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At Peace In The Storms Of Life

8/29/2010

I told the story this week about my having gotten caught in a sudden deluge while walking this past Saturday evening out at the Tellico Dam, and being so far from my car. I was literally drenched from head to toe. It rained so hard that, when I got back to the car, the water was easily a foot deep in the parking lot. My smart phone got so wet from just being on my belt clip that it has even stopped working. (Yes, it is sitting in a bowl of dry rice even now.)

Of course, it was not lost on me that all of this happened on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I cannot imagine the fury those poor people who survived must have endured. My whole episode was over in probably twenty to twenty-five minutes. Their episode lasted months and even years. I got in my car and drove straight home to a nice dry house. They lost both car and home. I was warm and dry inside of thirty minutes. They were cold, wet, and hungry for weeks on end.

As I am writing this, the Weather Channel is tracking one hurricane and four huge tropical storms in the Atlantic. It looks like we may be in for a fairly rough year. What I found intriguing is that the lead storm, Hurricane Danielle, is delaying the first ever 3-D filming of the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic. Ironically, while the filming has been suspended due to the ferocity of the storm at the surface, over two miles down, the Titanic sleeps as peacefully as ever, completely oblivious to the storm that rages above her.

I am reminded of the story of Jesus peacefully at sleep in the hold of the boat as His disciples cried out in anguish in the midst of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. They were in terror. He was asleep. They feared for their very lives. He slept like a baby. Why? Was He not concerned for them? Did He not care? Was He indifferent to their danger? No, none of these things. He just knew that the storm held nothing to fear! He knew Who held the power over the storm! He knew no storm on earth could withstand the simple Divine command to cease and be still!

I take comfort in that fact. It reminds me that my God is in control of my life. No storm I face will ever make Him tremble. I can rest in complete peacefulness because of this. And so can you. I do not know whether you are in the midst of a storm right now or not. It has well been pointed out that, at any given time, we are either coming out of a storm, we are in the midst of a storm, or we are headed into a storm. Life is full of storms. But praise God, we serve a Savior Who is Master even of the storms of life.

"I Can Fix That!"

8/23/2010

In light of my current Sunday morning sermon series on the
life of David, I thought it would be appropriate to share the following story as related by Sam Whatley on pages 17-18 in
his book, Pondering the Journey (True Life Publishers, 2002).

In 1463, members of the City Council of Firenze (Florence) Italy decided they needed a monument to enhance their city. They commissioned a sculptor to carve a giant statue to stand in front of city hall. Someone suggested a biblical character wrought in the neoclassical style, an expression of beauty and strength.

They approached Agostino di Duccio, who agreed to their terms. Duccio went to the quarry near Carrara and marked off a 19-foot slab to be cut from the white marble. However, he had the slab cut too thin. When the block was removed, it fell, leaving a deep fracture down one side. The sculptor declared the stone useless and demanded another, but the city council refused. Consequently, the gleaming block of marble lay on its side for the next 38 years, a source of embarrassment for all concerned.

Then, in 1501, the council approached another citizen, the son of a local official, asking him if he would complete the ambitious project, using the broken slab. Fortunately for them, the young man was Michelangelo Buonarroti. He was 26 years old, filled with energy, skill, and imagination. Michelangelo locked himself inside the workshop behind the cathedral to chisel and polish away on the stone for three years. When the work was finished, it took 49 men five days to bring it to rest before the city hall. Archways were torn down. Narrow streets were widened. The people from across Europe came to see the 14-foot statue of David relaxing after defeating Goliath. It was even more than the city fathers had envisioned. The giant stone had been transformed from the massive fractured waste of rock to a masterpiece surpassing the art of either Greece or Rome.

If ever any life demonstrates for us the truth of this story, it is that of the Biblical King David. He could be on the mountain top one day and in the valley the next. He could have a heart for God one moment and a heart for Bathsheba the next. He can make those of us who read his story so proud of him one instant, and then so disappointed with him the next.

As such, David represents me in all my good traits and in all of my bad traits. I see so much of myself in him. And yet, despite his many flaws (pride, envy, covetousness, etc…), God was still able to transform him and use him in such wonderful ways. That gives me hope. And encouragement. And confidence. It probably does the same for you as well. Thank God, He both can and does use us in spite of our shortcomings.

NO NOTS FOR ME!

