Have you ever had a theme day? Perhaps I should explain what I mean by “theme day”. A theme day is a day in which a similar set of circumstances continues to reoccur so that, even someone as unobservant as I, begins to see a pattern, and perhaps even a message.

Last week I had a theme day. It began with a call from my friend, Russ, in Ottawa. Russ used to attend Keele, but then he had to find a new church family as a result of relocating. It was great to hear from Russ and catch up with him. I left that conversation refreshed and encouraged.

Next was an email from a friend who used to attend Keele who now lives in Peterborough. Peter was studying in Mark and recalled that I had preached through Mark so he checked out our website and discovered our new sermon section. It was great to hear from Peter and I was deeply encouraged by the fact that he: 1) Remember that I once preached through Mark; and 2) was still interested enough in what I preached that he tried find it. But, what excited me most was that his tremendous hunger for the Word continues. There is no greater encouragement for a preacher than someone who understands the value of Scripture.

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I am not the smartest guy on the planet and I am certainly not the best looking guy on the planet either. Some of you might find that hard to believe; the rest of you have met me. Neither am I the most agile, the strongest, the funniest, most charming, or even the most cuddly—although I am probably in the top ten in that last category.

I have often wondered what it is that I have that sets me apart from anyone in the crowd, besides my delusions of grandeur, that is. If I were forced to decide and come up with an answer—I am also not the most decisive guy either—I would have to say that it is probably that I am persistent. I don’t give up easily. I keep at it. I work hard. I try hard. If I have any success at the things I attempt, it’s most likely because of my effort, not my talent. Still, what little pride I have in my persistence quotient has now been stripped away by a 68 year-old South Korean woman. You see, Cha Sa-soon, the woman of which I speak, has recently passed her driver’s test. Big deal you say, what is so great about that? Well, the big deal is that it took her 950 tries!

Apparently she has been trying to get her licence since April of 2005. That is 950 tests in four years. Do the math—we are talking roughly 238 tests taken per year, with a cost of 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees. Yes, this is certainly a big deal! Oh and by the way, she has only passed the written test to this point. Now she has to work on the driving exam itself!

I guess I could look at this a couple of different ways: Either I could be concerned that it took her 950 tries to get 60% on a driver’s test, or I could focus on the fact that she has a downright inspiring level of determination. I choose to take the high road with option two because I live on the other side of the world—far, far away from any vehicle she might ever find herself driving.

Cha Sa-soon needed the licence for her vegetable-selling business. In other words, there was a reason for her determination outside of the fact that she wanted a driver’s licence. I doubt that just a desire for a driver’s licence would have put enough gas in her tank to get her to take the test almost a daily for four years!

As Christians we sometimes forget that salvation isn’t our primary goal. It is merely our spiritual driver’s licence that puts us on the road to an adventure that will take us to all kinds of destinations in our relationship with Jesus. Thankfully our salvation doesn’t require the same kind of determination that Cha Sa-soon showed in getting her driver’s test. Jesus has already taken the test for us. But I would suggest that your spiritual journey does require determination, if you are going to get the best mileage from your faith and reach all the destinations along the way that Christ has entered into your Spiritual GPS.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:1-2)

source:MSNBC

It was a cold day. The snow had a layer of fluffiness over a harder, crunchier, icier bottom. The inlet from Lake Ontario was frozen. Ducks had given up swimming and taken up their less-than-graceful equivalent to skating. The ice was full of greens and blues. White-greyish lines, where the ice had cracked and healed and cracked again, crisscrossed the surface like an alien roadmap.

After watching the comedy of “Ducks on Ice” for a while, I decided to go down to the lakeshore. There I found ice-covered driftwood and huge clusters of breakwater rocks covered with inches of ice as each crashing wave contributed its own thin coat.

At one point I was going to venture out onto the pier that marked the entrance into the inlet, but then I saw ice everywhere and I changed my mind. I didn’t want to slip and fall. I didn’t want to drop my camera. I didn’t want to get wet. OK, I was being a wimp. (I prefer to call it “being wise”, if you don’t mind.)

As I walked further down the shore and looked back I couldn’t help but be impressed by what I saw. The railing of the pier had been completely covered with ice. I’m not just talking about ice around the railing, I am talking about sheets of ice that went down the sides of the railing; connecting the horizontal supports with the handrail above them.

Such a sight was “cool” enough but there was “icing” on this cake–the lake was expressively expressive! As the waves hit the pier with considerable force, they came up against the side of the pier and swelled to what can only be considered Hawaii 5-0 proportions.

As I watched the beautiful form of these waves come, one after another, I took the photo that accompanies this account. Note the top of the head of a small boy that is just tall enough to be seen over the handrail. There he stands, in a place I was too wise to venture. Ah the hubris of youth! How reckless! How irresponsible! Kids!

The only problem with my irresponsible kid theory, though, was that this little guy was standing, hand-in-hand with his grandfather. Grandparents! Granddad must have lost it! Maybe he didn’t like his grandson? Maybe his grandson was a holy terror? Maybe he wanted him to “wave” goodbye—literally? Somehow though, they looked like they were having a great time together, don’t they? Ice all around. Waves so close you could almost touch them. Spray everywhere.

As I look at this photo now, I still hold to my initial assessment of the danger of standing where they were. I was right and they were wrong. I was wise and they were foolhardy. Still there has to be a lesson to be learned somewhere in all this, don’t you think? What do you think the lesson is? The one thing I DO know is that the lesson doesn’t have anything to do with a little kid and an old man being braver than anyone else!

I think the lesson is simply this–it’s not where you are, it’s who you are with. Even a dangerous place can be safe if your hand is in the hand of someone bigger who is able to protect you.

It seems to me that there was once this guy named Peter who got a bit scared because of the waves that surrounded him. He had a good reason to be scared. The waves were high and he was starting to sink! But, just as he started to sink, Jesus reached out his hand and everything changed. Notice though, that the waves weren’t calmed until Peter and Jesus got back into the boat. Peter was still out in the waves. So what kept him above the water wasn’t a safer environment, it was simply that his hand was in the hand of someone bigger who was able to hold him up (Matthew 14:29-32).

It’s not where you are, it’s who you are with. The next time you are afraid, think about who you’re with. Or, more correctly, think about who is with you!

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20b)