Six Years Later

I must admit that, until watching the 10 o'clock news last night, I almost forgot the significance of today. I guess this is what happens as time goes on--wounds heal and life continues. But any one of us can think back to six years ago and we can remember exactly what we were doing when we found out.

I was a CPE student at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and had just arrived at the hospital when the first plane hit. I remember everything about that day in great detail. But six years later, life goes on and the world seems much different now than it did then. I think this is not just because of that tragedy, but because of other world crises like Iraq and Darfur (just to name a few).

I am thinking about September 11 in light of one of the Lectionary texts for this week: Luke 15: 1-10 (the Parables about the Lost Sheep and the Woman and the Lost coin). I have been meditating on this idea of "one"--what does it mean to be the one who is lost and/or the one who is found. It seems foolish to leave the 99 sheep unattended or the abandon everything to go off in search of one lost coin.

When we are among the 99, it is tempting to think that the one does not matter. But consider these words from Leonard Sweet in his book The Gospel According to Starbucks: "For now, though, think of the power of one even without God. Think of Hitler, or Stalin, or Mao. It didn't take them hundreds of years to produce their own holocausts. It took only one lifetime for Mao to end the lives of well over seventy million in China. Not to mention Pinochet, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and other twentieth-century tyrants. It only takes one. Small is the new large." (10)

The one does matter. Six years later, I am more aware of the power of one person to reap death and destruction on innocent lives. We should heed Jesus' words this week, not only because they remind us to be hospitable to those we view as "outsiders," but also because we are (like it or not) interconnect to all of God's creatures.

We should heed Jesus' words this week because when the one is lost, we are all lost.

Journey on...

Friday's Five

Sally at revgalblogpals writes: "I am preparing this Friday 5 just before I take Chris into hospital for a cardioversion, right now we are all a little apprehensive. But this whole thing has got me thinking, so many of us are overcomers in one way or another, so many have amazing stories to tell of God's faithfulness in adversity. And so I bring you this Friday 5:"

1.Have you experienced God's faithfulness at a difficult time? Tell as much or as little as you like...
Oh my goodness...there have been several times when God's faithfulness has brought me through difficulty. I think the most painful was when I was 23 and my fiance broke off our engagement just 2 months before the wedding. I didn't know then that it was the best thing--that someone for me was waiting out there--all I knew was that I felt crushed. It was a hard situation because we were both in Seminary and both living in the same Seminary housing complex, so I could not get away. The stress of the situation exacerbated a neurological condition that I have--dystonia--causing my head to shake and get stuck in a posturing position.

I think that was a time in my life when I felt just utterly miserable.

2. Have you experienced a dark night of the soul, if so what brought you through?
I think that breakup threw me into the dark night of the soul. The three things that brought me through: faith, family and wonderful friends.

3. Share a Bible verse, song, poem that has brought you comfort?
Psalm 121 was a Biblical balm. The words to the Indigo Girls song Ghost became my lament.

4. Is "why suffering" a valid question?
I don't know if it is a "logical" question, but it seems to be primal. We naturally ask "why?" so there must be some reason for it.

5. And on a lighter note- you have reached the end of a dark and difficult time- how are you going to celebrate?
About 5 years after that breakup, I decided to do something positive in my life. So I joined the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Program and ran my 1st marathon--and it was through that experience that I met the love of my life.

Journey on....

The Tyranny of Distance

I turned on the TV just briefly the other day to catch the middle of a program on PBS. All I got was that it was a program about the US military doing humanitarian work for the people in the Mohave Desert (with the hopes of befriending them and gaining information from them about potential terrorists moving through the area).

The cinematography was stunning. The initial picture that came up was of this solitary mud hut with maybe 5 people standing in and around it. The hut was engulfed in the lower frame by desert and in the top by an almost cloudless sky. The military official interviewed spoke about the "tyranny distance" in that place--the fact that people are so isolated that part of what the military brings is not only glasses and other needed supplies, but some kind of contact from elsewhere to confirm that elsewhere does exist.

I heard someone say that when they visited Texas, they thought surely the sun would touch the ground. I thought maybe they were talking about the fact that there are more hours of daylight in Texas than Washington during the winter months. But thinking on it now, though Texas is dotted with large cities and innumerable ranches in between, it is mostly flat. There is not a lot to break up the scenery, so it does appear (especially in the Coastal Plains near my home) that the sun will literally touch the ground.

I personally have always loved the mountains and now I wonder if part of that love comes from the fact that glorious mountains break up the scenery...glorious mountains dispel the tyranny of distance by drawing our gaze upward. When I look at the mountains, I can't help but think of God.

I do enjoy going back home and seeing those Coastal Plains--they remind me that somewhere out there where the sky and the ground meet, is someone else, some place else where people live and breath, have joys and sorrows just like you and me.

But for now, I will take the mountains that point my gaze to the God who gives breath and life...to the God who lives in our joys and carries us through our sorrows.

Journey on...

Some more thoughts on the Lectionary

In a Sunday sermon, it is hard to cover all the ground sometimes that could be covered. For yesterday's sermon, I chose Luke 14: 1-14 (I included the middle part the lectionary leaves out). I focused on vs. 11: "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

One question that I didn't get to develop too much is this: what does it truly mean to be humble? Merriam-Webster provides the following definitions: "1. not proud or haughty; not arrogant or assertive; 2. reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission; 3.) ranking low in a hierarchy or scale."

I'm pretty much okay with all of these definitions, but I have some issues with "not assertive." If it is not being assertive in an arrogant way, that is one thing; but, too often humility becomes synonymous with non-assertiveness in Christianity and that causes issues.

Brian Stoffrengen in his Exegetical Notes at Crossmarks deals with the difficulties of the word "humble/humility." He describes how, too often, the word humble becomes synonymous with being nice. "Humility becomes being passive. Letting others walk all over us. Jesus shows by his life that being humble didn't mean being passive, but, when necessary, it meant taking out the whip and driving the self-centered bullies out of the temple."

There are times when, as Christians, we are called to be assertive. We should never be arrogant in our expressions, but we should also never let others walk all over us. Some food for thought.

Journey on....