The Story of the Day
I’m watching “Oh, God!” a movie from 1977 with George Burns and John Denver. Fitting for a night like tonight, when the lead story on the news is all about the picture to the left…tonight is the night before the rapture. I have a masters in Divinity, and am a licensed pastor for the Church of God, Anderson. Never, in all my study or translation of the bible could I honestly say that there is a “time or date” when God promises to return. Quite the opposite. God (not a He) isn’t talking about when the rapture (if that is your theology) is happening. He’s talking about what is going on in this movie. 🙂 Isn’t it always the way that we’re so busy with the headlines, that we’ve forgotten the basics of what is real in our faith tradition?
In the off chance that I’m wrong and this guy knows something that God’s never said to me, I’m still at peace with this. I love, deeply, life and all that comes with it. Every day of my life requires grace and peace becasue I am a big screw up. Really, I can’t go from here to there without messing something up. But in all honesty, my heart belongs first to God and then to one man. My life is given to service, and I’ve leaped straight into deep waters I would not have survived on my own. My children has been raised to love the Lord. Have I lived a life worth pulling up to heaven and making part of tomorrow’s heavenly host? Nope. Do I have faith that Christ came, died and rose for me? Yes, I believe it more than I do my own life. Maybe in the end, the ability to love God when everything has gone straight into the toilet, that is being willing to follow into the night, over the cliff…even into uncertain waters.
If it's ending, I want to say "I love you, always you, only you."
But it’s more than that.
God is an amazing, exceptional, all encompassing everything in my world, even though I have very little use for the institutional church. I find the pulpits and pews of America filled with so many people who are one person inside and and another without. I prefer God on more intimate terms, much like the character George Burns portrays him. I love it when he says “young people can’t fall from my grace, they’re my best things.” There is another part when God says “the divine truth is not in a building, a book or a story. The heart is the temple wherein all truth resides.” Yeah, I like that. Print that in your papers. Make it a headline. Plaster it on billboards. Wow, I love this movie. Will there be a judgement day for man? Burns…“If you want my personal opinion, if there is a doomsday, I am not looking forward to it. There will be a lot of yelling and screaming and I don’t want that anymore than you do.”
There is noting about life that doesn’t speak about the beauty and the love of creation. Today, my squirrel yelled at me through the window as he staged his sit in, protesting the lack of corn in his tree feeder. I will correct that one before the world ends. My bet is that the little squatter will ask for more corn on Sunday morning, when we’re getting ready for church and still talking about starting our own organization. Waste of time if it’s just one day. Okay, I am not poking fun, but the Mayans still have my vote, cause 2012 was a rocking cool movie.
The God that I know loves everyone. I know what I know from the bible…delight in the world and in the work of God. Try not to let it get broken by greed and by poison. Be part of the solution to problems, and not let suffering happen around you. You’re the miracle. Remorse, pain, loss and all the hurt you bring to yourself…it’s not necessary. Live in freedom. Be decent to each other.
The day doesn't matter...it's your heart that is important.
Love, real love, comes from God alone. Love with all you are and be at peace.
Go out and be the miracle that you are.
The end of the world is not a time, a day, a place or even an earthquake. It’s a heart that expires without ever having lived.
I’m sending you with all of the peace, grace and love that I know. If you find it hard to believe in God, maybe it will help you to know…God truly believes in you. Also from movie. See what I mean?