Wednesday, December 10, 2014

When God Waves Back: A Child's Story

This week I attended my children's school Christmas music program.  As I write this, I have two children in grade school and one hovering dangerously close to young adult-hood.  They have all been a blessing to me, and I was looking forward to this event quite a bit.  As hundreds of us parents made our way into the crowded school gymnasium, I couldn't help but feel the joy and anticipation in the air.  We were lucky to find a place to sit on the high rise bleachers ... it was a full house.  


A hush fell over the audience as the students began to file through the hallway and into the gym.  Dozens of parents extended their hands high, holding cell phones equipped with state-of-the-art cameras.  I did the same.  We must have looked like a sea of news reporters at a CNN conference where the president was about to come on stage.  Once situated on the risers, almost every child began scanning the crowd for familiar faces.  Looking for your parents and grandparents is standard fare at these events, and every kid is programmed to do this I think.  My youngest spotted me before I even saw him.  When I finally locked eyes, he raised his arm and began the ceremonial "Hello Daddy" wave.  I waved back, thus sealing our unwritten contract.

I have a feeling that deep down, no matter how old we are or where we come from, we all scan the audience from time to time, looking for a familiar face.  Why do we do this?  It is possible we need some type of recognition at our job, or maybe we need to be noticed by our peers.  Sometimes we may simply be double-checking that we matter enough for people to come out and watch while we go through life.  From time to time I engage in public speaking of one sort or another, and I can't help but scan the audience myself.  Looking here and there for a friendly face.  Am I looking for someone to wave at? It depends I suppose.

At any rate, it is December as I write this, and our young family is buzzing with Christmas excitement at home.  We have the lights up on the house and the tree stands tall and proud in the family room; a testament to gifts and goodies yet to come.  There are Santa Claus ornaments on the branches and stockings over the fireplace.  It is a happy time of year.  But understand this also - my mother passed away seven years ago, right around the holidays.  It was January actually, and I can still remember how cold it was at the funeral.  Much of it is a blur now, but God has graced me with certain memories that will remain sharp no matter how many years pass.  I now cherish these  moments with her, of course.  Recently I visited her grave site in Des Moines, something I hadn't done in a while.  It was October and there were leaves on the ground already, but fortunately no snow yet.  I had to brush away the cut grass, and even a few weeds that had found there way over the tombstone.  It was a strange feeling to be back there.  Why do I let so much time pass in between visits I wonder?

As I was driving to the cemetery, it felt almost the same way it feels to go meet an old friend at a coffee shop or restaurant.  How great it will be to catch up.  How wonderful to see her again. As my car pulls around the curve and I drive by the mausoleum, reality sets in.  There will be no one waiting in person to greet me.  I find her lot and park the car.  What am I doing here?  How will I react when I see the grave site?  Instantly I am a child again, seeking after my parent.  I envision myself six-years-old at my elementary school, standing on the risers after being led out by the teacher.  Can I see my mom?  Where is my dad?  Later in life, when I would speak occasionally at my local church, my mother would attend the service.  I would sit in the audience and wait for the pastor to introduce me.  I would then scan the doorway and look for my mother to arrive.  Sometimes I would wave first ... sometimes she would.  Always nice to see a familiar face, but no face will greet me today at her grave site.

I spend just the right amount of time at the cemetery, then get back into my car to leave.    Why does it feel like we just had a conversation even though it was just me?  Why doesn't she answer back?  Can't she see me waving from the bleachers?  Darn it, I forgot to pick up flowers.  Will she notice?

I believe it a truism to say that most of us are seeking something or someone to wave at.  A familiar face in a crowded gymnasium.  The reason we scan the audience doesn't matter so much as the fact that we are born seeking after meaning in this life.  I am blessed also to have a cub scout den that knows this, and we are currently putting one of my boys through a 'God and Me' study unit.  Recently we discussed John 3:16, and the boys were supposed to write what this phrase means to them personally.  Many of us know this Scripture by heart: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  It is a familiar verse, but it is an important one.  

I look over to see what my son has chosen to write.  This is what he said: "To help everyone who's being bullied.  And to make God feel happy."  This is an eight-year-old's stylistic interpretation of the famous verse in the Gospel of John.  I chuckled to myself when I read it.  If the concept of sin can be equated to being bullied, then he's nailed it!  But more than that, isn't John 3:16 an example of God acknowledging us?  It feels like He is waving back at us from the parent section.  "I am here," he might say ... "and I love you."

