Pitchin’ In

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, stories have emerged of acts of kindness, generosity and service.  The stories are innumerable and no doubt you have seen many of them. They range from people in the crowd who were watching the marathon racing to help those injured with immediate first aid attention, to law enforcement, EMT’s and other medical personnel who responded in such a way that the death toll was limited and injuries were less severe than they might have been.

I saw the story of a teenage girl who was in the crowd and struck by shrapnel. A fellow spectator who designed a makeshift tourniquet to stave off the bleeding tended her to first. A police officer came and helped get her to a medical tent.  A marathon volunteer spoke to her to calm her fears and lessen her anxiety and a doctor, who was in the tent originally to serve runners, tended to her injuries. Their combined efforts saved her from losing her leg and may have saved her life.  The story depicted her meeting all of these people a week later and her expressions of gratitude.  It was very moving.

              

This was only one story of many that would be similar, or even more amazing!

              

This past week I have witnessed similar efforts upfront and personally. Acts that were not necessarily life saving but amazing acts of kindness, generosity and service. 

              

Last Thursday the lower level of our facility (22, 000 sq. ft.) was filled with an inch or two of water.  Every classroom, every open space, our youth room, storage; water was everywhere.  People immediately sprung into action.  Members of our congregation who own and operate businesses that clean up such “messes” sprung into action and their crews were immediately on the scene.  Congregants called us to ask how they could help and went into overdrive, some to lead the charge, others to assist in any way possible.

              

Our ministry leaders proved to be wonderfully resilient and resourceful as they made alternate plans for Sunday morning and for our weekday events.

              

Monday night we hosted a “drywall removal party”.  The walls on the lower level had to have the drywall removed on at least one side at a 2 ft. height.  People were invited to show up any time between 4 and 9. 

I was on duty to utilize my amazing construction skills.  I am an expert at demolition, not construction!  As I was working, I was amazed at the people who were showing up to pitch in.  Not only the number of people who showed up, but the demographic.  Business owners, working along side high school students; full-time homemakers wielding hammers and pry bars next to accountants, lawyers, and pastors; fathers and sons, sons younger than teens, chipping in to help.  It was an amazing outpouring of kindness, generosity, and service. 

And that outpouring didn’t stop in our building.  Many people in our body were doing the same thing for neighbors and friends and neighbors whose homes had been flooded.

This doesn’t surprise me because the body of Christ does this naturally.  In crises we step up and help.  Even though it doesn’t surprise me, I still am amazed.  It is a visible reminder of why I love the body of Christ and how God’s are used to minister to one another.

I hope you all have a body you can rely on in your time of need.

~Rev

Replacement Tragedies

The nation was shocked, appalled, horrified, offended, and yes, terrorized on Monday with the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Constant news coverage and an avalanche of commentary on social media dominated our lives.  The incident raised questions we had put away for a while.  Why?  Who?  How do we make sense of this?  Are we safe anywhere? 

Worship and prayer services have been and are being held.  Flags are flying at half-mast and dark clouds hang over our lives.  It dominates our conversations.

              

I didn’t want to write about it. 

I wondered if that meant I was becoming calloused to these things.  Or, worse set, terrorism was becoming part of my new normal.  I didn’t want to write about it because I have nothing new to say that hasn’t been said.  I felt speechless. 

              

But I am writing about it because I don’t want people to think I didn’t care, or wasn’t touched, or didn’t think it was awful, or didn’t feel compassion for the people who were injured and for those who lost loved ones.  I do feel badly.  It is terrible.  Evil is pervasive.  I just have nothing new to say. 

              

Today, as I write (Thursday morning), the focus of people in the Chicago land has changed.  The Boston tragedy has been replaced as a horrible incident by our own concern for flooding.  The city of Elmhurst floods easily, as do surrounding communities.  We had significant rain yesterday, last night and into early this morning.  Many of our families have flooded basements.  Our church building has an inch of water in the basement. 

              

This is how quickly things can change in life.  A terrorist incident can be pushed out of being foremost in our minds by something closer to home, the tyranny of the urgent, or our personal crisis. 

              

Faith carries us. We have faith in God because of God’s faithfulness.  God has led, healed, and empowered people to move on after tragedies.  I have recently watched some of the Sandy Hook parents talk about their grief and loss.  They still have tears, pain, darkness and mourning.  But they also move on through faith and communities of people. 

              

I have faith that God will do the same following the tragedy in Boston and the flooding in the Chicago area. 

              

In the mean time, I remember these words from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:

        “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  (Matthew 5:4)

              

I mourn for and with those who suffer from the tragedy in Boston and in the flooding here.

~ Rev

                

The Last Word

Is it just me, or does it happen to you as well?  You make a decision, you pronounce a truth, you set a course, and soon it is challenged by life events.

“I am not buying any more shoes.”  Then the pair you just “have to have” appear on the sale rack of the local store.

“We are not using electronic devices for a week.”  But the pressure from family members and within yourself becomes so intense you decide that was a rash decision and you have to look at your Facebook page.

“I am going to take all of my vacation days this year.”  But then you start to look at the calendar and the demands on our schedule and you can’t imagine how that would be possible.

              

Sometimes it is something much more profound.  Last week on Easter Sunday I proclaimed to our congregation that “…life has a way of throwing things at us that dominate our lives, but God always has the last word.”

              

Today I have things on my plate that dominate my life and make God’s last word harder to hear.  Today I am having what one author calls a “…terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”

              

Last night I received an email from the young adult son of a congregant describing his father’s battle with cancer as having hit “rock bottom.”  The gist of the news was that the only possible turn around for his father was a miracle from God.  I went into an immediate funk, not that I don’t believe God could do a miracle and not that I wouldn’t pray for a miracle, but the news was depressing.

              

This morning I received word that a pastor friend from Michigan is in the last stages of his battle against cancer.  He, too, has a young family.

              

“…life has a way of throwing things at us that dominate our lives, but God always has the last word.”  My words from last Sunday were being put to the test. 

As I write this morning (Thursday), I believe in my heart and my head that God always has the last word.  But it is some of the words before that final word that weigh me down.  Today Jesus’ wrestling in Gesthemane, and his suffering on the cross with a sense of abandonment and questioning, will dominate my life more than the light of the resurrection.  Jesus lived with some heavy, dark clouds of suffering, anguish and questioning even though he knew full well the ultimate outcome.  I will live there a while myself, knowing full well that at some point God will bring me to a resurrection moment.

There are lots of words in my life right now that are creating dark clouds, God will have the last word.