I was going through the photos on my phone and came across this one. I have no idea what it is. But was intrigued by the design how it seems to twirl and draw you in. (Actually believe I was taking a shot at some fog through the car window and this was the result. No I was not driving).

Now as I looked at this digital image the Christian Japanese pacifist, critical thinker, innovator and even sometime gardener Toyhiko Kagawa came to mind. He said, “I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good. It is very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about.”

I struggled with why that quote came to mind as I gazed at a distorted image. Then it started to trickle down, down, down into my thinking. We get so involved with ourselves. The “going about” the spiral of our daily routine and rarely stop to “do” something for someone else. Today let us shout with the Psalmist, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord!” (Psalm 118:17) Amen.

Today someone will need you to pause, to pray, to stand with them on the path. You can “do” this!

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I was cleaning out a box of material when I found this widow’s mite. On my first trip to Israel I purchased this from an antiquities store. The Bible says this in Mark 12:41, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a fraction of a penny.”

Two mites (Greek lepta) together are worth a “quadrans” the smallest Roman coin. Point? The small sacrifices of the poor mean more to God than the extravagant but proportionately lesser donations of the rich. So how does that affect you today? Why not (1) Take a break from all the noise of life today. Spend some time in meditation or just sit silently it will do you a world of good. As you sit think about those struggling just to have food. (2) Laugh at the advertisements you will see today, especially those that inform you its possible to buy happiness.

Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement said, “The world would be better off if people tried to become better. And people would become better if they stopped trying to become better off.” Give something of yourself today rather than taking. Lift someone up today with a card, a call with a “mite” of hope. Amen.

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Yesterday the paper read, “Tomorrow and the next day the fog should lessen.” So when I got up this morning ready for work the fog was all around. Visibility was very limited. But didn’t the paper say, “lessen?” Sure didn’t look like less to me. James 4:14 notes, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

Cesar Chavez prayed, “Show me the suffering of the most miserable, so I will know my people’s plight. Free me to pray for others, for you are present in every person. Help me take responsibility for my own life, so that I can be free at last. Grant me courage to serve others, for in service there is true life. Give me honesty and patience, so that the Spirit will be alive among us. Let the Spirit flourish and grow, so that we will never tire of the struggle. Let us remember those who have died for justice, for they have given us life. Help us love even those who hate us, so we can change the world. Amen”

Point? We have no idea what tomorrow will bring and on top of that we don’t have too many tomorrows. So make the most of today. Have the courage, the wisdom to stand for something or someone. Don’t waste the little time you have. Hold a hand, lift someone up and help them through this “mist” we call life. You can do this and honestly you need to do this.

See you on the path and stick together because its foggy out there!

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On our communion table is an altar cloth done by one of the women in our church. She passed away last week at the age of ninety-six. We didn’t always agree on every aspect of life, or even on the sermons I preached. But we did agree on being in church every Sunday and worshiping together.

I will miss looking out at the congregation and not seeing her in that one specific spot. I will miss her comments at the door about what I had just preached. I will miss her honesty.

Let us be truthful as men in the church. Much of our faith journey has been blazed by the women who have gone before. The mothers of faith both named and unnamed. The judges, missionaries, prophets, martyrs, and saints. We walk in a great company of women who have held our hands as we weep, lifted us up as we struggle to stand firm, that have taught us to resist evil with perseverance, wisdom and healing.

Thank you women for showing us the way. You who have kept and cradled the love of our Savior. Thank you for your service and I look forward to that day when I stand with all persons of faith, as we shout praises in the morning, as we rejoice with our Lord!

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Last Sunday I was preparing for a baptism. Pinned to my robe was an Advent stole and in the process of removing it…stuck my finger. After the “Ouch” there welled up a tiny bit of blood.

As I wiped my finger off and put my robe on it hit me. I was baptizing an individual, I was symbolically participating in a ceremony that has been going on for centuries. The display of passing from the old, the lifting up from death into new life.

Sadhu Sundar Singh, a missionary wrote, “A silkworm was struggling out of the cocoon and an ignorant man saw it battling as if in pain, so he went and helped it to get free, but very soon after it fluttered and died. The other silkworms that struggled out without help suffered, but they came into full life and beauty, with wings made strong for flight by their battle for fresh existence.”

