The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for August 7, 2014

If you think of yourself in a place, where is it?  Perhaps a factory?  You mechanically crank out widgets, that’s what you do, and live for the end of the day and long for retirement?  Perhaps a store?  Are you about stuff, necessary stuff and nice stuff, getting new in and old, dated stuff out?  Perhaps a country club?  Relaxing with friends, playing, that’s the essential you!  Home?  You are warm and welcoming, protective of your relatives.  As good as your places may be, is any totally satisfying?

Do those places inspire you, ennoble you, give you a sense of awe that makes your day-to-day tedium and troubles bearable?  Is there transcendence in your soul that makes you agree with poet Paul Gerhardt, “No trouble troubles me.  Misfortune now is play and night is bright as day?”

There is indeed such a place, a place that includes all the places of our lives.  It’s the cathedral of God’s creation.  Go outdoors.  See the trees, pillars reaching up toward the vault of heaven.  Lift up your eyes to the vault adorned with blue, with gray, with dark clouds and lightning.  See the lights of the cathedral, the sun, the moon, the stars, windows that teach us.  “The heavens declare the glory of God.  Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.” (Psalm 19:1, 3-4)  Isn’t this the place where you live? 

And among the smaller places in the cathedral is your earthly church.  It’s the place where transcendence becomes personal.  “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)  Without Jesus, creation is capricious.  With Jesus, awe.  “What is man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4).  Does your “architecture,” like mine, need expansion?

The Meyer Minute for August 6, 2014

When David was delivered from his enemies, he said, “God trains my hands for war.  I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and did not turn back until they were consumed.” (2 Samuel 22: 1, 35, 38)

Millennia later, in the middle of a fateful night, Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr., Major Thomas Ferebee, and Captain Theodore Van Kirk took off from Tinian in the Mariana Islands.  Six-and-a-half hours later, 8:15 a.m., at 31,000 feet, Ferebee said, “I got it.”  Van Kirk confirmed they had their goal in sight, the Aioi Bridge, and Ferebee released “Little Boy.”  It was August 6, 1945.  The plane was the Enola Gay.  “Little Boy” was the uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 

Navigator Van Kirk said, “The entire city was covered with smoke and dust and dirt.  I describe it looking like a pot of black, boiling tar.  You could see some fires burning on the edge of the city.”  He said he felt “a sense of relief.”  A sense of relief?  Yes, “you just sort of had a sense that the war was over, or would be soon.”  A plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, August 9, and Japan surrendered August 15. (New York Times, July 30, 2014; A18) 

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” (Matthew 24:6)  Whenever the end does come, “It shall come to pass in the latter days…nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:1, 4)  Oh, for that day when faith turns to sight!  Because it is said of God, “He makes wars cease to the end of the earth,” we yearn in hope for that “sense of relief” when “the former things have passed away.” (Psalm 46:9; Revelation 21:4)

The Meyer Minute for August 5, 2014

Meet Mephibosheth.  He’s so unknown that my spell checker underlined his name as a typing error but had no alternative suggestion.  Mephibosheth was a son of Jonathon and grandson of King Saul.  Saul, you may remember, was not a godly king.  Since government is intended to serve people, see Romans 13, God decided that Saul would in time be replaced by young David.  Saul hated David but David and Saul’s son Jonathon were friends.  Tangled relationships!  Long story short: Jonathon died young and in time Saul was killed and David took power.  David did take out his enemies but not all.  He not only spared Mephibosheth but…  Well, read it yourself.

Mephibosheth knelt before David and said, “‘Behold, I am your servant.’ And David said to him, ‘Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.’ So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table.  Now he was lame in both his feet.” (2 Samuel 9:6-7, 13)

David’s descendant had a heart for people with disabilities.  Jesus said, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5)  The Body of Christ has many members, every one precious and beloved by God.  Remember Mephibosheth, and “as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10)  

The Meyer Minute for August 4, 2014

This summer we have an unusually large number of wasps around our home, and with the old house not being air-tight and doors forever opening and closing, those little fighter-jet shaped enemies get in.  You perverters of the goodness of creation, I’m going to get you!  So I went to Home Depot, bought my munitions, and waited for sundown, the prime time to attack.  But being one for analysis, I went out before sunset to reconnoiter my bombing targets.  I crawled under the deck to find their nests but, strange, couldn’t find anything.  So I came out from under the deck and went up the stairs, my hand on the railing.  Air raid siren!  They’re in an opening in the railing.  When I slid my hand right over their nest, they scrambled and attacked me.  Battle report: Two stings.  So last night when the sun finally went down, I pulled myself off my death bed and bombed them to kingdom come. 

Which brings me to the real point.  The troubles and conflicts and pains we experience have causes.  Sometimes the causes are accidental.  Other times they are the result of sin in our relationships with God and with one another.  “For those who love God all things work together for good.” (Romans 8:28).  If you retreat into solitude with yourself and your God, and in that time of reflection search for the cause for your trouble, you may well find it.  Certainly God’s Word will lead you to endure.  And if God’s Word leads you to realize that your trouble comes from your sin, then repentance and amendment of your sinful ways may well win the battle.  “Count it all joy!” (James 1:2)

The Meyer Minute for August 1, 2014

Today let us offer prayers to God for the men and women of our armed forces. What oppression, what chaos would be ours, were it not for all who served and died on our behalf. Their resolute character, their sacrifice and courage shame so many of our petty pursuits. Dear God, continue to equip every man and woman in uniform with the qualities that preserve peace in our dangerous and hate-filled world.

Let us pray for the families of our military personnel. How worrisome to know that the child you bore and raised, the wife or husband you have embraced, is now far away and in grave danger.

Let us pray for those whose homes have been visited with the sad news of the death of their loved one. Dear God, give the comfort we would but cannot give.

Let us pray for our wounded veterans.  Their lives have been defined by the wounds they received while defending us.  Dear God, help us to care for “him who has borne the battle, and his widow and his orphan” (Abraham Lincoln).

Let us pray for our culture, too self-indulgent, too impatient, so that we learn that heaven cannot be had on earth and begin to imitate the One who came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Let us pray to the Lord.  Lord, have mercy!