Clothe the Little Ones in Your Colors

When this picture of Juliana was made, she was not quite three months old.  You might find it amazing that, at such a young age, she has already chosen the university she will support and for which she will wear team apparel.  The truth is, she hasn’t actually chosen a college yet.  Her parents decided that their love for Clemson is so clear and strong that they will actually dress their child in it.  One day, Juliana will choose a college for herself.  It may be Clemson.  It may be the one you’d pick for her.  But she is going to grow up knowing what team her parents love. 

I’ve heard some parents say, “I’m not going to involve my child in any particular religion. I want them to be free to choose when they’re old enough to understand.” When I hear that, I want to ask parents, “Do you know Jesus?  Do you love Jesus?  If you do, you will want to raise your child, from day one, knowing who you love and live for.  One day, each child will make a choice about following Jesus.  Some will choose to follow Him.  Others will not.  But if you believe Jesus is the Savior of the world, the one way to salvation, the Lord we can follow to an abundant life, then don’t you want your child to come to his or her choice knowing as much as they can about the Christ you love?  Shouldn’t they grow up clothed in your love for Christ?

No, our youngest children don’t understand everything about the Christian faith, but they are having their first and foundational experiences that profoundly shape the way they see life, themselves, other people, and God.  So, we bring the little children to Jesus. We clothe them in our colors to prepare them to make the best choice about Him.  

A Tough Question God Asked Me

I want to tell you about a tough question God has asked me.  I could take you to the very place where I first sensed it.  We wouldn’t have to go very far.  I was sitting at the desk in the pastor’s study of this church.  I hadn’t been here very long.  I’d unpacked all my boxes of books and sermons and files.  I’d hung my pictures on the walls, put my guitars in the closet and my Andy Griffith Show DVDs on the shelf.  I was here.  But as I sat at my desk that day, staring into a computer screen and struggling to focus my heart on the work I’d come here to do, I realized that part of me was far away, about a hundred miles away, to be precise.  As much as I’d wanted to leave them behind, I’d brought with me some deep wounds, nightmarish memories of the most hurtful experience I’d known in more than thirty years of ministry.  I’d talked to friends, colleagues, and mentors in an effort to unpack some of my thoughts and feelings and, hopefully, begin a healing process.  Those steps were good, but still I felt stuck.  Too many thoughts and feelings focused on apologies I was owed, people who needed to be held accountable, and second-guessing every word I said and choice I’d made during that ordeal.  It was like a bad song you hear on the radio and can’t get out of your head.  As I sat there, with one foot in the present and the other stuck in the miry clay of the past, God posed a question to me.  This one didn’t come through a lecture or a friend’s testimony.  I was alone with God when He asked,

What do you want to do with the rest of your life?

I’m not the world’s greatest goal-setter or plan-maker, so my first answer was an honest, “I don’t know.” God, the Wonderful Counselor, pointed me toward a place where I could begin to build an answer.  

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life doing this; trying to fix the past, waiting for others to repent of their ways, beating your head against an emotional brick wall, or do you want something better?” 

“I really do want something better,” I answered.

“What pieces of that better life can you see?” 

“I want you serve You here with my whole heart.

I want to do the best preaching I’ve ever done.

I want to enjoy my family, my children, my grandchildren.

I’ve never written a book.  I think I have something to say.

I’ve never been on a foreign mission trip.  I can do that here.”

That day, that question, those first steps toward an answer, were a turning point in my life.  

I don’t take your hurts lightly.  I understand your desire to make bad times make sense, to somehow feel a great wrong has been made right, to finally feel closure of an opened wound. 

I’m not God, but God is here.  And I believe, with all my heart, that He wants your life to be about today’s joys and tomorrow’s dreams much more than yesterday’s hurts.  And, as He sees you stuck in the past with time slipping away like water through your fingers, He may be here to ask you what He asked me, to turn your heart away from a past stained by others’ sins toward a future waiting to be created by His love.  Hurting friend, “What do you want to do with the rest of your life?”

Stopping Violence Before It Starts

(Matthew 5:21-22)"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, 'is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

A medical student told me that he had spent most of his day in the cadaver lab, dissecting a human body.  I asked him if that work, as important as it was to his studies and future service, was difficult.  He replied that he had learned a trick that made his assignment easier.  He said the first step in working with a cadaver is to cut off the face, making the body look less like an actual human being.  Once that's done, he observed, cutting that body to pieces is much easier.  

