Wisely and Well

Yesterday's pre-sunrise at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Moody Marsh, Maine.

“What is life? You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears."—James 4:14

Some days, you really notice. You notice that it seemed only five minutes ago that you woke up and sipped your first coffee and here it is 5 p.m. already. Where did the day go? And by the way, weren’t we just shoveling out from 37 inches of snow, so how did we get to yard work and black flies already?

Yesterday, “really notice” happened again. While walking down to the beach to catch the sun rising over the Atlantic, I passed a blanket of cool mist that was hung beautifully over the relatively mild marsh (pictured). Some of it was still there when I came by again about a half-hour later, but much of it had quickly become just a beautiful memory. Life had moved on.

It’s all a reminder, as the psalmist realized, to regularly ask God not in a scary way, “let me know how fleeting is my life” (Psalm 39:4), and perhaps in a more intentional way, “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Or, as one translation emphatically puts it, “Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well!”

And maybe the best way to do that is to remember what it’s like being a kid and a parent…

Both of my children are now quite adult and in their mid-30s, but I still get people asking “how are your kids?” I catch myself calling them the same thing, too, and it’s probably because God has engrained that timeless concept deep into our DNA. After all, regardless of our age, God still lovingly calls us who believe His kids, too: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

Maybe because a child often looks to the parent first for every single need and then later in life for wisdom and counsel and guidance. The child may grow up and have a family of his or her own, but the parent is always just a call away. And a parent is always a parent, no matter how old the child is. Hardly a day goes by when the parent doesn’t pray for or think fondly about a child. A parent always wants to hear from the kids and longs to see them, and always wants the best for them. The door is always open and the light is always on.

And to think that we have the world’s most perfectly amazing Parent!

But while always never more than a breath away, God is no helicopter Dad—He has created us kids to learn from Him and then launch out and make our own mark in our corner of the world with our mist-like lives. To live "wisely and well." It could be one of a million beautiful, meaningful, even life-changing things. And it doesn't matter how young or old we are. But if it is only this, it will be enough …

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Hm and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” (Ephesians 5:1-2, Message)

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For vitamins beyond Sunday, see the Day Starter morning devotionals on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/renewchurchhancock

Rainy Days and Sundays

 

Main Street is beautifully sleepy this early Sunday morning.

“He shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing, like showers that water the earth.”—Psalm 72:6.

This morning was a reminder of the unrivaled peace that comes with walking in an early morning spring rain through a sleepy town that is typically teeming with activity.

Spring rains are special because, unlike any other time of year, they leap with new life after a long winter. And even downtown in the early morning, instead of the sound of traffic and construction and people’s voices, there is only the sound of rain on puddles and early-riser songbirds, the aroma of fresh earth (and a hint of coffee being brewed somewhere), and this mysterious but yet tangible sense that God is enjoying walking with you through all that He has made.

Just as many of the psalms talked of a king and his dominion, and his family tree reigning forever, so the early church often saw in scripture types and shadows of God and His Son walking with them through thick and thin. It was simply understood and seen for the learned and unlearned alike, especially since those first believers spent much of their day in the outdoors—on rainy Sundays and sunny Fridays, and every kind of weather in between. And as they read, and as they walked, they were reminded that they could see a glimpse of the King and His Son wherever they went…

They just had to remember to look.

Psalm 72, for example, likens God’s nature and character to the beauty of nature that’s all around us, pointing to never-failing characteristics like the faithfulness of the sun and moon, the refreshing of rain showers, and a presence that goes with us wherever we go, from sea to sea, from river to river, from desert to desert. There is much wisdom in those words, especially for us here in this beautiful corner of God’s world. As a sign in a local clothing store says, ”Better to be lost in the woods than in a maze of cubicles. Let's get outside.” Because when you get outdoors, even on a rainy spring Sunday morning, you get to “read” deep within your senses greater glimpses of the goodness of God that can’t be found in even the best book, podcast or song.

Take a walk and see for yourself. Look up, look all around. Feel the rain on your face. Breathe deeply the aromas of creation. Listen for songbirds, for the distant cry of a loon, and the rustling of branches in the wind. Remind yourself Who made all of this. And then in the peace, let your list of praise and gratitude begin and never end:

God, You are....Beautiful…Huge…Magnificent

Always active with every breeze

My rest and stillness seen in every starlit night

One who is supremely attentive to every detail, even of every hand-crafted lilac bud

Provider of all I need in every season

The true Promise of hope and resurrection seen in each spring

The One source of new and abundant life seen in each summer

Lover of each and every unique thing (and person) You have made, seen in the endless colors of fall

Present and good, 24/7, even through the silence of every long winter season

Beautiful Savior! Ruler of all nature! Lord of all the nations!

Son of God and Son of man!

Glory and honor, praise, adoration, now and forevermore be Thine!

"Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Note it. Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead He set before your eyes the things that He has made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that? Why, heaven and earth shout to you: 'God made me!’”—St. Augustine

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For vitamins beyond Sunday, see the Day Starter morning devotionals on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/renewchurchhancock

Peace Rising

Sunrise at the corner of Spring Road.

