sunday...

I've had a long four days. Last week was a bit of a tease without any homes games. It all came back to bite me when we had four volleyball matches, two soccer games, and a tennis tournament along with baseball and softball's fall playdate on Saturday. I'm looking for positives in situations and the postive thing about Saturday was that football was away. Essentially I worked 14 hours Friday preparing for the weekend... worked 16 hours Saturday drowning in everything... worked eight hours Sunday and drove three hours to Charlotte... attended a seven hour conference Monday and drove three hours back to Fayetteville. It's been a bit much with not much sleep thrown in between.

After working all day Saturday and not getting home until 1 am I had a decision to make for my Sunday. I've been attending Snyder's 8:40 am church service which is awesome to get to go before I have to worry about work but that means I have to get up at 7. Getting up for church meant another long day and I wanted to make sure I wouldn't fall asleep driving to Charlotte at whatever hour I got to leave. On the other hand, by going to church I could escape and rest for at least the morning.

When my alarm went off Sunday morning I struggled. My body did not necessarily agree with my decision, but thankfully I got up and picked up Kristen and Rachel. I think we were all half asleep during the short drive but when we got there we realized it was Snyder's 60th anniversary. Worship was particularly good. Dr. David Crocker spoke as a former pastor of the church from 1994-2002. It was just what I needed to hear. We had just been talking on the way to church about the mission of Christian organizations/churches and not being ashamed of what we believe in and then Dr. Crocker really drove it home. He finished with the lifesaving station story. I really think he did it better than any youtube video I could find or written version but so you can get the jist of it...

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant
watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, they went out day or night tirelessly searching for the lost.

Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding areas, wanted to become associated with the station
and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews were trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

Some of the new members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and so poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.

They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in an enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they redecorated it beautifully
and furnished it as a sort of club.

Less of the members were now interested in going to sea onlifesaving missions, so they hired life boat crews to do this work.

The mission of lifesaving was still given lip-service but most were too busy or lacked the necessary commitment to take part in the lifesaving activities personally.

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people.

They were dirty and sick, some had skin of a different color, some spoke a strange language, and the beautiful new club was considerably messed up. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal pattern of the club.

But some members insisted that lifesaving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the life of all various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the
coast. They did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. They evolved into a club and yet another lifesaving station was founded.

If you visit the seacoast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but now most of the people drown.

We sang Mighty to Save and I could not stop crying. I'm a sucker for a good message or a good song but I was beginning to feel silly. I just felt such a sense of rest... a sense that everything was ok even when outside that building I knew it wasn't ok in the sense that we think of things. They closed the service with a parade of signs representing all of the countries the church had traveled to and done work. We sang God of this City and I was moved again just thinking about how much God must have used this church over the last 40 years.

After church we went to Krispy Kreme for our informal debriefing. Before we knew it we had been there for nearly two hours. I'm so thankful for encouraging Christian conversation in the middle of chaos. I knew I needed to get up Sunday.