In times of conflict, we come up with demeaning names to describe our enemies.  Fighting is much easier when we make our enemies seem a little less than human. We use our words to cut off their faces, to categorize them as something less than human.  

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes three dehumanizing steps we take in our hearts: 

The first is anger, not a moment of frustration as we have with any person, but a ever-simmering anger that focuses on and broods over another person’s faults and failures. 

The second step, says Jesus, is to say Raca!  This is a name of contempt, a word that says that I see nothing to value, nothing to respect, nothing worth living in you. 

Jesus says that the third step in dehumanizing others is to call someone a fool.  This is a special kind of fool.  This is the fool who says in his heart that there is no God.  Calling someone this kind of fool means that you look at that person as being separated from God, even opposed to God.   That kind of person is a little easier to destroy. 

Resentment, contempt, condemnation—these are not just private thoughts and feelings.  Jesus says that these are steps toward murder.  Murder begins when I dehumanize another person, when I make him or her seem not quite like a real person to me.  When I cut off his face, I find it much easier to cut him to pieces. 

I must stop this violence in my heart if I am going to play a part in stopping it in my world.  I must ask Christ to touch my eyes and allow me to see others as He sees them.  My view of every person must be this:

This person is a miracle of God, created in His image, a person for whom Christ died. 

Becoming World Citizens

Linda and I were standing on a subway platform in New York.  We were holding a subway map, turning it this way and that, trying to decipher its meaning and discern which train, going in which direction, we needed to board.  A helpful New Yorker saw our struggle, took pity on our plight, interpreted the map for us and gave us the directions we needed.  Then, before we parted, having heard the distinctly non-New Yorkian pattern of our speech, our new friend asked us, “Are you from Australia?” 

Where is your citizenship?

If you were asked that question, especially during this week of the 4^th of July, you would probably answer, “I’m a citizen of the United States of America.”  If most anyone here gave that answer, you’d be correct.  You are blessed to live in this nation, to enjoy its rights and privileges and to give it your allegiance, your loyalty and support.  We’d do well, as we’ve celebrated our nation’s 243^rd birthday to stop and remember that, in spite of all our problems, our political divisions, the shortcomings of many of our leaders, we live in a nation people will do most anything to enter, while many people live in nations they’d do anything to escape. 

Once we’ve counted our blessings as citizens of this good land, as we should, we need to recognize that the nation to which we belong is only one part of our citizenship and, for the Christian, not the most binding part.  For those who follow Jesus Christ, the first and best answer to the question, “Where is your citizenship?” is…

We are Citizens of God’s Kingdom

Paul is writing to the Philippians about people whose hearts and minds belong to this world.  He grieves how some of them live for nothing more than their next meal and their next chance to gain the praise of others.  But, he says, Christians are different.  Believers have higher aims.  Followers of Jesus travel a different road.  He sums up the difference between the loves and loyalties of Christians and non-Christians by saying,

(Philippians 3:20) But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

If you recognize that your eternal citizenship is in God’s kingdom, then that awareness will change your life. 

·        Jesus is your leader—not president or party or policy.

·        You won’t live by a bumper sticker slogan, but by a prayer—Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

·        You’ll guide your choices by the question, “What would Jesus do?” 

·        And you’ll support His campaign to redeem the world with your time and hard work and money. 

And of all the ways of belonging that make us who we are, the most defining and the most cherished, is your place in God’s kingdom.  As Paul writes,

(Ephesians 2:19-20) Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

Our citizenship begins with Christ. Our love for Him and our loyalty to Him define every other kind of belonging.  And, as we’ve said, one of those sources of belonging, another part of our citizenship, is this: 

We are Citizens of our Nation

The Apostle Peter tells us that our citizenship in God’s kingdom makes us good citizens of our country as well.  He writes,

(1 Pet. 2:13-17) Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

 ¹⁵ For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.  ¹⁶ Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God's slaves. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

We could spend the morning unpacking these few verses, but let me name a few of the qualities of Christian citizens of any nation. 

·        We submit to the authority of good government as long as it does good for people. 

·        We live exemplary lives that give a critical world no reason to look down on those who name the name of Christ. 

·        We use our freedom as an opportunity to do God’s work in our nation and our world. 

·        We treat all people with respect, knowing each person is created in God’s image and is a person for whom Christ died. 

·        We make our love for God’s family clear, in word and deed. 

