From the Pastor's Pen

September 2010

I have always been a big believer that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at how they behave themselves when pulled up to a stop light. For some reason, we humans seem to believe that when we are in our vehicles all alone, no one is really watching us. When you pull up to a stop light, if you happen to look around at the other people stopped nearby you, you can often get a very interesting window into the way they behave when they believe no one is looking. (Of course this logic also applies back in our direction as well, as others can view our behavior too.) It’s very telling about a person to see how they act when they feel as though they are anonymous.

Spend enough time watching others at stop lights, and you can begin to categorize people into general groups. There are the tired, stressed-out parents, bags under their eyes and glossy stares wearily waiting for the light to change and take them to their next errand. Sometimes you will see the growling menace, angry at the people around him or her, glaring at other drivers, honking, gesturing, or even seeming to shout at them to get out of the way. You’ll find the distracted professionals, yakking on their smart phones while trying to take notes on a legal pad in the passenger seat and watch the light at the same time. You’ll notice people picking their noses, drumming along with their radios on the steering wheel, and desperately wiping the ketchup off their shirts from their take-out lunches. I’ve watched people let their pets sit in their laps and drive the car, seen people reading the morning paper as it obscures their entire view of the road, and observed people getting dressed (and, more disturbingly, undressed) while waiting for the light to turn green. We let our guards down when we feel like we are alone.

Sometimes I wonder to myself if the people stopped at the light around me would choose to behave differently if they realized someone was watching them. Occasionally I stop to think how it might affect their behavior to know that God is watching them as well. One of the most common criticisms leveled against Christians is that we behave one way when we know other Christians are watching us, and quite differently when we believe we are alone. In fact, a mounting body of recent research has found that if you ask a young adult to describe a Christian in one word, they will most likely pick the word, “hypocrite.” Ouch. Not something Jesus would have us being particularly proud of, I doubt.

The good news is it is within the power of you and me to change that perception. How we behave when we think we are alone says volumes more about us than how we behave on Sunday mornings or around other Christians. We have the power to change the perception others hold about Christians in general, simply by our actions. How we act toward the guy who cuts us off in traffic, the store clerk who treats us rudely, and the obnoxious relative who drives us crazy can help others to see that we believe it is important to behave as Jesus taught us, with dignity and respect for all of God’s children, even the difficult ones. Jesus asks us to commit to discipleship ALL of the time, even when we think no one might be looking.

So the next time you are sitting at a traffic light, instead of mentally cursing at the kid honking behind you, or judging the guy reading the newspaper in the next lane, spend a little bit of time sending up a prayer and a smile for them. You never know who might be in the next car over, watching how you are behaving.

August 2010

“Because I’m tired of dragging your bushes in and out of the house, that’s why!” Andy said firmly, pretending to be angry. I put on my best sad-puppy-dog look and pleaded, “My gardenia is dying, and if you don’t take it outside and spray the mites off of it, they’re going to suffocate it. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life with a plant murder hanging over your head!” (Excellent guilt trip laying skills run deep in my heritage.) And it wasn’t like I was lying to him. For the past several years, I have been trying, largely unsuccessfully, to grow gardenias in our house. Gardenias are beautiful, milky white flowers that give off an intoxicating aroma. Remember the New Jerusalem in Revelation? The one with the streets of gold? The Bible doesn’t mention it, but I’m pretty sure the air there smells like gardenia petals.

Gardenias are my favorite plant. They are rare and expensive in Kansas, but where I grew up, on the coast of Florida, they grow wild in the swamps and ditches. People cultivate them, so that during blooming seasons, the air in some neighborhoods is thick with the smell of gardenia flowers. But the problem is, they don’t grow well in Kansas at all. Especially in the winter they get crusty and dry and are particularly susceptible to mites. If you aren’t extremely careful, the bush can die in a matter of days. I’m on my third bush in the two years we’ve lived here in McLouth.

After enough convincing, Andy lugged the bush outside and sprayed it down to rid it of the mites. We decided to leave it outside for a couple of days to let it air out. The next morning I looked out on the back deck and couldn’t believe my eyes. The once-droopy leaves were vibrant green and lush and the stems had perked up. Two days later a whole new crop of healthy, promising flower buds appeared all over the bush. I moved my tropical gardenia out of the air conditioning and into the 115 degree heat index, and it thrived as though finally taking a deep breath of its native air. All the poor plant needed was some heat and humidity like it would have had in Florida.

Do you ever feel like you don’t belong? Perhaps you work in a job that in no way reflects your true passion in life. Maybe you are the black sheep of your family. Or it’s possible you may just know deep down inside there is a part of you that has never been allowed to blossom. Just like my gardenia plants, sometimes life puts us in circumstances where we are out of place, in an environment that quashes who we really are, forcing us to live in roles we never intended. And because we have no choice, we play the game, pretending for others and secretly dying inside. Some of us play this game so well that we even put up our masks when we deal with God. We pretend to be strong when we feel weak, put-together when we fear it is all really about to fall apart.

But the problem is, God is the one who created us to be the way that we are. God knows exactly who we were intended to be, and how life may not have given us the chance to express it. God may not take away the circumstances that inhibit our full development, but when it comes to our own personal relationship with the Lord, we are to be nothing less than totally honest with who we really are: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Lord knows all of that already, but it is only when we can truly be honest with ourselves and with God that we can move our relationship with the Lord to a deeper level. You may not be a tropical plant on the Great Plains, striving to thrive in a hostile environment, but chances are, there are parts of you that only you and God know about. Will you let down your hair before your Maker today?