Thank God for Protection on the Highway!

Tuesday afternoon of this week I was driving home to Bridgman on the westbound lane of I-94. There were actually three lanes in each direction and I was in the center. I had just gone under the Cleveland Avenue overpass and was approaching the one for Glenlord Road when I noticed a large, white, late-model car sideways across the inside eastbound lane. My first impression was that he was parked in the inside lane with his rear bumper in the middle lane and front bumper on the berm. In that split second I wondered, why would he park there on a busy highway? Then I realized he wasn’t parked, but was sliding sideways down the highway.

He had apparently just lost control. The car then went down into the median, hitting the bottom hard and bouncing up, then coming up out of the median onto the westbound lane. Fortunately, I was the only car in that part of the highway, but I quickly realized the scared-looking elderly couple was headed directly toward me. I was doing about 65 miles an hour (I was approaching a road repair area with a 60 mile speed limit) and I hit the brakes hard and quickly steered into the right lane planning to head for the ditch. However, the white car spun around in the center lane and slid backwards past me and into the inside westbound lane first, then across the berm and onto the dirt in the median, where it scattered dust and dirt clods before coming to an abrupt stop.

I looked into my rearview mirror to see the couple sitting there, apparently stunned and unbelieving they could have experienced all that and come out of it unscathed. I was almost as shook up as they seemed to be. I also noticed in my rearview mirror that about an eighth of a mile behind me all three lanes were full of traffic and two of them were at least two cars deep. If the driver had lost control a split second later he would have spun into a seven or more car pile-up and no doubt people would have died. I realized too, if we had collided in a head-on crash it could also have been very bad. As I drove on down the road, safe and with no damage at all, I thanked God fervently for his wonderful protection.

It could have been a very bad day, but instead it was a very good day and I give God all the glory. Praise God! From whom all blessings flow!

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

Confessions of a Christmas Lover

Guest Essay by Kathy Gray

I confess. I love Christmas—all of Christmas. I love decorating trees and fireplaces; I love twinkly lights and baking Christmas cookies. I love silly Christmas movies with silly stories. And yes, I love gifts. I LOVE gifts—unapologetically.

I love finding the perfect gifts and the excitement of giving them. I love the thrill of a gift-heaped tree and the anticipation of all the surprises. I love opening presents all morning and enjoying them all afternoon. And...

I think God enjoys it too. I think he's a Father in heaven that finds pleasure in joyful, excited kids, just like we do. And I believe we glorify him more in our overflowing joy, than our dour admonitions to "have the right focus."

What exactly is "the right focus" anyway? I'm curious. If someone went to a remote part of the world today and discovered a pagan holiday, imbibed it with religious significance, then declared that March 14th was the day we were all to observe this—would we be obligated? Would God expect us to focus extra hard on that specific truth because some Christian somewhere decided this was a good idea? God gave numerous celebrations in Scripture, loaded with spiritual significance, which we routinely ignore. But the revised pagan celebration from ancient England, which is nowhere to be found in the Bible—we endlessly admonish ourselves for neglecting. How ironic.

I love thinking about the incarnation. It is an awesome and stunning reality that deserves to be renewed regularly in our hearts. But I feel no more obligation to do so in December than I do in July. There is nothing Biblically binding about our Christmas celebration beyond the principles that apply to every day of our lives such as goodness, faithfulness, generosity, gratitude, contentment, peace, joy, patience, and kindness.

I'm not sure what it says about us when the pagans exhibit more joy in their holiday celebrations than we do. I think we should be the merriest people on earth, exhibiting such contagious joy that everyone around us is asking why we enjoy life so much. If I were an unbeliever, I would certainly NOT want to be a Christian during Christmas...with the incessant guilt-laden admonitions, dour expressions, and weary sighs. Nothing about this is attractive.

So no, I don't feel guilty in the least during the holiday season for not focusing enough on Jesus' birth. I feel the same freedom I feel every day of the week to focus on Christ in a whole array of ways. And yes, I love Christmas. I choose to focus on Christ by observing that he gave the most amazing gift to those he loved when he came to earth. Consequently, I want to have a generous heart towards those I love as well. I want to reflect his goodness by rejoicing in the fact that every good and perfect gift is from the Father above, and he gives these good gifts for our enjoyment. I want to honor him with exceeding joy and gratitude in the midst of all these good gifts. And if any unbelievers are watching, I want my joy and celebration to be irresistible.

