I found the discussion fascinating. I expected it to be boring, a rehash of things I already knew, but the variety of people and experiences made it everything but.
The setting was a monthly meeting of United Methodist clergy. The subject was (stay with me here) stewardship. Often that means, here’s how to get people to give money to the church. But this was very different.
It started in the plenary session when Chris, the leader, read from Mark 7 where Jesus castigates the temple leaders for their concern with worldly acclaim, then points out the widow who put her last pennies into the temple offering. I have always heard this held up as an example of great faith on the part of the widow, but Chris read an interpretation saying the real point is the scurrilous scribes who are living high on the backs of the gullible poor. Then someone referred to a news story about a church that was being sued - the pastor promised that if people gave money to the church, God would double it for them in nine months, and it didn’t happen.
We moved into smaller groups and continued the discussion. How do you preach about money when people are losing their jobs and their homes? How do you expect people to think about spiritual things when money is such a real and pressing issue? What does it mean to trust God to take care of us?
One African-American pastor told of being a poor seminary student in Mississippi. He had almost nothing, but his pastor had asked everyone to contribute $100 towards missions work. About the only thing he owned was his clothes – a few casual clothes, and (as required by the church culture) four suits. He privately determined to sell two of his suits to raise the $100 to give to the church. Just then he received a letter. A couple in his church had been praying, and this pastor had arisen in their hearts. They had talked about it and decided to do something to help him out. Enclosed with the letter was $500.
I told a similar, though less dramatic, story of a time in seminary when someone brought my family a bag of groceries at a crucial time. Several others agreed that God always comes through.
But another pastor told of a church she served in Appalachia where families were struggling to live on $12,000 a year. She told of several women who would faithfully put money in the church offering plate every Sunday, only to see their children go without food for one or two days each week because the money was all gone. She said there was no question of the faith of these women, or their genuine love for God. So why was God allowing their children to suffer from malnutrition?
Other questions came up along the way. Is giving out of gratitude for God’s gifts the only really spiritual motivation for giving? Is it wrong to expect something from God in return? Is tithing a legalistic Old Testament relic or mandatory for Christians or somewhere in between?
We didn’t arrive at a clear agreement on any of these points. Some felt that preaching tithing to poor people drives them further into poverty, while others agreed with my experience that tithing has proven to be my lifeline out of deep financial distress. Some felt that we give as a response to what God has given us, while others said that we have to give first, as you have to plant a seed before you can expect a harvest.
I had never heard of God failing to come through for people who were genuinely trying to put him first, as in the case of the poor women who couldn’t feed their children, and I said so. A couple others agreed with me. It really caused me to think. And here’s what I think.
God does his work through his people. The church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is the head. A head can’t get anything done if the body doesn’t cooperate. If that couple had not listened to God and followed through by sending something to that poor seminary student, he would have had to sell his suits. If the people that brought my family a bag of groceries had failed to listen to God and obey him, we would have been pretty hungry.
Does God provide for his people? Absolutely. But he does it through other members of the family of God. And we haven’t always come through very well. May God have mercy on us all.
About Me
- Pastor David
- I serve as pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Annapolis, MD. I'm married to beautiful Paula, mother of my 4 sons and one daughter. I was a systems engineer before entering ministry 29 years ago.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Musings from Vacation, Part 1
After a long day in the air and in four airports (Baltimore, Detroit, Salt Lake City and Oakland), we finally arrived in California, complete with luggage. We had tight connections and delayed flights - in Salt Lake City we had 15 minutes from the time we deplaned at one end of the airport until our connection was scheduled to depart from the other end - and due to overbooking our carry-on luggage wouldn't fit in the cabin and had to be checked through, and we had not time to buy meals in the airports and no meals were served on the planes, but we made it. I will never again wonder about Paula bringing "just-in-case" food in her purse.
On the shuttle to the airport we met a very friendly Southwest Airlines pilot who was staying in the same motel. He warned us not to try to walk to a restaurant, so we ordered a pizza and shared it and conversation with him. He seemed very interested when we told him of the healings that we saw in the revival services last week, and said he would love to see something like that - he has had very little experience with church. We will be praying for him.
