Gramma

My parents are back in the States for about two months. I was tempted to say that they are home for two months but that really isn't true. While the United States has more or less become home for me, it may never really ever again be home for Mom and Dad. We moved two the Philippines in 1981. The United States was a very different country then. Ronald Reagan had just been sworn in and the Iranian government returned the embassy hostages. The Sears catalog was delivered to just about every home. Eight tracks could still be bought even though they were on their way out. The walkman had yet to be invented. Daisy Duke flaunted her stuff in shorty shorts but blatant talk of sex, orgasms and homosexuality were taboo on the airwaves. AIDS was unknown at the time. The internet was still so secret that Al Gore probably didn't know about it yet. So much has changed since the summer of 1981.
One of the nice things about Mom and Dad being back is that there is more motivation to go see Gramma. It isn't that I don't think about visiting Gramma while they are gone. Visiting Gramma can be a very difficult thing to do. She is now closer to 95 than 90 and her hearing is not quite what it used to be. This leads to a lot of repeating, writing things down and yelling on my part. For Gramma it leads to a lot of not quite being sure what I just said but being a champ and nodding. It is so much easier to visit Gramma when we can tag team.
I read a story the other day about a 4 year old boy who died of a seizure. The whole time I read the story I couldn't help but think about my nephew who is 4 right now. In the news article the people who knew the boy talked about how this little boy lived life for all he was worth. He was friends with everyone he met. Not the casual friend who waves but the kind of friend who wanted to carry the heaviest grocery bag for the neighbor lady, the kind of friend who reached out to the shyest kid in his preschool class, the kind of kid who remembered personal things about his elderly neighbors. Not only was the boy a friend to everyone but he excelled in baseball, playing as a stand in for teams with kids twice his age. He didn't just play stand in, he played harder and better than the kids on the team. Everything about him exuded life and a drive to experience as much as he could with that life. As I thought about my own nephew and what it would be like to lose him right now as he is just starting his life I couldn't help but mourn with the parents.
On the flip side is Gramma. She has lived in a tent and on a farm. She has been a nurse, is now a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She and Grandad traveled the world while they were healthy enough to do so. Sometimes it was to see the world, sometimes to see missionaries, sometimes to be missionaries, and at least once to be smugglers. She has served the community she lived in as a public health nurse and as a volunteer chaplain in the local jail and juvenile hall. She also was very active with the Good News Club. She and Grandad started a Good News Club booth at the county fair which has been imitated across the country. I could go on and on but I think that I have said enough to get the point across. In 90 some odd years Gramma has lived a very full life!
Tonight I joked with Dad about his future involving a walker like Gramma's. He made it very clear that he has no plans for a walker in his future. I thought about that for a bit. Almost no one plans for a walker in their future. There are a few folks who would love to have a walker in their future because it would mean freedom from the chair they are currently trapped in but for most of us a walker is a symbol of decline. No one plans to decline to the point that the assistance of a walker is needed just to get out of bed. The truth though is that some people have to adjust to life with one as they age. It is not a reflection on the weakness of the person. Gramma is one of the toughest people I know. It just might be a reflection on the toughness of the people who are willing to adjust to using a walker in order to be able to continue to walk.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are people who have great potential for greatness who we mourn when their lives are cut short. There are people with potential for greatness who live long enough to meet that potential and enjoy some of the fruits of that potential. Gramma's hearing loss, occasional befuddlement and walker might cause some to see her as a doddering old woman near the end of her life. None of us want to be at the point where we are in the same condition as her. I do think though that she has earned the right to a little befuddlement, a little wobble and requests that we repeat ourselves once or twice...or five times. What a life well lived!

