Life Lessons from the National Parks

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners.  Isaiah 61:1

I’ve been away from my blog for too long—but I’ve been busy for the cause!

Yes, my sacrifice for the sake of scouting out national parks was to go to Hawaii. Such a hardship. You’ll be reading about the life lessons I learned at the parks there in future posts.

For now, though, I bring you news about an exciting celebration happening tomorrow, Friday, a little closer to home. The Statue of Liberty is celebrating its 125^th anniversary!

Morning festivities include a citizenship ceremony (for a little insight into what that’s like, see the article I wrote for USA Today), music, readings and a “water parade” in New York harbor, all presided over by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. A new “torch webcam” will begin operation, offering bird’s-eye views from Lady Liberty’s torch 24/7. The day ends with a bang—literally—with fireworks, which will be streamed live over the website.

All these events mirror the dedication of the Statue on October 28, 1886, when President Grover Cleveland dedicated “Liberty Enlightening the World,” a gift of friendship from the people of France. A fireworks display topped that day, too, along with a flotilla of ships, and New York City held its first ever ticker tape parade.

I was just reminiscing with a friend about how we celebrated the Statue’s centennial in July, 1986. Joe and I had scored three free tickets to a concert to be held at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, right across the harbor from Lady Liberty (she actually is closer to New Jersey than New York; unfortunately, her, uh, backside is to us. No Jersey jokes please…). So the two of us and a friend made our way over there on July 3. I had just found out I was pregnant, which added to the excitement.

What I remember most from that night was that it was very windy, and the organizers had worked out this elaborate but terribly inefficient system of having us concertgoers park far away, and then transporting us by bus to the actual concert site. Needless to say, it was a madhouse afterwards, and we didn’t get home until early morning of the next day.

That evening, Joe thought it would be fun if we went up to the top of the tower at the college where he worked in Jersey City, which would offer a great view of the New York/New Jersey harbor (this is also where he watched the World Trade Center towers burn and collapse years later). We’d be able to see the relighting of the torch, which had just been refurbished, and the accompanying fireworks.

Problem was, the way up there is…a challenge. It involves climbing two vertical ladders, crouching along an attic walkway, and ends in an awkward scramble to the roof. We had invited another couple, who brought along their baby. Hauling him up was quite a feat.

Once we got situated (in chairs that Joe brought up), we quickly became chilly, because it was still very windy, so Joe traipsed back down to the theatre’s costume shop and got us some warmer clothes. We listened to the ceremonies on the radio (which Joe also carried up), and when President Reagan threw the switch for the torch, we oohed and aahed. And boy, did Joe pick a good spot for the fireworks!

Getting back down was downright scary. You have to make a small leap from the roof to the first ladder, and our friends were beside themselves trying to figure out how to do it with their son. Finally, Joe lashed the baby to himself with some of the costume shop clothes, and bounded over to the ladder (he brought him down the second ladder the same way). And did I mention I was six weeks pregnant?

But I digress.

Liberty is an overarching theme in Scripture. The verse I quoted at the beginning describes the ministry of the Messiah in a nutshell, prophesized by Isaiah some 700 years before Jesus’ birth. In the gospel of Luke, the writer relates the story of the day when Jesus entered the synagogue, was handed the book of Isaiah, and read that same passage. “He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:16-20).

Let’s just say that all the good feelings they had for Him before (vv. 15, 22) quickly dissipated (vv. 28, 29). How dare He make that claim!

Ah, but it’s true:

–“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2)

–“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:32, 36)

–“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Don’t believe the lie that Christianity is merely a set of do’s and don’ts, a long list of “thou shalt nots,” of rules and regulations not relevant or applicable to modern times. The problems of yesterday are the problems we still face today—worry, fear, grief, loneliness, trying to figure out what life’s all about—and the Bible addresses them all. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,” Jesus tenderly pleads in Matthew 11:28-30. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.

This “perfect law, the law of liberty” (James 1:25, 2:12) is freely available for all who believe in Jesus, God’s Son (John 1:12, 8:31). There are no ladders to climb, nothing to do but take a (yes, sometimes scary) leap of faith. Jesus has already done all the heavy lifting and made provision for every need.

But I promise you (and more importantly, God promises you—2 Peter 1:4, 3:13) that the result is really worth it.

Comments (5) Oct 27 2011

January 5, 2011

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? Romans 6:16

I’m back from a hiatus over the Christmas/New Year holidays. It’s been good for the most part, except for that two feet of snow…

So let me jump in with a topic that’s not a very comfortable one for many people: slavery. President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation is the latest addition to Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, home to a slew of sites relating to our nation’s early history. The open-air, stylized reproduction of the house (the original was demolished in 1832) stands near the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

The President’s House tells the story of the executive branch of our government, because it’s where our first two commanders-in-chief—George Washington and John Adams—served their terms of office. But the most controversial part of the exhibit is about slavery. Washington, who had 300 slaves at his Virginia plantation, brought nine slaves with him to Philadelphia (Adams never owned any). Video re-enactments in the house give a sense of what it may have been like to live enslaved in Washington’s household, as the characters speak from the perspective of the slaves.

The project was more than eight years in the making, and evoked much public debate and even street demonstrations, undoubtedly because it intertwines the story of the revered “Father of Our Country” with the uneasy topic of slavery. As the National Park Service website puts it, “The President’s House…was a mirror of the young republic, reflecting both the ideals and contradictions of the new nation. The house stood in the shadow of Independence Hall, where the words ‘All men are created equal’ and ‘We the People’ were adopted, but they did not apply to all who lived in the new United States of America.”

The President’s House is believed to be the first federal memorial of enslaved Africans. Isn’t that interesting? A long time coming, I’d say.

