Greatest Stories Live

 “Anyone who believes in Me will pass from death into everlasting life." ~ John 5:24

They hated to see it end.  Tonight, they gathered for the final campfire, ending an amazing week.  It had been so much more than just camping, it’d been an adventure: a time to explore, grow, and be challenged.

Sure, there was extensive exposure to God’s Word, but it’d also been an opportunity for the campers to observe and learn from godly mentors (counselors, staff, and speakers) absent TVs, cell phones, video games, and other distractions that tend to keep young people from focusing on life’s deeper questions.

They’d also made great friendships.  Between the songs and jokes, between the smiles and stories, their bonds became a kind of palpable ever-glow. 

The night brought such a silence that the crackle of a campfire was all that could be heard, a natural symphony in the ebony sky.  Flames sent red sparks dancing into the breeze; smoke curled skyward charming all their worries away.

Two things must absolutely be present while huddled around a campfire: Smores and scary campfire stories.  Pastor Jacob’s dramatic voice began.

“I heard this happened out west not long ago.

A group of worried ranchers offered a $5,000 bounty for captured wolves.

Two friends, Chad and Lincoln, decided to seek their fortune.  Day and night they scoured forests and mountains for valuable prey.  Exhausted from hunting with no luck, they fell asleep dreaming of their fortune.

Suddenly, Lincoln woke up a bit startled and saw they were surrounded by a huge pack of hungry wolves with searing black eyes, bared teeth, and wariness for their kind.  Low growls rumbled from their throats. He slowly reached over and nudged his friend, "Chad, wake up!"

"I think we're rich!"

After the laughter died, Pastor Jacob finished the story by saying, “A good positive attitude can truly change the way you approach life, and your future.”

“We all love a good story,” he continued.  “Especially one with a surprise ending.

But the BEST story ever conceived, written, or acted out in real life has no end.  The one story you need to hear, understand, and grip with all your heart is hopeful, inspiring, and transforming.  It offers two things that no other story does.

First – it offers you a place in the story – a place that was planned for you long before the story was written.  Secondly, it also offers something hard for us to wrap our brains around.  It offers life that never ends.

The main character of God’s story came to earth, defeated sin and death, and because He did, offers you the one thing that no other character in any other story can – real life now and eternal life to come.  Shall we pray together:

Dear Lord, despite anything we’ve attained, earned or deserved as your children, You welcome us into the greatest story ever by grace alone.  We’re grateful that this story that is our story has an end that never ends.  Amen

Two Castles

 “You people have exchanged your glorious God for empty idols." ~ Jeremiah 2:11

He knelt upon the primrose sand; infinite fun packaged into a tiny human.  Soft curls fell in cinnamon swirls to a face that was as sweet as white chocolate.  His eyes danced with joy and imagination as he scooped and packed sand into a small bucket.

To his sheer delight, a castle tower appeared.  He continued working all afternoon spooning out a moat, forming walls, building sentries and bridges, and decorating the sandcastle with seaweed and seashells.  After hours of determination, his architectural masterwork came alive.

Away from the beach, an executive worked well into the night; office lights shimmering as heaven's stars from within the skyscraper.  He shuffled papers, delegated assignments, juggled numbers, and pounded his keyboard.  Over time and sweat, a profitable empire emerged.

He too worked tirelessly formulating plans and forecasting the future.  He built a stately mansion with acres of lush landscaping, sweeping staircases, and a grand ballroom; a luxurious house lavished with amenities like a koi pond, wine cellar, and eight-car garage. 

The two castle-builders shared much in common.  They both shaped granules into grandeurs, labored diligently at work that made them happy and accepted each day as a blank canvas.  For both, the tide will rise … and the end will come.  Similarities end there.

The little boy embraced his castle’s demise; the man ignored it.  

As the tide rolled in, giggles and laughter filled the air as waves washed away his day’s creation.  No sorrow.  No fear.  No regret.  He knew it would happen.  Collecting his tools, he walked home with his Mom satisfied with all he’d achieved.

As a wave of misfortune collapsed his empire, terror consumed the executive.  Bewildered and crestfallen, he agonized over the loss of his shrine, trying desperately to save it.  He snarled at the incoming challenges.  “I built my fortune from nothing, I don’t deserve this,” he resisted.

The ocean remained silent in response.  Both knew to whom the sand belonged.

Too often, what we once celebrated as a gift from God, becomes an idol that rules and directs our hearts.  It happens too easily and so subtly. 