Due to the three hour time difference, Paula and I went to bed around 7:30pm and awoke at 4:30am. The RV folks won't pick us up until around 10:00am, so we have had several hours to just sit in the room. That could sound very dull, but in fact it's very nice. Between reading, napping, and surfing the net, we are finding it very relaxing already, and we aren't even out of the motel! There really is something to be said for getting away from everyday responsibilities - I guess that's the main "musing" for today. I tried a "stay-cation" for two weeks in June, taking vacation time but staying at home, and while it was nice, it really wasn't what we needed. This two weeks in the mountains and along the Pacific coast, away from all normal responsibilities, promise to be wonderful. I guess God really knew what he was doing when he commanded us to take a rest day every week, and set up all those mandatory annual feasts in the Old Testament. They were basically big community barbeques when nobody worked and everybody ate. Some of them even required people to go to other cities or camp in tents for several days. A great idea from our loving God!
More the next time we have internet access. Blessings from vacation!
On the shuttle to the airport we met a very friendly Southwest Airlines pilot who was staying in the same motel. He warned us not to try to walk to a restaurant, so we ordered a pizza and shared it and conversation with him. He seemed very interested when we told him of the healings that we saw in the revival services last week, and said he would love to see something like that - he has had very little experience with church. We will be praying for him.
Due to the three hour time difference, Paula and I went to bed around 7:30pm and awoke at 4:30am. The RV folks won't pick us up until around 10:00am, so we have had several hours to just sit in the room. That could sound very dull, but in fact it's very nice. Between reading, napping, and surfing the net, we are finding it very relaxing already, and we aren't even out of the motel! There really is something to be said for getting away from everyday responsibilities - I guess that's the main "musing" for today. I tried a "stay-cation" for two weeks in June, taking vacation time but staying at home, and while it was nice, it really wasn't what we needed. This two weeks in the mountains and along the Pacific coast, away from all normal responsibilities, promise to be wonderful. I guess God really knew what he was doing when he commanded us to take a rest day every week, and set up all those mandatory annual feasts in the Old Testament. They were basically big community barbeques when nobody worked and everybody ate. Some of them even required people to go to other cities or camp in tents for several days. A great idea from our loving God!
More the next time we have internet access. Blessings from vacation!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
People Were Being Healed All Over the Place
You had to be there to believe it. People were being instantly, miraculously healed all over the church.
During special services last Friday and Saturday nights, and after the two regular Sunday morning services, at least twenty people I can identify personally received what John Wimber used to cautiously call “significant symptomatic abatement” immediately after receiving healing prayer. Many more from other churches reported being healed as well.
I haven’t contacted anyone for permission to use their names, but anyone familiar with Trinity Church can identify most of these folks.
One woman had not been able to kneel for ten years. After prayer, she was kneeling at the altar and rejoicing.
Another woman well into retirement age suffered from stress fractures and compression in her back. After prayer she was not only pain free, but touched her toes! – something she had not been able to do, in her words, “for a long time.”
At least three people came into the meeting with one leg shorter than the other. We watched as the legs grew out to the same length in front of our eyes. One reported the next day that it was the first time in years that she had been able to finish a worship service in normal shoes without her feet hurting.
A woman was healed of a deviated septum – she kept going around sniffing to demonstrate!
A woman had broken her wrist some time before and it had healed into a “frozen” position, unable to pivot back and forth. After prayer it had the same range of motion as before it was broken.
A woman I have known very well for a long time wore hearing aids in both ears, and had been almost completely deaf in one ear. After prayer she regained her hearing in both ears without hearing aids.
These are just some of the amazing things God did for us.
For me, perhaps the most exciting thing about it was that Dan Mohler, the Pennsylvania Bible teacher who led the meetings (www.neckministries.org), did not personally pray for most of them. Instead, he led the ordinary members of the church to pray for each other. It was their prayers that resulted in these healings.
In fact, one man was part of a group praying for a woman’s back and neck pain. She received healing. Then the man noticed that his own back no longer hurt. When he told me about it I asked how long he had suffered from the back pain. He said, “Ever since childhood” – which would mean about fifty years!
