Wednesday, April 14

Career change….outside comfort zone

"I answered: I'm not a prophet! And I wasn't trained to be a prophet. I am a shepherd, and I take care of fig trees. But the LORD told me to leave my herds and preach to the people of Israel." (Amos 7:14-15 CEV)

I can remember the moment when, at the Bowery Mission in New York City, that God forced me to overhear a conversation between our leader, Joseph, and the North Carolina leader, Micah. Joseph was discussing the fact the team didn't have a pastor like last year…..the resultant kick in the pants by God wasn't too pleasant and I'm sure it came out in my tone as I interrupted and told them, "I'm an ordained Chaplain." Since prior to the divorce, almost three years ago, I stopped preaching in the Chapel to focus on the marriage that was being systematically destroyed. It was one of the reasons that my ex-wife gave for discontent; focus on ministry.

Much of my testimony has given others pause….wondering if it is possible for such a broken, struggling, combative and argumentative man to be called from God to proclaim His word and be used as a vessel for the instruction of His children. Having a divorce and being rather older than the typical 'pastoral candidate' just adds frosting to the cake. For some….it is the most natural thing in the world, that where I have gone has brought me flush against God and the glory He displays in the motion of my life, the ebb and flow, is highlighted in the darkness travelled through. There is no greater place where light is recognized than in the utter darkness of despair, struggle and sorrow.

It is where God wants me, it is where God wants and entices each and every one of us to be living in…..not just passing through, but hanging on that razor edge of hope and sorrow, love and pain and eternal presence in the physical temporariness. In that moment between utter loss and pure redemption.

I didn't want to preach at the Bowery, though all week long before we left God kept hitting me with verse and verse during my renewed private time with Him….verses that weren't the typical admonishments or encouragements He usually gives. Faithfully I wrote them down, just like I used to before each Chapel service, and trust that He would reveal in time what He wanted me to learn, do or pass on with them.

In that moment between the kick and the admission…….I died with fear and was reborn with desire…..over and over. The anger and passion mixed into the powerful expulsion of words that I uttered that day. God would get His way, as He always does.

Standing before a crowd, larger than any in the Chapel that I had served, I spoke what God had for me to speak……..just like old times. And, with the service performed once again, I knew that I'd never be the same again…again. I don't believe that God lets go of the purposing once we have realized His goals….and I don't this He reassigns them to others to do, even in the twilight of our shame when we deny or refuse His anointing. He waits, He loves, He calls…..but He doesn't forget.

And He delights in throwing a curveball in the game of this life…….in the major story of His redemption of His creation.

To everyone involved.

How much better to do that than to use the most unlikely of candidates to do the most unlikely of works? A shepherd as a rescuerer and deliverer? A shepherd as a prophet? A shepherd as a King? A carpenter as Messiah?

Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!

Stripped of the varnish of nice living, graceful impact and utter dependence on a God that requires simple obedience in a world that is disobedient to the caretakers of its being…….there is only one thing evident, one thing recognized and one thing that can be ascribed to its existence……God's glory. As the mug I bought at the 9-11 memorial says, "In the darkness, we shine brightest."

If we have God inside us.

It is amazing, at least to me who has been always shown bigger things than I can possibly do on my own talent or strength or ability, that we always look to the prepared comforts of our lives for the impact that God would have us do for the Kingdom building…..for that is the job of each and every Christian solider in the Army of the Lord…..and we're certain that it simply lies under the comforter or the chase, maybe behind the refrigerator (which we need to clean behind) or outside in the lush backyard near the fountain that we built for the comfortable evenings with family or friends……surely it lies simply underneath the next pile of folded clothes from Old Navy and Niemen Marcus…..maybe in the backseat of the Lexus or Ford Flex…..within the compensation packet of our new job or our old one…

And we never seem capable of finding it.

Yet when we're on the edge of life; loss of job, loss of home, loss of family…..some kind of loss that has occurred in our fragile existence…..some kind of struggle or suffering that we're experiencing. In that moment where we are crying out to God in painful supplication….crying out for the promised peace, comfort, love and understanding that permeates the biblical text and seem to hear only the silent thumping of our hearts in the echoing chasm of our despair…we don't look for God's purposed call in that.

