BREAKING OUT "ON TOP"

I could just picture Pastor Dave sitting on the plane, bouncing along in the turbulence, trying to keep his Bible and work papers on his lap as he sat strapped in his seat.

Dave, a featured speaker at our Toastmaster’s meeting was describing a recent flight to the East Coast from his home in California.   

As his story unfolded we found that he had been sitting next to an elderly lady, apparently on her first flight. He had engaged in polite conversation with her but after reaching altitude and heading out over the Rockies he opened his Bible and began to work on this sermon for the next Sunday.

We were captivated as Dave described how, after a short while, the plane began to rock in the turbulence, the vibration becoming stronger each minute.  Even though they were at cruising altitude the plane encountered very rough turbulence and began to shake violently. The lady grabbed Dave’s arm, held on tightly and seeing his Bible and paperwork said, Young man are you a minister. Dave smiled and said, “Why, yes, I am”.   She said, “Well can’t you do something about this turbulence?”   Dave responded patiently, “No Mam, you see I am in Sales, not Operations.”   Brief pause and everyone in the place collapsed with laughter. That Dave, quite a guy.

He had held us all in suspense as the story built and the  effect was lasting.  Haven’t we all, like the little lady,  had those “white knuckle” experiences?    Haven’t we yearned for the “Operations” department instead of the “Sales” department when we are in trouble?  

Oh, the Sales Force is all over the place.  “Here’s a pill that will fix you.”  “With painless surgery we can fix your back, front, head, toe, grow hair, eyelashes!!”   “This new plan can get you out of foreclosure.”  “Your baldness will disappear in two weeks.”   “Our new Dating site will help you find a spouse.”     I even once knew an automobile salesman that had a bright red tie with the words “TRUST ME” emblazoned on the front!!  But really, Whom do we trust?

Over the years I have flown a lot, sometimes several flights a week, and experienced those moments of concern, and frankly have come to rely on Operations more than Sales, the operation of God’s unfailing laws of good!!!

As I would leave the office on rainy, dreary days sometimes my colleagues would bemoan the weather and feel sorry for me because of the poor flying weather. “White Knuckle Day” they would say.    "Gee Pat, lousy day for flying.  I bet you hate it."  Whether raining or snowing, with dreary, low clouds, dark skies and even worse weather threatening...  I DIDN'T dislike it!!

I loved the anticipation, the  EXPECTATION of freedom, coming out "On Top".  I well remember the feeling I often had as the pilot released the brakes, engines spooled up and we took off, speeding down the runway in the rain or snow, climbing up into the dark and threatening clouds lowering over the airport.  I would be glued to the window, watching intently.    Then, all at once... BRILLIANT SUNSHINE  as we broke out On Top!!  WOW.   You know, it had been there all the time, beautiful blue sky all around, sunlight shimmering off of the tops of the clouds we had just climbed through, while below things had looked bleak, dark and threatening.   The expectation had paid off. 

I think the experience was a constant reminder that we will

 always come out “On Top” if we maintain that Expectation of Good, the Trust that our lives are governed by God, good.  Not a Pollyanna,  sense of goody-goody naivete , but a growing understanding that in reality, life is spiritual and that good only is going on.      

In life, we are often faced with turbulence, in our home and workplace, dark clouds of worry, a rainy financial outlook perhaps, fear for our health or that of a loved one,  and the feeling of being helpless or far from a solution.    We may be entangled in the fog of thinking that we are just mortal beings with a limited life span, fearing that there are  “no guarantees”, facing a myriad of uncertainties, limping along in a fragile temporary existence.  But when we begin to understand that, in fact, we are pure, spiritual ideas of God, reflecting His presence, right here and now, we can establish that trust that is promised in the Bible, in Proverbs where we are encouraged to:  ¶ ”Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. “ Proverbs 3:5-6.    

Now, is this counsel to TRUST or EXPECT good  just a few verses from an old book, or is it a living promise, a fact that was demonstrated thousands of years ago and countless times since then? 

