Epiphany In A Fast-Food Line

Several friends had just left the church, where I'd begun the first session of our Connection Points class. I postponed dinner until after class. So did they. All of us managed to find a brief pause between the people, places and projects of our lives. I phoned home after class to confirm what I already suspected. She too had a long day. Tonight was one of those nights to grab dinner on the go... as 1 out of 4 of my fellow Americans does every day.

Not being a vegan, I stopped by a burger bar. The prospect of cold FF further down the road this rainy night didn't excite me: I opt to eat in.
Across the room, a red velvet banner with gold foil lettering warms my soul... PEACE on EARTH, it says. I wonder if this banner was manufactured in a nation where followers of Jesus suffer at the hands of their persecutors? Some nation where U.S. diplomats hesitate to mention human rights violations for fear of damaging trade relations?

One of the young ladies working at this burger bar is bagging the wrappings and crumbs of what other customers like me left behind. In a couple of hours she will sit down and sip a Coke with her boyfriend, who is hanging loose 'til lights out.  I thought I might mention this holiday banner, and it's gentle message. Peace on Earth.

"That's only half the message", I said. "Have you ever heard the first half?"
     "I don't think so", she responds.
The night Jesus was born, angels were seen in the sky. They shouted out "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace...".
      "Yeah. I thought maybe that was it."
"And we'll never have the second part, without the first part. That's something everyone needs to know."

Sermon Bytes may never be on their Side-Order menu. But all of us need some moments of holy pause between the places and projects of our lives. Even for a fast-food world, there is redemption. Glory to God then peace on earth. Pause in breathless wonder before Him. And then... breathe easier.

Breathing Easier in Great Commission Teamwork

   Yesterday I committed to pray daily for Great Commission Resurgence. 
I missed a flight last June to the event in Louisville. GCR drove the event. "I don't miss flights--ever!!"was in my head all morning. It seemed lame to think, "Maybe, Lord, there's a reason." There was. Hours later, my wife got a call from her doctor. She's okay now. But that day I really needed to be home. These flashes come now and then, that "not everything needs to happen that we think needs to happen." Well...
   Great Commission Resurgence isn't like that. It needs to happen. Right now, some amazing servants of God are expected to work through numerous understandings of what needs to happen. I read today from an old book on William Carey. Around the time he hooked up with British Baptists, Carey was to become the most pivotal spokesman for Great Commission response / resurgence in generations. 

You tell me whether he got that from Baptists or Baptists got that from him.

Any of us who "get it" do so because of Christ's sending Word and Spirit. The task was tougher in Carey's day. Few saw the point of missions at all. Once they did, the missionary society appointing him was winging it.  The stunning thing is that it was not strictly their initiative. It was always God's. So the impact of that experiment exceeded all their collective wisdom and expectations.  As the Spirit shapes our prayers, our interaction, and our yieldedness I believe we will see Resurgence. Together. We're not going back to times when Rylands tried to suppress Carey's zeal for taking the gospel to the nations. Breathe easier!
  Great Commission teamwork will grow. It is growing already. As to Great Commission support, ours is not the first generation to ask,"how does God want it done?" Maybe the Cooperative Program wasn't the third table of stone Moses brought down from the mount. But it's a good thing that generation of Baptists got what they did, asking  God how He wanted it done. From that time on, it has helped thousands whom God calls to Great Commission teamwork ...to breathe a bit easier.  ~jdraper
   
   

...Because Our Troops Sacrifice

   In typical morning traffic along US 202N toward Valley Forge, commuters are not "breathing easier."
Today was an exception. The fall foliage was so worthy of notice. On this stretch of highway, we watch the tail lights on cars ahead rather than how colors are changing. With the pace of our lives squeezing us through jammed arteries, it's not so much a question of breathing easier. We just hope we don't run out of air.
    As our leaders test the winds of political sentiment, decisions of enormous consequence will be made. The future of the free world... and the future of families, of military men and women patrolling the streets and hills of a distant lands. What they might give to see some of this fall foliage, I thought. They put everything on the line because America has enemies with hellish resolve: fanatics who hope we all quit breathing. So those weighing the meaning of troop escalation and troop reduction feel their chests tighten in these times, contemplating scenarios no one wants to consider.
    Because of men and women who serve and protect, you and I breathe easier. Today's photo was taken near the spot where Gen. George Washington's headquartered during the Continental Army's bitter winter at Valley Forge. A landscape once bleak now beckons. Life and beauty are there. Whatever praise changing seasons inspire, may the character of those serving in our armed forces make us think of glories less transient, and the homeland they so greatly love.

  
Next time we "struggle" with the morning commute, just pause and take a breath...Who's breathing easier these days because of what we do?
  

Breathing Easier

    High pollen season and for me golden rod isn't all that golden. So we're giving the pharmacy some business. Hopefully, this series won't be another irritant floating in the blogosphere. The desire is to create a place to breathe in and out freely, as one of God's children communicating with others.

     Breathing easier is about a life and outlook that is spiritually open, unashamedly you. Breathing easier is also a timeless analogy for prayer. Breathing easier will hopefully mean expressing insights and questions so something fresh can blow across different landscapes of thought and tradition. Will breathing easier require filters? Maybe. My prayer would be that you and I may find the kind of fellowship that brings healing rather than wounding. For the promise given in the phrase "life more abundantly" is surely an invitation to breathing easier.   - jdraper-