Judging By Appearances

And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.

And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.

But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

                                                                                                         (1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7 KJV)

When Samuel was sent to anoint the son of Jesse that God had chosen to be the next king he looked at Eliab and decided that he looked like a king. But, God told him not to judge by their appearances. God does not choose by what people look like. He doesn't choose by their height, their weight nor does he judge by the color of their eyes, hair, or skin! He chooses by their character; their abilities, what is inside their hearts and minds. He knows each of us intimately and he knows what he will he accomplish through us. In the end, David the youngest son of Jesse who had been left in the fields to care for the sheep comes and is chosen by God to be anointed king. The least of the brothers is to be first in the kingdom.

It is too bad that as humans we often judge others by the way they look without considering what may be in their hearts. One of my granddaughters likes to routinely color her hair in various bright colors. Right now it is bright orange. A year and a half ago she moved near us and I took her around to job interviews. She is bright and very out-going as well a pretty conscientious worker. It so happened that on one day she had two job offers. She had a dilemma. Which one to accept? She had experience doing the work of one of the positions.  However, the management there wanted her to take out her piercings and dye her hair to a normal color. She had no experience for the other position but they did not care about her outward appearance. I encouraged her to accept the position that would allow her to be herself and keep her orange hair. I felt that she would enjoy working with people who weren't judging her by her appearance much more than working in the place where she had to change to be accepted. She went with the more relaxed place of work and is still working there. She really enjoys the people she works with as well as the work on most days.

Yesterday, she and and I went on a kayak tour. I have been kayaking since 1996 so I don't really need to be on a guided tour for safety's sake. But, I do not know the rivers all that well around Florida so I sometimes use tours so that I can familiarize myself with the waterways.  The river was a pretty lazy river. We did more floating than paddling. About halfway through the tour we turned to go back upstream. One of the guides came over to me and said he wanted to give me heads up that we would be going against the current so it might be a bit rougher. He did not warn anyone else; just the "old lady". I couldn't help but smile as I was pretty convinced that my paddling abilities were being judged by my wrinkles and graying hair. I was not offended. I've been around long enough to know he was probably genuinely concerned. He was actually a very nice young man. Smiling, I did let him know that I didn't think it would be a problem as I had on a few occasions kayaked Lake Superior in small craft warnings. That little paddle upstream was, of course, not a problem. In the flat land of Florida the creeks and rivers really are quite smooth paddling and most of the way back to the landing we were still floating and not paddling. I actually do like to paddle. In the future I will be careful what paddling tours I go on or find a good GPS app and skip the tours. I go for the scenery and this tour was particularly beautiful. But, a little bit of exercise doesn't hurt, either. 

We must be careful not to judge people's hearts or abilities by their outward appearances. This is repeated by God throughout the history of his people. He does not judge by appearances; nor should we.

God's Peace - Pr. J.

The Weary Will Rise Up With Wings Like Eagles

Even youths will faint and be weary,

and the young will fall exhausted;

³¹ 

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40:30-31 NRSV)

I am no longer a youth. There are days that cause me to wonder why I have not fallen completely exhausted. There are days when I would like to. But, for those who are called by the Lord to serve, we do not fall. We might lie down for a bit; but, we do not crumble to the ground. We may have to wait a bit until the Lord has completely renewed our strength. We do not give up because we know that if we wait upon him, he will surely lift us up.  

While kayaking along the shore of Lake Superior, years ago, I got caught in a storm. There were no roads; no towns; not even houses for many, many miles. I had my cell phone on me; but, there was no cell service along that stretch of the shore. I kept paddling for as long as I could because my husband was waiting for me about ten miles down the shore with lunch and I knew he would be panicking when he didn't hear from me. The going was very slow. It finally got so rough that I finally had to pull onto a sandy beach. I was hesitant in doing so because I knew although the landing would go okay; I wasn't sure how I'd launch again if the wind and waves did not calm down.

I pulled the kayak up under a tree and ate lunch. I lay down to watch the water. It didn't take me long to fall asleep. When I opened my eyes, I was looking into the eyes of a bald eagle. He was sitting in the branches above me, watching me. He was so close that I could see every single wet feather on his head. He, too, had taken a break from the storm. When he finally flew back out over the water, I knew that I had rested on that shore long enough. Although the winds had not slowed down much, my strength had been renewed. I was ready. As expected, I got pretty wet launching the kayak and it took twice the time it should have to get to where my husband was waiting and worrying. But, I was ready to go.

According to the prophet Isaiah: even youth will grow weary; but those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and we shall mount up with wings like eagles. 

May you be granted the peace that comes with knowing that God is with you and no matter what the storm, the Lord will lift you up.

God's Peace - Pr. J

There Goes That Leviathan

Wolf Point in the Keweenaw Peninsula; 

taken years ago on a Sabbatical as I paddled about half

of the southern shore of Lake Superior.

Much calmer seas that day.

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
   In wisdom you have made them all;
   the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
   creeping things innumerable are there,
   living things both small and great.
There go the ships,

   and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. 

                                         Psalm 104:24-26 NRSV

Well there goes that Leviathan...  In over twenty-two years of preaching, I had never managed to include Leviathan in a sermon, until a couple of weeks ago. I figured it was about time since my retirement from the pulpit is coming quickly.   

The awesomeness of God's creating activities and His playing with Leviathan according to this psalm, reminds me of my first kayak trip on Lake Superior.    

It was a four day journey from Big Bay to Marquette with a group of clergy. Big Bay is only about twenty-five to thirty miles from Marquette, so it wasn't going to be a hard paddle. Except... three out of the four days we were paddling with small craft warnings.  Now, those were some waves! Leviathan was considered more than once!  We had to actually paddle quite a ways from the shoreline where the waves were more rolling than crashing so that we could ride them.  The closer to shore, the more threatening the water.  It was actually pretty awesome!  I remember Pr. Peter Vorhes riding the waves in front of me, singing hymns!  Now that was really awesome!  Especially, since he has such a fantastic voice.  "O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hands hath made..."

Was I afraid?  I hate to admit it; as abnormal as it might seem to some people, I was not afraid.  The wind and rain and waves were so great that it took all of my concentration to ride the waves much like a surfer would do.  There was no time to be afraid.  At one point, there was a long narrow peninsula we had to go around.  Not far from the end of this peninsula was a small rock island.  To get around this peninsula and the island, where the wave action was pretty fierce, we would have had to paddle a very long ways out... So, we chose to go between the little rocky island and the peninsula point, where the waves were bouncing off the island and crashing into the waves as they had bounced back from the little island.  It was wild in there. We went through two by two.  It only took about five minutes to get through; a ride of a life-time.  Pr. Peter was only a couple yards away from me, but there were moments when he and his kayak disappeared from my sight completely as huge waves came up between us.  I still cannot help but smile.  When we made it through to slightly calmer seas; Pr. Peter, smiling, yelled at me through the storm, "let's do it, again!"

Playing with Leviathan...

That reminds me of another story... When my own children were young, I tried to get them to go canoeing with me on the New River in NC. I told them I was going to try to photograph some alligators.  I realized then that is not the way to try to get someone to go paddling with you. It took quite a bit of convincing to get them to go with me. Alligators and Leviathan should usually be left out of the conversation if you would like anyone to join you on  the water!

God's Peace - Pr. J