Living Alive

So, I’m out in the July heat, hot afternoon sun bearing down on my neck.  The overspray from my powerwasher, though, provides a welcome, cooling effect.  I’m on a mission: stain the fence.  Sounds uneventful – but suddenly, for me, it was spiritual.

There I was spraying the fence with a powerwasher. The task is monotonous. But it’s different, at least.  I don’t do this everyday (thankfully).  So, I’m working up and down, one board at a time, trying to make them all look smooth, clean.

I’m moving along at a measured pace – not wanting to spend too much time on any single section. Got other things to do, ya know?  But then there’s this one board… stubborn.  It won’t come perfectly clean.

The sunlight dances in the spray – a glimpse of a rainbow. Cool.

But this one board: different, not like the rest.  Resistant to my work.

Mind of its own.

I can’t move on.  This board requires more attention.  I guess I don’t like imperfections.

The wand grows heaving in my hands.  The machine requires some concentrated force to compress the trigger-handle.  Ok, my hand is cramping – Jason it’s time to move on.

Then it hits me.  It’s not the “imperfect board”.

It’s me.

That board is me. Stubborn. Requiring more work than normal.  Not satisfied.

Imperfect.  Not smooth all the time.

I wonder (and smile, stepping back to look at it again).  “How much does God have to work on me, for me to come clean?”

I’m different. Imperfect. There are parts of me that “never seem to fit in”.

Just doing my household “chores” I got a challenge from God.  Just minding my own business in my backyard and God finds me.  That’s good.

Spiritual powerwashing – there’s a task to ponder!  It may’ve been a monotonous task, but it wasn’t mindless. It was mindful. 

Full.  

I’m thinking of awareness.  Even in the face of my imperfections, I’m glad God shows up. Teaches me.

So, everDay, everyWhere, in everyThing… Live Alive!

Pastor Jason

Tuesday Travels

My work called me to Berryville this morning. I happened to be running early (which doesn’t often happen to me) and decided with my “extra” few minutes that I would stop and walk outdoors. I love having that unexpected break. Off of route 50 lies the Va State Arboretum. It’s a wonderful, wild, open 700-acre garden of God’s glory. I pulled in and parked, ready to stretch my legs. The air was fresh. It had rained heavily earlier this morning. The ground was damp but manageable in my “church shoes”. I chose to venture Dogwood Lane (only foot traffic allowed along this historic, stone-wall lined road. I imagined I was a traveler of some 100 years ago.

The landscape reveals many species of trees and flowers. It’s near Eden to me. I don’t need long outdoors to begin to appreciate the Creator anew.

I’m beginning to recall a passage from a book I re-read recently, by Brother Lawrence, a humble monk in the highlands of France, “Practicing the Presence of God.” He wrote, “I can pick up a straw from the ground, for the love of God.” Brother Lawrence was fond of saying that in everything he did, all day, he would do it for God – with a sense of God being with him in ordinary, mundane, simple tasks.

It’s the simple, daily things, that connect me to God. Walking, working, wondering… breathing. (I’m serious about the simple.) Just as close as in the sanctuary of Macedonia Church, there was God, with me on the trail. I didn’t have to “go there” to find God. I just had to stop – still my mind – and recognize God…wherever I am.

It’s summer now. Many of you are traveling.  I have heard from several of you, from places around the USA. You are sending me emails via your blackberries, and digital pictures too.  That’s great!  Keep in touch!

I used to collect postcards, when I was younger.  A small record of my brief travels.  Postcards are memorable.  A picture’s worth a thousands words, ya know.  Just as we like to let others know where we are, or where we’ve been, we like the contact of home when we’re far from it.

God keeps in touch with us no matter where we are.  (Of course, we can’t go anywhere where God is not.)  God keeps contact, stays connected with us through his Word and his Work.  Creation is God’s work.  When you’re out-n-about, seeing the sights, drifting peacefully on the waves at the beach, or hiking & camping in the hills, or just stuck in traffic — take a moment to look, really to see the Work of God, creation all around us (wherever you are).

To be present, to breathe deeply, to see clearly, to touch intentionally, is to keep in touch with the Creator.

So, let’s keep in touch this summer!

Pastor Jason