At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ~Matthew 18:1 

We all want to be the best. Whether it is in sports, at work, at school or in life, we want to excel. We want people to notice us. We want to leave a mark.

Last week I got to spend a few days with my grandfather-in-law, Earl Buckley, in Mankato, Kansas. If you have never heard of that town, I am not surprised. It doesn’t even make a blip on a radar screen. For those who know the TV show, The Andy Griffith Show and its town of Mayberry, Mankato isn’t that big, but life still runs about the same.

Earl has lived in Kansas almost all his life, except for the time he spent in the Navy during the Korean War. He is a man who has no worldly recognition, nor does he seek it. He has lived a pretty simple life compared to some, yet to be around him you know you are in the presence of a great man.

Earl has been involved in his church his entire life. He is a Gideon, and despite the fact that he has a hard time getting around, he spent Memorial Day weekend driving (with my wife and children) around to small country cemeteries decorating tombstones of family members and those for which no family remains.

But that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Earl was a farmer. He planted and farmed his own land, and when that wasn’t enough to keep his family going, he went to harvesting other’s land; from southern Kansas all the way up to North Dakota. In addition, he began working in construction and has a book filled with pictures of all of the buildings he put up in his town and the surrounding area. He did a lot of this until just a few years ago when he was encouraged to take it easy.

It wasn’t just that Earl was getting older and shouldn’t be driving a combine anymore, although that was one of the reasons. It was not common for him to spend a week or two bringing in a crop and get paid in homemade pies or some other form of barter. And I am not talking about all-you-can-eat-for-a-year pie; just a pie or two. When questioned by his family he would say, “Well, they don’t have much and I have a combine just sittin’ here. So what else am I going to do?” For Earl, to help someone, even at the detriment to himself, is always more important. Even at 87 and having an increasingly difficult time hearing, seeing and keeping his balance, he is out in his community trying to help others. It is just who he is…or from another perspective, it is who Christ has made him.

When the disciples asked Jesus, “Who is the greatest in heaven?”, they were probably expecting to hear names like Moses, Elijah, King David, or maybe Sampson, Abraham or Debra. They were seeking to be on that list. James and John even go so far to ask Jesus if they can sit at his right and left hand in heaven, a place only reserved for the most honored of people. Yet this is not the answer that Jesus gives them. Jesus says to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

Children in Jesus’ time were not like children today. Parents didn’t schedule their lives around activities, they didn’t make play dates for them. Children were of little to no value; unless you were the oldest boy, who would be the heir to the house. For Jesus to make such a comment was to change the perspective on what it means to be great. Greatness was no longer something to aspire to, it wasn’t something that meant gaining an attribute or accolade in some way, but instead was something of a taking away. It was the removal of pride, the ousting of arrogance, it was the lowering of brow, the humbleness of heart and the innocent hunger of the child to please and serve. Jesus’ definition stands in opposition to the world’s.

You might think to yourself, “Sure, that’s what people are like in a small town” or “Earl is just from a different generation,” but is that it? I think not. When I sit with Earl I see someone who does his best to live out the gospel message. And the reality is, when his earthly journey is over, his death will go unnoticed by most of the world. But to those who know and love him, a gentle tear will appear on their hearts stitched up by the promise of eternal life through Christ. And I guarantee you that heaven will rejoice in his presence…

Bad things happen. People do unthinkable, horrible things. We see earthquakes, floods, droughts, and other natural disasters all of the time. Our families face sicknesses, hardships, depression, and death. If we allow ourselves to focus on the bad for long enough, it starts to feel like not much good happens in the world anymore. It seems as if God is nowhere to be found in the time we most need His presence.

In these trying times we often, and unfairly, blame God. We can question God. It is even understandable to get mad at God. But, we shouldn’t blame Him. Tragedies are not a product of God’s absence or apathy. In fact the opposite is true. Tragedy is a function of God’s amazing love for us. When God created us we are offered the choice to love. This choice, however, opens the door for darkness. But, without our free will, we could never feel true love. If we were simply programmed to love without choice, then it would not be the kind of unconditional and overflowing love we know in Christ. We would be robotic beings, going through motions, but never coming as close to God as He intended. To love (or not to love) is a choice we make freely. That’s just the way it works.

The world, if we allow it, can evoke anxiety, fear and desperation. These feelings offer us choices. We can choose to run to God or to run from Him. There really is no middle ground for those of us with faith. If we choose to run from God, we lead ourselves into despair and loneliness. However, if we lean on faith and run to God we see the opposite. Yes, the suffering and pain may still exist, but God promises peace to help us deal with the present; strength to lead us into the future; and, an eternal life shared with Him. Where we see tragedy and disaster, God sees opportunities for us to know a deeper kind of love. When we want to hide in fear from the world, God calls us to go into the world and spread the message of love and hope. In good times, or in bad, God tells us to trust in Him and share His love and grace.

