Life Lessons from the National Parks

February 22, 2013

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith… Hebrews 12:1, 2

February is Black History Month, and a good time to again talk about the Buffalo Soldiers who, like their white counterparts in western U.S. Army regiments, were among the first national park rangers. These black soldiers fought in the Indian Wars, and were given their name by the Cheyenne and other Plains Indians, who thought their hair resembled the matted cushion between a buffalo’s horns.

About 500 Buffalo Soldiers served in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, and you can read more about them here and here. (If you’re interested in learning more about African American history as commemorated by the National Park Service, check out this site. The federal government also maintains a website about black history.)

Shelton Johnson, a ranger at Yosemite, portrays a Buffalo Soldier in a one-man show, and you can view a clip from it here. You may recall that Mr. Johnson had a big part in Ken Burns’ series on the national parks, and his story is an interesting one. If you search for both of these names in this blog, you’ll see that I’ve written about them before.

But I came across something about Mr. Johnson the other day I hadn’t seen. He’s featured in a video on the website of the National Parks Conservation Association, a parks advocacy group. The video’s introduction says, “Although our national parks belong to all Americans, it’s a sad fact that very few people of color ever set foot in some of our country’s most beautiful places. Take a journey to Yosemite National Park with the Amazing Grace 50+ Club, a Los Angeles-based senior church group whose members are looking to reverse that trend.”

Blacks are less likely to visit national parks, Mr. Johnson believes, because of a negative association toward wilderness, because they connect it with slavery and working the land. And yet—here is a positive piece of black history right in Yosemite! As a matter of fact, one of the women in the seniors group had a grandfather who was a Buffalo Soldier! You can see in the video how touched she was to relive a little of his experience.

The painful events of our past often intrude on the present. Sometimes it’s a fight not to let them hamper what we think, say and do now. But God provided a remedy for that tendency—He sent His Son to free us from the shackles that try to drag us down and rob us of the peace and joy He wants us to have (Psalm 16:11; John 10:10, 16:33).

Reconciliation with God brings reconciliation with the past (2 Corinthians 5:17-21), a decisive change that generates ongoing grace to redeem all that has gone before and all that will come—an historical fact that’s good to know every day and every month of the year!

Comments (1) Feb 22 2013

October 16, 2012

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come!  2 Corinthians 5:17

“Does Sandy Hook need a makeover?”

This intriguing headline in the newspaper caught my eye. This spit of land in New Jersey is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which also extends into Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens, three of the five boroughs that make up New York City.

I’ve been to the beach at Sandy Hook many times, and also wrote an article about the former Nike missile base there (tours are conducted there by a stalwart band of ex-Army volunteers). So any mention of the place stirs my interest.

It seems that the National Park Service plans to make some changes to Gateway and Sandy Hook over the next two decades—leasing buildings out to restaurants and lodging, adding campsites and increasing beach access, according the article in The Star Ledger. But there’s another alternative, too—leave it the way it is. The plans have been in the making for three years, and now the Park Service is seeking public input.

On the heels of this development, Star Ledger columnist Mark Di Ionno wrote more about the park to accompany a photo spread.  “Hedonism and history,” he mused, “while not perfect together [a play on New Jersey’s tourism motto: ‘New Jersey and You—perfect together’], peacefully coexist at Sandy Hook.” He was referring to the “clothing-optional” beach there, which shares the park with the remains of Fort Hancock, America’s oldest lighthouse and oceanic research centers. Poison ivy, too, which I learned (from reading this article) is the most prevalent dune plant there. “Without poison ivy, Sandy Hook would wash away,” says one information panel at the visitor center, according to Di Ionno. That really interests me, because I’m highly allergic to the plant, and just recently had to take steroids to clear up an inadvertent brush with it. Next time I’m at Sandy Hook, I will be very, very vigilant…

I tend to think of the word “makeover” as something like a new wardrobe, or a heavy application of makeup by someone trying to get me to buy new products.  And I guess that’s what the Park Service means for Sandy Hook—new amenities, a changed look. Not altering its basic features—the poison ivy’s gotta stay, I guess—just livening it up a bit.

