Fan club

(A continuing series based on photos taken in Kaua'i.)
“Being a fan”—it takes many forms in my state, especially during football season where it seems that everywhere you turn, there’s something about Seattle’s franchise team, the Seahawks. Oh, the merchandising and extremes of fans at games or game-watching venues, wearing gaudy blue-and-green gear, body paint, and dyed hair. And don’t forget to hoist that 12^th man flag—the 12^th being the extra combined “player” in the stands cheering on the eleven on the field bashing into each other.
 

I saw different kinds of “fans” in Kaua'i—ones with roots and extravagant split leafs that took me back to the uses of fans in ancient hot cultures. Think “throne room” and you’ll probably envision a servant on either side of the monarch, gently waving palm branches to keep the air circulating. No electricity needed—just cut a likely candidate from the royal gardens and put it in a slave’s hand.

People of ancient times also associated palm branches with goodness and victory. Palm branches have been found on coins and important buildings. King Solomon had palm branches carved into the temple’s walls and doors (1 Kings 6:29). But the Bible’s most significant mention of palm branches came at the end of Jesus’ earthly life.  John 12:12-19 describes Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem after three years of teaching and miracles, including the most recent and sensational miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead (chapter 11).

People were understandably ecstatic. Anyone who could heal the desperately sick, feed thousands with minimal resources, and taught against nit-picking religious rules—well, He had their vote even though, as subjects of foreign rulers, elections weren’t even possible  But their hopes for a change brought out a parade with all the festive and royal accouterments, like palm branches.

Thus we have “Palm Sunday,” knowing full well that the same adoring mob would, within days, demand His death.  In many churches, the hymn that day is “All Glory, Laud and Honor,” which we sing without knowing the story of suffering behind this ancient song.

Its author, Theodulph, was a native of either Italy or Spain who was brought to France by Charlemagne about 781.  A few years later he became Bishop of Orleans, and became known for trying to reform the clergy. Then came an epic royal family mix-up and false accusations against Theodulph, who was banned on Easter Sunday, 818 A.D., to solitary confinement in a monastery southwest of Paris.

Alone with his thoughts and his faith, he meditated on the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and wrote this hymn of 78 verses (39 couplets). Three four-line couplets are in most hymnals today, including this verse:

The company of angels are praising Thee on high,
And mortal men and all things created make reply.
The people of the Hebrews with palms before Thee went,
Our praise and prayer and anthems before Thee we present.
 

But there’s more to look forward to.  Revelation’s sneak peek at heaven includes believers completing the Palm Sunday adoration:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”  (Revelation 7:9)

Name-dropping

Part of a series based on photos taken in Kaua'i

We have a family friend named “Sylvester,” so when we spotted a St. Sylvester’s Church on the northeast shore of Kaua’i, I made sure I took a picture to show him.  The name “Sylvester” means “from the wood,” and it identified four popes of early Catholic church history. They held the posts long ago: in 314-335, 999-1003, two months in 1045, and 1105-111. One was connected with a healing that church leaders deemed miraculous, so later gained “St.” in front of his name.

 

The Bible gives a different criteria for the word “saint.” In writing up “creeds” (statements of Christian belief), early church leaders spoke of the “communion of saints,” referring to any set apart for their belief in Christ. Old Testament writers used three similar Hebrew words for “saints,” all suggesting “set-apart-ness.” They included:

Chasid (19x): kind, pious, as in Psalm 31:23: “O Love the LORD, all ye his saints.”
Qadosh (11x), qaddish (6x), and qodesh (1x): set apart, separate, holy, as in “Fear the LORD, ye his saints” (Psalm 34:9).

The New Testament’s Greek word for “saint,” hagios, is used sixty-two times and frequently means “set apart, separate, holy.”  The apostle Paul addressed his letters to “the saints” of such-and-such location.

One “saints” passage I find especially meaningful comes from Paul’s prayer for the Colossians. It concludes: …giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. (Colossians 1:12).  We’re not outsiders having to work our ways into God’s favor or into some “respect” list. Out of His generous love, He has conferred the title and responsibility of “saint,” set-apart one.

