Eyes on Jesus

As we approach the Easter celebration and commemoration of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection I’m encouraging us to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God," (Hebrews 12:2). I've given an example below. I'd like to hear from any of you if you have an example. They don't have to be as long-winded (yawn) as mine. But, hey, how is it working for you to remember to "fix your eyes upon Jesus?"

I was invited to join the team at The Lord’s Pantry last week. The Lord’s Pantry distributes food to about 150 needy families per week. This is a big operation that is staffed 100% by volunteers. It is run by Dale and Elsie who are well enough advanced in years to have great-grandchildren. They have been doing this every week for 20 years. You might want to pause and think about that for a bit.

Here’s what it looks like. At 6:30 a.m. on Friday mornings the sawhorses and plywood are set up for an assembly line in the fellowship hall of a generous church in Commerce City. Canned goods are pulled from the storage room. There is a pile of 300 loaves of bread that was donated that morning. 1500 pounds of flour is on the way. Someone is rounding up a bargain on fresh produce.

For the next couple of hours groceries from different sources, and people, drift in. It is a merry band. Everyone pitches in dividing up the food to make precisely 154 bags of groceries, which is the number of households they are serving that day. Some of the volunteers will be beneficiaries. Most of the bags are delivered to shut-ins in the immediate neighborhood. A volunteer leads in prayer and we bag groceries.
Bob and I leave to deliver 32 bags of groceries. Bob has been doing this for a long time. He is a Commerce City native and a retired school teacher. Our stops are brief, but Bob exudes genuine care to every single person. He makes each visit personal. He knows everyone by name, their history, their circumstance in life, their family. Every recipient can’t wait to see Bob. They love this man.

I can’t help but think of Jesus telling us that when we serve the least of these we serve Him. I can’t help but remember that James said that pure religion includes taking care of widows in their distress. I don’t know what a worship service or a Bible class would look like with these 40 volunteers from a lot of different congregations, but it looked like church to me. It was being with Jesus. It was great.

By the way, a corporate sponsor is matching any donations made to The Lord’s Pantry in March and April. You might want to talk to Dale or Elsie Quillen about that.

CO

Many, many times I have turned to the Mary and Martha passage from Luke 10:38-41 and found inspiration. In brief (Too brief really. Might was well read it yourself.), while Martha was taking care of the guests, her sister, Mary, was sitting with Jesus. Martha complained and Jesus said to her, “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.”
We can all identify with Martha. There are many things to do, and who will do them if not us? There is work to do and, yes, we get worried and upset about those things. Sure, I wish I was on retreat, walking in the woods, praying, worshipping, reflecting on Scripture, repairing a house in Haiti. However, there are other demands barking at me. There is work to be done.

Here is a little prayer I heard recently that helps me retreat in the midst of a workaday world:

“Lord, may I remember the One thing as I attend to many things.”

I’ve found it helpful to stop from time to time in the course of doing many things and center down with this sentence prayer. Then reengage the responsibilities before me.

Hands and feet

Thanks for you comments Susan. It brought me back to this verse by Teresa of Avila.

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours. No hands but yours, no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world.
Yours are the feet with which Christ is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which Christ is to bless all people now.”

This is true. We see it happening all the time. We can only live up to it by living in to it.

We seem to carry a false expectation that because of different kinds of suffering that are so regrettable, that God has left the room. Yet, it is at the very place of engaging that suffering on a personal level that we see the Light that is not extinguished in the darkness.

Be available to God's invitation for you to come along side another person experiencing great difficulty.

The Lord is with you,
CO

Back to Haiti. 2-17-10

Let’s return to the subject of the tragedy of Haiti we were looking at immediately in the aftermath of the earthquake. Here is a report from our own Dr. Katy who has recently returned from serving on a volunteer medical team.

“Our medical team of myself, three RN's, one army medic and one navy corpsman treated over 400 patients during the 8 days we were doing medical care. Many of these patients had complicated deep wounds from primary lacerations that had been improperly dressed or taken care of. These wounds required debridement, and rather intensive follow up care. We were glad to take over the care of a medical team from [another state] which had just left, and to see these patients frequently while we were there. We also saw splinted but not cast fractures, complications of splinting and casting, and many children with chronic needs such as malnutrition and infectious illnesses.

An example of God's provision for our team: An ER doctor from [Colorado], who sat on the plane next to one our RN's, was mobilized through an accredited NGO, but had no way of getting to Port-au-Prince. So this doctor, Dr. [Mike], hitched a ride with us - stayed at [our mission’s] hostel overnight in Santo Domingo, came along for our bus ride over the very chaotic border, attended church service with us the first night we arrived, and then went of the next morning to this big medical complex set up by the University of Miami out at the UN compound near the airport in Port-au-Prince.

