A Great Chasm

“Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.” Luke 16:26, NAB

I love this verse from Luke 16 because it so clearly reveals the concept of that we live in a multi-dimensional world and that there is an existence beyond what we can see.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about multiple dimensions and that we as humans are stuck in the third dimension. As I’ve shared in the past, I believe we are really four dimensional, with our souls and consciences longing for what’s beyond, but our bodies stuck in this third dimension.

Luke 16:19-31 tells the story of Lazarus (the only parable Jesus told that included the actual name of a character), a poor beggar who died and went to Heaven, and his rich counterpart who ended up in Hell.

What is interesting is that Jesus uses this parable to describe Heaven and Hell. Jesus always used real aspects of nature to tell his stories including a mustard seed, vineyards, and the comparison of rock and sand. He is painting a picture for us not unlike his other parables. So it’s extremely plausible that this story reveals the concepts of the afterlife.

What I find most interesting is that Jesus clearly states that though the two places are separated from each other, they can still be seen by each. Those in Hell can still see Heaven and vice versa. They are separated by a great chasm.

There is something more profound in this parable as well. Jesus clearly explains to us that we have the choice between Heaven and Hell. We have free will and that even in the latest hour of our lives, we can choose God.

I have a friend, Jean, who was recently telling me of the loss of her mother. Though it’s been a year, she still feels the pain and emptiness of that loss. However, she knows that because of the choices and faith her mother maintained that she now enjoys a life free of pain and suffering. Isn’t that what we all want for our loved ones…and for ourselves? She described how she feels as the following, “Great sorrow can exist with great joy.” She misses her mother greatly, but would not want her to come back to this life.

I think we all experience great sorrow and great joy, but our ability to experience both simultaneously is a God thing. It’s something that we can experience in our three dimensional bodies, but can pierce the chasm of this dimension and reach toward Heaven. The most amazing thing is when we reach out God also breaks through and returns those emotions with peace. As my friend also said, “When sorrow and joy are harmonious—that can only be God.” What a profound statement.

People often talk about a “final test” at the end of our lives. I recently heard a homily where the pastor gave a simple standard for that final test.

1. How did you love?
2. How did you serve others?
3. How much did you rely on God?

To me, these simple questions sum it up well.

Choice comes into play every day and I believe that through our choices we pay it forward in this dimension and the others.

Next time I’ll examine those three questions with respect to how we impact the dimensions around us. Once we scrutinized that concept, we’ll wrap it up neatly with the idea that these three questions also impact the earth we inhabit and hopefully come full circle from where we started.

In the meantime, if you like, read my earlier posts on dimensions as a primer for next week’s discussion. Feel free to pummel me with questions to keep me on track!

Emotions and the Wisdom of God

The majesty of the mountains and the beauty of the oceans are obvious. God’s creation is breathtaking. The gentle rains that bring peace and the torrential storms that drive fear through our very being create emotions that reach our very core.

So is there purpose in emotion? I believe there is a theme in the Bible with respect to emotion.

The Old Testament starts off showing a God banishing Adam and Eve for eating fruit from the one tree they were forbidden to eat. Throughout the Old Testament, shades of a vengeful, wrath-filled God—a punishing God—permeate the text. Only in Psalms and Song of Songs do we get an inkling of a God that shows mercy and love.
Why the change? I believe it has to do with human’s “evolution” of understanding God.

In the Old Testament, especially in the beginning of Genesis, humanity is regarded as young children, seeing only the need for discipline, as with Adam and Eve. Slowly, the human mind opened. Abraham was the first to call God, “Father,” and the Creator recognized this and made a covenant with humanity.

As the authors produced Psalms and Song of Songs, humankind grew into the age of reason. With that reason, came the realization that our God could be in relationship with us and we longed for that connection.

But we were missing something. Because of our selfishness, we couldn’t see past our teenage needs. Not until the Father sent his Son, not until we saw the Incarnation, did we see true Love. We needed to hear the words of hope and salvation, and like all teens, we then understood life had meaning. Jesus brought definition to what was deep in our hearts that we could not express.

As with the crossing of the threshold from youth to adulthood, humanity couldn’t take the next step until we experienced true sacrifice. Jesus proclaimed this sacrifice by stretching out his arms on the cross encompassing the whole world, and that action thrust us into maturity.

It’s not that God changed from a fearful God to a loving God, it’s that we grew up.
With adulthood comes responsibility. Whether we choose to fall into his crucified arms or we choose to turn away, it’s up to us. When we feel broken and damaged, it is up to us to recognize the ultimate Love and accept it.

I believe that there’s a reason that Revelations is the last book of the Bible. It takes to completion the concept of God’s saving plan for us by revealing that there is something else, something besides this life. God revealed his entire plan, His entire set of emotions, His love for us from infancy to adulthood. Now it’s up to us.

He calls us in the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians with the definition of love and He proved that love at Calvary. He is a loving parent waiting for us to fall into His arms with everything we have, all the love and all the hurts, because truly He is the only one that can love us completely.

Emotions matter and only Love can save us.