Risen!…The greatest day in history, the miracle of a new day, the moon shining at my back, songbirds and crows singing praise, the stillness, the smell of sweet earth, a view of the Wapack that takes your breath away. The ancient Celtic believers must have known a morning like this…

“Deep peace, pure white of the moon to you;

Deep peace, pure green of the grass to you;

Deep peace, pure brown of the earth to you;

Deep peace, pure blue of the sky to you;

Deep peace of the flowing air to you;

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you;

Deep peace of the shining stars to you…

Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.”

Checkout Line Awakening

Last night’s thunder and lightning have been replaced by this morning’s mighty rushing wind that is making the trees roar and setting the two ship’s bells in the backyard to dancing. Their joyful clanging is almost church-bell-like while reading an ancient Hebrew invitation on this first day of Holy Week: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Psalm 122:1) But their joyful clanging triggers another reminder: More than 2,000 years ago, Jesus showed up not just at synagogue but wherever His followers happened to be in their normal everyday life.

It's good to remember that He still loves to do that...

...Preoccupied with life and a bunch of to-dos on a rainy Good Friday morning not long ago, and wondering if anyone (including myself) had grasped the meaning of this day in history, something wonderfully jolting happened while standing, of all places, in the grocery store checkout line. It began with a rugged-looking workman in front of me who was carrying the surprising combination of a balloon presumably destined to be given to his child, and a pot of springtime for someone special in his life. But none of it was as surprising as his reply to the cheerful cashier's "Happy Friday, sir!"

"Thank you, and happy Good Friday to you...if you believe in all of that."

"Oh, I do! Happy Good Friday to you as well, sir."

Wow, people were actually talking Gospel things in public? In a grocery store, no less. And that was that, or so I thought. Until it was my turn to check out, and the cashier continued her train of thought as she scanned my items, then looking out the window at the dreary weather: "You know, I was just telling my husband this morning, every Good Friday, it seems to be like this. I don't think that's a coincidence, do you?"

Wait. Was this cashier opening the door to further conversation about the Good Friday I had nearly forgotten in all my preoccupation? And here? Where anyone and everyone could listen in, in a grocery store checkout line? How cool! And the door was opened, and the uplifting conversation went public. It’s easy to look for Jesus on Sunday mornings in “the house of the Lord” when God's people gather together. Easier still is to forget that...

... just as He burst forth from the tomb on that most glorious of mornings, Jesus still shows up in unlikely places by bursting in to our preoccupied everyday lives.

This was not the first time Jesus showed up at a grocery store checkout line. Something similar happened several years earlier during a different holiday....

Everyone was in a kind and festive mood, even though the line was long, and remarkably patient for day before Thanksgiving. The line seemed to be moving at a snail's pace—make that a frozen snail. Stores seem to love this. It's why they often display some of their most tempting goodies nearest the cash register, so that you check it all out while you're waiting for the snail to move. The marketing scheme worked. I scanned it all, because there was nothing else to do. But then looking up one of the shelves by the window, my eye caught a jolly figure standing outside the store with a red collection bucket and bell. 'Tis the season, after all, and I purposed to stop by on my way home. 

Fortunately, the people in front of me had only a couple of items, so I was out of the store faster than expected. As I headed to the bearded fellow with the red bucket and bell, I noticed a sign and easel had been set up next to the collection pot. Today was a special collection for a young local guy who had been seriously wounded while serving in Iraq. Instead of emptying my pocket of loose change as usual, without hesitation, I went to my billfold and pulled out dollar bills and stuffed them as best I could into the bucket. 

The jolly bearded gentleman handed out remembrance pins with a photo of the soldier on it, and as I started walking away, pinning the pin to my fleece, I suddenly—out of nowhere—felt a wave of tears trying to rise up. For sure, part of it was the emotion of being a dad, and thinking: "If it was my son, I'd give anything to make his world right again. Anything!" But then Divine revelation while, of all places, walking downtown: As I was making my way back to my car and asking God aloud about this strange reaction, almost immediately, I sensed Him speak in so many words: "This is how I feel about you, and for everyone you see around you right now, and in that grocery line. I have looked upon My kids, gravely wounded by sin, and I determined that I would give anything to make it right again. And I did.”

Right then and there, on a side street downtown, while walking and talking and doing the supposedly unimportant stuff of life, I celebrated Thanksgiving and Easter together in a moment that seemed far more significant and weighty than the goodness of what happens on any given Sunday morning....

... "You saved four dollars today. Thank you, and happy Easter!" And just as I was on that day several years ago, and thinking of the rugged workman with the balloon and his Good Friday sermon starter, I left the grocery store checkout line on that dreary Good Friday morning grateful all over again for the One who really matters in this life--no matter where I am.

And with it, renewed hope that no matter what kind of mess the world is in right now, God is still speaking to and through His kids today right in the middle of it all—in “the house of the Lord” on Sunday for sure, but perhaps most loudly and urgently in the streets, the daily grind, and in the grocery store checkout lines.

"This is my Father's world...He speaks to me everywhere."

—Hymn, by Maltbie D. Babcock