Perspective – Page 2

Senator Stackhouse

Did You Ever Meet Him

Monday, June 9, 2025

Or a Grandparent Like Him

Who Gave Everything to Help a Grandchild?

Psalm 34:19

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all.

Mark 13:11

When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Sometimes God sends the most unlikely person to rescue us from ourselves, from our enemies, from all that ails us, and all that ails society.

But what are we going to say when our trial starts?

Senator Stackhouse had lots to say. Not much had much to do with anything. It was a filibuster after all.

I wonder how many Minnesotans even have met their own Senator Stackhouse.

He didn’t have much influence, or power, or political smarts, but he kept being elected to the senate for decades. Who knew if at 78 he would be alive to be elected again.

He was kind of an old curmudgeon. Kind of dependable that way, at least.

Then came the much needed omnibus bill for children’s health care. It started at 2 billion, and kept getting added to, for who was going to vote against child health care? It grew to over 6 billion, if I remember correctly.

Lots of horsetrading went into getting enough votes to support it’s passage through both houses. It was closed by the committee, and sent to the senate for a vote.

Senator Stackhouse had asked for a meeting with the White House, to get his little bit added to the bill. Sneezing from a head cold he asked for just a few hundred million for autism support, research, and care around the country. Laudable. But a bit late. The bill had just been closed. It was Friday. A recess waited. Everyone waited

to head off to a needed break, or

a family gathering for a milestone birthday,

or a long awaited trip to be renewed by nature,

or ….

It was noon by the time the vote was ready to be called on the floor of the Senate.

That’s when he started.

Started a filibuster.

Old Minnesotan, curmudgeon Stackhouse started a filibuster.

He couldn’t last long could he?

No Way!

Recipes, manuals, rules for card games.

On he went, standing, not leaning, not yielding the floor, not drinking or eating, not being excused to use the washroom,

just talking.

The news cycle deadlines came and went. The press corps waiting. The senators, long since drifting back to their offices, waiting. The White House staff waiting.

News giving background on Stackhouse.

Everyone waiting.

Waiting.

An assistant to an assistant, noticed something in the background photos of Stackhouse standing with his grandchildren.

Staff wrote email,

email to explain why they would be late

then that they would not make their flights.

Then that the last flights had come and gone.

So had connections by train and car.

Everyone waiting.

Supper came and went.

Stackhouse had stood and talked for more than 7 hours, going on 8. That poor old curmudgeon with a head cold kept talking, not yielding the floor. Holding up the vote, the news, the win for the White House and for Congress, and for the people and for children.

Then that assistant put it together. Only six grandchildren stood in those photos. Stackhouse had seven grandchildren. And background information revealed that one grandchild had autism.

Suddenly the picture of Stackhouse changed. The White House, even the president, made calls to other grandparent senators and got them, by point of order, to ask to join the filibuster by way of asking questions.

And Stackhouse got sit and rest and then stand again to give information about autism. Not the fake stuff that raises fears, but the real science, such as it was in that day. For this was decades ago.

People understood there would be no way to stop old Stackhouse because he wasn’t fighting for himself or just an idea. He was fighting, word by word, minute by minute, hour by hour, head cold and all, for one of his grandchild, and all the other grandchildren like his, with autism.

The White House called the committee, opened up the bill, since the news deadlines were missed already. They added the few hundred million for autism support, research, and care around the country.

The bill presented again to the Senate, the filibuster ended. The vote was taken. It passed both houses.

People missed a piece of their lives, but in the end everyone won.

I wonder how many Minnesotans, or even US citizens, knew Senator Stackhouse, or even knew of him. Had they heard of his filibuster?

Wouldn’t it be something if that was how politicians did business, with heart. Except maybe without the waste of piling on so many useless things that had nothing to do with children’s health care to such a bill.

Wouldn’t it be something to see cross party support emerge when it really counts, for the people who are kept from speaking for themselves.

Like immigrants, foreign workers, like … well we know there’s more of ‘them’ than get to speak.

…

Of course, Senator Stackhouse is a fictional character, along with the rest of the story, created by Aaron Sorkin and others, for the 2^nd Season of the West Wing, 2000.

Wouldn’t it be something even if there were more fictional characters written like Senator Stackhouse and President Bartlet, and Josh and Sam, and Leo and C.J., Toby and Charlie, and all the others who made The West Wing one of the greatest television shows of all time.

Wouldn’t it be something if a lot more people lived their lives more like these characters, and less like the current president?

