No Good Ol’ Days - No Easy Answers - Perspective in Times of Tragedy

“The Good Ol’ Days”. The days of innocence and care free living. Days when the grass was greener, the air was cleaner; doors remained unlocked all day every day and neighbors traded recipes, watched one another’s children and sealed every deal with a handshake. Times were simpler then and life was easy – or was it?
As we try to comprehend the horror of Aurora, it is easy to paint an idealistic picture of the past as we face the challenges and difficulties of the present. It is also extremely tempting to oversimplify the occurrence in our search for meaning and understanding by politicizing the situation, vilifying certain groups or blaming any sociological issue with which we disagree as the cause of the tragedy.
The base line truth that haunts us - but the truth from which we consistently attempt to flee - is that humanity is ill and in need of a deep and cleansing healing. It is a condition that has existed since The Fall. People everywhere are afflicted by the spiritual plague called sin that has manifested itself endlessly over the course of history in acts great and small. Sometimes the damage escapes easy notice but has deep emotional impact, and at other times it hits with powerful physical destruction that causes immediate grief and a search for meaning. In whatever measure the affliction is levied, humanity’s illness wreaks havoc and leaves in its wake a path of devastation and brokenness.
As we try to process what occurred in Aurora on July 20, 2012 we must not ignore this consistent lesson of history and core truth of the Bible – ALL have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. In the history of U.S. society alone, this sinful nature has shown itself in all sorts of extreme evil from the gangland violence of the “Roaring” 1920’s, to the early 20th century family feuds of Appalachia to the various forms of racial conflict that have challenged our land since the nation’s earliest days. These eras don’t even take into account the specter of crime in general or the menace of warfare that has chillingly touched every American generation.
In the course of uneventful days, it is easy to forget this fallen state of our world and of our natures. It is especially easy to stop considering the unseen potential dangers lurking in the minds of almost anyone who seems “normal” today, but who could potentially be one setback away from plunging into the deepest realms of human depravity. While there are no “easy” answers, the Scripture tells us that salvation from this fallen nature comes through the relationship God has made available to us through Christ. As people of faith in Christ, it is lived out on a day to day basis by understanding that we were not only designed to relate to God but to relate to others as well. We were built for community. A telling characteristic of the massacres of our generation is apparent in the term “lone gunman”. Many of the troubled people who have brought about the pain and suffering of our generation have been people who have somehow fallen off the radar of community and slipped into a parallel existence of loneliness and isolation that eventually led to an explosive rage that destroyed anyone who happened to come into their path.

The tragedy of Aurora reminds us that the societal challenge before us is formidable. We can respond to the challenge inadequately by longing for the “Good Ol’ Days”, by blaming others who hold different points of view for how societal problems should be addressed, or by ignoring the problems of our generation and hoping the challenges will just melt away. The most meaningful responses will be seen in those people who courageously acknowledge the ever-present dangers hiding in the shadows of the human heart. The people who will make a difference will address the dangers of the fallen world by energetically and thoughtfully engaging others with The Good News, and will demonstrate the reality of the Good News by getting involved in the messiness of the human experience. These people of valor will do the very best possible to leave none behind in the confusion and trials that come with everyday living: reaching out to the outcasts in friendship, ministering to the brokenhearted with compassion, embracing the marginalized as people of value, cherished and loved by God.
There will be no pat answers to explain every tragedy, but there will be a witness and the witness is this: In the course of the unforeseeable and perilous future that is part and parcel of the human experience, the God Who cares and has ultimately shown His care in the person of His Son, has also left a witness through the day to day ministry of fellow sojourners who willingly and sacrificially love in Jesus’ Name to all that the glory of God might shine through them in whatever circumstances they find themselves.
Why do tragic events like the Aurora Massacre happen? Short of saying, “The world is messed up,” no answer will suffice. What do we do about it? We realize that now is the time to live for God! Now is the day to reach out to others with His loving message of salvation. As Carly Simon sang in the old 70’s classic, these are the good old days; days to demonstrate the goodness of God in selfless and courageous living. For those who know the Lord, today is the day we step out in faith to share the Good News of Jesus Christ by loving and engaging others without conditions or qualification so that the world can see what we do and give God the glory. It’s not an “easy answer” and it won’t prevent all future tragedies, but it will impact lives and bring the love and grace of God to bear in an uncertain and pain-filled world.



