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Month: January 2012

Footprints in the Snow

January 25, 2012 /

As I look out at our backyard, the first thing I see is footprints in the snow. Lots and lots of Footprints in the Snowfootprints. Footprints that run into each other and cross each other. Footprints that stand alone and even. Some tell the stories of rabbits. Others of squirrels. Of a chocolate lab. Of people. I could go on and on. A couple weeks ago, I noticed a very telling and interesting set of footprints. Rabbits tracks started and then ended. Where they ended, I noticed an interesting set of tracks. Four wide marks on the snow and then nothing. Wing marks perhaps? I can see it now. A rabbit was moving along, making its way up the hill, when swoop! Down came a hawk and the rabbit went poof!

I wonder what the scene would look like if every step we took was recorded in eternal snow. What would our footprints say about where we have been and where we are going? What would we learn about those we travel with and what would they learn about us? There’s an old adage that effectively says you really don’t know someone until you have walked in their moccasins. While we can never completely walk in anyone else’s shoes, God often uses the experiences of our lives to increase our compassion and the grace we show others. If you’ve gone through the pain of divorce, you have a better idea of what someone who is going through a divorce is experiencing. If death has come knocking on your door, you know what it’s like to lose someone you love. If you’ve lived with depression, you understand the struggle of another. If you’ve heard the words, “You have cancer,” you know what it feels like. Experiences either make us better or worse. May all our experiences make us better, more compassionate people—people God uses to touch, encourage and bring hope to others.

Blessings,
Laura

Living the Dream

January 15, 2012 /

Today would have been Martin Luther King Jr’s 83rd birthday, and on Monday much of our nation will commemorate his legacy.

In response to a published statement made by eight fellow clergymen on April 16, 1963, King penned his much-read open Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I remember studying this letter in high school. It intrigued me so much that I wrote to the Birmingham Public Library to obtain a copy of the letter that had been written by the eight clergymen. Somewhere in my files, I still have the original letter I received in reply. In King’s letter from the jail, he speaks greatly of his disappointment with the church and its failure to speak out against the injustice faced by the black community.

‎”In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love . . . But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.”

Sadly, many of the issues that precipitated the civil rights movement of the 1960s still remain today. Racism, segregation, poverty, limited opportunities, etc. Though not as obvious as a color bar next to a door, the tensions have gone underground and continue to divide our society. They are challenges faced not only by the African American, but also by Somalis, Hispanics, Asians, and Arabs.

In Galatians 3:28, Paul tells us, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Two thousand years later, we still struggle to live the truth of these words. Yet two thousand years later, the church in Christ Jesus remains the greatest hope for true peace and unity in our community.

Stephen

Promoting Unity

January 1, 2012 /

Dear Friends,

In my previous posting I expressed extreme gratitude for one of the world’s greatest inventions. A device that has single handedly promoted family unity. A device, had it been around, might have changed the course of Biblical history. What could this wonderful device be?

For centuries scholars have struggled to understand why God would accept the offering of Abel and reject Cain’s offering. Some have theorized that it is because God likes meat. Others have suggested that Abel offered the first fruits of his labors and Cain instead offered the leftover rutabagas he had lying around. Even more perplexing is why the distinction would so enrage Cain he would strike his brother dead.

I offer you today the possibility the reason for this murder may be more obvious that we ever realized. Could it be that the age-old battle between siblings as to who had to clean the roasting pan with the meat cooked on, raged in this household? Further to be exasperated by the nights when the task for preparing the family’s feast landed to Abel. A culinary genius, so skilled he could make Gordon Ramsey cry, he fed his family heartily only to leave piles of darkened pans for his brother to clean. Cain would be trapped in the kitchen scrubbing for hours unable to watch the camel races on TV. A situation very different from the nights when Cain would cook placing before his family a meager salad of spring greens and a side of seasonal fruit. On these nights Abel merely had to wisp the dishes with water and his task was complete. The disparity must have caused the rage to well up in Cain until he could stand it no longer. Picking up his scouring stone, he struck his brother dead and then went home to gnaw on a carrot.

How unfortunate they were not born thousands of years later, when in 1886, Josephine Cochran could have saved their home such pain. This grand lady, worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, invented the first workable dishwasher.

Blessings,
Stephen

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