marriage

Best Birthday Ever, 50 Years Ago Today

While I am grateful for being able to celebrate another year of life, the best birthday I ever experienced occurred fifty years ago today.

It was 1975. I was a freshman at the University of Missouri and wildly in love with a young woman attending nearby Stephens College. I came to “Mizzou” from a Chicago suburb where I went to high school; she hailed from Santa Cruz, California. We had developed a wonderful friendship which appeared to be ending as she was intent on not returning to Missouri for the next school year.

I had to do something to prove my love to her—something big time. And I did.

A few weeks earlier she and some girlfriends had traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Spring Break. I had no money or transportation to join her, but I didn’t let her know that wasn’t going to stop me.

My plan was to hitchhike 1,400 miles to meet her there. My dream was that she would see how in love I was with her and decide to return to Missouri for her sophomore year.

I packed a gym bag full of spare clothes and put up my thumb.

By the time I made it to Orlando (200 miles north of Fort Lauderdale), I was flat broke and had been escorted off the Interstate highway by law enforcement as no hitchhiking was allowed. That evening, I was desperate. I’m not proud of what happened next, but it did soon lead to something very good.

While attempting to steal a car in a hotel parking lot with the keys left in the ignition, I was surrounded by police.

After questioning me, one of the officers placed me in his car. I assumed I was headed to jail, but instead I drove with him all night long. He was an incredibly nice man of about thirty, who wanted to know my whole story. As we talked, he shared a lot of wisdom and even spiritual advice. Just before sunrise he treated me to a hearty breakfast and then drove me to the Greyhound Bus Station, where he purchased a ticket to Fort Lauderdale.

As I prepared to board, he used an old school slogan to encourage me: “Get the girl, Brian.”

I called her from a payphone upon arrival. She and her girlfriends drove to pick me up. Though I slept on the beach and showered in public bathrooms, we had a great time.

A couple weeks later it was April 3, and she prepared a picnic lunch for us. Midway through, she handed me a birthday card. I was near tears when I read, “…and I’ll be coming back for school next year! Love, Susie.”

We were married three years later.

I certainly got the girl, as well as four children and seven grandchildren.

And, I still wonder if the person who put me on that Greyhound was an angel in disguise.

America, Wake Up: The Slippery Slope is about to End

Like you, I am burdened for my country, the United States of America.

 In the history of the entire world, ours is the only nation founded on the God-given natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (the latter equating to the joy of one’s own property, both physical and intellectual), and ruled “by the people.”

However, for decades our freedoms, our Biblical underpinnings, and our spirit of patriotism have been continually chipped away. We are swiftly drifting into dangerous waters.

Below, I note a handful of events that have brought significant damage to our nation. While there were many who spoke out against these acts of treason, sadly there were just not enough of us to make a difference.  We are on an extremely slippery slope that could well be nearing an end:

In 1943, when a Jehovah’s Witness challenged the daily salutation of the U.S. flag in America’s schools and won the decision in the Supreme Court, patriots should have taken note.

In 1962, when the Supreme Court banned school-sponsored prayer, God’s people should have seen the writing on the wall. The slip was well under way.

In 1973, when abortion was legalized, the church at-large rolled over in a slumber. Sure, many saints protested and prayed for decades, and then, miraculously Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022—but only after the lives of millions were taken.

Tragically, states are now free to make their own decisions on the matter of abortion, thus leading to horrid abortion sanctuaries. Too many in those pro-abortion states remain silent on the matter.

 In 2014, 54-percent of all children were being raised in a household without both of their biological parents. In 1960 this family dynamic was radically different: 73-percent of all kids lived with both of their biological parents in a traditional marriage situation (Pew Research).

As of 2018, the percentage of births to unmarried women rose from 5-percent in 1960, to 40-percent in 2018.  The percentage is certainly even higher today.

These statistics represent a clear sign of moral decay and the lack of Christian influence on the culture.

 In 2022, when the sacred institution of marriage was legally redefined, many churches and individual Christians submitted themselves into silence for fear of retribution, censorship, and persecution.

Currently, a gross delusion is covering America. Children are growing up on tablets and I-pads, watching content that is better fit for a dunghill. It is twisting their minds, while simultaneously stunting their physical stature and abilities. Children as young as grade school have phones: boys are watching porn and girls are sharing nude photos of themselves—this is the norm, parents

.Is it any wonder that in the western world even toddlers are “transitioning” to another supposed gender?

Ask the average high-schooler to define “monogamy” or “celibacy.” Likely, they have never heard the words before.

“Oh, but my child’s school is wonderful.”

Really?

Don’t judge your kid’s school by the new buildings and turf football field—that’s all a taxpayer-funded façade.  Examine the individual teachers and the curriculum. Are they teaching about inalienable rights or Critical Race Theory? Is Biblical morality being positively addressed? Are phones allowed in the classroom?

Wake up!

The very end of the slippery slope is in sight–and it does not look pretty. History is a brutal mirror. The end of a nation too often corresponds with a lack of patriotism, the breakdown of the family, and gross immorality.

 This is a battle for the soul of the United States of America.  As God’s people we need to fight this battle on our knees in prayer, strategically sharing our faith with a culture that is thirsting for truth and desperately desiring to be set free.