Are we waving back at Him?  I sincerely hope so.  I believe my mother did before she passed.  If the Bible is a novel about Salvation, then the Gospels are a love story.  They present us with a Father who attends all of our music programs and sits in the front row.  Who laughs when we laugh, and cries when we cry.  He waits patiently for us to find him in the parent section, and then waves when our eyes meet his.  He stays late after everyone has filed out of the gymnasium, and cares enough to pick up a copy of the playbill to post on the refrigerator door when he gets home.  It will remain there long after the concert is over.  

The children in our cub scout den are absorbing these Scriptural truths quickly.  They have wonderful, pure hearts.  We read things like John 3:16 out loud during the meetings.  They seem to understand it inherently.  My hope is that we do also, and that we never stop scanning the parent section, always ready to wave back as soon as we lock eyes.

It occurs to me that someday my kids will come to visit me at the cemetery.  They may forget to bring flowers - I don't care.  They may notice that it's been a while, and some weeds have begun to cover the tombstone.  Never mind.  What matters is that throughout their lives, whenever they saw me in the bleachers and waved, I waved back.  


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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

A Bucket Full of Sand, and the Lost Sheep

Not long ago, my family and I took a trip down to the Gulf Coast by Alabama for a week long vacation and family getaway.  The drive from our hometown to the southern most tip of Alabama was no less than 1,000 miles.  This equated to a one-way trip of close to 15 hours in the car (more like 18 hours if you factor in stopping for lunch and dinner).  Despite the odds of my wife and I ending up in a mental institution from attempting this trip with three young children, we decided to knock out the drive in one day.  We day tripped from dusk to dawn, and finally made it to our hotel by midnight.


There were some strange things that happened along the way.  We look back now and laugh, but at the time it really wasn't too amusing.  For instance, someone had called and cancelled our reservation in Alabama earlier that same morning (and it wasn't us!).  We had a flat tire needing repair about halfway through the trip as well.  We stayed in a hotel room that emanated second-hand smoke from the carpet to the ceiling - all the while with "no smoking" cards placed everywhere in the room.  These things make me smile as I am sitting here writing about them.  This is the price we pay for getting away to some place new.  Each vacation is its own mini adventure.  Chevy Chase would have been proud (you may remember the National Lampoon's Vacation movie he made famous).  

Overall we couldn't complain, of course.  In a country that has yet to fully recover from the housing market crash in 2008, our family of five took a comfortable vacation to a white sand beach with an amazing view of the ocean.  God's beauty is amazing at times: we were packing up to leave the beach for the hotel one evening and I snapped a picture of the sunset over the water.  A surreal mixture of peace and satisfaction came over me.  Life was good.  In fact, we are still shaking beach sand out of our family car to this day (a week and a half later).

Not every day was full of bliss however.  One day in particular comes to mind, while we were busy splashing in the waves and having a good time, my wife happened to look up and notice that our youngest son was nowhere to be found.  We had rented some blue beach chairs with an umbrella so we could be comfortable while relaxing in the hot sun, and a moment earlier he had been playing in the sand with a small toy shovel and a plastic bucket right next to them.  He was gone in the blink of an eye.  It was a holiday weekend and the 32 mile long beach was lined with thousands of people.  I am reminded of the scene from the remarkable Steven Spielberg film 'Minority Report', where Tom Cruise's character takes his young son to the public pool.  After practicing how long he could hold his breath under water, Cruise surfaces to find that his son is gone.  In the film, Cruise never finds his son again.  I can't help drawing parallels to this experience with that scene.  It was terrifying to watch on a movie screen, and it was terrifying to experience it firsthand.  It really was like a scene from a movie.  

Jesus tells three versions of a parable that are interrelated in the Gospel accounts of the Bible that I think we can use to help illustrate this feeling.  The one I will focus on here is the parable of the lost sheep that appears in Matthew chapter 18, verse 12: "What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13“If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. 14“So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish."  

In terms of exegesis, there are different ways to unpack this Scripture.  But I think the main thrust of the parable is obvious in this context.  If God so loved the world that He sacrificed His one and only Son, then why wouldn't he take the extra trouble to go and retrieve someone who had wandered from the Faith and restore him or her?  Why wouldn't He take any amount of trouble necessary to save you and I from a Christ-less existence?  Why shouldn't we take trouble (as representatives of the Gospel message ourselves) to chase after the sheep?

