The End of the World by Tami Cinquemani

My family and I recently returned from a 7-day Caribbean cruise.  One of the stops we made was in Cozumel, Mexico.  It just happened that we arrived on December 21 – the final date on the ancient Mayan calendar and, therefore, what some people believed would be the end of the world.  I really hadn’t thought about the fact that we would be in Mexico on this specific date when I booked this cruise a couple of years ago.  It wasn’t until I was reading the daily "Cruise Compass" placed in our stateroom the night before that I realized how perfect our timing was!

I thought the letter that accompanied the rundown of the next day's events was quite interesting.  It informed passengers who would be visiting Cozumel the next day that the Mexican authorities had issued certain restrictions including not allowing backpacks onto archeological sites, prohibiting videotaping, and cautioning “Visitors cannot shout or try to promote religious or political messages to the crowd.”

As we were discussing this over breakfast the next morning, my daughter mentioned a program she had seen on television based on “Doomsday Preppers,” people who live otherwise ordinary lives but spend time preparing for the end of the world as we know it.  These individuals build underground bunkers, educate themselves on long-term food storage, and are very serious about defense training.  My personal feeling is that, should something catastrophic happen to destroy life on earth, I’d rather be in the midst of the carnage and completely destroyed than be part of the armed survivors whose top priority was self-preservation.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate life.  I’m all about living it to its fullest.  Sign me up for the Florida Hospital Healthy 100!  I like living out loud!  However, as we’re all far too aware, whether you’re age 3, 30, or 103, life is uncertain.  It doesn’t have to be a Mayan-predicted catastrophe.  It could be illness, accident, or tragedy.  Tomorrow is never a guarantee.

As a Christian, I believe that God has provided for me in this world, and I will live each day thankful for what I have been given.  However, I also know there’s something better on the horizon.  I can choose to take this information and live a life of self-preservation – completely focused on myself, concerned only about some self-delusional checklist of preparation tasks, and maybe shouting “religious messages” to the crowd.

Or I can embrace today and those who are on the journey with me and, in doing so, give a glimpse of what’s waiting for us after the end of this world.  In his book, Messy Church, Ross Parsley writes, “The implication here is that we experience God through the love of other people.  God is made real and present among us when we become experts in loving one another.”

Those who interpreted the end of the Mayan calendar as the end of our world were as wrong as others who have made similar predictions.  As I look forward to 2013, I look forward to a great year here on earth and also being that much closer to the day Jesus returns.  It makes me think of the R.E.M. song from the Eighties: “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”

Tami Cinquemani

Christmas Lights by Chad Hess

My oldest son is three years old. He is finally old enough to really appreciate and enjoy Christmas lights, so we have taken several opportunities to drive around or walk around and look at the lights. He gets so excited, and I love watching that excitement. There is one man on our block that does a massive Christmas light display spanning several houses. He has been working on setting it up for the past month, and my son asks to drive past it every time we enter our neighborhood. An incredible amount of time and money go into doing this every year . . . so why does he do it? Why do people put so much work into decorating the outside of their houses? I see the lights on our house when I get home from work, and often that's it, but I didn't hang those lights for me. I did it for others – for all the boys and girls (and adults) that drive around in awe and excitement at all the lights.

I think that's one of the things that I like best about Christmas. It is one time of year in which we are typically more thoughtful of others. American culture is so focused on the individual and the self that we tend to lose sight of those around us, but during Christmas, our attitude is different. We give gifts to others, we hang lights for the enjoyment of others, and we do random acts of kindness for others. We remember the ultimate gift that was given to us 2000 years ago.

Now that I am an adult, I feel all the stress that also accompanies this time of year. Fortunately, my son reminds me to stop and enjoy the season. As we were out looking at lights last weekend, my son noticed a nativity scene set up in someone's yard. "Hey look, everybody! It's baby Jesus! Come look!" I pray that, in the midst of the craziness of this season, we all will find the baby in a manger, and that we will stop and look.

Chad Hess

Prayer for Newtown, CT by Andy McDonald

This week’s blog is a transcript of the beginning of the December 15 sermon at the Florida Hospital Church.  The prayer offered is on behalf of all those affected by the tragedy experienced this past Friday in Newtown, Connecticut.

Sermon:  “All I Want for Christmas Is…Joy” by Andy McDonald

Scripture:  Luke 2:10

Today’s sermon title is “All I Want for Christmas Is…Joy.”  Yesterday, a lone gunman short-circuited joy in Newtown, Connecticut, with the horrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. The sadness, the loss, the inexplicable nature of the crime, the age of the victims, the proximity of so many young minds to the tragedy, the season of the year, all combine to compound the pain.  The guilt of those who are overwhelmed with joy that their children are safe while the neighbor or friend or workmate have just the opposite experience—these people all need our prayers.

I want us to continue our day of service by serving this distant community with our prayers.  Silently for a moment, pray for the people in Newtown, Connecticut, and for all of us across this country.  Pray for comfort, sanity in face of this crisis, the ability to frame random acts of cruelty without allowing them to define us. And then, after the silent prayers, I’ll pray for us corporately.  Let’s pray.

Father, we don’t understand.  You are the God of all creation.  Your intention for humanity in our creation was so different from these events, from this pain and suffering and hurt and senseless destruction. However we frame this, however these families and community closest to the tragedy frame this, please protect from the off-loading of this upon you.  Father, we sense, maybe more than ever, the significance of those often rushed-by words in the prayer your son taught his disciples—“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  That is what we want, and this isn’t it. 

We long for a day when sin will be no more, when the promise is fulfilled, and all things are made new and there is no more crying for all this is far behind us, and you will make all things new. Father, in our little spheres of influence, teach us how to usher in your will being done on earth as it is in heaven.  Show us how to love and to teach love, and to demonstrate and be love in this world that so desperately needs it.