In John 16:33 Jesus reminds his followers of the big picture. “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” Jesus already won the battle. He experienced the worst the world has to offer and is victorious. He suffered so we don’t have to. So why would we choose to go it alone, to live in fear, or even to doubt God’s very presence in times of trouble? As Christ followers, we believe there is something more. Keep that faith in the darkest hours because we know a new dawn is always just on the horizon. God will fulfill His promises, if not in this life, then in eternity.

It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
When he utters his voice,
there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightnings for the rain,
and he brings out the wind from his storehouses.
~Jeremiah 10:12-13

It’s hard to believe that only months ago the New Horizons spacecraft completed the Pluto fly by. Now, just last week, researchers claim to have discovered a ninth (or tenth, but who is counting) planet, so Pluto’s five seconds of fame came just in time. It’s interesting, though, how our curiosity is insatiable, a trait the dates back to the Garden of Eden—our adventurous spirit and thirst for answers.

Science is defined as the study of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation. There are a million reasons why I am glad we have a scientific spirit. It brings cures for disease, high-speed travel, and, of course, Google! When we look at our faith from a scientific perspective, however, things creep into question. As humans, we use science to try and explain how things work in our world. Often we can find answers. However, sometimes we can’t find the answers so we make theories and conjectures to explain the unexplainable. We struggle to find the intersection of science and faith only to neglect their perfect interaction.

If we only use science to understand God, eventually we seem to find a dead end, but that is where faith takes over. The simple, blind leap we make when we affirm and accept Christ branches our real world with a surreal understanding. If we release our grasp of the dimensions we know in the natural, we find strength and understanding in the supernatural; in the reality that God exists from everlasting to everlasting. I have spent too much time in my life fighting with God, questioning Him, and looking for answers with intelligence and logic. When I hit the roadblocks with scientific and analytical thinking, it is typically because I have not involved faith in the process. A plunge into faith provides all the understanding I need. God gave us intellectual inspiration not to remove faith from our processes but to grow and fuel our quest for answers and the depth of our faith.

In a Bible study recently I heard something so simple, yet so profound. We hit a roadblock with a scripture verse and someone said that maybe things are the way they are because, “God is God.” I liked that phrase because it was the simplest answer I have ever heard to the quintessential question of faith. When I hear of violence or tragedy that seems to make no sense, I remind myself that, “God is God.” When I question why Jesus hasn’t invaded someone’s heart, I just tell myself to take it easy because “God is God”. It is calming and strengthening. It takes a leap of faith. But, when we can admit to ourselves that there are just going to be things beyond our control and our comprehension and that, “God is God,” I know we find the safety and comfort to last us a lifetime.

I grew up on one of those now classic suburban neighborhoods of post-war track homes, full of kids.  It was a winding street of poplar and oak trees developed in the very early 1950s.  Young couples rushed to these houses, with many of them having babies in the same years.  We all grew up together.  I knew who lived in almost every house, and which ones had kids and at what ages.  The whole block was our playground--running through each other's yards without worry.   

When we'd play hide and seek, the space to hide was pretty large.  We'd run in every direction, with the one who was "it" having a daunting challenge ahead to find all the players.  I had my favorite places to hide, of course.  One of them was behind the bushes in the front yard of one of the houses.  I still remember the day I realized the core truth that every dedicated hide and seek player realizes at some point.  Lying in my perfect spot, the spot from which I was hardly ever found, and from which I could emerge when the coast was clear and make it to the home base without being caught.  There I was on that one day when I began thinking about the game itself.  How do I really know there's anybody out there looking for me at all?  How do I know that all the other players haven't either been caught or made it home and decided they were done and so had already left for other adventures?  What if I just stayed where I was and didn't move at all?  Would anyone ever find me?  What is this dialectic (okay, I didn't use the word "dialectic") that I was experiencing between being right in the midst of life and being totally separated from life?  Alone or known?  Forgotten or cared about?  Free or bound?  You can put it in the language of a 9 year old or a 39 year old; it's the same question.  Can we hide so well that we're never found--physically, emotionally, psychologically, politically, theologically?  How far can we really go?  

I guess that's why hide and seek is such a great game.  It is a teacher of life.  

Psalm 139 asks that hide and seek question of God:  "How far can I go to escape your Spirit?"  And the answer is there's no distance we can go.  We can try, for sure.  We can run from each other.  We can run from the church.  We can run from ourselves in some ways.  Or we can move slowly, but over time find ourselves so far away that it feels like we've hidden without wanting to--forgetting so much of what we knew.  But the neighborhood of our spirit is still known to God's Spirit--and we can be found.  This is what faith teaches.  We can be found.  And we can come home--even if home feels new.  

Hid and sought.  Free because found.  God with us in the bushes as well the familiar streets.  Just need to look up and out and beyond where we are sometimes, and know we've been in the home zone all the while.  It's harder for some of us than others, but--by God's faithfulness--it's possible for each of us.

"Olly, olly, all come free!"