The Buck Stops Here!

Greetings,

Wow!  It has been a while since I have been able to sit down and actually try and type something!  Between Christmas parties, senior high youth group parties, and, what seems like, worship service after worship service I have not found the time to share with you.  For that I am sorry.  Yet, I hope that the time between posts has given the opportunity for indivudals,  who chose to,  to read The Traveler's Gift.

My goal as we share with one another is for us to explore the seven statements for success found in the book.  If you have not or wish not to read the book that is fine.  Hopefully, I can share the idea and not ruin it for anyone who does choose to read it.  We will give it our best shot.

One of the reasons I want to share this book is that I find it fantastic that this little book, which does not appear to be a religious writing at all, has found a way to instill very Christian ideals.  In all fairness, I don't think that the seven statements are partuicularly Christian.  I think they are statements that can guide anyone to live a life that is focused, moral, and led with a servant heart.  I would like to think that God wants that very thing from me.

Another reason that I wanted to share this book with my readers is that I love history.  Within the pages of the book there are historical figures, all of them real.  Granted, the circumstance in which they appear in the book are fiction, well...yeah, I am sure that it is fictional.  So, let's get started and see what The Traveler's Gift has for each of us on our journey home.

This little book begins with a man named David Ponder, a man who has it all.  Yet, shortly after the story begins he loses it all.  After falling from the heights of financial success he finds himself incapable of affording his daughter's tonsilectomy.  Through desparation and depression he contemplates the insurance money that his wife would recieve upon his death.  I found that very Capra-esque as we find George Bailey considering the same idea atop the bridge in Bedford Falls shortly before he meets Clarence.  Of course It's a Wonderful Life teaches us never to underestimate the power of one individual peros.  So does our story.

David Ponder decides to run his car into a tree.  Whether on purpose or because of bad driving that is exactly what happens.  As he loses conciousness he fingds himself being transported back in time and meeting famous people of history.  Each time he meets someone new a new truth is given to him.  The great part of the story is that these historical figures know that he is coming and they have written a truth for him.

Not giving the book it's full due yet not wanting make this a book report we fast forward to his first visit, with Harry S. Truman.

He meets Truman during the Potsdam meeting and right before Truman makes his decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  After figuring out what exactly was going on and listening to Truman explain the adventure he was going to be on he, Truman, gives David his first statement, The buck stops here, I am responsible for my past and my future.  Not only is this an eye opener for David Ponder it was for me as well.

On my journey home there have been many opportunities for me to blame God, the world, and life in general regarding the reprocussions of three brain surgeries.  Sometimes I have taken that opportunity and felt bad about it later.  However, this stament flew in my face.  My journey home started well before my surgeries.  The decisions that I have mad as a boy and as a man were exactly that, mine!  For us to come to a place in our lives where we are searching for the best path we must realize that we are responsible for the choices we make.  God knew that we would stray from the path that He had originally designed for us.  In His knowledge He gave His son so that we could be reconciled to Him.  Yet within all of that love came a choice, accept Christ and find oursleves grafted into the family of God as heirs to the kingdom or deny Christ and live forever separated from our creator.  Either way,  God gives us a choice and we must live with the consequences of that choice.  Even if faith Truman had it right...the buck stops here.

In realizing that we are responsible for our past and our future gives us the power to change that future.  Don't get me wrong, I am not saying we can change our past.  It is futile to try.  But, realizing that the past is what has shaped us gives us a better understanding of who we are and why we are the way we are.  As I said before, I didn't cause my brain cyst.  People aren't always resposible for cancer or tragedy and still, we are responsible for the way we react to those circumstances in our lives.  I am sure that Truman held a great sense of weight upon his shoulders as he decided whether to kill thousands of Japanes in order to save, perhaps, millions.  We have a tendency to think of Truman as a meek man who use to sell men's hats.  He was just that and, yet, we also a man of character and decision making.  He knew that final decision rested with him...the buck stops here!

How about you?  Are you living with the guilt of the past?  Are you the type that likes to blame others for your lot in life?  I must admit I have been just that at certain times in my life.  However, taking this simple statement and realizing the context that it is presented I find myself wanting to be responsible for me.  Responsible for my actions and decisions, not only in my faith but my everday life as well. 

David Ponder begins to realize that, although he has lost most of what made his life comfortable, he has not lost his ability to be responsible for his actions.  I have often heard the phrase "picking yourself up by your own bootstarps".  My mother and father taught me that.  They taught me that no matter what happens you have the ability to effect change in your own life.  Have I made bad choices, sure, who hasn't.  Yet, I hope that my choices have caused an effect for good change.  Perhaps not as much as I would like...but it is a start.

As David Ponder prepares himself to move on to the next historical person, the next moment in time when change was made, and the next great statement for success in life, he finds himself saying goodbye to a man in history that, truly, knew the idea of responsibility.  Perhaps in the next few days we might realize that as well.

Until tomorrow and the next chapter of our, and David's, journey may we truly look at our lives and realize that God has given us a choice.  My advice is this...mak it a good one...because the buck stops here!

Blessinsg,


Derek