Credit for the Photo: George Coe as Senator Stackhouse in The West Wing S2 ‘The Stackhouse Filibuster’, https://westwing.fandom.com/wiki/Howard_Stackhouse accessed 7 June 2025

The Kick

Of the Spirit

Sunday, June 8, 2025

The Kick for Life

Sometimes We Need A Little Extra Kick,

To See God’s Horizons

For Us.

Nehemiah 9:6

And Ezra said: “You are the Lord, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life, and the host of heaven worships you.

Acts of the Apostles 4:31

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Each morning, to varying degrees, I’m not good for much until I get a good ‘wake up’ kick. As I get older, sometimes I need a few more good ‘kicks’ to get through the day.

You don’t really want to deal with me before I get a good cup of coffee, full caffeine, ‘not any of that low octane decaf’ I used to say. But then I cannot sleep through the night. So it’s a bit decaf, a bit full punch to kick me into gear.

Lately I’ve returned to my habit started in college. I ran a mile or two at 6 in the morning, showered, studied a bit, before breakfast at 7:30. Of course it’s not 6, it’s not running. It’s more like walking to the lake 200 m, up the hill 400m, back down to camp 300m, or mowing for an hour. And I don’t do any real thinking or writing until after breakfast.

Later in the day it’s either more exercise just keeping my body moving or a bit of chocolate or coffee ice cream to punch me into clear thinking or energy to keep moving. That caffeine means I get a real poor night’s sleep, so the next day is a wash. But it provides hours of ‘up time’ for me to get things done while it lasts.

That ‘up time’ is what the Holy Spirit gives us in the first place, the breathe that is life, life right away out of the womb. It is more. It is the fire-wind-energy that is life itself in us. Our drive to be, to have purpose and meaning, to give so others can live fully.

This is what the disciples receive anew, after Jesus is gone. The Holy Spirit inspires them to live as the Church, spreading the Word of Jesus. In this Word is a God-given Spirit of service, of love, of forgiveness, of hope for all people.

Everyday we need a kick from and of the Holy Spirit, to move us onward, knowing the Holy Spirit works in our lives: it’s the kick that gets us going, the kick that keeps us going, the gift that gets us to think clearly, the energy that drives us to see and hold the truth.

It is the gift that brings us to believe.

And breath,

and hope.

And share

serving others

with love.

What Do You Do

When It’s Got You?

Saturday, June 7, 2025

The Darkness Steals Everything Away?

No One Sees Much

In Our Dark

Small

Worlds.

Second Chronicles 20:5-6

Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said, “O Lord, God of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In your hand are power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you.

Luke 4:29-30

They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Jehoshaphat cries to God, knowing that no one can stand in the way of God doing what God wishes to do. So save me, he cries.

The people, enraged by Jesus’ claims to be somebody, drive him out of town to a cliff and …

Well Jesus is God so he simply walks through the middle of the angry mob, and goes on his way … to bring God’s Word to people who will receive him.

In an episode of West Wing, Josh has been shot in the chest. Only surgery that lasts all night saves his life. He relives the trauma, over and over again, triggered by … music of all things. He’s out of control, angry, yelling, hurting himself breaking a window … all while he is unaware of his real surroundings and the memories replay in his mind as if real … again.

A counsellor comes, talks him through his experiences. Gets him to admit what is happening to him. Session done. Josh is not healed, but able to start healing.

Leo waits outside the session for him. Tells him a story:

There was a guy walking down the street who fell into a hole with sides so steep he couldn’t get out. The guy cried for help. A doctor walked by and heard his cries. The doc wrote a prescription and through it down the hole. The guy kept crying for help. A priest walked by and heard his cries. He wrote a prayer and tossed it down the hole. The guy kept crying for help. A friend came by and the guy cried to his friend to help him. The friend jumped down in the hole. The guy said to his friend, ‘that was really stupid. Now we’re both stuck down here.’ The friend responded, ‘it’s ok, I’ve been down here before and I know a way out.’

Leo, the recovering alcoholic, says to Josh, ‘As long as I have a job, you will have a job.’ Then he sends him off to the hospital to get his hand looked at. Josh cut it by breaking a window during one of his PTSD episodes.

Trouble is, there’s lots of people caught in dark holes.