·        We fear God alone, keeping God our highest authority and deepest loyalty in all we do.

·        And, we give due honor to the positions of leadership that shape our nation. 

I doubt I’ve told you anything you didn’t already know, other than the fact that Linda and I sound Australian, but I want to talk to you about a third dimension of our citizenship I’ve seldom heard discussed in church.  This third dimension of our citizenship is so important that our very lives may depend upon the love and loyalty we give it. 

We are Citizens of our Father’s World

You and I are connected to this planet in innumerable ways.  Every time you take a breath, take a drink of water, eat a meal, even step outside into the sun, you are taking some part of this earth into yourself.  A healthy planet supports healthy people.  A poisoned planet will poison people.   How we care for this earth, our home, is a critical part of our citizenship. 

But is care for our planet a spiritual issue?  Is this something Christians need to take seriously?  Does our highest calling to be citizens of God’s kingdom include caring for the earth?  I believe it does.  I want to name three spiritual truths that can guide us in being faithful citizens of the earth.  As you’ll see, I believe that many of the environmental problems we face have happened because we aren’t living by the truth of God’s Word and the spirit of Christ. 

God Owns the Earth

A friend was driving me around the large city in which he lives and works.  As guys are prone to do, our conversation landed on the topic of his car, a big SUV that, I imagined, didn’t get very good gas mileage.  When I asked him what kind of mileage he was getting, I unknowingly touched a raw nerve.  He burst into a tirade, saying, “You know, Dee, the government has no business putting mileage requirements or emission standards on cars.  If I can pay for the car and buy the gas, I should be able to drive anything I want.  Who are they to tell me what’s best for me?” Had we been in court, I would’ve answered, “I’m sorry, your honor.  I withdraw the question.”

I’ve thought about my friend’s angry response to my question and have decided it’s based in the belief that if I own something, I can do whatever I please with it.

You know what?  That argument doesn’t stand up to scripture.  The Bible says you can’t do whatever you please with any part of this world because you don’t own it. 

(Psalm 24:1) The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. 

This is my Father’s world and everything I do with my little part of His world should honor His desires and fulfill His purposes for it. 

My neighborhood friends and I had entered a phase of pretending to sword fight.  I don’t know if we were Robin Hood and his merry men or knights in armor or the Three Musketeers, but we enjoyed the adventure.  One day, I decided that the stick I was using for a make-believe sword wasn’t up to my knightly standards, so I decided to make a better one.  My dad had a lumber rack in the basement of our home.  I found a piece of wood I believed would make a trusty sword, cut it to the correct length, sharpened one end, and nailed a small piece crossways to make a crossguard.  I took it outside and shared a few hours of fun with my friends.  When my dad returned home from work, I showed him my new creation.  He didn’t look totally pleased.  He then explained to me that I had chosen to make my sword out of a piece of costly molding he had set apart for a construction project in our home.  I should have asked him for a piece of wood I could use to defend the honor of the neighborhood.  Rather than live by the sword, I thought I might die by the sword that day.  I’d used that wood for a purpose at odds with my father’s plans. 

The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.  He has a purpose for His creation.  And we place ourselves at odds with God’s plans when we selfishly claim ownership of His world and destroy it.  We must know this is our Father’s world.  Then we’re ready to learn that…

God Has Made Us Stewards of the Earth

In the creation story, God gives humankind a special authority and responsibility for the world He has made. 

(Genesis 2:15) The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

It’s our job to manage our Father’s world, to make good use of it and use it for good.  If God were to call humanity before Him today for a job review, for Him to judge how well we’re managing His beautiful world, what kind of job do you think we’re doing? 

Rising temperatures, rising sea levels, polluted air, unsafe drinking water, melting ice caps, islands of plastic trash in the oceans, dying coral reefs, bigger storms, monstrous hurricanes, droughts in some places, flooding in others.  I don’t think we’re doing a very good job. 

Why not?  I believe, at the root of our poor stewardship of the earth, is a spiritual problem: greed.  Again and again, mankind has chosen personal profit over proper care for our Father’s world.  Paul tells Timothy and us,

(1 Timothy 6:10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

I recently watched a documentary about a man who was sentenced to prison for repeated safety violations in the mining industry.  The corners he cut led to the deaths of a number of miners and damage to the environment.  When one of this executive’s subordinates was interviewed by law enforcement, he told the officers of a day when he had called his boss, worried about the risks their company was taking with the lives of their workers and the health of the community.  His boss answered his concerns with these words, “If you want to make it in this company and this industry, you need to get this straight in your mind right now: you are here to make dollars, not worry about people.”

