The Puzzle

Once a great artist created a true work of beauty. He was ever so proud of his beautiful creation – the way the colors blended together, the way the images offered such perspective. One day this image was torn, through no fault of the artist. When he looked at how the image was torn, he thought to simply destroy the image and create a whole new one. Yet upon further reflection, he realized in a strange mysterious way, the torn piece could be put back together re-representing the original beauty. In fact, the tear even seemed to add character, so the artist proceeded to cut the original work into hundreds of different pieces of all shapes and sizes. He drew a simple image of the orignial so that someone else might be able to put all the pieces together – reassembling the original work of beauty. As he gazed upon the many different pieces, each one alone was a beautiful thing. Some of the pieces had a straight side, while others had many different contours and edges. Some were covered with the vibrant colors of the original image, others were covered with the dark shadows. Alone they were beautiful, but the image would never be complete until someone put all the pieces together again. So he placed the pieces all together in a box, and placed the copy of the original on top of the box, hoping that one day someone might recreate the original beauty.

Inside the box, the pieces became aware of themselves. Some began to notice that they had a nice, clean straight edge, while the others were just sloppy shapes. Those with the straight sides began to gather together, recognizing their own superiority to the other pieces. “This image would never be contained were it not for me!” proudly proclaimed one piece. Not to be outdone, a piece that consisted of curves and dips pronounced, “Yet without me, this image would have no heart!” Piece after piece exclaimed its own importance to the overall work of beauty, and day after day it became more and more obvious that the original work would never be recreated.

One day the artist’s son found the box. Seeing the beautiful image on the top of the box, the son opened it up – only to find all of the hundreds of pieces scattered about within the box. The son could see the work of beauty that his father intended, and so he set out to bring these broken, torn pieces back together. As he poured out the pieces upon the floor, he began sorting them so that he might begin to assemble the original creation. He first began to grab the pieces with the straight edges so that he might create the border. The straight edge pieces took such pride that they were chosen first. They linked together as he placed them, and they held together tightly, thinking to themselves, “I knew he would not want those sloppy pieces! He’s liked us best all along!” When the son had finished the border, he looked down at what he had put together. What he saw was the shape of what was originally intended: it held the basic form of the original, and the edges maintained the order of the original, but the beauty of the original was not found only in the border. Much to the horror of the straight edge pieces, the son began to take the “sloppy” pieces and he placed them with great care according to what he knew the original image was to look like. As the picture began to be recreated, each piece was able to maintain its own personal shape and size, but amazingly it became a part of something much more beautiful. The pieces with all of the curves and contours began to realize that while they held such beauty independently, together they formed the heart of the image. The straight edge pieces began to realize that while they maintained order and structure independently, together they completed something much, much greater. As the son placed the last piece, he realized that he had, in fact, recreated the very work of art that his father had first made.

Spreading Wings of Hope - Devotion for 5/11/09

Spreading Wings of Hope – Devotion for 5/11/09

I’m coming into the last week of the worship series “Hope in Troubled Times,” and without a doubt, sometimes I know I am preaching more to myself than anyone else. There are some Sundays that after the service I just say to God, “Ok, Big Guy – I know who I was preaching to today, and I sure I hope I was listening closely.” I think we all need hope, and it can become quite easy for any ray of hope to be covered up by the clouds of our troubles. But as we have been looking at the way God strengthened and directed Joshua, I have been reminded of how God strengthens and directs us. And I am reminded that many of the troubling things in our lives now will only later prove to be something miraculous.

You may have heard the ancient parable about the creation of birds. Its says that God laid at the feet of each bird a pair of wings and said, “Wear these.” The birds tried them on, but they felt heavy, cumbersome, and awkward. Why would God give them such burdens to carry? But then, in time, the wings became bearable and, with more time, the birds began to spread them in the wind. Eventually they realized that these burdens were in reality blessings that offered them the gift of flight.

As I was visiting just last week with a veteran of World War II, he was telling me about what it was like to storm the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Bullets whizzing, bombs blasting, and thousands of soldiers pressing onto the shore. He told about jumping into a foxhole with another soldier right behind him, and when it seemed safe he got out of the hole, but the other soldier had been killed. That night when he finally found a safe place, he found bullet marks on his helmet from the bullets that just missed. He found his rifle and radio on his back had been destroyed probably by shrapnel that could have hit him. And he found himself weary from the horrors of the day, so he lay himself down to sleep. As he laid there, he knew he was not the most comfortable, and it seemed that the ground he was laying on was both soft and hard at the same time, but he was so completely tired he didn’t move an inch. At morning light, as others were beginning to stir around him, he got himself up and looked down and saw what had made him so uncomfortable as he slept – an unexploded shell that he had slept on. As he relayed the story to me, he talked about how he still could not believe that he was not killed that night by the shell. He told me, “If I had tried in the night to move the thing that troubled me so, I probably would have triggered it and it would have killed me.” But instead, he endured the difficulty, the burden, and eventually was able to spread his wings of hope knowing and trusting that God would take care of him.