Jesus said, “Those who believe in me will do the same things that I do, and even greater things” (John 14:12), and, “These signs shall follow those who believe . . . they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18). This weekend proved that those promises are still good. True, not everyone received immediate healing, but that does not invalidate what did happen.
Our task now is not to let this become something we look back on as an exciting event that happened once, but as the beginning of a new exciting ongoing ministry. I am open to ideas for how we as a church can encourage each other in stepping out in this ministry, not only in church services, but everywhere we meet people in need. I also urge you not to wait for the church to come up with some program. Go pray for someone!
God is good, God is faithful, God doesn’t change. There are people in need all around us. Let’s go out and demonstrate God’s love and power.
During special services last Friday and Saturday nights, and after the two regular Sunday morning services, at least twenty people I can identify personally received what John Wimber used to cautiously call “significant symptomatic abatement” immediately after receiving healing prayer. Many more from other churches reported being healed as well.
I haven’t contacted anyone for permission to use their names, but anyone familiar with Trinity Church can identify most of these folks.
One woman had not been able to kneel for ten years. After prayer, she was kneeling at the altar and rejoicing.
Another woman well into retirement age suffered from stress fractures and compression in her back. After prayer she was not only pain free, but touched her toes! – something she had not been able to do, in her words, “for a long time.”
At least three people came into the meeting with one leg shorter than the other. We watched as the legs grew out to the same length in front of our eyes. One reported the next day that it was the first time in years that she had been able to finish a worship service in normal shoes without her feet hurting.
A woman was healed of a deviated septum – she kept going around sniffing to demonstrate!
A woman had broken her wrist some time before and it had healed into a “frozen” position, unable to pivot back and forth. After prayer it had the same range of motion as before it was broken.
A woman I have known very well for a long time wore hearing aids in both ears, and had been almost completely deaf in one ear. After prayer she regained her hearing in both ears without hearing aids.
These are just some of the amazing things God did for us.
For me, perhaps the most exciting thing about it was that Dan Mohler, the Pennsylvania Bible teacher who led the meetings (www.neckministries.org), did not personally pray for most of them. Instead, he led the ordinary members of the church to pray for each other. It was their prayers that resulted in these healings.
In fact, one man was part of a group praying for a woman’s back and neck pain. She received healing. Then the man noticed that his own back no longer hurt. When he told me about it I asked how long he had suffered from the back pain. He said, “Ever since childhood” – which would mean about fifty years!
Jesus said, “Those who believe in me will do the same things that I do, and even greater things” (John 14:12), and, “These signs shall follow those who believe . . . they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18). This weekend proved that those promises are still good. True, not everyone received immediate healing, but that does not invalidate what did happen.
Our task now is not to let this become something we look back on as an exciting event that happened once, but as the beginning of a new exciting ongoing ministry. I am open to ideas for how we as a church can encourage each other in stepping out in this ministry, not only in church services, but everywhere we meet people in need. I also urge you not to wait for the church to come up with some program. Go pray for someone!
God is good, God is faithful, God doesn’t change. There are people in need all around us. Let’s go out and demonstrate God’s love and power.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Alone Time With God
It’s been a couple weeks since I wrote anything on this blog. I have a good excuse, I really do.
Two weeks ago I took four days to backpack into the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area of West Virginia to spend some alone time with God. The next week Paula took five days to go to a silent retreat at a Trappist Monastery to spend some alone time with God. I’m not quite sure how Paula’s absence that second week kept me from writing my blog, but somehow it seemed to.
But what I want to talk about is alone time with God. It’s absolutely vital, and in our modern society it’s very hard to get enough of it.
Of course, it doesn’t need to be four or five days at a time. A little time every day, a little more time once a week, can make a huge difference.
Writer Henri Nouwen tells of the time he visited Mother Teresa. He spent quite some time telling her all the concerns he had about his life and his spirituality. Her response was simply this: “Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything which you know is wrong, you will be fine.”
Wow!
