Random Thoughts

A devoted public servant and a man of character

Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow lost his battle with cancer today.

I first encountered Tony when he was guest hosting Rush Limbaugh’s radio program nearly a decade ago, and his clever, pointed and articulate delivery caught and held my attention.

I didn’t always agree with Tony’s perspective–particularly when he was Press Secretary–but I always found him to be very intelligent and quite thought provoking, qualities in short supply in the political arena these days. We are the poorer when someone of this caliber is taken from us. His wisdom, gained the hard way–through experience–shone in an interview given almost exactly a year ago:

…We shouldn’t spend too much time trying to answer the why questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can’t someone else get sick? We can’t answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.

I don’t know why I have cancer, and I don’t much care. It is what it is—a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.

But despite this—because of it—God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don’t know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face

…Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don’t matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

No matter how many days we might have, that’s a question well worth asking. Tony Snow had, and lived, the answer. May God comfort his wife and children as they continue on without him.

Michelle Malkin has a particularly fine memorial to Tony here.