Fwd: Fire

Yesterday I got a call from a friend of mine.  He told me to bring some marshmallows because his business was burning down.  CRAZY!  I went over to spend some time with him and watch the spectacle.  Five fire trucks, police cars burning strip-mall, if it wasn't my friends business it would have been a pretty cool thing to watch.  There was water running into every drain, tons of firemen everywhere and then there were the spectators.  People just kind of seemed in a trance. Staring, talking in quiet voices, a few crying, some laughing a little jokes they had with each other.   Then they started tearing down the building.  This all happened in about half an hour.

The fire had started the night before and the firefighters thought they had put it out.  However, it was still slowly burning between the roof and the ceiling.  by 2:00 p.m. the next day it erupted all over the roof, Sending spurts of flame up all over the building.  Everyone thought that the fire was over, that the burning had finished.  In reality it had just gone out of sight.  As I thought about this, and talked with my friend, and thought and watched, and thought, i realized this is our life.  we might feel like our fire has gone out. that there is nothing left of the passion for life, God, family, friends,  but it just is slowly burning below the surface waiting for that moment to burst out and take over again.  Boy, I should have brought those marshmallows, they would have been great!

God bless you,

Pastor Nathan

The First Day

Well it happened.  Last night I had one of those terrible dreams about the first day of school.  You get to school, you have no idea where your classroom is or even what class you are supposed to go to.  You wander around the school looking for where you belong. Once you find the class the teacher is really mean and ugly.  And you have no idea what you are doing, there is a test on things you have never studied, your stress level goes up and UP AND UP! and then you wake up.

This was what I got to wake up with this morning. Then I remember, it is the first day of school for millions of students across our country.  They are waking up early and getting ready, going into classes feeling totally unprepared for what this next year might bring.  It's fun, it's scary, it's exciting and  it is depressing.  As I talk to teenagers they seem to want to put off the beginning of school for as long as they possible can.  Why is that? It seems like they would enjoy it. They get to meet their old friends and make new friends, they get to experience new things and learn how to learn and expand their thinking.  They get to use free art supplies and computer labs.  All of these things are things teenagers love.  They spend much of their free time doing these very things, as do I.  But I think there are two things that make going back to school so difficult.  One is the you no longer are in control of your schedule and two, you are forced to change. To become different than you have been, which is very stress inducing.  

I think these to principles are the very things that make it hard to follow Jesus.  We are brought to a place where we need to give ourselves to Him.  All the time, not just when it fits our schedule, but at all times.  This messes with our lives.   Also we are forced to change the more we know about Jesus.  When we come into contact with Him we can not leave unchanged, either we change our schedule and selves to align with Him, or we go on knowing that are not lining up with the new information we have gained about Him. That is a terrible place to be, to know about the truth but to reject it. yuck.   I hope that makes sense.  All that being said I still love this time of year with the crisper air, the new start and fun of Fall just around the corner.  I hope you don't have and school nightmares of your own. Also, enjoy the first week of school!

God bless you

Pastor Nathan