Memorize Your Goose Bumps

Transcription

1 Memorize Your Goose Bumps Sunday, November 21, 2004 Dr. Victor D. Pentz Senior Pastor Scripture Lesson: Psalm 103 I m going to tell a story and come back to it at the end of the sermon. An old man walks down a Florida beach. The sun sets like an orange ball on the horizon. Waves lap the sand. The beach is vacant. There is not enough sun for sunbathers or fishermen. Except for a few joggers, the old man is alone. He carries a bucket in his hand filled with shrimp, not for himself, but for the sea gulls. He walks out to an isolated pier cast in gold by the setting sun and makes his way out to the end. It's time for his weekly ritual. He stands and waits. Soon the sky is a mass of dancing dots. The silence gives way to the screeching of birds. They fill the sky, and then cover the moorings. They meet the old man. For a half hour or so the bushy browed, bent shouldered, gentleman feeds the birds until his bucket is empty. But even after the food is gone, his feathered friends linger longer, as though they have not come just for the food. They sit on his hat, they walk on the pier. They share the moment together. I had my own experience near the beach a few years ago in Hawaii. It captured for me the essence of Thanksgiving. A buddy of mine and I were on one of the great bike rides of our life along the Kona Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii. Gary is an artist in Hawaii who has become a friend over the years. At one point we were peddling up a long hill. To our left were the blue Pacific and the Maui channel. Across the channel was the majestic Haleakala Crater jutting up 10,000 feet peeking through the clouds. A spectacular rainbow arched between the two islands. Then if that weren't enough, there came one of those wonderful Hawaii phenomena a gentle rain while the sun was shining to cool us off on our way up the hill. I turned to Gary and said, Man, what I would give to bottle this moment and relive just five minutes of this some Tuesday afternoon next February. Gary looked over at me, grinned and said, Vic, you need to hear what my daddy taught me as a boy. He'd say, Son, memorize your goose bumps. Memorize your goose bumps. Then when the tough times come, you can pull out those memories and you ll always have a reason to be happy. Instantly, I had a new favorite saying: Memorize your 1

2 goose bumps. I am now a student of goosebumpology. The Psalms are a great place to turn to find a few goose bumps. David counts his goose bumps as a way of being thankful to God. Suppose this has been a bad year. These last eleven months have been just plain awful financially, relationally, academically, medically and in some other way. If 2004 was a fish, you would throw it back. Now awaiting you this Thursday is a command performance where you are expected to smile big, talk it up with your relatives, and act as if you are so very thankful to God for all his many blessings. Let s just say your heart s not in it. Friend, you need Psalm 103. While you re turning to Psalm 103, this time of year can be very difficult for some families. An elderly man in Phoenix calls his son in New York and says, I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that I m leaving your mother. Forty-five years of misery is enough. Pop, what are you talking about, the son screams. We can't stand any more of this charade, the senior citizen father says. We're sick and tired of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her. The dad hangs the phone up. Frantic, the son in New York calls his sister in Chicago, who explodes on the phone. Like heck they're getting a divorce, she shouts. I'll take care of this. She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at him, You are NOT getting divorced! Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then don't do a thing, do you hear me? She hangs up. The old man hangs up the phone and turns to his wife, Honey, the kids are coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own way. It gets harder and harder to get the kids to come home. The first thing you ll notice in Psalm 103 is that David is talking to himself. Not necessarily a good sign. We often talk to ourselves when we re not real happy with ourselves. But David begins by saying, Praise the Lord, O my soul. Let s get some praise going around here, soul. Charles Spurgeon says David is trying to stir himself up to thankfulness. Again and again the Psalmist is always stepping outside himself and lecturing his inside. Why are you downcast, O my soul, he asks in Psalm 42:5. Here he says all my inmost being praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (Psalm 103:1-2) He says to himself, You ve got lots to be thankful for, soul, and don t you forget it. Next David starts playing the highlight reel of God s kind, generous and loving acts toward him. The first thought in verse 3 is Who forgives all your sins. Of course that s what David would think of first. Imagine having your slate of past sins wiped clean even if it includes voyeurism, lying, adultery, and murder. Instead of having his soul festering with radioactive guilt, David is like an innocent child dancing in the presence of his Father. He says, Soul, remember what God did for you. No matter how far you ve fallen, God forgives your sins. 3 Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases: 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle s. 6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. 7 He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: 8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; [now there s a goose bump!] 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgres- 2