Outside the comfort of our own creation……..the lives we've built that are designed to keep us at least complacently dumb to the sorrows and brokenness of the world around us.

Yet it is in the most broken among us that the truest sense of Charles Bridges' statement in A Modern Study in the Book of Proverbs is realized……

"The wicked die in outward comfort; the righteous in outward trouble. But length of days is the promise to the righteous; whether for earth or for heaven, as their Father sees best for them. In itself the promise, as it pertains to this life, has no charm……..to the people of God a trial of faith and patience……peace added provides sunshine for the toilsome way; peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; eternal peace in His home and in His heart."

In the seediness of this broken world, in the chaos and confusion of creation set against us and the very old nature combating against the redeemed, new nature of Christ…….where the purchased realize the price paid and cry out in obedient humility to a fully unreachable, unchangeable and untrainable God through the blood of His Son…….that is where the gem and hiddenness of the purpose lies like treasure for us to pick up and embrace.

Far beyond where our dreams, limited and powerless in our humanity, can go…….but so much smaller than God is capable of delivering……He is, after all, the Big God.

And the disbelieving, unhearing and limited sight of others who cross paths with these delusional people don't phase them very much, though there are times when they question their sanity under the load of these dissenters; these people wander in a world few can see and try to articulate it when asked to varying degrees of success…..

These people see the impossible in the possible capacity of God…..

These people cannot remain for very long in the mundane, comfortable and delusional life of their own design……for God is hard to see in the suburb of well-appointed houses……though, He can be seen if hard-sought for…..

He is easily seen in the hard work of the impossible missions to redeem a world that forsakes its Savior, to bring food to a hungry world in the throes of starvation and shine a light in the murky darkness of its sin……..

So, where are you working and living today?

In the comfort of your creation or outside it, in the impossibility of God's dreams?


 


 


 

Monday, April 12

Joining the work already begun….

"With the faithful You prove Yourself faithful; with the blameless man You prove Yourself blameless; with the pure You prove Yourself pure, but with the crooked You prove Yourself shrewd. You rescue an afflicted people, but Your eyes are set against the proud --- You humble them. Lord, You are my lamp; the Lord illuminates my darkness. With You I can attack any barrier, and with my God I can leap over a wall. God --- His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is pure. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him." (2 Samuel 22:29-31 HASB)

We finished up our discussion in the small group last night about David, that figure in the biblical text and historical data that is best described as a 'man after God's own heart,' even though the wreckage of his life created suffering and anguish for his reign over both Israel and Judah. In the 'infamous' declaration of Nathan the prophet, David is told that he is 'that man.' (2 Samuel 12:7ff) What really struck me wasn't the declaration, but what Nathan immediately followed with, 'this is what the Lord of Israel says…..'

"I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you and your master's wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more."

If that was not enough……

In Deuteronomy 17:15ff, God lays down the appointing process and standards for the king over the nation of Israel. "…you are to appoint over you the king that the Lord your God chooses. Appoint a king from your brothers. You are not to set a foreigner over you, or one who is not of your people. However, he must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the Lord has told you, 'You are never to go back that way again.' He must not acquire many wives for himself so his heart won't go astray. He must not acquire large amounts of silver and gold for himself."

All the kings of Israel, starting with David and epitomized by his son Solomon, violated these standards. Yet David is considered a 'man after God's own heart' and Solomon was granted the wisdom he asked for, in addition to everything else he didn't ask for. A seeming contradiction, maybe, until you add the human factor into the understanding….that Adamic unwillingness or incapability to obey God's ideal standards even when they are simply spelled out before us. God always presents us with the perfect and ideal way to join Him in the work already begun…..in ourselves, in our world and in those whom we interact with. What usually happens is less than ideal, because of our own brokenness and sinful old nature. Even Solomon admitted as much in the Proverbs, if you care to read of a foolish man versus a wise one; God's ideal versus mankind's ideal.

When is enough not enough?

When we take what God has given us and demand more….when we seek, not to live in the tension between anguish and hope but to garner more than our ability to handle so that we can blind ourselves to the story that is being portrayed before us, in us and through us of the grandeur design and epic stature of His story…….