Our genuine obedience, once the fruit of grace, morphs into self-righteous pride strutted for all to see.  The house once regarded as an unearned gift from God becomes an obsession devouring our thoughts, desires, and energy.  The wisdom once derived from the Holy Spirit’s illuminating ministry becomes the weapon against those who don’t understand what we believe.  We replace God as the epicenter of our spiritual hope and seek salvation in empty things that don’t deliver.

So, build your sandcastle, but build with a child’s heart.  When the sun sets and the tides steal, salute the journey and build new dreams.  But never forget the One who gave you that chance.

Lord, help me build my life with a child’s heart.  Help me see them through Your eyes and love them with the unfailing, unconditional love of Christ.  Cleanse my heart of impatience and selfishness, bitterness and anger.  Amen

Total Eclipse of the Son

 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." ~ Psalm 19:1

Pastor Karen had been working with Paula for about 9 months as a certified pastoral counselor.  While providing services similar to clinical counselors or therapists, Karen’s approach integrated spirituality, faith, and theology with psychotherapy to help people seeking assistance with family, personal, marital, and faith issues. 

She’d performed Paula’s and Josh’s wedding ceremony 2 years earlier; a marriage that thrived for six months until Josh walked innocently into a robbery and was fatally wounded.  Paula sank deeply into despair, coming out occasionally for bouts of rage and aggression that cost her job.  Family and friends shared her suffering but not in a way that lightened the burden.  

Her faith went into total eclipse.  A gloomy, dull feeling washed in like an unwelcome wave; as if the whole world knew His light was blocked.  Paula frequently talked of giving up - she no longer saw any purpose in her life.

If only she could be trumpeted like a solar eclipse.  

The sight of the moon blotting out the sun and then turning it into a celestial ring creates a moment of unparalleled wonder.  People don’t judge the sun for not shining during those times.  And no matter how long the light is blocked, it always returns, more brilliantly than before.

Today Paula’s demeanor seemed different.  She stood tall, alert, and engaging.  “I got face to face with my depression,” she began.

“Tell me about it,” Karen replied.

“Last night, the familiar darkness began to wash over me as it’d done for so long.  Only this time, I didn’t drink more wine, eat more chocolate, or curl up on the couch.  I stood up and demanded to know what Ms. Fogbottom (the name she’d given it because of the way it turned everything grey) wanted from me.  I screamed and rebuked her for over an hour.”

“Then something changed!  It wasn’t like happiness immediately broke through; more Ike I’d cracked out from an eggshell and a weight lifted off my heart.  For the first time in forever it felt like maybe God was listening.  What do you think that was?”

Pastor Karen smiled and said, “I think the end of your eclipse might be near.  Jesus has been praying for that all along!”

During the following few sessions, Pastor Karen helped Paula recognize the misery now fading.  “In an eclipse,” she began, “the Light never leaves.  The shadow obscuring it is only temporary.  We’re never alone.  Even when our faith is shattered by loss, addiction, health crises, or other challenges, God is always there praying for your salvation,” she said.

The shadow will pass.  Know He will stand with you until it does.

Almighty Father, let the lunar eclipse serve as a great example.  When the moon covers the sun’s face, let it remind us of Your Son’s humiliation on our behalf and His death on the cross; a death that couldn’t hold him for long!  Amen

The "Wall" of Our Lives

 “Restore the joy of Your salvation to me and a spirit of willing obedience." ~ Psalm 51:12

At a Scottish seaside inn, some fishermen were relaxing after a long day at sea; drinking tea and swapping fish ‘fables.’  One made an expansive hand gesture to describe the size of the fish he claimed to have caught.  As a waitress walked past with a pot of tea, he accidentally knocked it from her hands, leaving an irregular, ugly stain against the wall. 

Surveying the damage, the furious innkeeper said, “That whole wall will have to be repainted.”

“Perhaps not,” came a stranger’s voice from a table nearby.  All eyes turned to the odd man who’d just spoken. “Let me work with the stain.  If my work meets with your approval, you won’t need to repaint it.”

He lifted the satchel from under his chair and approached the wall inquisitively.  Opening the bag, he withdrew pencils, brushes, and some jars of linseed oil and pigment.  He began to sketch and fill it in with smidgens of color and swashes of shading.  

Soon the picture of a huge deer began to emerge.  Part of the splashed tea became a magnificent rack of antlers.  The main part of the blemish became the stag’s powerful body and legs.  