If you’re anything like me, you spend an inordinate amount of time fixating on your outward appearance, sometimes wishing for a dramatic makeover to transform some part that doesn’t look as good as you’d like. If only I spent as much time on the inner me! I’m challenged by God’s words to the prophet Samuel, who was sent to the household of a man named Jesse, to anoint a replacement for King Saul. Before each of Jesse’s sons were paraded before Samuel, God told him, “Do not consider his appearance or his height…The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

And what is in our hearts? A look into my own isn’t pretty. Lying? Nobody taught me how—I managed to pick it up all by myself, from an early age. Selfishness? I practice that on a daily basis. Rage? Ditto (just watch me behind the wheel). Malevolent thoughts? Have you got a couple of hours for me to tell you about all the people who have gotten on my last nerve, including the ones I’d love to tell off?

Uh huh. Don’t tell me you can’t relate!

God knows all about that inner ugliness, those “secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21, Hebrews 4:12), which He calls sin and which can’t help but spill out, no matter how tight a lid we try to keep on them. Jesus nailed in it Luke 6:45: “For out of the overflow of [the] heart, [the] mouth speaks.”

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,” King David cried out after an especially sinful period in his life, “and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Today, God still listens to that penitential prayer—and He still answers. “Let Me give you a new heart! Let Me dwell there so My love and My power overcome all that meanness and hurt” (Ezekiel 36:26, John 14:23, Ephesians 3:14-19).

That kind of makeover has made all the difference in my life—and it will in yours, too.

Comments (1) Oct 16 2012

JANUARY 19, 2012

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.    1 Timothy 6:7

There was a significant burial at Pearl Harbor (more formally known as World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument) recently.

Frank Cabiness’s cremated remains were placed inside the U.S.S. Arizona, the battleship he served on which was sunk by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. It took nine years after his death for his family to fulfill his wishes, because they didn’t have the means to travel to Hawaii, but they made sure to finally get it done. “He said it was because that’s where he belonged,” said his son, in an article in The New York Times.

Many Arizona crewmembers who lived during the attack at Pearl Harbor have chosen the ship as the final resting place for their ashes; same with the nearby Utah, the only other battleship sunk that day that remains in the harbor. Most of the 1,177 sailors and Marines who died on the Arizona—more than any other ship or unit—are entombed on the vessel, which sank nine minutes after a Japanese bomb hit it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my family and I visited the Arizona memorial in September. As we solemnly stared at the wall listing the names of the dead, we watched as veteran after veteran saluted their fallen comrades.

I’m glad the Cabinesses were able to fulfill their father’s wish to be reunited with his lost shipmates. As the family can surely attest, though, his ashes were all that joined them. He didn’t take any possessions with him, even his most precious mementos.

Of course, as with all of us, whatever Mr. Cabiness left behind had to be dealt with somehow. The Times article notes that his survivors proudly retain the only thing he managed to leave the Arizona with when he escaped death 70 years ago—a watch stopped at 8:15, the moment when he hit the water after jumping from the ship.

Financial experts plead with us to make wills, to plan for the disposition of property and care of minor children. You decide how you want to distribute your earthy goods and who you want to raise your kids, and put it in writing, they caution, or the government will make the choice for you—and the results may not be what you wanted.

What’s usually not mentioned in the discussion of estate planning is a much more important matter that also must be taken care of this side of the grave. It concerns the only thing that does last beyond this life: the soul. We all must make provision for it before death, lest we lose our choice in its final disposition.

