I was never
in our country’s armed forces and I never saw the movie, Band of Brothers. I was
never in a youth gang or took one of their oaths. As a boy I was never such a rabid baseball
fan that I would get into a fist fight or bitter argument over who was better,
the Yankees or the Dodgers (the Yankees were indubitably better, although the
Dodges had Sandy Kofax). But I was in
the Boy Scouts and I learned the Scout Law and recited it with conviction: “A
scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful,
thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”
The training
stuck.
It is hard
for me to understand why more people do not more consciously choose to seek out
those signal values (how can a person have a quarrel with any of them?) in
being loyal to people and principles and causes that are true and will lead to
peace in this life and set one on a course to a positive outcome in the life to
come.
I work with
a friend who recently said something like this to me: “I check your blog every day but have been
disappointed to see that you haven’t posted for 3 months.” Well, that is loyalty.
I am
embarrassed, sorry and will simply have to find the time produce these thoughts
that I have been so prompted to do. I
have some reasons why I have lagged so badly these last several months but they
just come down to excuses and I don’t have an abundance of patience for others
who constantly have ‘excuses’ for certain of their behaviors. So why burden you
with my excuses? In fact, I have been
thinking about writing about excuses as a topic for exploration and will do so
sometime soon. So thanks, Jon for
getting me fired up again. Even my own
family members, I am quite sure, stopped looking long ago.
Now it is
true, I cannot hope for a loyal following unless I produce something that
benefits people and they recognize it.
Though it is satisfying to know that over the course of several hundred
postings I have, at times, had several dozen (at least) regular readers, but I
wonder if that is the real test of loyalty?
A Japanese dog
that I read about decades ago locked me into the virtue of loyalty as a
component of character and I have reflected upon his story as I have ‘examined
myself’ periodically as encouraged by scripture. Read about Hachiko on Wikipedia or on You
Tube or other sources. I have since
learned of other dogs demonstrating this remarkable characteristic. Though it would be absurd like ‘man’s best
friend’ to daily lay on the grave or stand sentinel at the last place we saw
our departed spouse/parent/child/hero in this life, it would not be too much to be loyal to their
memory, their teachings, their highest loyalties that we have inculcated in
ourselves.
For us, we
should give our deepest loyalties to the highest causes. For me, it is contained in the life and
mission and gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ. I believe that with an eye single to that
standard, all other worthy loyalties will fall naturally into place.
Believing,
as I do, that God is my Father in Heaven, (Jesus, himself, prayed to his Father
who he said was our Father as well) we could keep this thought in mind: ‘Be loyal to the Royal within us’ for our
spirit is a child of royal birth.
As an aid to
reflection or contemplation (as you will know if you have, over the years, been
even an occasional reader of my weblog) I often turn to music to be my prompter
or brain default which then turns on a stream of worthy thoughts that remind me
of my loyalties. I close with lyrics from two songs from my
Church hymnbook that bear on loyalty and that you might consider adding to your
mental lexicon:
The
soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I
will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That
soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll
never, no never, no never forsake!
Hymns,
1985, no. 85
He
has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He
is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat. O be swift my soul to answer him; be jubilant my feet! Our God is marching on.Hymns, 1985, no. 60
