We Have Our Marching Orders
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” Psalm 20:7 NKJV
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” is a quotation taken from a pamphlet written some time ago by Thomas Paine. He wrote these words during the time that America was in crisis during the American Revolutionary War.
Thomas Paine, known as the father of the revolution, was a high-school drop-out who worked for his father and was fired by him two times. But he later took up journalism, and became a respected writer who was very vocal about world peace. He gained the respect of General George Washington, and his pamphlet series called The American Crisis helped to inspire the formation of the US Army.
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, secured a United States of America independent from Great Britain. Fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The American Patriots were supported by France and Spain, conflict taking place in North America, the Caribbean, and Atlantic Ocean.
The American Revolutionary war was primarily caused by colonial opposition to British attempts to impose greater control over the colonies and to make them repay the crown for its defense of them during the French and Indian War.
I didn’t get this then, when I was back in high-school and I certainly had no intention of going back there now. But Paine’s words resounded in me, having learned them back in high school, when we had to memorize and recite them. Some brevity of them rang in my ear when I began to think about, and ponder why we, America, are in the state that we’re in right now. These are trying times, and it dawned on me that America is in Crisis, again. Thomas Paine’s sentiments seemed to be relevant to where we find ourselves today, and we need to be encouraged again.
The more I read about Thomas Paine and the Revolution, I felt like I was drowning, in a sea of questions, trying to find rest for my soul in light of the most recent events facing our country. The fact that the war went on so long was implication that we are in a fierce battle that already has gone on too long. While back in the day we were fighting for the rights to Molasses, Sugar, Currency and Stamp, all legitimate concerns of the times, today we must contend with Covid, The War in Ukraine, Monkey-Pox, Mass Shootings, Crime, Mental Illness, and Homelessness in our streets. I am concerned about the safety of my 5th grade grandson who attends Oyster Bay Elementary School, and my 2 year old grandson who is in daycare. I am concerned about my safety and that of my husband and my son, Black men who drive up and down our streets daily.
I don’t know if it’s going to take a war like the Revolution, but I recognize that we are in fierce combat and it looks like the enemy is winning. These truly are the times that try men’s souls. While we bear much of the responsibility for what is happening in our world, we are powerless because we are prayer-less. We can call for stricter gun laws and we should, but we cannot legislate a heart. We can march and protest and we should, but we cannot change a heart.
Although hundreds of years ago, delving into the cause and effect surrounding the history of the Revolutionary War, created anxiety in me. Feeling helpless and hopeless in these times, I found no relief except to pray, “Come Lord Jesus. Come!” I know that no matter what it looks like, or what it feels like, He is our hope. He is our help. He is our Banner. He is our Shield. We are soldiers in His army.
Thomas Paine encouraged the American soldiers with these words; and they are as relevant today as they were then:
“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
Very powerful words, and fitting for our times today. But if we are going to win the war we’re in, we must be obedient to the Word, and the strategy that the Lord has given us in Ephesians 6:10-18: The Whole Armor of God
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the [a]wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of [b]the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—Read full chapter.
Thomas Paine is noted to have been anti-slavery and anti-Christian. In his writing “The Age of Reason,” he seems to know a lot about the Lord, but in his lifetime, he never embraced Him. And much like Paul, before his conversion on the Damascus Road, Paine persecuted the church .His blinded eyes were never opened. Therefore, denounced by many of his friends, he died at the age of 72. Because of his outspoken position against the Church, as politically encouraging as he was, he vehemently fought against the Church, and was rejected by many. Death was his only friend, and when he died only three people attended his funeral, two of which were freed Black men.
Who is A Father?
Most would agree that a prerequisite to any one being a father is that they first must be male. When God created humans, He made male and female; “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27 KJV). The dictionary defines the male as a person bearing an X and Y chromosome that produces a seed for the conception of a child[1] and a female is a person bearing two X chromosomes that produces the egg cells that allow for the conception of children. This is how God created the family; “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28 KJV). The Creator created a perfect design for human relationships which started with His very own masterpiece called a family; “And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:22-24 KJV). Human beings were God’s own masterpiece; “For we are God’s masterpiece, created in the Messiah Jesus to perform good actions that God prepared long ago to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2:10 ISV). The Potter (Romans 9) took clay from the dust that He created and molded it into a work of art and breathed Himself into that clay and that which was formed from the dust of the earth became the progenitor of all that was human, male and female.
Ironically, the description of people remains male and female or man and woman until children are conceived. After the conception of children, the terms father and mother are given to those who conceived the children. Many ask, is that all that is required to be a father and a mother? Each year we set aside a special day to honor our fathers and our mothers. In this current day and age it is probably true that we should thank those parents who did allow us to be born into the world and to experience the breath of life when they could have so easily done what Margaret Sanger said on page 63 of her 1920 book titled ‘Woman and the New Race’, “The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it”[2].
