Sorry I Missed Mom Passing

I received a phone call Friday night from a nurse at the care facility where my 94-year-old mother had lived for the past 13 months, asking for permission to administer a narcotic pain reliever. The nurse explained that my mom had uncharacteristically been complaining about stomach pains—and that my mom had told her she was dying.

Early Saturday morning I received another call from the nursing home predicting that my mom would be gone within the hour. An hour later the news came true.

My mom had been in hospice care for a year and a half. A physical examination a few months back revealed that she had an abdominal aortic aneurysm. While the condition didn’t cause discomfort in daily living, a nurse warned that it could cause sudden death. My mom was too old and feeble for surgical relief.

Although I live in the same city as my mom, I was half a country away on a reporting assignment. I couldn’t be there with my mom as she lay dying. Thankfully she went peacefully.

I’m glad I visited her Wednesday evening before I flew to West Virginia Thursday morning. At the time she said she thought she might live to 100; I told her that, having just celebrated her 94th birthday, six years was a long way off.

Thankfully, my wife and my kind Uncle Joe got to visit Mom when she was still lucid just after the administering of the pain medication. Joe, a spry 87 years old, recently had a successful operation for the same condition that proved fatal to my mom.

My dad sensed imminent death soon before he died of congestive heart failure 10 years ago. Sadly, I was traveling at the time and couldn’t be with him at the end.
I’m grateful to the nursing home staff and hospice care staff that made her final months comfortable and engaging as possible for someone who only left her bed for meals. They truly helped extend her life and make it more enjoyable.

Although Mescal Kennedy’s death was hardly unexpected, the timing caught me off guard because she seemed as normal as ever the day before. We should never take anything for granted. I’m glad I made the Wednesday evening visit.

Known by His Works

Chuck Colson remains hospitalized following surgery for a brain hemorrhage that almost took his life more than two weeks ago.

When news reports of Colson’s critical condition hit the wires invariably they led with a phrase such as “convicted Watergate figure.” Faith-based media, on the other hand, usually started the story by calling the 80-yer-old Colson an influential Christian leader.

Indeed, what Colson accomplished after his four years as special counsel to President Nixon has made him an elder statesman in evangelical Christianity circles. He founded the most influential prison ministry in the country, Prison Fellowship; he has authored numerous bestsellers about integrating Christian faith into daily living; he has contributed mightily to important doctrinal debates.

Yet much of the mainstream media is stuck in 1973 when it comes to reporting on Colson. Despite his decades of ministry efforts, they still see him as the ruthless “hatchet man” for the paranoid Nixon, a loyal follower who “would walk over his own grandmother if necessary” to serve the president.

Colson converted to Christianity in 1974 and it transformed his life as much as it did for Saul of Tarsus, the onetime persecutor of Christians who became Paul, the most important apostle of the Early Church. Colson, having subsequently served seven months in federal prison after his conversion, became an advocate of prison rehabilitation.

I remember covering Colson when he visited the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1981 in Jefferson City when I was a religion reporter at the Columbia Missourian. Five years after the founding of Prison Fellowship, editors still thought Colson to be a phony. The fact that he was conversing with inmates rather than sitting back in a cushy law office at a corporate firm didn’t seem to register with the editors.

I was involved in the photo selection process for the newspaper. Editors wanted to use a picture of Colson in an unflattering pose, his face twisted in an almost grotesque way. Somehow I prevailed in changing their minds. The primary image shows a compassionate Colson reaching through prison bars to clasp an inmate’s hand.

More than 30 years later, it’s time to view Colson in a favorable light, not primarily for his lawbreaking from a long-ago presidential administration. The proof is in the legacy he is living and leaving with his Christian life.

Bye to ‘Big Steve’

I won’t be picking up “Big Steve” tonight en route to our weekly Bible study, as has been my custom for more than a year. Steve Wade was found dead this morning in his apartment. I will miss him.

I’ve known Steve for several years, since his days of living on the streets not all that long ago. Steve shattered some myths I had about homeless people. He had a good sense of humor, including about his hefty weight. Steve was happy-go-lucky, independent and someone who lived simply and cared little about material possessions.

At home group, where he was a faithful fixture every Tuesday night, Steve offered insights on poverty that the rest of us didn’t have. Despite living many of his final years with only what he had in a backpack, Steve felt blessed by God in multiple ways. He always was willing to read Scripture, and was grateful that he recently had obtained a new multi-translation Bible.

Sadly, at age 50, Steve is no longer with us. He really had made strides in stability since moving into an apartment complex. He had plans to lose weight by bicycling, and he was saving money to buy a car. But, happily, he is in a better place no longer encumbered by the troubles of this world.

Oprah’s TM Agenda

I watched in continued amazement last week as Oprah Winfrey hosted a one-hour segment on her network from my hometown, Fairfield, Iowa, which she dubbed “America’s most unusual town.”

In gushing tones, Winfrey spoke as if she had uncovered a hidden gem, a town populated by a couple of thousand transcendental meditators bringing bliss among the rural farmland of the Hawkeye State. The episode contained factual errors, such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi started his university in Fairfield when it actually originated in Santa Barbara, Calif. Maharishi International University purchased the bankrupt Parsons College, where my dad served as campus pastor. Also, Winfrey inexplicably stated that the size of the town increased tenfold after TMers arrived. The population, around 9,000, actually has decreased in the 37 years since the first influx.

But the worst part of the propaganda involved Winfrey repeatedly telling viewers that TM had nothing to do with religion. This seemed especially odd when near the end of the show several hundred Hindu “gurus” were shown collectively chanting. Yet, the spiritually undiscerning Winfrey claimed practicing TM actually enhances a person’s Christian faith. These claims have been disproved in courts. There is ample evidence that TM is at odds with the tenets of Christianity. See an article I wrote more than a decade ago for Christianity Today in which I interviewed various pastors in Fairfield: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/january8/11.74.html

In any regard, Winfrey’s show turned out to be a 60-minute commercial promoting TM, including several celebrity endorsements. One of the final scenes revealed Winfrey’s real agenda: she is seen meditating with others in the school’s golden dome for women. Winfrey bragged that she is such a TM advocate she has paid the $2,000 fee for her 270 employees to be indoctrinated.