Not just another Easter...

Is it possible that work can be recreation or at the least, re-creation. After Sunday, I definitely believe it can. What a joy to worship the Lord on Easter Sunday. In the past, I have struggled with Easter. I have felt that it wasn’t fair that everyone gets to come and share the joy of Easter, but then all the Sundays between Easter and Christmas and then continuing to the following Easter, we have so many empty pews in the sanctuaries across the nation. It doesn’t seem fair that many people miss the day to day struggles of the church and what it means to be in community with one another, but then show up to sing “Up From the Grave He Arose”. It doesn’t seem right that very few show up during Lent for services, and even less for Holy Week, the time we honor Christ preparing for the cross, giving a new commandment and that fateful Friday of suffering, but yet they help begin the service by responding to “Christ is Risen!” with “He is Risen Indeed!”. You see what I mean when I say I have struggled with Easter?

But this year was different. Maybe it was our recent trip to the Holy Land. Maybe it was a recent struggle with the call. Or maybe it was just God jumping in and shaking things up in our lives a little bit. But something was different. All of those reasons of why I struggle with Easter are the very reasons why Easter is so important. Because everyone can come, because God loves humanity so much that even when we turn our backs, God is still waiting there with open arms, ready to grab hold of us. On Sunday, I told the congregation at my church this: “It is a joy to celebrate this day with you. Traditionally, this is an important day for families to be together, to dress up and to celebrate. For most of us it is an important day for us and our individual faith in Jesus Christ. But this Sunday, more than any other, is important for all of humanity. We join with believers around the world affirming that Christ redeemed all humanity and all of us have been loved by God so much that he sent his Son. Today is important because the whole world is included in God’s redeeming grace.” Or at least that is what I hope came out of my mouth. I’m not really sure if it was or not.

Regardless what I said or didn’t say, what was heard or what went unheard, this Easter was a time of re-creation. I hope it was for everyone else as well. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Lesson from the Tree

When did it get so hard to climb trees? Yesterday, Megan and I spent a good bit of time doing some early spring cleaning. I know, not nearly as exciting as our adventure last Monday. But it needed to get done. Amidst the cleaning, we found a hammock-swing that Megan’s mother and father bought in Honduras. We decided it was time to put it up. Well, that of course meant hanging it from a tree. After purchasing a long thick chain to hang our swing, I decided I would climb up the tree to set it up. That was when I realized how hard it is to climb trees nowadays. Have trees gotten more complicated in the last twenty years? Has something occurred in the ecosystem in which trees have responded by becoming climb-proof pieces of God’s creation? Surely I didn’t have this much trouble as an eight or nine year old, when I spent a lot of time running through the woods and hanging from trees. I think, as I sat on a branch some twenty feet above the ground that the trees haven’t changed. Unfortunately, I have.

Thinking about this, I thought about a little guy I met named Charley. Charley is missing one arm from his elbow down. Yet, I have watched him climb in and out of countless trees with reckless abandonment. Charley is simply not scared of falling out, so he goes as high as the tree will allow. And he does it one handed. He simply doesn’t see the consequences of falling like I do. For him, he would dust himself off and move on, maybe wearing a cast for awhile. Me, I’m thinking about falling and the death that awaits me. I’m thinking it would be really hard to minister to folks while on crutches, not impossible mind you, just difficult. I guess it must be an age thing. Have I really reached the age in which I am too old to appreciate climbing a tree?

But then, I think about someone else I’ve heard about who climbed a tree. I’m pretty sure that Zacchaeus was older than I am right now. After all, he was wealthy and chief tax collector. He had to be a little older than me, right? And he didn’t think twice about climbing up that sycamore tree to see Jesus as he passed by. I guess he had the right motivation that suspended his fear of falling out of the tree. In order to see the Lord, he had to do what was necessary, even if it meant climbing a tree. I think that’s a big deal. I wonder how many times we stop short of doing things because we are afraid of the consequences. How many times are we afraid to hold someone accountable because they in turn might hold us accountable? How many times do we not help someone because we are afraid they will become dependent? How many times do we fail to offer Jesus Christ because we are afraid what someone might think about us? I’ve thought a lot about fear since yesterday. It’s amazing where simply climbing a tree can lead you.

Lesson Learned

Of the long list of things that we love to do together, hiking has to be pretty high up there. So this past Monday, we found ourselves in Greenville with a little time to kill, so we decided to venture up to Asbury Hills and go on a little mountain excursion, if you will. After stopping by the office to tell them we were there and to grab a map, we launched out on our hike around high noon, with a backpack full of water and fruit. Moonshine Falls was our destination, the middle of a long loop that would be bring us back to camp and would find us walking about six miles. Not an overly aggressive hike, but one that would definitely get our blood going. The only problem was that the map contained a big X through the trail and the words, ‘Trail Closed’. We thought, oh well, we’ll just worry about that when we get to it.
The trail was great. We took our camera and using the ten second timer button, we made sure we were in the pictures. Moonshine Falls was great. It was interesting to see the barrels underneath the falls. Were they the real barrels that were used to make moonshine? Maybe, probably not, but still it was neat to see. Throughout our hike, the one disappointment was the lack of wildlife. Apart from a bird and a few butterflies, we experienced a four hour, six mile hike through the woods that was wildlife-free. Strange. Maybe it was just the time of the year.
About three hours into the hike, we crossed a part of the trail that had been washed out. Making some careful steps, we easily made it across, onto safe, dry ground. We thought, hey, that was nothing, they shouldn’t have closed the trail because of that. Little did we know what awaited us a few hundred yards ahead. “Private Property”. “No Trespassing”. “Violators will be shot on site!” Ok, so the last one was an exaggeration. But still, somehow or another, the trail simply ended. So we were faced with quite a conundrum. Do we trespass onto private property and claim stupidity if caught? Do we turn around, ultimately resulting in being very late to an important meeting in Spartanburg later that night? Or do we trail-blaze and hope for the best? You guessed it, or maybe you didn’t b/c as pastors you probably thought we would do the sensible thing and turn around and hike back on the trail, no, instead, we went trail-blazing. All of a sudden, the Man Versus Wild shows we had watched on Discovery came back to us. Bear always says, if you find yourself lost, find a river and follow it downstream. After going through a good bit of brush, down the side of a mountain, and thirty minutes through more brush, we came to Matthew’s Creek. Following the creek for some thirty minutes, we eventually stumbled upon a trail and found our way out. For several minutes, during our romp through uncut, uncharted territory, we did think, “Great, we are those people you read about who get lost and are never found again.” But only for a few moments. In the end, it was a great hike, a little more adventurous than we would like, but great nonetheless. The lesson for the day: if you go off the trail or against the map, you better be prepared for the consequences. Life’s kind of like that, isn’t it? When we decide to get off the well traveled road and to do things our own way, or better yet, against our better judgment, we had better be ready to accept the consequences that are sure to come, be they good, bad or in between. But you know, the great thing about being a disciple of Jesus Christ is that even when we get off course and go astray, even when we fall way short of what God wants us to be, God’s there, ready to pick us up and dust us off with that wonderful redeeming love. We get another shot at staying on the trail of life. Thanks be to God and lessoned learned.

Beginnings...

So, we’ve been inspired. We figure, since we blogged about our greatest adventure to date, our trip to Israel that you can see linked here, we wanted to continue that trend. We have adventures all the time, not to the level of the Holy Land Experience, but significant nonetheless. We wanted to share them with you and hopefully expound on them a little bit and maybe even learn something from ourselves. Hopefully you will enjoy them too.