We taste the blessings that God has given us and relax our guard to indulge in the simple desires and pleasures that seem to float just behind the horizon, much like David did when at a time his army was at war, he stayed back in Jerusalem….and we don't want to go back to the suffering of the previous seasons so we gather enough to maintain and assure our comforts, as David did amassing an army capable of defending what kingdom he had.

We underestimate God's ability to give us everything that He has promised with Eve's mindset and laid aside for us while we overestimate our ability to hold on to what we have been given as we pursue more than we need. We want that 'rainy day' fund against the time when God doesn't answer our prayers or requests or supplications and leaves us high and dry………

Our story, our legacy and our very 'survival' becomes more important than the story of God……..and the sacrifice His Son gave for our sake.

We seek the immediate and fragile pleasures of the moment instead of looking around for the work already in progress in us, around us and through us. God's story, spelled out in meticitous detail from Genesis to Revelation, tells each of us what the harvest of immediate gratification is and what the deeper harvest of peace and joy for the things yet to be can be. Yet we grasp, cling and claw our way through this world….writing our own story in the margin of the pages.

Those blank pages that we try and read, flipping ahead in the tome of God's marvelous and glorifying story, scare us……..with the stroke of a pen, we can be paupers or kings.

I am scared as the time approaches to join those who are on a deeper adventure at MTS-M, either as a temporary Graduate Studies Student or a MDiv Student. So much hinges on so much other things, well beyond my control or affecting……yet, when I reread the story so far as I have journeyed with God, I can see that blood line weaving itself throughout my smaller tale within the larger chapter of His word……the past six years haven't been wasted, they have been fruitful in the designs that God had for me….to bring me to this spot where I realize the work He has done in me and now wants me to join Him in doing through me.

As I read Dr. Larry Crabb's latest offering, 66 Love Letters; A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story, I am struck by a statement that he writes about God's reply to us about Genesis, His first love letter……

"Read the story of Jacob and take heart. I can transform anyone into the likeness of My Son." God says, "But the progress is never easy or short. It took nearly 150 years filled with terrible family problems to change Jacob into Israel, into a man who learned to trust in Me in the struggles of life. But I got the job done. I always do."

His success record is so much better than mine……I think I'll leave the direction I'll take in regards to seminary and everything else in His capable hands. After all, He already began the work in me and has promised to not stop until His perfection is realized.

How about you?

Thursday, April 8

Peanuts and uniqueness

"To each person has been given the ability to display the Spirit for the common good. To one has been given a message of wisdom by the Spirit; to another the ability to speak with knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit; to another miraculous results; to another prophecy; to another the ability to distinguish between spirits; to another various kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit produces all these results and gives what he wants to each person." (1 Corinthians 12:7-11 ISV)


 

Max Lucado uses the Message paraphrase of this scripture in his book entitled Cure For The Common Life; Living In Your Sweet Spot.

At least, the first verse, "Each person is given something to do that shows who God is…." And the answer to what that 'something' is, Lucado says, is as simple as looking at the one thing, the one skill…..the 'tools' if you will….that you have been equipped with and you will find that one thing that is…..

"Your uniqueness"

As it says in Matthew 25:15, we are to pursue the purpose God gave us with "each one's ability…" And burying it underneath the collection of wounds, calluses and scars doesn't make it any less noticeable, either to yourself or to those around you…….Lucado says this uniqueness exists at the "intersection of your affections and successes." But too often, if we stray away from the direction in which our strengths, affections and desires lie……we never reach the intersection of success and therefore lie dormant in a sea of dormant souls…..waiting for an eternal life that is ours for the taking now, even as we live in the physical world of this place. We covet other's abilities, successes or even ease of living instead of seeking out that unique qualifier that marks our spot, our position and our destiny under the eternal story of the Master Author…….some never even get to the place where they would recognize the penmanship of God let alone find themselves living in the sweet spot of His purposes.

Lucado uses a story about George Washington Carver who, among other things, was the inventor of the multitude of usage we have from that oddly shaped fruit called the peanut. I was stunned when I had read it because it speaks so much about the last few days and how my escalation of fear and worry has almost obliterated my journey toward my own 'sweet spot.'

