Faith over Fear

[Originally published in the Monroe News on April 9, 2021]

As you well know, this past Sunday was Easter.  For many Christians this year’s edition of this beloved holiday was even more joyful than usual.  Last year almost everyone was stuck at home due to the beginning of the pandemic and most all Easter services were being pre-recorded with empty churches to be broadcast over the internet.  To gather again in person this year, albeit with many precautions still in place, brought tears to many eyes and rightfully so.

One word I brought up and focused upon in my Easter message this year was the word fear.  Not exactly the first word that comes to mind when you think about the resurrection of the Savior of the world.  Yet fear was absolutely a part of the Easter story.  The women who first came to the tomb of Jesus to anoint his body are described in the Gospels as being alarmed and fearful at what they encountered.  They expected the worst.  They feared the many unknowns before them.  They were alarmed at encountering many things, including an angel and an empty tomb, that were very much unexpected.

Seeing More Clearly

  [Originally published in the Monroe News on February 26, 2021]

Are you tired of these bitterly cold temperatures?  In this past week we have at least seen the mercury rise above freezing again. I’ve witnessed the icicles on gutters begin to fall and the snow piles turning into large puddles.  Even the early morning temperatures are up out of the single digits and closer to something a little more tolerable.

As most people rejoice at the diminishing snow I’m one of the outliers that has been living up our recent winter weather.  I love big snow storms.  I even enjoy the bitter cold (at least for awhile).  I’ve been keeping up my Saturday morning routine of getting out for a long run and the sometimes sub-zero wind chills haven’t chased me inside.  In fact, one particular Saturday a few weeks back provided me with a great illustration I shared with my congregation and I share with you today.

Watch and Warn

 [Originally published in the Monroe News on January 15, 2021]

In July of 2015 my father, my brother and I climbed Capitol Peak in Colorado. It is arguably the most difficult of the high peaks in the state.  This mountain is full of loose rock, knife edges, and steep drop-offs that line the route.  We spent a great deal of time preparing ourselves for such a climb.  We also built up quite a bit of anxiety during the process.

High on the mountain is a particularly dangerous area that has led to several lost lives in recent years.  It is an area where climbers frequently get off route and into terrain that cliffs out.  Climbers get lost here while looking for an easy shortcut off the mountain.  The shortcut they take looks deceptively easy at first, beckoning the unsuspecting climber in, and then quickly turns treacherous and deadly.  In mythical terms, one might compare this to the sirens found in Homer’s The Odyssey.  We were aware of this danger and had heeded previous warnings in our research to steer clear.

The Light Shines in the Darkness

[Originally published in the Monroe News on December 11, 2020]

I’m guessing you know that feeling of walking into a darkened room, completely pitch-black, and fumbling around trying to find your way.  You probably move slowly to avoid any painful encounters with furniture or the stubbing of a toe.  You’ll put your arms and hands out in front of you to feel for anything that might offer a sense of place or direction. This kind of darkness creates a sense of unknown.

I’ve never minded the dark much myself.  In fact I quite enjoy spending time outside in late evenings or even early mornings.  While climbing mountains out west we would regularly have 4am starts at trailheads making our way along darkened trails following a single beam of light from a headlamp.  Such experiences help you see just how reliant we are on the light.  A sense of helplessness is often close at hand when contemplating what would happen if that single light would go out.  Needless to say, we always bring extra batteries!

Hope

[Originally published in the Monroe News on November 6, 2020]

“Hope is like the sun, if you only believe in it when you can see it, you’ll never make it through the night.” This is a quote from Princess Leia.  If you don’t know who she is, don’t go looking through your geography textbooks to find out for which country she is royalty, you won’t find it.  This is Princess Leia from the Star Wars saga.  If you haven’t seen the movies or read any of the books, or you just dislike them, forgive me.

I love the quote though.  “Hope is like the sun…”  I think hope is a worthy topic for us to be talking about as human beings any day of the week.  It is something we struggle with. It is something our stories and our histories are full of. It is almost certainly something we yearn for.  When we face tough times we especially like to shift our focus to things which give us hope. When in darkness, we want to see that light at the end of the tunnel.

Princess Leia spoke of hope because she was the leader of a rebellion against the Galactic Empire.  She was leading a cause against all the odds to bring freedom to people she never met.  Her fight was built on the idea of hope.  How did her character come to such a bold resolve to continue onward in her goal despite all the odds?  Its really quite a story.  Did you know she witnessed her home planet being completely destroyed by the so-called “Death Star”.   She had to endure her son being lost to the evils of the dark side and turn into the menacing villain Kylo Ren.  She learned that her own father was the greatest villain of them all, Darth Vader.  Despite all of these despair-inducing revelations in her life she led people forward in hope. She never gave up the fight.