Daily Jewel

by Pastor Carnell, mcAlester.OK
Feb. 15, 2012

“Embracing Life In Christ”
“…embrace her (wisdom)—and she will honor you!” – Proverbs 4:8 (NIV)

In the previous message I used this definition to describe an embrace: “An embrace is where two people are able to feel each other’s heartbeat, physically, emotionally and spiritually.” To embrace something or someone is to go beyond “going through the motions,” it is intentional and it is meaningful.
I would like to take that definition and add this one word to it, a word that I use often and one that is often misunderstood. PASSION! We mistakenly associate this word with a romantic encounter but to do so would be to do a great disservice to how it can be and should be applied to our relationship with the Living God! When we embrace God and the life (and wisdom) He wants to provide—how can we not be passionate about it? Taking this thought I would like to take this in a bit of different direction and instead of giving my commentary on the matter I would like to provide a couple of my favorite illustrations. Life is the best measure of applied truth and the two illustrations I am giving are in my opinion great applications of what it means to truly “embrace” life. The first is what happens when you decide to do something with the life you have been given. The second is what happens when you decided to do something with your life in Christ! Both can have impact…one will change lives. The first illustration was reported in Los Angeles Times in the late 90’s. It is about a man by the name of Larry Walters. Larry was about 33 years old at the time. Now Larry was working man and when he would come home from work he would sit in his back yard in a lawn chair drinking a coke or a pepsi…and one day as he was sitting in that lawn chair he got to thinking how interesting it might be if he could attach enough helium filled balloons to his lawn chair – to make it float. Just fly a little. Not too far or too high, about 100 feet. Just enough to drift around the neighborhood, see what his neighbors were doing. It would certainly liven things up. The more he thought about it the more he liked the idea!
He began to develop and refine his plan. How would he control the altitude? With a little hand-held bb gun! If he started getting too high he would just shoot one of balloons. Theoretically it sounded good. He talked about this with his friends and the day of the launch was set. With several of his friends there they attached 45 helium filled weather balloons to his lawn chair and they held it down until he was safely secured in the chair. With his bb gun clutched safely in his hand he gave the signal and his friends let go of the chair – and Larry Walters was off. He was airborne.
Only Larry Walters did not go 100 feet. No, he shot right up to 11,000 feet! Larry’s situation was further complicated by the fact that he lived near the flight path of the L.A. International airport. The pilot of a United DC 10 was on his final approach when much to his surprise he spotted Larry. He radioed to the tower, “I think you ought to know that there is guy flying a lawn chair at 11,000 feet.” It shut the airport down for 2 hours.
When he was finally rescued he was greeted by a group of reporters. One of them asked, “Why didn’t you use the BB gun like you originally planned?” Larry said, “I was too scared to let go of the lawn chair!” Another reported then asked, “Larry, why did you do it?” “Because,” Larry said calmly, “you just can’t sit there.” Upon further prodding he was saying life was just passing him by. He would work and then come home and look around – and he finally concluded that “You just can’t sit there and let life pass you by!”
I love that last line! Larry “embraced” a thought and ran with it. The only thing this story misses is the power of God to accompany his thinking! Larry’s idea made for a great adventure, but lacked in wisdom. Take a look now at illustration number two and the difference wisdom makes when someone steps out for God!
Illustration #2: In 1917 a young bible student named Cameron Townsend could not afford to pay tuition, so he signed a one year contract with a publishing company selling Spanish Bibles in the jungles of Central America. The pay was good, and he reasoned that in a year he would be able to resume his education. The problem was that 6 out of 10 Guatemalans spoke only an Indian language called Cakchiquel (koch-i-kell) and could not read at all, so there was very little interest in his Bibles. When one native asked Townsend, "Why doesn't your God speak my language?" Townsend realized that he had no answer. He decided to stay in Central America and learn Cakchiquel, even though the language had never been written down. Despite the fact that Townsend was not a liguist or even a college graduate he devised an alphabet, put the language into writing and then, after 12 years of hard work, presented the first book ever published in Cakchiquel to the president of Guatemala. The book was the New Testament. During the time, Townsend had also founded five schools, a clinic, a print shop, and an orphanage. This was only the beginning of achievements of this great man of God. Temporary financial problems led Cameron Townsend to a life's work that changed the course of Central American history.
Imagine what would happen in our churches if more people were a combination of Larry Walters and Cameron Townsend. People who are willing to “embrace” life and the power/wisdom of God, and then live it out with passion!! People who are not afraid of the questions or the consequences, believing that when God is in it He will take responsibility for the consequences. That, in my opinion, is what it means to embrace life…and then watching God honor our actions.
Pastor J. T. Carnell