"Oh, Mister Creator," he cried out, "why did you make this universe?"

And the Creator answered, "You want to know too much for that little mind of yours. Ask Me something more your size."

So I said, "Dear Mister Creator, tell me what man was made for."

Again He spoke to me and said, "Little man, you are still asking for more than you can handle. Cut down the extent of your request and improve the intent."

Then I asked my last question. "Mister Creator, why did you make the peanut?"

"That's better," the Lord said.

And He gave me a handful of peanuts and went back with me to the laboratory and together we got to work."

In all, as Lucado points out, George Washington Carver discovered over three hundred uses for the peanut…..many of which are still in wide-spread use today. What struck me in this retelling of Carver's desire to uncover the secrets of the peanut was how God told him to 'boil it down' to something that he could handle, rather than blowing his mind with something he could not. So much of my journey to this season has been built very much like the conversation was retold between Carver and God…..

It's come down to something simple……

Am I going to continue to believe the packaging that someone else has sold me or am I going to go out and seek the original intention that I was equipped with before the time of my birth…….am I going to keep asking too complex of an question or will I simplify…………and start unlocking the mysteries of my design side by side with God……under His direction??

I remember what one of the Bowery team said as we walked the streets of New York on our day off……after performing the morning chapel service………."Jim, we have to get you preaching more…."

To unlock that uniqueness and purpose that God set forth when He designed me, I have to break the hard shell that I have been living in……….and dare to lie exposed upon the designer's table so that He can articulate what He has made……

Thankfully, during this moment between where I have released my grip on my life and where I begin to fly….where the fear threatens to overwhelm me and desperation demands I scramble to reattach myself to my safety net……there lies a wonderful, beautiful and strong-willed woman who still beckons me into realizing God's purpose for me that has been cemented into my bones from the moment I was born…..

Together, under the roof of the Moody Theological Seminary, God and I will take these handful of peanuts that are my skills, my passions and my life experiences and work together to help me realize the powerful applications of their development……..


 

Monday, April 5

Glory forgotten….

"…. 'Is there anyone among the faithful few who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Doesn't it seem like nothing to you?'" (Haggai 2:3 GW)

I can still remember as I sat in the hard wooden pew in the beautifully adorned chapel on Bowery Street in New York City and listening to the power of God transform a friend of mine into a prophetess speaking to His people….challenging them…..enticing them with the powerful words from Haggai….one of the 'minor' prophets in the Old Testament. The one I jokingly refer to as "The woman formerly known as Veronica..." because I kept on forgetting her name……I'm horrible with names.

She challenged not only the men of the Bowery Mission, but the team of which she was a part, to remember God's promises in Haggai and throughout the biblical text. Not only to remember; but to think, dwell and work with it flowing throughout our lives, our hands and our thoughts…..

As I step closer and closer to this new adventure in the Moody Theological Seminary and wonder about the financial end of it…..in addition to the waiver request and the returning to school…..I was struck by something one of my pastors (yes, I am a child of two spiritual fathers at the moment) asked of me Sunday….'how's the hope going?' Re-reading TWFKAV's notes, the third verse of the second chapter hit me between the eyes……

It is easy, once the magnificence of the dream fades into the reality and routine of this journey, to forget it altogether and start dwelling on the things that you've entrusted to God's hand. Pulling those things back like a covering; to protect you from the possible disappointment of dreaming too big.

God never said that this new adventure, this turning back from the mission fields for this season and progressing into the really impossible dream of going to Seminary and pursuing the MDiv degree wasn't going to be difficult and work….work….work. And, even if I work as hard as I possibly can…..it detracts nothing from God's glory….because it is God who has brought me to this place to be equipped in His service, and the undeniability of His hand lies upon it everywhere I look…….

But that's how it goes for most of us, even the most mature among us. We are caught up in the passion of the moment, carried along by the uplifting swell of God's pleasure and measure and coasting along after the hard work of being developed to take the next step into His purpose for us……..as soon as the crest dies down, the passion tempers and the forward momentum slows we start looking up at the impossible and seeing impossibilities…..nothing but the shadowy half-filled image of God's possibilities.