The stranger then added trees and the grass of a meadow. When he’d finished, the random tea stains had been transformed into a centerpiece; something artistic, beautiful, and majestic.

 He signed the picture, paid for his meal, and left.

It took a few minutes for the enormity of what had just happened to sink in.  In less than 10 minutes, art that spoke of mountains and freedom emerged upon a whitewashed wall that previously knew neither.

The innkeeper’s eye’s brightened and his lips stretched wide into a gaping grin as he examined the wall.  “Does anyone know who that man was?” he inquired admiringly.  “The signature read ‘E.H. Landseer!’”

Turned out, they’d just been visited by the legendary wildlife painter Sir Edwin Landseer.  Knighted by Queen Victoria in 1850, Landseer was known for being able to paint with both hands at the same time.  He could paint a horse's head with his right hand, for example, while painting its tail with the left, simultaneously and quickly.

Just as Landseer had a penchant for converting stains into masterpieces, so too does God!

When He looks at the “wall” of our life, God sees every last stain and blemish; every ding, dent, and scratch.  But rather than tearing it down for its repulsiveness, God breaks out the ink and charcoal pencils. 

His grace can transform our mistakes and disappointment into a whole new masterpiece - less and less limited by our past foolishness and traumas, more and more defined by the love for which we were created.

Heavenly Father, we are but clay in Your hands and You are the potter.  Mold us and shape us into what pleases You.  Change us, transform us, perfect us with Your grace to reflect the Your image in all our thoughts and actions.  Amen

Small Miracles

“Sensible people prepare for danger.” ~ Proverbs 27:12

The view of her lake in its aquamarine hues calmed Shana’s soul like nothing else.  Thick pines lined its banks never more than a few feet apart.  Today, the only sound echoing across the cool water was of two women splashing and giggling a good distance from the shore.

Something seemed off.  Their two kayaks had overturned yet they weren’t making any attempt to flip them back over. 

Shana’s maternal instincts kicked in.  She quickly donned a life jacket and popped out in her own kayak to check on the women.  She paddled swiftly; saying a prayer for composure and mental clarity.  As she approached, Shana feared they might be in trouble. 

One was hysterical, the other nonresponsive.  Neither wore life jackets.  “Call 911,” Shana yelled.

Drowning is loud and splashy in the movies.  Victims yell and wave their arms in dramatic fashion before slipping below the surface.  Actual drowning is quiet, movements are subtle.  Victims rarely make any noise at all.  

Shana grabbed the drowning one by her bathing suit as she bobbed in and out of the water and continued screaming for help.  Her husband, Tim, and brother, Jake, rushed to their boat and sped off; the cover still half on. 

“Hurry! I’m losing her,” Shana shouted.

At the scene, Jake jumped in and stabilized the girl while Tim maneuvered the boat closer.  They struggled getting the unconscious woman out of the water and into the boat. 

Jake raced back to shore while Tim started chest compressions.  The panicked friend tried swimming away before a passing boat convinced her to climb aboard.  She was clearly inebriated which explained why they flipped and resisted efforts to help save them.

EMS met both boats at the shore where they stabilized the drowning victim before whisking her away to a hospital and helicoptered her to a trauma center for a higher level of care.  She was expected to survive.  The other woman was ticketed for BWI.  Neither would probably ever know how close they came to death, but all of those who aided in the rescue would never forget.

Thank God, several small miracles saved the women’s lives.  Shana was the real hero that day.  By God’s grace, she didn’t hesitate to help people she’d never met.  What if she hadn’t decided to paddle out to check on them?  What if the girl's bathing suit strap had snapped?  What if Tim and Jake had not been around or the boat wouldn’t start?

We cannot possibly know why God chooses to save or heal some people and not others.  But we do know that in His grace, God takes the broken pieces of our lives and transforms them to make us think and act more like Him.  We can only pray those women don’t waste their remaining days.

Father God, we’ve all anticipated this year’s boating season with great expectations.  Thank You for allowing us to use a portion of Your great creation.  We pray that our joy on the water this season is just that – fun and safe.  Amen 

Listen to the Quiet

 “Your flesh and heart may fail, yet God remains steadfast." ~ Psalm 73:26

Thoughts of being in the room with a dying person made him nervous.  But Tony promised his Grampa Phil that he wouldn't leave him; that he’d never die alone. 

Driving in this morning, he’d worried about what to say.  Those who spend a lot of time with the dying tend to say you don't need to say much.  So, he let Phil talk and at times, shared the silence.

