Traveling Well

Summers, traditionally have been times to vacation. Our family enjoyed wonderful trips across the years. Perhaps our favorite of all was the summer we journeyed to Colorado, Wyoming, Yellowstone and Salt Lake City. Our children were old enough to enjoy the trip and remember most of it. We still laugh with each other over the funny things that happened. Our appreciation for the beauty and wonder of God’s creation that Colorado, Wyoming , Yellowstone National Park offer is etched in our memory. Even the great Salt Lake was an amazing sight to see.

I think about these family journey’s now in a different way. I know, for the most part, those occasions are over. Our children are married now. Their travels follow their interests and they pursue their visions of great vacations. We enjoy the pictures and hearing their travel logs.

At our core, embedded in our DNA, is a travel gene that is as old as Abraham. I think about it every time I read Hebrews 11. Essentially the writer of the Hebrew letter is reminding us of our DNA. He is reminding us that there is only one way to live. That is, by faith. It’s not a question regarding whether or not we will be on the move. The question, for me is, how well will I travel? Will I travel living by faith or will I shrink before the journey and pass up the opportunity?
Personally, I prefer to be on the move, going out into whatever adventure God has placed before me. One never knows, really, what one will encounter. What great gift is to be opened, discovered, and ultimately enjoyed. To shrink back, to avoid the trip, to sit on our blessed assurance is to make a choice for something other than life. The writer of the book of Deuteronomy says, “I have set before you life and death. Choose life."

I am of sufficient age now that I think more about my choices. I especially think about the choices I have made that were poor. The trips I have taken that ended badly. The places I have gone I should not have gone, wish I’d never heard of. The real temptation today is to decide not to travel again because of some of those trips. However, to make that choice is to choose death, not life.

If a person never again straddled a bicycle after having the first spill, think what she would have missed. The wind in her face, the joy of sights never seen, not noticed. To get back up after a bad trip is to walk by faith. To love when love has hurt you is to allow faith to frame your love. To risk when risking means the chance of being wounded is to follow the seed of God's grace planted in you from the moment of your birth.

We're on a journey, you and me. The traveling is what makes the destination worthwhile. Grab you some traveling partners, pack lightly, travel well.

Too Soon Judy Curtis

We were too young to know what Billy Joel meant when he sang that only the good die young.

And though some among of us still think that 50 something isn’t so young anymore, it’s still too soon to say goodbye to one we love. From Horn Lake to Hernando, Oxford to Iuka, Brandon to Gulfport, friends whose lives have been shaped and formed by the ministry of Judy Curtis, know…there was more life and love and laughter in Judy to be shared.

It must have been about 10 days after Judy was diagnosed with cancer that Jim and I decided it’d be a good thing to take our wives to dinner. We’d do that from time to time, not often enough, but Lynn and I invited, Jim accepted. I don’t think he asked Judy what she thought.

It was the McAlilly's turn to drive so we picked them up, and we went, as was often our custom, to High Cotton. We laughed some, though not like we normally would. We could sense that it was hard for Judy and Jim to enter into that space of unknowing.

It was hard.

Still, Judy shared an experience she had had that afternoon, of praying fervently for healing and God giving her an image. It was the image of Lazarus coming forth from the tomb. What we couldn’t grasp I think Judy knew on some deep, intuitive level.

I believe Judy knew that before she could come forth from the tomb, she would have to enter it. Somehow, Judy knew that before she would know Easter she would experience Good Friday.

So God gave her the image of Lazarus, as a guide and comfort. In ways that we cannot comprehend, the mystery of God was revealed to Judy that Sunday afternoon. And now, the grave clothes are being unwrapped and Judy has entered God’s loving embrace.

It’s too soon.

For Jim, and for the Trinity Church family, it’s too soon.

The miracle we longed for we did not receive.

And so Thursday night Judy entered that unhindered, uninterrupted presence of almighty God. She entered that space where there is no more crying, no more sorrow, no more pain. Her soul is free from her body and God has received her.

God has spoken, I believe, those words we all long to hear, “well done, thy good, and faithful servant."

Much too soon.

Thanks be to God for the life and love of Judy Curtis.

Daring to Dream

It’s been just over four years since we gathered on the grounds of Gulfside Assembly to honor the sacred memories of that hallowed place following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. For decades, Gulfside was the only place African American Methodists could safely gather and enjoy the beauty of the beach and taste the salt of the sea. That day, I heard stories of those who had been called to preach in the old chapel that once stood just south of the entrance to the Gulfside grounds. One pastor told his story, reminding those gathered that one would feel the spirit of God poured out as someone would chant, “somebody’s gonna be called to preach tonight!” Inviting the Holy Spirit to come, always seemed to yield response, we were told. Eddie Brown tells of standing in the surf, fishing as a boy. His eyes dance as he remembers. I’ve heard stories of travelers driving across the south in fear during the forties and fifties relaxing only when their feet touched the sacred soil of Gulfside Assembly.

After Hurricane Katrina, the memories remain but a new dream is being born. There are dreams that are taking shape: a dream of taking that sacred place and developing a myriad of ministries and mission, including place for elders to live out their days. The dream keepers always draw us forward. That, as much as anything, was the gift Martin Luther King, Jr. gave us: a dream of a different future. Gulfside Assembly holds before us both a sacred past and a dream for a brighter future.

It holds for us the promise of

• a place where the lion and the lamb will lie down together.
• a place where elders will dream dreams and young people will have visions.
• a place for healing of hearts and hurts
• a place where young people will once again experience God’s call upon their lives

Dr. Morsi Mansour, who dared to dream about a new future for children in a poverty stricken area of Egypt said, “if you have faith in God, if your spirit is full of faith, then you will find hope everywhere. You will not give up. It will take patience. There will be obstacles. But you will be like the river, going around the rocks.”

“Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28