The Brook

The Brook’s aura said it should not be trusted. As the outlet of Bartlett Pond near White Horse Beach, this wily stream of warm water cut through the sand on its way to the frigid, clear waters of Cape Cod Bay. Murky-brown, eel-infested, prickled with broken glass, and polluted with strange substances beyond identification; or so our parents claimed.

My grandparents spoke of a time years earlier when the Brook flowed freely through the sand on its way to the ocean, and carved a different path every year. This was the root of the Brook’s sinister reputation because every year, its snaking path put people’s cottages in danger. Owners would arrive each spring to open cottages for the season, nervously wondering where the Brook would be. Sometimes it went straight out to sea. Sometimes it doglegged right. Sometimes it whipsawed left. Some years, they would find the Brook dangerously close to the cottage foundations, eating away and destabilizing the sand nearby.

Finally one year, the cottage owners banded together to stop the Brook’s meanderings. Huge boulders were brought in by the Army Corps of Engineers to form a permanent channel to force the Brook down a specific path toward the ocean and away from the cottages, denying the possibility of future mischief.

Where does your mind go when you let it run free? Scheming up ways to deceive? Focusing wistfully on past relationships gone bad instead of the one you’re in now? Dwelling on situations that have hurt us? Planning for revenge? Conspiring to gain control? Devising insults to be ready for the next time a certain person comes up in conversation? These types of thoughts pop into our heads pretty frequently, if we are honest. Although some ideas may seem alluring and appealing, they could begin to destabilize our lives if we let them wander unchecked.

Instead of letting those murky, questionable thoughts course freely though our minds, we need to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5b). To do that, Paul implores us to focus on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). In other words, focusing on Jesus and His teachings channels the weird thoughts away, and prevents them from destabilizing our lives.

Sean . . . . LIVE!!

I greatly appreciate the chance to write about deep thoughts and questions, like:

• When do we most feel God's presence in our lives,
• How can we be good, Godly examples, and
• Can Sean actually fit into a size-small 3-piece suit that cost $7.50 at Goodwill and flop around on stage without the pants splitting in front of a church full of people while lip-syncing the most horribly terrific version of O Holy Night ever recorded?

Jim Valvano said “To me there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think -- spend some time time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that's a heck of a day.”

So to help you have a heck of a day, I humbly submit the following video of my, ahem, "performance" during our church's Cabin Fever Follies recently, so that you, too, can laugh, think and cry - probably simultaneously. I'm the tall guy in the suit; my friend Steve is playing the air keyboard. I found the song on the web a few years ago, and it's been love ever since. A Christmas staple at our house. A special thanks to Steve Mauldin for making the original audio recording years ago that has brought so much laughter, tears and thoughts to so many.

Marquee

Who is wise?

He will realize these things.

Who is discerning?
He will understand them. (Hosea 14:9a, NIV)

If you are wise, you will know and understand what I mean. (Hosea 14:9a, CEV)

Qualifying

Kristin arched her eyebrow when I told her. Now, I’m telling you, too: I’m going to run a marathon this year, which by itself is a lofty goal. But, I don’t want to just complete the 26.2 mile race. I want to run it fast enough to qualify for one of the most prestigious marathons in the country, the Boston Marathon. There. I said it.

My wife remembers my last marathon all too well. Eleven years ago, my friend Jeff convinced me to run in the Rock n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego. As I staggered across the finish line, my legs felt like I was dragging them through wet cement, and my skin color melded seamlessly with my soaked white shirt. My legs hurt so bad, I walked backwards for three days, and I avoided stairs like the front pew in the Sanctuary. Whatever I had done for training did not prepare me for the actual race, and I paid dearly for it.

But as Paul said in several references relating the similarities of physical training to spiritual training, I am starting by “forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” (Philippians 3:13). I’m ready to go into strict training, preparing to “run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Cor. 9:24).

My qualifying race is not until July, but preparation starts now. To achieve my marathon goal this time will require sustained focus, dedication, determination, discipline, patience, perseverance, sacrifice and commitment on my part, not to mention the support and encouragement of others.

Sound familiar? If not, then maybe it’s time to pay closer attention to those sermons on Sundays, especially the parts about how to live like Christ. Being a Christian is not a spectator sport. God calls for active participation, and that participation requires preparation.

Come July, I want to be so prepared that I will be sure of qualifying for Boston. Physically, I need to start increasing the miles I run and my speed. In my spiritual life, I want to be so prepared that my eternal calling and election will be sure (2 Peter 1:10), and to do that, I need to improve my prayer life. Over the next four months, I plan on making strides to improve both physically and spiritually.

What about you? What are the goals for your spiritual life to draw closer to God? How are you going to “train yourself to be Godly” (1 Tim. 4:7)?

Salt

The icy patch on the sidewalk leered at us. Dark, dangerous, and sinister, it lurked, waiting for unwary pedestrians. Its smooth, thick surface sneered at us, daring us to try and break it. My daughter and I sneered back. But how would we confront this slippery menace? Metal shovel? Jackhammer? Blowtorch?

Hardly.

With a steely stare, I pulled a salt shaker out of my pocket, and began to scatter the tiny grains over the cold, hard surface. Immediately, we heard the sound of the salt going to work. My daughter dipped her head close to the sidewalk and exclaimed, “Dad, it’s crackling!” She kept staring down, expecting something visually epic to match the cracking sounds emanating from the ice, but there was nothing to see. As I herded her back into the house, she kept looking back, maybe hoping to see small mushroom clouds erupt as the ice vaporized. Instead, we went inside, and waited. The next morning, the pavement sat exposed where the salt had been working all night long.

