Tuesday, August 26, 2008

An Open Letter to the Girl Driving 85



I have been sitting on this letter for a year. It came from a true experience I had coming back from the hospital in Champaign.

You passed me today. I was driving on highway 47 north, headed for Gibson City when you flew around me. I saw you coming. One moment you were a dot in my rearview mirror and the next you were hugging my bumper. After you went around me I sped up. I was curious how fast you were driving. At 85 I could not keep up with you and soon you were once again a dot and then you were gone. At first, it made me mad. I don’t much like being passed. It is silly that I take it personally. But the fact that you were talking on a cell phone really ticked me off. That you were a young woman in college, indicated by the brief glimpse I had of you and the sticker on your car, did not help.

Then I started thinking about you. Why were you in such a hurry? What could have been so pressing, so important that you drove with such abandonment all the while chatting on the phone? Perhaps someone you loved lay drawing their last breath. Or, maybe your lover was about to board a plane to leave for a foreign war and needed one last glimpse of your face. I can imagine those situations but I really doubt either of those scenarios was the case. Honestly, I just think you were in a hurry. And you did not see talking and driving so fast as any big deal and I was just in the way.

As I thought about you, my anger migrated to grief. I grieve for you because you are living at such a frenetic pace that you are apt to miss many wonderful things in life. The culture we live in has moved us to warp speed and is robbing us of the common grace of life. I don’t mean to offer up weary clichés about slowing down and smelling roses. But, at your meteoric pace, you are apt to burn up in the atmosphere having not enjoyed the glory that cries out for your attention. It is hard to enjoy the beauty of flowers that are only a blur through the window. And, I would be willing to bet you perceive slower drivers as obstacles who are impeding your progress. And that makes you mad and that is sad. Stress does that to you and I think you must be stressed by the way you were driving. Unless, of course, you drive like that for the thrill of it.

I grieved for you because I imagined your speeding and yacking on the phone leading to tragedy for you and perhaps for someone else. I have known many young women like you. I have stood before them and asked them if they would commit the rest of their lives to the nervous young man quaking beside them. I have stood with these same young women as they hold before their fellow congregants a life they have produced and I have seen in their eyes a love that could border on worship. I have seen the contribution they can make to our world – the beauty and tenderness, the insight and example, the grace and laughter that only young women can bring.

And, I have lived long enough and have been involved with enough circumstances to know that all these wonderful things can be snatched away in a pile of twisted steel. You don’t realize it, but you are risking so much for so little. The sense of invincibility that you feel is a lie. It can happen to you. I know that because I have had that horrific experience of standing with parents and friends who are traumatized by their loss and by the question: what might have been? Now, I know that you can be driving the speed limit and not talking on the cell phone and die just as easily. You can also be lying in your bed and have a meteor fall through the roof and kill you as you sleep. But the risk – it is so much greater by what you were doing.

I know you because I have daughter your age. And all I want for her, I would wish for you. Please, the next time you get in your car, realize what risks you can control. Don’t jeopardize my life and don’t endanger yours by being so flippant with something so precious
.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Reaching the Goal



We were thrilled to have Andrew graduate from Western with a degree in journalism this past May. College is an endurance test - for students and parents! He achieved that goal - and we were thankful. Now he is off to the next one - as a graduate student at UIS (Univ of Illinois, Springfield).

The Olympics has heightened our immediate awareness of achieving (or not) goals. It is a bit agonizing to see someone come up short (i.e. the hurdler Lolo Jones). I don't know if not achieving a particular goal is necessarily a failure. There are too many dynamics to consider before you automatically label a different outcome than you imagined a flop. And, James warns us to always consider the Lord in plans we make. (James 4:13-15) Of course, we can set goals that are unrealistic. I may set a goal to jog three times a week. That is probably doable. But, to set a goal to run a marathon next week is delusional. It ain't gonna happen!

Goals can be good, however. They can provide direction and purpose and keep us from simply flailing around. The elders of our church have been prayerfully considering what goals they should have for the coming year. They have come up with at least four. I am going to take one at a time and discuss them a bit here. Please feel free to respond to them.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Moon "X"

The "Werner X" is a bit of an optical illusion that appears on the moon once a month for about two hours. It occurs when sunlight is reflected off of certain ridges on the southern hemisphere of the moon just north of the crater "Werner" - hence the name. If you look closely at the image to the left, you can make it in the center of the photograph. Click on the picture if you have trouble seeing the "X" and you will open a larger version of the same image. This picture was made through my 102mm refractor telescope by my son, Andrew on August 8, 2008. I have also included a picture of the scope. Things above absolutely fascinate me and I am not sure why. They reflect the glory of God. Even the man-made technology that passes overhead shows God's glory - in that it demonstrates the grace of God in giving man intelligence and creativity. (I am not saying all technology is good) This week I observed, in little over an hour, not less than 7 satellites zip by. People probably weary of my talking about astronomy. I understand, but it is such an amazing thing to walk out on a clear night and look up. You don't need a telescope - just a bit of time. To do so helps put things in perspective, it helps you think about your origins, it helps stimulate worship, and it calls for a response. The heavens are declaring something to us if we but listen.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Eclipsed Forgivness - Sunday Morning Nerves



This is a picture I shot of a lunar eclipse in February of this year. The moon takes on an eery color as the earth's shadow crosses in front of it. This Sunday I am continuing my sermon series on Love and the Family. And, I am a bit nervous about it. The topic is forgiveness and how an unwillingness to forgive casts a shadow over our lives. I'm nervous because forgiveness is difficult. It would be a wonderful concept to discuss provided we have nothing to forgive. And, I am nervous because of the application of the truth of it - not just in the lives of those listening - but in my life. And, I am nervous because it is easy to get wrong - all kinds of weird ideas float around about forgiveness. I don't want to be guilty of perpetuating those ideas. The Bible says some amazing and breath-taking things about what it means to forgive and what it means to experience forgiveness. Anyway, I am nervous about this Sunday morning - and am praying for the Lord's grace.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Thinking of Sparrows



I love almost anything that flies, except for some insects. My intent with a feeder in my backyard was to attract birds (no surprise there). In particular, I was anxious to see Orioles, Blue Birds, Finches, and a variety of other colorful avian visitors. Every now and then I am honored by a visit from a feathery blossom of color, but for the most part I have sparrows stop by, like the one whose picture I took on my feeder. In partciular, I have the "House Sparrow". The House Sparrow is not indigenious to the U.S. It was brought over from England in the 1800s to help control insects in cities. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake because the population exploded. It is estimated that we currently have 150 million of these little birds calling the U.S. home. If only we could convince them to eat Japanese beetles!
Bird watching is biblical. Jesus said, Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And, Jesus used sparrows as an illustration of the knowledge God has of the mundane details of our lives. He watches us, He knows us, and He is aware of even the smallest details of our lives. Google Earth has nothing on the Lord! I commend to you bird watching. And, if you only see sparrows, they can serve as a reminder of the grace of God watching over your life.
Paul