Once upon a time a man lived in a little village that was overrun with skunks. This man was a good hunter and trapper and knew how to entice the skunks into cages. People would ask him to come and remove the skunks that denned up under their houses. He became known as the “SKUNKMAN”! He eventually charged a small fee for his services and most people were happy to pay him to take away the odorous little creatures.

One day, after removing the fifth skunk from a home, the homeowner asked what would happen if he didn’t pay. The SKUNKMAN said he put captured skunks into little cages and gave his clients thirty days to pay. If on the thirty- first day he had not received his money, all the skunks he had collected from under the non-payers home would be returned to the front porch. Needless to say, this policy was seldom enforced.

Our sins are like skunks, they seem to hang around and stink. Satan likes to bring them back to our door, over and over and over. He wants to shove our faces into our mistakes and shortcomings. He wants to keep us captive, ruminating over old failures. It is one of Satan’s biggest tricks, to get people to despair and think there is no way they can be “good enough” to be acceptable to God. The good news is that the price of our “skunkey” sins are paid for by the blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ! Satan cannot bring back our sins for payment, they have been paid, in full!

“ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“…and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” I John. 1:7

I grew up in a time when church frequently included special gospel meetings that featured a guest preacher imploring over the course of a week to get right and reap the rewards of heaven or certainly go to hell.  Night after night the message and volume would escalate until a satisfactory number had responded to avoid the punishment of hell.

As a result, my upbringing most of my Christian life has been spent figuring out what “get right” means.  My relationship with God was shallowly based on a set of rules based more in the tradition of my recent ancestors than the Word and Spirit.   It took a couple of family tragedies and a tour to combat for me to reevaluate and search for a deeper foundation [Christ] for my relationship.

The struggles of my God relationship search came flooding back as I read Daniel Pink’s book Drive:  The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us in which he presents a compelling case for a deeper method of personal, peer, and subordinate motivation.  I was struck with how closely the history of motivation parallels the Bible story and my story.

H. Belloc, in his essay, “The Little Old Man”, said, “ that of everything which runs or creeps upon earth, man is the fullest of sorrow”. Sometimes, the events of life send Belloc’s observation about sorrow cascading deep into our psyches. We may feel overcome, even overwhelmed by the loss of loved ones that seem almost impossible to bear. But, over time, great sorrow is replaced by joyful confidence that God is with us and all is well.

Jesus was described once by the prophet Isaiah as “a man of sorrows”. A being that could have had anything He wanted, and died on a cross, how strange that would seem to a person who didn’t know the greatest story ever told! But, now, He does have everything, eternity in heaven with His loving Father! From Calvary’s misery to heaven’s glory . He’s home, home at last. And He calls us home too. Little sheep, come home to Me, and be safe at last, safe at last.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair…, struck down, but not destroyed… For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Selections from I Corinthians Chapter 4 (NIV)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

I’ve been to war.

Not a figurative war, which many people have experienced within their unique circumstance, but a real war where bullets fly both ways and mortars and rockets explode with the intent of ending lives.  My war experience, of course, is no longer unusual as the United States continues adding to the longest period of conflict in our history.  I understand the damage a war can do.

Private, figurative wars, the ones without bullets, have been raging for centuries and are just as spiritually damaging as the real wars are physically damaging.  Spiritual wars are waged in our minds as we deal with the loss of loved ones, the breaking of a heart through shattered marriages, the breaking of promises and vows, the loss of stability financial or emotional.  The lists go on and undoubtedly will touch everyone who will read this paragraph.  The private wars have touched my family and me through suicide, cancer, divorce, death…

Once, when I was a little boy, something happened to me that was way beyond my control.  I had sustained a dangerous head wound and was helpless.  My father took me in his arms and carried me to the hospital which was very near to where we lived.  I’m sure my dad lived the event over and over in his mind all the days of his life, even though he rarely mentioned it.  My mom and dad were not young when I was born and our age difference could have made him my grandfather.  He had lost my sister only five years before and must have died figuratively many times as he carried me to medical help.  My father did not cause the accident, would never had let it happen if he had been there. I don’t know what went through his mind as carried me in his arms; perhaps this, “ I would never dream of letting something like this happen to you, but if you will let me, I will love you through this, help you through this, and show you how it will work eventually for your own good.”

In this world bad things happen.  When they do, God is there and He, like my dad, says, “ I did not cause this, I would never plan this horrific thing that has happened to you, but know this, if you let Me, I will love you through this, help you through this, and show you how it will work eventually for you own good.”

Surely God is my salvation,

I will trust and not be afraid.

The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my defense,

He has become my salvation. Isaiah 12:2 (NIV)

“Christians are horrible, they are so mean.”

Not only is this sentiment too common today, but these were the words I heard from one of our varsity basketball players this morning.  We had just finished a win over a Christian school who’s crowd began a personal verbal attack on the player over perceived rough defense.  The 15 year-old player was left reeling from a crowd of adults screaming at her. As I overheard her talking to her mother on the phone, the words of dissappointment stung with each syllable.

“Christians are supposed to be the best, but they are the worse.”

