The Blessing - Offering and Receiving

As our friend Hugh spoke about the Blessings that Peterborough Community Chaplaincy has experienced and offered to himself and to many others – I listened closely.

He referred to a book that is entitled “To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings” by John O’Donohue. A quick search of the Internet gives you much about the impact of this book. Thanks Hugh for the starter idea.

As I read the reviews I saw the potential of what I have taken for granted too often. The potential to Bless is over powering… and the power to miss the significance of the Blessing and Blessing occasion is tragic.

Blessing? Isn’t that something a religious person does over food on a special holiday – on a TV Soap Opera? Isn’t that something a minister does in church when he performs a religious function…or closes the service?

Nope – to all those questions. Blessings happen all the time. Let me explain.

In one reviewer of O’Donohue’s book ,Kerry Walters, made this statement…
In our overly busy culture, he writes, we frequently race over the "crucial thresholds in our life" without pausing to take note of their significance. We no longer have "rituals to protect, encourage, and guide us as we cross over into the unknown" (p. xiv). A blessing is precisely one of those protecting, encouraging, and guiding rituals. It memorializes our transitions, connects us with a wider community (since none of us really ever travels alone), and strives to "present a minimal psychic portrait of the geography of change it names"

Blessings, then, are all-important. They serve to orient us in our life's journey, establish fellowship with fellow travelers, and remind us of what we too often forget: that we are pilgrims, not haphazard wanderers.

It is the phrase “crucial thresholds in our life” that stops me to think.

A very long time ago when I was about to leave home something special happened. I was so excited to get on the road and go. My dad was traveling with me from Regina to Toronto. It was the very first time for both of us. The year was 1966. We had piled our suitcases into my brand new 1966 Plymouth – a Belvedere II and we were ready to go.
I remember as we walked to the back yard and then out to where the car was parked, my mother came to see us off. She quickly handed me a present wrapped up. It was small and had solid feeling… it was a book. When I opened it, I saw that Mom and Dad had given me a small Bible with her handwriting in the front. “God Bless you Murray ~ Love Mom and Dad”.

She was giving up her first born child to a job move(and a future) that would take him places that none of the family had ever gone before. She had no idea where her “Murray” would go…but at this special moment she was offering him their blessing. The fact that she was sending her husband on this jaunt with her son – costing them a large amount of money that they really didn’t have was significant. I wouldn’t know how big that was until later – but it said to me how important that moment was for them ~ and me… for years to come.

A few weeks ago as I packed all my books I came across that small red Bible that they gave me. Holding it then fired up the memory of that moment 42 years ago… of a Blessing Given. How powerful is that? WOW!

Hugh’s words last evening, the Book’s reviewer and my own thoughts flooding back to so many millions of special moments over all these years… have pointed to the many times that Blessings have been a part of my life.

As a professional “Blessor” – a minister – I have learned the many kinds of blessings in my “work”… yet being professional at “blessing” people doesn’t mean that you take time to savour the "crucial thresholds in our life" - in fact it may point to the fact that so often I personally have been caught up in a furious pace to rush to the next official blessing site… missing the significance of the moments together.

Having left the official position of “professional blessor” – completing my pastoral/ministerial duties at Northview Church on June 22nd it has been strange. I do not have to BLESS professionally again.

Last Sunday it was different, Alida and mom were with me on Sunday morning – traditionally the day that I bless people professionally. We were not in church but rather beside the Trent River. It was warm and a perfect day for an 87 year old woman to sit with her kids and enjoy the day. It was wonderful for her son to be able to push all the professionalism away and just fish.

It was a blessing day… a blessing moment… a special for all of us. I wish that every Sunday could be that way and that special moment would remain. It was a Blessing – given in that “crucial threshold of life”… cherished and savoured for a mere moment.

I will think back to that Sunday when mom is gone. I will never be able to do that moment again… but I will re-live that moment again and again.

Soon, Mom will travel on her own to Alberta. The roles have changed. I will be letting my mother go on a big airplane all by herself…trusting her not to my Dad’s care but to that of an airline attendant. As she leaves us at the airport to attend another “crucial threshold of life”… I will bless her… and the space between us. Then she will do the same at the wedding of her grandson in Calgary.

Life will go on… filled with Blessing Moments and spaces to fill a life time.

