November Dates

This month is full of important dates, with Election Day passed, Veterans Day today, and Thanksgiving still to come. It’s really rather appropriate that Election Day and Veterans Day would fall so closely together. The ability to raise a voice is something that is not guaranteed world around. Voting that reflects changes of people in power, well surely you didn’t see the tanks rolling down the streets or barricades around blocks. No? Neither did I. It is easy for us to take this for granted, but it really should be recognized and celebrated.

This day was awaited with a flurry of final combat missions, hope, doubt and celebrations around the world. A change was coming on November 11 at 11 AM – the armistice in 1918 was made active. People took the idea of peace and started the hard work of rebuilding. There was rebuilding on all sides, structures in war torn areas, infrastructure, people to feed, and supplies to be gathered before winter hit in full force. There was also rebuilding slowly in the parts of families of veterans as they welcomed home loved ones. Time had not stood still for the veterans or their families. The changes that they would all have to adjust to were profound.

This war to end all wars was not the last. World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, Grenada Intervention, Persian Gulf War, Bosnia & Herzegovina Intervention, Afghanistan, Iraq – these places since that Armistice was signed are all reflections of where people have left their families and homes, traveled elsewhere in the name of peace.

To all of those who have served, to all of those families who have waited at home, to all who have returned home and to those who never will – thank you. Happy Veterans Day. 

Witness to Love in Action

I have been witness these last few weeks to wonderful examples of love in action.  By this, I mean someone taking an action to care for someone else, not for self-gain, but to help someone else gain.  In a time when it is much too easy to hear the news of crimes, agonies, collapsed dreams, wars being waged, and chaos; it is easy to wonder if any act of love by one person can make a difference today.

With that in mind, I wanted to encourage you the way I have been encouraged.  Last week I had the exhausting pleasure of helping at my church’s children’s camp (akin to a VBS).  My opportunity to serve was with the workers’ children who are too young to participate in camp.  There were many hands that went into making this week long camp function, and many chances to witness love in action.  Let me give a few examples… 

Everyone was hungry for snacks or a quick meal by the time the evening camp is about half over.  Each group of kids and leaders are so happy to see a cooler coming loaded with goodies and cold water.  The preparation of the coolers is love in action, taking time and work to plan, prepare, distribute everything, and clean up for the next day.  Food was served, but so was love.

Teenagers serve as big helps during the week, taking on everything from being gophers, extra hands during craft and game times, to members of the worship team.  Not only did I witness these individuals jump in to help, but also do so in such a way that made them examples to point children to, serving with cheerfulness.

“Jesus loves” is one of the games played by the children, as they would roll a ball to each other saying, “Jesus loves…” and then filled in the blank with the name.  Of course there was the glee over getting the ball.  But, there was also each little child trying to decide which friend to send the ball over with the announcement that Jesus loves them.  And, the receiver of the ball would just beam before starting the process again. 

There were many examples, and these comprise just a few, where small acts of love can be impactful in the lives of others.  Children were cared for, adults were encouraged, and a remarkable amount of love was poured into lives with prayers that it spills over in many ways and that these children will have a relationship with Christ – our ultimate source of love.

Keep an eye out – you never know when you might see love in action.

Dreams and Sacrifice

Tomorrow I plan to be sitting in a parking lot, surround by a crowd of people, enveloped in a cloud of bug spray and a sea of lawn chairs.  Tomorrow I plan to walk in a parade, listen to music, watch fireworks, and celebrate July Fourth.  This is not a day grounded in some flippant summer celebration, it’s one based in a purpose.  In the midst of these wonderful lawn chaired crowds having fun, it is easy to forget the purpose behind the celebration.  So, I want to pause with my celebratory activities for a moment to remember those founders of what would become the United States of America. 

Volumes of information have been written on those who started with a dream and a hypothetical situation.  We now celebrate the reality of what was the hypothetical, the blessing that came of the sacrifice.  These are the founders that defied the British government by forming a new government.  It is also the time to remember the founders made of farmers, towns-people, craftsman, merchants, and the future citizens of the country.  It is a time to remember that this is the celebration of a war fought, a war won.  It is a celebration to remember the sacrifices of those who crafted our founding documents, searching their minds and hearts of such words as “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and the Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”  The words, such as “May it be to the world, what I believe it will be ... the signal of arousing men to burst the chains ... and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form, which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. ... For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."  Words of power, strength, and purpose reflect an awareness of the importance of events that were at the heart of them. 

The words, the actions that made them more than empty words, still ring with purpose and validity today.  The words and actions were those of dreams, sacrifice, and putting the effort to change the hypothetical into the new reality.  We can still pull national strength from these efforts, as we face new dreams, and make new sacrifices.  I challenge each of us in the USA to realize that effective citizenship in such a place demands an awareness and continual seeking for future growth. 

                                                       Happy Independence Day!

Sacrifice of Praise & the Second Hand Smoke of Grumbling

“We bring the sacrifice of praise, unto the House of the Lord”…  Ever heard those words?  Sung those words?  I have. 

Yet, a sacrifice generally means giving something up.  What is it that I am giving up to praise God?  Well, right now it is grumbling.  I wrote earlier about the Israelites grumbling in their tents.  The thing about grumbling, after trying to go a week (unsuccessfully) without grumbling, is that it is rather addictive.  By the end of last week, I felt like someone who was trying to give up smoking by standing with the smokers instead of actually holding the cigarettes.  Stopping short of putting tape over my mouth, it was all I could do some days to not grumble. Sometimes, I probably should have put the tape over my mouth because I grumbled anyway. 

Not something easy to quit doing.  But, I will keep working on it. 

Is there something that you need to sacrifice to praise God?