Tree Trimmers & Pie In The Sky

Tuesday I had conversations with nine people!

That’s a record for a reclusive hermit like me.

One young man bemoaned the fact that several years ago the love of his life had left him and had much latter committed suicide. Wringing his hands in remorse and regret, the young man said that his intense love was perceived as smothering but he did not realize it at the time.

“I killed that relationship with my own hands,” he said.

He said those same words several times.

I could think of absolutely nothing to say which might comfort him.

In the afternoon workers with five bucket trucks, chainsaws and shredders arrived on my street to clear tree limbs off power lines, getting ready for next hurricane season:

Herein I proved myself a sneaky sinner.

The work crews cleared the main power lines around and between electric poles along the street. That’s their job.

At the corner of my house an oak tree overhangs the electric line running from house to transformer. The work crew has no obligation to clear anything on private property… but sometimes a discrete tip to the crew boss removes this obstacle and they will stretch the strict definition of their work order.

Now, I have degenerative arthritis in my right hip and sometimes when the pain is bad I walk with a cane.

The pain was not bad yesterday.

So I faked it.

I limped outside on my cane to talk with the crew boss. I deliberately came across as a crippled old man. I deceived the workers and they swung the bucked and power saws over onto my property and pruned the tree for me.

Without any charge.

I must have looked so pitiful.

So decrepit.

So pathetic.

These workmen pruned my oak tree in minutes. If I’d had to climb that tree myself (as I intended to do next weekend) it would have taken me hours to do the same work.

Yes, I have degenerative arthritis in my hip and macular degeneration in my eyes — Ginny says that I’m a degenerate from one end to the other.

But that’s no excuse for playing on the workmen’s sympathy. For being manipulative. For deceiving.

Hey, it worked.

But that’s beside the point.

Just because something works, doesn’t mean it’s right. In fact, a lot of things that “work” are downright wicked.

There’s a point to what I’ve been telling and it’s not really about tree limbs or me but about suffering and glory and Heaven

Last Saturday I wrote a post, “Once I got my ass kicked… and once I didn’t”, about suffering.

I left two of my thoughts on the subject out of my blog post. I’d like to address one of those now.

One thought I left out is that the Bible links present undeserved suffering and pain to future glory.

“I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”.

“Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy”.

“If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him”.

“All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution”.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you”.

“When we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly… God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us… But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life”.

Again and again and again the Bible holds out the promise of Heaven ahead, that we can be accepted in the beloved, that we can be joint-heirs with Christ, that whatever happens here and how, the possibility of eternal joy, peace and glory lies ahead.

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats… Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…”

This is what we were all created for.

But all have sinned, everyone of us falls short of the glory God intends for us. There’s not a teddy bear in the lot of us.

The Scripture teaches that God lightens every man and woman coming into the world, that He intends glory for us… but He gives us a certain amount of free will to accept or reject Him — and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

And He allows us our own choice.

Till death confirms us in the choice we made.

Of all Christian teachings, I find the one about Heaven ahead the hardest one for me to believe. I mean, how can God allow a guy like me, a guy who fakes a bum leg with a cane into his kingdom?

I’m just not good enough.

Yes, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleans us from all sin… I believe that, but I doubt it too.

In my heart of hearts I harbor the believe that Christ can save everybody in the whole wide world – except John Cowart.

Why, in the light of Scripture and the revealed character of God would I think a dumb thing like that?

I suspect there are three reasons:

I have trouble believing in Heaven because Heaven seems far off, future and invisible; while evil, sorrow and suffering are here and now and visible everywhere I look, like the young man who mourned his lost love right here beside my desk this morning. Poor bastard.

I also have trouble believing in Heaven because I’ve heard intellectuals tease about it. You know, Opiate of the masses. Pie in the sky by and by. That sort of thing.

And because I’ve been teased by people I respected and thought smart about believing in a future good, I feel ashamed to acknowledge the promise of God that there is indeed future good ahead in spite of what we see daily on earth.

A third reason I have a problem believing in Heaven in the future is because of voices from my past.

“John, I’m so disappointed in you”. That’s the one phrase I remember most hearing from my father during my childhood and youth.

My mother’s characteristic phrase when I aspired to an academic career or anything else was, “That’s not for the likes of you. Things like that are for better people”.

And my first wife said…

Well, let’s just leave that one, OK?

But you get the idea.

My parents have both been dead for many years yet I often hear their phrases as clear as can be. Belittling voices from the past that override and drown out the very promise of God.

I hope you don’t know what I mean… but I suspect you do.

I need to follow my own advice:

When I’m talking about following Christ with a person who’s had a bitter experience with their church or a repressive religious family member, I advise:

“Forget everything you’ve ever heard about Jesus. Pretend you have never even heard of God and begin reading a Bible. Start with the Gospel of Mark, it’s the shortest one, and see what the Scripture actually says about Jesus for yourself. See if the Jesus you read about there is someone you can trust, someone you like, someone you can follow. If He is, then follow Him as best you are able, one step at a time.”

Reading the Bible with an open mind, with no pre-conceived notions, as though you’ve never seen a page of it before heals a lot of hurts.

I need to do that again.

In a way, as a witnessing Christian, I shouldn’t talk so much about my doubts; I really don’t want to squelch anyone else’s faith. But if I didn’t believe, I wouldn’t doubt… Does that make sense?

Push come to shove, I hope I’d say with the Patriarch Job (known for his suffering), “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”.

Do I understand suffering?

No. Not at all.

Do I believe in Jesus Christ?

Yes I do.

Do I look forward to Heaven?

Not really. I halfway expect to hear the words, ”John, I’m so disappointed in you”.

Is there pie in the sky by and by?

Well, come right down to it, that’s the only pie there is.

The next to the last chapter in the Bible says, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’”.

For some reason I want to close with another photo I snapped of the tree trimming guys: