On Friday, June 26th, Peggy Noonan wrote about the wise and simple use of words that can be confined to one sentence. She writes: “The Sentence idea comes from a story Clare Booth Luce told about a conversation she had in 1962 in the White House with her old friend John F. Kennedy. She told him…that ‘…a great man is one sentence.’ His leadership can be so well summed up in a single sentence that you don't have to hear his name to know who's being talked about. ‘He preserved the union and freed the slaves,’ or, ‘He lifted us out of a great depression and helped to win a World War.’ You didn't have to be told Lincoln or FDR." She wondered what Kennedy's sentence would be. She was telling him to concentrate, to know the great themes and demands of his time and focus on them. In retrospect, perhaps his sentence was: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!”
Peggy Noonan continues: “New White Houses are always ardent for change, for breakthroughs. They want the sentence even when they don't know the sentence exists, even when they think it's a paragraph. The Obama people want, "He was the president who gave all Americans health care," and, "He lessened income inequality," and, "He took over a failed company," and other things. They wants a jumble of sentences and do a jumble of things. But an administration about everything is an administration about nothing. Mr. Obama is not seeing his sentence. He's missing it. This is the sentence history has given him: "He brought America back from economic collapse and kept us strong and secure in the age of terror." That's all anybody wants. It's all that's needed.
The current news cycle has inundated us all with all kinds of unnecessary information. For more than two days, the news coverage regarding Michael Jackson has been constant. A sentence might’ve sufficed: “He was a tremendously talented man but with misguided priorities and unwise choices.” The same is true of Governor Sanford of South Carolina. All the barrage of sordid details, emails and excuses. A sentence by him would have sufficed: “I made a terrible mistake and I cast myself upon the mercy of God, my family, my constituents, my colleagues – all of whom I deceived and embarrassed…Can you find a way to forgive me and to give me a second chance!” Perhaps the greatest farce of all is the current Congress of the United States – voting on a Cap and Trade Bill which they had not received and the 1201 pages they had not read, and the 300 page amendment slipped in at 3:00 AM – the content of which was unknown to them – but – they were urged to vote – and vote they did – 219 to 212 in favor of a Bill that will over-burden most Americans with increased taxes and higher utility bills, etc. A sentence we might desire and covet about the current Congress would be: “they were a do-nothing Congress!” But this Congress did something – and generations to come will rue the day that they did. It would have been preferable if none of this happened.
All of this causes one to wonder what one sentence might define who we are, what we represented, what we were able to accomplish, etc. Before the Congress of the United States, General Douglas MacArthur closed his address regarding Old Soldiers Never Die – They Just Fade Away – by adding, “I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.” Hebrews 11 is a partial listing of God’s Servants who walked and lived By Faith. In verse 5, one is singled out in a special way: “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” To “please God” throughout one’s life – all commitments; all actions; all relationships; all thoughts; all words; all choices – Pleasing To God. What sentence is the best description of you? How do others define you now? How will they define you after you are gone? Micah 6:8 might be a good starting point for us all – “the LORD has already told you what is good, and this is what he requires: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Consider these things with me!
Peggy Noonan continues: “New White Houses are always ardent for change, for breakthroughs. They want the sentence even when they don't know the sentence exists, even when they think it's a paragraph. The Obama people want, "He was the president who gave all Americans health care," and, "He lessened income inequality," and, "He took over a failed company," and other things. They wants a jumble of sentences and do a jumble of things. But an administration about everything is an administration about nothing. Mr. Obama is not seeing his sentence. He's missing it. This is the sentence history has given him: "He brought America back from economic collapse and kept us strong and secure in the age of terror." That's all anybody wants. It's all that's needed.
The current news cycle has inundated us all with all kinds of unnecessary information. For more than two days, the news coverage regarding Michael Jackson has been constant. A sentence might’ve sufficed: “He was a tremendously talented man but with misguided priorities and unwise choices.” The same is true of Governor Sanford of South Carolina. All the barrage of sordid details, emails and excuses. A sentence by him would have sufficed: “I made a terrible mistake and I cast myself upon the mercy of God, my family, my constituents, my colleagues – all of whom I deceived and embarrassed…Can you find a way to forgive me and to give me a second chance!” Perhaps the greatest farce of all is the current Congress of the United States – voting on a Cap and Trade Bill which they had not received and the 1201 pages they had not read, and the 300 page amendment slipped in at 3:00 AM – the content of which was unknown to them – but – they were urged to vote – and vote they did – 219 to 212 in favor of a Bill that will over-burden most Americans with increased taxes and higher utility bills, etc. A sentence we might desire and covet about the current Congress would be: “they were a do-nothing Congress!” But this Congress did something – and generations to come will rue the day that they did. It would have been preferable if none of this happened.
All of this causes one to wonder what one sentence might define who we are, what we represented, what we were able to accomplish, etc. Before the Congress of the United States, General Douglas MacArthur closed his address regarding Old Soldiers Never Die – They Just Fade Away – by adding, “I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.” Hebrews 11 is a partial listing of God’s Servants who walked and lived By Faith. In verse 5, one is singled out in a special way: “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” To “please God” throughout one’s life – all commitments; all actions; all relationships; all thoughts; all words; all choices – Pleasing To God. What sentence is the best description of you? How do others define you now? How will they define you after you are gone? Micah 6:8 might be a good starting point for us all – “the LORD has already told you what is good, and this is what he requires: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Consider these things with me!
No comments:
Post a Comment