How many of you have had moments where you’ve looked at someone, maybe across the room or sitting in a restaurant, and said to yourself….”Man, I know that person…but I just can’t put my finger on it…”.  Sometimes, the not knowing the name of someone will bug us for days!

Take my next door neighbor, Robby, who had just such an event happen the other day.  Last Friday, we added three new baby chicks to our backyard flock of egg-laying hens.  The new chicks were just a day-old when we picked them up at Renfroe Hardware store over in Matthews, NC.  The babies were born in Texas on Thursday, April 20th, and were immediately shipped via overnight truck transport to Renfroe.  Incredible, when you think about it!

Anyway, back to my story about my neighbor.  The new chicks have been quite the draw to our backyard or, more specifically, the storage room behind our garage where we have the new chicks set up in a chicken brooder of sorts.  Robby noticed one friend of ours standing in the middle of the yard while his wife and daughter visited with the babies.  The friend didn’t notice that Robby and his wife were wondering who the strange man was standing in our backyard, but were less alarmed when they saw me appearing from the “tour” of our baby chickens nursery.

But Robby knew he knew my friend from somewhere but couldn’t put a finger on it.  Last night, he confronted me in the driveway saying, “Who was that guy in your yard the other day.  I know I know him from somewhere.”  When I finally revealed my friend’s name, you could immediately see the sigh of relief on Robby’s face.

We’ve just finished up the Resurrection story in the Bible, but Jesus is not wrapping up his earthly “visit” just yet.  Along the road to Emmaus, Jesus picks up the pace with two of his disciples, but they don’t recognize him at all.  Maybe it was early morning or evening, and the ambient light was not readily visible.  Back in those days, the streets were not lined with beautiful lamp posts like we see today.  So maybe the lack of visibility made it hard to SEE the risen Christ.

Or perhaps something was preventing the two men from realizing it was Jesus walking along with them because they couldn’t hear Him or recognize his voice.  Have you ever walked through a forest and all you can hear are the loud noises of the crickets or other insects.  You can hardly hear yourself think!  Maybe the disciples couldn’t HEAR the risen Christ because it was just too noisy.

Then again, maybe it’s more likely that the two disciples didn’t recognize Jesus because they were still very distraught over the death of their friend, mentor and teacher.  Remember too, that there was pretty much a bounty on the heads of the remaining disciples so most of them were constantly looking over their shoulders.  Have you ever had so much pressure going on in your mind that you can’t even concentrate?  Sure….and maybe that’s why the disciples couldn’t THINK about Jesus walking along side them.

There are so many things going on around us in our daily lives that perhaps prevents us from SEEING, or HEARING or THINKING about Jesus Christ.  It you have the Lego toy version of Him, where you only take out Jesus when you need him….then you’ll surely never be able to see, hear, or think about Him.  And that just doesn’t seem right, don’t you agree?

Well, friends, here’s some good news.  It usually doesn’t take much for us to break the trance we’re under in order to remove those distractions.  It might be a television commercial, or a good book, or even something that somebody says, that will remind us of our risen Lord.

At what point did the disciples finally recognize Jesus…do you recall?  It was in the breaking of the bread when their eyes were opened.  Scripture says in Luke’s gospel:

“Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done.” So he went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, he blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. And then he disappeared.  LUKE 24: 28-31

Poof….He disappeared says the final words in Luke…or did He really vanish?  Or was He ever really there to begin with?

Whatever you believe, the lesson for us today is that when we remove the distractions we can see Jesus more clearly.  What’s lingering in your lives that doesn’t allow you to SEE, HEAR or THINK straight when it comes to Him.  My challenge today is to look for ways to unclutter your minds, open your ears and eyes, and welcome the risen Lord who’s always around to remind us who He is.

Peace!

OThis week’s WAWA took us inside…..whew!  I generally keep a keen eye to the weather forecast and with the threat of showers early on Wednesday, I made the go-ahead decision on Tuesday to plan an indoor track workout.  Admittedly, I felt a little bit like school administrators who cancel classes the day before at even the hint of snowflakes.   Of course, just like the threat of snowflakes, there wasn’t a drop of rain to be seen anywhere this morning!  Oh well….we ran inside anyway.

Now if you read the workout or, better yet, did the workout this morning, then you probably felt like the hardest part was the exercises we did off the track.  I mean, really….who reaches near muscle failure before running laps around the track??  So, if the burpees, lunges, squats, and jacks were tough to you….then you’re probably not alone.

Truth be told, I designed the running portion of the workout as the more challenging part.  I asked each of you to determine your 5K race pace and then had you attempt to hold that pace while running multiple laps around the track.  It’s challenging to hold a pace, consistently over time, especially if you’re fatigued.  Congrats if you came close to doing that this morning.

Holding “pace” is also challenging in our daily spiritual workouts.  We all know what we’re supposed to do.  Keeping our minds on the right path; follow God’s instructions; take care of one another.  Day in and day out.  Maintain that pace and you’ll get to heaven, right?

But what about the times when we break stride?  Just like this morning, I bet you had a few laps where you came up short of your goals, right?  I asked you to keep pace on your laps, but I increased both the intensity of the strength exercises as well as the number of times you had to run around the track.

See where I’m going with this?

Life doesn’t give us the same exercises, reps, and laps on a daily basis.  Some might point out that “variety is the spice of life”.  But I say, not every spice is so sweet.

The only thing consistent in my life these days seems to be “change“.  I’ve been to two funerals in the past 6 months.  And that’s more than I’ve been to in the past 5 years.  Friends of mine and families I know are hurting.  How do they keep stride and how do I maintain my pace too, given all the pain I see?