Right now, we pray for comfort and strength, for healing and forgiving, for some sense of hope to be ministered to the hurting people in our world through your Holy Spirit. All across this nation and around the world, restore the joy of your salvation and uphold us.  We recognize we have no hope outside of you, so we cast ourselves and all our cares on you, and we trust that you will make all things new.  In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Jazz & Belle by Andy McDonald

We have two dogs.  This picture is actually them.  Jazz is the small long-haired dachshund, and the English Setter is Belle.  So far, two dogs are necessary so one won’t be “lonely.”  When our previous dachshund, Lucy died, our other dog was Chloe, a chocolate lab.  My wife was sure Chloe was intolerably lonely, so we purchased Jazz.  In addition to his initial cost, which I already believed sinful, he promptly chewed up several pairs of shoes and two computer charging cables, etc. etc.  Well, when Chloe died, I was told that Jazz was lonely, so we added Belle to our household.  I guess unless they die together, I’m destined to live in a two-dog family.

I must admit they are good dogs for their species, and walking them has allowed me to learn a good life lesson I wish to share with you.

There is an old saying, “If you want to have friends, show yourself friendly.”  As we walk our usual route with the dogs, it is not uncommon to encounter another walker and their dog.  Never—and I mean never—is Belle the aggressor. Her modus operandi is wagging tale and a big dog smile; you’d think she was greeting a long lost friend. On occasion, she’s so distracted there’s only a quick hello, and she’s off pursuing whatever distracted her. Time and again—approaching a Great Dane or a miniature something that has a hard time holding up its end of the leash—Belle consistently shows herself friendly.  Only with extreme rarity has the other dog not reciprocated with wagging tail and sniffs all around.

In contrast is little dog Jazz. If he is first to approach a strange dog, he nearly always becomes the aggressor.  People he snubs, he growls and barks at his own species, and he so wishes to be free of his leash to actually chase cats and squirrels.  Even when it appears he is going to be civil with another dog, often after the initial nose-to-nose encounter—just when I think we will continue on our walk—as the leash gently tugs at Jazz, its like a sign to explode. There is barking and growling, sending a message that it is only the restraint of the leash that prevents his attack!

What is hard to grasp is that it doesn’t matter the size of his opponent.  In fact, while small dogs his size get some reaction, he really seems to think he could take on a Rottweiler and win!

Watching the dogs in this consistent pattern of behavior has brought to mind how we, in the human species, approach one another.  There seems to be some who are very much like Jazz—always wanting to stir things up in a hostile way.  Cooperation, friendliness, welcoming are just not part of who they are, and there are constant complaints from Jazz-like people that the world is hostile and not safe, and we must protect ourselves and our rights.  There are always bad people wanting to do bad to them—from their Jazz-like perspective.

Then there are Belle-like humans—every encounter an opportunity for new friends.  They seem to like everyone, and it almost always seems that everyone likes them.

Belle and Jazz live in exactly the same world, but their choices of how to react to the same set of circumstances is very different.  Belle and Jazz are a regular reminder of the truth of Jesus’ words—“We reap what we sow!”  If you consider your life and what you’ve reaped and you aren’t wild about the crop, take a moment and do some self-evaluation, because the truth is we reap exactly what we sow!  If you want friends—show yourself friendly.

Andy McDonald

Adjusting the Focus by Greg Creek

For the last few months I have been teaching a course at Adventist University of Health Sciences in Philosophy of Healthcare, an Interdisciplinary Humanities and Religion course.  We aim to help students develop their philosophy of healthcare for when they are in the workforce. It has been an incredible experience of learning, growing, and struggling to develop my own philosophy as the students and I journey through together.

One of our assignments is a Life Events Timeline. This assignment asks students to highlight ten memories of significance from their life. After identifying those events, the student then spends some time dissecting why they chose those memories, identifying any themes or patterns, and determining if or how those events have changed their philosophy of healthcare.

As this is the first time I have taught this class, I was unprepared for the level of authenticity paired with an almost greater level of pain that has been experienced by my students. They shared with me stories of parents, grandparents, siblings, children, cousins, and close friends that they have lost. They shared with me stories of losing everything they own to fire or finances. They shared with me stories of broken relationships, missed opportunities, and the roadblocks of life. After reading through the lives of over 30 students, I was struck by a few things.

The first is that my class showed up every morning – smiling, happy, and “normal.” (Although, I will say we meet at 8:00 am, so “smiling” and “happy” are relative terms.) If we had never done this assignment, I might not have been able to tell that many of them had experienced such brokenness. No one had a chip on his or her shoulder. No one used class time to rail against anything or anyone. It wasn’t until we took an opportunity to go deeper that the opportunity actually presented itself.

How many relationships are we in that lack a level of appropriate depth? It is so easy to just stroll through life and not acknowledge the brokenness. I have decided to challenge myself to engage with people’s story, to ask the questions that foster knowledge of the good and the bad.

The second thing that struck me is the balance of the events in my students’ lives. Many of my students have experienced some pretty tragic things, and yet those events only received a few spots in their top ten. The other events that practically dominated were the positive, life-changing events of births, graduations, travels, marriages, and so on. Despite all their brokenness and pain, their reasons to laugh and live far outweighed their reasons to be sad.

I tend at times to focus on my mistakes and the bad things. My goal is to work to not commit the same errors again. It ends up being a constant focus on the bad. If you are anything like me, I challenge you to focus on the events that make us laugh and live. Or maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “Living and laughing aren’t a problem for me!” If so, please help the rest of us to follow your lead!

Greg Creek