Month: June 2024

Staying Power!

There is no question about it. Its hard. Its tiring. Its discouraging. The tendency is to give up and walk away, to disengage. It is essential to stay engaged.

The following insight from the personal experience of the apostle Paul provides important and logical information.

“Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one, (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, NRSV).

You and I are not Apostles. Does the counsel still hold true? The obvious answer is, “Yes!, It does indeed!” We are running a race, actually, the one race is divided into many parts, all of them leading to the same conclusion.

Part of our race is our family life. We create and sustain families based on the biblical model that we have received.

Part of our race is our church life. It is to be a community created and sustained by the acceptance of our Church Covenant and understood and sustained with the help of the Holy Spirit. Here we are to run and not grow weary.

Part of our race involves our community. We are to be witnesses to the grace and glory of Jesus Christ. And, we are, as it were, running towards eternity.

We cannot afford to lose sight of the imperishable crown of life. This is because there is a complementary element that also must be considered

“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith, (Galatians 6:7-10, NRSV).

We reap what we sow. It sounds trite. It is true. Do now grow weary in doing what is right for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. There is no question about it. Its hard. Its tiring. Its discouraging. The tendency is to give up and walk away. It is essential to stay the course.

These principles work for us in many varied or conflicted situations. It works in parenting as fathers seek to nurture and discipline children. It works in families as the values and principles of the family are maintained. It works in congregations to resolve conflict and to set goals for a constructive future. It works in communities where politics can be a bane on developing vision and creating harmony.

“Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right,” (2 Thessalonians 3:13 NRSV). What is right? Paul in the above citation from Galatians provides us with a purpose. “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for the family of faith.” Let us work for the good of all. You cannot do this is you have withdrawn and given up. You cannot do this is you are constantly engaged in criticism. You can only do this if you hold in mind the needs of the family of faith and how in Jesus Christ those needs may be met. So the questions might be, “How is you stamina?”

“When you are lonely, I wish you love. When you are down, I wish you joy. When things are complicated, I wish you faith. When things look empty, I wish you hope.” (Author Unknown; via Donna Lambert, Albuquerque, NM)

Thoughts from here and there…Reflections for a Father’s Day

A young pastor was visiting one of his church families. The father launched into a long lament about how difficult it was to be a good parent in our high-pressure, high-speed society. Finally the pastor said, “You are right, but there is only one thing harder than being a parent today, and that is being a child.”

The young daughter, who had been listening immediately responded, “You’re right!”

It’s tough being a father. It has always been tough to be a father. Fatherhood does not end when our children become adults. You may decide to relate to your children on an adult-to-adult basis, but you never stop being a father. You continue to be a fatherly role model all the rest of your life.

As a pastor I truly know how tough it is. Very often, when my children were small, I served a three or four point charge. One year I drove 60,000 miles attempting to provide pastoral services and care to three churches in the lower third of the Sate of Vermont. Most of the time the children were in bed asleep before I got home. I still took a day off a week for family activities.

I have tried to do a better job with our grandchildren. On occasion Helga and I have had one of them stay with us for a night or two. We have done the usual grandparent things: trips to the zoo, to the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, McDonald’s or Chuckie Cheese. On one occasion we decided to take Danissa to Karl Ratsch’s Restaurant. Helga explained a little what our granddaughter would find in the restaurant.

One of the most satisfying and rewarding experiences has been to read a story at bedtime. To say goodnight with a kiss, and “I love you.”

It is important to stay connected. In a scene from the summer 1991 movie “The Doctor”: William Hurt portrays a cynical, successful heart surgeon whose life attitude is turned around by his own bout with cancer. When he comes home unexpectedly in the middle of the day to be with his family, his wife calls to their young son playing outside, “Come in and say hello to your father.” The boy races into the room without even noticing his father standing at the other end. Automatically his son picks up the phone, “Hi Dad…hello, hello…” Then turning to his mother, he says, “Well, Mom, we must have got cut off…” Stay engaged and stay connected. It’s worth every minute of it.

A story that impressed me comes from Mother Theresa.

Mother Theresa remembers one of the sisters, who had just graduated from the university. She came from a well-to-do family that lived outside India.

She writes: “According to our rule, the very next day after joining our society, the postulants must go to the home for the dying destitute in Calcutta. Before this sister went, I told her, ‘You saw the priest during the Mass, with what love, with what delicate care he touched the body of Christ. Make sure you do the same thing when you get to the home because Jesus is there in a distressing disguise.’

“So she went, and after three hours, she came back. That girl from the university, who had seen and understood so many things, came to my room with such a beautiful smile on her face. She said, ‘For three hours I’ve been touching the body of Christ!’

“And I said, ‘What did you do? What happened?’

“She said, ‘They brought a man from the street who had fallen into a drain and had been there for some time. He was covered with maggots and dirt and wounds. And though I found it very difficult, I cleaned him, and I knew I was touching the body of Christ!’

“She knew!”

What kindness! What compassion! What love! What delicate, yet powerful love. What would happen to you and me if we could develop the delicate, yet powerful love that is expressed in this story. How our relationships would change. What impact would that have upon our community of the faithful? Well, you know the answer to that question just as well as I do. And when you stop and think about it, isn’t this that to which Jesus is calling us? Of course it is. And, given the opportunity, he can help us produce it.

Thoughts from there and there…Defining Purpose

I was asked what was the purpose of the “Christianity?” In answer to the question I said, “The purpose of Christianity is to recreate in human beings the image of God in all its fullness, and to prepare us for immortality.” The church and family are the primary places where this purpose is realized.

This I might also ask you to consider this question: “What is the purpose of the family?” I use the word “family” in its broadest context. The question might be answered in this way: “The purpose of the family is to provide a place where adults and children may grow and realize human maturity in all its fullness, and prepare them for life.” But and this is a rather large “but,” who decides the meaning of maturity?

In the context of the Christian, this question is answered by God. The Apostle Paul writes about the gifts that are given to the people in the church by saying “that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (Ephesians 4:11b-15a, NRSV).

This demonstrates that only God can define maturity. We cannot because we do not have the wisdom nor the skills to be able to do so. I know that there are people who will argue with me on this point, but consider this: Only God can clearly evaluate who and what we truly are, and God has a lot to say about the limitations of human mind and will.

If we are going to help our children to grow up to be children of God, responsible citizens, realizing their fullest potential for mental and physical growth, there is an important principle that we ought to keep in mind. One of the most important understandings that may be achieved is this: That there is no one fixed point when a human being may rest and say I have arrived. John Powell in “Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am,” draws this conclusion:

“There is no fixed, true and real person inside of you or me, precisely because being a person necessarily implies becoming a person, being in process. If I am anything as a person it is what I think judge feel value honor esteem like love hate fear desire hope for believe in and am committed to. These are the things that define my person, and they are constantly in process, in the process of change. Unless my mind and heart are hopelessly barricaded, all these things that define me as a person are forever changing.”

If we will embrace it, this defines the purpose of the family. It helps us to better understand parenthood. It takes a lot of wisdom, insight, and good old fashioned hard work to be a parent, not only in 2004, but at anytime before now.

This is the point that Morris L. West attempted to make in his famous book, “the Shoes of the Fisherman.” He wrote:

“It costs too much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the enlightenment or the courage, to pay the price…One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace the world like a lover. One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying,” Morris L. West in The Shoes of the Fisherman.

Rather than seeking to protect our children from that which we believe to be harmful to them and detrimental to their growth, we should seek to equip them with the knowledge, and role models that will help them to be able to successfully meet the challenges that they will face.