Climb high, Sleep low

We pride ourselves on the simplicity of the Gospel.  We hold fast to the teaching of Christ to, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” – Lk. 18:16b-17.  So why do we find it so hard to communicate our beliefs to unbelievers and the un-churched in a language that they can understand?  Let, me try to explain this predicament another way.  I told the story of Jesus’ resurrection to the Tuesday School group this week.  On more than one occasion during the story I had to stop and search for a word they would understand to communicate more effectively the point of the story.  An example would be instead of saying tomb I would say grave, or instead of spirit I used ghost.  Now this may not seem like much, but if the students did not understand what a spirit or tomb were then how much of the story would they understand?

On that same token if I tell someone who is not familiar with the language of the church that they must be washed in the blood, sanctified, spirit filled, Jesus lives in me, I am saved, reconciled, redeemed, Body of Christ, the Lord’s day, power in the blood, give it to God just to name a few.  I am willing to bet that most of these statements make perfect sense to you.  I am also willing to bet that to a non-churched person they are the equivalent of quantum physics to yourself.  Now does quantum physics seem like child’s play to you?  It doesn’t to me, and so now I must reflect on how I share the Gospel.  I must rethink my approach and reword my thoughts so I can present the message clear and plain to those who do not know God.  Do you need to retool your message?  Have you been communicating with a message that is full of your culture, but over the head and beyond the experience of your audience?  Hey, it is just something to think about.

There is saying I once heard, something a kin to “why do you say, I will do this tomorrow…”  Ring a bell?  We have all had an experience where we have planned an event or activity for work or for our family; and then life got in the way.  If we are not careful these interruptions can really get us frustrated.  When that happens we tend to react in ways that are not consistent with who we are, and we say things that we do not mean to people we love.  We have to have a plan of action, a default to revert to when life throws us a loop.  For me that default is “adventure” (my wife hates it when I say this while we are driving).  I use this word a lot when I make a wrong turn or we are trying to find a new place based on someone else’s directions.  I use it to remind myself that we may not know where we are, but on the Brightside, at least, we are going someplace new that we may never see otherwise.  Do you have a default?  Do you have a reminder to make lemonade out of life’s lemons?  If not, get one, you might just be a little happier with it.

Now I don’t have to tell you this, but please indulge me.  Life is hectic!  It does not always travel down the path we have made for it, no matter how meticulously we have prepared the way.  I don’t believe that I ever forgot this fact, but I was sure aware of it a couple months ago.  December was a chaotic month for me, but my wife and I did manage a vacation to Denver.  It was fun but very, very busy.  On one of our last days there we got to drive up into the mountains, to The Rocky Mountain National Park.  In Denver that morning it was approximately 50 degrees (balmy), and from Denver it is about an hour and a half drive to Estes Park which is the town right outside of the National Park.  The weather in Estes Park was 36 degrees and drizzle.  At the entrance to the National Park it was 33 degrees and the snow was very wet, but by the time we reached our final destination in the park it was 31 degrees the snow was dry and the wind was gusting at 15 mph.  Not only was the snow falling but it was being picked up off of the ground by the wind, a proverbial blizzard, especially for a Texas boy.  By the time we got back to Denver it was 60 degrees and there was no trace of precipitation.

                Some times life is unpredictable, and sometimes we predict life.  We knew that there was a possibility of snow in the mountains.  We had the opportunity to turn around at any time, but we chose to push forward.  Life gives us warning signs when we are pushing too hard.  We all have our Estes Parks.  Most of us choose to push past them.  Maybe it is our pride or we are too caught up in life to recognize them.  The important thing to remember, no matter where you are on the drive, is that God is in control, and even when we push past the place He wants us to be, He has a retreat for us in our own Denver.