The New Footprints

Now imagine you and the Lord Jesus are walking along the beach together.

For much of the way the Lord’s footprints go along steadily, consistently, rarely varying in the pace. But your prints are in a disorganized stream of zig zags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures, and returns. For much of the way it seems to go like this. But gradually, your footprints come in line with the Lord’s, soon paralleling His consistently. You and Jesus are walking as true friends. This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing happens; your footprints that once etched the sand next to the Master’s are now walking precisely in His steps. Inside His large footprints is the smaller “sand print,” safely enclosed. You and Jesus are becoming one; this goes on for many miles.

But gradually you notice another change. The footprints inside the larger footprints seem to grow larger. Eventually it disappears altogether. There is only one set of footprints. They have become one; again this goes on for a long time. But then something awful happens. The second set of footprints is back. This time it seems even worse than before. Zig zags all over the place. Stop…start. Deep gashes in the sand. A veritable mess of prints. You’re amazed and shocked. But this is the end of your dream.

Now you speak: “Lord, I understand the first scene with the zig zags, fits, starts, and so on. I was a new Christian, just learning. But You walked on through the storm and helped me learn to walk with You.” “That is correct,” replied the Lord. “Then, when the smaller footprints were inside of Yours, I was actually learning to walk in Your steps. I followed You very closely.” “Very good. You have understood everything so far.” “Then the smaller footprints grew and eventually filled in with Yours. I suppose that I was actually growing so much that I was becoming more like You in every way.”  “Precisely.” “But this is my question, Lord. Was there a regression of something? The footprints went back to two, and this time it was worse than the first.” The Lord smiles, then laughs. “You didn’t know?” He says, “That was when we danced.” 

FOR HE WILL TURN YOUR MOURNING INTO DANCING!

The disciples are so relatable. I imagine their furrowed brows raised while they say, “huh?” at so many of Jesus’ words and actions. There is a brief story in Luke 9 beginning with verse 51. A Samaritan village refuses to receive Jesus because of his mission to go to Jerusalem – to the cross. James and John ask, “Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” We don’t have the exact dialogue following that question; all we know is that Jesus doesn’t answer it. He just turns and rebukes the disciples. That is it. Then they go on to another village.  “Can’t we all just get along?” (words spoken by Rodney King following riots in Los Angeles) was a phrase in the mid-nineties that became a sign of ridicule for people who thought we all can just sit around a campfire and sing “Kumbaya”. Don’t we wish. Getting along is hard. In marriages, in families, in congregations, in a nation and between countries. Deep disagreement cannot just be wiped off of the table. Perhaps we expect too much of one another – things we simply cannot give or even refuse to receive. And, I concede, some matters might never be reconciled this side of the Resurrection. And yet, we can do those small but mighty things for, with and to one another that say ‘love’ without us having even to open our mouth. It starts small and it starts with us. With me. With you. When we allow and even invite Christ to work in and through our broken hearts and weary spirits, healing begins. Yes, small moments of love – seeing them, creating them, focusing on them, might actually be possible. I can’t rain down fire on my opponents (and I don’t really want to). There is no law that will fix division. No political leader. Love is the only option. Love is how this world is mended. Neighborly love; brotherly love, even romantic love. To look someone in the eye and say ‘thank you’. To admit that you don’t understand but want to. To see the person at the dinner table as a gift and not a burden or a threat. To refrain from speaking louder and louder so your voice can overpower other voices. To seek common ground in matters that are not utterly divisive so mending of relationships even has a chance. This is where the gap closes between us. Yes, Jesus could have said: let’s rain down fire, these folks deserve it. Make it hurt a little to wake them up. But: Jesus rebuked the disciples for wanting to cause such hurt and leads them into the next village. He also had Peter put away his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane when fighting truly would have been a matter of life and death. I agree, we probably cannot all just get along all the time and “Kumbaya” will indeed have to be reserved for summer nights around a campfire. However, we might just consider moving along or putting away the sword – these simple but oh so important signs of love.Christ has no body now but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet, and loves with my heart. -St. Theresa of Avilla Amen

Over my ministry I have had the same conversation with different people many times: “Pastor, I don’t know where we went wrong. We set the best example we could for our kids and now none of them goes to church or even seems to have a relationship with the Lord. I don’t even know how they make it through life without faith.”

My first and last comment always is this: “Pray for them; bring them before the Lord and ask that the Spirit will work in their lives; remember that we are not in charge of anyone’s salvation, Jesus is. Pray for them!”

Of course, we cannot command faith. Just as we cannot command someone to fall in love with a certain person or insist that an insomniac goes to sleep right now. When we face the situation where we fear a person dear to us is hesitant or even hostile to “all things God”, it might help us and them to understand our lives as gifts from God. If we do that, see life as a gift, we know that behind the gift is a giver; otherwise it is not a gift, right!

When we receive a gift, especially one that is rather incredible, most of us respond with gratitude and thanksgiving. Our gratitude always is particular: you give me a gift and I express my thanks to you not to your second cousin once removed. Being thankful in general only is like being married in general. One is married to one particular person, not in the abstract. Just as most married persons do not feel the same about being married each and every day, most of us do not feel the same about our very lives each and every day. Nevertheless: we are alive not because we generated our lives single-handedly but because God gave us this gift. 

Those who are not sure if they want to “engage in faith”, often seem to have a hard time acknowledging that they might actually need God. “We can’t find God unless we know we need God,” said Thomas Merton (American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, scholar of comparative religion who died in 1968). “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven” says Jesus – by some translated as “How blessed are those who know their need for God.” It is not always easy to distinguish between our needs and wants. To have God, and faith in God, is a blessing!

Perhaps the question is whether we actually desire God and a relationship with Him. Could it be that our desire for closeness with God is as sweet as the relationship itself? “My soul thirsts for you, O God,” the Psalmist says. “I want to know Christ”, says St. Paul who surely did know Christ! When we first fall in love or look at our first child, we want to be with the beloved, or the new babe, as much as we can. We wish to get to know them, appreciate them, understand them and simply show them our commitment. Surely, it cannot hurt to desire our relationship with God.

None of what I wrote is in our hands per say. We certainly are unable to instill appreciation for the gift of life, the realization of our need for God or another person’s desire for God, in anyone. We can explain these things to a hesitant doubter but we have no control over the outcome. What we always can do is pray for God to work in the lives of those whom we know and love that faith may be rekindled and that our own faith may remain strong. May it be so. Amen 

“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” I Samuel 3:9b

I would love to hear what the Lord has to say about our world. In a matter of minutes after waking each morning, my phone starts that little “bleep” sound telling me that there is a world beyond my bedroom that wants my attention and tell me something. I know it is entirely up to me if I want to listen – the temptation to glance at the first few paragraphs of a newsfeed is real. Lots of folks have something to say these days, and I don’t need to tell you not all of it is encouraging, not all of it is relevant, and not all of it is true.

This morning was no different. I awoke before the first sliver of pink was on the eastern horizon and there it was that “bleep” of stories vying for my attention. I like to stay as informed as any of us, but at times I feel like I am being assaulted before I can even focus my eyes and rub the sleep out of them. And, at other times, I deliberately seek such ‘assault’ by scrolling down my phone and clicking on links because something has caught my eye and I want to know more.

Like little Samuel I wonder – “who is calling me?” This wonderful little story, which we heard in our worship service last Sunday (I preached on it), describes the young boy Samuel (set apart at birth for service to the Lord, but too young to have had much formal training) who is awakened three times by a sound, which we are told is the Lord calling his name. Each time he assumes it can’t be God, so he goes to his mentor, the old Priest Eli, for explanation – assuming it was Eli who was calling him.

Finally, Eli, aged and apparently not amused that his precious sleep keeps getting interrupted, all but says “Go back to bed. If you hear the voice again say ‘Speak Lord, for your servant is listening’” (and by implication, stop bothering me!) That is what Samuel does, and of course he hears God call him yet again. The message is not pleasant or easy to accept. It involves a sobering assessment of his mentor Eli and the judgement of God upon him and his household.

The story struck me again this morning as I was going from link to link on my phone looking for this or that. A Bible verse appeared.  It was a verse, if you will, that provides a pretty good assessment of what God has in mind for his creation today and any day. 1 John 4:20-21 “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

I am not sure what else will pop up on my phone today, what I will find accidentally, what I will diligently search for, or if any of it will be from God. But if this is all our Good Lord has to say to me today, I would do well to give it some thought, don’t you agree?

I wish you all a very grace-filled day. Be blessed. Be well. Be safe. Pastor Z+

Restore us, O Lord  These simple words, from Psalm 80, seem so appropriate as we still do not appear to be done with the old troubles we thought we had left behind as we turned the calendar to 2021. “Restore us, O Lord” might be the plea of a grieving family or the prayer offered by one who suffers greatly from physical pain or even a community that is experiencing tumult.

According to the dictionary, ‘to restore’ means to return something to its former condition, place or position; to reinstate, to replace, rehabilitate or re-establish. In other words, restoring implies to go back in time.

Even though, we might want to go back (who has never yearned for the good old days, I ask you), the truth is that life would not be the same. We cannot go back to things as they were because we have been changed. I think it is true when people say that we really do not want things exactly as they were but rather as we think they were or as we want them to be. I have lived in this country for exactly 40 years and in that period I have visited my homeland Germany three times – often enough to know that dear Deutschland is by no means what I knew it to be when I grew up. I would love it to be as I knew it because it would be comfortable and familiar…but, it is not. Only in my mind and heart can I restore Germany to what it was; reality will set in and quickly teach me otherwise. 

As we are still living within the first few days of this new year, looking back to the year that we came to dislike greatly, we probably want to cry out with the Psalmist: Restore us, O Lord. Sure, some things hopefully will be as they were: going to restaurants, visiting with friends and family, taking the masks off, removing the “Please do not sit in this pew” signs…but then, do we really go back or do we want to go forward?

Forward with the knowledge and wisdom we have gained?! Forward with those cautionary measures which hopefully will benefit us and prevent another global health crisis?! Forward with renewed vigor and confidence that we are much more resilient people than we ever gave ourselves credit for?! I want to go forward. I want my faith to be renewed each day and grow stronger so I can face whatever the future holds. I want to hold onto God who has promised to hold onto me and lead me into a better life someday.

Perhaps we just need to be ready to go forward with thanksgiving to God for having brought us this far by faith. Whatever God then decides needs to be restored, He will restore. Amen