Until Next Time…



Sam

But for the Grace of God...

This morning I received an email update from friends serving in a very difficult ministry assignment internationally. They shared the struggle of a partner in the ministry who woke up one night to his elementary-aged son's inexplicable violent vomiting. Less than 24 hours later the young boy slipped into eternity. They shared how a small village was wiped out by flash flooding when a sudden rain storm hit their area and how a bus careened off of a steep mountain into a cavernous abyss killing all on board. They shared a few other excruciating tales of heartache and challenge, restating their resolve to serve and minister by citing the oft quoted but too little felt truth - "There but for the grace of God go I." "The Grace of God" - something that the political season in which we find ourselves immersed seems to have pushed as far away from our speech and interactions as Venus' next solar transition. It is true that the political process that defines how government is executed in the United States necessitates debate. It guarantees a clash of ideas and an inevitable struggle as citizens attempt to determine what is best for the us, the conglomeration of points of view and opinions known throughout our founding documents as "We the People."



I do not begrudge anyone's right to share their opinion, debate the opinions of others or make the cae for what they believe to be right. It is among the rights we in the United States believe are God-given. Nevertheless, I am wearying of people from all sides of seemingly every argument stating their every case with a total vilification of those with an opposing view or using the language of brinkmanship with every argument they make. If every utterance is one that declares, "Vote for my choice or it's the Apocalypse!" the truly apocalyptic issues get swamped in a sea of less significant considerations. What's behind this increase in pomposity and arrogance? I believe it's an increase in the belief that it is not God Who has made us, be rather an inner conviction that we have made ourselves. The Grace of God cannot abound where it is not perceived to be a need. If I deserve all the good I have and those who do not have are merely getting what's coming to them, my view of how to work the common good is skewed, even if my stance is correct.



Scripture instructs Christians to communicate in this way: "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." Notice the word ALWAYS! There is no occasion for those who follow Christ to communicate out of arrogance or self- aggrandization. We must always keep in mind that even when we communicate a painful truth that will shake our audience to the core, we are communicating not from our own righteousness or deserving, but from the righteousness an deserving of our Lord. The recognition that we are not standing on our own merit but on the merit of the One Who died for us and rose again that we might have hope, joy and a godly confidence that should “govern our engines” and cause us to share the convictions of our heart with Grace and love.



With those truths in mind, don't fail to share your convictions, if so led. BUT, make sure that when you do, you're not puffed up with pride as one sharing as if you are more deserving than those who do not hold your convictions, but model the walk of Jesus who did not revile those who mistreated Him but prayed for them, even as He was crucified. Remember that because of His Work on the cross, it is truly possible to proclaim with humble thanksgiving, "But for the Grace of God, where would I be?" Until next time...



Sam.

A Mother's Day Salute

I talk quite a bit about my father, but if I am anything, I am all that I am because of Georgia Jackson. She was a true Renaissance Woman (a leader, amazing track athlete, lover of language and lover of God) who poured her life into me, sacrificing her own goals in the process. She taught me how to read by the time I was 3 and, poured the foundation for my writing skills, which West Point fine tuned and taught a walk of faith with Jesus that was so deep and so strong that it overpowered my intense desire to be a soldier influencing me to enlist instead for eternity in the Army of the Lord. There is no instrument that can truly measure Georgia's impact on my life while she lived or measure the hole left in my heart when she departed from this world. Nevertheless, her legacy to me and my posterity remains as strong as ever, and though I miss her, like any good soldier I am able to follow her last standing orders with vigor and therefore proudly Carry On! On this Mother's Day I take great pleasure in saluting my mom, Georgia L. Jackson. Until we meet again on the other side of the veil, Happy Mother's Day Ma! Your Ponderosa, "Darrell" Samuel D. Jackson