When God created man, He created man in His own image; “ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26 KJV). If God left His throne in heaven and decide to walk among people, He would look like us with two hands, two feet, two eyes, etc. He would talk to us in a language that we could understand. We can easily surmise that if God made us in His own image, then we probably should not only look like Him, and that is to look like God who would look like a human being while walking on earth, but we should probably also try to act like Him. If we believe that God is our Creator, then it’s not difficult to understand that He should also be our example of what we should be. In the garden of Eden, God wanted to spend intimate time with His creation and that’s why He came back to the garden after Adam and Eve disobeyed His command. God was looking to spend time in the garden with them. The Apostle John says in John 1, that before the world began, the Word was already there. The Word was God in the form of the man named Jesus. He was with God, and everything was made through Him, and nothing was made without Him. Jesus calls God, His Father and when Jesus sacrificed His life on the cross, he allowed us to be adopted into God’s family, so that we now call God, our Father. What better example of a father than God Himself?
Who is God? God is love (1 John 4:8) . God should be our example of what a father should be. God adopted us as His children, and He’s been the best father that most of us have ever had. When children look at their own fathers, they should see the love of God (1 John 4:16). What is love? This is love – “For God So Loved the World, that He Gave His Only Begotten Son, that Whosoever Believeth in Him Should Not Perish But Have Everlasting Life” (John 3:16 KJV). What greater love is there than for a person to give up their only child to die for people that don’t know how to love back? Here’s true love – “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 KJV). For those of us that want to know how we can love like that we first need to understand what Jesus did for us – “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 KJV). Once we understand that then accepting the challenge of being a father doesn’t seem so impossible.
Being a father is not about being a sperm donor or getting a woman pregnant. Being a father is doing what God did for us and that is to demonstrate love for those that are around us. God is the epitome of love but for us, love is shown by what we do and the first thing that we should do is to love God and then let Him teach us how to love others. How do we love God? Loving God is shown by obedience to what He tells us to do in His Word – “ If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15 KJV). Loving others starts with loving God first (1 John 5:2-3). Who is a father? A father is a man who obeys God’s Word and allows the Lord to teach him how to love others. Love our wives, love our children, love our neighbors and then we can truly give honor to ‘Father’s Day’.
[1] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/male
[2] https://archive.org/details/womannewrace00sang/page/62/mode/2up?view=theater&q=kill
Honoring Our Fathers
“The righteous man leads a blameless life, blessed are his children after him.”
Prov. 20:7 NIV
The earliest remembrance of my father that I have is his laughter. Born May 19, 1924, John Washington McSwain, Sr., my dad, would have been 98 years old. No longer with us, the memories of my father make me happy and sad. Sometimes when I think of him I cry; and other times when I think of him I smile. Then there is the outburst of laughter when I remember the time that he tried to teach my mother how to drive. And there is the roaring sound of his own laughter; a small man with a big voice.
I can honestly say that I have never seen my father angry. Nor have I ever heard a harsh word come out of his mouth. Ever present even when he was not home, he was there. Married to Catherine she was the disciplinarian, but he was the leader in our home. He provided and she let him. He loved her. They loved us and altogether we were family. My father was an insurance man; the one who came knocking at your door to collect the insurance money. Always with a pad, pencil, and pocket protector, Mister Mac was well-received and loved by everyone. His job gave us notoriety in the small town of Troy, Alabama. Everybody knew Mister Mac.
As I grew older it was my dad who was the example to me of what of what a man should be. He respected his wife, took care of his children, and provided and protected our home. When I look back I think it must have been hard being a Black man during Jim Crow days in Alabama during the early 50’s and 60’s, but I have no recollection of how the times impacted him. A Deacon and church Trustee, I know he was a praying man. He was the second eldest of five children, and he always honored his parents. We went to church together and on Sundays, after church, we would all pile into his blue 1956 Chevy and drive to the country to see Papa and Momma Flora. My mom wasn’t always happy about it, but we would stay the whole afternoon and then drive home. He not only took care of us, he saw to the needs of his parents too. They called him “Brother.”
There is so much more that I could say about my father and in reflecting on the upcoming Father’s Day I wanted to create a space where each of us could do the same. It’s a time to honor our fathers. When I think about it, it’s truly an awesome job to be responsible for the well-being of a family; to make the commitment often putting aside personal dreams, and goals, for the family. We make bones about it with those who don’t, but we don’t give enough credit to the ones who do.
Men are not as vocal as women, and it is very rare that you will hear a Black Man truly open up and tell you how he really feels. The daily grind is real, and we know that Black Men have to be twice as vigilant as the next man. No excuses, but too many of our men are incarcerated. Too many of our homes are led by women raising children where there is no father. It’s not that they don’t make men like my dad anymore, it’s just that the times seem to dictate their loyalty to other things. Moms are doing a great job, but even they will tell you that they need some help.
Character traits are refined in the pressures of life much like diamonds, and under the watchful eyes of moms and dads. It’s where we’re taught to say, ‘Please and Thank You;’ It’s where we’re taught to learn how to wait. It’s where we’re taught to work hard. When we watch our parents, even our dads, we become more like them. This Father’s Day, let’s focus on the positives. Let’s hug our dads for real. Let’s encourage our men. Let’s pray for them. My dad is gone, but his presence lives on in me, and in my children.