Weather of the Heart

I have this application on my computer that constantly brings up a popup window urging me to upgrade a certain type of software. It’s there every time I bring up my computer. Sometimes it drives me nuts!

I believe it’s just a microcosm of what happens in real life. Things constantly bombard us, tugging at our minds, pulling at our hearts.

And we let it happen. We try to ignore the life “popups”, the ones that say something isn’t right. The ones that say complacency is fine, life is good, don’t change or that change will be too hard.

Then one day it hits us. Everything is not fine. We moan and groan that it’s too late to change, it’s going be hard, and it’s going to ruin everything in our lives. We writhe in agony at the thought we need to move, we need to change.

Autumn used to be my favorite season. I love the colors, and the cooler weather and the anticipation of the upcoming holidays. As I’ve gotten older though, autumn has also reminded me that winter is coming. Those cold, dark days when driving is a hassle, when the sunlight dwindles in the southern sky, and the snowflakes seem endless.

God is good at giving us reminders about the seasons of our heart through nature. He knows there are going to be hot summers of fun in our lives that spill over into beautiful autumns of contentment that eventually diminish into cruel winters.

Fortunately he gave us the best season of all, spring.

I know that when the relentless winter wind whips against me, draining me of my strength, there is still hope. Spring will come. It might take longer than I wish, but the bitter winds will not prevail. Snow banks will recede, tiny flowers will sprout their determined heads and birds will return in song.

It’s no different with life. The inhospitable winters of our hearts will not prevail if we do not let them. Opening our souls can dissolve anger and resentment like a melting snow bank. Tiny flowers of hope from loved ones push through the frozen ground. Encouraging words from friends sing out to us. Eventually we find that we don’t need the layers of protection that surround our hearts like the parkas of winter. We shed the tears and shed the pain, washing away the winter and helping the flowers of our lives grow.

But we have to take that first step. We have to let go and let God. And sometimes that step is scary. But He does know what is right for us.

It is only when we don’t listen to the nagging popups that we get stuck. It’s when we don’t heed the warning in our hearts and souls that we will sit in the everlasting frozen winter. Complacency says enjoy the fire and ignore the weather. But eventually you can’t.

So listen to those life popups. They’re trying to tell you something. Maybe it’s time for a change.

-And maybe I need different software that better fits my needs. ;)

Life Imitates Art

God creates art through nature. We as humans try to recreate that art with drawings, paintings, sculptures, and buildings. But no matter what colors we brush across our canvas, we are simply imitating God’s creation in nature.

I believe there’s a lesson for us in nature.

Trees are just one example. These magnificent giants have a rich history embedded with human tradition. The Bible talks of the mustard seed that blossoms into a tree, Jesus mentions Nathaniel being born under a fig tree, and then there is the troubling tree which Jonas sat under which withered away.

Loreena McKennitt has written many songs with the symbolism of trees including All Soul’s Night and Ancient Pines. Tolkien included talking, feeling trees in his Lord of the Ring’s classics.

I’m beginning to see how life is reflected in trees.

Saplings reflect man’s desire to start new. There’s so much promise in a new tree. There’s hope. It’s almost as if the tree is saying, “I’m just starting, but someday I will be great. I will stand tall.”

As trees grow their tender bark turns rough and cracks to deal with the harsh realities of nature. The growing tree says, “I’ve grown accustomed to these conditions and I’ve acclimated.”

Then there are the mature trees of many shapes and varieties and they all have stories to tell.

There’s the tree who’s grown in age and wisdom. Their branches reach tall and they have sturdy trunks. “I’ve lived well,” they say.

Then there are the trees that show emotion. Looking at how their branches reach out, they embrace the trees next to them, dancing in the breezes of the day. It’s almost as if they are saying, “Ah, I have loved well!”

But not all trees are so lucky. There are some that wither and die from disease just as humans. There are some that do not receive the nutrients that help them grow. Though they fight to survive, their trunks, branches and leaves reveal their battered existence.

Then there are my heroes. These trees grow tall and strong and they experience life in all its glory and in all its pain. They feel the joy and warmth of the sun, and the harshness of the bitter winters. But they survive and they live well. These trees have made adjustments.

I hope to be counted someday among these giants. I hope that I can say, “Life showed me what it had, and I made adjustments.”



(Note: this unusual tree is the same tree as shown in the top picture, it's just a different angle. No different for people...some adjustments you can't see unless you see the person from a different angle!)

The Life of the Seed

My latest harvest has been plums, juicy, sweet plums! The flesh of the fruit peels right off, leaving only the small pit which inside contains an even smaller seed.

I start out slow and taper off.

I’ve been listening to a song in church for quite a while and though I understood the words and their meaning, it didn’t hit me until yesterday how intertwined we are with nature.

The lyrics to the song I am thinking of goes as follows:

“Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.” (Bernadette Farrell) It’s a paraphrase of John 12:24.

Until now, I’ve considered that I must die to self in order to live. That’s how I’ve viewed those words.

Now I realize that it’s saying much more. Now I get it!