Simply being in the room seemed to be enough.  Just a touch of his hand, being there to pass some ice chips, or softly stroking Grampa’s hair was all that was needed.  For Tony, it was his final gift to a man that’d been more like a father than his own dad.

Phil’s breathing became quietly shallow for a few minutes before he took his final breath.  For those like his Grampa who lived life with compassion as his paramount principle, dying was but a transition into another way of living.

The first thing Tony did was nothing.  He didn’t run out and call the nurse or pick up the phone.  He took a deep breath and absorbed the enormity of the moment.

He felt honored and privileged to be in Grampa’s presence in the moments after his life on earth ended.  Phil knew he was dying, so his being dead was no surprise.  It wasn’t a problem to be solved.  It was very sad, of course, but Tony felt no cause to panic.  Strangely, it didn’t feel weird.

Incredible holiness entered the space.  The curtain opened between two worlds; beauty and magic enveloped him.

Sitting by his bedside, Tony wondered what might be happening for Grampa right now?  Was it possible that these were the most profound moments in the murky hinterland between life and death?  What other spirits were here that might be supporting him on his way?   Perhaps he’d seized a cryptic opportunity to stay with Tony briefly and comfort him before transitioning on his way.

Tony sat alone for five minutes, or maybe ten; pausing to give his soul a chance to adjust.  He knew he’d never get this time back again; time to accept and adjust to its finality.

Time moved sluggishly.  Eventually, he called a few people who needed to be told and initiated systems that needed to be connected.  But Tony would forever remember this gift he’d been given.

Ultimately, we know very little about what happens when someone is dying.  After 5,000 years of medicine, we can tell how you die but not what happens next.  It’s enough for me to believe that a loving God has an eternal plan, revealed only after we enter His magnificent Kingdom.

“Holy Father, let me live for You every day bestowed upon me, yet when my time comes, when dying sits before me, when my breathing becomes a sporadic rasp, look beyond the physical and see that I am in the arms of Angels.  Amen” ~ Angela Abraham

Grief Brought Them Together

 “The Lord is near to the heartbroken and saves those crushed in spirit.” ~ Psalm 34:18

The little puppy had been Jason’s companion in quiet moments and those flashes of hilarity that dogs bring.  With big looping curls and a tail in perpetual motion, Gracie had been by his side when he and Maria exchanged marriage vows.  She watched them become parents.  For ten years, Gracie silently observed their daily lives.

Jason loved her - perhaps more than he realized.  During her last days, he often found himself holding his breath, hoping that by doing so, he might stop time as well, keeping her death at bay.

After Gracie crossed the Rainbow Bridge, Jason took her to be cremated.  Grief nearly stopped his heart when they handed over her collar.  Gracie’s death left an emptiness not just in the house, but also in his heart; a void nothing seemed to fill.

Friends encouraged him to get another dog, a young pup whose antics would make him smile, but he couldn’t bear the thought.  Loving and losing a dog hurt too much.

Eventually, he found himself looking through dog bios online.  One photo caught his attention.  Maddie was the kind of dog you shied away from at a shelter.  She was nearly blind, could barely walk, and had patches of fur missing.  She was “10-ish” when her owner passed away leaving no provision for her care.  Heartbroken, Maddie could die alone. 

So, Jason adopted her; hoping to give her a loving home for her remaining months.  They started her on quality dog food and medication for her arthritis.  Maddie quickly became a different dog.  

She still struggled with mobility, but soon adapted to her new surroundings.  She miraculously came to life; charming every person she met along the way.

Maddie’s joy filled their home for more than a year before her body finally gave out; her infectious smile beaming until the very end.  Jason knew bringing Maddie home would change her life … he never realized how much she would change his.

Jason found comfort knowing the entire family loved Maddie.  Yet holding Maddie’s collar brought a punch that landed like a Mack truck.  But it felt different.  It hurt to lose that sweet gal so soon, yet the grief couldn’t overshadow the joy she’d carried into their lives.

On the drive home, he thought about how God had brought them all together; at the perfect time and for the perfect reason.  Because they needed each other.  Maddie had filled the emptiness in their home and in his heart.  But they helped her too by giving her a home during her final days - a home where she was happy, well cared for, and loved.  If given the chance, he’d do it all again.

Lord of Living Things, God, we look forward to being reunited with our pets who have crossed or will cross the Rainbow Bridge to the place where we, our loved ones and Your creatures great and small will live together forever.  Amen