Of course, while we were frantically looking for my son at the beach, I could muster none of this clarity of thought.  My main concern was fighting back the feeling of dread that was beginning to set in as three minutes went by ... then five minutes ... then ten minutes without seeing him anywhere.  My wife began to shed tears, and people around us were starting to take notice.  If you have ever witnessed a scene like this, even if it involved people whom you have never met, you may note that it is impossible to ignore.  Eventually, during my second or third trip back and forth around the beach, two strangers sitting behind us called out to me, "hey!"  I turned, and heading my way was my youngest son, plastic bucket in tow.  I thanked the couple who had said something to me in order to call my attention to him, and apologized for the verbal punishment that my son was about to receive.

What if those people hadn't taken the extra time to get involved?  After all, we were strangers 1,000 miles from home.  What if the Shepard in Jesus' parable hadn't taken the time to temporarily leave the 99 other sheep and go after the stray?  What if you and I never take the time to tell anyone about the saving grace of God?  Given the circumstances, shouldn't we feel the same level of urgency that I felt on the beach that day while frantically looking for my son?  After all, the spiritual stakes are just as high.  I think we need to go after the sheep.  

Truth be told, I don't think that God typically requires us to share the Gospel message with complete strangers.  More often than not, I have a feeling it need only occur after relationships have been established and life experiences shared.  Less open air preaching to the man on the street, and more asking our friends if they want to come to church on Sunday.  Because if Jesus is at the center of our lives, then talking about Him bubbles up from the overflow in our hearts.  But our hearts are often scared to overflow I think.  What will people think if we tell them about Christ?  What will they whisper about us when we leave?

The image of finding my son again, holding that plastic bucket will be with me forever.  When he is 30 years old I imagine I will still remember that day.  Tears coming down his face, bleached blond hair from swimming all day, holding that bucket full of sand.  I hope he will tell me that he was grateful my wife and I came looking for him, that we didn't give up ... that we couldn't give up.  I hope some day after I am gone, God may pull me aside and show me other lives that were touched because I was bold enough to share His message with others, because I didn't give up.  I hope the same for you.


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Monday, March 10, 2014

Some Lenten Humor ...



Atheism, the Universe, and Really Good Pizza

Last night our church kicked off a ten week series of classes called the Alpha Course.  This course is a chance for people from any background and religious view to check out what Christianity is, and to get a closer look at what the church does.  No question is off limits.  We had a full house last night; about 60 people showed up.  The first part of the class always consists of a dinner, and this time we decided to cater in pizza from one of the local restaurants here in town.  Imagine if you will, two conference room tables full of the most delightful pizza.  Pepperoni, sausage, cheese, Canadian bacon ... you get the idea.  I have often commented that this place makes the best pizza I have ever tasted.  In fact, you would have to argue diligently in order for me to change my mind.  Last night was as if someone sliced off a piece of heaven and brought it down to our church in the form of a multiple topping symphony.  


After the dinner, we listened to a talk that addressed three common objections to the Christian faith: supposedly some think it is boring, untrue, and irrelevant.  You may be able to think of other objections, but these three were taken from recent surveys conducted by various polling organizations who asked carefully phrased questions. When finished with the talk, we broke into several small groups.  There are 9 people in my group, including myself.  That means we have 9 separate insights, 9 different opinions, and 9 distinct ways of interpreting the world around us.  The discussion was lively, and I can expect only good things to come in the future.  

 The week prior to the Alpha course kick off I watched a debate between veteran Christian philosopher William Lane Craig and renowned physicist and atheist Sean Carroll.  The topic of the debate was 'God and Cosmology'.  The two men discussed whether or not current cosmological theory supports the concept of a monotheistic god.  No one here was attempting to assert that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, or trying to argue whether or not creationism should be taught in schools.  There was simply an examination of the evidence around us.

Carroll's main point seemed to be that we can get around the need for positing a belief in god by claiming that the Universe had no real beginning, and that since space and time have always been eternal - there is no reason to think that it was "brought into being" by anything or anyone.  He goes on to state that since the term theism itself is not very well defined (in other words you can ask anyone what it means and you will get a different answer), you cannot use it as an alternative explanation to an eternal Universe.  

This is an interesting claim, and we may in fact come to a place where the 9 of us address these ideas over some of that superb pizza.  But for now, let's speculate about these two positions right here on this blog.  Take the idea that the Universe has always been, and always will be.  Current evidence about the cosmos seems to point to a very different conclusion.  We can observe that matter in the universe is moving away from itself because this force leaves a particular signature that scientists can record and analyze.  This "expanding universe" seems to require an explosion from which everything began, and almost no one today refutes that there was some type of Big Bang or singularity that started everything.  That science cannot take us back far enough to know what exactly happened (or for that matter what may have existed) prior to this amazing event, I will not argue.  Some say it was simply another universe.  Others hold to a view that there must have been many universes, and ours is just one of them (this is called the world ensemble theory).  There is no evidence for either one of these theories by the way, and they work only in so far as to say we cannot scientifically disprove them either.  