They all could say:

I’ve been crying. I’m not even sure where this hole is. I’ve had prescriptions thrown down on me, and more than a few prayers. Many have yelled at me to stop crying. I’ve been called all sorts of things. I’ve had everything taken from me. I’m still in this hole. I don’t cry for help anymore. I try hard to pretend I’m not really in a deep dark hole alone. I work hard to stay alive. I try to help other people but I don’t trust many people at all. Mostly I cry quietly to myself. Sometimes I think that God is here with me in the darkness. It seems to make it less painful. I still cry. It’s still dark.

Who is going to jump down with all of them, in all of the deep, dark holes the world has?

Who is going to be Jesus, walking with them in the dark, showing them the way out of the darkness, the way to walk through the angry mobs to freedom, to the people who also want to walk in the light?

Who is going to even notice, when they are too tired to cry for help any more?

And who is going to help all those who walk by those holes, not noticing, not caring, not seeing beyond their own small darkened worlds of misery?

Lord, you know no one can stand against you, not even the Devil of darkness.

Save us all.

Send someone to lead us out,

Someone whose been here before.

Give us Light.

Fear

And Love God

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

For God Loves Us

All Creation Sings God’s Praise.

Sing and Dance Along!

Isaiah 6:3

And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Revelation 14:7

He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

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Words of Grace for Today –

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How right it is that we should tremble with fear before God,

and out of fear obey all God’s commandments, worshipping him along with all of creation.

But

We fail at that miserably, so to demand it of us is futile.

We can, with these attempts to earn God’s favour, only fail and live filled with guilt, regret, and sorrow, a walking death if ever there were one.

To love God, as well as to fear God, now that is a different thing.

For we can only love God, after we realize that God first loves us, unconditionally.

Out of love we can strive to follow God’s commandments, and worship God with all creation.

We will fail.

But we do not live filled with guilt, regret, and sorrow,

for we trust God always loves us, forgives us, and renews full life in us.

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Fear and Love God.

For God loves, and forgives, and gives us new life.

And what a full life it is!

Is There A Balm In Gilead?

For it is desperately needed

Monday, June 2, 2025

here and now.

Like Grass, We Dry Up,

And Die,

except Jesus brings the Water of Life

Jeremiah 8:21-22

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored?

Luke 19:9-10

Then Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, because you too are a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Always we humans have had cause to cry:

is there no balm in Gilead,

pleading really, is there no balm here for us and all these people in our time.

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So much illness.

So much injustice.

So much loss.

So much sorrow.

So much death.

So much grief.

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To these cries, God answers with Jesus, living among us, a human, who will heal many, teach with great wisdom, and sacrifice his own life that all people may live.

We do not need so seek Jesus out.

For Jesus came to seek out and to save the lost,

which is all of us,

whether we know it or not.

There is a balm in Gilead,

and here and now,

for our every ill.

What a life Jesus offers us, to fully live, healed

and then sent to share the Good News

that God is for us,

for us all!

Thanks be to God.

A Child To the Barren

Brings Promises to Give the Child Up.

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Is that right?

Is that us?

Looking away,

for something better

than God’s Blessings?

First Samuel 1:11

She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”

Luke 1:57-58

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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God’s Grace Flows to all people, though it seems to flow to some more than others.

So when women of old were childless, bearing children the utmost mark of being blessed (things have changed, eh?), it was often that women, thirsty for recognition by their families and communities, would promise all sorts of things to God if God would give them a son (and sons were the only children that seem to mark the mother as blessed, too – and that’s certainly changed, thankfully!)

The most extreme sacrifice would be to give up the child so that the child would serve God his life-long.

Something seems off here.

Did the woman want a son to raise and love?

Or did the woman making such a promise want first of all to appear to be blessed in other people’s eyes, in their husband’s eyes? The son then was really not important?

Or was it the ultimate sacrifice, offered in exchange for being blessed?

Does God work that way?

If I sacrifice what I want most will God give it to me so I can give it away?

is it not that God already gives us blessings upon blessings and asks in return that we give them away to other people to enjoy the blessings, and thus learn to give God thanks?!

Was not John a great gift to Elizabeth, in her late years? And was John not dedicated to serving God, and did not John lose his life in that service? And did not John live a blessed life, if a difficult life?

Being blessed is certainly no guarantee of an easy life.

It would, according to biblical accounts, be exactly the opposite. Being blessed is a guarantee that challenges, trials, and suffering will come our way.

So do you want to be blessed this day?

Of course, since the other alternative is to be cursed, which may be an easy life, but a useless life.

Which is really not living at all.

So we pray:

Bless us God, each day.

Walk with us through the challenges ahead.

