Lift-off

Do you remember when you were a little kid and were simply amazed by something -- left in awe of how it works? I do, and it's the same feeling I had this morning as I watched Discovery end the two-and-a-half year pause in space shuttle lift-offs. Simply amazing.

Before the launch, they went through so much information detailing the improvements made since the Columbia loss and even improvements made in the past few weeks... I couldn't help but think, "How does it work?" "What's that?" "Whoa, that's cool!"

Wonder.

That's what it is. Seeing something so awesome that you just want to know more about it, how it works, how it does what it does. I grew up watching space shuttles lift-off on tv. I've even run (quite literally) to the ride at Walt Disney World that simulates a shuttle lift-off and jumped into it. It brings out the kid in me... the kid that just stares at the tv this morning, asking to myself tons of questions about how this thing works, "what does this do?", "wow..."

It's like legos (and why I still have thousands of them at the age of twenty). It's why older guys like fixing up old cars. It's why people travel and insist on doing things that the natives do (and not what they do back home). It's about climbing through a cave, or scuba diving at a reef or shipwreck. It's adventure. It's seeing something new, learning something new, and one of the most awesome feelings we'll ever have on earth.

I pray that one day my kids (should God decide to bless me with any) have the same since of wonder about the space shuttle that I have. That they long for adventure. That they open their eyes to see... and open their minds to discover.

God speed, Discovery... see you when you get home, and can't wait to hear what it was like!

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The Map on my Wall

As I write this, I sit here looking at a map hanging on my wall of Charleston Harbor and Approaches. For those of you who don't know, I live in South Carolina and have a good deal of family roots in the Charleston area, as most all of my family who emigrated to America after the sixteenth century came through this port. I love the Charleston area and the diversity you can find there. One 300-year old building stands next to a newly constructed place of business. On the outskirts you find plantations, and in others you find the solitude of undeveloped coastal paradise nestled along rivers and the intercoastal waterway. On some beaches you find awesome waves, and it's hard to beat the endless supply of fish and shrimp coming in daily.

Looking at this map tonight, though, different thoughts come to mind. I wonder what it was like when a map like this wasn't to be found anywhere. When Columbus set-out to find India, not knowing two huge continents stood in his way. When Lewis and Clark set-out to reach the Pacific, knowing that there was an ocean to reach, but not knowing how far or what kind of terrain they would cross. When Hernando de Soto hiked not to far from where I sit to discover the unknown.

Can you imagine the wonder? I try to experience this every time I travel... finding something new, venturing into somewhere that I don't know exactly where I am. It's not quite the same, as there are few places above water and below the heavens that aren't mapped out yet. That leaves me imagining what it might have been like...

To be sailing around the tip of Africa for the first time to find a sea-route to India...

To set-out on three not-so-grand boats, when everyone else is sure you're going to fall off the earth, to seek a shorter route, and then making the greatest discovery of land ever made...

To set-out West to cross fields and forests, cross the mighty Rocky mountains and the swift rivers flowing Westward in search of the largest ocean on earth...

Can you imagine? How awesome is it to discover something new -- to go through uncharted territory and be amazed by everything you see?

You see, the trick is, you can always look at it like this. Every time I look up at the map on my wall, I think about something different. Every time I drive from my house to Jacksonville and back, I see new things along the way. I could see the same thing every time, but I choose not to. I make a conscious decision to be in wonder... to continually be amazed by the awesomeness of the world God has created around us.

We are all explorers, charting our way through uncharted territory. No one has lived our life before... and no one has seen God's creation the exact same way we see it. Be in wonder. Discover. It really is an awesome thing... because with Him, map or no map, you'll never really ever be lost.

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Shining City Upon a Hill ii

Culture.

The very word brings confusion, frustration, anger, discernment, enlightenment, encouragement, curiosity, freedom, and faith.

I live in an American culture… a culture where when people want something, they get it. If they can’t get it then, it becomes a goal, which they will focus on achieving until they get it. I live in a culture that doesn’t know what it is like to not have running water, electricity, telephone, television, internet connections, literacy, air conditioning, central heat, means of personal transportation, adequate mass transportation, and so much more.

Recently, I’ve been spending a bit of time in the Bahamas, in a little village called West End. Over the past few months, I’ve spent five weeks there helping to rebuild homes damaged by two category 4 hurricanes in September ’04. I’ve learned that not everywhere has air conditioning, adequate transportation, running water that is drinkable, internet connections, literacy, and telephones that work properly. This village is still getting some of these things, and others they may not fully have for many years.

The Bahamas is close to the United States, and therefore has a lot of things that the US has. Not everything – but a good bit.

Presently I’m reading a book by a guy from India, telling about the culture there and his first encounter of American culture at JFK Airport in NYC. He wasn’t amazed by the architecture, the size of buildings, etc (understandably since his culture built things of the same size hundreds of years ago… just think Taj Mahal). He was amazed by how we take the simple parts of our culture for granted. We aren’t thankful for them – rather, they’re an expectation.

I think these things could be referred to as “the simple things”, but even then, we may be degrading them to merely an “expectation” or a “right” that we have. So, I’m going to call them luxuries. Twelve months ago, a luxury in my eyes would be a nice, shiny, new Mercedes-Benz sitting in my driveway, fully paid-off and with a full tank of premium gasoline, not to mention the newest innovations in audio technology. Now, a luxury is my seven-year-old Honda Accord, well over the 100k mile marker. A luxury is sitting in a house that is 70 degrees when it is 94 outside. A luxury is flipping the light switch in every room and a light coming on… and if it’s burnt out, having a new 4-pack of lightbulbs in the laundry room to replace it. A luxury is being able to write what I’m writing now and, moreover, to know more than ten people who have the ability to read it.