We bear the name of a God who wants us to bear His image to the world, imperfect as we are. There’s a story sometimes told about Alexander the Great—whether it’s true or not, scholars aren’t sure—that underscores behaving to honor the one you represent. As one version goes, a young, errant soldier (in various versions he’s AWOL, sleeping on duty, or has stolen a horse) was brought to Alexander for discipline. Something softened the great commander’s heart until he asked the lad his name. “Alexander, sir,” the young man said. The great conqueror’s demeanor hardened and he shouted, “Change your name or charge your conduct!” 

Interestingly, “saint” is an anagram of “stain.” Like the soldier, we may stain our testimony with failures. But First John 1:9 gives hope in failure: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.”

Sending the light

Second of a series based on photos taken in Kaua’i, the Hawaiian islands.

A postcard perfect sight, a classic lighthouse grips a cliff above the Pacific Ocean near the north shore town of Kilauea. It’s a few miles east of the island’s famed, steep and dangerous NaPali coastline, where huge cliffs plunge right to the sea. Only the brave and fit venture to hike the trail that links the ends-of-the-road on the north and west sides of Kuai’i. Tourists who can afford it take the helicopter tours along the picturesque, wild coast.

The lighthouse reminded me of Jesus’ proclamation in John 8:12:

I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
It also brought to mind three well-known hymns and Gospel-songs about our spiritual Lighthouse.

 “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,” by prolific Gospel musician Philip Bliss, was inspired by a sermon he heard evangelist D.L.Moody preach in 1871. Moody told a story of a ship approaching the harbor on a dark, stormy night.  The captain saw a light from a lighthouse. But no lower lights, which would mark the way into a harbor, were lit.  The pilot missed the channel into the harbor, and the boat wrecked on the rocks with much loss of life.  Moody appealed to his audience, “Brothers, the Master will take care of the great lighthouse! Let us keep the lower lights burning!” In other words, keep showing the way to the unsaved.  A stanza of Bliss’s hymn concludes:

Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor struggling, sinking sailor you may rescue, you may save!

 “Send the Light” came from the pen of Charles Gabriel, whose output included seven thousand hymns. While leading music at a San Francisco church, he was asked to compose a missionary hymn for Easter Sunday. A visiting missionary representative was in the congregation for its debut performance in 1890, and liked it so much he carried it back to the East. Many still know the hymn whose chorus goes:

Send the light, the blessed Gospel light,
Let it shine from shore to shore....forever more.

 “The Lighthouse,” a Southern Gospel-style song, was composed by Ronnie Hinson in 1970 in a most unlikely place: the men’s restroom of a church where he and his siblings were practicing for a concert.  They needed a new song for their concert, and thought Ronnie was kidding when he said he was going to the restroom for some inspiration.  He came back with the words he’d written on a length of toilet paper. The siblings added accompaniment, and the song became a hit. Here’s a strange twist: he had never seen a lighthouse before until later, when he biked thirty miles to Santa Cruz, Calif., and saw the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. For him, it reinforced the hand of God in this memorable song about salvation.

 
Burn the lower lights...send the light...Jesus as the lighthouse: what soul-touching music has risen from the tasks of a beacon tower on a rugged shore

Positives out of negatives

Page 286 of this book has
my chapter, "A Message at Stake."

Eighteen years ago today (October 11) my family was almost killed by a drinking driver. By coincidence, but also appropriately, this week I received my author copies of the newest "Chicken Soup for the Soul" anthology, subtitled "Think Possible."  My piece, one of 101 in the book, tells how Proverbs 3:25-26 helped me decide to bring positives out of this negative experience by speaking to convicted DUI offenders, urging them to drive sober from now on.

There's a detail in my story you may find fun, about a hidden blue plastic "it's a boy" plant stake I noticed in the potted chrysanthemum that somebody brought to express their concern and care. I was 50 years old the year of the accident, with no plans to enlarge the family.

Instead, the son who received the most injuries that night, enlarged the family. From his marriage came two delightful little grandsons, now  nine months and two years. We had lunch with them today, and as I fed the baby his pureed food (I think it was carrots) he lifted his arms and said "mmm, mmm, mmm" all the way through.