The problems of Centuries ago were pretty much like they are today, some really “trying” days reaching from Abraham’s time through the period  when Jesus and his disciples lived, and up until today.  There were health problems, family squabbles, poverty, government oppression or failure, hunger, the ravages of sinful living, worries and responsibilities, all the dark and gloomy suggestions that the human situation can throw at us.

BUT… Jesus’ own understanding that life is spiritual, that we are not just clay objects with a limited mind,  but actually reflections of the Mind that is God, enabled him to bring healing and relief to those who came to him for help. 

Filled with expectation, folks that were deep in the dark clouds of dismay, fear and hopelessness came to him,  looking to climb out of the turbulent atmosphere to find healing.  Lepers came, and invalids, blind and deaf seekers, women with lifelong illness, even the desperate parents of dying children.  They came with Expectation, eagerly looking out of the window of thought, longing  to break through On Top, to see the sunlight, the beautiful blue sky of healing and happiness.  And they DID!! And we can too, as we look to the lessons that Jesus taught and lived. 

The Bible accounts of his presence, his deeply spiritual thinking, his understanding that we are spiritual beings, which prompted his Sermon on the Mount as contained in the book of Matthew, and  such quotations as: “The Kingdom of God is within you”,*  his urging to: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”**, and his encouragement for us to follow him in life practice:  “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”***

It make take a little Bible reading and quiet thought,  but the answers to our problems are there for us, and they have been time tested and proven.

Current scientific research such as contained in the new book, “Biocentrism”****  by Robert Lanza, one of the most respected scientists in the world, is breaking old thought patterns based on a universe consisting of matter, and showing that spiritual life as defined by Jesus 2000 years ago is now becoming clearer to us in this day and age.      

If our flight today gets bumpy, let’s look out the window and Expect to come out On Top!  Take your seat next to the window and strap yourself in.   It’s gonna be a great flight!! 

The Bible References*      Luke 17:21                                                                               
**    Matthew 5:48
*** John 14:12 

**** Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe - Dr. John Lanza (Robert Lanza, a world-renowned scientist who has spanned many fields from drug delivery to stem cells to preventing animal extinction, and clearly one of the most brilliant minds of our times, has done it again. `A New Theory of the Universe' takes into account all the knowledge we have gained over the last few centuries ... placing in perspective our biologic limitations that have impeded our understanding of greater truths surrounding our existence and the universe around us. This new theory is certain to revolutionize our concepts of the laws of nature for centuries to come." Biocentrism will shatter the reader’s ideas of life—time and space, and even death. At the same time it will release us from the dull worldview of life being merely the activity of an admixture of carbon and a few other elements; it suggests the exhilarating possibility that life is fundamentally immortal.

Play Ball

Well, here it is the first week of December and I’m already receiving notices from Major League Baseball about next year’s season and Spring Training. I really love baseball and especially love going the spring training games in Florida where you can get close to the action and see how the teams are forming up for the season.

  

If you read my earlier article, Discouraged?  Lessons From a Would Be Athlete (Click to read), about my early days trying to be a baseball player you will understand why I am primarily a spectator.  

I have followed baseball since I was very young.  I remember listening to the Cincinnati Reds games when I was just a small boy.  My big sister Carolyn and I shared the upstairs bedroom in our house on Jefferson Avenue in Chillicothe, Ohio.  We had a small white Crosley radio that could pick up Cincinnati stations and Carolyn was so understanding, letting me listen, radio turned low. 

Waite Hoyt

Waite Hoyt was the baseball broadcaster, after a career that included being one of the dominant major league pitchers in the 1920s, and the winningest pitcher for the New York Yankees during that decade and a Hall of Famer. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.    He was known for entertaining radio audiences with anecdotes during rain delays and his stories were so fascinating that sometimes you wished that it would keep raining while he finished his stories.

Waite Hoyt with Babe Ruth
and Lou Gehrig

 What a delight it was then when I finally got to go to a live game in Cincinnati.  My friend Ronnie Hines and I were able to talk our parents into letting us take the B&O Baseball Excursion Train from Chillicothe to Cincinnati, about 100 miles down the track.   What an exciting adventure for two young boys to take that train so far by ourselves and spend the whole day at Crosley Field, watching a doubleheader, then taking the train back home in the evening. What a thrill to watch my Red's heroes,  including big time hitter, Cincinnati first baseman Ted Kluszewski,  one of the best, in person. 