One of the first patients that was brought into our little clinic on our first day was a woman carried in by her family on a blanket. She had been struck by a motorcycle that morning (the traffic in Haiti is just plain nuts) and I was very concerned with her exam - worried about internal bleeding and was almost certain she had a hip fracture. Her condition was far beyond any care we could offer at our little clinic. A local official informed me there was no hospital or place for us to take this woman. So then we thought of Dr. Mike! The team loaded this woman up, and drove to the UN complex where they had dropped off Dr. Mike in the morning. As they arrived, the guards at the gate were being told to turn everyone away - there had been a riot there last night. The team sort of laid low with the woman until the administrator went away, then the guards let them through, and when they arrived at this huge complex with many tents, Dr. Mike came walking out just as they pulled up! So the woman got seen and triaged right away - she had no internal bleeding but did indeed have a hip fracture, and was put into the waiting area for an operation to pin her hip.

This opened the door for another young man with an amazing bright and cheerful spirit, to be taken to this hospital for an unstable fracture in his upper leg that had only been splinted with cardboard for 16 days. When we checked on him 5 days later, he had received the operation to put hardware in the leg fracture to stabilize it, and was doing very well.

So thanks again for the prayers and support - I am really grateful for the opportunity to be so blessed working alongside these amazing people to respond to Haiti's need.“ Dr. Katy

In the original blog I wrote that God’s love isn’t hypothetical. The love that emerges in a tragedy matches the loss. It doesn’t compensate for the loss, but it is as real. How great the tragedy. How great the love. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. That is real life.

We can and will grapple with the “Whys” of a great tragedy. Those are big questions. However, the more significant questions are, “Will puzzling over ‘Whys’ paralyze me into inactivity? Or will I wade into the fray bereft of answers and equipped only with God’s compassion and my willingness to be available?”

It is from those who enter the fray that we learn that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. That isn’t an answer to the big “Whys.” It is, however, the redemptive response to the tragedies that inspire those questions. Thank you Dr. Katy, and the countless unnamed “amazing people,” for being the heart of God.

CO

1-28-10

I heard a Bible verse in staff meeting this past week that spoke to my condition. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:13-14 (NIV).
This is such a fine “one thing.” We could all sit in a circle, and I imagine everyone one of us could describe what it means in our circumstance, this very day, to let go of something in the past and press on toward the goal for which God has called us.
If I let go of what lies behind that probably means I need to forgive someone. More often than not that someone is myself. Can I let that thing go and trust that God is big enough to handle the situation? And if I press on toward the prize to which God has called me, that will pretty much color how I do what I do today. And that seems to give me less to let go of tomorrow.
Paul knew what he was talking about. Those are word we can live by.

Pastor Chuck

1-22-10

Thanks for the thoughtful comments on last week’s article on Haiti. Both Drew and Jeff made excellent observations about how to keep from being immobilized by the immensity of a tragedy. Drew, who has been on site in a Rwandan refugee camp, counseled on the value of managing one’s news sources. Jeff spoke of the value of keeping the subject alive in a faith community so our ambitions to act don’t “flee to Tarsus.” Read their comments if you get a chance.
2 Corinthians 8 is a wonderful chapter for reflection during this season of great need. “Excel in this grace of giving,” says the Apostle Paul (v.7). How do we do that? That’s exactly what Paul, Jeff and Drew are inviting us to engage. Good news: I don’t think we can miss on this one. Whenever and however we engage the grace of giving, we’re probably moving towards excelling in that very thing.
For example, thanks for the $2200+ our congregation gave last Sunday for Haiti relief. Let’s continue to encourage one another to discover what it means to excel in the grace of giving as a lifestyle.
The Lord is with us,
CO

Death Life Mourning Joy Crying Laughing Pain Health

The extent of the tragedy in Haiti is beyond imagination. Understandably, we can’t help but wonder how God can let such things happen. Here are some thoughts that help sustain me in such times.
• There is a difference between heaven and earth. We live in a world of death, mourning, crying and pain (Rev. 21:4). Of course there is also life, joy, laughing and health. We want to believe that the latter are normal. However, the very hard fact is that as long as we are on this earth we will have tears. Yes we will. Now what?
• We put our hope in the One Who is bigger than this life. We tend to think of tragedy in terms of a human life span. When we really believe that the best comes after this life on our tear-stained planet, our view of tragedy takes a significant shift. But what about those who are suffering right now?
• “Religion that God... accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” James 1:27. What do we do? We love our neighbors who suffer. Notice that James assumes tears will always be at hand. Widows and orphans are the living reminders of loss. For tell-it-like-it-is James, the evidence of God’s love is not the absence of tragedy, but the action of people.
• God’s love isn’t hypothetical. The love that emerges in a tragedy matches the loss. It doesn’t compensate for the loss, but it is as real. How great the tragedy. How great the love. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. That is real life.