3 sions from us. [and another one!] 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children s children 18 with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. 19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. [Notice he s no longer talking to himself now. He s talking to the angels!] 20 Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts. On and on as doxologies, glorias, and hallelujahs flow out of David. He connects his memory bank of God s goodness and blessing and is thankful. How can I always be thankful? It just takes one word: remember. Psalm 77 says, I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; yea, I will remember thy wonders of old. I actually keep a journal of God s greatest deeds in my life. I have a highlight reel I can run of everything from a prayer my grandfather had with me when I was a boy to the extraordinary tale of how my agnostic girlfriend in college had an epiphany on a beach. God spoke to her one day and she accepted Christ. But she didn t want me to know about it because it might look like I was the reason she embraced the Christian faith. So one night she just showed up at a Bible study I was leading. When we bowed our heads to pray she blurted out, Father, I m now your child. After our 34 years of marriage and three children, the memory of that evening still turns me into one massive goose bump. No matter what else is going on in my life, I can recall that moment of Becky s conversion and I am always filled with gratitude. Moses told Israel, Do not forget what God has done for you. Remember those plagues that brought down Pharaoh, the midnight escape from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea allowing you to pass on dry land, and the manna in the wilderness. The Apostle Paul exhorts us Christians, Therefore, remember that you were at one time separated from Christ. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Activate your memory chip! Be filled with wonder and awe over the miracles and spine-tingling moments of blessing God has sent your way. In our time when so many people struggle with moodiness and sadness, US News and World Report did a study of happiness. What makes people happy? Is it money? Power? Prestige? Brains? Fame? I quote from the study, "Once income provides basic needs, it doesn't correlate to happiness. Nor does intelligence, prestige, or sunny weather. People grow used to new climates, higher salaries, and better cars." However, People who made a daily and/or frequent practice of being thankful were not only more joyful; they were healthier, less stressed, more optimistic, and more likely to help others." Do yourself and the whole world a favor. Relive your goose bumps. Let me say this, too. Don t shy away from the sad-happy goose bumps we find in memories of departed loved ones. Those can be some of the best goosebumps of all. Alfred Lord Tennyson after the death of a dear friend had difficulty coping with his grief. Then there came an A HA moment of insight when it struck him that the reason he was grieving was that he was still loving. He hadn't lost the love in that friendship. Through memory he could savor it still. He penned these familiar lines. I hold it true, whate'er befall; I feel it when I sorrow most; 'Tis better to have loved 3

4 and lost than never to have loved at all." You can literally go back to a spot in time and enjoy it again. My father, who died in 2001 loved his garden. I regularly visit him in a poem one of my daughters wrote. I set foot into my father's childhood once again. I pass by the house of stories and head for the gate to (my grandfather s) garden. I know where to find him. I slide through the crack in the gate, taking care to watch that the eager dogs don't sneak through. Where could he be? But the aroma drowns any questions and reminds me of my return. Plump oranges, too-ripe persimmons, bitter berries, sun-burned soil. I weave through the orange grove, hoping to see the familiar figure around each turn. I notice a rustling in the corn stalks. The wind or him? I investigate the waving corn, the thick stalks hindering my vision. He could be within touch and I would never know it. (God must be amused at my blindness as he sees my head and his head from above, so clearly amidst the stalks.) Finally I hear the rhythmic thud of the hoe on the soil. I follow it to him. Always the same. His forehead damp, his hair combed back, his hands somewhere beneath the caked dirt. His face lights up to match mine as our eyes meet. He feigns astonishment but I know he has been expecting me. I rush to embrace him before he can warn me of the obvious sweat and soot on his body. And there we stand, he and I, in his place of peace, to be treasured and returned to always. And days will come when the corn stalks don't rustle so curiously, and the thud of the hoe is only heard in the desperate straining of my ear. And I will return to this spot of time burned in my memory. Perhaps awakened by the wind's delivery of the fragile package of scents that becomes his garden to me. You, too, can go back to a spot in time where a special person comes alive in your memory. Remember and be thankful. This table is a spot in time to which you and I return again and again. Our Lord said, Do this in remembrance of me. The word our Lord uses here is so powerful it means literally to relive a moment in which we become the disciples sitting with him around this table. Once again, we see Jesus take bread and hear him say, This is my body broken for you. We see him lift the chalice as he says, This is my blood shed for you. Our remembrance here is so powerful we call it communion with Jesus. Oh! As for that old man on the pier, he could not go a week without saying thank you. His name was Eddie Rickenbacker. If you were alive in October 1942, you probably remember the day he was lost at sea. Rickenbacker had been sent to deliver a message to General Douglass MacArthur. With a handpicked crew in a B-17 known as the Flying Fortress he set off across the South Pacific. On the way they ran out of fuel, and the plane went down. All eight crew members made it into life rafts. They battled weather, water, sharks, and sun. But most of all they battled hunger. After eight days their rations were gone. They were out of options. Only a miracle would save them. They had just spent a few moments in prayer. Rickenbacker was dozing with his hat over his eyes, when something landed on his head. Later he'd say he knew it was a sea gull. He didn't know how he knew; he just knew. That gull meant food if he could catch it, and he did. They ate the bird, used the intestines to catch fish, and all the men survived. What was a seagull doing hundreds of miles from land? God only knows. That was Rickenbacker s goosebump moment. Every Friday sundown in his retirement years, the old captain walked to the pier with his bucket full of shrimp and his heart full of thanks. 4

5 As he tells this story, Max Lucado points out that we have lots in common with Rickenbacker. We were saved by a heavenly visitor. We were rescued by one who ventured far from only God knows where. We, like the captain, have every reason in the world to look up to the heavens and say thank you. So let s make this Thursday Relive Your Goosebumps Day. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Bibliography: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids 5

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