"Big Klu
Ted Kluzewski

 At these games sometimes I wondered what it   would be like to be the son of a baseball player, maybe Big Klu’s son. What fun it would be, watching the game from the stands, relying on Dad to do the work while I ate popcorn and hot dogs.  

There came a time some years back when that thought struck me,  made me think about the son watching the father play, and to realize how much baseball parallels  life’s journey.     

We start out in life as a young player, a rookie.  There is so much to learn, life's equivalent of how to bat, throw, catch; how to play your “position”; how to get along with the manager and the teammates.    Most of these things take some training… but a LOT of experience.   Most of life is like that.   Sometimes we feel like that young Rookie, so much to do, everything depending on our doing the right thing at the right time in order to succeed.

As a “player” in life, I have often felt like a “rookie”, even after playing for a number of years.  Sometimes not confident in my abilities, concerned about the lack of education, about supporting my family, worried about my career, pressure in almost every aspect of my life.   This resulted in my being plagued by a burning desire to CONTROL situations.  Not that I was feeling overly important, just RESPONSIBLE!! 

 You’ve probably heard the saying; “If it is to be it’s up to me!!!”  Well, I fell for that line, that kind of thinking.   Now I did many admirable things I suppose.  I worked in a number of companies,  many hours a day in some, up to 100 hours in one miserable never to be forgotten week, hardly made it home for a nap before I was called back to the office.  Early data processing guys weren’t supposed to sleep!  I took on the responsibility for making everything work and come together in every aspect of my life, had to have my finger on the pulse, ear to the ground, nose to the grindstone.... WHEW!!   There were times when the pressure was almost unbearable, my feeling inadequate but still knowing “it was up to me".

At a point in my life when I was finally ready to grow spiritually,  to let go of “self” and find a better resource, a friend introduced me to a different view of The Bible and how God, the infinite intelligence, is close at hand, available, there to be leaned on and trusted in.

I began to study how an itinerant prophet and  teacher named Jesus, a man who through an incredible grasp of the spiritual nature of life,  an inseparable closeness to God, was able to demonstrate life far above his contemporaries by healing sickness, uplifting the downtrodden, feeding the hungry, overcoming all manner of material obstacles.  As a man who had no formal education and little religious training, he actually turned to and relied on God as a present help.  And he didn't seem "pressured" at all. That sure is what I needed!!!

Several of his statements gave me a lot to think about:   He said, “I can of mine own self do nothing’ * and, “ The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.  **

He also said, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” ***

This humble man was able to see so clearly the fact that life is really spiritual that he could calm a storm, walk on water and heal every adverse "material" circumstance.  Definitely someone  I wanted to know more about and to emulate to the extent possible.    If someone like that could let the Father do the work, what was I waiting for??

Relating back to baseball, and wondering what it would be like to sit in the stands and watch my father play.   Here was the answer.   God, as our Father, takes the field for us every day and we can enjoy watching the Father play the game of life, take the pressure off of ourselves, turn over the burdens, see that life is not about worry, worry, scurry, scurry.    That doesn't mean that we don’t do anything, but our job is to do what all good children do, live the kind of life that makes the Father proud.  That same Jesus gave us this instruction, indicating that following his pathway,  would truly free us from worldly pressures, lift us to the understanding that Life is Spirit:  "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ****

It takes effort to let go.  At least it did for me, I had to overcome  the fear of turning loose of the wheel, learning to trust, to put my hands in my lap and let God control the situation.   But I can vouch for the fact that sitting in the stands watching the Father play is wonderful!!   We can trust God  to take the stress, to handle the fast pitches, the curveballs that are thrown at us.   I personally have seen Him hit a lot of home runs!!!

It’s a new season.  This is "Our Year"!!   Play Ball!!!!!!

*     John 5:30

**   John 14:10

*** John 15:12  

*** Matthew 11:28