We all know and have to deal with people that have cold hearts, icy attitudes, and chilly demeanors. But how? For the past several years when confronting a family member that deceived me and demeaned my wife, Kristin, I often tried a full frontal assault instead of a pinch of salt. I felt justified angrily lashing out because I knew I was right, but my words ricocheted away. Therefore, we both remained downright frosty toward each other.

However, Paul says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:5-6). And so the thaw in our relationship did not begin until I consciously decided to scatter some positive correction and encouragement into our conversations. And so did Kristin. And so did other relatives.

A single word with a grain of kindness can begin to weaken what appears to be an impenetrable, imposing, and defiant person. The results may not be immediately obvious, and will probably require more salt than we can each sprinkle individually. However, God will make sure that all those grains work together, because “He sends his word and melts them” (Psalm 147:18a).

In the dealings with my family member, I can hear the ice cracking, but that sound - clear, sharp and distinct – is actually the ice melting around my heart.

The Exam

The two-wheeled dolly gave him away. The stack of reference books teetered precariously as the man and his dolly whirled a little too fast around a corner and down a long aisle to his seat. You could tell by the dolly, he was not ready to face our professional engineering exam.

As an open book test, the rules allowed us to bring any material we felt necessary. Like most people, I brought two textbooks, with small bright colored sticky-notes poking out from various pages. The Dolly Man raided the Library of Congress for its technical material, but there was no indication he’d looked through the materials by marking anything. At least one book looked brand new and unopened.

The exam itself consisted of the technical version of essay questions – show your calculations, and show step by step how you arrived at your answer. The exam was not the time to get acquainted with the information in the reference books you brought because your pencil had to be continuously flying across page after page. Success depended on being so familiar with the material that cracking a book was a last resort. To pass, we needed to already have the knowledge tucked into our memory banks so we could draw on it and use it.

I have no idea how often the guy had to say “Hello, dolly” to answer a question, and will never know if he passed the exam or not. The hours of studying and familiarizing myself with the content of my two reference books definitely paid off because I only opened my books two or three times, and passed.

In effect, I had already stored the knowledge so I could use it, just like the author of Psalm 119, who said “I have hidden your word in my heart” (v. 11), referring to God’s Word and His promises of deliverance. His statement implies he had not just heard sermons on Sundays, and he did not need to spend time wading through a library full of other books for answers. By studying and familiarizing himself with God’s promises in Scripture, they were ingrained in him so he could confidently face trials and troubles when they happened.

Life is an open book test. The questions are tough. Are we using the Bible for reference, or do we each have a dolly loaded down with advice from gurus, self-help professionals and pitchmen? Are we ready for the next big test from work, our marriages, our kids, and our health? If you’re looking for answers, God’s “promises have been thoroughly tested” (Psalm 119:140), so we can confidently rely on them when we get tested.

Pulaski

Ed Pulaski knew it was time to run. In August 1910, gale-force winds swept two enormous wildfires together, leaving Pulaski and his firefighting crew trapped in a canyon in the middle of the inferno.

He gathered 45 panic-stricken firefighters, and raced ahead of the flames to an old mine tunnel. “The wind was so strong that it almost lifted men out of their saddles, and the canyons seemed to act as chimneys, through which the wind and fires swept with the roar of a thousand freight trains. The smoke and heat became so intense that it was difficult to breathe . . . The whole world seemed to us men back in those mountains to be aflame. Many thought that it really was the end of the world”(1).

The men had barely packed into the tunnel when the flames swept over their trail. As the fire raged outside, it sucked fresh air out. Fire gas and smoke poured in. Pulaski ordered the men to lie face down on the ground near a trickle of water unless they wanted to suffocate (2). Imagine their disbelief upon hearing survival against a one million acre firestorm depended on a dribble of water.

However, God’s work is unmistakable when the odds are impossible. Ridiculous-sounding methods of deliverance are described throughout the Bible. Just stand still, and the Red Sea will part (Exodus 14). Stand in the Jordan River while it is at flood stage, and watch the dry land appear (Joshua 3). Stroll around for seven days, throw in some trumpet tooting and yelling on the seventh day, and the most heavily fortified city in the world will collapse (Joshua 6). Dunk yourself seven times in the Jordan River, and that leprosy will clear right up (2 Kings 5). You’ve been an invalid for 38 years, but if you grab your mat and stand up, you can walk away (John 5). A little spit and dirt mixture over those eyes and a little wash at the Pool of Siloam will take care of that blindness (John 9). We’ll have leftovers tonight if you use these five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5,000 people (John 6).

No matter how dire the circumstances, He is always there with us offering life. When we have nothing else to cling to, He is there offering hope. When we can only wait anxiously, He is there offering deliverance. We just have to accept His offer to be delivered from all our fears (Psalm 34:4).

Pulaski’s men were offered a trickle. Even if his orders did not make any sense, they dropped to the floor of the tunnel. There, a thin layer of air wafted over the water, enabling the men to breathe and survive, and all but four of them did.


References

1. Pulaski, E.C. Surrounded by Forest Fires, My Most Exciting Experience as a Forest Ranger. American Forests and Forest Life, 1923.
2. Pyne, S.J. Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. 2001.