A quick search on Google will show you there’s also a lot of controversy over slavery in the Bible. It would take waaay too long for me to delve into that subject here. I’ll just point to Ephesians 6:5-9 as a very simple summary, an acknowledgement that slavery existed, along with the exhortation for both masters and slaves to do what is right because their ultimate Master “is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.” It’s reiterated in Galatians 3:28. If you want to dig deeper, I suggest you talk with a trusted pastor, because a lot of the stuff I found on the Internet comes from iffy sources.

But those verses lead me to the spiritual point I want to make: everybody serves something or someone. Uh huh, I can just hear a few of you out there disagreeing: “Not me; I’m my own person.” But really, isn’t that what it all boils down to, serving yourself? And serving yourself means serving your own appetites and desires—pleasure, experiences, money, power, fame…the list goes on and on.

Serving yourself also excludes serving God. “No one can serve two masters,” Jesus rightly asserted in Matthew 6:24, “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other.” Nope, there’s just no room for the real Number One when we’re only looking out for number one.

The apostle Paul hammers away at this message over and over again in the New Testament book of Romans, starting off with a bang in the first chapter, with his searing indictment of the human race: “Professing to be wise, they became fools…they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (1:22, 25). The result? Degradation, greed, envy, strife, deceit, malice, gossip and arrogance, among other things (1:26-31). If you don’t recognize at least some of these traits in yourself, then I suggest you ask a close friend—he or she will probably be more than happy to point them out in you! Sadly, I can identify with nearly all of them.

And whoever commits any sin—that is, all we say, do or think that is contrary to God—becomes its slave (John 8:34).

Eventually, these consequences catch up with us, both here and now and for eternity. Shame is one result (Romans 6:21); death is another (Romans 1:32; 6:21, 23). That’s a spiritual deadening in this life and separation forever from God in the next. “Do not love the word, nor the things in the world,” the apostle John writes in 1 John 2:15-17. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life [that about covers it all, doesn’t it?], is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts…”

Oh, but there’s good news! I can’t leave out the last part of 1 John 2:17: “but the one who does the will of God abides forever.” We don’t have to be slaves to sin! Jesus freed us from the power it has over us (John 8:36, Romans 6:22). We can turn from that path and go from being sin’s slave to His (Romans 6:22, 1 Peter 2:16, 1 John 1:9). As one African American pastor summed it up, “Slavery is acceptable [only] if your master is God.”

Master, slave, sin, lust…these are uncomfortable words. Just like the new Philadelphia exhibit, they provoke debate and even public demonstration.

I’ve only skimmed the surface of this enormous subject.  But here’s the bottom line question.

Whose slave are you?

Comments (3) Jan 06 2011

November 29, 2010

In Jesus was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:4

If you see a large glow in the sky over Washington County, Maryland this Saturday, don’t be alarmed. It’s just the luminaria.

Every year on December’s first Saturday, Antietam National Battlefield sets out sand-and-candle-filled bags to honor all the casualties of the bloodiest one-day battle in American military history.

Care to guess how many that is?

23,110. That’s one luminaria for each Union and Confederate soldier killed, maimed or lost on September 17, 1862.

A staggering number, isn’t it?

The bags are placed along a five-mile route through the battlefield. Apparently it’s quite a popular drive-through event—the park’s website warns that the line of cars to get in can be up to two hours long (no pedestrians allowed).

If you can’t get there, the site has a seven-and-a-half minute video explaining how the preparation is done, which includes panoramic shots of what the illumination looks like. Very moving.

Light is a central theme in Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas. We have an Advent wreath in our house—4 purple tapers surrounding a while pillar candle—and we do readings every night relating to this season when we celebrate Jesus’ birth. Each candle has a theme that centers on the Christmas story—prophecy, shepherds, angels and wise men. The one in the middle is for Jesus, whom the apostle John describes as “life,” “the light of men” and “the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:4, 9). Jesus called Himself “the light of the world,” providing “the light of life” to all who follow Him (John 8:12; 9:5; 11:9-10; 12:35-36, 46).

The Savior came into the world at a dark time for the nation of Israel. Nearly 2,000 years passed since any inspired prophet had arisen in the land, 400 between the completion of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament writings.  I’m sure God’s people wondered when the Messianic prophesies were going to be fulfilled, and many were undoubtedly disappointed to realize they would never see them come to pass in their lifetime.

And yet…God was still at work. I won’t get into the events that occurred during that time that paved the way for Christ’s coming, but you can read about them in this article by Bible teacher Ray Stedman.

Needless to say, the Israelites were ready for some word, some revelation from God. And when that light came, that “good news of a great joy” (Luke 2:10), it was in the form of a baby, God in human form, who “became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

While I was on the Antietam website, I read a little more about the battle. The savage twelve-hour combat engaged nearly 100,000 men from both armies, concluding when Confederate General Robert E. Lee withdrew back across the Potomac River to Virginia, thus ending what had been his first invasion of the North.

I imagine the Union Army must have seen the outcome as a good news/bad news sort of victory. So horrible a fight, so many lost (if they’d known that the war was going to continue on for another two-and-a-half years, they would have been further disheartened).

And yet…a major victory had been won.

And that wasn’t all. Lee’s retreat gave President Lincoln the opening he’d been waiting for, to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery.

Many of the soldiers memorialized at Antietam never lived to know how much good their sacrifice accomplished for their country. But we do, and that is why we honor them.

Generations of Israelites also left this world not knowing that, as the beloved Christmas hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” puts it, “the hopes and fears of all the years” were met.

But we do. And that is why we memorialize Him, lighting our candles in a dark world to honor Him who brought good news amid the bad by making the greatest sacrifice of all, dying for the entire world “at the right time” and reconciling us to God (Romans 5:6-11).

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.”

Comments (3) Dec 02 2010