Original post at http://wrestledwithangels.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/why-we-remember/

Lather on the SPF 35 and throw some ribs on the grill, summertime is here. The Memorial Day holiday marks the beginning of the season of flip-flops and homemade strawberry ice cream. Many folks will take advantage of the long weekend to soak in some sun. In the midst of our BBQ’s, parades, and family festivities lets not also forget that it is a day of remembrance.

Memorial Day has its roots in the commemoration of Union Soldiers who gave their lives in the Civil War. It has since expanded to a day of tribute to the dead soldiers of all the nation’s wars. It is a holiday of remembrance.

What good is remembering? What good does it do to set aside a day once a year where we show reverence to the men and women who have sacrificed lives for our freedom? Does it make us better citizens? Politicians use the occasion to give partisan speeches. Entertainment industry takes advantage of the long weekend to host concerts. Dog-owners take advantage of the parade crowds to show-off their patriotic pooch. Articles like this will be written, pleading us to remember.

There are two types of remembering. The first type of remembering has to do with recollection. It is called nostalgia. It belongs to the folks who say we need to go back to “the good ole days.” This type of remembering is based on emotions. Our emotions govern what we remember and we get stuck in the past. It forces us into denial. Instead of moving forward in life, we want to retreat. Instead of claiming our future, we want to manipulate it. Instead of trusting in the mystery of life, we feel robbed. I got a few relatives who have no problem participating in this type of remembering. The second type of remembering is active. It is making present the memory of the past. The memory of yesterday gives us hope and direction for the future because they tell us something about ourselves. This type of remembering finds redemptive moments in the past and brings them into the present in order that we may live in the future. Remembering is for more than taking a trip down memory lane it is about finding hope to live in the future. We remember the sacrifices in order that we may be hopeful for tomorrow.

It is the latter kind of remembering that is being asked for on this weekend. Active remembering of the sacrifices made gives us hope for a better tomorrow. Hope allows us to look beyond ourselves to what can be for those coming after us. Our politicians do not get this. Hope is not necessary to start wars but hope is necessary to see a world where war is not needed. A world where the Old Testament prophet says, “Swords are turned into plowshares.” It is this type of remembering that evokes the imagination to consider a future with no more war. This weekend, we remember.

What are your Memorial Day rituals?

Original post at http://wrestledwithangels.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/thirty-seven-trips-around-the-sun/

On a Sunday evening in 1976, I went from being inside my mother’s womb with a straw stuck to my belly to breathing oxygen. I arrived on May 23^rd with legs extended, arms reaching, and vocal cords vibrating telling the world that I am alive.

It has been thirty-seven years of traveling around the sun. The elements have left me a little rusty. Unfortunately, regrets are a part of the journey. Disappointments are not too far behind. Certain days it is only by the grace of God that I can find the strength to look in the mirror and identify with the one who stares back. I have picked up a lot of souvenirs along the way.

Not all the souvenirs have been bad. I am blessed with an amazing family. My two boys remind me that laughter is necessary for each day. My wife is a constant presence when I begin to lose my balance.  I am grateful for the tools that my parents have given me for my travel bag. My brothers and their families give me a direction to take when the travel gets lonely.

There was a time in my life when I would spend a lot of mental energy on thinking what might have been. I have lost my way at times thinking on what might be. But thirty-seven years continue to teach me that what is important for the journey around the sun is what is before me at the moment.

If God refuses to grant me with another thirty-seven years, I have been a blessed man. It has been an amazing trip. The heartbreak of life is not that it is too short, but that we wait so long to begin.

The will of God is not found in the destination. The will of God is found in the lifetime journey toward faithfulness. Enjoy the journey.

Original post at http://wrestledwithangels.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/and-there-was-light-2/

On Tuesday, May 21^st a deadly tornado plowed its way through Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City. Resident Kim Limke describes the moment like a “freight train coming out of a lion’s mouth.” At least twenty-four people lost their lives and over two hundred injured, when the tornado left a trail of destruction seventeen miles long.

The media showed pictures of local residents sitting, standing, and weeping among the debris. The images spoke of chaos. Mother’s clinging to their children as they scanned the flattened landscape of their life’s treasures that lay bare and naked among that of their neighbors. The scene speaks of vulnerability, fear, and hopelessness.

 We all have something or someone in our lives that we can use the words formless, empty, or void. Death, the loss of a job, the foreclosure of a home, the breakdown of a relationship, a sickness, a force of nature all leave us in a confused mess.

 The story of creation found in the book of Genesis is not just about how God made the heavens and the earth. It is a story about how God takes things that are formless, void, and empty and make something beautiful out of them. Chaos is how the world was before God took the role of artist and started creating. Before God spoke the world was dark and in a big mess. Some translations say it was a “formless void,” or “a vast waste,” or “formless and empty.” Other words, God didn’t have much to work with. The earth was without order and no creative or redemptive purpose. But that all changed.

 The account in Genesis says, “In the beginning God. . .” To people who feel that God has abandoned them this statement is more than a historical record. It is a confessional. When all is in disarray, darkness, and nothing seems worth redeeming, there is still hope because God is present. And God is not just some bystander who watches from a distance as the world is thrown into a whirlwind of chaos. God does not just let the chaos exist. God gets mixed up with the chaos and decides to make something beautiful. If God can take all of this dark, chaotic mess and make something as beautiful as creation then yes, God can do something with our lives when it is splintered and thrown into uncertainty. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:1-3).

 If you would like to assist in the tornado recovery, give to the United Methodist Committee on Relief. UMCOR designates 100% for relief and will be committed to being on the ground for the rebuilding process. Go to www.umcor.org to donate today. 