What bothers me is the person that is missing the blessing by obstinate and/or careless, self serving episodes of their own moments. As they live out “their owness” they miss the best. Some day they will be very sorry.

In marriage I celebrate a Blessing of every single moment of it. We are blessed eating together, sleeping together, walking together, talking together, having intimacy together, sitting together and then every other together that is possible. For 41 years now(actually 46 for us with 5 years of dating added in) Alida and I have done it all together…every space has been a blessing to us.

I have to stop this… it has made the many millions of Blessings rush back again…

What about you? How are you doing? Are you stopping to savour and sense and receive and care for and offer… Or are you in too big a hurry to see what is going on with Blessings?

Thank you for sharing this space with me in time – God Bless you!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

Integrity, Fear and Grit

The man walked briskly up to our veranda and passed his small flyer to my wife. I saw her reading the content carefully. Then she said, “Here you read this… looks like we have another problem.”

The brochure asks the question at the top… “Does your home have radon?”

Then it tells you that… “Radon gas is cancer causing… any home may have a radon problem… Radon gas is radioactive, radioactive gas… and testing for radon gas is the only way to know the risk to you and your family.”

Along with the info is a graphic that shows a bunch of wiggly red lines coming into an illustrated house.

My goodness we do have a potential problem. We are all potentially going to die of Radon Gas poisoning… Yikes! And they have a detector kit that you can get free… a $34.95 value. You can detect it…then worry about it.

Then if enough worrying is there… you can try to sell you house… and not tell the next poor, unsuspecting buyer that they will also die of cancer causing radon gas that a pamphlet told me is leaking into every crevice and orifice of my basement.

If I don’t tell the buyers of the future and they find out that I know… won’t they sue me? But I guess that I will be dead from the cancer causing radon gas anyway… so it won’t matter.

I have been living here in this house for 10 years and regularly sitting in my lazy boy chair in that basement – resting peacefully after a long days work. I am likely saturated with this evil gas.

Pamphlets are designed to make me so afraid that I will call 1-800-stopradon… or wherever…

When you read enough of this stuff you will not sleep at night. Alida sleeps well… and she also throws out all the pamphlets when she gets them. This morning I woke and for a tiny bit of time I listened to see if I could hear the radon gas seeping through our bedroom walls.

Nope nothing today… but then the other pamphlet warned me that at my age my hearing was not very good now… and I would only be able to hear properly if I bought the super, mega small hearing aid with instructions as to how not to lose them inside your head because they are so small. More insecurity and fear – thank you very much!

The Pamphlet points to major issue – Integrity. Is the pamphlet true? Will the things being said and done really help you – or does it just harm you with more fear?

Integrity issues are real.

A wife that cannot depend on her husband will be afraid – have fear – about a future with unfaithfulness. The husband doesn’t have Integrity.

An employer will have struggles with a dishonest employee – and have fears of being robbed blind by the one that they have employed. This is likely the greatest failure place for a lack of Integrity.

Integrity issues lead to Fear. Fear leads to losses of all kinds… loss of sleep… loss of trust… in fact potentially a loss of everything.

I point to a very simple fact – in the middle of our word “Integrity” is a smaller one that is simply spelled “G-R-I-T”.

It takes “G-R-I-T” to stand up for what you know is true and right. It take “G-R-I-T” to be the best employee when all the others are not being honest with their time and work. It takes “G-R-I-T” to stand for what you believe to be true.

“G-R-I-T” does not mean you will not FEAR… but it will sure help you to face the FEAR.

The expression for that attitude is "grit your teeth." And when you're dealing with troubling circumstances, it's really important to demonstrate integrity with what you say and do. GRIT has never hurt anyone.

Yesterday…
Yesterday I read over every Ontario MPP’s name and looked at their photos on the Web Site for the Ontario government. I am praying for each one as I approach this new task of Provincial Chaplain. As I looked closely at each person and prayed I realized that more than anyone person in our society – these men and women have been placed in situations where all they have is Integrity.

Our elected officials at every level have been placed there by people that believe in their Integrity… then will watch(and even challenge) that Integrity.

Every level of elected office face integrity issues on a daily basis. Every position of trust whether they are, Judges, Police Officers, Teachers and Ministers – you name it… MUST HAVE INTEGRITY…MUST HAVE GRIT.

