September 17, 2006

Series – What I Learned on Vacation This Summer – 1

I learned many things on vacation this summer.  I learned that hauling luggage for five people through an airport is harder than it looks.  I learned that when one of those nice boys who offers your family of 5 a free ride through the airport with all of your luggage on his little beeping golf cart, that the ride really isn’t free.  I learned that when you take a whale watching tour that is called a “sea-life cruise,” instead of seeing whales, the only “sea life” you may actually see might be the pregnant women getting sick on the back of the boat.  I learned that when your 4-yr-old son tosses a hat off the ferry boat into the ocean…it will sink.

I learned that the Pacific Northwest, from Oregon to British Columbia, is a beautiful place.  I learned many things.  But there were a few occasions where I was struck by an image that reminded me of a beautiful truth about God… We saw the first one as we looked out of the window of our airplane.  We instantly knew it would be the climax of our trip.  A beautiful snow-capped mountain peak, jutting 14,441 feet into the air, rising out of a forest at almost sea level.  Mt. Rainier.  What a sight!  We couldn’t wait for our day trip there.

But we didn’t head up to Rainier until the last day of our trip.  Why?  Because the clouds came in the rest of the week. And all the locals will tell you that you don’t head up to Mt. Rainier on a cloudy day. You can’t even see it.  So we waited for the last day.  The only day that was supposed to be clear.  But that morning of our last day, the clouds were still there.  So driving up to the mountain, we prayed it would clear up. And sure enough, as we got closer to the mountain, the sun just began peeking out!  God was smiling down on us!  As the road curved around the mountain, every now and then, through the gigantic trees, there would be an opening.  And now and then, the clouds moved just enough for us to see it.  The peak of Rainier! 

What I remember, when it finally came out, is how much higher it was than we expected it to be!  Each time the clouds opened for us to see it, we would be looking down much lower than we should have been.  We weren’t looking high enough!  Each time, we had to readjust our gaze.  We had to lift up our eyes higher.  To actually see how high the peak of it was!  The mountain was always bigger than we thought!

So is God.  And that’s the first thing this mountain image reminded me about God.  He is Always Bigger Than We Think!  Psalm 121 begins: “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”  When you look up to the top of a hill, you have to keep raising your sights.  If we’re going to look up to God, we are really going to need to raise our sights!  God is the One who made those hills!  He is much bigger than we think!  And this Mighty One who made the heavens and earth is the One who helps us with our little puny problems!

Do we, too often, try to make God out to be a lot smaller than He really is?  Do we make Him out to be this safe little God that we can put into our pockets to use when we need to?  Do we sometimes think that He is so small that we can make up our own rules instead of going by His?  Do we try looking for religion that fits how we think it should be instead of how He says it will be?  Do we try going against Him?  Living our lives for ourselves, feeding our own selfish desires, doing what feels good to us?  Regardless of what God might think of it?  Do we try controlling God?  Trying to make Him be what we want Him to be?  Silly, isn’t it?

Mt. Rainier is 14,441 feet tall.  It takes 2-3 days to reach the summit, in a very difficult climb. Climbers need experience in glacier travel and self-rescue.  12,000 people attempt the climb each year.  About half of them make it.  Two to three die each year because of rock and ice falls, avalanches, falling off cliffs, and hypothermia from severe weather.  People cannot control this mountain.  And if that is so, we certainly cannot control the God who created it.

Nor should we think that God isn’t big enough to solve our problems.  Let’s lift up our eyes!  God is bigger than all of our problems!  There is nothing He can’t help you overcome!  Including your failures.  All the times you didn’t do what He wants you to do.  All your sins.  And all your guilt.  Pile it all up, and you would have a stinking mound of guilt that would make Mt. Rainier look like an anthill!  Those times you know you were bad.  The guilt you feel.  The sins that you could never even forgive yourselves for.  A huge mountain.  Not a pretty one either.  A big mountain that would block us from life with God.  Too big for us!

