Working Together...Again!

February 22, 2016

It was a sad and difficult day. A Cassadaga Valley Senior was tragically killed in a farm accident over the weekend, and this morning school was in session. At times like this, the school administration reaches out to the religious community and we to them, working side by side to help the students and staff deal with the loss they feel so keenly. It wasn't always like this. Twenty five years ago the administration, intimidated by ill-informed legal advice they had received, severed relationships with the area churches, citing separation of church and state. Baccalaureate services were no longer permitted, and overt Christian presence on campus was all but eliminated. Sadly, I failed on my part to continue to reach out to the educational community as I might have done, and it wasn't until my son began meeting with kids at school as well as at church and in the community, that things began to thaw.

A new administration has realized the importance of working with the entire community, and they and pastor Joe, along with Nate and Matt Slaven from Park church, and pastor Dave and his associates Tim and Larry from the Gerry Free Methodist church have been working hard to restore the partnerships that had been torn years ago.

So this morning seven pastors, youth leaders, and Christian workers met with staff and students, listening and even praying with some. I was impressed with the leadership given by our new superintendent, the school counselors, their desire to treat the school community as family, and their genuine love for the students. I've often commented on the blessings of living in a small rural community. Today demonstrated to me once more why I love living here. I am thankful for my fellow pastors, for the school administration, and for the new collegial working relationship I see developing. And I am thankful for those who picked up the ball I dropped, helping to restore these relationships for the good of the entire community.

Our Amazing Kids

February 21, 2016

What an amazing day it's been! As we met for worship this morning, we gathered in prayer around a dear friend facing surgery and chemo, prayed for another young woman having life-threatening health issues, and for a family who lost a son in a farm accident yesterday. Grief, pain, and uncertainty were brought before our heavenly Father before being challenged to live out our faith in the context of a community reeling in shock and grief. The afternoon was quite a contrast as we joyfully celebrated Linda's and Jeanine's birthdays at dinner with our family. Barely taking time to take Linda home, it was off to church to teach bass to five youth before listening to the kids talk about their experiences during last week's mission trip to New York City.

One teenager spoke of learning how change begins with just one person, another shared of struggling to hear from God and wondering what was the purpose of visiting a mosque when they didn't get to speak to anyone about Jesus, then experiencing joyous worship at the Brooklyn Tabernacle and realizing that God was speaking to her about the reality of her faith in Christ. Another talked about being challenged to explore his faith more deeply, and still another of sharing her faith with a policeman who believed having enough money was the most important thing in life, and eventually having him ask if she would pray for a friend.

Some years ago I worked hard to begin turning over leadership in the church to the next generation. Tonight thirty-one teenagers gathered to worship and learn, led by this next generation and by their next generation, too. Earlier in the evening, our son Nate was talking with the SOTA kids about spending time with God: "If we don't do that, we are only a band that happens to sing worship songs. We need to be worshippers who happen to be in a band."

Tomorrow, these same kids will be staring death in the face as they deal with the loss of their fellow student and friend. Faith, even theirs, doesn't grow in a greenhouse, sheltered from the harsh storms of life. It is forged in the hot fires of triumph and tragedy, but they have already demonstrated their depth and resilience as they braved the record cold last week in NYC, sharing their faith with the homeless. Sometimes I think I should pinch myself just to make sure I'm not dreaming as I watch these kids live out their faith in Christ before their peers. I am humbled and grateful to simply be witness to what God is doing through these kids. What an amazing privilege I've been given!

Successful Succession

February 20, 2016

Most of the things for which I'm thankful probably have little significance or interest to others, but  I've learned that the significant parts of our lives are not usually momentous world events, but rather the ordinary day to day events and people that are often passed over as unimportant. Among those people and events for which I am grateful tonight is Pastor Joe. This morning he and I led a seminar on successful transitioning in a church; we talked about many things, but the central fact of importance was integrity. I've said it before; I'll probably say it many times hence, I am so very blessed that the work to which I've devoted most of my working life is now in his capable hands. He operates much differently than I, but his integrity, his faith in Christ, his passion for evangelism and discipleship, his love for the people is without peer. It is my privilege to call him my pastor, and to do everything I can to help him succeed, for when he succeeds, the church grows in numbers and in faithfulness to Christ, and when that happens, I succeed also. Not many pastors have the opportunity to stay on in retirement, and of those that do, there are a good many who are dismayed to see their successors deliberately and systematically dismantle everything they worked so hard to build. I am seeing Joe build on the foundation I laid. The structure doesn't always look as I imagined it would, but to see my work live on is a great reward. I am blessed far more than I deserve; that's grace, and I'm thankful for each demonstration of it I have received.

