Street Signs of Life: Winding Curves

Pastor Meyer's Sermon

Sunday, August 6, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God, our heavenly Father, and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus, our Christ.

My Dear Friends, “Winding Curve Ahead” is our final sign in our sermon series, The Signs of Life. And it's appropriate this would be our final sign because there are so many unexpected curves that happen in our lives, aren't there? Of course, I'm not talking about the unexpected physical curves we have. But I am talking about those curves in our lives, both good and bad, that come to us as we're going down life's highway.

You know, this past June, I went up to Philadelphia to celebrate with my grandmother as she celebrated her 90 th birthday and it was almost like a family reunion. Everybody was there and soon the pictures came out and we started looking through the pictures and some of the things we talked about, like when everybody came out to St. Louis for my wedding, when my grandfather and I would hold hands as we crashed into the waves on the Jersey shore, or when my grandmother was mugged while she was shopping at a shopping center, or when my grandfather passed away in 1989. We didn't talk about the common, everyday occurrences. No, we talked about those good and bad times, those curves we remember in our daily lives.

So the question is, when you look back on your life the last weeks and the months and the years, how has your life been going? What sign would you best attach to your life? Would it be this sign, the regular Winding Curve Ahead sign where things have been going pretty well for you. Recently, you've had a big curve in your life but, other than that, things have been pretty calm. Or maybe you can attach yourself to this sign here, The Round About Sign, because, you see, in your life, you feel like you're just going in circles. You feel like you're just staying in one place and spinning your tires. And you feel like that because you don't know where you're going. You don't know where you're supposed to be, and you don't know what to do. Or maybe your life is like this sign here, Sudden Curve Ahead. Maybe you've been given a clue, been given a warning you're going to have a big change in your life soon and you're not sure how you're going to prepare for it. Or maybe your life is like this next one, The U Turn. It seems like your life has been going really well for quite a while. Things have been going well. You've been very happy. But then, all of a sudden, your life made an about face and you're going back to where you started. And you're thinking and you're feeling to yourself, “Do I have to start all over again?” Or maybe your life is like this next one where you look back on the past weeks and the past months and the past years and you don't even know where the curves began or when they ended or when you've had a calm time in your life. So what sign best describes your life? And then what clue can we get from these signs as to what God would have us know and trust as we travel down life's highway.

Well, first of all, we have to begin before we even hit the curves. We have to understand and, it seems so simple but yet it's so hard, we need to understand there are going to be curves in our lives. There are going to be difficult times. There are going to be joyous times in our lives. And we need not be surprised at these unexpected curves. You know, the idea that permeates through our society is if we are a Christian, then we will not be challenged at all in our lives. And if you do have challenges, then maybe you need to question whether you have faith or not. And some of you have heard me say this before, but Jesus didn't say, “Pick up your roses and follow me.” No, what did He say? He said, “Pick up your cross and follow me.” So there will be curves in our lives. And, again, I'm not just talking about the difficult curves, like when you lost your job or the loss of a spouse. I'm also talking about those good curves in our lives, the birth of a new child, a marriage, or maybe it's buying a new home. They all are stressful for us.

I read an article in the paper recently, and the author cited a letter he received and he quoted, “I understand why moving is one of the top five stressors in life, but I'm trying to remain cool, calm, and collected.” Even good curves are stressful curves. And so now that we realize there are going to be unexpected curves in our lives, we need to get ready for them. And when Pastor Burcham preached a couple of weeks ago on rest areas, he gave us a challenge. Remember that challenge? That challenge was to find a time during the day where that could be your rest area with God, where you could spend time with God in prayer and in meditation and in the reading of His Word and through devotion. How have you been doing with that challenge? Because then he said, “Once you continue that challenge, make that a habit, then you can add on other times during the day where you can get into that rest area.” But I contend that not only is time with God in prayer and in reading of His Word and in meditation restful for us, but it's also practice for us for when we do run into a curve in our lives.

