Archive for category: Chaplain’s Corner

“Go Fly a Kite”

In 1848, a young engineer from Philadelphia by the name of Charles Ellett Jr. was contemplating a difficult task. He hoped to build a bridge across the gorge of the Niagara River just below the famous falls.

Local politicians-both Canadians and Americans, representing opposite sides of the river-believed that a bridge linking their two countries would revolutionize the economic prospects of the area. But dozens of engineers surveyed the setting and agreed it couldn’t be done.

The Niagara Gorge is 800 feet across. The jagged limestone cliffs on both sides are 225 feet high. The water, churned by its 300 plus foot drop over the falls, is so turbulent that it’s barely navigable.

Who in their right mind would attempt to overcome such physical obstacles?

But Ellett was fascinated with suspension bridges. Although they look fragile, suspension bridges are capable of bearing enormous weights-including the simultaneous passage of carriages, pedestrians and fully loaded trains. More important, Ellett knew the secret of how suspension bridges are constructed.

To get started all you need is one cable. Or one wire. Or even one sturdy piece of string. If you can anchor just one strand on each side of the gap, everything else can be added gradually, building upon that single cord.

But how would Ellett get that first strand across the Niagara Gorge? He hosted a brainstorm of ideas. Using a boat (with mid-19th century technology) was unthinkable. What about attaching a cable to a rocket or cannonball and shooting it across? Not very realistic.

Then someone came up with a truly novel suggestion. Fly a kite over the canyon trailing a long string. Bring the kite down on the opposite shore and voila- the construction is made.

On January 31, 1848, an American boy named Homan Walsh successfully landed his kite on the Canadian side of the gorge. Just six months later, on August 1, the bridge was completed and open to the public. Actually, the real task turned out to be surprisingly humble and attainable.

Today you may be facing a responsibility so big and so complicated that you can hardly breathe. You lie awake at night and it feels like an unbridgeable canyon.

So go fly a kite.

Do the one small thing you know you have to do to get started.

The Book of Proverbs is based toward action. The overall thrust of the book is to do something—to take the next step however humble.

Ask yourself today, “What is the next simple thing I need to do?” Take that step.
And then another. And then another.

And before you know it, as soon as you’ve put enough of those steps together, the bridge will be built.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor

“Avoiding Jesus”

Church is one of the best places in the world to hide. No, not from vampires, werewolves and the walking dead. That’s Hollywood stuff. Church is where people can avoid faith and avoid God by becoming religious.

Churches are often filled with respectable people, or people who are doing their utmost to look respectable. And it was the respectable people of Jesus’ time–the Bible scholars, legal experts, theologians- who made sure that Jesus ended up on a cross. Ironically, it was the socially disrespectable people-the lepers, prostitutes, embezzlers, and heretics-who loved him.

In his 1983 book The People of the Lie, Psychiatrist, M. Scott Peck suggested that people who are afraid to face their own failures and frailties often find faith communities to be great hideouts. Such individuals can hate while pretending to love- and often find spiritual language (and Scripture verses) to back up their actions.

So why did the respectable people murder Jesus? He threatened to blow their cover.

The Way of Jesus compels us to take a long, hard, fearless look at our own lives. We will be shocked by a lot of what we discover. We can either throw ourselves on God’s mercy (an option that terrifies or offends respectable people) or re-double our efforts to look amazingly religious.

Why were the “worst” people of Jesus’ time drawn to him like iron filings to a magnet?
They had no illusions about the condition of their lives. They knew from the start their only hope was God’s mercy, and that’s what Jesus was offering.

How, then, should you feel when you come face to face with your own brokenness?

Be glad. Be very glad. God has you right where he wants you.

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

“A Question to Ponder this Week”

 

How many of these questions can you get right?

Who are the five wealthiest people in the world today?
Who are the last five winners of the Nobel Prize?
Who are the last five winners of the Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress?
Who are the last five winners of the Super Bowl MVP?
Who are the last five winners of the Miss Universe Pageant?

Cartoonist Charles Schultz of Peanuts fame routinely asked people to take a shot at such questions.

The results were predictable. It is almost impossible to come up with the names of yesterday’s headliners. Hollywood alone has at least 300 annual award shows, one for almost every day of the year. But such honors, along with their accompanying applause quickly come and go.

The names and faces of the rich, famous, and talented speedily fade from memory.