Trying or Training?

February 19, 2016

It's as true today as it has ever been. It's a law of life; one of those immutable principles that won't change no matter how much we pray about it or wish it weren't so. I've believed it, preached about it, and today I lived it. It goes like this: "You can't gain by trying what takes training to accomplish." Countless people have tried to be holy in a hurry, living carelessly, hoping that somehow when faith and courage are needed it will miraculously appear. It seldom does. Others have hoped that trying hard in a relationship will be an adequate substitute for self-discipline, compassion, and commitment when hard times come.

I have a friend who is passionate about physical fitness. Years ago he had gotten a blood clot behind his knee so I visited him in the hospital. "What were you doing when this happened?" I asked.
"Squats," he replied.
"And how much were you lifting?"
"350 pounds."
"Maybe you should knock it back to 300."

My friend is almost as old as I am, and is rock solid. Grab him by the arm, and there is no squish at all. If I went to the gym with him and loaded 300 pounds on the bar, no matter how hard I tried, there's no way I could manage to get it off the rack. That kind of feat takes training, not trying.

It's been a busy week. I've been plowing driveways, visiting in nursing homes, varnishing woodwork. But I haven't been practicing my bass. Today in band rehearsal the truth of my old axiom was more than adequately demonstrated. I couldn't do anything right. Runs that I had down pat last fall were to me like hieroglyphics on the sheet music. There's no way around it; if I want to do the job, I have to put in the time.

It's true in the realm of the spirit as well. Daily Scripture and prayer are like practicing an instrument - essential if we want to master the subject. Only the subject matter is not a song; it's salvation; my relationship with God in Jesus Christ. It isn't automatic, and it isn't learned overnight. Like regular practicing of my bass, if I want to be proficient in faith, I must put in the time, day after day. If I don't, I'll find myself tripping up in places where I should know better. If I do, I'll be able to sail through it with ease. After all, it all boils down to training, not trying. I am thankful tonight for this humbling musical life lesson.

Affordable Setback

February 18, 2016

Tonight I am thankful for the difference between $3,000 and $500. Our tenant in our Cassadaga home had understandably been trying to save on heating bills by turning the thermostats down in rooms he wasn't regularly using. With hotwater baseboard heat, that's a recipe for disaster, which is exactly what we had on our hands. The heat run in the apartment burst in four places, soaking the carpet. So in addition to the repair bill for the heating system we needed to get our area equivalent of ServiceMaster. I made the call; giving such details as the size of the room, the extent of the flooding, etc., I almost choked at the $2,000 - $3,000 estimate. I could rip up and replace the entire carpet for less than half of that!

A call to a local friend who installs carpets connected me to an individual entrepreneur who is able to do the same work for $300 - $500. The whole mess is going to cost us a bundle, but this part of the bundle will be a bit easier to swallow than we first imagined. So I go to sleep tonight in gratitude. We have been financially blessed in retirement and though we would prefer otherwise, are able to swallow the cost of this setback. And the setback isn't going to be quite as  back as we had first thought.

Just Like Them

February 17, 2016

Often when we read the Bible, we look at the towering figures of the story such as Abraham and Moses, David and Daniel, or Peter and Paul, holding them up as examples to emulate. Unlike other ancient writings of heroes and gods however, the leading characters of the Biblical story are flawed human beings, sometimes terribly so. To save his own skin, Abraham passed his wife off as his sister, consigning her to a harem - twice! David raped Bathsheba and murdered her husband to cover it up. There's nothing negative written about Daniel, but if you read the story carefully, his political doublespeak could earn him a respected seat in Congress. Peter denied Jesus and Paul had a temper that caused the first schism in international mission work. Instead of reading these stories and saying, "O God, I want to be like them," we should be saying, "Have mercy, God; I am like them."