We cannot be raised up, we cannot be ready to serve to share, to move others forward along the path unless there is the shedding of blood. Without the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior we cannot be made new. Without His struggle, his willingness to suffer we would have no hope of ever moving forward.

Today pause and give thanks for this mysterious wonderful sacrifice that gives you a reason to continue this day and a hope in heaven tomorrow.

See you on the path.

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The lemons in our yard here in California are doing well and won’t be long until we will be picking, freezing and making lemonade. Its funny I picked one up that had fallen to the ground and for a moment there was this beautiful lemon fragrance. I then said, “Smells like winter.”

Now I grew up in southeast Kansas and winter never smelled like lemons. Sometimes you caught a whiff of wood smoke but that in no way has a perfume quality. Nope winter was a time of heavy coats, boots, sleet, snow and chills.

I guess what I’m trying to say is its all a matter of perspective. Today you may be struggling to get by thinking winter will never cease. Tomorrow will be a time of freshness and joy. But, no matter the situation we are called to move forward to enjoy today. Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth-century Spanish mystic said, “Let nothing disturb you, nothing dismay you. All things are passing, God never changes. Patient endurance attains all things. God alone suffices.”

Take a moment on the path today to pause. Give thanks for those around you, acknowledge God’s gift of life. In fact, stop and smell the lemons, or rejoice in the snow. Today because of God you really can change your view.

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When I was working with the Hmong, bringing them to America and establishing church and social programs. I was often threatened. Sometimes outside the culture by individuals who didn’t understand who these people were and other times from within the culture by representatives that didn’t like Christians.

During that time I was given a precious gift, a dream quilt. One of the women came to me and said, “I know how hard it is for you. I had a dream and in that dream you were captured in one of our pan dau (story cloth) and was having trouble moving. But you would not stop you kept going as if determined to not be disturbed by all the turns. I saw your Christian family and they kept telling you to keep going. When I woke up I started working on this cloth so you will always remember family is with you.”

As you can imagine Hebrews 12:1 came to mind, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Now I don’t know what your theological view is on that scripture. You could believe the author is saying the “witnesses” are a figurative representation and we are to “act” as though they are cheering us on. We are to be inspired by the millions of believers that have already obtained victory. Or…that those who have gone before are bearing witness to the life of faith we now live today.

For her in that moment and for me as well was the belief our brothers and sisters in Christ were standing with us as we move through this often confusing maze we call life. I have no idea what you are facing right now! But just let me say, “You are in my prayers. I am cheering you on! Keep moving, serving, and praying because one day we will have victory!”

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I was working on a series of ink blocks for Lent. I have done this for the last several years. To be honest I do it for myself since it forces me to confront the Passion Story, to meditate, to pray and give thanks for our Lord’s sacrifice.

Last night I was working furiously on the next to last block. In fact I had become so involved with the work that time had passed and I hadn’t gotten up at all to stretch. When I did my shoulders were stiff, my hands clinched has if claws, and then I looked down at what I had done.

I was shocked at what I saw. The block wasn’t even inked but it struck me spiritually hard. There was my representation of the Savior’s feet being nailed to the cross. Now I wanted this series to be dark to force the viewer to face the sacrifice, the pain, the agony of walking, stumbling and falling on the way to Calvary. I wanted the figure to look some what like a skeleton…but not like this. This might be too much.

But then I realized too much is appropriate. John Chrysostom, a fourth-century bishop and preacher in Constantinople asked, “Do you see how the devil is defeated by the very weapons of his prior victory? The devil had vanquished Adam by means of a tree. Christ vanquished the devil by means of the tree of the Cross. The tree sent Adam to hell. The tree of the Cross brought him back from there. The tree revealed Adam in his weakness, laying prostrate, naked and low. The tree of the Cross manifested to all the world the victorious Christ, naked and nailed on high. Adam’s death sentence passed on to all who came after him. Christ’s death gave life to all his children.”

Today take a moment to be “shocked” by the Cross, by the sacrifice of our Savior. Today pause and give thanks for the hands, for the feet, for the body of our Lord. Today your life is different because of Him. See you on the path!

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