“This is a difficult moment to treasure!”

Charlie Brown’s team is behind 98-0, and he is standing on the pitcher’s mound, talking to himself: “Boy, I must be stupid to stand out here and take a beating like this! The other team is laughing at me; my own team hates me; I’m a lousy pitcher; my stomach hurts. I don’t know why I play this game. I must be really stupid!”

Lucy comes over to console him: “Charlie Brown, you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to change your attitude! The years are going by, and you’re not enjoying life at all! Just remember, Charlie Brown, that the moments you spend out here on this pitcher’s mound are moments to be treasured! We’re not going to be kids forever, Charlie Brown, so treasure these moments!”

Then Charlie Brown, with determination on his face, tugs at the bill of his cap, rears back, and fires a pitch toward the plate. The batter swings and rips a scorching line-drive back through the pitcher’s box, knocking Charlie Brown off the mound. His cap goes one direction; his glove goes another. Knocked right out of his shoes and socks, he lands flat on his back. Lying there, Charlie Brown studies the situation and says: “This is a difficult moment to treasure!”

Charlie Brown expresses what we all have experienced sometime in our life, maybe many times, —that many moments in life are “difficult to treasure.” Life can be painful, and no one is exempt from the pain. And when those times come – times of such pain and anguish that they grab our hearts and squeeze them until we want to cry out or break down in tears, we are confronted with the question of faith. Do I have a faith that will sustain me? Do I have a faith that sees beyond the pain and sorrow and darkness into the light?

To have this kind of persevering faith is something that needs to be nurtured long before the storms come. It doesn’t just come. That is at the heart of the spiritual journey and why we are called to give attention to the spiritual life. In our spiritual journey, we are creating the resources that will enable us to not just cope with the daily stresses and strains and challenges of life and the potentially life-crushing moments, but will also help us to live abundantly. We can admire Charlie Brown’s persistence, but we need more than persistence, we need persevering faith. And so the question is: Am I/are you developing that faith? The care of the soul is a life-long process. Is it important to you? Do you spend time working on it? And if we are, even in those moments that we feel overwhelmed or feel completely inadequate to face the challenges, we will find that God gives us the resources to cope and even grow.

Flora Slosson Wuellner, in an article entitled “When the Stars Begin to Fall”, reminds us that “The moment of our greatest fear, the moment when the ground shakes beneath our feet, is the very moment of God’s deepest presence and power within us. It is the moment of our new beginning.” But we might not recognize that presence and the giving of that power if we haven’t been seeking to walk with God in the sunshine and the daily routines of life. One of the things that prayer does is give us perspective and awareness.

Let me invite you to take some time to stop and reflect on your faith journey. Are you building up the spiritual resources you will need when the storms come?  Would you be able to recognize God’s presence and power in the dark night of your fear or when your foundations begin to shake?

Prayer: Dear God, like Charlie Brown, we all face moments that are hard to treasure. In fact, there are some things that we encounter in life that scare us, cripple us, and leave us dazed and confused. We ask that you will help us to cultivate that depth of relationship with you that not only lives gratefully in the sunshine, but can also recognize your presence and power in the darkness. We are weak people and we know that left to ourselves, that even in spite of our courage and persistence, we will fail. We thank you that you are always present and that your grace undergirds all of life. Help us to grow in the awareness of that gift so that at all times and in all places and in all circumstances we may experience its life-enabling power. Amen.

Caring Like Jesus

Shane Claiborne is a young Christian activist whose mission is to take Jesus and the message of the gospel seriously. Shane is one of the founding members of The Simple Way,  a Christian community in Philadelphia. Their mission is: "To love God. To love people. To follow Jesus." Shane has taken the gospel beyond the streets of Philadelphia to places the slums of Calcutta and the war zones of Iraq. In his book The Irresistible Revolution  (pp. 50-51), he describes how God revealed himself through the homeless.

I saw one woman in a crowd as she struggled to get a meal from one of the late-night food vans. When we asked her if the meals were really worth the fight, she said: "Oh yes, but I don't eat them myself. I get them for another homeless lady—an elderly woman around the corner who can't fight for a meal."

      I saw a street kid get 20 bucks panhandling outside of a store and then immediately run inside to share it with all of his friends. We saw a homeless man lay a pack of cigarettes in the offering plate because it was all he had. I met a blind street musician who was viciously abused by some young guys who would mock her, curse her, and one night even sprayed Lysol in her eyes as a practical joke. As we held her that night, one of us said, "There are a lot of bad folks in the world, aren't there?"
      And she said: "Oh, but there are a lot of good ones too. And the bad ones make you, the good ones, seem even sweeter."
      We met a little 7-year-old girl who was homeless, and we asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. She paused pensively and then replied, "I want to own a grocery store." We asked her why, and she said, "So I can give out food to all the hungry people."
      Mother Teresa used to say, "In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises." Now I knew what she meant.

The sad, but also wondrous, thing is that sometimes those outside of the church reflect the spirit of Jesus better than those in the church. What about us and our church? Do people see Christ in us? Do we care like Jesus? Do we serve like Jesus? Do we live like Jesus? This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It isn’t really complicated, but it is hard and it challenges our safety and security. It reminds us how much we need and are dependent on God’s grace. It is easy to fall into the routine of only looking out for ourselves or those who are closest to us. But Jesus calls us to be revolutionary and radical and inclusive with our love. Are we?

 Reflect: Who, in the church and outside of the church, most challenges you to live like Jesus? Why? As you look at your own life, what makes it hard to live like Jesus? Would you say that you care like Jesus? Love like Jesus? In what ways do you need to depend more on God’s grace and allow that grace to melt your heart and change your life so that you are more Christ-like? Why not start today?

 Prayer: Lord, it is hard to love! In fact, sometimes, it is even hard to care. Our lives are often overloaded and focused on other things. We ask that you will teach us to see through your eyes; feel with your heart; reach out and touch with your hands. Thank you for not giving up on us. Help us not to give up on ourselves or those around us. Reveal your love through me and through my church. May all who meet us know the reality of your grace. Amen