Being a Friend in the Painful Times

How does one help a friend to cope with the unbearable loss of a close loved one? Words offered for the sake of comfort are always well meaning, but can seem to hang impotently in space like a child’s soap bubble – pretty enough, but powerless to effect real change in the thick atmosphere of grief. The pain of loss can be so deep and profound that it numbs to the bone, defying even the most well-thought-out attempts at leveraging truth and beauty during life’s ugliest moments. It is a certainty - the painful times will come, intruding and disrupting our lives without mercy, leaving broken hearts and deflated spirits in their wake without discrimination. So what do we do? It just doesn’t seem right to not even attempt to bring comfort to those who are hurting. So we offer words of comfort and acts of kindness hurting for our grieving friends and desperately longing to say or do something to take the pain away.

I am especially feeling the weight of this recurring life challenge as it seems that over the last year or so, an incredible number of dear friends are suffering unbelievable and jarring losses within their families. Spouses have been taken in what should have been the prime times of their lives. A great wave of Parents who raised my generation are now completing their “Golden Years” and stepping out of the temporal and into the eternal. Close friends have been lost to both tragedy and disease and the losses seem to just keep on mounting. Even the celebrity ranks that entertained and informed us from childhood to adulthood are thinning and closing the books on their legacies – The conductor of the Soul Train and the Leader of the Bandstand have both permanently “left the building” and are now experiencing their eternal reward. I didn’t really know them, but I do know my friends and I hurt for them. Again, what do we do?

Galatians 6:2 offers some simple but challenging advice – “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” The picture here is of a person who is loaded down with a weight that was never intended for one person to carry and begs to be shared by others. It is an emotional mountain of a sack filled with pain, inner turmoil, anger and bewilderment that can sap the strength of the strongest champion and squeeze the hope out of the most optimistic cheerleader. It’s a burden brought on by life that’s just too much for one person. So the Lord has charged those who follow Him to come along and help. But what do you do? “Anything you can!” is my answer!

As I reflected on some of the most painful losses of my life thus far, I can remember clearly the generous outpouring of affection. I remember very little of what was actually said to me and little of all of the specific ways people supported me, but I remember faces, expressions and tones. I remember faces that reflected a sizeable effort to intentionally enter in to an awkward and uncomfortable situation to say what amounted to “Sam, I love you and I care!” Did anyone say anything inappropriate and insensitive? Probably. Nevertheless, strangely, I don’t remember the fumbles. I do remember the efforts and cherish the memory of friends who cared enough to let me know they cared. They were there and they tried to reach me and that is what mattered most of all. One of the aspects of the various social media I truly most appreciate is the ability these media provide for us all to at least “try”. Friends who may be far away during a time of trial are still able to still engage their hurting friends by saying in effect, “Though I can’t be with you, I care!”

So as the trials come, let’s love one another and bear each others’ burdens. If you’re geographically close, be present. Go visit. Prepare a meal. Offer a listening ear. Just sit there and be a friend. And make sure to come back after the initial flood of help has died down so that you can be there when your friend is really ready to talk. If you’re far away, send that line of condolence or press like when tributes are given in honor of those who have departed. Your interaction leaves a record that can be revisited later and becomes part of a great wave of condolence whose notice just can’t be ignored. How can receiving scores of greetings and words of acknowledgement not touch a hurting heart even if just a little? And remember to respond to the email/social media mail messages that the grieving friend may leave as they begin to ask the tough questions and really begin sorting through the loss. If you’re getting a message, you’re trusted and in a significant position to offer help that is more than a token effort.