If I could make a birthday wish for my nation, it well might be this; that we would learn and live by the truth that, in God’s eyes, profit is not the bottom line.  Treating human beings with love and respect and helping them have a good life and make a decent living is a far greater good.  Caring for our Father’s world is a greater good.  And greater still is living in such a way that we will hear our Father say to us one day, as we give account for how we treated His children and His world, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  Why is our citizenship so urgent?

Future Generations Will Live in the World Our Choices Create

Many passages of scripture give us a beautiful dream of what life can be when we love God and live for God.  But, loving us enough to tell us the whole truth, some other passages reveal the nightmare of what will happen when we stray from God’s heart and are unfaithful to our calling to live as His people.  One of those horror passages is found in Deuteronomy 29.  Listen to what it says,

(Deuteronomy 29:22-25) Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it.  ²³ The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur-- nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger.  ²⁴ All the nations will ask: "Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?"  ²⁵ And the answer will be: "It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.

Some people might read this passage and write it off as symbolic prophetic language.  But I challenge you to hear the simple truth it proclaims about God’s people, then and now. They disobeyed God, they weren’t faithful to the covenant, and they destroyed the earth for themselves and future generations. Are we doing that?  Are we? 

CONCLUSION

On July 4, our family gathered at our home to grill, eat and enjoy some time together.  In the gathering were all four of my grandchildren: Liam, Creighton, Josiah, and little Juliana.  Those little ones stir up such deep feelings in me and sometimes leave me feeling overwhelmed by the truth that the life I live, the beliefs I hold, the choices I make are creating the world in which they will live.    

As the African proverb says, so prophetically,

We have not inherited the earth from our fathers; we have borrowed it from our children. 

I want them to live in a beautiful world, as the God who created it and owns it intends. 

I want them to live in a world that gives them the good things they need to be fully alive, not struggling to survive in a poisoned world that makes them sick. 

I want them to think of you and me and say, “They laid aside selfishness and greed and loved us by caring for God’s creation.”  

This is our Father’s world.

He’s called us to take care of it.

The future of those we love depends upon how we answer that calling. 

Lessons from Liam

On July 25, 2011, Joshua Liam Davison was born.  That little guy has made some big changes in our family.  My daughter and son-in-law are now parents.  My boys are uncles.  My mom is a great grandmother.  My camera is about to burn up from taking so many pictures.  The poor little boy believes that he’s been born into a world where a bright flash of light occurs every five seconds.  The two hour drive from Travelers Rest to Monetta is suddenly no problem.  My wife and I have changed our preferred names from “Dee” and “Linda” to “Papa Dee” and “Nama.” 

I wasn’t surprised that little Liam changed our family, but I was surprised by how much he changed my heart.  Liam’s birth, and these two weeks that we’ve shared with him, has been a time when God has spoken to me as He has at very few times in my Christian journey.  That very little boy has taught me some big lessons.  He’s been like a little angel bringing messages from God for me. 

This morning, I want to share with you a few of the lessons I’ve learned from Liam, ways that God has taught me and touched me through him. 

You Are a Miracle

I’ve heard many people say that they believe in miracles.  I’ve heard a good number say that they’ve seen a miracle.  But the experience of Liam coming into this world took me beyond believing in or seeing miraculous things.  His birth taught me that every person can look into the mirror and say, “You are a miracle.” 

Psalm 139 is a song through which the singer praises God for the miracle of his life. 

(Psalm 139:13-14) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

During her pregnancy, Elizabeth would send me updates on what was happening to Liam as he grew and got closer and closer to birth.  As I read what science has learned about the growth of a child before birth, I thought of those words again and again, “you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” 

Where do you see the glory of God, the evidence of His power and His purpose?  You might see the glory of a sunrise.  You may look into a cloudless night sky and see the countless stars He calls by name.  You may gaze upon the mountains, dressed up in fall colors by countless leaves changing at His time.  Or you may, like a friend of mine, say that he no longer says that there are no atheists in the fox holes of a battlefield.  When he became a father, he said, “There are no atheists in delivery rooms.” 

