We are experiencing a good long spring rain.  The kind of rain that finishes melting snow, greens the grass and waters the gardens to wake up the flowers.

I lived across the border in what is now called Aroostook Village from 1956 to 1958 and  I still have a few memories of that time.  In our climate here we get summer rains and often it’s still warm enough to remain outside (especially if you are a kid).  My childhood playmate back then was my cousin, Karen, who lived about a mile or so south of our grandmother’s house where I was living.  I would walk down to play with her and we would go up behind her house to play in an abandoned homestead.  It provided us with shelter when it rained and I can remember singing:

It’s raining, it’s pouring
The old man is snoring
Bumped his head and went to bed
And couldn’t get up in the morning

Another time we got caught outside in a thunderstorm.  Karen’s cousin, Doug, lived just up the hill from my grandmother’s and we often played anywhere and everywhere in between.  This particular time we got wet and I smelled something… it was me and it kind of smelled like something burning… Doug said I had been hit by lightning – what did I know?  I was only six!  I ran home crying and hid under my grandmother’s kitchen table.  When asked why I was scared I repeated what Doug had said.  The grownups just laughed indulgently and told me I was smelling my wet woolen sweater.  But ever since I have been terrified by thunder and lightning.

I was raised in a conservative home ­– religious and political. However, I’ve noticed that the older I get the more moderate (and Libertarian) I become. My opinion regarding separation of Church and State (note the capital letters) is probably at odds with many in my family. Most of the arguments in the debate on separation are from non-believers (in Christianity) and are, for the most part, rather extreme in their desire to keep public institutions completely secular. I am on the other side of that argument. I believe that governing and politics should be kept out of the pulpit.

In my opinion, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and other like-minded Christian leaders have done more harm than good in their attempts to promote a political agenda that can be construed as legislating morality.  If they were to be successful in creating a government that adhered to the platform of the Moral Majority Coalition, would that government be any different than Iran’s Islamic government?

We live in a secular society governed by secular laws. Respecting and obeying those laws is no different than respecting and obeying God’s laws.  Part of being a Christian is to also be a good citizen.  I don’t even have a real problem with the Moral Majority Coalition – I just don’t want to see politics preached from a pulpit where Christ’s teachings should be paramount.

Considering the eternity we will be able to spend in Heaven, our time here on earth is rather fleeting. I think it’s more important to be a “beacon of light” to those around me than to “play politics” with my faith.

We are in what I refer to as weather purgatory.  It’s something you only experience when you live in a location where there are four distinct seasons – and the transitions between seasons.  The ugliest of those transitions is the one between winter and spring.

The Vernal Equinox may be in March but up here in northern Maine, spring hasn’t really gained a foothold yet. Weather “purgatory” is that time when the snow hasn’t quite finished melting leaving dirty white patches here and there looking like pimples on the ground.  The leafless trees stand stark against the sky and the lawns are a dreary brown.

Don’t despair.  Here and there you can see signs of new life:

First Crocus

It seems like these days there is nothing more depressing than the news. The Arabs and Jews are trying to destroy each other in the name of God, terrorists are trying to destroy the United States in the name of God, and the Catholic church appears to have been infested with pedophiles using God to gain access to little boys. Adults and teens with grudges kill for revenge. Gangs kill as part of initiation or in drug and turf wars. It’’s enough to make a person want to hide under a rock or run for the hills; and everyone asks: Why? Why do people do these things? If He exists, how could God allow this to happen?

At some point in the last 50 years or so ethics got thrown out the window and replaced with “I can do anything I want as long as I don’t hurt anyone else.” Then someone decided that children who did poorly in school and got in trouble weren’t really responsible for their actions. It was the fault of a society that didn’t provide those children with the opportunities and lifestyle they “deserved.” As a result, we now have at least two generations who feel entitled to have anything they want without having to earn it or pay for it. And society is now paying a heavy price for not teaching ethics and accountability from the time these children were born.

Newton’’s Third Law of Motion states that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” In other words for every decision we make there is a consequence. Of all the things I tried to teach my children while they were growing up, the one concept I tried to instill in them was the concept of consequences. Our lives are filled with decisions and choices. Many are small and may only affect ourselves. Some choices, however, can affect an entire family, community, nation, or the whole world. The choices we make, whether large or small, have repercussions, or in other words, consequences. Depending on the choices we make, those consequences can be good or bad.

How ironic that the people who rail against God for all the bad things that happen can choose to do so because God gave us free will. God wants us to believe in Him, obey His commands and live as He teaches, but because we want to not because we have to. The bible says in Psalm 8:

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:

We have the ability to think for ourselves, to learn and grow, to make choices for ourselves that will affect our success in life, to do great good for others. We also have the capability through our choices to do great harm to ourselves and others. And the bottom line is that no one is to blame for our decisions and choices but ourselves. Not God, not the devil, not society, not our parents. Ourselves.