Why Schindler Got It

Friday, December 2, 2022

Give your love of justice to the king, O God, and righteousness to the king’s son.  Help him judge your people in the right way; let the poor always be treated fairly.  May the mountains yield prosperity for all, and may the hills be fruitful.  Help him to defend the poor, to rescue the children of the needy, and to crush their oppressors.  May they fear you as long as the sun shines, as long as the moon remains in the sky.  Yes, forever!  Psalm 72:1-5

Adolph Hitler was a king (of sorts).  He did nothing as holy as rescuing children of the needy; rather, he had them killed in concentration camps, and shot in the streets by his ruthless SS officers.  Oskar Schindler was a German businessman, capitalizing on the Nazi need for military weapons and supplies.  He used cheap Jewish labor to make a fortune.  Then one day he saw the little Jewish girl in a red coat.  The next day he saw her corpse loaded on a truck with many other bodies.  Schindler’s whole life became a mission to protect people from Hitler’s obsession with exterminating Jews from the planet.  In the end Schindler saved nearly 1,000. 

There is nothing that evokes compassion that will move most humans like seeing what Schindler saw.  A greedy businessman does not mend his ways when confronted with difficult social conditions, caused by, or exploited by his business practices.  He is unmoved by ethics or morality.  But the stark reality of a human life, barely embarked on breathing, has the embryo of change for even the most hardened of souls.  Schindler got it (the compassion to do right) because life’s most poignant reality, our human connection with God, pierced his hard heart.

King David prayed the prayer recorded in Psalm 72 near the end of his life.  He had lived long enough, sinned big enough, and learned life’s lessons well enough, to understand the God-connection we all have.  As part of the created order, all human beings are “children” of the Almighty.  We’re related.  David’s prayer was that the wisdom, courage, and compassion he’d learned, would now be passed along – and take hold – in his son, Solomon.  It would be necessary to see the nation through lean times, and help the nation be humble before God in their high times. 

Adolph Hitler, baptized as a youth into the Lutheran Church, did his best to stamp out the image and lineage of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and David.  And it was done in the (supposed) holy name of preserving the purity of God’s created order.  It took a momentary confrontation of a child in a red coat with a Nazi-supporting, hardened businessman, to engage the holiness of God on a nightmare against humanity.  As King David had a prophet (Nathan[1]) who confronted him with his sin, and as Adam and Eve in the garden, Schindler heard the still small voice of God from out of the whirlwind of war’s madness saying …where are you…what are you doing?  He had to answer.

For You Today  

Oskar Schindler overlooked a lot to get to the top of the business world.  One day he could not get a little girl in a red coat out of his mind. 

What have you seen lately, or what will you see today, to remind you who, and whose you are?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       Choosing   and   What to Do

Images:  Title Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=723965   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Read 2 Samuel 12 for the account of Nathan the prophet confronting King David with his sins.

An Upside-Down World

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.  Isaiah 5:20 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.  So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth.  It broke his heart.  Genesis 6:5-6

I watched a video my cousin Rick sent to me.  I don’t have time to watch a lot of internet stuff, but this one caught my eye.  It was presented by a young woman host of a Youtube/TikTok video blog called Defender of the Republic.  It’s about the “upside-downness” of cultural norms in our world, particularly in the U.S.A.  From an unquestionable breakdown of morals and common sense, to racism, vaccinations, illegal immigration practices, and cutthroat government gutting what was once (at least) a marginally-trustworthy institution, she names today’s absurd inequity, injustice, and insanity without pulling punches.  Some of it could be seen as political partisianship, or just plain political rhetoric, but most is spot-on common sense.  According to John Q. Public, good is now evil, and, conversely, evil is incredibly the best!  All told, this stark assessment of our current world adds another billion tons of credence to Jesus’ prophecy:

“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.  Matthew 24:37

As God’s assessment in Genesis, that Noah was the only human being on planet earth who tried to stay away from evil, nothing could hold back the judgment flood that was brewing. 

And, I believe, there isn’t much doubt that the 21^st century has just as imminent a Judgment Day on the horizon.  The Days of Noah are upon us!  And Jesus gave an indelible reason why that is so, and will be universally-conclusive:

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  John 3:19

For You Today

That judgment inevitably follows action is as predictable, and undeniably just, as when you jump out of an airplane at 10,000-feet without a parachute.  It’s unavoidable, and brings a close to the chapter you’re writing.

