Today I ran 10.9 at 12 minutes per mile pace. At one spot, however, I thought I might run home to glory. I had reached a spot where the steep bank of a hill abuts the shoulder, a spot where the narrow shoulder is all the room a runner has. There was no escape route to a ditch or field. And just then the driver of a big black truck with a double cab decided it was time to check his heater or radio. I can tell you he wore a hooded sweatshirt. I could see his face -- looking at the dash and not the road. I could see one hand on the wheel, the other messing with something on the dash. And I saw him cross the white line...toward me with no way of escape. There couldn't have been six inches between us when he finally looked up and steered back onto the road. I don't know that he even saw me, though the sky was clear. Actually as I thought about it, going home to glory wouldn't have been so bad -- for me anyway; but actually he was going slow enough that he probably instead would have just taken me out of next week's race.
The incident got me pondering about all the stuff in life that threatens to take us out of the race of life. As I read my Bible this weekend and listened to this morning's message, I have a collection of thoughts in response:
1. Somebody loves you. And that Somebody loves you a lot. "God did not send his Son (Jesus) into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world..." "Come! (Rev. 22:17) "Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." Those who "are led by the Spirit of God are the (sons and daughters) of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. ..We are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ." Friends and family members on earth die. Some even betray and abandon us. Not so with Christ. He doesn't reject. He doesn't abandon. In fact Paul said, "We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37-39).
2. And one day, we'll be called home where no big monster trucks can find us. Look at the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Here, on this side of heaven, the big black trucks can, as the rich man did to Lazarus, make life pretty miserable. But once we reach glory, we will be safe.
"...(B)etween us and (the rich man) a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, not can anyone cross over from there to us." I've often heard it said that God wouldn't really keep anyone out of heaven, since He is a God of love. But a heaven allowing those who don't want any part of God's lifestyle wouldn't be any different than life here on earth. And a heaven like that provides no hope. Instead the Bible says, "....there will be no night there...Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Revelation 22:24-17).
2. And there's hope on this side of heaven, too. In the story of the crucifixion, Pilate gets a pretty bad rap. And, for the most part, that is true. He had a chance to set Jesus free, but he didn't. Instead he washed his hands of the whole affair and let the crucifixion occur. Even so, when it was seemingly too late to make a difference, Pilate did finally take a stand for Christ. In three different languages, assuring that the majority of the crowd would see it, Pilate wrote, "Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews." As long as we are living, we will have chances to make the right choice and fail. We will also have chances to make the right choice and succeed. God forgives. It's not a gift to be taken lightly, as we never know when we'll be given our last chance. It's not a gift to be taken lightly, because wrong choices cause harm. Nonetheless, nothing, not even our wrong choices, can stop God from doing what God wants done. God says that what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open (Revelation 3:7). Even Pilate's wrong choice became a catalyst for us to have salvation, hope and freedom. Pilate's better, and right choice, told all those present that He at last took a stand for Christ. I will mess up. You will mess up. Don't wallow in the mistake. Dust yourself off. Thank God for His forgiveness. Ask for His power. And move on with His power --
and that leads me to #3 from the book of Ezekiel. The prophet had this crazy vision of lightening, smoke, fire, creatures with four faces, wheels with lots of eyes. But catch this, "Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels." Now that last statement is important; we know that it's important because Ezekiel says it twice (21:20 AND 21). When God's spirit is in us, we, too, will move with the spirit. And that's a fact. When the Spirit controls us, we will be moved by the Spirit. Later, in chapter 4, Ezekiel said, "The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord upon me." Even our stinky attitudes can't stop God's spirit from controlling us IF at the core of our being the Spirit does control us. We're humans and God knows that. He works with us anyway. Look at the story of Jonah. And then claim God's almighty power, a power bigger than us and our failures, a power big enough to accomplish what God wants. A power big enough to calm our fears, big enough to set us free from whatever hinders us, big enough to change us.
4. "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Now on this earth, that's not necessarily freedom from monster trucks. And it's definitely not the freedom to do whatever you want. Instead this is freedom from the stuff on earth that looks so good, yet, in reality, ensnares us till we're all tangled up and controlled by the thing that looked so good. This freedom is the power to do God's will. It's the power to do the right thing, to make the right choices. And we are all invited to enjoy that freedom. But freedom is never really free. And this freedom, too, came at a great price. It cost Jesus His life and The Father His Son.
So treasure the costly gift of freedom by making the right choice to believe and obey God's Word. Get up. Get moving. Let God's Spirit move you and guide you. Yes, there are big black trucks out there. Get going anyway. God is bigger than those black trucks. There is work to be done. People need to know that Somebody really does care. And that Somebody won't reject them, won't abandon them. And one day, one glorious day, you'll reach the place where big black trucks aren't allowed. And there you will have peace forever. And, if you've been obedient, hopefully you'll find a host of people following you to glory or maybe even going there before you.
God is good. Sometimes we see it; the rest of the time we live by faith.
Two brick lighthouses were built on the Gulf of Mexico near the crook of St. Joseph's peninsula. Both were destroyed. So in 1883, the Lighthouse Board erected a third lighthouse at Cape San Blas, this one a skeletal tower thought to withstand wind-and-wave action better. But the erosion has destroyed most of the beach area and the tower had to be moved to its present site in 1918. The two homes were for the lighthouse keepers.
Swamp land near St. Joe's.
