Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…

 

“I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.  Do you believe this?” 

John 11:25 (NIV)

 

It’s simple enough, though.

This morning began with swirling emotions amidst a confluence of internal and external struggles and all-too-distant hopes and dreams for our family and our Country.  The noticeably cooler breeze, although slight, provided a moment of encouragement in a hope-filled reach for something more. 

It put a spring in my step as I set out to post the American flag, retrieve the paper and set the trash cans by the road.  And then as I walked back up the driveway to the house, the breeze caused the stars and stripes to billow and for just a moment my thoughts and eyes were lifted to a better place. 

We need that reminder.  A reminder of that better place.

Maybe we do because of the sobering recounts being shown now of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, when all the insanity and the reality of the existence of evil in the world was frozen forever in one horrific morning.  Maybe—even as we approach this tenth year remembrance of that moment—it’s because Americans and other peace-loving people around the world have forgotten that moment.  Maybe because the Mayor of New York has not invited God to the remembrance ceremony.  This next Sunday will be ten years since we all stood frozen—and then for a while together—when we heard the news.  A moment where we collectively held hands as a Nation and turned to God for help.  Maybe we need a reminder because of the faces of too many children and adults struggling to find meaning in a world that points to comfort and things, power and control as the path to fulfillment. 

There just seems to be a lot going on out there. 

But then a smile breaks through my morning as I sit here with you, as pictures of my two Granddaughters scroll one-after-another on the digital photo frame next to me. The future belongs to those two precious girls and others like them—and I worry at times what that future will look like.  I wonder if we realize that the brushes and paints to determine the look of the canvas of our future—and their future—have been divinely entrusted into our hands. 

There’s a lot going on in our lives and all around us.  Too much to keep track of really.  Too many variables in the decisions of the day-to-day living of our lives.  Too many opinions and pockets of influence trying to have their way in our lives and the life of our Nation.  Too much debris and rubble.  Too much to wrap our arms around to try to control.  We know, of course, that disappointments will happen anew today and this week.  Some of our careers will get off course.  We will lose loved ones.  Finances are tight and we wonder if we will live beyond our finances.  Some of our relationships are becoming less than we had hoped they would be.

And then the realization hits us that we can’t control it all.    

In the midst of all that is swirling around us, we forget that.  In the midst of it all, we lose our focus and forget where to turn for guidance for that next step.  There are lots of opinions offered by others around us with their own agendas—yet they only seem to add to the confusion. 

We need that reminder. 

So where, then, do we find it, where then do we turn?

In his remarks at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance on Friday, September 14, 2001 the Reverend Billy Graham called us forth then, and forever when he said…

           

“Underneath the debris is a foundation that was not destroyed.  Now we have a choice:  Whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a Nation, or whether we choose to become stronger through all of this struggle to rebuild on a solid foundation.  And I believe that we are in the process of starting to rebuild the foundation. 

That foundation is our trust in God.”

 

So where do we look on mornings and days like this?  And all the others. 

Maybe today is not one of those mornings for you as it has been for me—but we all know we will have them—bank on it.  So, where do we look?  And as we stand there with paintbrushes and paints in our hands before the blank canvases of our tomorrows—where do we look for the inspiration and guidance to paint the portrait for today and for the rest of our lives, and for the futures of those little lives in the generations which will follow us? 

Reverend Graham said it very clearly in his remarks.  Jesus Christ said it very clearly as set out in the scripture above recorded by the Apostle John in his Gospel.  In the midst of all the debris and rubble in our lives and of all the stuff and moments we find all around us that we can’t control, they both tell us to look to the foundation. 

Look to the Foundation of all the world.  There we will find stability, clarity, truth, direction and hope. 

Simple enough.  And a Foundation which is always there, and calls us to look past all the swirling rubble and debris, opinions, influences and stuff.

And Jesus said, “Scott, I am the resurrection and the life…Do you believe this?”

I do.   How about you? 

 

                                                                        In His Name—Scott

 

Copyright 2011.  Scott L. Whitaker.  All rights reserved.