The first part reminds me of St. John of the Cross, who would spend hours just “gazing.”The second part reminds me of John Wesley’s definition of Christian perfection: to reach a place where you are not aware of committing any known sin, and everything you do is done in love. Put them together and I think Mother Teresa was on to something.
Paula told me a great phrase she came across on her retreat: Christians should seek to take what is implicit in Christianity, and make it explicit. What is implicit? God is love; God made us to love; when two people love each other, they love to be alone with each other. You make that explicit by getting alone with God.
It doesn’t have to be four or five days, it doesn’t have to be a wilderness or a monastery. It can be your car while you drive to work, if you can just turn off the radio. It can be your house before anyone else wakes up, if you can ignore the newspaper. It can be the church when nobody else is there. It can be your basement or back yard or a closet.
Wherever it’s just you and God is fine. Lovers find a way to sneak off someplace and be alone together. There’s no special way you have to do it. Just find a way, and get alone with God. And listen.
Two weeks ago I took four days to backpack into the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area of West Virginia to spend some alone time with God. The next week Paula took five days to go to a silent retreat at a Trappist Monastery to spend some alone time with God. I’m not quite sure how Paula’s absence that second week kept me from writing my blog, but somehow it seemed to.
But what I want to talk about is alone time with God. It’s absolutely vital, and in our modern society it’s very hard to get enough of it.
Of course, it doesn’t need to be four or five days at a time. A little time every day, a little more time once a week, can make a huge difference.
Writer Henri Nouwen tells of the time he visited Mother Teresa. He spent quite some time telling her all the concerns he had about his life and his spirituality. Her response was simply this: “Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything which you know is wrong, you will be fine.”
Wow!
The first part reminds me of St. John of the Cross, who would spend hours just “gazing.”The second part reminds me of John Wesley’s definition of Christian perfection: to reach a place where you are not aware of committing any known sin, and everything you do is done in love. Put them together and I think Mother Teresa was on to something.
Paula told me a great phrase she came across on her retreat: Christians should seek to take what is implicit in Christianity, and make it explicit. What is implicit? God is love; God made us to love; when two people love each other, they love to be alone with each other. You make that explicit by getting alone with God.
It doesn’t have to be four or five days, it doesn’t have to be a wilderness or a monastery. It can be your car while you drive to work, if you can just turn off the radio. It can be your house before anyone else wakes up, if you can ignore the newspaper. It can be the church when nobody else is there. It can be your basement or back yard or a closet.
Wherever it’s just you and God is fine. Lovers find a way to sneak off someplace and be alone together. There’s no special way you have to do it. Just find a way, and get alone with God. And listen.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Not Everybody Connects With God the Same Way
Twice a month, 12-15 people gather at our house to learn how better to recognize and experience and follow the Holy Spirit. We call the group "Flowing in the Spirit." We met this past Sunday and I'd like to share a little of it with you.
The conversation was around the different ways in which different people most easily experience the presence of God. One of the books I’m reading is Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas, who also wrote Sacred Marriage (“What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”). He points out that many people feel frustrated or even guilty because the ways in which they are advised to grow closer to God don’t seem to work for them. For instance, we are often told that to grow closer to God, we just need to lock ourselves away in our prayer closet for longer and longer periods of time each day. Thomas says this works great for some people, but not at all for others, and it’s not a problem with those others, it’s just that God made them differently.
This was illustrated by the group discussion. Among the ten or so people there (several were away, it being August), we identified at least five or six different main ways in which different ones of us connect with God.
After that discussion, I briefly outlined the nine ways Thomas has identified as how different people connect with God. Then we made a two-part assignment for next time, which will be Aug. 23. The assignment is:
• Try a new way of connecting with God. Pick one of the below that you haven’t done much or at all, and try it.
• Think about what “connecting with God” means to you. How do you know if you have connected with God? What are the signs? How can you tell which of the below works best for you – and what does that mean, “works best?”
Here are Thomas’ nine pathways, very briefly summarized. For a more detailed discussion see the book.
1. Naturalists: don’t need buildings, books or bands. Learn about God from watching nature, feel close to God by being in nature.
