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SPEAKING IN THE LIGHT WITH PASTOR RUDY MARCH 10 2021

Life goes by so fast. We hear those words as children and still we can’t wait for Christmas to come every December. As we grow up, we get antsy and impatient and begin to long for those magical days to hit supersonic speed. It becomes a race of what is next on the horizon. We always want to be old enough! Old enough to go to kindergarten, to play little league, to go to high school, to date, to drive, to go to college, to get a job, to fall in love, to get married, to have kids, to see the grandkids, to stay alive and productive when others might hint that your best days are in the rear view mirror. And before you know it, you discover that the clock is no longer your friend and you won’t shed a tear if you never see a calendar again.

Maybe it’s time for anticipation to grow into appreciation. Rather than yearning for what’s next, what if we actually stuck around long enough for what it happening right now? Life has certainly changed lots since I first came on the scene. And while we have raced forward a zillion miles an hour in the fields of technology, how far have we truly come? If I had a choice right now of what time I could live in, I can tell you without hesitation that I would go back to the seasons that I couldn’t wait to leave. Lord, are we ever truly content and satisfied this side of heaven?

Over the weekend, I watched several old Movies on TCM. I like the old films. I always have preferred the entertainment of the 1940’s and 50’s over what is offered today. Some say I’m old fashioned. I like to refer to it as taste and standards. I could watch Margaret O’Brien cry all night long because whatever she is in, you can bet she is praying hard for somebody. And nobody lights up the big screen like Doris Day who they say is as wholesome as apple pie–but there is nothing wrong with that–and lots of ice cream. I don’t need raunchy words and gruesome special effects. I want faith, hope and a whole lot of love to inspire my hungry heart. You can watch the latest cable programs if you want to, but you will find me in Hope Valley on Sunday nights and Dodge City during the week. Life is not all that bad looking in glorious black and white!

Maybe it’s the sobering effect of being diagnosed with cancer that has opened my eyes even wider or maybe it’s just another level of my faith in God kicking into a higher gear, but I am not buying into the rhetoric that we are better off as a Nation now than we have ever been. There is far too much pride in humanity and not enough healthy humility when it comes to our behavior as a Country. The Bible teaches us that a healthy reverence and holy respect for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The presence of the Lord in a life provides the purpose and parameters by which we can make each moment matter. The minutes we spend now are actually invested into an eternity still to come. This means that I do not tell Heaven’s Headquarters how to guide life down here, but I look up to a Higher Power for my direction and duties. The Word of God in me translates to the reality of the Spirit living through me in the world we presently live in. I do not have to follow the crowd into the pit of despair if the Lord is calling me elsewhere. I can make a difference no matter how many breaths I may have left because Jesus has taught me how to breathe! When that hour comes that I take my last breath here, it will only transition into my first breath in Glory. This is why I am depending upon a new source of oxygen to fuel my journey while I am still here. Just like the astronauts on the moon need their space suits to function in a territory unfriendly to their bodies, I have decided to power up via prayer. How can I go wrong navigating by the two principles of loving God and loving others as He as loved me?

I think it is time we don’t worry so much about being politically correct as we care about being biblically literate and alive in our behavior of the very things we claim to believe. I can still long to be a Jimmy Stewart in a chaotic cartoon system. Just because it seems like the politics favor Mr. Potter for a quick fix, I am anchored to George Bailey and the practices of the Building and Loan. I am Gary Cooper in High Noon, not backing down to the mob mentality of situation ethics. I am Father O’Malley who will fight for the church while others lick their chops over tearing it down. I am dedicated to making music in the midst of the mess and singing loud when the censors try to silence my sermons of going God’s way even if nobody else longs to travel. I believe that who I am is not limited to the physical body that I am stuck in but the spiritual soul that God gave me that can still soar like an eagle even while going through radiation treatments. You can crawl if you want to but I am at my best when I fly and if you ask me, I believe the same things for you.

Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? And no, time is not on our side and we cannot stuff it all in a bottle even if we tried. If that is the case, the first thing that we need to do is to cherish every moment as if it were our last seconds to savor the lasting parts of life. And if I choose the values of yesteryear to still be my steering wheel of today, let Jesus take charge and lead me where there will always be a tomorrow and the guarantee that the best is yet to come. The four-letter words that I want to be known for are love and hope and life. For I know whom I have believed in and I am persuaded that He is able to hold tightly all that I have committed to Him until the day that I finally arrive to the land where we will never grow old.