And that is what Peter tells us in our first reading for today. He says, “Praise be to God and the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven for you who, through faith, are shielded by God's power. In this, you greatly rejoice.” We have been given a living hope. And because of that living hope, our eyes are fixed on an inheritance we know we receive despite the daily curves we have in our daily lives. But, My Friends, it takes practice. It takes practice for us to keep our eyes focused on our inheritance. So spending time in rest areas gets us ready for the curved areas in our lives.

So now we're going through the curves in our lives and, for many of you, that's what's happening right now. You are in the midst of a curve in your life. And now is what we need to take what is in practice and put into practice. We know we can turn to God for strength and comfort. We can take our pain and our grief. We can take our fear and uncertainty. We can take our joy and happiness. Whatever emotion, whatever feeling we are experiencing, we can take that, God. Because the wonderful thing about our God we know is He is a God who understands. He has lost a son. He has an idea of the meaning of human loneliness. He has celebrated at weddings. He rejoiced with the successes of others. And He's cried in the dark while well-meaning friends slept nearby.

And Peter offers us another suggestion as well. He says in our letter today, “Because God has given us a living hope, we can greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials, these come so your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor.” This hope helps us to see the curves we face will be used to refine our faith. We have a new way of looking at these curves in our lives. And what is that? Have you ever taken a trip up into the mountains where the roads are long and narrow but they're also very winding on the way up the mountain? And the interesting thing is when you get out into the curve, what happens? You're getting close to the cliff of the mountain. And it's pretty scary because if you just go a little further on, you fall right into the valley. But the wonderful thing about it is the view you get, the view of the valley, and the view of the mountain line. It's wonderful, but it's also scary. It's safe back here closer to the mountain but once we get out into the curve, it gets really scary. And so the experiences we have in life, they take us out to the edge and we experience life in ways we never had before. But when we're out there on that cliff, when we're out there on the edge, that's when our faith comes into play. Because it's scary when we're going through those curves in life. And the question is who do you trust during that time? It's not that God wants us to suffer. No, that's not what it is. But our suffering, going to the edge of that cliff, may be used to make us finer than we were, our faith becoming more refined. We become more gracious. We become more understanding of others, and we learn God is with us throughout the experience. Winding curves equal tested faith.

But, you know, the other interesting thing about winding curves is, as you're going through the curve, you can't always see what's happening on the other side of the curve. Do you understand what I'm saying? As you're going around the curve, you start here but you don't always see what's going to happen on the other side. And isn't that true? Because how many times in your life have you been going through a curve that you asked yourself, “What's going to happen next?” Because we just don't know what's going to happen on the other side of the curve. But Peter answers us. He answers us again by saying, “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him.” There's an echo of this in Hebrews 11 where the author is defining faith and he says, “Faith is being sure of what is hoped for and certain of what we do not see.” What are we certain of? When Jesus gives us the promise I am with you always, He is there with us. And we can trust that in those times we are going through those curves. And we are asking what's going to happen next? Because Jesus is right there with us even when we don't see Him, we believe in Him and His Word. And we know even though we can't see Him, we know He is on the other side, that side we can't see, we know He is over there waiting for us.

So let's say we've gotten through the curve. What do we do now? I have some encouragement for you because, once we get through the curves, it's easy for us just to put our guard down and just take a break, just want to take some time away from God's Word or just let our guard down. My encouragement is don't stop spending time with God. I encourage you to continue to spend time with God in prayer and devotion and the reading of His Word and fellow-shipping with other believers. And also, it is the time to rejoice with God because God has protected you through that curve. He has given you the shield of faith to protect you when you went through that curve and we need to continue to practice so we're ready for the next curve that comes in our lives.

So we practice daily spending time in His Word and in prayer to get ready for that coming curve. We have our eyes fixed on that inheritance in heaven because of the living hope God has given us. And we know Jesus is right there beside us. Winding Curves Ahead? Bring them on. We're ready. Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church