Original post at http://wrestledwithangels.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/happy-mothers-day-2013/

It has to be tough being a mom today. With the invention of Pinterest, mama blogs, and the suburban housewife, I don’t know how women manage. The fear of electro-magnetic waves and red-dye food coloring causing our kids to turn into monsters has all mothers on overload. I remember the days when the danger zone of our highways were tattooed, burly Harley riders but now one must be on the look out for the caffeinated driving mama with the stair-stepping family tattooed on her SUV.

Times have changed. Can we go back to the days when we had kids for the purpose of free labor? What about the time before bragging bumper stickers, shoes with wheels, or Abercrombie & Fitch?

Mothers, I salute you! This day is for the one who loves us when everyone else calls us an idiot. This day is for the one who remembers our birthday and the birthday of her husband’s mother. Enjoy the day without the pressure of crock pot meals, weight-loss mania, or soccer practice. With all the pressures put on you from today’s society I say, enjoy your day. Thank you for being the only one that still loves us when we hitchhike cross-country and get piercings in unspeakable places. Mom, we entered into this world causing you tremendous pain. At times our decisions still break your heart. You never give up. And that’s why there is a Mother’s Day.

“Her children rise up and call her blessed” Proverbs 31:28.  Yes, we do!

Original post at http://wrestledwithangels.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/call-her-blessed/

I was in the delivery room when my wife entered into motherhood. There were no quirky Hallmark one-liners filled with sentimental gibberish. Instead I witnessed intense stares, swollen cheeks, and a request for an epidural shot to numb the body from pain. The appeal to breath properly came across like a gorilla giving yoga lessons. I tried to comfort with words like, “It’s going to be okay. You are doing great. I am proud of you. I’m getting hungry.” In hindsight, the words should have simply been written in a card and given to her after she brought our children in the world. We did hold hands – rather passionately, I might add.

My wife is a remarkable woman. She holds down three fulltime jobs – an administrator, mother, and wife. She manages accounts, keeps our children clean, and teaches me table manners. I am truly blessed with a remarkable lady. Without her I am lost, a drifter without a home port. The mother of my children knows when her family is off-center. Her love is the gravitational pull that keeps us at home. When I have lost my way – which happens more times than I would like to admit – she shows me how to live again.

As I reflect on mother’s day and the wife who has chosen that role in our family, I am humbled. Our children are blessed to be able to call her mom. I know that I am here to learn from her. I am here to offer whatever kind of security I can give but also know that it is her that protects my heart.

“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband too, and he praises her” Proverbs 31: 28.

Original post at http://wrestledwithangels.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/a-word-to-graduates-be-available/

Do you remember the words of advice that you were given as you graduated from High School or College? What word of advice would you give a graduate today?

I don’t remember much about my graduation other than I was glad to be graduating. The irony of commencement speeches is how individuals motivate graduating seniors to reach for the stars, keep on keeping on, and never give up when in reality they don’t have a clue. For twelve years the students have been living one day from the next and now all of a sudden they must start thinking about 401k’s and 529 college savings plan for their own children. Now their minds must shift from day-to-day thinking to long-term career focus. I remember coming back from my graduation trip sitting in my friend’s truck gazing out the window thinking “now what.”

If I was going to share a piece of advice to graduating seniors, high school or college, it would be to stay open. I would tell students to be open to the move of God’s Spirit. Not power, not prestige, not knowledge, not money but availability is what God is looking for. God is looking for people to put their heart on the table so he can put it on the map. God is longing to make a difference in the world one life at a time and his plan is to use us.

An inspiring story made the rounds of all the major news outlets in the wake of September 11^th. It had to do with a young man from Indiana. William Harvey, a violin and composition major at New York’s renowned Julliard School. He wrote, “Sunday, September 16^th was the most incredible and moving experience of my life,” and went on to say that the Julliard School organized a quartet to play at the 69^th Regiment Armory in Manhattan; the place where families of those missing from the World Trade Center were sent to wait for the news of their loved ones.

Harvey arrived a little later than the other members of the quartet, and they played for six hours, nonstop. When the rest of the group simply could play no more, he volunteered to stay and play a while longer. A Sergeant Major asked him if he would be willing to play for the soldiers who were coming back from digging through the rubble at Ground Zero. He said that there were volunteers upstairs who were going to give them massages, and he could think of nothing more soothing than getting a massage and listening to violin music at the same time.

William Harvey played for several more hours, everything from classical music, patriotic songs to Amazing Grace. By the end of the night, he said that his strings were shot and he had no bow control. He forgot segments of some of the music and had to improvise, but the soldiers didn’t seem to care. When he knew he could play no longer, he asked the Sergeant Major if it would be appropriate to play the national anthem as his last number. The sergeant called the soldiers in the room to attention and as William Harvey played the anthem, 300 soldiers from the 69^th Regiment saluted an invisible flag. The 69^th Regiment is the most decorated in the United States Army.

As he went back to Julliard by taxi, he realized that this was the most meaningful experience he had ever had as a musician and as a person. He said that, at Julliard, teachers and students expect technical perfection, but that night Harvey played for the most appreciative audience of his life. William Harvey used his God-given gift, however imperfect it was at the time, to offer a helping hand and bring comfort to others. He made himself available.

Harvey describes the experience, “And how did it change me as a person? Let’s just say that, next time I want to get into a petty argument about whether Richter or Horowitz was better, I’ll remember that when I asked the Colonel to describe the pit formed by the tumbling of the Towers, he couldn’t. Words only go so far, and even music can only go a little further from there.

Only those who keep themselves open can bring music to a world crying out in pain. Living in availability is freedom. By making myself available, I am not going to be weighed down by trivial matters. I am not going to be controlled by things or other people. I am free to be the person who God has called me to be. The world is changed by those who are available to respond when the world cries and God calls.  

What word of advice would you give to 2013 graduates?