God has provided each of us with a seed of Him. Unless we nourish that seed by dying to self, we can’t be fruitful to others. We are like a gong in the night if we only seek life only for ourselves. But if we give our lives for others, that one grain grows and produces an entire head of wheat!

I’ve always enjoyed service to others in whatever fashion it comes. And I know that sowing those seeds of joy help others understand the greatness of our Lord. But it never occurred to me that I have no life unless I engage in service, that I cannot be truly Christian until I spread the love of God to others and they in turn love Him. As a single grain, I can bear great fruit because in turn they bear great fruit and it continues to multiply.

Fruit trees are an even greater example. One little seed gives birth to a seedling, then sapling, then tree. If nurtured, that tree will produce for years! It doesn’t have to be the “one and done” concept. If we nurture our lives with the Truth of the Lord, we can produce for many years!

So don’t hide in your pit! Open up, let the seed be revealed and plant it in rich soil. Water with prayer and let it grow!

This picture is from a two-in-one plum tree I have in my yard. Yes! It’s grafted so there are two types of plums on one tree. It’s sweet!

The Missing Words of Life

It's highly unusual that I post twice in one week, but I had something to share and needed your help.

The other day, I witnessed a mother screeching through a soccer field parking lot, not following the rules, but barreling through the parking spaces in an effort to get her daughter to the field on time. I could hear her screaming at her daughter and simply not paying attention to anything else around her. How did I see it? She almost rammed into the side of my van as she passed as well as almost hit a teenage girl making her way from the parking lot to the fields.

I dropped off my daughter (close to the fields) and then decided to proceed to see if I could find the “scary mom.” As I drove through the parking lot, I considered how I would address the woman once I caught up with her.

As God would have it, she had parked and scurried out of her car. I watched as she crossed the bridge out of sight.

The question still haunts me, how would I have addressed the situation? This is how I imagined the conversation might go:

Me: Did you know that you almost hit a young girl back there?
SM (Scary Mom): No. (OR) I didn’t come close to her.
Me: Why were you unable to follow the arrows and make your way through the parking lot like the rest of traffic?
SM: We were late and there weren’t that many cars. What is your problem?
Me: You!

I’m sure it would have spiraled from there.

Today, my husband and daughter were talking about the concept of self-esteem and how the world has twisted the idea of self-esteem. Society tells us (at least in this privileged American value system) that we are special. Psychologists have noted the increased rate of suicide and problems like anorexia, bulimia, self mutilation and drugs. They see there is a problem (as do all of us), and envision the solution as low self-esteem.

So while the world tells us that we deserve all we can get and that we are special, it has left out the most important factor of all. Why we are special.

We are special because we are created in the image of God and because He has created us to be special. Just as there are those who believe that we need to rid our monetary notes and coins of “In God We Trust,” as a separation of church and state, our societal system wants to rid our conscience by leaving God out of our self-esteem.

We water plants to nurture them to grow. But if we don’t feed them with nutrients from rich soil or fertilizer, we run the risk of not seeing a fruitful harvest.

It is no different with human beings. If we don’t feed the soul with Truth, we will not be fruitful either. We need to amend the self-esteem phrase to say, “You are special and important to God. You are made in His image.” Without the addition of God, the phrase, “You are special” rings hollow.

Why is this important? When we consider that Someone Eternal loves us, then we begin to foster the idea that others are special as well. We look outside ourselves and realize that everyone is made in God’s image and that nature itself comes from a loving Creator. We begin to treat others with respect. Of course the next step is that we consider nature as a gift from God as well. We can then make the transformation from those who care about the environment to stewards of the earth. The world then becomes an avalanche of respect instead of a cesspool of hate and disdain.

So what would I say to that mother after reflecting on this?

Me: “Did you know that you are as special to the world as the young girl you almost ran over?”

How can I improve on that statement? I would love to hear your respectful answers.

The Art of the Green Bean

Today I picked seven gallon bags of green beans from our garden. I love the fresh summer produce!

Since we didn’t get our garden in until later this summer, we’re just receiving the first fruits. These are the best. The plants are still young and the beans are tender.

As the summer progresses however, the beans change too. They are still tasty but you have to pick them before they grow too large; otherwise they’re a little tough. Also, as the plant starts to mature, the bean size and shape change. Instead of the smooth long thin bean, most of the beans have a variety of shapes. Some bulge at the end and remain skinny at the stem, while others are formed well except for a scrawny part in the middle.

I’ve always wondered why this is and what I can do to prevent it. Then it hit me today. Once again nature mirrors our human condition.

When we are young, we are strong and lean and nothing can stop us. As we age, we tend to bulge in the middle or sag in other places. When we are young, we are idealistic about ourselves and others. Age however, changes us too. We become pessimistic, we doubt our fellow man and we typically become jaded by life experiences.

I can’t help but wonder if my bean plants are a gift from God to remind me to remain tender and strong. I can’t help but think they are a gentle reminder of what happens to us when we take life too seriously or engage in experiences that are not good for us.

So the next time you eat a green bean, know that not only has God provided you with a nutritional supplement for your body, but a spiritual reminder that life should not always be too serious and we cannot allow ourselves to become jaded by everyday events.