In the end, my charge to us as a community of friends – even the virtual community of which we’re now a part - is to keep taking the time to be involved. Write, message, call and visit. Keep paying attention to the victories and the losses. Take the time to make a difference and to hold each other up when the weight of life just brings us to the brink of breaking. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Until next time…

Sam

How Do You Say Something Meaningful in Harsh and Confusing Times?

“People moving out; People moving in; why? Because of the color of their skin! Run! Run! Run! ‘Cause you sure can’t hide!” A funky thumping base line and those super-charged words introduce one of my favorite Temptation tunes, “Ball of Confusion – That’s What the World is Today!” The state of the world hasn’t changed. In spite of noble attempts at a Great Society, A Peace and Love Revolution, Détente, A Moral Majority, Sinai Peace Treaties, Racial Reconciliation Movements, all sorts of liberation movements, and endless seminars, consortiums and think tanks, our societal problems and challenges seem as daunting as ever. We continue to deal with a multitude of issues as significant as any we’ve ever faced in our history: wars that seemed to make sense when we started them but whose purposes are now much more difficult to grasp and explain. Economic stresses loom ominously on the horizon, growing divides in complex and unsettling to ways. Decades after sweeping Civil Rights legislation, racial struggles continue to plague us, leaving us with the residue of clumsy political correctness and placing us on the threshold of violent upheavals as some of our chance encounters still end in inexplicable conflict and even death!

Having been made in God’s image, God has given us a basic understanding of right and wrong, good and evil. It is not that we don’t know how to behave; we know how to do “The Right Thing”. Nevertheless, our sinful and rebellious nature against God drags us downward and bends us towards ungodliness in every conceivable way. In a world that longs for unity, division persists as a stubborn reality. In a society desperate for civility, hostility clings to us without relief. Not even our technology helps us. Utilizing the amazing medium of internet communication, people who would politely greet you on the street in passing, effortlessly engage in scathing and often demeaning banter behind the safety of a computer screen and a lack of the accountability of flesh and blood presence. It’s so easy, after all, to be an internet aggressor. I can take on the biggest bully, berate him to no end, knowing all the while that he will probably never be able to have real-world access to me in a way that will to force me to face him. We’ve become the ultimate couch potatoes. After all, it’s much easier to play Call of Duty, than it is to answer one! Perhaps that ease explains the contrast in higher military-themed video game sales to that of lower military enlistments in a time of war!

What’s the point? This real-world disengagement has fostered a laziness that has made us more prone to reduce each other to caricatures based on outlandish stereotypes than to engage each other in the complexities of reality that might actually bring about meaningful dialogue, practical solutions and positive results. I can lazily reduce my “enemy” to a label: “brainless conservative”, “godless liberal”, or any other label I might choose rather than getting up, getting involved, shaking my neighbors’ hands and getting to know them in the complexity of who they are in the real world.

This troubling trend weighs heavily on my mind as the nation tries to understand the confusion surrounding Trayvon Martin’s death. As this tragedy continues to be analyzed I feel led to remember what I am called to do as a follower of Jesus Christ. As a Christian I am called to extend grace as I pursue truth and to preserve peace as I promote justice. I am called to deal respectfully with those who do not understand me or my point of view and to put the well-being of others before the rights I myself possess. Above all, I am called to love without condition or reservation, remembering that while we were sinners and enemies against God, Jesus died for us and demonstrated the full extent of mercy, justice and grace as He suffered on the cross. As he was hated, reviled, mocked and punished he prayed; expressing forgiveness for His oppressors, mercy towards his enemies, acceptance for his detractors, support and encouragement for His friends and ultimately, victory as he gave up His spirit.

Those of us who know Christ must now devote ourselves to emulate Him with a renewed vigor as the winds of dissonance whirl around us. We must resolve to remain calm when others become flustered and to stand steady as a voice of healing and reason when others cave in to the pressures of frustration and hurt. If there is any good to come out of the tragedies of our day, it will be found in the actions of those who, like Jesus, are willing to shake off the bonds of apathy, laziness and self-centeredness to be engaged with concerned action that others might see the power of the Gospel lived out in everyday terms whether face-to-face or through social media. May God give us the ability to shine in the beauty of holiness when others fade that all who look on might see Christ in us, the Hope of Glory. Until next time…



Sam.