My new calling is to pray specifically for my elected leaders and to also motivate more around me to do the same.

Now if I say that I am doing that and don’t do it… I am another Pamphlet that can be discarded – or should be.

I am either a person of Integrity – or not.

How about you?

~ Murray Lincoln ~

Hey God are You There?

And I thought I had problems! Looking at the guy by the name of Job can turn your life around. Imagine having a name that people only remember as something to do with “patience”.. i.e. “the patience of Job”.

Job wasn’t about ‘Patience’ – Job was about losing absolutely everything and then when it is all gone and his friends are getting down on him… he still wouldn’t give up!

Maybe if we started declaring that we are facing the “trials of Job” it would make more sense. Maybe if E.I. had another department that was called “Job’s Afflictions” they would get many visitors…

But then “JOB” – the man and “job” the thing that I need to get before long…. Are not the same…

The Bible tells me that…

• Moses waited 40 years before the right position is offered to him by a “Head Hunter”…at that stage he was 80 years old. Great time to start over right?
• Noah waited 120 years before his Boat would float… try starting a Marina Business at 120 years old.
• Abraham waited 25 years for a Promised Son… and was 100 when he arrived. Have loud little kids bugged you at times – while you are the age that you are? Try being 100.
• Joseph languished in prison for 14 years for a crime that he didn’t commit after being harshly dealt with by his brothers.
• And… Job waited perhaps one of our life times – maybe 60 to70 years before the tragedies of his early life would be seen as victories in later life – ending it all with far more than he had at the beginning.

Adding the numbers above you get 259 to 269 years of waiting. Wow!

Waiting kills me! Being the kind of person that I am I need to do – to wait is not in my action list of things to do. I am a “Human Being” that is…being… and also often a “Human Doing”… but I am NOT a “HUMAN WAITING”!!!! At least that part I do not do well.

But in every case God seems to like nothing more than to do it in His Time and His Way… Arghh!

Some one sent me this cute email… here I quote some of the text… and I accept it…

To: YOU
Date: TODAY
From: GOD
Subject: YOURSELF
Reference: LIFE

This is God. Today I will be handling All of your problems for you. I do Not need your help. So, have a nice day. I love you.

P.S. And, remember...
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do Not attempt to re! solve i t yourself! Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours.

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now….

Okay God – I got your message. I will wait… a little longer. Hey God – do you want to go for walk? I would like to talk to you a little more about what is happening now. Oh – I know – you already know all about it! I get that part – I just need to talk to you some more.

~ Murray Lincoln ~

Go Ahead Blame Someone – It Feels Good

When I crashed my car into the back of the vehicle ahead of me – the reaction was fast… “What the dickens….WHY did you stop there…?!”

I got out of my car and looked at the damage. He did the same and we looked at each other. His response was an answer to my unspoken question to him while I was in my vehicle, “I had to stop – the other car was coming too fast!”

The accident happened quite a while ago…it is history now. But the “blame” isn’t. It is fresh in my mind. The idiot was at fault and he knew he was. It couldn’t have been me! It was him!

Needless to explain it here… I WAS AT FAULT… because I should have been in control of my vehicle at all times. I wasn’t… in a split second… as I looked one more time to see if it was okay to proceed – while still moving ahead – he stopped suddenly… and BAM!

Noel Douglas Adams stated, "When you blame others, you give up your power to change."

I learned from that simple incident. As I passed that intersection again the other day I stopped totally, looked left and then when it was clear… drove on. I found that if there is someone else at the intersection ahead of me now – I stop and will not go or even look to go before that person is gone completely.

My lesson had been a good one.

Yet as I reflected back on that horrible moment again while driving by the same intersection – my first response was to blame the other guy…

Life is like that in so many ways. Obstacles come and we are uncomfortable… get hurt… lose something big time… and someone must be at fault for our discomfort. Who is or what is the first thing that you blame?

In the hospital room the rage that the young lady had when her husband died was real. Then she put a voice to it and out came some horrible curses at God. It was God’s fault that her husband had died! She promised that she would hate God for the rest of her life. Everyone in the room was silent when she vented. No one was willing to say a word. Many cried… and I suppose many agreed.

