A Black Granite Wall

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Psalms 8:9

No black granite wall could hold nearly all the names of our Saviour and Lord.
And no mountain face could have enough space for one line of His love to recod.
No one could relate to the numberless dates, for He has no beginning or end.
The story goes on, His body is gone, and the tomb is empty again!

The words above are the lyrics to the song "The Empty Tomb Says it All," written by Daryl Petersheim and made popular by the Kingdom Heirs. I consider it to be one of the most eloquently written verses of any song I've ever heard. That's saying a lot. As a church music director, I deal with hymns a lot, and those timeless songs have lived so long for a reason. They're beautifully written, and they teach even more timeless Biblical truths.

After I say that, you may be wondering how I can say that this verse ranks so highly. I say it because of the imagery it brings to mind. We've all seen mountains, and their massive sizes. To think that a mountain isn't large enough to contain even a small portion of the explanation of the love of God is mind blowing. We've all seen tombstones with the dates of birth and death of the person below them. No tombstone can do that for Jesus, because eternity past and eternity future can't be expressed in numbers. There's no beginning or end of Jesus. The most powerful mental image that the verse brings to my mind, however, is found in the very first line: the image of the Vietnam War Memorial.

Back in 1998, when I was in the eighth grade, I had the opportunity to compete in a national math competition. The contest was held in Washington, D.C., and though the trip was too short to see all that I would have liked, our group did visit the National Mall. I'd like to go back again and see some of those sights, because I know I'd have a better appreciation for them at 31 than I did at 14. Even as a teenager, though, the Vietnam War Memorial was very impressive to me. On that piece of granite, there are more than 58.000 names of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country. To walk down the length of that wall and feel those engravings is a very sobering experience. Two hundred fifty feet of that seems to stretch forever.

The sacrifice of our men and women in uniform serves as a reminder to me of what my Saviour did on Calvary. On the cross, He fought and won the fiercest war ever waged in the history of the world. If we honor those who sacrificed all in the military, we should also honor the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The thing is, if we wanted to make a wall such as the Vietnam War Memorial to honor Him, we could never do it. There are so many names we could give Him to speak of who He is and how wonderful He is. If we could take all the granite in the world and make a wall, and if we had time to fill it up with descriptions of His majesty, we could still couldn't come close.

As much as that tells about our Saviour, it leaves out the best part. We don't need a memorial wall to remember Him. Yes, He was once dead, but He lives again! There's no need for memory when we can have a personal relationship with Him. The next time you visit the National Mall or see a photo of that wall of stone, let it remind you of what our Saviour has done and give thanks to Him for who and what He is.

The Mind of God

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

Psalms 8:3-4

This blog has kind of been lost in the shuffle of things in my life in the last couple of weeks, but I think it's time to fire it back up. I was reminded of one of my favorite thoughts a few minutes ago, and I thought it worthwhile to write about. It's a thought that brings tears of joy to my eyes every time I think of it: the fact that no matter what happens, I'm always in the mind of God.

 I won't go into that since I don't think it's appropriate for this blog, but I believe there's plenty of reason to believe that the writer of the play "Our Town," Thornton Wilder, was not a saved man. Despite that, in that play, he found a way to very eloquently relate the wonderful truth of the text verses.

In this post, I'm not going to talk about the scene in "Our Town," but I would like to talk about a scene from my own writing that was inspired by it. The central character of the scene is a 10-year-old native of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, Paula Taylor. Paula has felt overwhelmed by things going on at school, at home, and an upcoming skating competition. She feels pressure to do extremely well at school because one of her brothers, Parker, is highly intelligent. She feels pressure to do well on the ice because her sister, Paige, is the most talented young figure skater in the area. The result is that she focuses too much on the surrounding troubles and loses sight of God and what He can do for her.

A chain of events that follows teaches her a couple of lessons. One is that she doesn't have to worry about living up to the potential of anyone else. All anyone can expect of her is that she does her best. The other is that no matter what happens do her -- and even when she forgets Him -- she is always in the mind of God. He is always concerned about her and always has her best interests in mind.

