The Impact of One

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound? Aw yes, this is question men have pondered for the ages, but today it found resolution in my heart. It indeed does make a sound and though we may never know of the impact it has made the evidences of its actions are felt throughout the land.

A funeral was the setting of this revelation. She was a Godly woman, full of feisty quips and a contagious laugh. She was small in stature but huge in heart. She lived as though every child in the world was her son or daughter and she loved each one as only a mother could.

For almost twenty-eight years she served as a Minister of Preschool Children at a large Protestant Church. Three generations of children had come through her Bible Studies, Vacation Bible Schools, Mission Education programs, and Childcare Development Center. She was oft times the first one to tell them about the Jesus she had grown to love and serve so selflessly.

As I looked around, the church was packed with people she had touched in one way or another. Hundreds and hundreds of people sat with tear-filled eyes as they listened to commentary on an extraordinary, but yet ordinary, little Texas lady.

During her life I wonder if she pondered the influence she had on the lives of so many? I think she probably didn’t; not because it wasn’t important, but she simply wasn’t one to think much about herself or her needs. She was a servant of the first order and did it all with the dignity and quietness of a true saint. She tirelessly cared for an ailing husband and an aging mother while constantly expanding her ministry to preschool children at her church.

As I listened to the accolades of those who knew her and worked with her, I couldn’t help but think how indeed temporary this world really is. This is NOT our home. I couldn’t help but be just a bit jealous about where she is and what she is experiencing in the presence of God.

But it also made me stop and think about my life; my living. What would anyone say about me? Could they say about me what they said about her? Could they give testimony to my selfless dedication to anything? Were there enough people who really knew me to be ale to speak honestly of my heart and my life? Such selfish questions in the midst of such horrific tragedy – I guess it shows the wickedness of my own heart.

I was moved to tears not because I doubt where she is at this very moment, but for the beacon of light she was each and every day as she carried out her life and her work with passion and purpose. The world is a little darker without her presence

She didn’t have any newspaper reporters taking pictures or getting interviews with the people that attended. There will be no fanfare at her burial or dedications and/or declarations at City Hall. She was a quiet servant who often times went unnoticed by most unless they happen to have a preschool child. But her lack of notoriety did not diminish the depth of her investment in the lives of people. She made an impact and that impact will not quickly be forgotten.

It is an honor to take part in a memorial service for one so very special, but it is an even greater honor to see the impact that she has made in the lives and hearts of so very many.

So today a very small tree with a giant canopy fell and there were a few to hear it. But when it fell, its branches were so wide and its roots so outstretched that there were very few in all the forest that did not feel the bush of its wind in falling or the tug of moving roots beneath their feet. Everyone was effected and everyone seemed to be touched. One small tree made a very big difference.

What a tribute to a life well lived and even better invested.

The power of One. In a day when big crowds and large venues are the norm, when everyone is counting numbers and bigger is always better, there is a resounding cry from one little lady who lived her life dedicated to making an impact on ONE little baby at a time. Our Heavenly Father can't help but smile and say "enter in to your place of rest; well done!" as he points to a sea of of people touched by a woman one person at a time.

May we never forget the lesson of reaching, touching, helping, caring, educating, sharing, and loving just ONE.

Choices to Serve

The news and political operatives are buzzing with ideas and thoughts about what we ought to do in the election. Bush vs. Kerry. Who will be president? The two seem quite different, yet when you really listen, they often sound very alike.

I'm glad I live in a land that allows choice and I am glad I am an American who does not take that choice for granted. I've already walked into the polls and done my voting. I've participated in this great experiment called democracy and I am praying that when the election is all said and done that it will truly be all said and done. It seems as though the days of a gracious loser are long behind us. Already each side has gathered their lawyers and lobby groups to protest the results no matter their outcome. How sad. Why can't we just vote, live with the vote, and know that the person with the most votes (either public or electoral college or both) won the race.

But elections are not the only thing we have to make choices about these days. Each day we have to make tons of choices that radically effect our lives and those around us. Will this day be a day we choose to walk in obedience to a Higher Calling or will it be a day that we choose some lower voice, some lesser way; one that pleases the flesh and fulfills the moment, but leaves us empty and longing for more of something?

The Bible seems to understand the dilemma that we face with our choices. It says that we are to choose today whom we shall serve? That is question that strikes at the heart. Who will we serve today? That's not quite the "American" way to think about life - serving, but it is the kind of life that radically changes the world we live in. Just think what our world would be like if everyone today went out to work or school or to whatever they were going to do and simply served. They didn't think about how much money they could make, who would notice their work, how much power or influence they could wield, but simply served the needs of those around them? What a different day this day would be.

Jesus seemed to live out that kind of servant life. He asks us to "follow" and I can't help but think that that following involves serious serving. If we take it as serious as He did, it is serving humanity even at the expense of our own life. Indeed, "greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friend."

... An army of servants - what a seemingly powerless but truly powerful group. That is a choice I want to make today and everyday! I want to serve.