The fact that there was something wrong inside this man’s body that no one could fix… was never considered. It was God’s fault.

Douglas was right. When I blame others – I do give up the power to change. And when I give that up… there is pretty much nothing left to do or say. Most people will be silent around me because they see the dilemma but cannot respond. I get their attention but not their support.

So what is the answer? In my accident – it was to not drive through that intersection again in that fashion with out checking very closely in every direction – in fact in every intersection I check from now on!

It is to live a brand new way.

The counselor that I spoke with yesterday was good. We talked about feelings that come with a job loss. “There is grief”, she said, “after so many years of being in a job and helping people. And if you are not careful you may blame someone for your loss…”

I immediately thought of lady in the hospital room with her husband’s body. Yes it is true. My loss is caused by someone or something else – I am sure of it!

I am reading the story again of Moses. The great leader was used of God to take an entire Nation of People out of another Nation – then lead them to a Promise Land. What leadership!

At the very beginning of the account when he walked out of the palace that he was living in all those growing years, he saw an Egyptian beating on a Hebrew – one of Moses’ people. He killed the Egyptian. In his next journey to check out the situation on the outside he saw two Hebrews fighting… and tried to intervene. At that point he looked like a hero. But in reality he was a murderer and was found out.

I found that part of the story very interesting as I thought about it. He runs to another place as the Pharaoh was angry with what he had done and was after him.

If the one Hebrew that was beating on the other one… had not accused him or revealed the murder from the day before… IT WAS THE HEBREW’S FAULT – the one with the BIG MOUTH…! Not Moses!

Well… that is a 2008 reaction. But it is not what Moses did…he fled from the palace and became a shepherd. He knew he had done wrong.

Never again do you read of Moses killing someone.

Shepherds make better leaders of people than murderers do. God had a plan.

Both of us will face opposition this week, coming into problems and impossibilities. Whose faulty will it be? What will we learn from it?

I have to be so careful…oh boy! And then I remember that I asked God to guide me… teach me and lead me… double the OH BOY!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

The Most Beautiful Love Story Everyone Should Know

Yesterday my world changed by a love story I never knew before. It is one of those warm and deeply moving ones that you happen upon in once in a life time. Yet you do not know the whole story as you stare at the simple plaques on the ground.

My mom and I, together with Alida stood at the remote and hidden graveside of Joseph Scriven – the author of the well known hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.

We started our journey with a ride and picnic in the country – far away from everyone and everything. Our journey took us around the north and then east end of Rice Lake, which is between Peterborough and Lake Ontario. Then we proceeded along the south side of Rice Lake until we arrived at Bewdley, a small tourist town filed with fisherman and fishing derbies.

It was there that we saw the first interesting monument to Joseph Scriven. (I had stopped at the general store to ask if anyone knew any more about the man Joseph Sciven. The young Chinese man behind the counter pointed me to a road where we found the monument…but he was busy selling some vegetables to fishermen…)

We completed our journey around the Rice Lake on the west end then headed North to Peterborough.

After reading the words on Bewdley’s Scriven monument and on a whim, I turned right down a simple, gravel country road… part way we turned left again… the right at the next road just falling a whim… until this road petered out and we could do nothing but turn left again – heading north. The road is remote and only traveled by cottagers that enjoy the north side of Rice Lake.

There on the right in a very unassuming spot is a large blue and gold, official Ontario – Archeological and Historical Sited of Ontario sign with the short story of Joseph Scriven being the author of the hymn…and teacher of the Pengelley Family. Nothing more…except a simple little path way was to the left of the sign…with a small white gate at the end.

We began to walk to our discovery….

But in order to understand you should read of Joseph Scriven… first.

From Christianity Today article(July/August 2004)
More than a century ago, on the streets of Port Hope, Ontario, a man could be seen walking along carrying a saw and a sawhorse. One day a rich man from across the street saw him and said to a friend, "He looks like a sober man. I think I'll hire him to cut wood for me." "That's Joseph Scriven," the friend replied. "He wouldn't cut wood for you. He only cuts wood for those who don't have enough to pay." And that sums up the philosophy of Joseph Medlicott Scriven, a devoted member of the Plymouth Brethren Church, who took the Sermon on the Mount literally.