I've been reading the story of Israel's first king, Saul. He was the epitome of everything a king should be; handsome, a full head taller than most of his contemporaries, and at least at the beginning, humble. But he was headstrong and impatient, and scornful of the cultural order of the day which assigned separate roles for prophet, for priest, and for king. Impatient with the slower pace at which God often moves, he abrogated to himself the roles of prophet and priest in what was the equivalent of our own presidential executive orders, and in so doing became directly responsible for his own downfall and ultimately a rather bloody clash of dynasties. (Sounds pretty contemporary to me!) The nation was divided and his family destroyed because he refused to honor the institutions he was as king bound to uphold.

When the story is read for what it really is, it speaks profoundly not just to my personal needs or wants, but to the conflicts in which our own society is locked. It is tempting today to cast our lot with one political party or another, with this or that candidate, but if the Biblical story means anything, it is an ancient reminder that kingdoms rise and fall, but God remains the same. Saul gave way to David, whose kingdom grew rich and flabby after his son took over, and divided upon the accession of his grandson. It was pretty much downhill after that, but guess what? After years of exile, God hadn't abandoned his people. And he still hasn't. Israel is here, after nearly 2,000 years of dispersion.

In spite of unfaithfulness, foolishness, and rebellion, God is still God, and still loves us. And as we learned Sunday, when we fail, we haven't let God down because we were never holding him up. Contrarily, he is the One holding us up. Tonight I am grateful for the consistent witness of Scripture to the faithfulness of God in the face of the unfaithfulness of mankind. Thank you Lord, for not giving up on us!

Praise God Anyway

February 16, 2016

You know that sick feeling you get when you've inadvertently done something stupid? Sure you do! That's the feeling I had this morning. I had had breakfast with Willie, taken a truckload of stuff to the transfer station, made a quick stop at Burger King, visited a couple friends who've been going through some serious health issues, picked up a guitar stand at Trinity Guitars, stopped by Tanglewood Nursing Home, then to Sam's Club to pick up a couple items. Walking from the truck to the store and reaching for my Sam's card was when I noticed that my wallet wasn't in my pocket. Driver's license, medical insurance cards, registrations for truck and bike, credit cards, pistol permit, plus cash; this was not good! I started retracing my steps from one end of town to the other. Nursing home? Nope. Burger King? Nope. Transfer station? Nope. I was on my way to the driveway of my friends' home, desperately praying, all the calls I'd have to make running through my mind, when I glanced over at the passenger seat. It held a chopsaw I was returning to a friend, and tucked down beside it was my wallet.

Instant relief, and heartfelt prayers of gratitude! I visited two friends in another nursing home, dropped off the chopsaw, and headed home. Linda and I had about an hour together before I needed to plow out one of our senior citizens who was snowed in and Linda needed to go to an Afterschool board meeting. The plan was for us to have dinner out, her Valentine's gift to me. I plowed our driveway for the second time today then took care of two driveways, returning to the news that her meeting had been cancelled and that our tenant had called to tell us that the heating run in the apartment had frozen and sprung a leak. The carpet was soaked, but he had managed to figure out which valve controlled the apartment and shut it off. A quick call to the heating company, and we decided we needed to go to dinner before we heard any more bad news.

It was one of those days. As we sat at dinner, we reflected that although there was much we hadn't expected, nothing we experienced was life-threatening. Our family is intact, our health is good, we have a warm home and plenty to eat, good friends, and the blessing of being able to give as well as receive. It would have been a bit more difficult had I not found my wallet, but I would still have given thanks because I have decided that I won't let circumstances determine my attitude. Gratitude is not only for those times when all is well; it is a necessity of life when all is wrong. When I was growing up, my pastor had a small sign on his desk. It read, "Praise God Anyway!" Pretty good advice, I'd say.