It's BETTER

I am currently on a road trip vacation with my family.  5 of us are trekking across the country in a van from Colorado up to Maine, around the Northeast, and then back home.

(yes, you may pray for me, and yes, Thank you!   I will wait for you to finish)

Late last week, we made a stop at Niagara Falls.  Except for my wife, who made a stop when she was a young girl, none of us had ever been there before.

It’s an impressive place.  On average, almost 4 million cubic feet of water fall over the crest of these falls every minute, and it’s hard to avoid recognizing the power of the nature God has created.  It makes you feel rather insignificant sometimes when you look at the world.  There are natural forces which can reduce decades or centuries of work by man and men to rubble in seconds.  And standing next to these falls, and looking over the edge, you get a feel for that power.

Of course, that wasn’t enough for MY family.  We wanted to experience MORE POWER.  (insert your grunts here)

So, we decide to take a walk at the bottom of the falls.   We put on our raincoats (FREE! with our tour tickets), and our water proof sandles (FREE!) and took the elevator down through solid rock about 170 feet to the cave of the winds where we could check out this wonderous place from below.  Down there are walkways where you can walk out and see the falls, and get a great perspective on them from below.   The last platform has a corner called “Hurricane Point”.  It has a corner that juts out very close to the rocky base of Bridal Veil falls.  Even though this is the smallest of the falls on the US side, the force of the water and air forced against you at this point is overwhelming.  If the platform was just a few feet closer, I’m sure injuries would be unavoidable.  When standing there the force of the water literally feels like a hurricane is blowing you away.   It’s loud, powerful and very windy and wet.

VERY windy and wet.

I’m thinking those raincoats (FREE!) were better at keeping the water IN, than out.

We all had a great laugh and enjoyed testing our weakness against the awesome power of the falls at Hurricane point. But my day was made when my daughter Elizabeth came running away from the point and screamed at me with all the joy of a little girl who had just enjoyed the greatest thrill ride ever, “THAT WAS BETTER THAN CHURCH!”

I had to laugh and quietly thank my God.

What else can you do when your kids are laughing and playing and recognizing the overwhelming scope of creation, experiencing once in a lifetime moments, and learning about how wonderous God is and the enormity of his creative works, and then your 9 year old daughter runs up to you to share her feelings, and she compares that with church!?!?!?!

No, she doesn’t compare it to a movie with awesome CGI.

Or a ride at an amusement park.

She compared it with every ‘normal Sunday’ at church.

Isn’t that what worship is supposed to be?   Moving in as close as you can to the amazing, overwhelming power of the creator, and letting that ‘blow you away’?  knowing that if you moved closer, you’ld probably get crushed by His magnitude?  getting drenched in His glory and coming away changed knowing that was a moment you will remember?

I am forced to conclude that just maybe, Jaima and I are doing something right.  Even if we aren't, God is.

What is a Christian?

‘No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again! 

Sometimes I just want it to stay saved, you know? For a little bit. 

I feel like the maid: “I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean …for, for ten minutes?!   Please?” ‘

– Mr. Incredible  (Bob Parr)

That quote is from one of my favorite movies, Pixar’s The Incredibles.  If you haven’t seen it, fix that egregious error and go rent it.  The movie is about a family of super-heroes.  Prior to getting married and having kids, Bob and Helen Parr defended the world as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, two of the world greatest Super-Heroes.    But for various reasons they get used to living as Bob and Helen and stop thinking of themselves with regards to their true identity.  They begin to think of themselves as simply their secret (weaker) identities.  They became ‘normal’, a guy who works in the insurance industry, a home maker, a Mom and Dad, both just trying to get by as they deal with the hassles of everyday life.  Tuesday is ‘left-overs for dinner’ day.  Every week, the same grind.

Eventually, Bob gets tired of living in the mundane (don’t we all?) and starts secretly doing secret hero stuff, but he does it behind Helen’s back.  Eventually, Bob’s desire for the active life of a “Super” leads him into trouble.  Helen discovers something is going on and then learns that Bob has lost his job, that he has an entire secret life of activities and trips she doesn’t know about, and suspects he might be cheating on her.  She gets focused on her pain, and is crying over a cup of coffee with her friend Edna.  It’s a great moment of self-pity for Helen.  A moment that we call can relate to.  She doesn’t know what’s happening, she just knows that she’s discovering that her whole ‘life’ is not what she thought it was.  Edna, being a good friend, is happy to let Helen vent her pain (we all need to do that with a friend sometimes), but eventually Helen wails “What am I going to do?” to Edna, a question which Edna can’t believe she is hearing.

Edna jumps on the table and begins to smack Helen over the head with a rolled up newspaper, determined to put an end to this pity-party.  To Edna, acknowledging the pain is one thing, but choosing to wallow in it and not deal with the problem is unacceptable.

“What are you talking about?!?” she cries.  “You are Elastigirl!  My God! Pull yourself together! (smack smack) What will you do?   Is…is…is this a question?  You will show him that you remember that he is Mr. Incredible! And you will REMIND him, who YOU are! Well!.. You know where he is… Go! Confront the problem! Fight! Win!    And call me when you get back, dahling, I enjoy our visits.”

THAT my friends is what being a christian is about.

It’s so easy for each of us to forget that we are more than just the weaker identities we live in every day.  Each of us sometimes forgets that we are God’s personally chosen hero.

We (yes!  Even you!) are tasked to save our part of the world from a wretched and powerful Super Villain and deliver it back into God’s heroic plan of salvation and redemption.  Each of us has been granted unique and special powers (gifts), and those powers are supernaturally magnified via the Holy Spirit.  We are the physical and spiritual embodiment of that a true Super Hero is.  We can change the course of mighty rivers, move mountains into the sea, raise the dead, fly on wings of eagles…. But we forget that.  We get lost in the daily identities we play every day.

But the christian walk is supposed to be there to remind us of what we truly are.  What we are sent to do.  We as Christians should remind each other, that we can never be truly happy until we are DOING what we were made to do.

If you see someone down, frustrated, and hurting, remind them of what the situation really is.  You might not always have to smack them with a newspaper, but show them that you remember who they are.  Remind them who YOU are.  Then, confront the problem.  Fight!  Win!  And then… have a cup of coffee and enjoy the fellowship of a good friend that will remind you that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Be Christ to them