But little Liam reminded me that every human being, wonderfully made by God, knit together by His hand, can look into the mirror and say, “I am a miracle.”  You are not merely the result of a process.  You’re not an accident.  In God’s mind, you weren’t a surprise.  You are a mighty act of His power, His creative purpose, and His love.  And the same God who did a mighty thing in creating you can do mighty things through you.  You can live in the confidence and purpose that come from knowing, “I am a miracle.” 

Liam taught me something else the night he came into this world…

Pain is the Price of New Life

The day that Liam was born, Linda and I arrived at the hospital and went to her room to visit with her and Josh.  Every two or three minutes, Elizabeth would have a contraction, a passing moment of tension and discomfort, but between those contractions, she visited with us and talked about many things, posed for pictures, and even joked about becoming a mother.  But in a few hours, the hurt she was feeling became far more intense and came more often.  I saw the look of pain written on her face and the fear that comes from hurting like you’ve never hurt before.  The time came for all of us to leave the room, leaving Elizabeth with her husband, her nurse, and the challenge of enduring the pain she was feeling. 

As excited as I was about becoming a grandfather, I spent the next several hours pacing up and down hallways, questioning anyone who came out of Elizabeth’s room, and even putting my ear up against the door to hear any clue that could tell me how my girl was holding up in her battle with pain.  A few times, a doctor or nurse would open the door to leave, only to find me in the doorway with my ear turned toward the door.  I didn’t care.  I was worried about my daughter.  Everything inside me wanted her pain to end.  For hours, we heard the voices of doctors and nurses coaching her, we heard her voice as she fought the good fight, and then, at 7:21 p.m., almost 14 hours after she had begun, my daughter’s pain turned to joy, the joy of a new life.  Outside in the hallway, we who had been listening to Elizabeth’s struggle heard something new, a little voice crying out to announce his entrance into the world.  I hugged Linda and we remembered three such days in our own marriage.  But now we felt the joy of knowing our daughter’s pain led to the miracle of a new life. 

Childbirth is one of the most painful and dangerous experiences a woman can know.  I wish that it were different.  I wished it a hundred times that night.  But in God’s plan, pain is the price of new life.  It’s true for a woman giving birth.  It’s also true for any person asking God for a new beginning. 

Liam’s birth taught me that, for any of us, pain is the price of new life.  So many people want a new start, a new beginning, a deeper faith, a greater faithfulness, victory over a struggle, joy on the other side of weeping.  But what we must realize is that we won’t hear the sweet sound of a new life unless we are willing to endure the pain that new life demands; the pain of honesty, the pain of confession, of heart-broken repentance, of letting go of the old in order to make room for the new, of enduring a night of darkness in order to see the glory of a new day. 

The Apostle Paul tells the Galatians that he is bearing great pain with the purpose of seeing Christ more alive in their hearts and in their church.  He writes, in Galatians 4:19,

(Galatians 4:19) My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…

Many times, over the past few months, I have asked God why I’ve had to hurt so badly—why the people I love have hurt so badly.  I don’t know that I’ll ever understand the reason for this pain, not on this side of heaven, but I can find hope in the result of this pain.  By God’s grace and power, my pain and your pain, can be the beginning of a new life. 

When Elizabeth’s time of hurting was over, when we heard Liam’s voice and then got to hold him and see him, he taught me another great spiritual lesson. 

We’ll Understand When We See Him Face to Face

Several times during Elizabeth’s pregnancy, she sent me ultrasound images of Liam.  I don’t know how well you interpret an ultrasound image.  I find most of them to be like a two-year-old’s picture that they draw in Sunday School.  I look at it and say, “Wow, that’s amazing!  Tell me about it.  (Which is a nice way of saying, “What in the world am I looking at?”)   

Sometimes I could be guided to see Liam in the picture, other times I had to trust that others saw things I just couldn’t see.  But all of that changed the first time I held him in my arms and looked into his little face.  That face-to-face moment revealed more to me that I had seen in all of the moments before.  Later, I returned to those ultrasound pictures and, now, some of them made perfect sense, especially one in which I could trace the features of his face and see that those hazy images were, in fact, my Liam all along. 

In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul says that our journey through life is that very same way.  He writes,

(1 Corinthians 13:12) Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

In Paul’s day a mirror was nothing more than a shiny piece of metal.  The reflection it gave was often dark and distorted.  We don’t see life so clearly while we’re living it.  We want to see the plan, the purpose, the meaning; we want to see Christ working in the joys and challenges we face each day.  Sometimes we catch a glimpse of him in that poor reflection our human hearts can perceive.  Other times we don’t what we’re seeing or what it means.  We just have to live by faith. 