8/18/2010

Tyler Campbell preached this past Sunday evening here at First Baptist Church in Lenoir City and he did a wonderful job. He told the story of the gym where he trains and the sign that hangs on the wall. The sign says “CAN NOT”; and has a very bold line drawn through it. What a powerful motivational tool! Too many people go through life worrying over whether or not they CAN accomplish something for the Lord. Praise God for the testimony of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:13 where he said, “I CAN do all things who Christ who strengthens me.” Indeed, nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:27)! Therefore, if God is for us, who can be against us?! (Romans 8:31)

As I reflected on Tyler’s illustration, I realized that there probably needs to be one more phrase posted on the wall of my life and then struck through. That sign needs to say “WILL NOT”, with a very bold line drawn through it. For so often, my problem is less a matter of needing to be convinced that I CAN do something for God and is more a matter of overcoming my lack of WILL in an attempt to do something for God. Indeed, unWILLingness is a major problem that plagues many of us. The better question, therefore, is this: “Am I WILLing to undertake something for God?” For as the old adage puts it: “Where there’s a WILL, there’s a way!”

This was the attitude that sustained Jesus. This was the attitude that carried Him through life, and through death, and then back to life again. For it was in the garden that He prayed, “Not my WILL; but Your WILL be done, Oh God!” For my part, that is the attitude that I want to develop: the attitude of Christ that embraces the WILL of God and says I WILL do this thing for God, Who strengthens me for this purpose. Otherwise, I run the risk of coming to the end of life’s road only to see written across the pages of my life the words: “CAN NOT”, “WILL NOT”, and ultimately, “DID NOT”.

The Bridge Builder

8/10/2010

The Bridge Builder is a famous poem written and first published in 1900 by Will Allen Dromgoole. While I had heard this poem before, I had forgotten its simple but profound message - until I heard it read at a funeral this week. It speaks volumes about what the deceased father must have meant to his children who were there celebrating his life and his love for them. It bears repeating here - this time from the heart of a father and mother (my wife and me) whose last week or two has been spent preparing to send three children back off to college.

As you might expect, our three children are important to us. They represent our future in that, when our time in this world is gone and we are enjoying our eternal reward, we will be alive not only in Heaven, but also in the hearts and lives of these whom we have loved and cared for along the way. Because of this, my sadness at this now familiar time of year (helping them pack for college) is tempered by the joy at being able to see my children venture out and make their mark in this world. Any part Mrs. Vickie and I can play in helping them accomplish this is only a labor of love.

Here is Mr. Dromgoole’s poem in its entirety.

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

Missed Opportunities!

8/2/2010

Many of you asked for the story I told about Walter and Arthur this past week. I found the story in a book by Kevin Baerg titled Created for Excellence: 12 Keys to Godly Success (Inspiration Press, 1995), pp. 15-16. Here is the story as related by Mr. Baerg:

The other day I ran across the story of how a friend of another great dreamer missed quite an opportunity. One day, this friend was taken for a ride far out in the country. They drove off the main road and through groves of trees to a large uninhabited expanse of land. A few horses were grazing, and a couple of old shacks remained.

Walter stopped the car, got out and started to describe with great vividness the wonderful things he was going to build. He wanted his friend Arthur to buy some of the land surrounding his project and get in on the ground floor. But Arthur thought to himself, “Who in the world is going to drive 25 miles for this crazy project? The logistics of the venture are staggering.”

And so Walter explained to his friend Arthur, “I can handle the main project myself, although it will take all my money. But the land bordering it, where we’re standing now, will in just a couple of years be jammed with hotels and restaurants and convention halls to accommodate the people who will come to spend their entire vacation here at my park.” He continued, “I want you to have the first chance at this surrounding acreage, because in the next five years it will increase in value several hundred times.”

“What could I say? I knew he was wrong,” Arthur tells the story today. “I knew that he had let a dream get the best of his common sense, so I mumbled something about a tight-money situation and promised that I would look into the whole thing a little later on.” “Later on will be too late,” Walter cautioned Arthur as they walked back to the car. “You’d better move on it right now.”

And so Art Linkletter turned down the opportunity to buy up all the land that surrounded what was to become Disneyland. His friend, Walt Disney, tried to talk him into it. But Art thought he was crazy.

At Peace In The Storms Of Life

"I Can Fix That!"

NO NOTS FOR ME!

The Bridge Builder

Missed Opportunities!

Cleo E. Jackson, III

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