The Batchelor President of the USA

 

James Buchanan was the fifteenth President of the United States and served just one term from 1857-1861.  During his presidency three new states were added to the Union, Minnesota, Oregon and Kansas.  It was a troubling time for the nation as the issue of slavery was high on the agenda which eventually led to the civil war during the presidency of his successor, Abraham Lincoln.  Buchanan was the only president who never married and he remained a bachelor all his life.

He had been born of poor stock in a log cabin in the town of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania and went as a student to Dickinson College in a place named Carlisle.  There he proved to be a high spirited student but his antics led him to being expelled for arrogance, disorderly conduct and drinking.  Thankfully he was reinstated due to the influence of his church minister, Dr. John King who was on the board of the college.  Dr King seemed to have a lasting interest in supporting and encouraging Buchanan through some stressful times in his life.

The Space Race

 

In the 1960s there was a Christian song in the songbook, “Youth Praise” which commenced with the words, ‘We are in a great race to put rockets in space’.  It certainly reflected the reality of the times.  In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 from Kazakhstan and though it was hardly bigger than a large beach ball it was the first man-made object to orbit the earth.  It was hailed as a great victory for Russia and communism, though the Americans pretended it was of little consequence with President Eisenhower claiming it as ‘a small ball in the air’.  Yet the Americans knew they had lost that initial race as Sputnik 1 travelled overhead every ninety minutes, every day for three months.  The US government’s reaction was to increase the budget of its space programme from $0.5 Billion to $10.5 Billion.

Later the Soviets launched Sputnik 2 with a dog inside named Laila and that was the first animal in space but it did not survive.  America’s attempt two months after Sputnik 1 to send a rocket into space managed to reach  just one metre before it fell back and exploded.  It was sometimes referred to as ‘Flopnik’. In 1959 the Soviets again got a first by sending Luna 2 to the surface of the moon.  That was the first spaceship from earth to reach the moon, though it crashed on landing.  In 1960 with America trying to catch up with space exploration they launched a satellite to study weather patterns. The Soviets launched Sputknik 5 carried two dogs, Belka and Strelka and they both survived the experience.

How will you serve this year?

Omar Nelson Bradley was by any standard or measure a remarkable man.  He was born in Missouri in 1893, and his parents were humble people. Interestingly, he was born on President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Lincoln is generally considered America’s greatest president, and his memorial in Washington DC is one of the wonders of that great city. Bradley seemed to inherit something of Lincoln’s greatness. 

Bradley learnt early in life the necessity of working hard and of personal integrity. His father died when he was fifteen, and he had to give a lot of help to his mother, who took in lodgers to make ends meet. Despite the work he did at home, he was also a hard-working student, and maybe this trait was due to his late father’s influence as his father had been a school teacher. Bradley graduated from school with high grades and then went to the military training school at West Point. There, he was a hardworking student, an excellent athlete, and a wonderful marksman. Out of a class of 164, he graduated forty-fourth in 1915. Yet he was the first in his class to reach the rank of general.

He was under six feet in height, weighed only 145 pounds, and was prematurely grey. Indeed, he started to go grey in his late teens. He lost some of his teeth in an ice skating accident and had to wear dentures from an early age. Yet he was determined at all times to pursue excellence, and through quiet determination and competency, he rose up the ranks of the army. He spent twelve years as a major, and at times, it seemed he would never rise further, and then he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He never achieved the rank of full Colonel because  instead, he was made a full General.  

Money could keep you out of heaven!

 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

Suggested Bible Reading for today - Mark 10:1-27

Life is busy, time is money, and there are many questions on my mind. Meet the man who thought money could buy everything!

His question was – ‘What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ The key to the man’s question are the words ‘do’ and ‘inherit’. He was a self-made man; everything he had achieved resulted from what he had done. He probably had worked hard for everything he had. He thought of eternal life as something he could inherit. An inheritance is wealth that someone has worked hard to accumulate, and the people who inherit it have a right to it. He wants eternal life, but he doesn’t understand that you don’t get it the way you get wealth and possessions. 

The Lord checks his life out against the Ten Commandments. The man reckons he has scored ok on this one (remember, this is his evaluation, not God’s). At this stage, we read a touching comment – ‘then Jesus beholding him loved him,’ v.21. Then the Lord touches a raw nerve in the man’s life. He says to the man, who has everything, you lack one thing, so ‘sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me,' Mark 10.21 NKJV. The Lord Jesus is not telling him that the act of selling up and giving to the poor will save him. He says that money and possessions were his idols (ours may be other things) and that he needs to deal with the thing that keeps him from following Christ. He must also obey the rest of the command, i.e. ‘take up the cross, and follow’. 

Thankfully, money and possessions did not keep me from salvation, but they could keep me from living for Him, taking up the cross and following Him.

 

Welcome home Mr President

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th Vice President of the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969.  When he died in 1978 hundreds of people from across the world attended his funeral. All were welcome, but one – former President Richard Nixon, who had not long dragged himself and his country through the humiliation and shame of Watergate. As eyes turned away and conversations ran dry around him Nixon could feel the ostracism being ladled out to him.

Then Jimmy Carter, the serving US President, walked into the room. Carter was from a different political party to Nixon and well known for his honesty and integrity. As he moved to his seat President Carter noticed Richard Nixon standing all alone. He immediately changed course, walked over to Richard Nixon, held out his hand, and smiling genuinely and broadly embraced Nixon and said “Welcome home, Mr President! Welcome home!”