2. Sensates: experience and love God through their five senses. Want to be lost in the awe, beauty and splendor of God. In worship, they want their senses to be filled with sights, sounds, smells, feelings, tastes. Love intricate architecture, stained glass, classical music, formal language, even incense and the feel of kneeling or holy water.
3. Traditionalists: love God through ritual and symbol and sacraments. May have a very disciplined life of faith, they like structure, they may not like change to the way they do things in church.
4. Ascetics: love God in solitude and simplicity. They want nothing more than to be left alone with God in prayer, without pictures or music or liturgy to distract them. Their worship is primarily internal.
5. Activists: love and worship God through their actions. These actions are often confrontational, standing for God against evil and calling sinners to repentance. They may experience God most deeply as they lobby or picket or march for a cause. They see church as a place to recharge their batteries for the real worship which takes place out in the world.
6. Caregivers: love and worship God by taking care of other people, like Mother Teresa.
7. Enthusiasts: love and express God with mystery and celebration, clapping and shouting “Amen” and dancing. May feel they haven’t worshiped if they aren’t experiencing and feeling and being moved by God’s presence.
8. Contemplatives: love God through adoration. May often refer to God as their lover, and use images of a loving Father and Bridegroom. Focus is not on understanding or serving God, but loving God as purely and deeply as possible.
9. Intellectuals: love and worship God best when studying the Bible or grappling with theological concepts. They may feel closest to God when they first understand something new about him.
For most people, one or a combination of a few of these feel very natural and good, and some others don’t help at all. Others are more able to experience God in a variety of these ways. I personally feel that one way of measuring our spiritual growth is by our increasing ability to worship in different ways. It is good to try different ways just to see if one works for you that you never tried, but it is also important to recognize that none of these ways of approaching or worshiping God is more or less spiritual than any of the others. In other words, individuals or denominations that focus on social action in serving God are neither more nor less spiritual, by that fact, than those that focus on silent prayer or doctrinal understanding. Structured liturgical worship is not necessarily more or less spiritual than free-flowing charismatic worship. We need to encourage and support each other in all of these.
I'd love for anyone reading this blog to join us at our next gathering - just email me for details. But whether you can or not, I want to encourage you: if you just haven't seemed to be able to get the hang of connecting with God, try a new way. God for sure wants to connect with you!
The conversation was around the different ways in which different people most easily experience the presence of God. One of the books I’m reading is Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas, who also wrote Sacred Marriage (“What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”). He points out that many people feel frustrated or even guilty because the ways in which they are advised to grow closer to God don’t seem to work for them. For instance, we are often told that to grow closer to God, we just need to lock ourselves away in our prayer closet for longer and longer periods of time each day. Thomas says this works great for some people, but not at all for others, and it’s not a problem with those others, it’s just that God made them differently.
This was illustrated by the group discussion. Among the ten or so people there (several were away, it being August), we identified at least five or six different main ways in which different ones of us connect with God.
After that discussion, I briefly outlined the nine ways Thomas has identified as how different people connect with God. Then we made a two-part assignment for next time, which will be Aug. 23. The assignment is:
• Try a new way of connecting with God. Pick one of the below that you haven’t done much or at all, and try it.
• Think about what “connecting with God” means to you. How do you know if you have connected with God? What are the signs? How can you tell which of the below works best for you – and what does that mean, “works best?”
Here are Thomas’ nine pathways, very briefly summarized. For a more detailed discussion see the book.
1. Naturalists: don’t need buildings, books or bands. Learn about God from watching nature, feel close to God by being in nature.
2. Sensates: experience and love God through their five senses. Want to be lost in the awe, beauty and splendor of God. In worship, they want their senses to be filled with sights, sounds, smells, feelings, tastes. Love intricate architecture, stained glass, classical music, formal language, even incense and the feel of kneeling or holy water.
3. Traditionalists: love God through ritual and symbol and sacraments. May have a very disciplined life of faith, they like structure, they may not like change to the way they do things in church.
4. Ascetics: love God in solitude and simplicity. They want nothing more than to be left alone with God in prayer, without pictures or music or liturgy to distract them. Their worship is primarily internal.