But not too big for God.  All of those sins, that whole stinking mess, was taken to another hill.  Calvary.  And there, our huge God, who created us, who began all life, allowed His to be taken from Him.  Showing that the mountain of his love is much bigger than the mountain of our guilt.  By doing that, He removed that guilt from our backs.  He paid for it with his life.  We are left with clean records.  With forgiveness!  With life!  With joy!  More joy than guilt!  God’s love for us, my friends, is always bigger than we think!  Lift up your eyes to the hill of Calvary!

So the first thing I learned about God’s presence is that He is always bigger than you think.  Well, we got to Rainier for the hike that we were so anxiously waiting for.  It would take us from the visitor centre at 5400 feet above sea level, to Panorama Point, at 6800 feet.  But as soon as we set out on this beautiful hike, you know what happened?  The clouds rolled in.  To the point that we could not even see this gigantic mountain that was right next to us!  The mountain was right there!  At least, we knew it should have been!  But we couldn’t see it at all.  There was beauty behind us.  But in front of us, nothing but a big cloud.  We had planned everything out!  It was supposed to be great.  But the clouds had come in and there was nothing we could do about it.  You can’t just push a button and remove the clouds, now, can you?

No, you can’t.  And you can’t do that when the clouds come rolling into your life, either.  And the clouds do come rolling in.  You learn about the rumor that has been going around about you…  The principal calls because your child is in his office again… You’ve done everything possible, but your marriage still won’t stand.  It’s just a matter of time…  You bit off more than you could chew.  You never should have agreed to take on an assignment like that.  There is no way you can meet the deadline.  And when that due date comes and you don’t produce… You’ve been dreading this meeting all week.  They’ve already laid off several men.  Why else would the personnel director need to talk to you?  And with a newborn at home…

Or maybe the clouds hovering over you now are the really dark ones:  “Why our son?” are the only words you can muster.  The funeral is over and the words of comfort have been politely said.  Now it is just you, your memories, and your question: “Why me?”  Or you are told, “The tests were positive.  The tumor is malignant.”  Just when you thought the biggest struggle was over.  More surgery… Or - “They took the other bid.” That sale was your last hope.  To be outbid could mean you’ll have to shut down the shop.  That client would have been just enough to keep the business afloat for another quarter.  But now?

The clouds roll in!  And during these cloudy moments, it is often hard to see God’s loving presence in your life.  It is often hard to see anything but the clouds.  But that doesn’t mean God isn’t still there!  He is always there!   That never changes!  That mountain was always there, even if we couldn’t see it through the clouds!  The 2nd thing I was reminded of about God’s presence is that You Can’t See Him When the Clouds Come, but He’s Still There!  Our Psalm says: “Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”  In other words, whether I am flying high because life is great, or down in the dumps because life is awful, God is there with me!

You may be facing death, but you aren’t facing death alone; the Lord is with you.  You may be facing unemployment, but you aren’t facing unemployment alone; the Lord is with you.  You may be facing marital struggles, but you aren’t facing them alone; the Lord is with you.  You may be facing debt, but you aren’t facing debt alone; the Lord is with you.  You are not alone!  Your family may turn against, you, but God won’t.  Your friends may betray you, but God won’t.  You may feel alone in the wilderness, but you are not.  He is with you.

A teenager named John had an accident that took away his sight.  The tragedy not only took his sight, but also his hope.  John was bitter and angry, and he took his anger out on everyone around him.  Since he felt he had no future, he wouldn’t lift a finger on his own behalf.  He let others wait on him.  He shut his bedroom door and refused to come out except for meals.  But finally, his father became weary of the pity party and ready for his son to get on with life.  He told the boy that winter was coming and it was time to mount the storm windows.  “Do the work before I get home or else.” His dad left, slamming the door.  John reacted with anger.  Muttering and cursing and moping all the way to the garage, he found the windows, ladder, and tools, and went to work.  “They’ll be sorry when I fall and break my neck,” he thought.  But he didn’t fall.  Little by little he inched his way around the house and finished the chore.
The assignment achieved his dad’s goal.  John realized that he could still work and later began to reconstruct his life.  He worked through the difficulties and became successful.  Years later, he discovered something about that day he did the windows that brought tears to his eyes.  At no time during that day, had his father ever been more than 4 or 5 feet from his side!  The father had no intention of letting the boy fall!  Your Father has no intention of letting you fall either.  He is there with you, always!  Even if you can’t see Him through the clouds!

