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Sunday, 10 April 2011 00:00 |
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I worked in a bookstore as a teenager. It was actually one of the jobs that I enjoyed the most in my life. I became so familiar with the books in the store that when I’d see a book used as a prop on a TV show, I could state the title, author, and price accurately. Similarly, one of the great challenges at the bookstore was helping people locate a book when they couldn’t remember the title or author.
One day during my first few months, a man came to me at the register. “I’m looking for a book, but I can’t remember much about it,” he said. “All I can tell you is that it had a blue cover with a dog on it and it was funny.” OOOOk. I spent a few minutes trying to develop the “it was funny” clue…was it a humor joke book? Was it fiction? What made it funny?
We talked for a few minutes and I basically had to send him on his way. I couldn’t do a search based on the cover color and art. He couldn’t remember anything more….except that he once read a book that he liked, and it had a blue cover with a dog on it and made him laugh. I really couldn’t help him other than to recommend that he wander around and hope that he happened upon it.
Many months later, I was much more familiar with my job and the store. So when a woman came in looking for a “hardcover romance with a purple cover with hearts on it,” I actually knew what she was looking for! And when people came looking for one author, I could show them similar authors that they’d probably enjoy. I could find the location of almost any book without searching online by the end of that job. It gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment, and I really enjoyed it.
I have one friend who knows the Bible the way that I knew my bookstore. She can find any verse—even if I’m trying to remember it with clues as detailed as “blue cover with dog.” She can recommend other verses to me based on the ones that I enjoy. She rarely has to use a search tool to find what she’s looking for. And while I felt pride at knowing my bookstore so well, she feels humbled, only saying that there is always more to learn about God.
You would think that she must have grown up in the church, reading the Bible every day for years and years—but she’s been a Christian for about the same amount of time that I worked in that bookstore, only a year and a half. She doesn’t have a photographic memory, she just immerses herself in the words of Scripture every single day, she takes notes, she writes things down. And she has become incredibly familiar with the Word of the Lord.
When we come across people like this, we too often try to write it off by saying that they must have a better memory than we do, or there must be some other reason because we could never do the same. But I think about the bookstore…how familiar I became with it, and it challenges me to follow in the footsteps of my friends and become even more familiar with every nook and cranny of the Bible…committing to it as if it were my job. May we all come to know the Word of our Lord more and more this week.
-Lucy Pyeatt
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Sunday, 03 April 2011 00:00 |
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Some of my favorite aspects of adulthood are the moments when my childhood daydreams or play-pretending become surpassed by reality. It first occurred when I was sixteen: to go from driving bumper cars or toy pedal-cars to actually getting behind the wheel on my own for the first time with a drivers license firmly in my pocket. And then again on the first day of my post-college job: to sit in my own office with real business cards and my own computer after all those days playing “office” when I was a little kid.
Then came the real-life moments I experienced in China and around that were a crazy hyper-fulfillment of the daydreams or fantasies I had as a child: to go from dreaming of different lands in a tent made from old sheets and dining room chairs in the playroom to actually camping one night on the Great Wall; to go from clambering up the jungle gym on the school playground with classmates to actually climbing up ancient temples in Cambodia; to go from hours and hours riding my bicycle around my neighborhood cul-de-sac to actually riding a bike through karst peaks and rice paddies in southern China; to go from hiking with my family on Bays Mountain to actually walking the 2 km path to the base camp of Mount Everest.
And maybe someday I will experience some of the other amazing wonders of life that many of you have had: to go from playing “bride” with a pillowcase wrapped around my head (for a veil) as a little girl to actually walking down an aisle in a real wedding; to go from holding toy baby-dolls to actually holding my own child in my arms; to go from playing “house” with a plastic toy kitchen to actually having one of my own.
Yet for all these fulfillments that come in real life, there is still something greater awaiting us. For all the steps that we are blessed with as adults that overcome and surpass our childhood daydreams, we are still attached to this earthly world, and each example points to something greater than all these. Despite all of our attainments, adventures and accomplishments, we are still like children daydreaming when it comes to our real future. 1 Corinthians 13: 9-12 says, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
For all the joy that comes from the Family of God around us, for all the peace and comfort we find in our relationship with God, for all the freedom we discover in Christ’s grace, we know that we are only part-way there. Someday soon we shall see in full, love in full, know in full. May we all praise God that even with all the joy and love that we already have together in Him, there is a greater fulfillment yet to come that will surpass it all in the blink of an eye.
-Lucy Pyeatt
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Sunday, 27 March 2011 00:00 |
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We had a wonderful time last weekend with all the teens at Doe River Gorge. Our theme, based on the “By Faith” chapter of Hebrews, focused on the “cloud of witnesses” and “heroes of faith” who have gone before us…all leading up to Jesus Christ, the author and perfector of our faith.
