Walking

At John Lewis' funeral, Bill Clinton talked about John Lewis preparing to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday (as it would become known).  Read what President Clinton said about Lewis' preparation:

Bloody Sunday, he figured he might get arrested. And this is really important for all the rhapsodic things we believe about John Lewis, he had a really good mind and he was always trying to figure out how I can make the most out of every single moment. So he’s getting ready to march from Selma to Montgomery, he wants to get across the bridge. What do we remember? He cut quite a strange figure: He had a trench coat and a backpack. Now, young people probably think that’s no big deal but there weren’t that many backpacks back then. And you never saw anybody in a trench coat looking halfway dressed up with a backpack. But John put an apple, an orange, a toothbrush, toothpaste to take care of his body ‘cause he figured he would get arrested. And two books, one by Richard Hofstadter on America’s political tradition to feed his mind, and one, the autobiography of Thomas Merton, a Roman Catholic Trappist monk who was the son of itinerant artists making an astonishing personal transformation. What’s a young guy who’s about to get his brains beat out and planning on going to prison doing taking that? I think he figured that if Thomas Merton could find his way and keep his faith and believe in the future, he, John Lewis could too.

So we honor our friend for his faith and for living his faith, which the Scripture said is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. John Lewis was a walking rebuke to people who thought, ‘well, we ain’t there yet, we’ve been working a long time, isn’t it time to bag it?’ He kept moving. He hoped for and imagined and lived and worked and moved for his beloved community. He took a savage beating on more than one day. And he lost that backpack on Bloody Sunday. Nobody knows what happened to it. Maybe someone someday will be stricken with conscience and give some of it back. But what it represented never disappeared from John Lewis’ spirit.

Many days later, that passage of the speech still sticks with me. We are in ministry in the world.  What can learn that will strengthen our walk with Jesus from Representative Lewis' preparation for the March from Selma to Alabama?

1. Preparation.  John Lewis thought he might be arrested; in fact, he was beaten severely.  He suffered a skull fracture and bore scars from the beating for the rest of his life.   He didn't know that would happen, but he assumed the march would not be without resistance, so he prepared.  He prepared to care for his body and his spirit.  We need to take both of those steps as we walk out to serve Christ.
2. Courage. He didn't know exactly WHAT would happen, but he anticipated that it would not be good.  And he went anyway.  
3. Faith.  You can see it in his choice of reading material.  "If Thomas Merton could find his way and keep his faith and believe in the future, he John Lewis could too."
4. Perseverance.  He kept moving, in the face of strong resistance.  He kept moving as he walked across the bridge. He kept moving after the march.  He did not give up on what he knew was right.

This is all inspiring to me.  We need to prepare for ministry. We need to have the courage to start the journey, even when we see resistance, and we need to keep walking in ministry, all the time, knowing that God is with us.

Lantern Rouge

Have you heard of Lawson Craddock? He has become a hero in our household.  Craddock is a professional cyclist - one of the racers in this year's Tour de France. On the first state, an errant water bottle hit his front wheel and sent him crashing down hard - so hard that he broke his shoulder.  But he finished.

And each stage after that day, he raced.  He races with bandages, he doesn't win - but he races.  

“After the first week, once we hit the mountains, doing those 20K climbs where you have to climb out of the saddle took a lot out of me,” he told Bicycling after Stage 20. “It was a challenge each and every day to make it to the finish.”

As of this writing, it is expected that Craddock will finish the last stage of the race in last place overall.  This is informally called the lantern rouge place - named for the red light on the cabbose on a train. It isn't an official title, and Craddock will not get special recognition for it, but he will know that he didn't give up. 

The race started with 176 riders.  "Just by finishing, he’s outlasted 31 who crashed out, dropped out, or were time cut."  That means that some of the people who were unable to finish were only unable to finish because they couldn't qualify for the next day because their racing was too slow.  Not Craddock.  Each day he persevered.  Each day he rode quickly enough to qualify for the next day. Each day he finished.  Each day he kept peddling.

Just as a sidenote, Craddock said that he would donate $100 for each stage he finished.  He started a Go Fund Me site to raise funds for a charity he supports in Texas.  So far? $140,000 raises.

In what ways in your life are you the lantern rouge? A hero who doesn't win, but doesn't give up?

Perspectives: A Tree Grows on a Rock

Sometimes conditions are not ideal.
Sometimes perservenence is all that gets us through.
Stubborness.
Determination.
God present.

High Hurdles

Did you see this video during the Olympics?

This is a video of Jeffrey Julmis, a competitor from Haiti, running in the semifinal heat of 110 high hurdles. He fell at the first hurdle, and yet he gets up  and keeps running.

From the story at sbnation.com:

Julmis mistimes the first obstacle on the course, crashing hips first into the hurdle, and tumbling head over feet into the second one. His race was over, but he didn't let that stop him. Instead, he took a deep breath, composed himself and cleared the final eight hurdles to join the rest of his heat at the finish.

His anticipated goal was impossible to achieve. He couldn't qualify for the finals; he couldn't even officially be placed in the heat because he ducked under the second hurdle in the fall, but he got up and kept running.  

To me, this is perseverance. This is continuing to run the race. Why do that? Why run the rest of the race, and how does anyone run the rest of the race and jump over all the other hurdles? 

Because that's what a "winner" does. That's how a driven person operates. It was't the success Julmis intended, but it was success.