Unfortunately this was the second Christian school in as many days who had behaved in a similar manner.  I must confess my own behavior has not always been exemplary during close and heated games.  The words this morning stung because it brought home how much my behavior represents Christ, too often in a negative way.

The United States went through a phase of t-shirts, bracelets, and other Christian merchandise that challenged us to ask”What Would Jesus Do?”  or “WWJD?” when confronted with a decision.  Apart from the superficial nature of t-shirt Christianity, I wonder if we would have been better served challenging believers to “LLJD” or “live like Jesus did.”  I’m sure there was no room in Jesus’ life for screaming at a 15 year-old basketball player no matter how hard the foul.

Most stores have a lost and found department. It’s usually the last attempt to find a lost possession. We go there hoping that some kind, honest person has turned our lost item in. I call Luke chapter 15 the lost and found chapter. There resides three stories of things lost, one about a little lost sheep, one out of a hundred. “Then Jesus told them this parable. Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ’Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” One of the most beautiful poems I have ever found was written by a lady by the name of Ethel M.C. Brazelton entitled, “POOR LIL’ BRACK SHEEP”. It depicts a conversation between a shepherd and his hired servant , the “hirelin”.

The Bible is at times so grand and the plot so complex it’s sometimes difficult for most of us to gather details about God’s will for us.  We rely on scholars and theologians to interpret  passages but because of disagreement among scholars we are forced to choose which we feel is most correct.  That’s why it’s good to take an overview of the scriptures to discern the context; I describe this view as a “helicopter view.”

During my time in the Army, situations on the ground became much clearer when viewed from a position that permitted a view of the entire operation, not just one small perspective on the ground.  This was done by finding high terrain, using unmanned arial vehicles (UAV), or jumping in a helicopter and seeing first hand the big view.  This helicopter view is important when studying single scriptures to better understand the intent of the writer at that time to the recipients.   The same can be said concerning the complete collection of biblical collection of writings.  So what’s the story?

My dearest cousin’s husband is dying.  How odd that phrase when , in fact, we are all dying, just at different times.  For an atheist the idea of death must be one of great loss and despair.  To have as your only hope, “like the little dog rover, when you’re dead you’re dead all over,” would not be extremely comforting.  I suspect most atheists don’t remind themselves of death very often.  Yet, we are surrounded by it.  Every day the local paper reports them in the “obit” section.  I am very happy to report that my cousin’s family are not atheists and have a comfort available to them that is not the case for people that prefer to “go it alone” without God.  There are days when my cousin’s husband just wants to go on and leave the old shell behind, but he lingers.  Even in asking, “why,” we know, if we’re honest in our quest for the answer.  I believe the answer is the one given by one actor to another in a movie I saw once.  One asked the other on the occasion of leaving this life for the next, “It’s hard to let go isn’t it?”

Physical life is precious, it’s a gift of God, yet, eternal life is so much more a gift.  The transformation from one to the other is a great mystery.  In his great novel, “If Winter Comes”, A.S.M. Hutchinson describes how a young man named Freddie Perch who had just been killed in the war (WW I) came back to help his mother die.  He was the type of son that would never allow his mother to even cross a road without him.  And here he was to help his mother cross the greatest road in her life.

She was moaning….  That inhabitant of her body had done its preparations and now stood at the door in the darkness, very frightened.  It wanted to go back.  It had been very accustomed to being here.  It could not go back.  It did not want to shut the door.  The door was shutting.  It stood and shrank and whimpered there…..  It was old Mrs. Perch that stood there whimpering, shrinking upon the threshold of that huge abyss, wide as space, dark as night …

Lost, a terrible word.  Rhoda, my lovely wife, was separated from her parents years ago at the Madri Gras parade in New Orleans.  Years later, that memory is still poignant.  If you have ever been lost, you will never forget it.

Bob Berman, in his column in the October issue of “Astronomy”, relates “A dozen cool facts.”  One of them is that a neutron can live for more than 10 billion years as long as it stays in its place snuggled deep within its atom’s nucleus.  But if it escapes, it will vanish in 10 ½ minutes, not even a blink compared to 10 billion years.  Bob said one lesson that might be learned from this “cool fact” is that kids should stay home with their parents so they will never be lost.  That’s pretty good advice, but I think there is more solid advice gained from this example.  As God’s children we are safest when we stay close to Him no matter what happens in life.  “Busting loose” from that safety net is not a wise thing to do.  We will surely be lost.

In 1898 Lelia Morris wrote a beautiful hymn, “Nearer Still Nearer.”  Her hymn speaks to staying close to God:

Nearer still nearer close to Thy heart

Draw me my Saviour, so precious Thou art;

Fold me, O fold me close to Thy breast,

Shelter me safe in that haven of rest,…

Nearer still nearer, while life shall last,

Till safe in glory my anchor is cast;

Thru endless ages, ever to be

Nearer, my Saviour, still nearer to Thee…

Why would we want to be anywhere else?

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.  James 4:7-8 (NIV)

Photo by Chicago’s North Shore Conventions & Visitors Bureau.