Life doesn't always offer us "mmm-good" experiences. The wreck was traumatic and frustrating. But we lived, by the grace of God, who can lead us to redeem our pain.

During my writing career I have contributed to about two dozen books. This is my fifth time in the best-selling Chicken Soup anthologies since 2006.  Other titles I'm in are those for "Chicken Soup 2," "New Mom's Soul," "Caregiver's Soul" and "Here Comes the Bride."  The book uses writers from a broad spectrum of belief systems, but I'm grateful that I can represent Christ through this avenue. My message is not about a "positive attitude," per se, as much as trusting God to bring good out of difficult circumstances. Or as the scripture I cited in my essay says (it's also one that I have marked "Oct. 11, 1997" in the margin of my Bible):
Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
For the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.

Careful: endangered ones crossing

In September, my husband and I enjoyed a generous gift of nearly a week in Kaua’i, the northern “Garden Island” of the Hawaiian chain. Our son and daughter-in-law arranged the mini-vacation as appreciation for a year-plus of babysitting while they worked. Our “sitting” was win-win for us—no pay expected—as we invested in vulnerable babies and had confidence that their day-care (us!) met our standards J.  This gift-trip allowed us to unplug from tasks and concerns “back home.” As we drove around the island, I snapped photos of things that reminded me of God’s fingerprints. I start sharing them with this blog post.

As a mother and grandmother, I could relate to this sign intended to protect Hawaii’s state bird, the endangered nene (the name sounds something like the goose’s soft call). Found in the wild only in the Hawaiian islands, in 1950 the birds were close to extinction with only fifty left. A half-century later, they had grown back to about 800, but were still considered “endangered.”

The state is working to restore a healthy population of nene and other native birds at risk. During our visit, tropical storms slammed the islands. One wild night of thunder and lightning resulted in “navigation confusion” for about a hundred endangered seabirds, most of them “Newell’s shearwaters,” which fell from the sky and needed rehab; nine died.

Other protective tactics are signs like this one at a cramped parking area near a habitat overlook area, where it’s tempting to throw the birds human junk food. This sign brought to mind a Bible verse I learned in Sunday school as a small child:.

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is. (Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV).
I didn’t understand it at the time, but I connected it with the illustrations in a classic children’s book my family owned: Make Way for Ducklings. Like the book’s ducks following their mommy duck in an obedient row, I was to follow my Sunday school teachers and parents in living “circumspectly,” which, whatever it meant, sounded quite serious!

 As an adult, I had that verse clarified for me in a newer translation:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Ephesians 5 details the differences between “the light” (God’s way) and “the dark” (Satan’s temptations). Such choices faced us one evening when we visited the hotel’s free-to-guests video kiosk, thinking we’d choose one. But as we scrolled through the various available movies, nothing seemed right for us as Christians. Violence, sex, crime and abnormal behavior characterized nearly all.  Even the cartoons had doubtful content.  We left empty-handed. Interestingly, the next morning we picked up a copy of the island’s newspaper and read of school children taking a public vow to quit watching violent movies and videos. The day’s editorial lamented the demise of more innocent television shows, like Mayberry “sheriff” Andy Griffith.

I thought of the nene bird crossing sign, and the warning not to feed the birds. I asked myself: Is my culture wisely supervising what goes in our children’s minds, or is it inviting them to peck at garbage?

Extra-large was extra-wrong

My local store had put away most of its
swim suits to make room for fall attire,
but imagine this in leopard print.

All I wanted was a peach-colored shirt to go with a scarf my daughter had brought back for me from China. And I had found one, but the wrong size.

The store’s catalog clerk happily punched in the numbers to special-order one for me, and about a week later I found a phone message that it had come in.  Rushing to the store, I claimed the package and went back home.

Opening it, I found, not the medium-size peach shirt, but a women’s XXL bathing suit in jungle print so amazing and bold that I was certain I could hear lions and rhinos in the background.

