Where There is Smoke

 

“It sure is hazy,” I said.  “If anything, it is worse than it is back home.”  The sun floated like an eerie orb, decorating a haze filled sky.

“I guess it’s the forest fires up in Canada,” Elaine said.  “I heard that some lawmakers from Michigan sent a letter to Canada telling them to stop the fires up there so that there was less smoke in Michigan.”

I laughed.  “That’s silly,” I said.  “I’m sure they are doing what they can, but a lot of Canadian forests aren’t really accessible by road and if you have to fly hundreds of miles to reach them, that will limit how much you can do to halt them as well.  It’s probably better just to pray for rain.”

We were driving and when we stopped at a gas station and got out, we discovered that the haze wasn’t simply in the atmosphere.  The air smelled strongly of smoke and would irritate your throat after just a little while of breathing it.

I have read many times the idea of Chaos theory and the difficulty of predicting the effect of tiny things on large systems.  A butterfly flaps its wings in North America and somehow this triggers a cascade of events that leads to a typhoon in the South Pacific.

Conceptually, this makes sense to me, but my feeling is that most of the time, the correlation is a lot clearer.  Forest fires in Canada lead to a smoky atmosphere in northern Virginia. 

The Apostle Paul wrote about the challenge of food offered to idols in I Corinthians 8.  In this passage, he spent very little time talking about whether or not it was sinful to eat this meat, focusing rather on the question of how eating such food would affect our brothers and sisters within the church.

The point clearly is that our actions affect others walk with God.  In an individualistic society it is easy to ignore this.  Many people believe that they should be able to do whatever they want and the people around them will just have to deal with it.

None of us lives in a vacuum.  We live in community.  We live with family.  The way we live our lives affects all of these people and – even if we don’t intend it to affect them. 

Even more challenging is the fact that our children will reap what we sow.  Whatever short comings we have in our lives will crop up in their lives to a higher degree.

Just as the smoke from forest fires in Canada doesn’t stay in Canada, but drifts as far south as Virginia, so too, our actions will touch and help (or harm) the lives of those around us.  Let them experience deeds of kindness and love that will encourage them to lives of faithfulness, not a mixture of anger and bitterness that block the sun and lead them to live with discouragement.

Sunrises and Early Mornings

 

 

The air was humid and a gentle breeze floated over the sand as we reached the beach.  The sky to the east was rose colored, touching the sea foam and dyeing it a light pink color.  The time was 5:50 am and almost no one was standing or walking on the beach.

Aly and I pulled our bikes across the sand and began to ride.  After about fifteen minutes of steady biking, we stopped and took pictures as the brightness increased and the sun began to edge its way above the eastern horizon.

There is something special about sunrises.  Sunsets are pretty too, but I prefer sunrises – even if it means missing some sleep in order to be there for the event.

I turned to Aly.  “Is it worth missing some sleep to watch the sun come up?”

“I like my sleep,” she answered after a moment’s thought, “But I wouldn’t miss it!”

I have talked to many people who say that conceptually they would love to watch sunrises.  They have heard about the amazing things that happen in the sky at daybreak.  They have read glowing accounts of how the birds sing and the world wakes up in these early hours.  There’s only one problem – the concept of sunrise versus the reality of the comfort of their early morning pillow seems like not much of a contest.

We know that Jesus woke up early in the morning.  “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

Of course, some of us are morning people and some are evening people and perhaps there is no changing that.  It is easy for someone, like myself, who wakes up at 5 am every morning to look down on those who are still sawing logs at 7 am, but I do think there is a blessing to rising early in the morning.

It isn’t just to see the sun climb above the level of the beach on Kiawah Island, but also in the quiet of the morning hours to pray and connect with our Heavenly Father.

The blessing is that even though we may struggle to get out of bed, He is the one who never does. He doesn’t sleep and is always ready to hear our prayers and cries for help – even on a sandy spot off the coast of South Carolina.

250 Years

 

“Can you believe it’s been 250 years since this country was founded?”  The lady sitting across from me asked me.  “I remember 1976 when it was the 200^th year anniversary and that seems like yesterday.  I have a 50 cent piece from that year and I want you to have it.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking the half dollar she offered me.  It had John F. Kennedy’s image engraved on one side along with the dates 1776-1976.  “250 years does seem like a long time, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” she paused thinking.  “I suppose I won’t be here for the next 50 year anniversary.  That’ll be in 2076 and I’ll have long been in the ground by that time.”

“I don’t suppose I’ll be around either,” I said.  “I don’t imagine we’ll be celebrating anniversaries like that in heaven – although maybe they have fireworks there.”

It has been 250 years since a bunch of men in Philadelphia signed a piece of paper that listed a bunch of complaints against King George III (never mind that it was really the British parliament that was the culprit).  Of course, the United States’ Constitution wasn’t ratified until over a decade later in 1789.

I know that many pin their hopes on the success of the United States, seeing in it the “Hope of the Free World.”  Scripture makes it clear that there is a different future for the world.

King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and in his dream, he saw an amazing statue with parts of made of various metals.  As Daniel eventually explained to him, each part of the statue represented a different earthly empire.  Some of those empires would last for a few decades, others for hundreds of years, but all would eventually fall, superseded by a different people group.

Then, at the end of his dream, “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:34,35)

The stone is the kingdom of God, as represented by the church.  It is a kingdom that knows no boundaries and has spread throughout the world – regardless of governments and languages.  While kingdoms rise and fall, its goal remains constant, to bring the good news of Jesus’ victory over sin and death people who live in darkness.

Unlike earthly kingdoms, this one will know no end.  While no one has made pieces of money to celebrate its anniversaries or set off fireworks for it, it truly is the hope of the world – the only kingdom that brings peace and light into a world full to the brim with kingdoms of darkness.