So here’s today’s (and tomorrow’s, and every-day’s) question:

Do you know the Editor who can shed light on your story?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Good and Evil; the War and God, with a Broken Heart

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

An UNEASY Peace

 

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders.  You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.  In those days you were living apart from Christ.  You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them.  You lived in this world without God and without hope.  But now you have been united with Christ Jesus.  Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.  For Christ himself has brought peace to us.  He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.  He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations.  He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.  Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.  He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.  Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.  So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.  Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.  We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.  Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.  Ephesians 2:11-22

When the Apostle says that the Gentiles used to be outsiders, there has to be just a little flapping of the undecided flag.  When hostilities have existed for centuries, it is an uneasy peace (at best) when the ink on a treaty is yet to dry.  Witness to this is everywhere.  Driving home on I-40 on Sunday, after our Annual Conference at Lake Junaluska in the beautiful Blue Ridge of the Great Smoky Mountains, every so often I saw a huge Confederate flag waving near a home.  For some, after 157 years, the War Between the States is only on pause.  In any neighborhood, predominantly black or white, those of the opposite color or heritage walk uneasily, especially after the sun goes down.  Despite the continual outcry from political heads over spilled blood, often the blood of children, gun sales are the healthiest investment ever.

Peace is elusive, something like nailing Jell-O to a wall.  It sags with every sideways glance, uneasy, tenuous, and barely believable.  Yet the Apostle claims, without stuttering, that Christ has put an end to that which divides the only race on planet earth, humanity.  And for those who will be embraced by Christ, He gathers them all close.

Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”  Mark 3:35

For You Today

It takes vulnerability to love unconditionally, knowing that your trust can be, and often will be violated, broken, and crushed.  And Jesus demonstrated that for us on the cross.  He was broken for our unwillingness to love.  Let’s let Harry Emerson Fosdick have the last word today:

[1]

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Harry Emerson Fosdick 1930, God of Grace and God of Glory (info @ Hymnary.org) & (Wikimedia Commons)

Differences

 

Monday, December 20, 2021

Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children.  The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins.  But the two children struggled with each other in her womb.  So she went to ask the Lord about it.  “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.  And the Lord told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations.  From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals.  One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”  And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins!  The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat.  So they named him Esau.  Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel.  So they named him Jacob.  Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.  As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter.  He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home.  Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.  Genesis 25:21-28

Wellington (the reddish guy on the left of the picture) and Gracie Cotton, (somewhat older than Wellie, and now passed) were as different as one could imagine.  Gracie would chase anything that moved in our yard; Wellie barks, but moves like a battleship turns.  Given the opportunity of an unlatched-gate, Gracie would wander the neighborhood, while Wellie ambles closer to home.  Gracie loved to snuggle next to any human with a pulse.  Wellie wants to know you’re there, but he’s the Esau among us; he will lick you in the face for food, but let’s not overdo it, thank you.

Differences in Isaac’s children were evident from before they were born – they were having a wrestling match even in Rebekah’s womb.  At birth, Esau was anxious and entered the daylight first, but Jacob was not letting him out of arm’s reach.  These boys’ descendants are still in a tug-of-war to this moment.

Differences are as natural in a family as similarities.  And it’s not just appearances.  There are the dimensions of preference and spirit also.  Esau preferred having a bow in his hands, stalking game in the woods.  Jacob was a homebody.  He was the kid who would’ve been teased in the 6^th grade as a “mama’s-boy”.  And Scripture doesn’t hesitate to underscore that.  Rebekah’s favorite of the two was Jacob, while Esau’s hunting and cooking skills made his Dad, Isaac, a happy man.

It took Esau and Jacob about 40 years to come to terms with their differences.  Jacob was the ambitious one, willing to connive and deceive his way to wealth and control, while Esau took what he wanted with the weight of the firstborn.  Still, Esau was destined to serve his younger brother, Jacob.  In the final chapters of their relationship ^{(see Genesis 33)} Jacob and Esau meet after a 20 year separation. The elder, Esau, has graciously come to terms with how he was wronged by his brother, and the younger brother-deceiver has gone straight, preferring to trust God’s way rather than his own manipulative bent.  The differences have melted into the distant past, while the bond of humanity and brotherhood have surfaced to the forefront. 

