Joy and dependence

I just finished this post, and the power went off. Let that be a lesson to you. Save your work. The second time through is never as good as the first, but here goes.

Yesterday, I received my copy of the West Virginia United Methodist newspaper. Obviously, this time it is full of articles about the recently completed Annual Conference. Flipping through it, one particular article caught my attention first. Dr. Patricia Jarvis, pictured right, offered the sermon on Saturday morning. That particular worship service was focused on children. Take a look at the photo. See the arrow pointing to the beads? If you have read this blog before, you may recognize those beads. I've talked about them here and here. Those beads were strung by our youth during their 30-hour famine. Each beads represents one child who dies in any 24-hour period because of hunger related disease. There are 29,000 beads strung on those plastic cords. They were taken to Annual Conference and used as a visual aid in this worship service -- filling jars and draping across the lectern and pulpit.

Glad to see the beads, I stopped to read the article.

Dr. Jarvis says that, "Jesus taught us that children have the qualities necessary to enter heaven: joyful enthusiasm for life and humble dependence."

Compare that to this scripture from Matthew 18:2-4:

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I've always liked that passage, but never really grasped it except in a rather abstract way. What does it mean to become like little children? According to Dr. Jarvis, it means to have joyful enthusiasm for life and humble dependence.

Joyful enthusiasm for life. It does seem at times that our children have cornered the market on this characteristic. Do you ever feel it? Sometimes I do. And when I do, it is wonderful, but I know that all the stresses, pressures, responsibilities and work of life can crush our ability to feel joyful enthusiasm. Dr. Jarvis says that it is a necessary quality to enter heaven. That does kind of make the pursuit of it a bit more of a priority, doesn't it?

But what really struck me in the article was this: "Children know that they can't provide for themselves," Dr. Jarvis said. "They are utterly dependent. To the child this is no disgrace."

Humble dependence. Vulnerability. To the child this is just the way life is; to experience it is no disgrace. For us, though dependence and vulnerability are to be avoided. We do not want to be dependent. We do not wish to feel vulnerable or to even appear vulnerable. We forget sometimes that we are dependent upon God. We (I think) don't want to give up our masks of control, and yet Dr. Jarvis is telling us that in order to be close to God, we must realize that we dependent upon Him. Vulnerable.

I hate to cry in public. Hate it. I try to avoid it at all costs. However, I find that as I get closer to God, the heat of His love and power are melting my heart. The resulting tears, I think, are the thawing ice. I don't like it. I wish it were different, but you know what they say about heat, and I'm not ready to leave the kitchen.

These beads are a visual reminder of the vulnerability of children. The beads shout at us to remember that children are dependent upon God and upon us. Our children -- the JM youth -- learned about hunger and vulnerability as they strung them together. Hopefully they will be able to teach us -- about joyful enthusiasm for life and humble dependence.

Images: The first is shamelessly copied and pasted from the online edition of the WV United Methodist. Click on that link to read the article, but, be warned, it is a 16 page pdf file. Loading it might take a little bit of time if you are on dial-up. The other two photos were taken by Jeff Taylor. Thanks to him for sending them and for letting me post them.