When I honor others I am the one who gains the benefit.

One of the criticisms that I have read of 21st Century life in the West is that we tend to give undue preference to those who happen to be alive right now. We think we are smarter than those who have gone before us. When there is a way that things used to be done, and a way that we do things now, our default position is that the current procedure is better. "We finally got it figured out." When have you heard an advertisement bragging that a business or organization is on "the back side of the knife"? Everybody wants to be "cutting edge." The Edsel was new, so were 8-track tapes, and Beta video recorders. How'd that work out? Clearly, the cell phone most STTA readers use to access these thoughts I offer represents an incredible technical advance over the front porch where people used to share something about which to think. We ought to ask, however, "In the biggest sense of the word, is the pocket device that connects me to the world better?"  Does it connect or separate?

I'm in Chuuk as I write this. Technically Chuuk is one of the four states that make up the Federated States of Micronesia, a collection of Islands in the Western Pacific. In the way the Bible uses the word, Chuuk is a "nation." It has its own language and culture. People here aren't FSM-ers, they are Chuukese. I'm here to honor a church leader who recently died. The body of the deceased arrived by jet airplane and was transported to his home island on a boat powered by Yamaha, but the ways of honoring his memory, and seeking to comfort his family are rooted in ways that don't require gasoline or a battery. Physical presence is maximized. A willingness to put other things aside is evident. There is a deliberate focus on reconciliation and learning lessons from the dead that will help us move forward with life.
When we think of honoring someone our initial thought is that the benefit is given to the one honored. I'm being reminded that honoring another--even, perhaps especially, when the one being honored is no longer here to receive the honor--means those of us who slow down and take time to show-our-respects receive much more than we give. 
I wish we could sit down on the porch and talk about it. It's not cutting edge, but it would be better.
It's Something To Think About.