Faith Venture

-Gary Mintchell

When I heard that part of our trip to Israel and Egypt would be a stop at Mt. Sinai and the opportunity to climb to the summit to watch the sunrise, I immediately thought of a sermon I heard some time ago by a young woman pastor at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California. She spoke of the climb, how tough it was, struggling up the last hundred or so steps to reach the top. Now this is a sermon, and speakers need a certain dramatic style to be effective (heck, I am giving a talk on intelligent sensors improving maintenance management in process manufacturing plants and I’ll be dramatic or they’ll all be asleep!). So I wasn’t sure how to balance fact from drama in her story. Now I know. It’s a tough climb–and it’s totally worth the effort.

I began thinking of the trip as an analogy to many life situations–think some new project around the church, for instance. You have the highest hopes of reaching the goal. The trip to the beginning of the climb is filled with excitement. The first part of the way is not too hard, but then you start an occasional vertical climb that begins to take some of your energy. Early on, you can’t even see the goal clearly in the early morning darkness.

Part of the way up help is offered. At this point, you need to do an honest evaluation of your strengths versus the effort toward the goal. Sometimes you need the help. This is not an admission of either weakness or failure. You just need help to reach the goal. In the case of Sinai, there are camels waiting to take you part of the way up. Some take them because they know that at the end of the sloping climb lies 750 irregularly shaped steps–and that will be tough. So some of us walked (probably because we’re obsessive, or just think we’re in shape), and some rode.

Yep, those 750 (or so, I didn’t count them) steps are tough. You now can see the goal a little more clearly, but you also see the hard work ahead to finish. So, you climb, then you stop and take a little break. Then you climb some more. Dawn starts to break to add a little urgency to the climb. You’ve come this far and don’t want to fall short.

Then you reach the goal. You sit and devour the sack breakfast that was prepared for you. Then you can look around and savor the view. The sun rises over the distant mountains and the feeling is just awesome. You’ve reached the goal and savored the experience, but then you have to start down.

While the initial accomplishment and experience of the sunrise with many other pilgrims is fantastic beyond words, the real experience comes when you relive that moment over and over when you’re back home in the flatlands. Reaching the goal and reliving the experience wipes away almost all thoughts of the pain of getting there.

Have you ever had to spend time at a nursing home?  You can truly see a cross section of how humans react to life.  My mom is convalescing from knee replacement surgery and I have made daily trips to take her the paper and mail and just to visit.  I take my dog, Gabe, with me. 

Did you know that the dog breeds we have today were bred originally from the wolf to be exactly what man wanted them to be? I wonder if this was God’s intention when he said to Adam to rule over every living creature.  Were we to manipulate them to make them fit our needs?  Is this part of the “image of God” capability?  It doesn’t seem right at one level, because in spite of the fact that God has the power and could manipulate us, we were given free will.    Maybe the wolf turned dog also had free-will and chose to follow the path of least resistance for the greatest reward. It is a puzzle, but the end result is a great companion bound with unconditional love.  Perhaps that is something we should learn from dogs.

Back to the nursing home and my dog’s visits though: it is miraculous how he just wags his tail and rubs his nose on the lifeless hand hanging from a wheelchair to suddenly bring a smile.  Of course, not everyone is enamored by my dog, but many do respond and very positively.  They tell stories about their own pets and look more alive and excited for awhile.  In my mind it is the value of unconditional love; like a miracle medicine that can bring the dead to life. 

At some point in the breeding lineage, the dog responded by looking up to a master to help guide and make the bigger choices in life.  That is where the wolf and dog differ.  The wolf depends on the pack, while the dog looks to a master or higher power.  Huh, that is something we could learn from dogs.

– Darcy