The meaning of LIFE

The Host Site (Crestview)

A while back our church hosted a two day regional meeting of our denomination.  This meeting happens twice a year and involves people who serve as pastors, elders, or other denominational functionaries.  Our region covers four states, and despite the far flung geography, we are a fairly tight community, especially among us pastors. I always look forward to attending our regional meetings because of the relationships I have with so many different people that I don't get to see enough. 

Our agenda for this meeting was overflowing, so we felt the pressure to get down to work by starting earlier than usual.  As usual, we opened with 30 minutes of worship as a reminder to keep our priorities straight.  But as soon as we said 'amen', we got down to business.   

These guys are QUICK!

We were about an hour into the meeting when one of the pastors from a small congregation located out in the Plains of our country suddenly leans over in his chair and falls to the floor.  Because he was sitting at the rear of the room, at first it didn't draw much attention.  The two people who were sitting by him started to attend to him.  But then the severity of this medical emergency became apparent to everyone, and we halted the meeting.  We got him situated and called 911. The ambulance got there in about 7 minutes, and he was at the hospital 10 minutes after that.  

But the whole situation is like "YIKES!"  What does one do in that scenario? Well, we did what we could...we made him comfortable, we called for help, and we prayed.  But after he was carted off to the ambulance, what did we do then?  In retrospect, it seems odd, but we had our coffee break and then we went back to our meeting.  I remember standing there and being amazed at how we tend to function in this world.  It's like once the crisis passes, we say to ourselves: "OK...carry on." Never mind that one of our own has just suffered a medical emergency that will permanently change the outlook of his life...we're back at our agenda. We have reports to hear, exams to be given, disputes to resolve.  Basically, we gotta do stuff.   

The more I think about it, that IS our life, isn't it?  Every day we get up and face the day with all its challenges and hurdles.  Some days have more than others.  But whatever we face, we try to make the best of it...at least most of the time.  If there is a crisis, we deal with it.  Once it passes, we're back to the routine.

Is that the sum total of our life? Getting up and facing the day and making the best of it? (The author of the Book of Ecclesiastes would say "yes", but I won't go there.)  Trying to figure out the meaning of "life" is a deep and existential question that involves far more than I could possibly hope to cover here.  So instead of the broad deep question, how about this simpler, more narrow one: How do we view our individual life?

So often I think we operate with the assumption that we 'own' our life.  We have control.  We get to do what we want.  To some degree that is true. We are self-autonomous to some measure.  We get to live our own life...mostly driven by our decisions and chosen direction.  Or at least, that is what we tell ourselves.  But at the same time, we don't live our life in a vacuum.  It's not like we're the single living entity that inhabits planet earth. Our lives are lived out contemporaneously among billions of other lives.  And all those lives are colliding and bouncing off each other like water molecules plunging over a waterfall.

Yes and no...

Maybe a better way to think about it is that we don't actually 'own' life itself. We have a life, but we don't 'own' it...at least, not completely.  We need to recognize than our own individual life is an incredibly small part of something far larger...something we maybe should call LIFE (as in all capital letters.) LIFE that has breadth and depth which far exceeds the small event horizons of our individuality. LIFE that stands all by itself, and doesn't need us, but rather, we need it.  Here is the thing we need to admit to ourselves: We don't possess LIFE. Rather, we get the privilege to participate in LIFE.  We get to influence it.  Shape it.  Impact it. Leave our mark on it.  But we don't "own" it.  To the contrary, it owns us.  We need to remember that LIFE was going on long before we joined the parade...and LIFE will continue long after we've slipped away from earthly bonds.  As we've all frequently blurted out with ignorance of the deeper implications: "LIFE goes on."  Yes it does...with or without us.

So as I reflect back over the events of this past weekend...it taught me something important about LIFE: To know that my days of participating in LIFE are numbered.  That LIFE is full of blessings and victories, as well as hurdles and challenges. And above all, the opportunity to participate in LIFE is the best gift...no matter what each day brings.  (Maybe Ecclesiastes does have it right.)

Keep the faith,

Floods & God

 

In September of 2013, the community of Boulder suffered a natural disaster of epic proportions.  It rained for four days straight.  That may not be much to people who live on relatively flat ground, but when it happens in the mountains, none of that water stays where it falls.  It all starts running downhill...fast.  The media started to use an interesting metaphor in describing the amount of rain.  They said it was raining in 'biblical proportions.'  A pastor friend of mine pushed back against that characterization by pointing out is wasn't as if God was hovering over the Rocky Mountains repeatedly pushing the 'rain' button. Rather, the event of last month were the result of naturally occurring meteorological forces...albeit forces that don't come together very often...like once every 100 years.  But they do happen.  And when they happen, we get results which turns meandering streams into raging rivers that literally move mountains...and bridges...and roads...and buildings...and anything else we've situated on the land.  And yet, when these things happen, people want to blame God.  (We usually do when things aren't going our way.)   

Most of the devastation
occurred in the mountains.

But when it comes to natural disasters, I think we blame God unfairly.

This is not an attempt to minimize the tragic loss of life, or the massive scale of physical destruction caused by natural disasters.  They are truly lamentable and I grieve with everyone who has suffered because of one.  However, I am suggesting that it is healthy to keep things in their proper perspective.  We need to remember that we live on a dynamic planet that was created by God.  More to the point, God imbued this place with a creative process didn’t stop with the first Sabbath. Earthquakes create new islands and volcanoes birth new hills.  At the same time, erosive action gives rivers new courses and felled trees disintegrate to provide nutrients for new flora.  It is a never ending process of construction and destruction that includes blizzards, droughts, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and all other manner of natural disasters.  It is part and parcel to the privilege of living on God’s green earth.   

To help me keep that in perspective, I remember when I would drive up highway US-36 toward the mountain town of Estes Park.  Along the way I would marvel at the rugged splendor of canyon scenery, and in that, would see the beauty of God’s creative hand.  Or, to borrow from the Belgic Confession, “Creation was before my eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures and landscapes, both great and small, was as letters on the pages to make me ponder the invisible things of God.”  But after the floods, I ask myself: "Am I justified in protesting

God's creative process at work...it's just that
the road got in the way

God’s construction method for making those canyons?  Is it right for me to object to the manner in which He changes the topography of His world? Can I be mad at God because of how his hand has traced the letter on the page of his Creation?"

Of course we wouldn’t be the first to wrestle with the question.  (e.g. the Book of Job).  Nor am I suggesting that God causes disasters for the sake of simply redecorating Creation.  Instead, the Apostle Paul points us to a different reality when he writes in Romans 8 that both we and Creation live in eager expectation of the coming of God’s Kingdom; that life on this earth is not as good as it gets.  

So when I struggle to make sense of the pain, suffering and destruction caused by natural disasters, I remember a line from the Heidelberg Q&A 1, which reminds me:  “God watches over us in such a way that not a hair can fall from our head without the will of our Father in Heaven; In fact, all things must work together for our salvation.”  I take that to mean that God’s redemptive work of restoring us AND His Creation cannot be stopped.  So while we grieve and lament for losses in the wake of a natural disaster, we are reassured that our eternal security and His coming Kingdom is never in doubt. 

Keep the faith,