Sometimes the things that burden us and trouble us are the things that God has already taken care of. Sometimes those things that trouble are there to help produce something beautiful within us – hope, if you will, just like a pearl.

Where is God now? - Devotion for 5/7/09

Where is God now? – Devotion for 5/7/09

The week after Easter I was able to go with a mission work team from the church out to Beaumont, TX, where we were engaged in helping people recover from the damaging hurricanes Ike and Rita that hit last year. Though I’ve been a part of mission work teams for hurricane recover before, it has been several years, and I think that somehow as time goes by you seem to become anesthesitized to what you are seeing. Being there that week reminded me of how amazingly powerful nature can be. I think it all really hit home for me on our next to last day there when we had finished up the work that we had been assigned to do, and so we took a drive to Galveston to see the damage. Breathtaking is truly the best word I can think of to describe what I felt. For miles all you could see was pylons of where homes once stood. Half a mile or so from the road you could see cars that had been washed away and carried off. It simply looked like God had taken his arm and wiped the face of the earth in the same way that I may clean off the kitchen table after the boys have eaten. I can only begin to imagine how those people felt when they came back and saw what was left behind. It truly put my own troubles and difficulties into perspective.

I know that many times in those types of situations people will ask the question, “Where is God in all of this?” That being said, that very question is being asked right now by people near each and every one of us as we are facing such troubling times. Many people have attributed the suffering of so many in our country to what they deem as our country turning away from God. I’ve heard some remark that they think that God has abandoned the blessing of America because America has abandoned God. I really, really, really do not like that mode of thinking. Because I think that we can see God all around us in the middle of the difficult and trying times.

During the First World War, many of the battles were fought in muddy trenches, with soldiers looking through barbed-wire for their enemy, who was down in a muddy trench doing the same thing. Two particular soldiers were side by side, and as they surveyed the battlefield before them, they saw the barbed wire strewn about, they saw the mud holes, and the broken bodies of men. The younger soldier asked, “Captain, where is God in all of this?” At that moment, two non-combatant stretcher-bearers climbed over the top and moved out under enemy fire to pick up a wounded soldier. At that moment, the captain turned to the young soldier and said, “Look, Son, there God is. There goes God now.”

God is present throughout America. He is found in the people who are willing to serve Him. He is found in those who are His hands and feet – reaching out to the least, to the last, and to the lost.

Taking the hits - Devotion for 5/6/09

Taking the hits – Devotion for 5/6/09

I was talking with a friend the other day who was talking about these difficult and troubling times, and all you could hear was the despair and hopelessness in his voice as we talked. It seems like this friend has taken more hits in his life lately and you could tell that he was struggling, as we all would be. I think we all can relate to those times where it seems like one thing after another keeps coming at you, and you just feel like you want to crawl in a closet and hide. As I’ve been working on this worship series I’ve gone back through a lot of books that I’ve read and finding great reminders of hope, and I have truly been inspired.

I was reminded as I was preparing for this series “Hope in Troubling Times” of a story that I had read about an incident that took place during World War II. In the midst of all the battles on land, air, and sea, there was a plane flying on a dangerous mission. It was not long before the plane was hit by enemy fire, not just once, but nine times. The crew and everyone onboard thought they were goners, but somehow the plane was able to remain airborne, and we able to land safely back at base. What became even more astonishing about their survival was that they found that the all of the 9 hits that the plane took were from shells that are supposed to explode on impact – and any single one of those shells should have taken the plane down. The crew was so perplexed and confused about how 9 shells could misfire, so they called in the bomb squad to take them apart. None exploded. Inside each of the shells was a note written secretly in Czechoslovakian that read, “This is all we can do for you now.”

Sometimes it seems like we get hit not just by one thing that could take us out, but 8 more after that! The hope that we can cling to is that sometimes we can’t understand everything that is going on at the moment. I believe in a God that goes before us, that prepares us such that we can take the hits, and I believe in a God that directs us once we’ve gotten hit. Though we may not see clearly what He is doing now, just hold on, and maybe one day we will see what He is doing. Maybe, just maybe, these hits we’ve taken will only make us stronger – instead of bringing us down – when we see how God has already been working.