Scriven was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1819. He fell for a lovely young woman, but on the eve of their wedding she accidentally drowned.

Scriven never recovered from the shock. The Irishman began to wander, hoping to forget his sorrow. At age 25, he finally settled in Canada.

His faith led him to do menial tasks for poor widows and the sick. He often worked for no wages and was regarded by the people of the community as a kind man, albeit a bit odd.

He later fell in love again and planned to marry a wonderful Canadian woman. But again, tragedy struck. His fiance died after contracting pneumonia.

In 1855, a friend visited an ill Scriven and discovered a poem that he had written for his ailing mother in faraway Ireland. Scriven didn't have the money to visit her, but he sent her the poem as an encouragement. He called it "Pray Without Ceasing." When the friend inquired about the poem's origins, Scriven reportedly answered, "The Lord and I did it between us."

Scriven never intended for the poem to be published, but it made its rounds, and was set to music in 1868 by musician Charles Converse, who titled it "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." It has since become one of our greatest hymns.

Scriven died in 1886 (ironically, in an accidental drowning). He was 67 years old.

From Wikipedia…
Joseph Scriven was born at Dublin, Ireland. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin and embraced the teachings of the Plymouth Brethren. He was known to be eccentric but was a born philanthropist and devoutly religious; he gave freely of what money he had, even his own clothing and his services to all poorer than himself who needed them. He died at Port Hope.
His fiancée drowned in 1845, the night before they were to be married. The grief-stricken young man moved to Canada. There he again fell in love, was due to be married and the young woman suddenly fell ill and died. He then devoted the rest of his life to helping others. After spending the evening with others, he disappeared one night and his body was found in the water nearby.
He wrote a poem to comfort his mother called "Pray Without Ceasing". It was later set to music and renamed by Charles C. Converse, becoming the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus".

Now for the rest of the story that few know…
We walked to the white garden gate and could then plainly see that it was entrance to a small graveyard. The grass had been trimmed neatly. The rustic stone fence that surrounds it has very old cedar root fence topping that. There in the back right corner, tipping slightly to the north is a tall monument with the name “Scriven” inscribed on it. This is where he is buried. The authour of a hymn that comforts so many at almost every funeral for over 100 years.

The actual graveyard is for the Pengelley Family with a number of their grave stones standing around the yard. The love that the Pengelley Family had for their teacher is in front of you so plainly – he is one of them.

All around the tall monument the inscription of three verses of his famous Poem/Hymn is included. It is very moving to read it the words at that point. I wanted to cry…

But the best part was just to the front and literally under my feet. There with the grass growing over it… are two simple, flat stones with more inscriptions on them. In the middle directly in front of the tall monument is the first one… that simply states, “Joseph Scriven”. Then the most powerful one to the right that simply states, “Scriven’s Sweetheart”…no name…only that.

Then tears came to my eyes… the second girl he fell in love with while in his early life in Canada…and had died also before they married… had been move moved by someone that remembered how much he had loved her… they were together after all these years.

I want to cry now…

This simple story is quietly hidden in the forgotten back woods of Ontario – far, far away from 2008’s bustle.

Am I ever glad we found her with him.

The slightly sad part of the mystery is… Scriven’s Sweetheart has no name… for us to know…but she may well be one of the reasons he wrote this great poem/hymn.

~ Murray Lincoln ~

http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2004/004/11.16.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_M._Scriven
http://www.stempublishing.com/hymns/biographies/scriven.html
http://www.porthope.ca/departments/historical/history/scriven.htm

What A Friend We Have In Jesus
What a friend we have in Jesus,

All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

Everything to God in prayer!

Oh, what peace we often forfeit,

Oh, what needless pain we bear-

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?

there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged:

Take it to the Lord in prayer!

Can we find a Friend so faithful,

Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our very weakness-

Take it to the Lord in prayer!

Are we weak and heavy-laden,

Cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge-

Take it to the Lord in prayer!

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?

Take it to the Lord in prayer!

In His arms He'll take and shield thee

Thou wilt find a solace there.

Amen

Small Stuff

As we have begun the journey in raising awareness for the new ministry – Ontario Provincial Chaplaincy… I have been in contact with a many of my friends. There has been a definite ground swell of interest. I am amazed at what is happening and very grateful. Money has come into the ‘ministry’ but not to us personally.