Ultimately the squabble between Jacob and Esau resurfaced in their descendants, the two nations Rebekah was told were in her womb, and these are constantly in the news reports to this day.  It appears the Arabs and Jews will be at it until Jesus comes, as assuredly as the Republicans and Democrats are fighting each other under the Capitol Dome.

What do we make of that?  We must embrace the take-away-lesson of human relationships we see in the footloose hunter and the heel-grabbing manipulator; whatever you sow, you reap.  It matters little whether you care more for the stalk-and-kill, or the scheme-and-grab, anything other than God’s love-and-be loved will eventually come-‘round just as you sent-it-‘round.

For You Today

Take stock of your own nature today, hunter or homebody, gregarious or introvert, or whatever of the Meyers-Briggs personality combinations[1] you discover, and decide today that God is the maker of them all.  Differences don’t have to keep brothers at each other’s throats.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Russell Brownworth (own work)   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For other posts on this text see No Place Before God and No Place Before God - Part 2

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[1] Go HERE to find out more about the Meyers-Briggs Personality indicator

And In that Day...

 

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.  The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.  The cow will graze near the bear.  The cub and the calf will lie down together.  The lion will eat hay like a cow.  The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.  Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.  Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.  Isaiah 11:6-9

As I read this passage again this morning there was a recurring thought that kept playing over in the pictures of my mind.  I imagined the sense of fear that is common to all existence…and the absence of fear. 

·       A child playing near a deadly cobra’s hole…safely.

·       An African American man driving through a “white” neighborhood…calmly

·       A Caucasian woman stopping at a street corner to ask three young Chinese men for directions…and sharing a laugh.

Life, whether you’re at the top of the food chain, or the bottom, has a large directory of extant fears, and the corresponding survival techniques we develop to head-off our personal extinction.  Some fear is healthy in a fallen world.  I can think of these without even trying:

          ·       The fear of gravity’s effect on an airplane in which I’m riding

          ·       Worry over the strength of iron bars between me and that lion at the zoo

          ·       Concern when my son stayed out way later than curfew

          ·       …and on, into the night.

There is fear enough to go around; I’m certain the enemy of our souls has made sure the supply of fear will be abundant.  It’s part of his arsenal.

The Christian’s arsenal against fear has only one weapon, the Word of God.  Isaiah’s prophecy is about a day when fear will be absent.  God may be telling us that our character and nature will be so changed we will have no desire at all for the greed, power, and conquest that exhibits itself in wars and other atrocities we visit on each other.  It may just be that God will even remove the memory of fear.

Of course that day is not here…yet!  For now we still wouldn’t let our babies play near the snake’s hole, or leave the sheep unguarded.  But appropriate prudence and wisdom should not rob us of the joy of anticipating such a time as Isaiah’s vision, nor working for bits and pieces of that fear-enemy’s destruction.

          ·       We can take care of God’s creation

          ·       We can resist racism by learning to love others with Godliness

          ·       We can be generous, and less suspicious

For You Today

In that Longest Journey Starts with the First Small Step department, how about putting your biggest fear on the altar today?  We could start learning to live like Isaiah’s lambs and lions.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For another post on this text see Taming the Devil

A Gift in the Basket

 

Thursday, November 25, 2021

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat?  What will we drink?  What will we wear?’  These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.  Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.  Matthew 6:31-33

Going to WalMart (or any other store on this planet) is not (as Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music) one of my favorite things.  When it comes to the shopping experience I am fiercely-devoted to the getting-in/getting-out principle.  Elizabeth is not that way so much; she can be slow enough to find a bargain, or a better brand of this or that, even with the grinch at her side.

But even in a trip to “Wally-World” you can be blind-sided with a gift in the basket.  This past Tuesday we headed to the dreaded place with my usual grumpy/testy demeanor reserved for such excursions.  I hurried us through the aisles to get the two items that were the reason for this hunting-gathering foray.  Twelve items later we arrived at the self-checkout area.  (This is the one thing I love about stores these days…a machine you alone operate will never squash your bread or break three eggs in the carton because of my surly attitude.) 

I scanned, bagged, and loaded our assorted necessities in our basket buggy.  And with that we made a start towards the exit…a place where the receipt checkers cast a suspicious eye on everything with a demeanor that makes the place so appealing.  (I sometimes think it would be enjoyable to attempt walking out without paying, just to have a more pleasant experience at, say, the police station, where they sweat you in a back-room for hours under a heat lamp.)

