Janice Crow

Reflections July ‘09

Many years ago my sister Sheryl and I took off excitedly to a brand new shopping center just across the river in St. Louis. We were in our twenties and free as a bird. I had a new ’72 Olds…new to me at least, and it was our ticket to freedom. We shopped, talked, and laughed. After several hours we found a place to sit down and have lunch, then we started all over again. (Must have been shopping for a concert. People still dressed up back then.) At the end of the day we were dead on our feet and headed to the exits. “Where’d we park?” she asked as we emerged out into the evening light. “Oh, I know,” I offered, “Look for section J-M.” As we turned in circles looking at the signs high up on the light poles, we noticed something quite odd. They ALL said J-M…..every single one of them. What? Then it occurred to us….J-M stood for Jamestown Mall. Duh! There we stood, tired aching feet, loaded down with shopping bags and no clue where to go next.

We racked our brains trying to recall where we had come into the mall seven hours before. We tried to recall some landmark. Did we park near one of the big anchor stores? Was it near the mall entrance? We quizzed each other. Did we pass the automotive section of Sears? Did we come in on the upper level or the lower level? Do you remember if we passed a jewelry store as we came in? Did we pass the snack shop? Of course, we did…many, many times as we made the rounds shopping. Nothing was clicking….not a thing. WHERE did I leave the car?

Both of us were in a subdued state of panic, each trying not to freak out the other. This was the early seventies. There weren’t any key rings with little red panic buttons that would make your lights flash and your horn honk to give you a clue as to your car’s whereabouts. There were no cell phones, so we couldn’t call for someone to pick us up. Jamestown was a brand new mall and everybody and his brother was there. The lots were packed and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

After a while of trudging through first one parking lot then another, lugging all those bags, we went back into the mall to find a ladies’ room because we didn’t know how long we would be stuck there. Then it was back out into the night to find a royal blue Delta 88 coupe. I remember thinking, “What on earth are we going to do? The mall will be closing soon and it’s getting darker every minute.”

Suddenly, one of us spotted the car. What a wonderful site! We picked up our pace with new energy. When we reached the car, I couldn’t get that door unlocked fast enough. It was dark, and although Jim Croce wouldn’t say it was the “baddest part of town”, it wasn’t the greatest either. We threw in our bags, jumped in and locked the doors. Then it all started coming back. “Yeah, I remember parking here now. I should have paid more attention, but I was in such a hurry to get into the mall, I just didn’t. I just didn’t.”

Sheryl and I had our freedom, but hadn’t learned how to use it yet. We hadn’t learned to pay attention to the landmarks. We hadn’t learned to think ahead and plan not only our entrance, but our exit as well. We hadn’t planned for the dangers of setting off by ourselves. We were of age, but still naïve.

A few days ago we commemorated Independence Day. We celebrated with backyard barbecues and fireworks. The lakes and rivers were jammed with boats towing skiers and amateurs flying by at break-neck speed on a Sea-Doo. Some “celebrated” lying in a hammock with a newspaper over their face. Others packed up the kids and a picnic lunch and headed for the zoo. In all our celebrating, I wonder how much thought was actually given to what “independence” means.

As a nation we are 233 years old, but still have no idea how to use our independence. We have used the word “freedom” as an excuse for one man to treat another any way he pleases. We have turned a deaf ear while men pollute the airways with profanity and blasphemy in the name of freedom. We have been drunk on the wine of “political correctness” and accepted sin as just “alternative lifestyles” and have slept while our religious freedoms have been chiseled away. Now we are exhausted and turning in circles looking for a way out and can’t find any.

We need to think…think about where we left our values behind. This country is tired and burdened down and it’s our own doing! Were we just not paying attention and blindly followed the drumbeat of this world? Our nation is lost. We used to have values. We used to have virtue. We used to have Bible believing statesmen who asked God for direction. But now we have taken our “freedom” and run headlong into the marketplace where we have squandered our living and now we can’t find our way back.

If there was ever a time in human history that we need to find the landmarks that God has set for us, it’s now! It’s getting dark and it’s later than it’s ever been.

In keeping with the season, my prayer would be this: Lord, teach us how to use our “freedom”. Help us to use our freedom to make ours a Christian nation once again. Toss our leaders on their beds and take sleep from them until they acknowledge you once again. Let them experience a new awareness that “separation of church and state” was intended by our forefathers to see to it that government stays out of the church….not that the church stays out of government. Let the songs they learned in Sunday School swirl in their heads until they clap their hands over their ears and yet can’t escape it.

Lord, help us remember where we came from and lead us to where you would have us be.

Hold your freedom dear.
Janice