5. Activists: love and worship God through their actions. These actions are often confrontational, standing for God against evil and calling sinners to repentance. They may experience God most deeply as they lobby or picket or march for a cause. They see church as a place to recharge their batteries for the real worship which takes place out in the world.
6. Caregivers: love and worship God by taking care of other people, like Mother Teresa.
7. Enthusiasts: love and express God with mystery and celebration, clapping and shouting “Amen” and dancing. May feel they haven’t worshiped if they aren’t experiencing and feeling and being moved by God’s presence.
8. Contemplatives: love God through adoration. May often refer to God as their lover, and use images of a loving Father and Bridegroom. Focus is not on understanding or serving God, but loving God as purely and deeply as possible.
9. Intellectuals: love and worship God best when studying the Bible or grappling with theological concepts. They may feel closest to God when they first understand something new about him.
For most people, one or a combination of a few of these feel very natural and good, and some others don’t help at all. Others are more able to experience God in a variety of these ways. I personally feel that one way of measuring our spiritual growth is by our increasing ability to worship in different ways. It is good to try different ways just to see if one works for you that you never tried, but it is also important to recognize that none of these ways of approaching or worshiping God is more or less spiritual than any of the others. In other words, individuals or denominations that focus on social action in serving God are neither more nor less spiritual, by that fact, than those that focus on silent prayer or doctrinal understanding. Structured liturgical worship is not necessarily more or less spiritual than free-flowing charismatic worship. We need to encourage and support each other in all of these.
I'd love for anyone reading this blog to join us at our next gathering - just email me for details. But whether you can or not, I want to encourage you: if you just haven't seemed to be able to get the hang of connecting with God, try a new way. God for sure wants to connect with you!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Kayak Camping the Outer Banks
Recently my son Jed emailed me with an invitation. Could I break away and meet him in the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina for a couple days of kayaking and camping?
When your grown son, who is in the Army and lives 800 miles away, extends an invitation like that, you do whatever it takes to make it happen. I loaded the kayaks on the car, he got in his truck, and we met in Havelock, NC.
The next day we put into the water at the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center, he in the 15-foot sea kayak, I in my very impressive 8-foot flat-water yacht, which I have named “The Brain of Pooh,” after Pooh Bear’s honey jar boat. We had our camping gear, 5 gallons of Gatorade, and 3 gallons of water. Camping at CLNS is primitive, with no water or other facilities most places.
The weather was beautiful, the water warm, the breeze brisk. It was glorious – at high tide. Unfortunately, most of the times when we needed to land or depart it was low tide. That meant dragging the kayaks across grass and mud and shallows, sinking sometimes to our knees. When we could float, the breeze was often so stiff that we had a hard time keeping our course. (My kayak has no rudder, and Jed’s legs are so long he couldn’t use the pedals on his.) At one point we found ourselves towing the boats through sharp-edged cord grass up to our knees, then carrying our camping gear several hundred yards across Core Bank through marsh grasses up to our eyes. We felt like Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in “African Queen.”
The real excitement, though, happened the first night. We had set up camp on the sound side of Shackleford Bank. After a yummy meal of canned chili, canned potatoes, and canned peas all mixed together (kayak camping is different from backpacking in that the emphasis is on bulk, not weight), we watched the fire die, the sun go down, the wild horses wander and the beach come alive with thousands of fiddler crabs. Then I started toward where I had laid out my sleeping bag. As I walked toward it, my headlamp trained just ahead of my foot, the beam of light suddenly illuminated a textbook example of a copperhead snake – one of the most poisonous snakes in North America.
Jed verified that was what it was, and while he kept the beam of light on the snake (which wasn’t at all worried by our presence), I carefully removed my sleeping gear. We retreated to the other side of the point and slept on the sand just above the high tide line. Perhaps surprisingly, I had no trouble at all falling asleep.
What are the odds that I would choose to go up to bed just as the snake chose to come to that same place? What are the odds that it would be just where my headlamp shone, at just the time that I shone it? What are the odds that I would have, a few days earlier, decided to buy a headlamp to take with me, rather than the tiny squeeze light I usually used? What are the odds that I would have bothered to use the lamp instead of my normal practice of moving around camp by moonlight? Had any of those things not happened just so, I could easily have stepped on that poisonous snake, or gone to bed only to find it already nestled in my sleeping bag. And we were a two hour night-time paddle from help.
