The Dash - James Metsger

My mom used to go to the cemetery to walk the dog, look at the gravestones, and to let us boys learn how to drive. Although not a happy place, the cemetery was a safe place for a new driver. Recently I went to the cemetery to bury a relative. While I was there I noticed something about the gravestones. Typically there is a name, a date of birth, and the date of death.

The way I see it I have two thirds of my stone completed. James D Metsger. April 28, 1978 - I haven’t had much say about the content of my gravestone. I didn’t choose my name. I had no say in the date of my birth. I won’t have any say in the date of my death. Nevertheless, there is one thing I get to decide. I get to decide what happens during the dash and how I respond to it. The dash is my life, the choices I make, the people and causes I invest in. If I choose I can fill the dash with a lot stuff that doesn’t really matter. Or I can decide to use the dash for something that will last.

Something that I want to fill my dash is a passion for God’s design for community. God has created us for community. Gravestones stand alone, but God doesn’t want me to. Sometimes I want to though. I tell myself it’s easier to avoid criticism, hurt, or heartache if I keep to myself. But that’s a lie. God hasn’t wired me that way. And he hasn’t wired you that way either. This isn’t an extrovert or introvert question. It’s a design question. God wants you and me to live life in the context of community.

The second week of October marked the beginning of 242Groups. These groups are designed for people to experience biblical community, renew our minds, and release our strengths into the community. They will be messy at times. They will stretch our people. They will stretch me. Although it may be hard road I’m excited. I know I won’t be traveling alone.

Blind Leading the Blind - Bobby Girard

Some blind men encountered an elephant roaming through their village. They gathered around the beast of burden in an effort to take a closer “look”. When asked to describe what they “saw”, each offered up a very different answer.

The blind man in front, who had a hold of the trunk, thought the elephant was something like a “a large boa constrictor”. The 2nd man found the ear and thought the elephant was more like the “fronds of a coconut palm”. The 3rd, who was kneeling by the side of the elephant, grabbed its massive leg and compared it to the “base of a mighty oak tree”. The 4th man standing beside it imagined it as a “great wall.” And of course, the last blind man stationed near the “business” end of the animal grabbed the tail and remarked that an elephant was surely like “a rope”.

Though none had the whole view, they all had a correct view. They all described their encounter with the largest land mammal on earth through the filter of their own perspective, and as such they would always remember this elephant in a very personal way.

I see this dynamic when we come together for corporate worship. We have all encountered the living God, but because we are limited by our humanity to only seeing “through a mirror dimly,” we rely heavily on our own perspective. Those experiences are going to be a bit different from anyone else’s and very personal and very precious.

Some kneel to grasp the leg. Some lift their hands to catch the ear. Others stand, arms open as if they are measuring the expanse of the great wall. Some are happy just to smile and “hold hands” with the tail. The beauty of the body of Christ is that all of these expressions are worship, all are valid, and all are born out of our very personal encounters with God, through His Word, His Spirit, His creation, and His church.

We are all free to worship, wholeheartedly, in whatever way best fits our own relationship to our Lord. Whether it be alone in our prayer closet or in a corporate worship service or driving home in the car from work in rush hour traffic, let’s give to God what He deserves. Prayer. Praise. Passion. Respond to Him according to his goodness and his “Godness”. That’s what He created us to do!!

And remember that by sharing our experiences and encounters with God with each other, we will gain a vision and an understanding of Him that is far clearer than any we might have on our own. It was only as the blind men shared their stories of the encounter with the elephant that each of them were able to fully “see”.

Bobby Girard; Worship Arts Pastor