Wealth

Every place that I look, there are invitations to make a lot of money. Sweepstakes rule retail and lotteries are everywhere and growing. Each night the balls are chosen for the state games and there are winners of millions. One could get the impression that making a lot of money is the primary goal of life. Daily, the mail brings offers of great rates on credit cards, sales in stores and many chances to spend and save. Spend is the operative word here.

Rosie and I just spent a wonderful week at the beach with our extended family. The purpose of it was to celebrate our fifty-fifth wedding anniversary and to enjoy each other. We certainly did. We had a love filled dinner one night as the kids made a fabulous fish taco meal. I played golf with two of my daughters and one grandchild and had a wonderful day. On the night before our anniversary, the kids took us out to dinner and we celebrated the week with a feast for the Gods.

What we discovered during this week is the identity of real wealth. It certainly isn't money. What we seem to have created during the fifty-five years that we have been married has been a marvelous family. They have grown up to be incredibly responsible people who have created their own lives full of valuable work and relationships. Jennifer is a tenured professor at Penn State's New Kensington campus; Melanie is a nurse practitioner, and Heather is a youth worker in the inner city of Cleveland where she makes a difference to many families who are in deep stress. I preached at her church one Sunday and saw for myself the makeup of that congregation. I got the feeling that if Jesus had created a parish church, it would have looked like that one. The man next to me as I preached was homeless and many of the others there were in great need. The parish hosts a supper each week for the neighborhood and serves over a hundred people. They distribute clothing and other necessities to the families in their neighborhood. This places does an immense amount of good. I discovered again this week how very much I love this family of ours, and have pride in them. We are richly blessed by their lives and their work.

This is what wealth is about. It only marginally has anything to do with money, and then only as it is distributed. It has more to do with love. Love is what makes us all wealthy. Love can be easily given away and accumulated, and we all benefit from it. Thank God for all of the people who joined us at the beach for our celebration, and for all that they do.

Being with my family at the Beach

When we had our beach house, one of the remarkable benefits was the spiritual grace that the place provided to me. I could sit on the deck, watch the ocean, the gulls and the pelicans and be in the presence of God. It was something that happened almost as soon as I sat down with my book or just sat down to wonder at the beautiful surroundings. When we lost the beach house, I lost the wonder of those spiritual moments. It took me a long time to find them again. They came back to me in the middle of writing sermons and having conversation with my family.

We have returned to the beach with the family to celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary. Rosie and our kids, Melanie, Jennifer and Heather; our grandkids, Alison, Lindy, Taylor and Casey and Alison's husband Pete along with our great-grandkid Samson Rodgers are here. Melanie's Beth has come with us and Jessica Varrone, a buddy of Alison's came along. Stephen Wood with his friend Robin and her son Noah have joined us, and my brother Geoff and his wife Rosie will be here later today. It is an elegant gathering of this whole clan and the spiritual moments are returning to me. I love watching Sam play on the floor, listen to the whole gang talking about nothing and witness the industry of everyone trying to make the whole of us happy. The kids cooked dinner last night, a fancy feast of flounder tacos and specialty salads and sauces that made our mouths water. We are very lucky people to have all of this love surrounding us.

We played golf on Tuesday, Heather, Taylor, Melanie and I drove around nine holes at the Oak Island Country club and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We lost some balls, had horrible scores and even broke somebody's window on one of the holes. I don't understand why the build homes so close to the fairways. We will fix the window and make it all right. The nice man has our phone number and we will be in contact with him as soon as he gets an estimate on the repair of the window.

The great joy of all of this has been the companionship and the wonder of being together. If this isn't the work of God, it isn't anything. What wonder relationships hold for us all.