It's not hard to do……none of us remember the Garden, none of us remember walking with God in its coolness and none of us remember what it is like to truly walk without sin hampering our every step, our every thought and cruelly cutting our burdened hearts once again. And the fragile remembrance of our humanity begs mercy even after we've partaken of God's blessings and abundance….for even in the absence of major movement from God in our lives; He walks with us still and talks with us unceasingly. But some of us don't even remember that moment in time when we crossed the threshold of our own humanity and opened the door to a waiting Savior. Life has a way of demanding our focus and our attention and the spiritual becomes nothing more than fanciful dreams that die with the dawning of the new day. Sin, the struggle against the all-too-personal attacks of the Enemy against our new nature, chips away at our assurance and erodes our defenses. We work less joyfully, less purposefully and with dying energy.

It, after all, looks like nothing to us by this time. And we begin to worry about the things that are happening around us rather than the things that are happening for us to lead us into a greater activity for the glory of God.

We don't want to be foolish upon that day if, as the disciples gathered hidden in the great room for fear of the Jews who had killed Jesus……He doesn't show. We don't like to put our eggs all in one basket and then throw it off the cliff.

But our life, absent of God's purpose and salvation, is nothing and the sufferings that come because of our disobedience are wasted pains and agonies that do nothing but bring the Devil his glory and due….stealing from God, that is all we are doing. Haggai told the people in the first chapter of this really small book that they were denying God, making Him wait upon their own selfish needs to be satisfied first and then refusing still to do what He would have them do…..and are punished through the fragility and stupidity of their selfishness because of the vacancy of God's provisioning. So is it with the modern day chosen, holy adopted children of God……..

It is an impossible dream God has given me; to be equipped as a Pastor to go into the mission fields of either domestic or foreign and preach His word…..it is impossible for me to finance the adventure in the Seminary, though I could work full time and go to school full time….at the expense of my children and my relationship with Shannon……but impossible to do so and make sure it isn't at their expense. It is foolish of me to stand out there, declaring the favor of the Lord in this and declare even as men may decide to withhold their approval, I will continue to step into it as God declared……and revisit the council again in the future about reconsideration…….banking on an impossible dream and devoting all I have to it….on the off chance that I may be able to correct it in the future.

The temple lies in ruins and I'm not even past clearing out the rubble……..yet I am speaking of the former glories now forgotten?

I've gone off the deep end. I must be crazy.

I don't even have my double-wide mobile home signed for yet….waiting on the revised tax refund to come in……I don't even have material to fix it, or have ripped out the things that need replacing…..I haven't found that job to work full-time…I haven't even registered for the MTS program, because I don't know which one I'll be able to take….let alone pay for it. This could be very messy, getting approved for the Seminary and then finding out that I can't fix up the trailer enough to live in it…..or so on……..

I'm forty-two years old planning to get out of Seminary by forty-six, well beyond the years of what a 'typical' church wants their beginning pastors to be………………..

God works for those who love Him….true…..

God equips the called……………………….yep, that's what the saying on the street is…….

But do I remember that, do I truly…..as Pastor Shannon said this Easter Sunday…..BELIEVE that?

Am I willing to foolishly expect the living of the impossible in my life?

Am I willing to suspend all my desires, wants and needs so I can be subjected to God's greater desires?

Then as my friend spoke into the gathered crowd in the Bowery chapel that cold March day………"Stop brushing God's truth aside and DECIDE to move forward…..one foot in front of the other…."

Because of a former glory hazy and forgotten by our fragile human minds……..and the call of a Lord and Savior that we have yet to see……..

Because of the promises He has left us in the Spirit and the proven power of His grace declared upon an Easter Sunday so long ago……..

God wants me to go to Seminary…..as an MDiv student…..supported and edified by those in the Body……to be what He has called me to be once He has finished equipping me……..

And what is your response to the impossibility of supporting this dream?

Maybe you should read Haggai with the sheaf of notes from my friend in hand………

And change your answer.

Thursday, April 1

Hypocritical Christianity……guilty as charged

 
 

"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy." (James 3:17)

A hypocrite is someone who feigns high principles, who pretends to have admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings but behaves otherwise, from the Greek hupokritēs, which means "actor, pretender."