Statistically, the way you calculate a combination of odds is that you multiply the individual odds together. Multiplying the odds against all those things happening just as they did, the result is either an astronomical coincidence, or answered prayer. I firmly believe it was the latter, because I had bathed the whole trip in prayers, for guidance, good weather, fun, and especially protection. Maybe that's why I was able to go to sleep so easily.
I actually used that experience as a sermon illustration this past Sunday, in a sermon I had already planned to preach, called “Deliver Us from Evil.” (You can download an audio podcast of it from trinityannapolis.org.) We don’t often hear about how to pray prayers of protection, but it is a very practical thing to know and do.
I’d rather not go through something like that every time I need a sermon illustration. But God is good, and God answers prayers. And kayaking the Outer Banks is a lot of fun!
When your grown son, who is in the Army and lives 800 miles away, extends an invitation like that, you do whatever it takes to make it happen. I loaded the kayaks on the car, he got in his truck, and we met in Havelock, NC.
The next day we put into the water at the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center, he in the 15-foot sea kayak, I in my very impressive 8-foot flat-water yacht, which I have named “The Brain of Pooh,” after Pooh Bear’s honey jar boat. We had our camping gear, 5 gallons of Gatorade, and 3 gallons of water. Camping at CLNS is primitive, with no water or other facilities most places.
The weather was beautiful, the water warm, the breeze brisk. It was glorious – at high tide. Unfortunately, most of the times when we needed to land or depart it was low tide. That meant dragging the kayaks across grass and mud and shallows, sinking sometimes to our knees. When we could float, the breeze was often so stiff that we had a hard time keeping our course. (My kayak has no rudder, and Jed’s legs are so long he couldn’t use the pedals on his.) At one point we found ourselves towing the boats through sharp-edged cord grass up to our knees, then carrying our camping gear several hundred yards across Core Bank through marsh grasses up to our eyes. We felt like Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in “African Queen.”
The real excitement, though, happened the first night. We had set up camp on the sound side of Shackleford Bank. After a yummy meal of canned chili, canned potatoes, and canned peas all mixed together (kayak camping is different from backpacking in that the emphasis is on bulk, not weight), we watched the fire die, the sun go down, the wild horses wander and the beach come alive with thousands of fiddler crabs. Then I started toward where I had laid out my sleeping bag. As I walked toward it, my headlamp trained just ahead of my foot, the beam of light suddenly illuminated a textbook example of a copperhead snake – one of the most poisonous snakes in North America.
Jed verified that was what it was, and while he kept the beam of light on the snake (which wasn’t at all worried by our presence), I carefully removed my sleeping gear. We retreated to the other side of the point and slept on the sand just above the high tide line. Perhaps surprisingly, I had no trouble at all falling asleep.
What are the odds that I would choose to go up to bed just as the snake chose to come to that same place? What are the odds that it would be just where my headlamp shone, at just the time that I shone it? What are the odds that I would have, a few days earlier, decided to buy a headlamp to take with me, rather than the tiny squeeze light I usually used? What are the odds that I would have bothered to use the lamp instead of my normal practice of moving around camp by moonlight? Had any of those things not happened just so, I could easily have stepped on that poisonous snake, or gone to bed only to find it already nestled in my sleeping bag. And we were a two hour night-time paddle from help.
Statistically, the way you calculate a combination of odds is that you multiply the individual odds together. Multiplying the odds against all those things happening just as they did, the result is either an astronomical coincidence, or answered prayer. I firmly believe it was the latter, because I had bathed the whole trip in prayers, for guidance, good weather, fun, and especially protection. Maybe that's why I was able to go to sleep so easily.
I actually used that experience as a sermon illustration this past Sunday, in a sermon I had already planned to preach, called “Deliver Us from Evil.” (You can download an audio podcast of it from trinityannapolis.org.) We don’t often hear about how to pray prayers of protection, but it is a very practical thing to know and do.