But one day, we will see Jesus face to face.  When we do, all of those poor reflections, all of those small glimpses of His grace and His glory, will make perfect sense.  We will look back and see that He was there, in every step we took, every tear we shed, every burden we bore, even every question we asked. 

When our faith becomes sight, we will see that Jesus was with us every step of the way.  

One more lesson my Liam has written on my heart;

God Wants You to Know How Much He Loves You

I had held little Liam for the briefest moment when I heard myself telling him how much I love him.  Even though he’s a genius baby, as we call him, I don’t think that he could see me clearly or understand the meaning of the sounds my voice was making.  But I didn’t give up.  I’ll never give up.  I’ll always tell him and, hopefully, show him that he has someone in his life, one of many, who look upon him and feel nothing but love.  And though I don’t want to rush him in growing up—he’ll change too quickly, I know—I look forward to the day that he knows, truly knows that I love him and he, in his own childlike way, can love me back. 

Paul wanted the Ephesians to have that same kind of experience with God.  Listen to his prayer for them in Ephesians 3:17b-19,

(Ephesians 3:17b-19)  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I want you to know how much Christ loves you.  I want you to build your life upon that confidence, “being rooted and established in love.”  I want you to see how big his love for you truly is, “how wide and long and high and deep.”  And I want you to know His love, not just as an idea in your head, or the right answer to a question someone asks you in church, but as an experience that changes you from the inside out, that fills you with the presence and power and peace of God. 

As long as you have been in this world, God has been telling you how much He loves you.  For a long time, you didn’t recognize His voice, much less understand what He was saying.  But God wants this to be the day when you know His love, when you experience the love that gives you life, eternal life; the love that fills you with God’s spirit. 

            Have you heard His voice?

            Have you understood how much He loves you?

He’s shown you most clearly in Jesus, the One who died to take away the sin that stands between you and God, the One who rose from the dead to say, “Love has won.” 

This can be your day to know how much He loves you. 

Do You See?

I wrote this devotional the first Easter after my father's death and shared it with the Chaplain's Department at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center.  

It was Sunday.  My mother and I were driving home after church discussing all of the usual after-service matters.  We caught ourselves voicing several criticisms of the worship service we’d just attended.  I quickly realized that behind our criticism was the pain that worship holds for both of us in the wake of my father's death.  Church and family overlap a great deal in my memories and feelings. Daddy was so much a part of what church life is to me that I swear I can still hear his voice in the choir. As the car turned into the driveway of our home, mother and I were met by a deluge of color from the blooming azaleas in front of the house. Though I recognized their beauty with a passing glance, mother specifically called my attention to them asking, "Son, do you see the azaleas that Orin and I planted?"  As I heard the awed tone of her voice and looked more intently at the blossoming plants, I was not so sure that I really had seen them. When I looked at the flower boxes more closely, I saw that in place of the numerous flowers which usually formed their border, these azaleas were flanked only by weeds.  The meticulous pruning and careful cultivation daddy gave those plants was missing as their shape was rather spindly and the dirt around them was hard and full of clods.

Seeing this state of disrepair brought me pain because I realized that the hands which had cared for these plants only a year ago were gone.      But while I was still in the grip of the pain of loss I looked again and saw the beautiful blooms that had blossomed, seemingly in spite of everything. The purple, pink and white were so full of life. I experienced a profound joy knowing that even in death my father's work continues to bring joy and beauty into my world. That strange mixture of pain and joy was my experience as I took the time to really look at the blossoming azaleas.

The Easter season is upon us and everywhere we look we see the cross of Christ, but I wonder if we really see it?  If we can look closely enough to see the rough wood and the nails, we come face to face with the pain that self-giving love requires, the hurt that shook the very heart of God as His own Son laid down his life because of the hard-heartedness and hard-headedness of humanity. Seeing how far perfect love has to go to reach mankind silences our every claim to self-sufficiency. It is only with eyes stained by the tears of that loss that we can rightly see the resurrected Christ and experience the joy of the redemption which burst forth from the tomb like living blossoms from azaleas stained by neglect.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down;

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown.

                           Isaac Watts

It is that paradoxical mixture of agonizing pain and profound joy which is the Easter experience and the Easter message. Amen.