Not living in fear

Not living in fear – Devotion for 5/5/09

Like I mentioned yesterday, I’m in the middle of a worship series called “Hope in Troubling Times” (HiTT for short). As I’ve been preparing and going through this series, one word keeps coming up – “fear.” People fear what will happen with the market. People fear what’s going on with their retirement account, if they still have one left. People fear the swine flu. People fear the rising violence. People even fear the pirates – and no, I don’t mean ECU. We live in a state of fear and worry, and that causes us to miss out on so much.

Somewhere I was reminded recently about Cinderella. We all know the story of Cinderella, how she was able to go to the ball in spite of her stepmother and stepsisters. Through the help of her fairy godmother, she is able to attend the ball, but she is given the warning that the spell will wear off once the clock strikes midnight. Wonder what would have happened in the story if Cinderella had gone to the ball, only to be fully consumed by the warning that she must be home by midnight? If Cinderella had gone off to that royal ball focused on the fact that it would all be over when the clock struck midnight, she would never have been the kind of companion that so enchanted the prince.

God gave us the gift of life – not so that we should always prepare for the worse and live in fear, but that we should prepare for the best. In the gospel of John, Jesus states, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) Though we have many things we could fear, instead of focusing on all of those things, let’s focus on what we do have – the life that is in front of us right now.

Hope in troubling times - Devotion for 5/4/09

I'm in the middle of a worship series right now called "Hope in Troubling Times," and we're trying to give hope to people who pressing on the the midst of a troubled world. In my devotion time today, I was reminded of a story I once read about how we must always press on in the midst of difficult, trying times.

A high school basketball coach was trying to motivate his players as the end of a difficult season was approaching. Many players had become so disgruntled and frustrated that they had approached the coach with the possibility of quiting the team before the season even ended. So the coach decided to call all of the team together to try to inspire them to finish strong. As he gave his pep talk he was just starting to get fired up when he asked the players, "Did Michael Jordan ever quit?" The team reponded in unison, "No!" The coach yelled, "What about the Wright brothers? Did they ever quit?" "No!" shouted the team. "Did Abraham Lincoln ever quit?" Again, the team yelled "No!" The coach then asked, "Did Abner Plumbody ever quit?" There was a long silence. The players looked back and forth at each other, and a few started scratching their head as if that would help them remember the name Abner Plumbody. Finally one player mustered up the courage to ask, "Who's Abner Plumbody? We've never heard of him." The coach fired back: "Of course you never heard of him! He quit!"

We all face things that we become discouraged about. We all have things in our lives that may seem hopeless. But if we want to be a part of something truly special we know we must press on and not quit. Have hope.

Stressing Sabbath - Devotion for 2/4/09

Stressing Sabbath – Devotion for 2/4/09

Back at the end of this past summer I began to run again. Well, I’m not sure I would exactly call it running, however I would put on a pair of running shoes and move them swiftly (a relative term) as I propelled myself down the road. For me, running became an escape – an escape from basically anything and everything. I would crank up the ipod and I’d be gone – listening to either some rockin’ music or one of my favorite podcasts. For that half-hour to hour I would be in my own world - most of the time I wouldn’t even be aware of the pace I was running at until I got back. Having run a successful half-marathon in November (coming in at 1:59), I began to set my goals on a couple of half-marathons in the early months of 09, with the goal of a marathon in May and November. Pushing my pace faster and faster each day, I became obsessed with the running, and I was driven with each run – even runs that were supposed to be light and easy runs – to run faster than I did the day before. I began noticing a sharp pain in my left shin in late December, but I was determined to run through the pain. It wasn’t until I realized that it was hurting so badly that I needed to take some time off that I began to realize how hard I had been pushing myself. Even after 2 weeks of no running I was still hurting with each step that I walked. So it really shouldn’t have been a surprise last week when I was talking with a member of my congregation that is an orthopedic doctor about my shin pain and what I thought was just shin splints, and when he checked me out he told me that without a bone scan he couldn’t be certain, but he felt pretty confident that I have a stress fracture. So now, to avoid further damage, I am having to take a break from running for several more weeks.

What I overlooked in the midst of everything was my own need for a Sabbath. As much good as my running seemed to me, without some form of rest or recovery, I was doing much more harm than good. We see this kind of thing all the time in our own lives or in the lives of friends: people that can get so involved in various activities (church, clubs, sports, etc.) that they absolutely get run down and burned out. And for some of us to learn, we have to learn the hard way. I believe that there is a reason we are encouraged to take a Sabbath, though that may mean many different things for each of us. But what it means to me is to take some time away from those every day activities where we can step back, just as an artist steps back to look at the canvas to assess what has been done.