HAVING SEEN PARIS

HAVING SEEN PARIS

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Ephesians MKJV 2:1-7 And He has made you alive, who were once dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience; 3 among whom we also had our way of life in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us 5 (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), 6 and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

  I awoke with 90+ year old song replaying in my head.

  I don’t pretend to having the firsthand historical experience, but living in multigenerational home I spent considerable time with someone that was there: Uncle James Robert McGee, Mom’s older brother, was a decorated thrice wounded WWI doughboy that fought as an infantryman with Appalachian hometown unit with the AEF (American Expeditionary Forces).

  Uncle Jim, especially when having a few drinks, talked and sang of his experiences in and out of the trenches. He told of walking railroad track with a lifelong friend on a beautiful day as Spring broke all around them. Suddenly his boyhood friend didn’t reply. Without sound of rifle above the singing of the birds he lie dead from stray or sniper’s round.

  The songs most embedded in my mind are Red Wing, a story of a grieving young Indian maiden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Wing_(song); Lily Marlene ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Marlene), his refrain version including “Underneath the lamppost, by the barricade”; and the this mornings wakening Tin Pan Alley song "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On the Farm After They've Seen Paree?"

  Historical fact is that many didn’t stay on the farm after WWI, the core reason not being exposure to French cuisine. As told to me by Uncle Jim, and reading historical non-fiction and fiction, it had much to do with tasting freethinking individualistic existentialism apart from common American family values. Industrial mechanization helped facilitate to-city migration led by doughboys returned from the European fray. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_(1918%E2%80%931945).

  After the about exercise in review, I pondered “But what is the real lesson here?”

  The main thought mine is that exposure to immoral philosophy surrounds us and we alone, before God, are responsible for our life.

  WWI is long since past, but its Frankish affections are still very much with us and still developing on planet earth’s spiritual battlefield. Having paramount complete combat zone intelligence, the Word of God, we know the Enemy. (Eph.2:1-7) And we certainly are aware of our fondness for the Enemy’s mess.

  In this comprehension, let us agreeably be captured by Sovereign God Almighty and not partake of sin, keeping ourselves loyal and pure. (1Tim.5:22)  EBB4