It is this perception that is dividing those within the church walls from those outside them, and both sides are guilty of intolerance, un-forgiveness and lack of giving grace. Whether Christian or un-Christian…. We are guilty of judging each other too harshly based on wrong perceptions that we have decided have become fact.

Those perceptions, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons write in their book UnChristian, have been reinforced and developed by Christians. "The truth," Kinnaman and Lyons say, "is that we have invited the hypocrite image." Christians are virtually indistinguishable from non-Christian or other religious movements in regards to sin. Kinnaman and Lyons write that we have given the world the wrong image of what Christianity truly is, "Many….non-Christians think that Christianity is just a big morality show, put on by people who don't even believe it themselves."

The church has preached this message for centuries, dictating to those who walk into its doors that you see an instant change, across the board, from the old dead self and the new alive self when you accept, truly accept, salvation's gift. That has been the message that has been taught in the hallowed halls of western Church over and over again, "Be like us and be without sin." It glosses over the love of Christ, glosses over the wrath of God and declares if you tithe, serve and speak Christian-zez; you are saved. First and foremost, the Church is telling those who walk into its lair, is that you avoid sinning…..that is the priority. The world hears that Christianity is all about not sinning and then see Christians fall…..and it isn't any wonder why they perceive the hypocritical attitude that has been fostered and coddled by the Church and its members.

Christianity isn't about 'pulling yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps' and walking this journey home without sin….for that is the road to destruction and foolish folly. We are imperfect, fallen and broken human beings…..we sometimes sin without even realizing it. As Tony Woodlief writes in his review of Kinnaman and Lyons' book, Hypocritical Christianity, "We strive for sinlessness out of love for God, yes, but we only love Him because He first loved us."

When we become a new creature in Christ, the old nature doesn't suddenly lose its hold upon us in every area and we walk from the Church steeples with a new character. God develops this; the broken and tarnished image into the new image that He already holds for us. But the Church teaches us to hide this battle between the new nature and the old…..one robbed of its power, living in the perception of its authority and the other authorized to rebuff the very things that break relationship with God but fighting against our own perception of its lack of power. It is through the Spirit, which indwells in us from the moment of salvation, that brings this battle to the forefront and shows the gradual (sometimes overnight, sometimes a lifetime) overcoming of the old, dead nature by the new, eternal nature empower and authorized by God's own Son, Christ Jesus.

"The beginning of the solution," Kinnaman and Lyons write, "is for Christians to be more transparent about our own sins…..with humility." If we were not fallen human beings, we would not need a Savior and the upcoming celebration of the Easter celebration wouldn't be part of the joy of being part of the family of God. The number one pursuit of Christians isn't "lifestyle….being good and not sinning" because we ourselves are incapable of being good and walking in the righteous perfection that Jesus did……unless we are totally surrendered and even then, it is not by our power that we walk a blameless life. God carries the ability and the authority to keep us from sinning…..totally and completely not sinning…..and it is up to us to foster and maintain that relationship so that such things are alive and empowered in our lives.

This is only possible through the correct understanding of sin, speaking in the sermons at our congregations and in our own lives of its conception and deception, and spelling out in life and speech what Christianity truly is. "I am a sinner like you," Tony Woodlief concludes his article, "and here is why I strive to be better tomorrow than I am today, and why I have hope regardless of whether I succeed or fail."

Because I seek to be closer to God and Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to struggle on the battlegrounds of the mind to overcome the illusionary power of the old self with the real, authoritive and empowered new eternal self, until that day when He comes again.

There are hypocrites in and outside of the Christian family…..both pitted against each other for slights of the past and a delusionary perception of the future……

How do we know whether we are being hypocritical or faithful?

On the basis of what Jesus taught and how He lived…..with a hearty dose of compassionate grace for the imperfection we were born into.

We all will make mistakes and fall, it is those who truly have a relationship with God that will come down and help us back up in tender love for us.

Absent of judgmental pride, vacant of moral superiority.

"For all have fallen short of the Glory of God………"

I have been guilty of hypocritical Christianity……..but God is teaching me what true Christianity is…..

hope, love and grace for imperfect people……..

Something to think about this Easter celebration……..