Jesus Jumping on the Trampoline?

In the 60’s, if you were a Baptist girl growing up in Bellville, the Girls’ Auxiliary Camp in Palacios, Texas was an event eagerly looked forward to each summer. A few years ago, Ian and I drove through the camp and it hadn’t changed too much. The flagpole where we gathered each morning was still there and the dining hall where we ate the yucky eggs and the tabernacle where we worshiped, but I didn’t see the trampolines, and that’s what I remember the most. The trampolines and the snack bar and Marge Caldwell.

Marge was the highlight. Marge made Jesus real. After an evening listening to Marge’s excitement about who Jesus was to her, I’d be excited, too. The Holy Spirit – through Marge Caldwell – spoke to countless girls each summer at that camp, stirring many of us for a lifetime of loving the Lord.

But then each morning, after we gathered at the flagpole and ate the nasty eggs in the dining hall, we’d go to Bible study and I’d be bored, wishing, instead, that I was jumping on the trampoline or hanging out at the snack bar. OK. So I said it out loud. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it. As a young girl, I was bored at Bible study.  

Yes, it was early in the morning and I was young, but I could see the snack bar and the trampolines from where we studied and that’s where I wanted to be. Now I wonder, though, if maybe that’s where Jesus would have been, too. Just a thought. Maybe Jesus would have eating sweet tarts and jumping on that trampoline with me. I have no doubt that while he was there, he would have been telling me a story about how life was like jumping on a trampoline, but he most definitely would have been in the thick of it.  In the fun of it. Or that’s my thought anyway.

Ironically, I’m a Bible study teacher and for decades I’ve found the Bible to be the most thrilling book in the entire world! It’s fascinating and suspenseful. It grips my soul and won’t let go. I love studying the Bible! And it’s not boring! In fact, reality TV has nothing on the Bible, which is full of very real people jumping on their own trampolines, falling off at times, climbing back on, and falling off again. It’s full of men and women filling up on junk food at the snack bar instead of going for the good stuff, even though the good stuff is sometimes disguised as eggs. And it’s full of flawed individuals meeting a forgiving, perfect God while doing their own jumping around each day. And it’s also full of grateful and grace-filled people like Marge Caldwell, women and men who were so thrilled with Jesus Christ that they were practically jumping with joy and ready to explode if they couldn’t show others how he had transformed their lives.   

Marge Caldwell, the snack bar, and the trampolines. Such great memories for me that I had to jump up in the middle of the night and write them down. Some memories are just too good to forget! 

A Treasured Gift

I remember the first Christmas after my dad died. I remember wanting to stay home and not go anywhere; but that didn’t help. I remember my uncle and aunt coming from Corsicana so my mom, sister, and I wouldn’t have to be alone; but that didn’t help. I remember my mom letting us open gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day; but that didn’t help.  I even remember getting my Santa Stocking early; but that didn’t help either. Nothing helped. Nothing eliminated the pain of missing Daddy. For any of us. I still remember how awful  that time was.

And I still miss my dad. It’s still awful. I’m sorry that Daddy and my husband, Ian, didn’t have time together because they would have loved each other as father and son. I’m sad that our sons, Reid and Will, who are both named for my dad, didn’t have his influence in their lives.  And I’m disappointed that Daddy wasn’t here to advise me during my many mistakes for he was a man of wisdom. I deeply miss my dad.

But at the same time, I’m glad I miss him because he was a man worth missing. A man worth the pain of not having now for when we did have him, he filled our life with all that was good. An extraordinary man, he walked with God. And he’s a man I’ll see again one day.

I think about my dad all the time, but during this season of giving, I miss him even more for his life was a special gift to my mom, my sister, and me. Regardless of how much I miss him, however, that’s who he will always be.  A gift I’m grateful to have received. A gift I continue to treasure.  

To Focus

Ironically, after beginning my day writing about distractions, I attended a meeting of teachers where the presenter was Kim Mathis, the Director of Focusing Families in our area, and focusing on what we can do for others was the focus of the meeting! The opposite of distraction, focus is how we “fix our eyes on Jesus” and live the way we are to live. I thought that was funny – not the verse, obviously – but the timing of the topic, which I saw as another humorous God-moment that I prefer not to chalk up to coincidence. Another reminder that God most definitely is involved in the details of our lives.

And if there ever was an organization that worked hard to stay free of distractions, it is Focusing Families, which helps physically and emotionally abused women and men each year. I was not distracted at the meeting. I took pages of notes. And my pen didn’t bother me one bit!

Stories about family members forcing a younger sister on the street to prostitute, wives being infected with HIV from their husbands, women repeatedly fleeing from abusive partners, financial worries that inevitably keep many from leaving, and fearful worries about custody battles were packed inside the brief 30-minute program, a powerful program filled with enough heartache to last a lifetime. And as the presenter spoke, I looked around the room and wondered how many victims of sexual assault or domestic violence might be attending this meeting, women wearing a disguise we all wear at one time or another, not necessarily of abuse, but a mask that says our world is all right when it’s exactly the opposite. As Kim said, “We can’t peg a victim.”

And as Kim ecouraged us to invest our time and care about what’s going on with those around us and pay attention not just to the kids in schools, but also to our co-workers, family, friends, and neighbors, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of God’s plan – how He gives us innumerable opportunities to go do what He wants done in this world. To do what He would do if He were physically walking on this earth again. To look at people and listen to people and sit with people and give to people. To care. Each day. Just as He met the woman by the well in the midst of what she was doing, we also meet people in the midst of what they’re doing and sometimes they’re living in the midst of a mess. Yet by caring, our lives reveal Jesus Christ.

At a meeting about battered lives, I was reminded that there are lives at stake each day, a reminder that it isn't just good to stay focused on Jesus, but it's extremely important to keep my eyes firmly fixed on Him. To invest my time on His behalf. I’ve been called to care. We’ve been called to care.

And ironically, a life full of distractions is a life well lived when we focus on God.

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Focusing Families is a non-profit organization  “committed to strengthening individuals, families and communities through education, prevention and intervention to eliminate Family Violence, Sexual Assault, and other crisis issues” (Focusing Families brochure).

Website:  www.focusing-families.org

Crisis line: 979-826-0000 or 1-877-Be-SAFE-9

Focusing on a Few Facts:

13,700 children are abused and neglected every day

4 children die from child abuse every day

About 44% of rape victims are under 18

Over 85% of all sexual assaults involve acquaintances or friends

Distracted by Life

I can be distracted by anything – popping gum, banging of a keyboard, humming of the air conditioner, buzzing in my ears… Sometimes when I’m writing, I’m even distracted by my pen and I’ll start wondering if there is a perfect pen that glides better than the one I’m using. Life holds the potential to distract me to the point where I focus on the insignificant, and not on God. 

Ian’s breathing can even distract me! In fact, sometimes Ian’s breathing seems to distract me more than ole’ Riley the dog’s breathing! Distractions can be ridiculous yet severe, irritating yet dangerous. But all distractions distract us. That’s what they do.

A few hours after the wedding of my mother to my stepfather, my sister and I were waiting for the newly married couple to go on their honeymoon. Daddy Bill, as we grew to call him later, picked up their suitcases and prepared to walk out the door of my aunt’s house; instead, he walked into her kitchen pantry, shut the door behind him, and stayed there for what seemed to be an eternity! Of course, the hysterical hyena-style laughter of his new step daughters in the background might have contributed to what kept him in the food pantry.  Daddy Bill was nervous and overwhelmed and absolutely distracted, and he chose to stay in that food closet instead of facing what was outside it. I really can’t say I blamed him for that. We were merciless.

I need to eliminate distractions before I can write or I can’t concentrate and focus and be still. Yet some distractions we can eliminate and some we can’t.  So what do we do when we’re in a situation whose very nature tries to turn us from the direction God intends us to go? How do we deal with the reality of ongoing distractions as we pursue a godly life?

In the book of Hebrews, we find a scripture verse that gives us divine direction in the midst of all deadly distractions:   “Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV).

As we “fix our eyes on Jesus,” we’ll stay focused on God’s truth. And that’s a weapon against any distraction that fights for our attention. That’s what helps us live life as God intended. And it’s a verse I’m taking with me today as I begin a season full of distractions, distractions which try to keep me from focusing on the greatest truth for this season: the birth of Jesus Christ. 

He's God in our Day

Tucked between the covers of the Gospel of John, a single sentence uttered by a disgraced woman at a well digs deep down into my soul and wakes up a truth that is difficult to face. “Sir,” she says to Jesus. “You have nothing to draw with” (John 4:11 NIV).

  

From that one moment in time, her words still echo two thousand years later for many of us recognize them, having uttered that same thought in different words, yet with the same meaning:  “Jesus. You can’t help me. My situation can’t be fixed. This is hopeless. Nothing’s going to change. How can you possibly help?” Or as the woman declared, “Sir. You have nothing to draw with.”

 

The Gospel of John records a multitude of the miracles of Jesus, yet in the midst of those miracles is embedded one significant fact, reinforced over and over again. Jesus lived an everyday life in the midst of people like us. And John vividly shows us -- before we meet this woman whose soul is thirsty for “the living water” -- how Jesus lived his life.

 

Each day, Jesus Christ “walked” and “arrived” and “visited” and “stood” and “sat down” and “stayed.”  He “looked” and “saw” and “listened” and “answered” and “revealed.”  He also “decided” and “found” and “made” and “gave” and “scattered.” In other words, Jesus lived in relationship with other people. And he still does. Each day. 

 

And today, he shows us what He can do by what He did. And just as He met the woman by the well in the midst of her everyday life, He does the same for us. He continues to listen and reply and declare and point out and work and give and fill and reveal. He still lives! He’s God of our every day and in each of our days.

  

The verbs John uses to record the active life of Christ aren’t dynamic or spectacular; instead, they’re everyday verbs, actions which emphasize the reality of the life Jesus lived, what he did each day, and who he did them with. And just as He revealed to this woman who He was, He continues to reveal Himself to us each day, too. Wherever we are.

  

Today, I’m praying to be overwhelmed with the reality of who Jesus is and what He can do.  Not to see Him like the woman first did, as someone who could not, but to see Him as she later did --as the one who spoke to her and knew everything she had ever done. The one who revealed Himself to her. The one who doesn’t just watch us, but lives with us, too.

  

And today, I’ll continue to ponder that powerful verse in Chapter 4 of John, which reminds us that Jesus most assuredly has plenty from which to draw.