(Side note – as many have been following this thread of a new ministry…money in my own pocket now is a problem until the E.I. is set the way it should be. Yesterday I could report that I have actually NOT received any money yet. When that begins happening it will change I am sure.)

At this stage it is like writing a huge amount of Resumes to dozens of people and companies. Then I sit and wait. But waiting is good of me… I think.

There is a promise and a hope – in waiting. It is in waiting that good stuff will come from it all.

A long time ago Alida used to make Bread…just like my grandma did. The kitchen was filled first with the smell of flour…then the yeast… then the sound of the water being poured into the big mixing bowl with the flour & mixture on the bottom….the yeast with its strong smell was brought into the mixture. Most importantly there was the wait. Then grandma would take the cover off the huge ball of dough and beat it… with her fists… sometimes letting grandsons help…then wait some more…

Each step was a small part of whole that made delicious bread. And if you waited for the full stage to take place and the hot oven to produce the wonderful smelling bread – the treat was all yours….one huge and heavily cut piece of fresh bread cut…covered with butter and smeared with fresh strawberry jam…. Mmmm Mmmm…good!

Small stuff matters to help big stuff take place. One of my close friends felt badly because they could not do something big to help us financially. Yet when we looked at it together… they are doing far more with small stuff... listening…caring…just being there for us.

Small stuff matters.

I received an email from a very old friend that promised to let us have $20 when she gets it. She is as old as me…unemployed… and in a remote area where jobs are not a lot. But she wanted to do something for the possible ministry building…someday…something small…

Small stuff is Big Stuff when God gets a hold on it. An old song said “Little is much when God is in it….” Our old friend in Walkerton, Ontario by the name of June Reuber was the only one that could sing that song… and oh it touched my soul back then. Because that was all we had was little…

Oh I have millionaire friends. They are great folk. And no... they have been very careful with their money.... No contributions yet…

But the ones that really count are the tons of little guys and gals that have made a difference.

I made some quick calculations when setting up a small plan for donations. If we can raise the awareness enough… getting just 2 people in each Ontario Government Elected official’s constituency… to give $38 per month or $456 over a whole year… that would provide exactly what is needed to do the work. There are 107 elected leaders, times 2, times $38, times 12 months. This would meet the budget that is set for us. It would cover a salary for Alida and me. It would cover office material and equipment and the tons of travel, telephone calls and all the rest it takes in a Province wide ministry. It would then possibly allow hiring more staff as well… then there is a place to stay in Toronto… sheesh this is like being a politician! Asking for more money and then spending it before I get it….?!

When I talked with my mom about this her reaction was fascinating. She believes in her son but had some good words for me! She said, “Whatever you do to get your support, don’t get all old people…they will die on you!”

Mom is 87 years old. And she pointed to her own situation when she said I know I don’t have a long time left….

She told me of one of her sisters that was supported as a missionary by a considerable number of older people. In fact that was where mom drew her illustration from. Most of these older people my aunt and uncle had supporting them died about the same time. When they died – so did their money.

I know a church where that has happened too.

Another older person suggested the best route to go… “Many hands make the burden lighter.” His suggestion was that perhaps by spreading the whole budget out to as many people as I knew as possible… then it would be met soon.

Small stuff matters.

Go back to the fresh bread story again. One time Alida made bread and forgot the yeast. Yeast is actually very small when placed in a whole batch of bread. That bread was something else. Another time the yeast was no good. Yuk! You could beat something with the loaf it was so hard.

Take your small stuff out of what you do…and whatever you are doing will certainly fall apart.

I want to say thank you for your part in supporting us…small stuff is important and so is your part in our lives.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Locked Doors and The Magic Card

As the large door made a buzzing sound and the small click came – I knew I was in. The young lady beside walked a head of me down the long hallway. My destination room was on my right side – Chaplain’s Office. I stopped, reached out and opened the door. This one wasn’t locked.

I had made it that far by following the young lady with the magic card. The new security system of our new hospital is good. People that shouldn’t be in certain areas are kept out. People that should be there; breeze through open doors.

When I had completed my task at the Chaplain’s Office dropping something off for one of the staff Chaplains I returned to the large door. Oh oh… it was firmly locked from both sides and I had no magic card. The hallway was deserted – I was locked in almost the center of the hospital with no way out! What a feeling of helplessness.

