Pastor's Message

July Spirit Steps

 I love fireworks.  I try to get to as many firework displays as possible and this seems to be the peak season for firework displays.  One of the many highlights of my life was being in Bonaire on New Year’s eve and getting to light the fuse of some of the giant aerial bombs that were launched from the beaches of the hotels.  It was a “dream come true”.  I have, however, wondered what makes fireworks so exciting.  Maybe it is that they start out as nothing and in a fraction of a second explode into a giant ball of colored sparks and then, in but a few blinks of the eye, fade away into nothing. 

I watched the fireworks at the lakefront in Milwaukee a couple of years ago.  It was the first year that there were multiple launch sites for the display.  The main display was launched from a barge in front of the War Memorial; another site was atop the First Wisconsin Bank building as well as a couple of other launch sites along the lake.  We were viewing the display from an area between the barge and the First Wisconsin building.  Consequently, I had to turn around to see the fireworks that were launched from the First Wisconsin building causing me to miss a giant display because I turned to see a smaller display.

As I thought about this, I was struck with the fact that this seemed to be a parable about life.  As I look back on my life, it often seems like a giant aerial bomb, exploding from nothing to a bright array of colors and shapes that rapidly fade back into nothing.  And as I wait for the next launch it is easy to be distracted from the main event. In fact, I find that there are so many distractions that it is easy to forget that the main event is taking place.

As our lives explode from nothing into a bright array of colors and shapes, it seems to me that it is important to ask whether this is the purpose and meaning of our life or whether there might be a deeper, more enduring purpose and meaning.  Yet, even as we attempt to ask that question we are distracted by a shower of sparks behind us. 

For the Christian, the question of a deeper more enduring purpose and meaning to our life certainly has to do with proclaiming and demonstrating God’s love for all people, but the question of how we do that in the midst of the explosion of our lives often remains a mystery.  Yet, there is a greater mystery, the mystery of a love so deep, so enduring that it gives purpose and meaning to all those little explosions that we call our lives.

May we all stay focused on the colors and shapes of our lives so that the enduring purpose and meaning may explode in action.

 

Pastor Bob