To drive that point home to her, Paula's mother recalls the scene from our town. I'll share the words of Mrs. Taylor here:

“When I was in high school, I had an assignment to read the play ‘Our Town’ by Thornton Wilder. It is told in the play that a character received a letter addressed like this: ‘Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm; Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God.’

“I’ve never forgotten that in all the years that have passed since then. The lesson I learned from it is that no matter how small I am, God has never forgotten me, and will never forget me. No matter where I am or what I do, I’m always on His mind. You are Paula Taylor; The Taylor Home; Colonial Park; Lloydminster; Saskatchewan; Canada; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God.”

As the youngest of four children, Paula often feels insignificant. As you go through that progression, she -- and we -- appears smaller and smaller. Yet, when we zoom out farther and farther and go beyond even the limits of the universe itself into the mind of the Almighty Creator that spawned it all, there we are. On the scale of the universe, we're not even an insignificant speck, yet God is mindful of us. He's so mindful of us that He took on human flesh and died on a cross to redeem us.

Maybe your talents don't seem as great as those around you, and maybe you feel castaway by others, but God loves you nonetheless. You're always on His mind. You were on His mind while He bled and died. The account given may be one experienced by a fictional character, but I assure you, the truth is not fictional. It's as real as you, I, and the Mind of God.

Toiling in Obscurity

From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:16

In my opinion, the teams of the Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the mid-late 1970's were the best in NHL history. During the last of their four consecutive Stanley Cup championship seasons in 1978-79, the Habs boasted no fewer than 10 Hall-of-Famers, names such as: Yvon Cournoyer, Ken Dryden, Bob Gainey, Guy Lafleur, Guy Lapointe, Rod Langway, Jacques Lemaire, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, and Steve Shutt. Among a cast of characters like that, the name Yvon Lambert doesn't stand out, but a close look at the stats of that season proves that he was certainly valuable.

Lambert isn't a Hall-of-Famer, and he never played in an All-Star game. He never finished higher than seventh team in All-Star balloting, and his career highs of 32 goals, 40 assists, and 67 points in a season don't stand out at all considering the era he played in. That's certainly not to say he didn't make contributions to his team, however. In fact, in 1978-79, his seven regular season game winning goals were tied for the second most on the team, with only Lafleur tallying more. In the playoffs, he would add one more game winner, and it would be one of the biggest goals of the season.

In the NHL semifinals that season, the Canadiens squared off against the Boston Bruins. The series went a full seven games, and in the last game, Montreal appeared to have their backs against the wall.  The Habs had held leads of 2-0 and 3-2 in the series only to see Boston tie the contest each time. In the ultimate game of the series, the Bruins took a 4-3 lead and held that with less than three minutes remaining. But Boston was whistled for a too many men on the ice penalty, and with just over one minute remaining, Lafleur notched the game-tying goal, sending the game to overtime. The next goal would win the game, the series, and send the team that scored it to the Finals.

The goal would come 9:33 into the first overtime, off of the stick of Lambert from a pass received from Mario Tremblay. Lambert's overtime winner is probably not as well remembered as Lafleur's goal to send the game to an extra session or Lemaire's goal that clinched the Cup, but without it, the Montreal four-peat would be a three-peat.

In the Christian life, there are a lot of Yvon Lambert's. There are a lot of laborers that go unnoticed because their ministry is obscure or they're overshadowed by others. That doesn't mean, though, that their ministries are unneeded or unnecessary. You might not see the janitor of your church in action, but if the job went undone, you would notice. People may not see the Sunday school teachers of young children at work, but their job is vital to the future of the church. It's likely that few notice the elderly home bound lady that sends out cards to encourage people, but her ministry has no doubt helped its recipients get through some dark days.

It all boils down to this: do you "serve" the Lord because you want attention and notice from others, or do you truly serve the Lord because you want to be a part of His work and bring others to Him. Do you have to be the star of the team, or are you willing to play an overshadowed role because it's what's best for the body?

God is keeping score. A lot of the spectacular goals that people score in life will one day be waved off at the Judgment Seat of Christ because they were done for selfish motives. I think we'll be surprised at some of the game winners that will be recognized. Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.