It was when we were leaving the self-checkout station the gift happened.  A little brown arm, attached to a five-year-old in her mom’s basket, reached out and grabbed Elizabeth’s arm.  The other arm found my bride’s hand, and clamped on it.  As we both looked at the little face at the other end of those arms, there was a decided change in my next two days…indeed to this very moment.  That little angel had the most disarming, joyful smile.  She cocked her head to one side, pumped Elizabeth’s hand, and announced:  pleased to meet’cha. 

In a day of forbidden “closeness less than 6-feet in any direction”, and certainly no-touching, the last thing on my mind was hand sanitizer.  You don’t think about that when your grumpy shopping demeanor has melted like a snowman in a microwave.  You don’t think about that when someone has offered their joy with such enthusiasm and unbridled generosity.  It was a God-moment; I knew the Father had to be there, even in WalMart; how else can you explain such surprise and joy?

Later, reflecting on that briefest of encounters, I couldn’t help comparing what I’d just witnessed as a stark contrast to the ugly head of racism in our culture, and the division it causes in God’s Kingdom.  A little joy swelling from the heart of the tiniest African-American child, offered to an older white woman, was the juxtaposition of the cross…a gift in a basket…at Wally World.  It was the very picture of grace, the unmerited favor of one so pure, blessing anyone who gets close enough to the arm grabber.

On a pre-shopping-season note, my reflection included something I will think of often – especially today, Thanksgiving.  I am so truly thankful to have lost the ugliness of racism, bias, sad news, age aches, heart catheterizations, and the blues, in an instant, at WalMart...if only for an instant.  I’m hoping it will be the kind of joy I’ll pass around for the rest of my days here on the earthly journey.

For You Today

Well, it’s Thanksgiving Day; are you grumpy or grateful?  If you have a doubt, let me tell you where to find some Kingdom-seeking blessing, even in a dreaded shopping trip.  Get close to someone you never knew.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For another post on this text see On Point or Paradox; Illusion of the Heart

 

All Nations Means...ALL

 

Thursday, May 6, 2021

And now the Lord speaks—the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him.  The Lord has honored me, and my God has given me strength.  He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.  I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”  Isaiah 49: 5 – 6
And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”  Genesis 22: 18

From the moment of original sin in the Garden of Eden God promised a Messiah would come to take away our sin[1].  In promises of blessing God made to Adam, Abraham, Noah, and others, He made promises to individuals, but extended their blessing throughout the nations; ALL the nations.  The culmination of the meaning of ALL nations is when God spoke to the apostle Peter in Acts 10.  Peter is given a vision of a sheet, held by angels at its four corners, the “four corners of the Earth” attaching a complete, or universal application.  In the sheet are all sorts of animals that were forbidden to Jews for meat.  The Lord tells Peter to satisfy his appetite; Peter cringes in repulsion at being told to eat the unclean animals (when actually he is cringing over putting aside a lifetime of obedience to a dietary law his peers saw as critical).  God finishes off Peter’s reluctance with a simple sentence:  Don’t call something unclean if I [God] have made it clean.

For Peter (and us) that one moment leveled the playing field where heritage arrogance is concerned.  Suddenly there is no Jew or Gentile, no savage or civilized, no male or female[2], and the line between East and West is a distant memory.  With one sentence God wipes out the justification for racism, sexism, nationalism, or elitist attitudes of any kind; all the “isms” lose their juice, and we are left with what Paul said in Galatians 3:28, that we are one in Christ Jesus.  Peter’s mind, life, and future have just turned on a dime, and we are back to the basics of one promise for all peoples:  God will save!

For You Today

If this whole thought, that we have One God, One Creator, who made One Race, and has provided One Messiah to eradicate the ONE PROBLEM we all have (of sin), does not cause anyone to simply say ONE Word of thanks – a hearty Amen would do – then somewhere along the line thoughts of Who God is, and what He’s offering to ALL people has gone off the tracks.

The good news is, He is willing to help anyone get back on the rails and travel on in His ride to Heaven’s glory.  Just ask.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Damzow via Wikimedia Commons   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Read Genesis 3

[2] Note Paul’s characterization of this in Galatians 3:28