Up the Sunbeam

-- "Without fail." Quietly, fiercely, almost to himself, he answered her question. It was only two words, just one soft-spoken answer delivered by Denzell Washington's character in the movie  The Book of Eli , but it has echoed in my heart ever since. A young woman, who knew nothing of such things, had asked him whether he read the book every day . . .  the book he treasured above all else, including his life. [Spoiler Alert] I don't want to give too much away if you haven't seen the movie, but this very special book was none other than the last remaining copy of the Bible in a post-apocalyptic world. This scene, and maybe the whole movie, put a fine point on thoughts my Father had been laying before me all week. First, last Sunday when our pastor spoke of using his phone and a Bible app to listen to the Bible being read out loud, and how important it is to personally eat this daily bread even for pastors who study it as their vocation. That made me th...

-- Great philosopher, Ferris Bueller once quipped, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Blurring . . . whirring . . . jumbled colors . . . sight and sound . . . Does life ever feel to you like a scene in the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie? You know, the one where Willie Wonka puts them on his whimsical boat and they sail off into a tunnel filled with disjointed and terrifying images projected all around them while he screams bizarre and disturbing poetry into the strange glow? Everyone is so relieved when he yells, "Stop the boat!" Life does move fast. Life is filled with change and challenge, the unexpected, the unwanted and the uncalled-for. But life is also filled with joy and laughter, dreams and fulfillments, pursuits and triumphs, the tried and true, the glorious, the counted-upon. It IS a bit of a jumble, priceless treasures thrown in the same blender with hideous gargoyles ...

-- Drummer boy left early for church this morning. He had to be there by 8:30  to practice with the worship band in preparation for the service the rest of us would attend later . He walked to the car and I stood in my pajamas at the open door, watching him go. He noticed me lingering there, hesitated and said, "What are you doing?" "Just feeling the fresh air," I said, drinking in the beauty of just-sprinkled flowers sparkling in the early rays of golden light. He smiled a knowing smile (he knows his momma does odd things like that), told me he loved me and proceeded to get in the car. I kept standing there even after I'd watched him drive around the bend toward the pale remnants of a tangerine sunrise. I made a point to notice how cool the gentle breeze felt on my face, how crisp and clear the air smelled, and how deep the purple of agapanthus flowers appeared against countless shades of green. It was a new morning, one I'd never seen before, the ...

"Now the crowd that was with him  when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word." John 12:17 NIV1984 Two Sundays ago , I wrote of what was then an unfolding story , just three days old, that had thousands of people riveted to a "secret" group on facebook as we prayed for the life of Stephen Shaffer. What you didn't know then was that between Saturday night when I wrote that post and Sunday morning when I hit PUBLISH, Stephen had taken a turn for the worse. It was with trembling fingers that I posted what I had written the night before, trusting that God was going to continue to hold Stephen together, even when it looked like he was falling apart. Oh how we prayed, and many of you joined in and prayed too! Hour by hour during that next week, we watched and prayed! Last Sunday , I struggled to capture, in the craziest mix of metaphors you've ever seen, the incredible ups and downs we had witnessed as God wor...

-- Whitecaps. The splash of whitewater dots the lake surface, each wave advancing like a tiny storm all its own. Whitecaps on a deep blue mountain lake are what this past week reminds me of. It may not be stormy all around, but the water certainly is choppy! Last week I wrote of our friends, the Shaffer family, and their son, Stephen . They were hit with one mighty, overwhelming rogue wave that looked like something you'd see on an episode of Deadliest Catch. Since then, they have been riding a series of crazy and unpredictable whitecaps that just keep coming. It's hard to believe all that has transpired since the 4th of July. At the time I wrote last week's post, the facebook group, Pray for Stephen Shaffer , was barely over 1500--it now tops 13,000!!! Keep in mind, this is a "secret group" that people can't just look up and click 'Like' to join! Apparently God didn't keep the secret! =) This has been a truly turbulent r...