Mind the Gap!

Mind the Gap.  As a pre-teen I was short, skinny, active, but not really athletic. However, I did have a large imagination and adventurous spirit. I had been watching the Olympics that Summer and was fascinated by the pole vaulters who seemed to easily run with a long pole, stick it in the ground, thrust their feet upward and float over the horizontal bar with ease and flop back down to the giant foam mat on their backs. As the rest of my family was gardening in our large garden at our mini-farm on the Little River in Tennessee, I was thinking through how I could use a tomato stake to pole vault myself over the barbed wire fence so I didn’t have to go all the way to the gate, or risk getting stuck by the barbs trying to climb between or under the fence. As my mind worked, I could picture myself flying easily over the fence. Rather than flopping on my back, I would just land on my feet, since the tomato stake was only slightly taller than I was. So, while my parents and sister were distracted by pulling weeds on the other side of the garden, I decided, rather than continuing the boring task of weeding, I would launch myself to the other side of the fence. I grabbed the closest tomato stake, held it with both hands over my shoulder, pointed it toward the middle of the fence and ran.  Did I mention, I was in my work boots and Sears ToughSkin jeans. I planted the pole just like I saw the pole vaulters do, jumped, and lifted my feet, but for some reason, I didn’t get very high. The bottom cuff of my jeans hooked on a barb on the top of the fence and I fell on my head. I was partially suspended upside down with one leg securely fastened to the fence. As I yelled out, my sister was the first to find me. She was laughing so hard, seeing the tomato stake, and guessing what had just happened. She was not strong enough to free me from my inverted position. So, I had her help me take my boots off, and look the other way, as I slid out of my jeans in my skivvies to freedom. I wasn’t able to clear the fence, it was so embarrassing. Needless to say, when high school came around I did not try out for pole vaulting, as a matter of fact I kept to the water as a swimmer, rather than anything track related. 

 

Jesus told a story of a large gap between heaven and hell and there is no way to get to the other side once our earthly life is over.  He says, a wicked rich man who lived in opulence had died, as did a godly beggar who lived near him named Lazarus. Jesus says of the wicked man, “In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’”(Luke 16:23–26) When we die there will be no pole vaulting ourselves into heaven from hell, we have to decide here and now what we will do with Jesus’ offer of salvation for us. When we are dead, it will be too late to decide that we want to belong with God and His people and live in His peace for eternity. We will have already chosen to keep belonging to the Evil One and we will be in torment.  So, choose this day whom you will belong to.

 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

 

In Over Your Head?*

 In over your head? In college, I once went skiing with some friends in Colorado. It was a great trip! We had skied the Carolinas, but given the chance to ski in Colorado we jumped at the opportunity. My roommate’s girlfriend had been invited to visit her cousin who was living in Denver. We slept all over the floors, couches and beds and arose early each morning. We crammed six people into a two door Corolla, tossed our rented skis on the ski rack and drove the hour to an hour and a half to the local resorts. We skied a different resort everyday: Vail, Breckenridge, Copper, and Winter Park. Our favorite was Copper. One of our crew had skied Colorado much more than we had and knew the best parts of these mountains. He introduced us to “tree bashing!,” a term for skiing off the groomed slope between the trees where there was usually some unskied powder. This was great fun until one friend, who had skied the least, straddled a tree. Fortunately he was not going too fast and was not hurt.  But he then had a fall into the deep powder… to our surprise this 6 foot tall friend disappeared. The powder was well over his head and so fluffy he could not get out. We were able to get to him and put his skies flat on top of the snow so he could climb out onto them. Those were some pretty scary moments, not knowing if we could get him out. Then it happened to me! I fell into the deep powder, but all my friends were down the mountain from me and didn't know I was in over my head.  There was a moment of panic, not being able to see anything below the snow surface, not knowing if I had enough energy to get out of the deep snow onto my skies and ski out of the woods.  There was a moment of exhausted hallelujah when I was finally able to get my head above the snow, rest my body on my skis before  standing up and skiing out. 

When God’s people had gotten off the right path, and fallen into great darkness with their sin, the Prophet Isaiah foretold of a time when God would redeem them. He says, “ The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”(Isaiah 9:2 ESV) He goes on to tell them of a Savior who would rescue them and give them peace. He says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ”(Isaiah 9:6 ESV) You may recognize these words from Handel’s Messiah.  When we get off the right path and in over our heads into darkness, Jesus, our Wonderful Counselor, who is mighty enough to rescue us, wants to give us His light, His peace and restore us to a healthy relationship with Himself and others around us.  We have to remember Who we belong to. He is God and He sees us when we are in so deep we can’t see anything. In our despair, He hears us, is glad to be with us, loves us and wants rescue us. That is a reason to sing hallelujah. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!