Life is really a journey to find and see God.  And the clouds in life make us want to see God all the more!  That day on Rainier, the clouds made us want to see that mountain all the more!  When we got down from the mountain, we were tired, but filled with satisfaction. We hadn’t seen the mountain, but were happy because it was a memorable day.  We were almost at our car to unload, when Dawn yelled to get my attention: “There it is!”  I turned around, and sure enough, there it was.  For a few moments, the clouds rolled away and revealed to us the mighty and beautiful snow-capped peak of Mt. Rainier!    We stopped, stared, and smiled.

The mountain gave us a glimpse of itself.  Standing there, the thought hit me: Every Now and Then, God Gives us a Glimpse of Himself!  Mt. Rainier came out in the end, but it was there all along.  So is God.  Sometimes He doesn’t let us see Him in the clouds because He wants to strengthen our trust in Him that He is there, even if we can’t see Him.  He wants us to trust Him.  And this strengthens that trust.  He tells us what we need to know in his Word, something that we have at our disposal no matter what the weather is like.  And that builds our trust in Him.

But every now and then, out of his amazing grace, He gives us a little glimpse of Himself in all of his glory and goodness to reaffirm that our trust in Him is well founded.  Because He has been there all along!  Those glimpses reconfirm for us God’s loving presence in our lives.

For Noah, that little “glimpse” was an olive leaf in the beak of a dove.  For Moses, it was a burning bush.  For Martha, it was Jesus raising her brother from the dead.  For us, the glimpses might be messages like these: “It appears the cancer may be in remission.”  “I can help you out with those finances.”  “You are hired.” Or “We’ll get through this together.”  It might come when that long-time enemy says: “I forgive you.”  Or when your friend comes to faith in Jesus.

It might even be like a glimpse He gave through an Alzheimer’s patient named Betsy.  Each week at a nursing home, Betsy gets wheeled to a church service.  She doesn’t remember anyone.  She gets reintroduced each week.  While others engage in a discussion, she sits there and smiles, comprehending none of it.  But Betsy can still read.  She has no comprehension of what she is reading and might repeat the same line over and over again.  But she can read.

So the group leader asked her to read hymn verses each week.  Even if she didn’t understand them, she would read them in a clear strong voice.  One Friday, Betsy was asked to read “The Old Rugged Cross.”  And she began: “On a hill far away, stands an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame.” But she stopped, got agitated, and said, “I can’t go on!  It’s too sad!  Too sad!”  Some of the seniors gasped!  Others stared at her, dumbfounded.  In years of living at the home, not once had Betsy shown the ability to put words together meaningfully.  Now, obviously, she did understand!

The leader told her she didn’t have to keep reading.  But Betsy started again and again, each time coming to the same conclusion: “Too sad!”  A tear rolled down her face.  Staff workers walking by had now stopped to watch.  No one had ever seen Betsy in a lucid state.  Finally, when she had settled down, her aide began pushing her wheelchair to the elevator.  And to the amazement of all, Betsy began singing the hymn from memory!  The words came in chopped phrases, and she could barely carry the tune, but anyone could recognize the hymn.

“On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame.  Betsy was crying now.And I love that old cross where the dearest and best, For a world of lost sinners was slain.  So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, Till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged cross, And exchange it some day for a crown.”  Somewhere, in that damaged mind, something was still held together.  Medical science can’t explain it.  But God is bigger than all that.  And He held something together in Betsy’s heart.  A faith in Him.  A realization of suffering and shame and the sad human condition she lives in.  But also a real hope, a joy, in the fact that Jesus went through greater suffering and shame for her.  And the sure hope that one day, He will release her from the bondage she’s in now to life with Him!

And for all the fortunate ones to know Betsy, they were given a glimpse of the greatness and goodness of God!  So were we, as we drove away from Mt. Rainier.  Down the road, miles away, we looked back to see that the clouds had completely cleared up.   There it was!  It had been there all along.  But even before that, God was there.  And He has always been there.  And He will always be there for you and me!  Clouds or no clouds.   Amen.

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