With this said, I live an incredibly luxurious lifestyle. I read four books a week, listen to CDs on a daily basis, drive just about anywhere I want to go, type on a $1400 laptop computer that I have to share with no one, and eat three meals a day (plus some snacks, like freshly-cut watermelon… yum). I’m not quite sure they would agree, but I’m tempted to put myself in the same boat with professional athletes, corporate CEOs with private jets, movie stars, and just about everyone in the United States, as we are all living luxurious lifestyles. Being homeless in this country carries similar privileges of having a home and job in some other “necks of the woods”.

I am an American. I am proud of who I am and where I’ve come from and where I live and call home. Even so, I’m striving to be more aware of how blessed I am, how privileged I am to live in America, and saying more and more, “God, you’ve blessed us… please teach us that it’s time to bless everyone else.”

It’s time to wake-up and smell our freshly-brewed cup of Christian crack (aka, Starbucks coffee) and realize that God already has blessed this shining city upon a hill… now it’s time to take that light and shine for all to see. It’s not about taking our culture and imposing it… it’s about appreciating that of others and sharing with them the blessings God has had on us.

That, my friend, is the American spirit. Is it still in us?

-gcm . july 18, 2005
powdersville, south carolina

Shining City Upon a Hill i

Joyful, joyful we adore thee. How glorious is your name, your presence, your spirit, your Son, your love. Simply thinking of your majesty brings joy to my soul.

My greatest love is for my Father, my creator, my God. Below that is the love I have for my mother, my father, and my brother here on earth. One of my other great loves, though, one which I am passionate about, is the love I have for the country in which I live. When I think of the United States of America, I remember to when my first ancestors came over across a sliver of land from modern-day Russia, later to be called Native Americans. I think of others who came on boats from Portofino, Italy; from Malahide, Ireland; from Killarny, Ireland; from Southern England. They all came at different times, in different courses of American history. The first before any else knew there was an America, so much that they were named “Indians” by their discoverer. Some others who came in the late fifteenth century to find San Salvador and claim this land for Spain. Some others who came throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to settle the British colonies across the eastern seaboard. Some others during a potato famine in Ireland. Some others to escape the poverty of the Industrial Revolution in England. My history is beautiful, and in many ways typical of most Americans. I am proud of it, and excited of the stories that it brings. One day I hope to visit where all of my roots have come from.

All of my ancestors came to a place for a better life. For adventure. For love. For a higher quality of life. For joy. When they first saw this country, they were filled with excitement for what awaited. I can just imagine the faces of my ancestors from Southwest Ireland catching their first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as they arrived in America. Hope was in their faces, in their hearts.

Today, I sit here the product of these many adventures. Only one other person in the world shares this same story – my little brother, whom I love dearly. We love our country the same. Two hundred and twenty-nine years ago today, a group of men gathered in a room to take the biggest leap of faith they would ever take. They defied a king. They sought freedom from tyranny. They sought a new way of life, where freedom was every man’s right. Where liberty, justice, and brotherhood was abundant. For many of them, this leap of faith was part of a much larger faith – their faith in God. This was a spiritual journey for some of them. Their prayer for America was to be free from England. To be our own nation.

That we are. England is no longer our leader – rather in many ways, we now lead England. We are no longer a colony, but in just eleven score and nine years, we have become the most prosperous nation on the earth. In the words of one of our greatest leaders, a “shining city upon a hill.”

My prayer as I sit here today, reflecting upon where I have come from, and where I have been, is that we truly live up to this great leader’s description of our homeland.

In the place that I call home, forty years after Rev. King’s dream, the most segregated place you can find is no longer the water fountains. It is no longer the seats on a bus. It is no longer the places of schooling for children. Rather, it is the places of worship for all. In the United Methodist Church, we speak ‘under the table’ of the “black churches” and the “white churches”. Many of both are dying because of little enthusiasm. Why not truly live up to our name – “united” – and make one church, filled with excitement and fervor for God almighty?

In the nation which I love so dearly, whose history is as colorful as it is beautiful, why do we set aside one faith and call it “barbaric” and fear coming near our brothers who worship differently from how we do? Muslims are not ravages. Muslims are not terrorists. Muslims are our brothers. Whether or not we want to admit it openly, God created them just as He created us. And, in the words of Brian McLaren, please allow be to believe that the same God that created the earth and the heavens may also have the wisdom to teach different cultures to worship Him in different ways.

Distant relatives of mine have been ever-present in the shaping of this nation. From congressmen in the first and second Continental Congress, to military leaders, to presidents. My prayer is that they may help America realize the dreams of those who led before them. Reagan wasn’t talking about shiny weapons to greet our brethren. He was talking about being a faithful nation believing in God, and shining by sharing their love – His love – with all of the nations.

We call ourselves a “Christian nation”, more so than any other culture upon the earth. Jesus – the leader of the Christian faith – taught love. Call me a hippie if you’d like, without the marijuana, but I really believe that we’ve lost the love. Black Eye Peas must also agree with this through their song, “Where is the love?”

In sharing the same spirit of my forefathers eleven score and nine years ago, I long and desire to see a revolution. I desire to see a nation that spreads His love to all of the nations, and truly becomes a shining city upon a hill. A nation under God, with liberty and justice for all of the world.

-gcm . july 2, 2005
west end, grand bahama island