| TomHarvill.com | It Occurs to Me |
A little over forty years ago, my wife Betty and I, and our three small sons, were for awhile attending Robert Schuller’s Drive-in Church in Orange County, California. We weren’t practicing Christians at the time, but we thought it would be a good thing for the boys’ sake to start attending some church. Schuller was a popular TV preacher, and so for a few months we drove the several miles to attend his services religiously, so to speak, every Sunday morning.
Pastor Schuller put on quite an impressive show at the beginning of the service. He stood above the congregation in his long black robe and as the one-story high glass window slid slowly open to allow those in the out door drive-in section to see as well as hear Shuller’s message, he spoke dramatically with upraised hands, “This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” And the organ boomed.
As I said, this was years ago, before the construction of the now famous tourist attraction called the Crystal Cathedral. I understand the church is packed out every service now, and the membership continues to grow. I remember back in the days the Harvill clan was attending, the service ended with a prayer as the tall glass window slowly closed with the resounding chords of the huge pipe organ. Pastor Schuller stepped down from the elevated pulpit and made his way up the aisle, looking neither left nor right, to the foyer where he greeted the congregation as they departed. He had an associate pastor named Leetsma, a little Dutchman, who followed Schuller up the aisle, shaking hands and greeting people left and right. Leetsma impressed me.
One Sunday, Schuller was out of town and Pastor Leetsma had the service. I don’t recall what the sermon was about but one quotation he used has stuck with me all these years: “Some men die in battle, and some go down in flames; but most men perish, inch by inch, playing at little games.”
I had occasion a few weeks ago to give the devotional message to a group of Nazarene men at their monthly Saturday morning breakfast. Since I once attended the Forest City Nazarene Church, I knew most of the men who were present, and it was a comfortable time of fellowship. In my message I mentioned Schuller’s church and the poem Pastor Leetsma quoted that long-ago Sunday morning. I attempted to illustrate what I gathered from the three types of death the poem mentions. Over the years, wars have been fought and many men have died in battle: Pearl Harbor, Normandy and the trek across Europe, the Pacific Islands, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War…all in my lifetime. Although many were shot down in flames during those desperate days, what comes to my mind are the more contemporary tragedies of September 11, 2001 when so many died in the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the west wall, of the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania.
On February 1, 2003, a group of seven astronauts, descending in the shuttle Columbia toward their final landing in Florida, disintegrated and went down in flames and shocked the entire free world…again. It was a déjà vu happening. Back in 1986, the Challenger, another space shuttle, exploded shortly after launch killing all seven aboard. So many have died in battle and have gone down in flames as heroes, leaving most of the rest of us to perish inch by inch playing at the little games as mentioned in Leetsma’s poem. So what about the rest of us? Are there no heroics left for us? Are we destined to live out our ordinary, day to day lives without meaning? Answer: absolutely no! Let me explain.
We who are perishing inch by inch have a wonderful opportunity during this waiting period before the next war against terror to encourage one another and introduce Jesus Christ to those who as yet don’t know Him. Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-40, that what we do to the least of His children we are doing to Him. We have so many opportunities those who died in battle and those went down in flames didn’t have enough time for: To love one another and provide little acts of kindness to those less fortunate, and yes, also to those who live in abundance. Mother Teresa said it well: “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”
It occurs to me that the real heroics are most present in the day to day lives lived out inch by inch dealing with the ordinary struggles to maintain marriages and families and relationships with the Lord, and character building. Many of those who have died tragically left legacies for their families and friends by their sacrifices. We also have immeasurable opportunities to build lasting legacies. Like Todd Beamer, on Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania said, “Let’s roll! At least that’s as it seems to me as I contemplate my inch by inch life.