THE BLOG

On Wednesday, February 26, 2020, my father, who had turned 98 just two days before, passed into eternity. In many respects my father was a remarkable man. Prior to having a mild heart attack in October 2019, my father still lived alone, still cut his own grass with a push mower, and still cooked his own meals. But as remarkable as that was, there was something else that qualified him as such.

Americans have fought and died for what our Declaration of Independence describes as three inalienable rights–life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By inalienable we mean that these rights cannot be taken away from us nor can we ourselves give them away. Why? Because each is a natural right built into us at conception. In other words they are God-given. What is interesting to observe is the subtle elevation in the last decade or so of another element of life to the status of inalienable.

In my role as a minister, I never know when a phone call or text is going to prove once again the truth of the old saying, “Life Turns on a Dime.” Such was the case for me one morning a few weeks ago as I was preparing to leave home for work. That’s when I received a text from a fellow staff member alerting me that in the middle of the night, one of our members had suffered a severe brain bleed and was in critical condition in a local hospital. As I made my way to the hospital, I hurt for the person’s family. Not only had this tragedy happened at all, it had happened just days before Christmas. I’d been down this road before with other families, and I knew that survival would be a long shot.