When we fail, do we stop? Do we give up? Or do we stand up, take a deep breath, and press forward. Normally (for me, never) are we running a high hurdles race, and sometimes getting it and moving on means switching paths, but perseverance means not staying on the ground in defeat. Life does through high hurdles at us, and sometimes, we fall down, face first, onto the ground. What's the next move after that?

Rise

Have you been watching the Olympics? We've seen some of the highlights. The athletes are incredible, aren't they? I could watch the majesty of Michael Phelps swimming over and over. When I saw Simone Biles' floor exercise, I gasped out loud. It was as if she flew. And the runner who stopped and helped a fellow athelete who had fallen? Unbelievable.

You know that they don't get to this level of skill overnight, right? What incredible perseverence they must have! An interesting fact I learned during these three weeks: Michael Phelps has been to four Olympics, but at the first one, he did not win a single medal. Think of that. Today, he can say he has more medals than any other Olympians - 28 at last count - but after that Olympics? None.

Did he quit? You know the answer to that question. No, he did not. It is a lesson for all of us.

I saw this video today, and I share it with you. Rise.

Through Perseverance, Character

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

Have you ever been in a situation of suffering when you finally - finally - ask for God's help? And when you do it, you wonder why you didn't ask earlier? I've been in that situation, and I think it is a lack of faith - not a lack of faith in God's ability, but a lack of faith that doesn't bring God to mind sooner. It's an attitude of not listening - not hearing God in the situation soon enough to listen earlier.

So what happens when we find God in suffering, and then recognize that our endurance is a gift from God? Our faith is strengthened. Our character is changed. We are recreated. We gain strength, and that strength is a gift of faith. Our faith is deepened and strengthened, and from that faith, a stronger character - a stronger nature - is born.

When we have witnessed God's action in our lives, we are more willing to believe, to listen, to hear and to obey. We are better people than we were before.

And that is good news, too.

Suffering Produces Endurance

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

What about the phrase, "suffering produces endurance"?

When we were talking about this in class, none of us like the word, "endurance." It sounds hard and as if one had to suffer long and hard to achieve it. In fact, one of the runners in our class said, "Endurance is what you need if you are going to have to suffer even longer." (paraphrased by me).

It doesn't sound like good news - the benefit of suffering is that we are able to suffer more?

But think back to the promise we have - God is with us. And think back to yesterday's post - in suffering, if we look, we will find God. So, in suffering, as we search for and find God, we find something else. We find endurance.

It isn't the kind of endurance that runners develop through more and longer running. It is endurance that is given to us; a gift of grace. We find endurance because it is God's endurance. We find the ability to make it through suffering, not on our own strength, but on God's strength.

In suffering, we find the presence of God, and in finding God, we find the grace of God's ability to carry us through. We find the God's endurance - not our own.

And that is good news.

Day Two

In the book Rising Strong, Brene Brown talks about a certification program for those who want to facilitate her work called the Daring Way.  Day Two of the Daring Way is difficult. It is the middle space for the process, and during day two, you are in the dark - the door has closed behind you, and yet you are not yet close enough to the door to which you are heading to see the light. If you want to make it to the goal, you can't skip Day Two.

Day Two is the point of no return, it is the point at which the die is cast.  You are in the dark and there is no turning back.

It's the struggle.  It's the hard work between where we start and where we are going. Nobody wants to be in the dark in-between. The Israelites were in Day Two after they left Egypt and before the reached the Promised Land.  Most of them wanted to turn back - in fact, we often talk in churches about the Back to Egypt committee. Day Two is the wilderness.

The wilderness is the place where our only hope of change comes from the anticipation of where we think we are going. 

In your life, what is your promised land? Are you so afraid of the wilderness that you won't risk it, even with the hope of the promised land? In your church, what is your promised land? Will you risk the dark times, that you can't avoid, to get there?

What promised land is God calling us to reach, even knowing that we have to cross through the wilderness to reach it? Will you trust God enough to hold your hand in the dark while you struggle?

Working on a way out

The carpool arrived at work, and we backed into our assigned parking spot.  Across the lot, there are "double spaces" - parking spaces in which two cars park, one pulled up to the fence, and the other one parked behind. I'm glad I don't have one of these spots; I would hate to be dependent upon someone else leaving before I could drive away.

As we watched, someone was in just that situation.  He wanted to leave, but someone was parked behind him. The long space next to him was empty, but in the next space, two cars were parked. As we watched, he was attempting to move into the space between, turn around and leave. He had maneuvered his car to be parallel to the fence instead of perpendicular to it, and was continuing the small, inch by inch progress to freedom.

As I watched, I wondered (out loud) why he didn't just back up. I could not see that a pickup truck was parked on the other side. There is a lesson in that for us - we can't always see the obstacles that other people face, so it might be best to stop judging them.

He worked and worked, stepping out of his car to judge how close he was to the other cars, continuing to move. Although he tried to avoid it, he hit the truck parked behind him. I doubt it did any damage to the truck - it was a slow tap - but I imagine it did some damage to the car the man was driving.  Sometimes we can't get out without damage.

He eventually freed himself, only through perseverance.  Sometimes hard work and a no-give-up attitude are necessary to accomplish the goal. Once free, he got out of his car, inspected the truck he hit, and his own side door. He wasn't happy to see whatever damage had been caused, but he was free, and he drove away.

Sometimes life is like being parked in a double parking space and having to work our way out.