The Important Thing

Here’s my question of the hour. What if our fine, beautiful church buildings were by some fate of nature, torn to the ground and lay in ruins? What if you arrived for church some Sunday morning and the pews or chairs were buried Beneath a heap of wood and the only thing you could see on the ground was a roof and a broken steeple? Would you walk away and go home to your house and maybe cry a little? Would you immediately try to start looking elsewhere for another church to attend? What would you do?

I don’t hold on to too many things and consider them “Dear” because after all they are just things. When I arrived home from a trip last night, however, I found that the large tree just off of my back deck had blown completely over and was lying on top of the deck. My patio table and umbrella, my barbecue grill, and one of my favorite things, my little church birdfeeder were all lying underneath of that tree. The table and the grill and the umbrella all survived but my little church birdfeeder was in a million pieces. I know it sounds silly when I even write the words here but I cried uncontrollably about that little church feeder. I loved it! I loved watching the birds come to feast there each morning. It was really very charming. My husband and I even had a running joke about the “Cardinals” being the only birds who actually liked to go inside of the church. The other birds were content to stay outside of the building and sit on the sidelines and eat. That little church held many hours of enjoyment as it supported our love of nature. But here I am this morning crying over that church!

The church is not the building! The church that was torn apart in my previous scenario was not what was important! The people, the ones who gather at the building, are the most important part it’s never about stained glass windows or Coffee bars in the lobby, or platforms with tons of expensive sound equipment and instruments. It’s not the fancy pews or chairs that we sit on or how comfortable the carpet is to walk on. That is not the church! Here’s where the final scene from “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” flashes into my brain. Even when everything was taken from The Who’s, they still gathered grasping hands and had a song in their hearts and sang it. So, if you stood there on some fateful Sunday morning and arrived to find your church building in ruins, the question still remains. Would you go home and cry and sulk and dwell on What you had lost or would there be a “coming together” like The Who’s down in Whoville? Would there be a song in your heart? Would it be a sad song or a song of praise and Thanksgiving?

My birds needed some seed and support. After all, they didn’t recognize that my cute little “folksy” Church feeder was anything but a place where they could come and be fed. So, I am off to lay out some seed in a tray. I will still bet the “Cardinals” come! 

“ROAD ENDS”

As I was walking down a backroad not long ago I came to the end of the road, literally. The pavement ended abruptly and there was a fence of sorts in front of tall overgrown weeds and wildflower growth. On the fence was a sign that read, “Road Ends”! As I stood there and gazed at that sign my mind began to conjure all sorts of thoughts. “What if this was my road of life? Would or could my life end this abruptly?”  The answer, of course was, it could, but as I stood there and gazed at that fence blocking any further exploration, It indeed made me think. Another thought that was practically “begging” and “pleading” to me was the tall grass and overgrown weeds and wildflowers on the other side of that fence. I really really wanted to wade right in there through the tall grass and see what lay behind this roadblock. For me the picture didn’t end! The wildflowers were calling out to me. Was there a stream or brook that was going unnoticed and I could put my toes into? Were there deer in the fields romping and playing? Or, my very favorite, were there wildflowers of every color to gather and take home for my dining table? The wildness of it all, the unknown, the adventure of new experiences were the lure for my curiosity of life. I wasn't ready for this road to end. I wasn’t ready to just stop and turn around and go in the direction I’d already been. That evoked a sadness in me that was hard to explain. I wanted more! I wanted to see what I hadn’t seen before. My zest for life and ALL it held were greater than what that sign was telling me.

Is that true for you in your life? Do you want more? Do you long to taste, touch and experience all the life that your Father in Heaven has in store for you? Do you still long to go down the entire road of life, no matter how it changes or no matter if someone is being that “Road Ends” sign for you and telling you that you can’t? The sign doesn’t have to be the end of your adventure. It doesn’t mean darkness and the end lies right on the other side of what looks to be a road block. I believe there is still hope and life beyond the “road ends” sign. Now, if you are suffering and have become physically unable to recover and you know God and have served him, that “Road Ends” sign could very well be your next adventure in Heaven and how Marvelous! But if you are of sound mind and able body then the roadblocks are not the end! You now have the opportunity to take off in a new direction that could take you down a path to the best days of your life. Your roadblock doesn’t have to mean “STOP”, but it very well could mean, pause, take a breath and ask God how to proceed. Your wildflower, love of nature, or babbling brook experience could be a breath away! Don’t allow what others tell you that you can’t do to be the things that rules the day. Roll up your sleeves and be that person that says, “I can” and won’t allow a little roadblock to keep you from going further on in this thing called life. For us, the road truly changes when our Heavenly Father calls us home but that’s only to start something wonderful and unimaginable. So, if the numbers of your days are still ticking on, step around that fence or roadblock and go where they say the “Road Ends” ! Because I’m thinking it doesn’t actually end at all!