Here’s a secret I’ve learned:  It’s okay to break stride.  It’s okay to fall behind.  And it’s even okay to skip WAWA every now and then.  You don’t need to hold onto that pace.  You need to hold onto faith.  One author I read recently describes the importance of having faith by saying:  “Without faith, we couldn’t expect that things would turn out all right for us no matter what the situation might be.”

Some might argue that faith is not necessarily a spiritual thing.  I mean, sure having faith means we trust that the airplane won’t fall out of the sky from 30,000 feet, that cars won’t cross the center line crashing into oncoming traffic, or that if you fall asleep you won’t forget to breathe…and thereby pass away.  Those are all true.

But I believe the true value of faith is aligned with our Heavenly Father’s  greater plan for each of us.  So, yeah, I guess that means I lean on the side of faith being a spiritual thing!

Here’s five quick reasons that same author explains why having faith is so important.

First, a focused power of faith breeds abundance.  Our minds are quite powerful, when put to good use.  But if they’re idle, then we can drift away from any sense of positivity.  Faith allows us to replenish our spirits when things seem bleak.  Faith reminds us that the more we focus on life, the more we get out of it!

Next, faith reminds us that whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.  I know that may sound cliche, but it’s certainly true.  Today’s workout is perhaps one small example of that.  Still, on a much larger scale, faith calls us to consider the story of Job from the bible.  All of Job’s worldly possessions were taken a way.  But Job didn’t throw in the towel.  He kept the faith and in the end he emerged much stronger in nearly all aspects of his life.

Faith helps us discover our purpose in life.  When going through the tough times of life, it’s often our faith that pulls us along and guides us in the direction we need to be going.

Additionally, faith will always surpass anxiety, stress and fear.  Mental stress can lead to fatigue, which can lead to further physical and mental problems.  Faith, however, can be the secret sauce in your pantry to reduce the amount of stress, anxiety and fear in your life.  Give that one a shot the next time the walls are caving in around you!

Finally, faith can act as a pathway to finding solutions in your life.  For the most part….and for most of us….things don’t tend to happen overnight.  We all know someone who is waiting on their break to happen.  Perhaps it’s that person who’s searching for the right companion.  Or the worker who’s been laid off, still waiting for the next opportunity to roll us their sleeves and get things going.  Regardless of your situation, recognize that your faith might be the spiritual compass that allows you to safely unhinge from where you think you should be going, and instead point you in a completely different direction.

My prayer for us this week is that we allow ourselves to fall off our marks when it comes to maintaining that steady pace.  Let yourself go if for no other reason than to understand that eventually we all break stride.  Keep the faith.  Recognize that faith is the glue that holds us together, protects us from harm, and points us in the right direction.

Here’s a favorite quote to leave you with today:

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” — Thomas Aquinas

Peace!

Pastor Derek stood in front of the adult Sunday School class and asked the question:  “Okay…we’ve covered Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday…..now what about Wednesday?”  The topic for class that day was reviewing all the daily events of Holy Week, between Palm Sunday and the Resurrection a week later.

Let’s quickly review the events so far.  On Sunday, “Palm Sunday”, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.   He is once again the unassuming King even though the fanfare seems equal to others coming from more traditional royalty.  Jesus is reaching rock star status!

Next on Monday, Jesus drives the money changers out of the temple.  Famously, the Bible says He chased out the others from the temple saying, “My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers.”  Some accounts of Monday describe Jesus as angry, driving out the sellers with a whip.

On Tuesday, Judas is approached by the chief priests where he agrees to betray Jesus.  An agreement is reached, money exchanged, and Judas waits for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowds might be present.

Now….back to Wednesday.  Derek’s classroom was relatively silent until the pastor added….”It’s not a trick question.”  To that, someone shouted out, “Absolutely nothing.  Nothing happened on Wednesday!”

“Correct….”, replied the pastor.

Wait a minute.  This is one of the most famous weeks in the Bible and you mean to tell me nothing happened on one of the days?  Were the Biblical scribes of the time asleep on Wednesday?  Did something happen, and the records just get lost?  Was everyone consumed with a really tough WAWA that day?

I suppose the answer is up for interpretation.

Consider this as you ponder some other messages in the events leading up to the Resurrection.  Maybe, Jesus and his followers were simply exhausted.  It had been a very busy last couple of days.  Parades in Jerusalem.  Getting a little postal on the merchants in the temple.  Perhaps it’s not a far stretch to believe that the human emotions of needing rest consumed Jesus.

Human.  Sometimes we get lost in the fact that Jesus walked this earth as a human.  He experienced emotions, highs and lows, anger and joy.  He probably got sick every now and then too.

Maybe, too, Jesus, the “human”, was having some doubts about what he was supposed to do in order to fulfill our Father’s promise:  Sending His only son to wipe away our sins.  If you knew your death was quickly approaching, wouldn’t you take a day to “stay under the radar”?

Admittedly, I have many days where I have doubts in God’s promise to us.  We live in a broken world and that creates many broken people.  I’m no different.  We know what’s promised at the end….but yet, we ignore that message.

This year, as you celebrate the Resurrection story, give some thought to the calm that occurred in the middle of the week.  Jesus takes a pause, briefly, to collect his thoughts.  Here’s the good news, however.  Like many of us, Jesus was perhaps at a crossroad.  He chose to fulfill his Father’s promise.  And we are all forgiven as a result of that decision.  How hard can it be for us to pick up our own crosses in daily life with a more dedicated focus on God’s promise?

My prayer today is not only for the blessings of this Easter season, but also that we remember Jesus walked among us as “human”, knows any possible situation we might experience, and yet died for our sins that we might enjoy everlasting life.

It’s okay to have doubts.  It’s God’s way of calling attention to times when you need to “pause” and allow time to reflect.

Peace!