The unconnected life

In a world of millions of people it seems impossible that anyone could live life really unconnected to anyone else... but so it seems. How can so many people live in such small places and yet not be connected? However, it appears, at least in part, we have succeeded. The movie, "Its a Wonderful Life" seems to debunk this theory right off the bat. It seems Jimmy Steward’s character was connected to so many even though he didn’t realize it. But that’s a movie right? It doesn't seem to eliminate the cries of many hearts who feel that there is no one for them; no one that really knows them or is connected to them in some deep way.

Even married people sometimes feel this incongruence. It is profound and deep, numbingly hurtful and woefully regrettable. It causes one to live a life as though they were in a bubble - traveling through life but never really making that touch with someone at the heart level. Sure, there are people you know, people that know you, but no one that seems to want to connect and really know who are through and through. Is it that these unconnected souls are so scary? Is it that they possess some strange aura that forbids other to come and invest in them? Is that they are blindly misguided by their self-absorbed assessment of life and merely see things through a glass half empty? Who knows?

Maybe this is what the ancient scriptures talked about when it said that we "would be aliens and pilgrims in this world... for this is not our home." Maybe. But even if it is, it makes living life in the now a difficult prospect and a lonely journey.

Where is community in our world? Is it in the throngs of well wishers and ideological chatterers who join up with one political party or the other? Is it with the street gangs who marshal the interest of unconnected kids in inner cities? Is it in the churches or synagogues where a common faith and practice should unite the people of God, but often provide mere glancing bushes with community leaving an even deeper hunger for more? Is on the field of battle where your life is dependant on another's willingness to fight with you? Or is it at the coffee shop where the patrons sit and exchange pleasantries of the day and discuss all the topics and places I've mentioned above?

Maybe the best community in this world is found not in something or someplace but rather in Someone. Who would this someone be? For me, it would have to be Jesus.

"But wait a minute!" you might say. "How can you have community with someone that you can't even sit and talk to?” Well in my experience, I have sat and talked to many and haven't found real community or connection with them either. To be connected to Him, the author and lover of my soul, is to truly find community that passes my deepest understandings and longings. Does the painter know his painting? Does the sculpture know every nuance of his sculpture? Does the Creator know his creation? Indeed He does!

Granted, it is not an easy thing to do – this connecting with the Creator - and the silence sometimes is deafening, but when it is good it is really, really good! Can I say the same for the personal contacts I enjoy? Sorta. But honestly, they are more miss than hit; more about them then me; more about what can they connect and take, than what they can invest and share.

So if you are feeling a bit disconnected these days, a bit out there floating in your own bubble without anyone seeming to even notice that you ache, hurt, long, or yearn, take heart. There is One who knows and sees and wants to connect. Find a quiet place, a comfy chair, an empty meadow, an old park bench, and talk to Him - or better yet, listen to Him. I think you will be amazed at what he has to say to you and how He wants to connect with you. I have a feeling you won't be disappointed.

As We Begin...

I have succumbed to the pressures of our modern day culture and now joined the world of blogging… what is next?

I’m not exactly sure what I want this blog to be. Maybe a rambling of my thoughts. Maybe the musings of my soul (as the title would suggest). Maybe the ongoing dichotomy of living life as a follower of Christ in a world that expects perfection from such people but rarely lives any of that in any area of their lives. Who knows?

But here we go…

This morning the air is crisp and autumn is definitely coming if not already here. The sun shimmers through the trees casting alternating shadows and light on the ground below. Patches of light and dark live side by side, much like real life.

The news says that vaccinations for the flu virus are limited and some will be prosecuted for taking the virus if they “truly don’t need it.” Where were these folks last year when there were more vaccine than demand and people were begged to get shots and didn’t. Funny, we humans. We always seem to want what someone says we can’t have. Light and dark, living side by side. We create want by restricting access. We have plenty, but refuse to share. The contradictions are stupefying.

But what about this light and dark living side by side? What about the light and dark that lives within the heart of every human? Paul talks about it as the fight between good and evil and I would say that he is right. There is this inner compass that we all seem to have – that feeling of "rightness" or "wrongness" and it generally guides our thinking and, more importantly, our actions – or at least it should.

Its tough to live in a world with so many opportunities for both good and evil; for pleasure and pain; for love and loss. But then again, who would want to live in a world absent from those realities. Their mere presence and antithesis allows us to give meaning to its opposite.

Despite my deepest longings for goodness and holiness (which, btw, are not the same thing) I sense the deeper pull of darkness always within me. It is a poison of my soul which I know will not be delivered till that day of total redemption and sanctification – that day when we will be made like Him – but when will that day come? It is what Paul refers to as "his thorn in the flesh." Some of us have trees in the flesh, not merely thorns!

We strive for the light to shine greater than the darkness; for the goodness of Truth to be revealed greater than the lies of the darkness. We bring our thoughts and try to make them captive to the obedience of the Light even when our feelings betray our good sense and scream for something more; something other than what is light. It is the battle that all spiritual beings have waged since the beginning of time and it is one that we will continue to fight I am sure.

My prayer for you and I this day is that we might seek to walk in the light that we have been given, however small that might be, and seek to increase that light by drawing closer to the One in whom there is no darkness at all – Jesus the Christ.