Background…
As one of the On Call Chaplains at our hospital for 10 years I have been to the hospital many times…weekends, late nights, afternoons, terrible times and tough times – standing with families at crisis moments. It has become a way of life. My training and willingness has been put to full use often. But that has been in the old hospital. This one, the brand new hospital, is right next door to the old building that is now coming down. And everything is new.

I found someone that was in a side office. I asked her to let me out with her magic card. She smiled and shook her head…”I left mine at home today as well.” So together we went to the next office where she borrowed another magic card to get us both out – me to freedom, she to the bathroom.

My new magic card was waiting for me in another office on another floor. What a relief to have the new card firmly in hand and allowing me to go almost anywhere I needed to go. For the fun of it I walked up to a number of doors and swished the magic card over the sensor… which was followed by the buzzing sound and the small click came… I was in… YES!

Back in the locked hallway earlier as I waited, pondering what to do I had a strong feeling of being in jail. (I also visit in our prisons in the area and you go no where inside without waiting for locked doors to be opened – and sometimes the wait is longer than you expect.) Panic sets in quickly.

Last evening I pondered longer on this thought. This is so much like life for me. I need to move about quickly. I need to access certain areas to get on with life. I need certain answers to be able to function. But there is opposition and obstacles that slow me down – or even stop me.

The burdens and barriers are just too great for my ordinary ability to get through. Even my past and my other abilities will not do. I need a magic card to go further and access the new freedom to move on. But the magic card is either forgotten at home or has yet to be picked up. And if you don’t have that special, brand new, magic card you are stuck inside!

The magic card that I am in need of is a new application of “faith”. The obstacles and doors that are seemingly locked are the immediate life around me. At times I must wait for someone with a “faith key” to open doors. Other times it is far easier to simply possess you own “magic faith card” and swish your way through. But don’t lose your “faith card”!

The journey from the security of the former Pastorate to the unknown of a new position with a fuzzy support….that we are walking toward is a whole lot like my hospital experience of yesterday. The old ways and thoughts will not work. This is God’s new way and new challenge that we are taking. We need a new “magic faith card”… or simply and old step of faith that may have been left home or buried in the old life style of safety.

A long time ago..
A long time ago a large family had been blessed and was confidently secure with their present life. But that was to be shaken. All that they had come to appreciate and live by comfortably in was torn to pieces. Virtually WAR came to their door steps.

The former leaders around them moved on. They had died and new leaders moved in to the scene. The large family was viewed as a threat to the very existence of the new leader. Something had to be done to stop the large family from prospering more – and possibly growing as a threat to the new leadership… so the leadership put extra heavy burdens upon them with cruel tasks. The new leadership also ordered that all the new babies being born to the large family be carefully watched at the moment of birth – if the baby was a boy it was to be killed on the spot.

Can you imagine what it was like for them?

You may recognize the story of the Children of Israel. When they entered Egypt many years before they were very small in numbers and were immigrants to a new country. Now, they numbered so many that they were a threat to the new leadership who didn’t appreciate what one of their sons had done for the country to make it great. That was Joseph.

Now fast forward this story to the side of large and very deep body of water. There are millions of these family members standing beside one man, their new leader Moses. Behind them is coming a massive and most powerful army that is intent on their destruction. What do they do? Where is their “magic key” out of the impossibility they face.

I read this story again yesterday. I love it and need it.

Behind them and in front of them and around them is not an enemy but rather their God. And this God is the God of all power and all love and all grace and all EVERYTHING.

In Exodus 14 you can see this snap shot of their moment…
12 Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

13 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

Then it says….
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Moses at that moment stretched out his “magic card” (a lot better than my hospital security card) – his staff and God did the rest.

Today – you and I need a miracle. Time is running out and the fear is slipping into control. We need a God Intervention…and right about NOW would be RIGHT ABOUT THE RIGHT TIME!

Today I make a choice to trust God and not anything else. I make a choice to “Stand firm… I will see the deliverance the LORD will bring to us today.”

He is my hope! How about you?

Dry ground under your feet.... instead of a sea bed that has always been covered with water – no way!? Really? You betcha!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

Resources:
Exodus 14