Carroll also had a second point, namely that because theism (or the general belief in some type of god) was so ill-defined that you could not use it as any sort of alternative viewpoint.  This was somewhat shocking to me, since I think it is adequate to offer the totality of the Bible itself as a master document from which we may "define" theism.  Depending on the style or translation, most Bibles range anywhere between 900 - 2,000 pages.  It is a collection of 66 books by over 40 authors which spans some 1,500+ years.  The one thing you cannot say is that God (or in this case theism) is poorly defined.  You may say that you think it is untrue, inconsistent, incoherent, etc... but you cannot say there isn't enough information available!

So what are we to do with these two notions?  We have a universe that apparently did begin to exist at a certain point in time, and a God that has been written about and defined for us throughout the ages.  Can these two concepts go hand in hand?  I do think they are contiguous, but I will get to that in a minute.  What really struck me about Carroll's belief system was that it seemed he was ascribing certain eternal and mystical qualities to something that really isn't eternal.  In other words, the Universe and the study of the cosmos had become (I think) his God.  He wanted space to be everlasting, eternal, all encompassing, and larger than life.  These are all terms that have been used to describe God.  We may shift the attributes of the creator onto what has been created, but I don't think we can hide our desire to be awestruck by something that is larger than ourselves.  Carroll still has it, so do I.  That he and I place our awe in two different things is obvious, but I can't help wishing he could see the forest for the trees.  The Universe is enormous and it is often beautiful.  Why?  It certainly didn't have to be.  It also didn't have to be set up in such a way that allows human beings to be able to explore it and witness it's beauty.  Some have postulated that we are in an almost perfect location within the Milky Way galaxy from which to view the cosmos.  The apostle Paul says in the book of Romans that the evidence for God is apparent to all men by simply observing the created world around us.  It would appear this argument holds true for the heavens as well.  

I hope that people come to the Alpha course with these types of questions over the next couple weeks.  I hope that some who would never consider setting foot inside a church will also show up.  I believe it is very possible to reconcile the two solutions regarding Sean Carroll's claims (that we long for something eternal and meaningful, and that we have a God that is well defined).  His first point asks the question in a very basic and relevant way: why is anything here at all?  The second question infers this answer: because God put it there.  At most, I hope that people can walk away from church with more answers than they had when they arrived.  After all, if they don't show up, then what would we do with all of that leftover pizza?


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Monday, January 20, 2014

Serendipity and a Stray Cat

Not long ago, my family and I welcomed a stray cat into our home.  It was a week or so before Christmas and I think the cat must have known it, perhaps he played upon our sympathies.  My daughter named him Leo.  From the time he appeared on our front porch to the time that my daughter and I drove to the store and purchased a cat box and mouse toy was approximately one hour.  I don't care what anyone says, Leo is our "Christmas cat."  


Leo is also ornery.  He is an older cat, the vet tells us maybe between 8 to 10 years old; my wife refers to him as a Grandpa Cat.  He likes his naps, during which time he has made it clear we must keep our distance (kind of like me).  He has a non-stop appetite, and enjoys a wide variety of people food.  He also loves to snuggle when someone picks him up - he will actually perch on your shoulder if you let him.  I often wonder about Leo's previous life.  Where he came from ... what kind of life he led prior to arriving at our doorstep.  Will he be a good fit for our family?  Only time will tell.  As I write this he has assumed the Garfield posture on the couch in our front room and he is engaged in his fourth nap of the day.  I may be a little jealous.

You see, our family went through what we privately call a "Grief-a-thon" not long ago.  One cold weekend in October we lost our longtime pet cat (who had also been a stray) to lung cancer.  She was close to 12 or 13 years old ... no one is really sure.  She was the sweetest animal I have ever known.  No boundaries, no aggression - just love.  We had to make the decision to put her down at the vet's office.  Two days later we lost our 14-year-old dog to an enlarged heart and emphysema.  She had been with my wife and I since we moved into our first apartment, straight through until we moved into our current home.  I referred to her as our Dog-ter (i.e.: a pun on daughter).  This was a second blow akin to what Mike Tyson must have felt when he faced Lennox Lewis for his last serious heavyweight boxing match.  We had to tell our kids that within two days we lost all of their pets.  To make matters worse, this was all sandwiched in between my wife's birthday.  You start to get the point.

