Remember The Old Tire Swing

May 2, 2004 | Link To Us | Index | This sermon is for your spiritual edification and to spread a little hope and cheer. Exodus 34:5-7

I remember seeing a movie or two that showed a child swinging on a tire over a pond and then jump at the end of the stroke to fall into the water. To swing so freely and with such grace or no grace, if not for the sheer fun of it all. You feel yourself gliding effortlessly like a feather on a cool breeze or the sweeping of a thought across a whimsical mind. What a feeling that must be.

Is that what heaven is like?

But then you start thinking about the realities the world dumps on you and you start to think even more about the tire. Do you ever feel like you are a rag doll that has been accidentally dropped into the toilet and then another person finds you and throws you on a shelf to rot away for who knows how long? Then you want to run and hide somewhere? The problem with this kind of thinking is that it leads to addictions because you want to escape the world and imagine yourself on the tire swinging over the pond while you waste away on alcohol or some other addiction.

Life doesn't have to be that way. You can escape, not to a deserted island where the only remnant is a skull found on the end of a pole while you start to cook in a pot with natives chanting and dancing around you. Not to a place where the water is deep and the brick tied around your ankle makes the world swallow you up. And certainly not to an old abandoned drive-in theatre where the only movie showing is the graffiti with glowing profanities and the dirt of many a year encrusted on the screen.

Life can be so much better than that. It can be like a crystal clear stream on a warm summers day. But most people never realize that life could be this way. They become sceptical about that possibility. I know I have been sceptical that it could be this way. But then I realized that I tend to make mountains out of molehills like a lot of other people on this planet. Sometimes opportunities can elude us because we think they are too good to be true. Some may be, but then others could be the light at the end of a dark tunnel.

God is that light at the end of the tunnel. But in order to get there we need to understand what God wants for our lives. We need to pray and let the healing power of God envelope us in the waters of it's warmth and give us peace.

We can choose to stand up and be counted. But what does that mean. Does that mean trying so hard to climb the corporate ladder that we lose sight of why we are here and what we are supposed to do? Is the top of the corporate ladder so important that we have to sacrifice the things and quite possibly the people we love for that brass ring which is a materialistic endeavour?

God gave us the common sense to know what is best for us. We may not know this because we have gotten so caught up in the trap of earning a living rather than designing situations in our lives that will give us not only the wealth of body and mind, but of spirit as well.

God also gave us possibilities. Great possibilities to shine and shine some more, we just have to go looking for them. And sometimes they are as close as our heart. Especially with God in it. So in this new week, look inside yourself and see if God is there. If he isn't then pray that He will be. And then you will find some really great possibilities to shine.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord for all things. Thank you for all your many blessings. Help me to find peace and love within myself as well as the world around me. Help me to understand my place on earth, and what you want me to do while I am here. Amen.

Benediction: Now, Lord, Bless us in our daily lives. Help us to smell the roses whenever possible, to shine our light on those less fortunate than us, and lead us in the path we should go. For you are the light that keeps our path well lit. Help us to follow it, until we meet you, in a land where milk and honey abound, a place where our most wonderful dreams are fulfilled. Amen.

Hi, my name is Bryan, a messenger of hope who would love to hear from you. God Bless.

© 2004 Bryan Hill