Schultz would typically ask a second set of questions. Try this quiz:

Who are the five teachers who made an impact on your life?
Who are the five friends who have helped you through a difficult time?
Who are the five people who have given you a compliment you have never forgotten?
Who are the five people who have taught you something worthwhile?
Who are the five people you could call at 3am if you needed to talk to someone?

Most of us find the second set of questions considerably easier.

Who are the people God uses to change our lives? They usually aren’t Presidents or Pulitzer Prize winners. Our minds are shaped and formed by those who love us even when we screw up-who mentor us and walk with us, especially when we have lost courage or lost our way.

Before the end of summer take time to say thank you to at least one of those heroes in your life. The odds are good they will cherish your word of appreciation even more than a trophy with their name engraved on it.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

“Mortal Lessons”

Bible commentator Dale Bruner, trying to describe “the deep grace of God for a flawed human race” says there is one illustration that has helped him more than any other. It comes from Dr. Richard Selzer’s experience as a surgeon, as reported in his book Mortal Lessons.

Selzer writes: “I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted by palsy, clownish.” A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be this from now on. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh, I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, he had to cut the nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. “Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry-mouth I have made, who gaze and touch each other so generously, greedily.”

The young woman speaks, “Will my mouth always be like this?” she asks “Yes”, I say. “It will because the nerve was cut.” She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. “I like it, “It is kind of cute” he says.

All at once I know who he is. I understand, and lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a God. Unmindful of me, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works.

What does John the gospel writer mean when he declares that God himself took on flesh and became one of us (John 1:14)? He means at least this:

Whatever our condition-whatever we may have lost while making our way through this fallen world-nothing will be able to extinguish God’s passion to come alongside us.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

“Pain”

In 1898 a German scientist believed he had discovered the Holy Grail of pain relief. Heinrich Dresser, who worked as a chemist for Bayer—the corporation that had created a remarkable new drug called aspirin—was hoping to synthesize a painkiller that wouldn’t lead to addiction.

The world had long known about morphine, the powerful, naturally-occurring opioid. But morphine users inevitably discover the grim side effect to its amazing painkilling powers: the near certainty of an ongoing dependence that empties the bank account and ruins one’s health.

Dresser cooked up a synthetic opioid called diacetylmorphine. He declared it to be five times more powerful than morphine. The leadership team at Bayer called it a miracle. That’s actually what they wanted to call this new drug, but it came to be known as heroin.

Bayer immediately began peddling it over the counter. Sales skyrocketed. By 1900 Eli Lilly had claimed the American market. But by 1905, it was clear something was terribly wrong. Dresser had patient-tested this drug for only four weeks, not nearly enough to realize it was one of the most addictive substances on the planet.

The quest for an ideal painkiller continued to dominate the 20th century. By the 1990’s the American Pain Society and several large pharmaceutical companies were committed to the idea that no one should have to feel pain.

But as Harry Wiland points out in his book “Do No Harm”, pain is highly subjective. Seemingly identical injuries can produce widely varying responses. Our pain can be impacted by a variety of emotional factors, including sadness, depression, worry, fear and childhood trauma. How can such circumstances ever be quantified?

The quandary continues. It’s still widely felt that no one should feel pain. After all, we have such fabulous painkillers.

For as long as scientists and doctors have been seeking the Holy Grail of pain relief, there have been members of the Christian community who think they have the answer. Are you hurting and sick? Crippled or broken? Preachers spotlight verses like Exodus 15:26 where God says to His people: “I am the Lord your God, who heals you.” God will take away your pain! It’s such a wonderful blanket promise. But as the old saying goes “a text out of context is a pretext.”

The Holy Spirit gently opens our eyes to all 66 books that make up the biblical library. What we discover is that God’s people routinely suffer pain, hurt and disappointment. Followers of Jesus get cancer, ALS and Diabetes. Sometimes God provides miraculous healings. Often He does not.

So what is the point of abandoning ourselves to such a God?

First, our pain matters to God. Jesus shared it on the cross what it feels like to be cut off from his Father in Heaven: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. (Matt. 27:46)

Second, God never wastes pain. The Apostle Paul asserts that “suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us.” (Romans 5:3-6)

In a broken world, there’s no such thing as a pain-free life. But we weren’t made just for life in this world. And the God who became one of us, and whose nerve endings have registered hurts just like ours, has promised never to leave our side.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain