Antarctica, Emperor Penguins, & Sacrifice

I don’t know about you, but I confess that I am a Discovery Channel junkie. I like almost everything that they put out. Recently, they have put together a television series entitled, “Planet Earth.” Their 1 minute trailer still gives me goose bumps even after seeing it 100 times. Two nights ago, I watched the episode entitled, “Ice Worlds.” This episode highlighted what’s going on at the poles of our planet. What I saw, was amazing…but then again, I do have a low wonder threshold.

The Emperor penguin was the key animal that they were following throughout this episode. I confess that I didn’t know much about penguins before the show began, and I guess I can’t say that I know that much more now; however, their existence on the part of our planet that is completely inhospitable to mammal life as we know it was inspiring.

The emperor penguin females lay their eggs before the winter season begins. It takes so much energy for them to lay their eggs, that they can’t possibly incubate them and survive the harsh winter. When winter hits, they pass their eggs off to the daddy’s of their eggs. They must successfully pass off their eggs to their husbands quickly because apparently it only takes seconds for an egg to freeze in the Antarctic. The fathers then hold the egg on the tops of their feet and squat down so their lower abdomen surrounds the egg. The mothers, exhausted from laying the egg, all head off to the ocean in search of warmer waters and food. The fathers stay behind for 3-4 months to endure the harsh winter without food and sunlight in temperatures that reach 60 below with winds up to 100 mph. How do the males survive you ask? They form a huge huddle.

Hundreds of emperor penguins stand together, forsaking all personal space, to share their body heat. Those late to the scrum take the brunt of the harsh conditions, but they need not fear being frostbitten to death. They eventually make it to the center of the huddle because each penguin shares the burden of the wind and cold. They are constantly rotating in and out of the center of this mass penguin huddle.

When the light returns to that dark world, it signals the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The ice melts, allowing the mamma’s to come back to reclaim their egg so the fathers can grab a bite to eat themselves. Each parent shares the duty of raising their young emperor penguin after it is hatched.

Trust me, I am not making this up! The teamwork that these penguins display in order to survive is incredible. Watching this 1 hour episode detailing the life of emperor penguins in the Antarctic inspired me to think about the role of sacrifice in our lives. These penguins are not able to survive without sacrifice. I wonder if the same is true for us. In a world where we can maintain the illusion of self-sufficiency, the truth is that our lives are found in sacrifice. From worship, to work, to family, and even to friendships, our sacrifice is required; however, in sacrificing ourselves for others we oddly enough find life just like the emperor penguins.

Therefore, I urge you, friends, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (Rom. 12:1)

Pray with me this week that God will help transform our sacrifice into life giving acts for others.

Soul Fertilizer

Last July, my wife and I moved into a new place off Garrett Road. One of the selling points was the yard. It wasn’t nearly as spacious as the farm my wife grew up on, but considering properties in Durham, it was at least a yard with space for kids to run and play. It wasn’t much to look at. In fact, the only things green in our backyard were the weeds and the poison ivy. I considered what kind of effort it would take for me to have our then year and half old daughter realize the dream of being able to play in our backyard without the ill effects of the overgrowth. I think Samantha and I settled on the time it would take as the year she was to go off to college. Agreeing this was unacceptable, I took the plunge…I hired an expert to tame my jungle and kill my weeds.

Within a week there was a three-man crew out at my house getting busy creating my vision of a yard – my little paradise! The first day, they got to work cutting back trees, pulling out the overgrown bushes, and edging in the clay an outline of what would become a yard. These guys knew what they were doing, and at the end of the first day, they had transformed my jungle into a workable blank slate. Day two was more remarkable as they built up beds in which my bushes were to be planted. They also spread some topsoil into my clay so that the grass seed roots had something to grow into. Day three was the craziest of all as the foreman showed up with all kinds of bushes and shrubs for me to choose which ones to be planted in my little slice of earth. By the end of day three, everything was in place, and the transformed was almost complete.

Yet, the ground surrounding the bushes still needed work. I had to wait for the grass seeds to germinate in the soil before I could call this paradise. It took a good 3 weeks of watering my new dirt before I saw any signs of progress. What came after that was a slow, but steady, stream of bright green spikes emerging from the ground. After that is was two months of consistant watering and tending these tiny blades of grass. During the fall, I had to keep the leaves off the tender grass, almost by hand, so as not to have them suffocate my lawn. However, this tedium was worth it because when November came along, I had a thick carpet of dark green grass without one hint of the former weeds. I was proud of the transformation. Success at last! The kids can now play freely! Then came the month of March.

Almost overnight, there was not a place in my yard that didn’t contain a weed. The grass was no longer think and green. It had faded from glory over the winter months, and I was sure that one of my neighbors had dumped a truck-load of weed seed on my yard. I was crushed to see my yard disappear each day only to be replaced by more weeds! My wife encouraged me to call the expert again. He asked what was wrong, and I told him that the seed he put down must have been some sort of annual grass. He asked me one question, “Did you put down any pre-emergent fertilizer over the winter months?” I sheepishly confessed that I didn’t put down any fertilizer. He told me, “Just because we killed the weeds that lived in your soil when we planted the grass, doesn’t mean we killed the seeds that those weeds left behind.” My heart sank. I wasn’t prepared for that battle.

This little story of trying to grow grass in my yard replays again and again in my heart. God plants his word over and over in my life, but I need to tend it in order for it to grow and bear fruit in my life. I have patterns of living my own life without trusting God, and even though those actions are removed, those patterns leave seeds that can grow up later. I need a good fertilizer. The Hebrews used to meditate on God’s word in order to fertilize his word in their life. Psalm 1 is a good example of this use of meditation.

As Jesus plants his word in our lives, pray that we as a community might be diligent to fertilize it, by meditating on his words of life.

Becoming Human...Again

This week I am preaching in church, and I am going to be continuing on the theme of "Express." I will save the sermon for Sunday, but what I have been digging into has been the overwhelming sense of conflict that expressing Jesus causes in our lives. Though I think we like to speak otherwise, it is just not safe to speak of Jesus.

Depending on where I live, even today, I could lose my life for speaking of Jesus not to mention receive jail time, beatings, loss of relationship, loss of job, poverty and estrangement from others. To be honest, none of the above sounds appealing to me. In fact, it is all stuff I would like to avoid in my life. So, why should I speak of Jesus?

The answer, though I like to avoid it is simple: Jesus makes me human again. Every time I try living without him, I become like a brute beast bullying, lying, cheating, and stealing my way through life. In order to live in “freedom” without Christ, I must live guarded and prideful – never letting anyone see any chink in my armor. I must be all that and a bag of chips, which, contrary to popular opinion, I am not.

However, when I bend my knee and submit my ways to Jesus, I become human again. He shows me what it is to be created like God. I can begin to be comfortable in the skin that he designed for me. To be clear, being truly human does not afford me any rights or privileges here on earth. My life won’t be magically better than it was before. Jesus won’t make me win the lottery, give me what I want, or save me from suffering. Jesus makes me human. And for that, I can speak of Jesus freely and openly no matter what others have to say about me or what others do to me. To live otherwise is to deny my very purpose, my life.

Pray with me that we would be a community that speaks openly and freely about Christ, because he has made us human.

Real Passion

This week we find our identity in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. My encouragement to you this week is simple. Let the passion of Christ move you closer to him.

We are intentionally not providing specific Young Adult opportunities this week in order for us to join together with the whole body to worship Jesus. I want to encourage you to take advantage of the Maundy Thursday service and the Easter Festival. These are two of the best things we do as a church.

May you drink in the love that was poured out on us this Good Friday, and join the feast of life on Sunday.