“Where
God Is”
First
Presbyterian Church
Katlyn
Rice, Senior,
June
15, 2008
Youth
Sunday – A Festival of Gifts
When I was younger,
I thought God lived in the clouds. I
never once doubted that angels were “hiding” behind each puff of vapor
…until I thought about airplanes. Although
I do not remember when or to where I was traveling, but while gazing out the
airplane window, I remember wondering where God was. I
could see much of the vast, cloud-filled sky, but where was God? I
began to wonder if he wasn’t in the clouds, then where was he? I
wondered if he was maybe in some far off place in outer-space. I
had been told that space was so infinitesimally large it was incomprehensible to
the human mind, so was that where God was? That
idea, too, was short-lived. With
time, and maturity, I began to realize that God was everywhere, in every space,
and we just had to open our eyes and hearts to see it.
I recently read the
book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. The
book entails the true story of the lessons of the author’s past professor,
Morrie Schwartz. This professor,
however, was no ordinary instructor. In
fact, the story takes place many years after Mitch Albom has graduated from
college. Mitch routinely travels to
talk with his old professor every Tuesday, for Morrie is struggling with Lou
Gehrig’s disease and has a very limited time left to live. The
professor is perceived as perhaps the most optimistic of individuals, despite
his declining condition. He spoke
about a new issue each week and taught solely from experience. Morrie
spoke of how to love, build a family, and even how to die, but most importantly
he taught Mitch how to live.
I wanted to share a
few of my favorite quotations from the story. The
first of which is Morrie’s words as he speaks to Mitch. He
begins “’In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to
survive, right? And at the end of
life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right?’ His
voice dropped to a whisper. ‘But
here’s the secret: in between, we
need others as well.’” -Mitch
Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
Another personally
significant quotation is found in the Afterword of the novel. Mitch
writes: “Now, Morrie, by his own admission, had been an agnostic for many
years. But after his diagnosis of
ALS, he began to explore. To rethink
He delved into religious teachings. On
a Tuesday in August 1995, according to my notes, we spoke about this. Morrie
told me he once believed that death was cold and final. ‘You
go into the ground and that’s it.’ But
now he felt differently. What is
your concept now, I asked? ‘I have
not settled on one yet…’ he said, honest as always. ‘However
this is too harmonious, grand, and overwhelming a universe to believe that
it’s all an accident.’ What a
thing for a onetime agnostic to say. Too
harmonious, grand and overwhelming a universe to believe that it’s all an
accident? This, remember, was
when Morrie’s body was an empty husk, when he needed to be washed and groomed,
when he needed his nose blown and his bottom wiped. Harmonious?
Grand? If he could find the
world’s majesty from such a decayed and difficult posture, how hard could it
be for the rest of us?”
-Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
That’s where God
is.
As my senior year
at
That’s where God
is.
Earlier this
spring, a good friend to many and a 2006
That’s where God
is.
The other week
during the children’s music worship, as you might remember, Cindy helped the
children exhibit God’s message through song. Such
little acts created an enormous appreciation, and some brought about tear. The
impact on an entire congregation that such young, talented individuals can
create is truly remarkable.
That, too, is where
God is.
If God is not
“hiding” up in the clouds or expanding in outer space, but is in
Morrie Schwartz, in my calculus teacher, in David Love, in and through the
children’s song of our congregation, and in each and every one of us, God is
not anywhere, but rather everywhere.
I would like to
conclude today with a song by Jeff Bates entitled “He Wasn’t Like Us.” It’s
personally very meaningful and gives me strength to live my days. The
song can be understood on many levels. It
can be about Jesus or it can be a song about any of us who dare to live our
lives authentically no matter the costs.
“He Wasn’t Like Us”
(Jeff Bates):
We didn’t know
for sure but everybody said
That old boy
ain’t right in the head
He’s a little
slow
We’d hide in the
bushes not make a sound
When he’d walk by
we’d push him down on that dirt road
We had a lot of
laughs at his expense
Chorus:
He wasn’t like us
He wasn’t cool
He’d just smile
even while we were being cruel
He stood out
He didn’t fit in
But we kept throwin’
the stones no we didn’t let up on him
He never said a
mean word no he never even made a fuss
He wasn’t like us
Later on he made a
name in our town
For hangin’ out
and runnin’ around with the rough crowd
They were boozers
and losers and low class broads
But he saw good in
them nobody else saw and he brought it out
Then the rumors
started flyin’ that he was some kinda holy man
But we set ‘em
straight and told ‘em to his face he was a crazy man
Chorus
Well, I remember
the day he got in trouble with the law
They cussed him and
kicked him and mocked him and whipped him
Then they nailed
him to the cross
He wasn’t like
us, he didn’t fit in
And I fell down on
my knees and wept for him
He never said a
mean word no he never even made a fuss
He never did
nothing wrong all he ever did was love
He wasn’t like us
He wasn’t like us
© 2008 Black River Music Group