And yes, there is a choice:

I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction… Deuteronomy 30:15

Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…  Joshua 24:15

Indifference is a choice many make, the choice of not choosing, you might say. Maybe you don’t especially worry what happens to your possessions after you die: “I’ll be gone, what do I care?” But not choosing your soul’s ultimate destiny leads to unthinkable consequences:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.  2 Corinthians 5:10

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books where opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books…If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 21:12, 15  

Of course, you can choose not to believe—that’s also an option. That’s what the rich man did in a parable Jesus told in Luke 16:19-31. He supposed that a good time on earth would translate into the same after death. Instead, he found his soul in torment in hell. “Have pity on me,” he pleaded with Abraham far away in heaven, “for I am in agony in this fire.” But the patriarch replied, “Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”

“Warn my brothers, so they don’t end up here!” he begged. Abraham noted they already had all the information they needed to avoid his fate. “But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent,” the rich man finally implored. “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets,” Moses concluded, “they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead” (which is just what Jesus did!).

Why do people dither in making wills? The expense, possibly. Usually, though, I think it’s because they don’t want to think about death. The irony of that is—it’s inevitable! The odds of death are 100%! The question then becomes, why put all you’ve worked for and perhaps your children at risk?

We need to ask ourselves the same question about our soul. One major lesson from the parable in Luke is that it still remains alive after our body dies. So why bet the farm through either apathy or outright disbelief, and leave the unavoidable outcome to chance? “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Just as with a will, the time to do something about it is now, before it’s too late, because there’s no do-over after death.

God already has made provision for our souls. He’s made it clear He wants you and me with Him. He doesn’t send people to hell all by Himself; those who turn their back on Him have chosen that future themselves. And He doesn’t enjoy it in the least: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11).

Hopefully you’ve made a will. Would you go a step further and make a will for your soul, if you haven’t already? Choose to join me, not in body but in spirit, in a glorious heaven where there’s no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4), and where we’ll be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Because that is where we truly belong.

Comments (2) Jan 19 2012

July 12, 2010

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:6, 7

The newest unit of the National Park Service—number 392—will be dedicated this Saturday, July 17. It’s a fitting date for the ceremony, coming 66 years to the day after the tragic incident the site memorializes.

The American Merchant Marine at War website and the Naval Historical Center tell the story best. The Navy received authorization to construct an ammunition depot on San Francisco Bay just two days after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Port Chicago had been used as a shipyard during World War I, and was served by several railroad lines. Most of the ammunition arrived by train, and was held in boxcars located between protective concrete barriers. When it needed to be loaded on to ships, the train moved to the pier for the transfer. Loading went on around the clock.

The ammo included bullets, depth charges, and bombs (some weighing up to 2,000 pounds), and was moved manually by hand trucks, carts and cargo netting. As you might imagine, the work was extremely dangerous.

The men assigned to this backbreaking labor were African American. The officers were all white, reflecting the racial segregation of the time. All had received some training in cargo handling, but not in loading munitions. Add to that fact the tight deadlines the Navy was under to get the material to the Pacific Theatre of operation, a sense of competition to see who could load the most tonnage in an 8-hour shift, and threats of punishment if the work went too slowly, and it’s little wonder safety standards were often given short shrift.

On July 17, 1944 two merchants ships were being loaded on the pier. One already held about 4,600 tons of munitions. A locomotive and 16 boxcars sat nearby, waiting for their 429 tons of cargo to be transferred to the waiting vessels. At 10:18 p.m. witnesses described a ripping explosion and brilliant white flash, followed by thick smoke, a massive fire, and several smaller explosions that looked like fireworks. Then the heavily loaded ship went off, and the shock wave was felt as far away as Nevada. Pilots flying in a plane at 9,000 feet reported seeing shards of white hot metal as big as houses shoot past them.

All 320 men on duty that night were killed instantly, 202 of them black enlisted men assigned to the dangerous duty. Three hundred and ninety people—military personnel and civilians—were injured, including 233 of the black soldiers.

Less than a month later, the black Naval ordnance battalions were ordered to begin loading munitions again, this time at nearby Mare Island. Two hundred and fifty-eight of them refused, citing continuing safety concerns. All were court-martialed; most “merely” forfeited pay and were given dishonorable discharges, while 50 were sentenced to 8 to 15 years at hard labor. In January 1946, the men received clemency, and in 1999, President Clinton pardoned Freddie Meeks, one of the few still-living members who had received the harshest punishment.

Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial honors the memory of those who gave their lives or were injured in the explosion, recognizes all who served there, and commemorates the role the facility played during World War II. The park also teaches about segregation and civil rights, about learning from past mistakes and making things right.

Clemency. Pardon. These words represent mercy. Those shell-shocked soldiers certainly deserved it. The words also mean freedom, a fresh start. I’m not so sure all the men got that. I can only imagine the mental images and perhaps lingering physical wounds they endured, not to mention the further discrimination they faced in civilian life. Justice is one more concept embodied by those two words. The kind these men achieved was incomplete at best; even a presidential pardon can’t fully erase years of hurt and pain.

I am of course speaking humanly. God’s pardon is much more comprehensive, an all-inclusive deal. He includes it all: mercy (Titus 3:5, 6), freedom (John 8:36), a clean slate (Psalm 103:12) and a fresh start (2 Corinthians 5:17).

And justice? Well, let’s just say that God doesn’t give us what we deserve—separation from Him because of all the wrong things we say and do and think (Romans 3:10-12, 23). About 2,000 years ago, He sent His Son Jesus to take care of that (1 Peter 3:18). And only God has the power to make up for the past (Joel 2:25, Romans 8:28).

If you’ve never experienced the deep peace a pardon from God brings, He invites you to seek Him out for one.

Much better to get one before all hell breaks loose—figuratively and literally…

Comments (2) Jul 12 2010

May 3, 2010

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26

My favorite website about the national parks—aside from the National Park Service site, of course—is National Parks Traveler. A few weeks ago, founder and Editor-in Chief Kurt Repanshek wrote a review of a new book, Ranger Confidential: Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks, by former ranger Andrea Lankford.

The image of park rangers, as Mr. Repanshek notes, is as “fit and polite, beaming dazzling smiles, displaying knowledge that knows no bounds, armed with nerves of steel, and with dashing personalities” (undoubtedly, the spiffy uniforms and distinctive hat add to this illusion). This ideal, however, contrasts with many accounts in the book: “Ms. Lankford tells us of highly placed rangers who, when angered, throw tantrums, throw safety helmets, kick medical kits, smack fellow rangers in the head with paddles…[of] sexual harassment within the ranks [and] pitiful housing conditions for both rangers and concessions employees, of park employees killed on the job, of suicides in the parks.”

Amazon describes Ranger Confidential as a “graphic and yet surprisingly funny account of her and others’ extraordinary careers. Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed while holding that thin green line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other.”

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that park rangers have their faults and foibles; after all, they’re people just like us. The fact is, everyone stumbles and falls (Romans 3:23). None of us lives up to our ideals all the time, Christians included.

But sometimes we Christians forget that. We fall prey to the lie that we always have to be happy, act perfectly, and look like we have it all together in order to represent God properly. The struggle to maintain Christian idealism in the face of the hard facts of life—to be, as Jesus puts it, “shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16)—is one of the biggest challenges of living God’s way, I find. Being honest about how we find strength and help in the midst of temptations and trials is the best example of showing that God is real, loving and active in human affairs.

Mr. Repanshek concludes his review by saying, “What should be made of Ranger Confidential and the image of the Park Service it casts? In one respect, perhaps it should be realized that for an agency with some 20,000 employees, many who naturally are hard-charging and living on the edge, and whose budget is controlled not only by Congress but by political appointees, perfection cannot exist, no matter how idealistic the Park Service is viewed. And yet, despite the hardships and the inequities that exist in the agency, there is something to be said about wearing the gray and the green, as Ms. Lankford seems to imply in her closing words.”

Perfection doesn’t exist in the Christian life either, at least this side of heaven. And yet, despite the hardships and inequities that exist here on earth, there is something to be said about the uniform we wear as God’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20): “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

Comments (2) May 05 2010