Words

Music

Thursday, May 29, 2025

and Dance

Where Will We Sing And Dance

Next?

Leviticus 26:6

And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid.

Luke 11:20

Since it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The chaos of words that fill our worlds is astounding, overwhelming, debilitating. So many of the words are evil. They are neither true nor kind.

God’s Word is both true and kind.

We need to speak it often, and clearly, amid the chaos of noisy words.

Better is that we put the true and kind words, words pointing to God’s Word, to music and sing them clearly, enchantingly, wondrously.

Best is that we not only sing kind and true words plainly for all to hear, but we also dance through our lives to them. For our steps speak even more loudly than our mouths can ever.

When we sing and dance God’s Word, then peace surrounds us, a gift from God, and the Kingdom of God has come into our midst, with power to heal our every ill.

In the Days to Come ….

Oh, That It Were Already Today

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

When Peace Prevailed Everywhere

A Canada goose and a bald eagle battled in Burlington, Ont., on Feb. 23. Photographer Mervyn Sequiera captured the fight and posted it on his Instragram account @msequeiraphotography. (Mervyn Sequeira)

God Does Not Save Us From Our Trials,

But In Our Trials.

Isaiah 2:2-4

In days to come …

nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Hebrews 12:14

Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The World is in chaos, again, or rather still.

John reports that Jesus says he will Leave Us Peace. What a promise!

On the 8th of May Germany’s 2nd TV service (ZDF) broadcast the Worship Service for the 80th Anniversary of the End of WWII in Europe, a memorial of being liberated. In the service the Germans remembered, with thanks for the end of war in 1945, yet still with endless guilt, for war did not just break out. It was begun by Germany’s Nazi Party. Even more, they remembered the efforts made to rebuild for decades after hostilities ceased. And they gave thanks for the prosperity and peace that Europe has enjoyed since.

Meanwhile violence, destruction, and death in Ukraine, just 100s of km east, remind us all that the lack of war is not ever guaranteed.

But peace in this world, which they celebrated, is more than just the lack of war. This peace is also to have institutions that honour all people, freedom to worship as one chooses, and a social contract wherein all are free to speak their mind, but no one is free to harm others, not even with words. Where justice is striven for earnestly by all, for all. Yet, nothing can guarantee peace.

Here in Canada, as the US has thrown chaos and fear at the world order, as global powers grow in strength and threat, and as extremist militias and failed states create chaos in our world, we must remain vigilant, and continually strive for those things that make for peace in our world, our nation, our province, our communities, and in our homes. Ignorance and apathy, fake news and heated rhetoric, extreme ‘solutions’ and the status quo can have no place in our lives, if we wish peace to continue, if we hope to avoid the complete loss of prosperity that we have enjoyed for many decades. Peace requires work and sacrifice to give it to the next generations. That work begins with each of us.

Yet, John reminds us that peace in this world, peace that we must work for every day, is not the kind of Peace God offers us. God offers us a more powerful, more life-changing, more effective kind of Peace. It is the Peace that the Holy Spirit gives us and teaches us to share with all people.

This Peace is already here today. Trust it. Live it. Share it.

The One And Only

Rock Saves Us

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Again

On a Hot, 30⁰C+ Day, The Snow Looks Great!

On Any Day Of Challenges,

God’s Grace Welcomes Us In,

to a cool, life-giving hope.

Psalm 18:31

For who is God except the Lord? And who is a rock besides our God?

2 Corinthians 1:9-10

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Since we keep on sinning in old and rarely in new ways, God keeps saving us, again and again.

We have reason to give God thanks many times each day.

We have reason to hope to a future formed by God, and not ruined by those who try so hard these days (as each day has had many someones ready to ruin it).

That hope does not crumble, like shale.

Rather God gives us hope that is as solid as granite or marble, even more sure than matter existing in the universe, more sure than we can wrap our hearts and minds around.

Try squeezing a piece of granite or marble.

And then trust God to be more solidly for us, for us all.

God Chooses

Spirit Over Power or Might

Monday, May 26, 2025

And Look What God Does!

Putting Light Into Our Lives!

Zechariah 4:6

He said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Luke 1:35

The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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It’s too easy to try by might or power to make one’s way through life.

Or to try by manipulation or deception.

Or to try by simple surrendering to the most expedient evil.

God works by the Spirit.

God works in us by the Spirit as well.

And what God is able to do, even with us sinners, mortal and fickle and selfish and, and, and.

Wonders upon wonders.

Take time today to notice God’s great works.