Home Again

After two week of traveling and visiting, it is great to be home again and to sleep in our own bed. Even Smokey seemed happy to go for a walk around our own neighborhood.

Being home also means catching up. We both have sermons to prepare for this Sunday, a pile of mail to go through, and tons of emails to sort and read. Reading emails this morning brought up an interesting subject.

Please don't be offended by what I am going to say here, but do think about it. There seem to be a lot of emails circulating these days with the basic message of "Pass it on ... or else." Some of these play on basic superstitions, some play on Mark 8:38 (Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.").

Of course, those that quote Mark usually truncate the passage, so that it is no longer in context. Even out of context, though, this should not carry the message that failure to forward an email means that you are ashamed to say that you are Christian, or that you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Not forwarding an email may mean that you have already seen it 100 times; it may mean that you do not believe in forwarding emails which deliver an ultimatum. It may mean that you just don't forward most emails.

The ones that I think bother me the most are the ones that promise that dire things will happen if you don't forward them. I take my faith much more seriously than I do these superstitious threats. Quoting Paul, (Romans 8:38-39) "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." This is much stronger than any perceived threat contained in an email.

For those who forward emails like this to us, don't be offended but know that we are not likely to forward them or to respond. Occasionally, if there is something in an email that is really good, I will edit the "bad" out of it and then pass it on. Maybe this is an idea that we can all take on - edit this superstitious stuff out of emails then forward them and see if they come back later in the form we started. Replace the threat with this quote from Paul, or this one from John 13:34 "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." No threat attached, just the love of Christ, as it is given to us.

In the meantime, please keep in touch, and keep us in your prayers as we begin the packing process. In the next 3 weeks, we have to pack and be ready to move for internship. Please also pray for someone to rent our house. We have talked with several seminary students about this, but so far, we do not have a renter. I don't even want to think of the financial impact this will have on us. It could mean not being able to go on internship, but I believe that God has a plan and that this will be resolved. Your prayers will help!

Now, which box was I working on...