This focus on a full block of Scripture made Bible study central to the retreat. John Stephenson led our main sessions where we zeroed in on great lessons from the Old Testament characters highlighted in Hebrews 11, specifically: Abel (faith is a simple walk with God), Abraham (faith can change history: where is God calling you and what is He asking you to sacrifice to Him), Gideon and David (we can be heroes in spite of our doubts or shortcomings because God is the mover in these stories), and Jesus (Christ is the REAL hero: the author and perfector of our faith).
Our discussion of Heroes of Faith was two-pronged: in the main sessions we learned the Biblical accounts and after each session, small group “Interaction Groups” were introduced to a “Mystery Hero,” a modern-day example of faith. These heroes were eventually discovered to be Jim Elliot (martyred for his faith while evangelizing savage tribes in Ecuador), Deitrich Bonhoeffer (martyred for his faith in Nazi Germany), Dorothy Stang (martyred for her faith while serving as an environmental and human rights activist in the Amazon), and Cassie Bernall (martyred for her faith during the Columbine High School shooting after she was asked at gunpoint if she believed in God and said yes). The teens were read these heroes’ life stories bit-by-bit during each Interaction Group, finally on Sunday morning learning their names and fate of giving their lives for Christ.
The theme of Heroes was further illustrated by a skit performed by the SALT team on Saturday evening: set to the tune of Christian rock band Skillet’s “I Need a Hero” song, the performers each had a cardboard cutout of a person labeled “my hero” and wrote on it one of their worldly heroes such as money, pride, vanity, gossip, popularity, romance, smarts, self-love, self-hate…etc. Jesus (played by Collin Bills) tried to get their attention and pull them away from their cardboard heroes, but the characters kept clinging to the fake heroes and ignoring Jesus, until they became more and more frustrated with the inability of the cardboard to interact with or support them, finally throwing the cardboard cutouts at the feet of Jesus and bowing down to Him.
This skit was followed by the SALT team teens reciting from memory the entire chapter of Hebrews 11-12:3—powerfully putting all the sessions together with the words of Scripture. Afterwards, all the youth group members had a chance to write on one main cardboard cutout the “heroes” that they turn to instead of Christ and share what that meant to them. We had a wonderful time of sharing and new commitments made for Christ.
It was an incredible weekend, with much more that I haven’t mentioned. Feel free to ask any teens for more! Most of all, this weekend was a blessing because of the respect and participation of the teens, the dedication and preparation of the SALT team, games prepared and led by Eric Hyche, worship and praise led by Logan Horne with the help of Kyle Mott, the amazing efforts of Mike Fulkerson, John Stephenson and Collin Bills for the theme, sessions and organization, and to the chaperones: Kyle and Kristen Mott, John S, Collin B, and Mike F.
-Lucy Pyeatt
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Sunday, 20 March 2011 00:00 |
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“March comes in like a lion and leaves like a lamb.” We’ve certainly seen some lion-ish weather lately. Warm days followed by snow followed by torrents of rain followed by sunny days. During these times of tumultuous weather patterns, my thoughts always turn to the story of Jesus calming the storm in Luke 8.
For many years I interpreted the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat, being awakened by the disciples and speaking a word of peace that calmed the storm as a metaphor for Jesus’ power to bring peace and comfort into my own life or emotions. I thought, “Christ calmed nature—therefore he can calm my moody outbursts.” As we read the chapters and verses leading up to the storm story in Luke, however, we see a different perspective on Luke 8’s importance.
Luke begins his book with one recurring question: “Who is this man?” As Jesus has been healing throughout the area, as he has taught, and as he’s interacted with his disciples, again and again the question arises. Who is he? Even his cousin, John the Baptist, sends messengers to Jesus to ask if he is actually the Christ, or if they should be expecting someone else. In the midst of this questioning, Jesus and his disciples get into a boat to cross to the other side of the lake.
We’ve heard the story many times: as they sailed, Jesus took a nap. A storm came and the boat was being swamped, leading the disciples—many of whom were fishermen and experienced with lake/sea life—to wake Jesus and inform him that death was eminent. Jesus woke up, “rebuked the wind and the raging waters,” and the storm subsided. Jesus asks the disciples where their faith was; the disciples asked each other once again who their teacher was.
The answer to that question is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who sits at the right hand of God. He was present at creation and will be present when all creation is restored into God’s perfect order: when the lion lays down with the lamb and nature and humanity are no longer at war. We know that one of the results of the fall of man was that disharmony entered into the relationship between humanity and nature. We see that disharmony all the time. We’ve seen waves wash away whole coastal communities, we’ve seen storms ravage our cities and destroy the homes of so many. We see waters rise and rage all the time.
The Savior who we worship, who revealed Himself on that boat, is over all of nature. He revealed a small glimpse of the Kingdom that He’s leading us to: where storms bring no fear and nature is a friend. This is the God whom we serve and this is the promise that we have. No matter how the stormsmay rage now, we wait on a Lord who will quiet them all with a word. May we all keep our faith centered on Christ this week, the Calmer of storms.
–Lucy Pyeatt
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