner, as a knee-jerk rule change because someone’s visitor had tried to smuggle in drugs. (It’s no secret how most drugs get into our prisons!) 

-Another inmate complains that he has already lost a leg while behind bars, and he’s been struggling with heart disease. Now he’s having trouble getting treatment for lung cancer. (Personal heartbreak once again!) 

Discouraged, I put it all aside at the end of the day and head to my daughter’s house for a sane supper hour. As I hop into the car, Bill Gaither’s Enlighten channel is on the radio, and veteran musician Bob Cain is the vocalist. In a voice cracked by old age he sings: 

How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him

who brings good news, good news;

Announcing peace, proclaiming news of happiness:

our God reigns, our God reigns! 

A perfect reminder I needed at that very moment---to fall back on the phrase that has comforted me so many times in the past 88 years: God is still on his throne!

 

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