I’d rather not go through something like that every time I need a sermon illustration. But God is good, and God answers prayers. And kayaking the Outer Banks is a lot of fun!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Lesson from a Church Auction
This Saturday is our church yard sale to raise funds to help our sister church in Turkey buy land for a building. Church yard sales tend to remind me of something that happened our first year or two in the ministry.
The tradition in the Mount Airy, Maryland area, where Prospect United Methodist Church is located, was to have auctions rather than yard sales. At an entry-level pastor’s salary, we were very limited in what we could buy even at church auction prices. But that evening, after everyone had gone home, Paula and I walked across the street from the parsonage to look around at what had been left behind for the trash collector.
That’s when Paula saw the bed frame , and old wooden headboard and footboard and side rails. It was in such poor shape that nobody was willing to pay fifty cents and carry it away. I agreed with them. But Paula saw something in it that I couldn’t see. She kept exclaiming about how beautiful it was. So, just to humor her, I carried it across the street to the parsonage.
Paula went to work with stripper and scraper and stain and polyurethane, and she created a wonderful transformation in that old bed. She scraped away the layers of dirt and grime and peeling finish, and brought out what that bed was originally created to be. And just as she said, it was beautiful. Nuances of texture and grain and color just shone.
We really didn’t have room for another bed in the parsonage, so the next time we visited Paula’s parents on their farm in Missouri we put it on top our old station wagon and took it out there. Her folks loved it, and every time we visited for the next decade or so, that’s the bed we slept in. Then when they moved to the city, we brought the bed back and now Joy sleeps in it. It’s still comfortable, and it’s still beautiful. I’m so glad Paula was able to see beyond the damage of years to see what it could become.
And I’m so glad God sees beyond the damage of years to see what we can become. When our mistakes and bad decisions and downright sins have covered us with layers of gunk and grime and we feel like we’re not worth fifty cents, God still sees something in us. He wants to pick us up off the trash heap of life and clean us up and refinish us and make us beautiful and useful. The only difference between us and that old bed is that once Paula decided, the bed didn’t have any choice. We do. But I’ll tell you what: let God have his way with you. Standing strong and beautiful in a nice bedroom is so much nicer than rotting in the county landfill.
The tradition in the Mount Airy, Maryland area, where Prospect United Methodist Church is located, was to have auctions rather than yard sales. At an entry-level pastor’s salary, we were very limited in what we could buy even at church auction prices. But that evening, after everyone had gone home, Paula and I walked across the street from the parsonage to look around at what had been left behind for the trash collector.
That’s when Paula saw the bed frame , and old wooden headboard and footboard and side rails. It was in such poor shape that nobody was willing to pay fifty cents and carry it away. I agreed with them. But Paula saw something in it that I couldn’t see. She kept exclaiming about how beautiful it was. So, just to humor her, I carried it across the street to the parsonage.
Paula went to work with stripper and scraper and stain and polyurethane, and she created a wonderful transformation in that old bed. She scraped away the layers of dirt and grime and peeling finish, and brought out what that bed was originally created to be. And just as she said, it was beautiful. Nuances of texture and grain and color just shone.
We really didn’t have room for another bed in the parsonage, so the next time we visited Paula’s parents on their farm in Missouri we put it on top our old station wagon and took it out there. Her folks loved it, and every time we visited for the next decade or so, that’s the bed we slept in. Then when they moved to the city, we brought the bed back and now Joy sleeps in it. It’s still comfortable, and it’s still beautiful. I’m so glad Paula was able to see beyond the damage of years to see what it could become.
And I’m so glad God sees beyond the damage of years to see what we can become. When our mistakes and bad decisions and downright sins have covered us with layers of gunk and grime and we feel like we’re not worth fifty cents, God still sees something in us. He wants to pick us up off the trash heap of life and clean us up and refinish us and make us beautiful and useful. The only difference between us and that old bed is that once Paula decided, the bed didn’t have any choice. We do. But I’ll tell you what: let God have his way with you. Standing strong and beautiful in a nice bedroom is so much nicer than rotting in the county landfill.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