Future

In church this morning we celebrated the love of God which lead to the birth of Christ which lead to the death of Christ on the cross. It was really cool that the pastor made that connection. I think that we often get so tied up in the birth of Christ and the joy of the season that we forget the reason for his birth. I did start thinking about more than just this in church though.
Here in the United States we are optimists. We tend to be optimistic about the people we elect to public office even as we bemoan the things they do once they get there. We are optimistic about our government even as we are enraged by some of the things done by our government. We are optimistic about the high sense of duty and ethics in our military even as we are embarrassed by the actions of some of them. We are optimistic about our economic future even as we lose our homes and jobs to foreclosure. We are nothing if not optimistic as a nation.
The same can be said of the evangelical American church. We are optimistic. We are optimistic that we can make a difference. We are optimistic that we can get people to walk into our church and embrace our message. We are optimistic that if we get our message on tv, radio and the internet people will not only listen but that lives will be changed. The evangelical movement is an optimistic movement.
Sometimes I wonder though if we are not a little too optimistic. A question that is often thrown out to us is how our good God can allow such bad things to happen in the world. The often goes right along with the question of how our good God can send good people to Hell.
Hell.
That is something we don't like to talk about if we can avoid it. It makes us uncomfortable. We don't like the doctrine of Hell. We don't like to think of friends, loved ones, leaders and heroes going to Hell. We don't like the looks on people's faces when the subject of Hell comes up. We don't like to be judged based on our belief in Hell. Often times evangelical figures are willing to water down the doctrine of Hell when put on the spot. Who wants to say that the Dalai Lama is going to Hell? The guy is a nice guy with such a nice message. He is an inspiration to so many so how can we possibly think of him going to...Hell?
The truth of the matter is that our current condition is bleak and our future is dismal. When God created the earth he created it and all in it to be perfect. He created mankind to have a relationship with him. He did so though while giving mankind the option of walking away from that relationship. Not only did mankind take this option, they hid from God. So here we have it in the Bible. In the first chapter God creates this perfect world. Seven verses into the third chapter and the whole picture changes from a bright and rosy one to disaster with one action. Instead of an eternity of fellowship with a loving God we were cursed to a short life on earth followed by an eternity of suffering in Hell, cut off from God forever. There was however a hope that was given. That hope was in one to come who would break the curse. At no point though would the curse be fully lifted from the earth. There would be a respite, but the earth was doomed.
So let's get back to this Hell thing. If most of us had our way their would be a token Hell where the Devil is sentenced to spend eternity with his good pals Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Genghis Khan. Everyone else would get a free pass to Heaven.
If this is the case then I have to believe that God is a sadist. We live in a world that is full of human pain and suffering and God seemingly does nothing to step in and put an end to things. If all but the worst people are going to go to Heaven then why does God allow us to suffer here on earth? Why not just start the party down here? On top of that, without a firm doctrine of Hell God further establishes his sadist credentials by sending Jesus to die a pointless and excruciating death on the cross. He is sent, born, spends all this time telling us how to be good people and dies the most painful death we can imagine all for nothing. God is not longer a good God but some kind of mad cosmic scientist laughing maniacally at his experiment gone horribly wrong. It is ok though because he will fix it in the end.
No, the truth is that God sent his son to die because we screwed things up. Life on earth is rough because sin is alive and well in every one of us. We choose to do things our way instead of following the path that the good God set for us. When we suffer as a consequence of our sin and the effect that sin has had on our world we cry out to God to stop the suffering for us. When He doesn't we question His goodness. In reality our miserable existence here on earth serves only to remind us of our grim future. Hell.
This is why it is so important for us to have a solid doctrine of Hell. God isn't a god who's main interest in making us feel good about ourselves while we are here on earth. He is interested in saving our souls. That means that there must be something that we need saving from. Since God can't tolerate sin He must condemn all that belongs to sin, including humanity, to Hell. Only by the sacrifice of His son can anyone be saved. This is why Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me." God's goodness is that that He takes away the consequences of our sin but that he provided a way for us to escape our future in order to spend eternity with him. We can not fault God if we choose to ignore the way he has provided for us. Instead we must accept the truth that when given the option of following the way God provided the majority of people refuse it.
Ultimately we must not only accept the doctrine of Hell but we must also accept that we are not in the business of sending people to Hell. We are called to toss out the life ring to everyone. We will not sit on the judgement throne and condemn people to Hell. God alone will sit on that throne. It is important though that we do not shrink away from the doctrine of Hell. We must embrace it.
Human suffering and Hell do not make God evil. Human suffering and Hell demonstrate God's goodness in that he sacrificially provided an escape from it for all who obediently place their faith in Jesus Christ. We as a church should find the root of our optimism in our salvation by a good God from Hell.