Maybe a week later, we received news that my wife's grandfather was in failing health at the hospice and had days to live.  His name was Harold, and I liked him quite a bit.  He was strong and direct, and loved all of his grandchildren immensely.  Those fleeting few days went quickly, and he passed away.  There was a funeral shortly thereafter and he was laid to rest among an audience of those who loved him and truly grieved his absence.  It was, in no small part, a Grief-a-thon.  

As our family moved forward during the coming days, healing was at work.  In fact, I'm not so much blogging here as I am journaling.  I often think of God when I remember these events.  You see, we were grief-stricken but never dejected.  There was still laughter and smiles and hugs in our household.  God's joy and goodness still filled the center of our hearts.  We are fortunate to have His promise from the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, "Never will I forsake you, never will I leave you."  This is no small promise.  In fact, the faithful who walk with God on a daily basis have experienced this truth firsthand.  They have also lost cats and dogs and parents and grandparents, but they still have Joy.  Joy is something different and unique, it doesn't depend on temporal happiness or good fortune.  It's based on a relationship with Jesus; something transcendent and bigger than bad circumstances.  And at times like this I am grateful for serendipity, or as some call it ... happy accidents.  Funny how these turns of chance always seem to show up at the right time.  Someone once told me that bad news happens in 3's.  The 4th occurrence then, is hopefully some type of good news.

The fact that Leo came to us during Christmas, after an extremely difficult season in our lives could be simply an act of chance, and part of me is okay with that.  The truth is that Leo needs us as much as my grieving kids needed him.  He was hungry, thirsty, cold, and had some health problems.  We took him in and overwhelmed him with love.  He never knew what hit him!

Some time after Christmas had passed and Santa had come and gone, I found an old picture on my cell phone of a portrait my daughter had painted in art class over a year ago.  This was well before Leo ever set foot on our porch.  Her painting was the spitting image of Leo, right down to the unique black and white markings on his nose ... she even nailed his longer than usual front teeth.  When I showed it to her she remembered the art class and she was just as stunned as I was.  Serendipity.  Random chance.  God's joy.  Pick the term you like best.  In effect, what had happened is that one of my children had sketched a picture of a cat that would show up at our home a year later.  The symbolism here was hard to ignore.  

Ultimately this story doesn't "prove" anything regarding the reality of God working in our lives ... or does it?  I couldn't take this event in front of a panel of skeptics and sway them with hard evidence, finger prints, and a smoking gun.  It is sufficient, however, to note that the arrival of Leo the Christmas Cat coincided with the spirit of Christmas itself.  Also sufficient to note is that our new visitor just may have helped three grieving children and two slightly heart-broken grown-ups at just the right time.  Nonetheless, no matter which camp you fall into (chance or a gift) in our family we know that God is good.  Despite the losses we all experience as we travel down the road of life - often to destinations we would rather not go - in my heart I will always have the by-product of Faith which is joy.  I will have this gift hopefully no matter what circumstances occur, and no matter what destination I arrive at.

My greatest hope for everyone I know and love is that they might have this type of joy also.  It defies cynicism and covers over just about any negativity.  Joy through faith allows us to forgive people who may not have earned forgiveness.  It allows grieving people to become over-comers and survivors.  This, I think, is what God had intended for mankind all along.  We can take comfort in a famous verse from the book of Revelation, "He (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."  I look forward to this day very much.  Not because I have earned it in any way, but simply because it is what God wants for me.  I will accept serendipity as a down payment on that future hope of things to come.  God desires us to have peace, and not just that, but also the type of faith and joy that can come only from Him.  

I was fortunate enough to be able to do some speaking at Harold's funeral.  It was a sad event, but his family was all together and there was still laughing and camaraderie to be felt.  In planning his eulogy I had neglected to mention that on occasion during family holidays, Harold had asked for us all to bow our heads and say a few words regarding his wife that had proceeded him in death.  If I had the chance to say a few words to anyone reading this post, it would be these: we have all lost friends and relatives whom we love.  It will be okay.  We will all lose those we care about in the future.  God is still here.  When it comes our own time to leave, ask Him to take us and accept us.  He gave us Jesus as a gift, a serendipitous down payment - and it is okay to accept it.  God's love for the human being is something that has nothing to do with random chance, and everything to do with Him wanting us as much as we need Him.  In this regard, I wish everyone their own stray cat experience.



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Resurrection Sunday Still Matters

The literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of the Christian faith.  It doesn't matter which denomination or slant ...