Ronald D. Vaughan

April 6, 1982

The Many Ways We Call Her Blessed

The Many Ways We Call Her Blessed

You are blessed if you have someone in your life who looks upon you and sees someone beautiful.  But how rare and how special is a person everyone sees as beautiful?  Donna Taylor Mayes was one of those people.  Everyone who knew her experienced her as a beautiful lady, a wonderful human being, a shining witness for Jesus Christ.  

 How do you express your gratitude for knowing and loving such a person?  As it so often does, the Bible gives us a great place to begin.  In Proverbs 31, in the description of a godly woman, we’re given a picture of how we can best respond to such a life. 

(Prov. 31:28-29) Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ²⁹ "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."

All of us have many reasons to rise today and call Donna blessed, to remember the loving impact she’s had upon our lives and to praise God for the blessing of knowing and loving her.  And as we call her blessed, we can call Donna by many names, many titles, that reflect the multitude of ways we give thanks for her today. 

Donna’s siblings can give thanks for Donna by calling her “Mokey Mae.” 

Mokey Mae was a nickname Donna received from her brothers and sisters in their growing up years.  No one seems to know exactly how it started, but all of them know how it stuck.  They remember how six siblings grew up together in the Winnsboro community.  In that circle of brothers and sisters, Donna sometimes described herself as the “favorite sister,” far preferable to being called the “middle child.”  In response, her loving brothers and sisters would insist that Donna was adopted. 

They remember Christmases when brother Steve would like across the foot of Donna’s bed while the kids discussed whether Santa had yet made his appearance. 

They cherish memories of family trips to the beach in the days when Myrtle Beach was a place to rent a house for a week for your family, meet other vacationing families and become friends. 

They remember school days when, in one breath, they’d blame each other for any trouble in which they found themselves but, then, in the next breath, would stand up for each other against all foes. 

Donna and her brothers and sisters didn’t leave those family ties behind in childhood.  Ann says her sister grew up to be her best friend.  Steve says you didn’t have to be around them long to feel the bond of family.  What a blessing sharing those early years of Donna’s life was to you all. 

We can also bless Donna’s life by calling her Cheerleader.

Are any of you surprised that Donna was a cheerleader?  Not at all, I’m sure.  If anyone had the gift of cheering others on to do and be their best, it was Donna.  She did it for her high school teams, serving as the Head Cheerleader.  But Donna never stopped being a cheerleader.  She cheered on her Tigers through good seasons and bad.  She watched many games while shooting group texts back and forth with her siblings, play by play.  But more importantly, Donna was an enthusiastic encourager of everyone she met.  When you knew she was in your corner, you had the inner confidence you could do great things.  She did that for her family, each of you through your times of victory and the times you had to pick yourselves up and try again.  She cheered on this church, its life and its mission.  And, I’m thankful to say, she cheered on her staff, including me.  She always had a good word to say about her ministers.  I know pastors are to seek God’s approval, not the praise of people, but having a few cheerleaders in your life, like Donna, certainly made the work more joyful. 

We bless Donna’s life today as we think of her as Vern’s Leading Lady

Vern and Donna met when she was 15 ½ years old (I haven’t counted half years in a long time).  They met at the beach and were soulmates and sweethearts for 51 years.  I loved to be around Donna and Vern because they were so crazy about each other.  I love to be around people in love.  Donna often bragged on Vern, saying he treated her like a queen.  He was always the gentleman, always the romantic, always the helper, the fixer, the provider.  He saw the value of opening the door for her and sliding her chair to the table when you ate together. 

Of the many tender memories Donna shared with me about her love for Vern and his for her, this one, I believe, is my favorite.  On many evenings, Vern would crank up some of his favorite music and the two of them would dance until long after midnight.  I’ve never known anyone to regret dancing with the one you love.  I’ve known many who regretted they didn’t seize the moment to celebrate their love for each other. 

Donna’s love for Vern was tender, but it was also strong.  We all saw that during the long days and nights of Vern’s illness—the trips to the doctor, the treatments, the endless hours she spent by his side in the hospital.  She held him in her loving arms until God took Vern in His arms and took him home. 

At Vern’s funeral, almost four years ago now, I told Donna this: 

Donna, you haven’t danced your last dance with Vern. 

You haven’t heard him sing for the last time. 

Your love story has paused, but hasn’t ended. 

And I believe those words have now come true.  My confidence in that happy reunion comes from another reason we have to bless Donna’s life. 