Jackson!

As the sole surviving son of a sole surviving son, the importance of my family name and the mortality of it have been ever-present companions that have served as major sources of motivation compelling me to live my life with the greatest degree of honor and righteousness possible. From my earliest days, the name “Jackson” has provided the heartbeat of my identity, the soundtrack of my daily stride and the backbone of resilience I have often needed when facing the toughest circumstances of my life. Of course, my faith in the Jesus Christ and living for the glory of His Name ultimately define me and shape all I am and all I do. Nevertheless, in His sovereignty, He gave me the heritage of the name Jackson and I have done my best to advance and protect it!

Then I became the father of daughters – only daughters. With that great blessing and tremendous responsibility I knew that I would have to live beyond the superficiality of the syllables of my name, because the name in which I took such pride in cultivating, guarding and promoting would die. Instead, I had to focus on the Foundation under the name, the Power behind the name and the Substance that actually made the name a source of beauty, honor and goodness. I had to live a life before my wife, daughters and the world that demonstrated what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control”. In other words, I had to live for God to bring glory to His Name realizing that there is no glory apart from Him. I had to let “Jackson” go. BUT GOD…

God had a surprise in store for me! What an unimaginable blessing it was to learn that the daughter of my heart, the daughter of the love of my life’s flesh, the little girl Luz and I raised together who is now a godly, honorable, strong woman navigating the course of life God has appointed for her was bearing our first grandchild. What an unexpected honor it was to learn that she and our son through marriage, Mike, had decided to give their son a name that would serve to carry on the legacy of our family name to the next generation!

It is with the utmost joy, and almost uncontainable pride that I share with you the name of our first-born grandchild:

JACKSON BRANDON COHODES!

God is truly good regardless of our circumstances! I thank Him for His mercy in giving us such wonderful gifts in our children who have internalized and actualized the values we have shared and who are now blessing us by passing the baton of our heritage to the next generation! Go get ‘em Jackson! You’ve got a great name with which to live and the Greatest Name with whom to walk! Your adventure has now begun! Until Next time…

Sam.

New Blog Post Faith In Living Color - 22 years of Friendship

On a hot December afternoon at the Balut Base of Youth With a Mission, Philippines, I expressed my love and devotion for Maria-Luz Bautista de Jackson y Roda to the entire world and took her to be my lawfully wedded wife. The emotions of the day are powerfully etched in my mind, though some of the details are blurred together as the enormity of the commitment I was making blended events, sights and sounds into a giant collage that makes details difficult to distinguish years later. Nevertheless, I clearly remember the beauty of my bride, the innocence of my children and my eagerness to live with and love my new family for as long as the Lord allowed me to live.

The 22 years that have followed have been sweet and blessed. Of course, we as a family have experienced the full span of human drama and challenge that life in this world brings. Nevertheless, we have seen the faithfulness of the Lord in every circumstance and trial and count ourselves blessed to have experienced much deliverance and mercy through the hands of our friends. It is in the context of community that our marriage has been able to grow, mature and endure. We are not islands unto ourselves neither as individuals nor as families. We need friends and loved ones to encourage us, to rally us and to lift us up so that we can face life’s challenges with confidence and courage.

It is for that reason as Luz and I celebrate 22 years of marriage, we want to especially celebrate your friendship us. We thank you for standing with us, standing for us, and cheering us on as our family continues to grow and as we press on in the service of the Lord. We give God the glory and praise for 22 years of marriage and we salute you for helping to make such a celebration possible through your love! We prayerfully look forward to more years of walking with you and glorifying God together in all of life’s celebrations and challenges! What would we do without you! Thank you for being our friends! Until next time….





Sam