Of course, I exchanged it (I provided the store clerks with their laugh of the day).  My husband asked why I didn’t keep it, as my very modest swimming suit is thirty years old. There was this issue of “swimming” in a very generously-proportioned swim suit.

Sometimes, I think, we are guilty of generously-proportioned praying that reeks of “Self.”  Like this:

For mySELF Lord, if You don’t mind, I’d like a perfect body [no more shopping in the gnormous sizes section], impeccable health [make me a pain-free zone], a Harvard I.Q., and a stress-free job that allows me to buy my move-in-ready dream house with cash.    

I know this goes against “name-it-claim-it” teaching.  But I wonder if we often reduce God to a prayer-order catalogue. We tend to advertise Christ as the One who takes away our pain and sorrow as we fill out the order form with grand requests for the way we’d like life to happen.

A prime example of that was the Zebedee brothers. Two Gospel accounts (Matt. 20:20-28 and Mark 10:35-45) recount a conversation in which they (or, in one version, their pushy mother) asked for high honors in Christ’s kingdom.  Jesus asked if they were ready to drink the cup He was to drink—and He didn’t mean orange soda. He meant giving one’s life for another, as He would soon do at Calvary. Serving others. Being willing to be last, not first.

The believer who serves is often one who’s had to learn the hard lessons that we don’t pray for a perfect life. Ease does not build spiritual muscle.  Fame doesn’t guarantee faithfulness. God knows exactly what is our best “fit.” When we place an order by prayer, we ask, “Not my will, but thine.” Often, what He brings our way is lots better than what we imagined.

Maybe with the exception of wrong-size swimsuits.

When senselessness strikes

Thursday's mass shootings at a college in Oregon have again shocked us. I wrote this piece after the 2012 shootings at an elementary school in Connecticut. Because my husband is a retired (and still subbing) teacher, those shootings at public schools hit us hard.  I think the principles here are worth republishing as we pray and try to make sense of this sick act.

 Not again, I groaned as I caught “breaking news” of another mass killing spree. Again, I grieved for innocent victims struck down in their offices, schools, places of worship, athletic events and other public places.

I also thought of those I know who survive such terrifying incidents. Some friends’ trip to a Portland, Ore., shopping mall ended with them huddling in a dressing room while a shooter went on his rampage. I once met a teen girl who nearly lost her arm in the first school shooting in 1996 in Washington state. She was sitting in math class; three died that day.

As a Christian, I can’t ignore these events. They remind me of the desperate consequences of sin. They also press me closer to God as I seek His perspective and hope. Here are some things I’ve found helpful when senselessness strikes. 

1. Limit media saturation. Excessive watching or reading of emerging news reports heighten focus on the evil event and the secular world view. Don’t let the world squeeze you into its thinking mold (Romans 12:2). Learn enough to know how to pray, and then do pray for the victims and those affected, including the media and emergency workers. Lift up those called on to convey God-honoring comfort and counsel, such as pastors and Christian counselors.

2. Remember history. Godless insanity and violence are nothing new. Old Testament history churns with wars and violence. Early Christians were persecuted and martyred. The greatest picture of evil came on a hill in Jerusalem, where three men were impaled on crosses to die. One was sinless, the Lord Jesus.   

 3. Rest in knowing that God knows. The Bible says the last days will see an “increase of wickedness” (Matthew 24:12). In His omniscience, God knows beforehand about every crime or killing. He sorrows over each, even as He knew ahead of time the unfathomable cost of His Son’s death: “He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one” (Psalm 22:24).

4. Trust His love and wisdom. Christ’s death and resurrection put a stake in the ground: Satan is not the final victor. So when another heartbreaking incident of public violence happens, don’t let intense media coverage fuel a hopeless perspective.  God’s answer for us is the same He gave the Old Testament’s Job, when this good man was stripped of all by violent schemes and natural disasters: “Trust Me. Acknowledge My sovereignty.”

Amid unspeakable loss and pain in our times, He is still there. His hands are those of rescue workers, medical people, counselors and friends. He also uses believers to pray rather than fret over news of violence. Psalm 22:27 shows the other side, when senselessness will finally make sense: “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him.”