Donna was a Contagious Christian

Donna loved and lived for Jesus.  She was one of those people you watched and would say, “If that’s what following Jesus looks like, I want to follow Jesus too!”  She was a winsome witness to everyone, but she also knew that she would do her most important work for Christ at home. 

Her boys, Blake and Brandon, remember that their mom insisted that they go with her to church and that they do so, “with their shirts tucked in.”  They participated in the many youth ministries, trips and retreats this church offered them. 

More than that, Donna’s boys grew up knowing that the church met at their house, not just God’s house.  For many years, they shared morning devotions with their mom over the breakfast she cooked.  She fed their bodies and their souls before sending them out into the world to face the day. 

Blake and Brandon bless their sweet mom because she helped them build a personal faith, a faith to follow and, at times, a faith to come home to.  Guys, the greatest way you can honor your mother is to do what she asked you to in the obituary she wrote, “Live your life to honor God.”  

Donna’s Christianity was also contagious in her marriage.  There was a time when Vern wasn’t deeply involved in the faith or the church.  Donna, for a time, had to practice her faith and lead her sons in the faith, almost alone.  What do you do when your spouse doesn’t share your deep love for your Lord?  Donna didn’t lecture Vern.  She didn’t try to argue him to Jesus.  She lived the faith while loving her husband and Vern caught a bad case of Christianity from her.  She loved him into a deep love for and devotion to Christ.  He may be thanking her for that right now. 

We bless Donna’s life as a Homemaker

Donna loved her family through many expressions of caring and provision. 

The boys remember special dishes like crockpot macaroni and cheese and broccoli casserole. 

They remember their friends coming home with them because the food was so good and Donna extended hospitality to everyone.  Those same friends learned to check out the cookie jar when they visited because some homemade cookies were always waiting to be enjoyed. 

Donna planned the family menu primarily around what Vern liked to eat because he had worked hard all day and deserved a meal he enjoyed.  This left the boys with the “take it” or “leave it” option and the duty to say “I enjoyed my dinner” even if it was stewed tomatoes and rice. 

Donna provided for the people she loved in many ways, but perhaps the best gift she offered was her wisdom. 

We bless Donna for being a faithful Life Coach

Donna was a teacher of the art of living.  She had many students because she had the gift of connecting with any person she met.  She could share conversation with royalty and with the down and out. 

She knew how to listen.  So many people are ready to dump advice on you, if it’s what you need or not, but Donna knew that loving begins with listening.  She’s let you vent your frustrations and disappointments if you needed to, knowing that getting such pain out in the open in a safe place is good medicine. 

But even as she knew that was a time to listen, there was a time to speak.  And as the Proverbs say, “She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. (Prov. 31:26 NIV)

When her boys were young, they helped themselves to some chocolate coins at the Romain Drive Zippy Mart.  When Vern arrived home with the boys and the crime was revealed, Donna sent them back to the store with the very specific assignment of returning what they had taken and apologizing to the store owner.  A tough day for a little boy, but a big lesson in owning up to your mistakes and making things right. 

As the boys grew and Donna would hear them speak of their friends, she would sometimes ask, “I hear you speak of him often.  Why haven’t I met him yet?”  If she wasn’t satisfied with the answer, without judging her sons’ friends, she’d say, “If there’s a reason you don’t want me to meet this friend, there may be a reason why you shouldn’t be spending time with him.”  Wow.  What a teacher.

You’re going to miss your mom’s wisdom.  You’re going to pick up the phone to call her and put it down in tears.  But I think you’ll find that much of her lives on in you.  You’ll often know what she would say.  You’ll understand what she’d ask you to do.  And she will continue to bless your life. 

I want to name one more way in which we bless Donna’s life today. 

We praise her because we can now call her “Victorious”

We’re grateful that Donna lived until she died.  We’ll remember her as being full of life and love.  But her sudden passing leaves us in shock, with the reality of our loss sinking into our numb hearts a little at a time.  But as her death becomes more and more real to you, may her hope, her confidence in Christ, her assurance of her eternal destiny also become real to your hearts.  Donna belonged to Jesus.  And so, for her, death is not defeat.  Death is not the end.  Death doesn’t have the final word.  Donna can now shout on heaven’s shore, in the words of scripture,

(1 Corinthians 15:54) "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

We can share that victory with Donna one day. 

We can face today and every tomorrow with courage and hope. 

We can know that our lives are worth the living because we know Jesus lives.