Meet Kathy Gray. . .

Kathy Gray is our daughter, a home-school mom, a teacher par excellance, and, as you can see, an excellent writer—and a lover of Christmas. She, and our daughter Twyla, get their writing ability from me (and my mother) and their love of Christmas from their mother, my wife, Carol. (I actually enjoy it almost as much, but only because of how well Carol and the girls pull it off. They all three love to give gifts that fit and bring happiness to the people they love, and like Kathy, I think that’s a virtue to praise God for, not a behavior to be ashamed of.

Thanks Kathy, for a beautiful essay and a wonderful statement of faith. I love you!

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

A Good Book to Read

I recently came across a book I really enjoyed and recommend to everyone who uses statistics about the church in your preaching or teaching. The book is “Christians Are Hate-filled Hypocrites…and Other Lies You’ve Been Told”, by Bradley R. E. Wright, PhD.

According to the information on the back cover, Dr. Wright is “Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, where he researches American Christianity.” His book de-bunks many of the negative things we’ve heard about the church through the years.

For years I have grouched and complained about how George Barna throws around what I consider to be bogus negative statistics about the church. If we believed him (I don’t but many preachers do) we would think God’s church was a total failure and was headed for extinction within a very short time.

I don’t believe him at all. I think, in spite of the fact there are failures among the congregations in our own movement and in every denomination, that for the most part God’s church is a marvelous success.

One example in which Dr. Wright challenges Barna’s writing is in the off repeated statistic that Christians get divorced as often as non-Christians. I’ve bored my friends and colleagues for years telling them this is simply not true! When I ask, “Is this true among the Christians you know?” they admit it isn’t, but they assume the statistic is true because someone wrote it down. As you can imagine, that does not make it true.

The interesting thing about the above book is that he challenges many of the negative statistics about Christians in general as well as the church and does it very intelligently, with a smattering of humor that makes it a little easier to read.

I’m a preacher myself, but I refuse to use statistics unless they both make sense and can be validated—otherwise I make it clear to my hearers that I am aware statistics are only as valid as the research on which they are based.

According to Dr. Wright, there is one area where the church is not very successful and that is in the area of bigotry. We have a problem loving people who are different than we are, that isn’t really a problem unless you consider the fact that loving people is the most important thing we are supposed to do. Unfortunately, I believe this statistic because I have seen it lived out in many churches.

In spite of this one weakness, the church is a highly successful organization, institution, movement, or whatever we want to call it. There is no doubt it is getting better all the time, it is growing rapidly throughout the world, and it helps people to be better people. I think we should praise God for that, and also thank God for Dr. Bradley Wright’s book. You should read it too. And he has a most enlightening blog you can read at www.brewright.blogspot.com. I also encourage you to check that out.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

A Nod to Heroes We’ve Met

Recently the nation of Chile became the focus of world-wide attention when it was discovered that thirty-three miners who had been trapped a half mile underground by an explosion, were alive. This event and the success of the effort to rescue them caused the word “hero” to be tossed around indiscriminately and I would like to consider the various heroes and heroines involved in this amazing rescue.

Heroes to consider:

-the miners, who stayed strong emotionally, physically and mentally and who helped with their own rescue.

-the world mining community who joined with their cohorts in Brazil to bring together all the knowledge, skill and equipment possible and who worked as an international team to pull it off.

-perhaps even the newsmen and women, who left homes and families to go to Brazil to show and tell the world what was happening.

-certainly the families of the men who never gave up hope and who prayed for their safety.

-But also, the prayer warriors around the world who did not know any of the men or their families, but who, nevertheless, prayed consistently through the many weeks of the rescue effort. They were the unsung heroes and heroines—faithful persons of great faith, from a multitude of church groups and even different religions, who prayed for the miners, their families, the rescuers and all those involved.

But mostly, praise be to God, the greatest Hero of all. Who is present wherever we find ourselves and who is always available when we open our hearts to Him.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .and that's My View from Tanner Creek.