Bowling Green Covenant Church

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
-Philippians 3.14

I am a hockey fan. This explains why this past Wednesday I
rose at 5:45 a.m. to watch Team Sweden play Team Kazakhstan
in Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey. It was a first round game, but
it was hockey. More than that-it was Olympic Hockey. It was
men playing a children’s game for love of the game and love
of country. It was patriotism on ice; chauvinism with sticks
and pucks replacing rifles and bullets. It was competition
all aimed at one goal-to receive the upward call of an
Olympic champion.

Kazakhstan does not have a good team. In an era where
professional athletes compete in a once “amateur”
tournament, Team K. has just one bona fide pro player. In
contrast, Team Sweden is laden with pros from the National
Hockey League-and All-Stars at that. The game was no
contest. The Kazakhstanis played valiantly, but despite
their courage Sweden won handily. Yesterday Team K. lost to
the United States. Another loss and they are done. But
regardless of where they finish they will play all five
games of the preliminary round. Defeat may discourage and
disappoint, but when you are playing for your country you
lace up your skates, take to the ice, and try your best to
win-to receive that upward call of an Olympic champion.

There are times when life feels as if we are on Team
Kazakhstan. Everyone else is more talented, more skilled,
better looking, better organized, and you know, just plain
together. And there we are -frazzled by frustration and
bedraggled by discouragement. The easy thing is to give up.
The hard thing is to keep trying-to keep skating even when
you are overmatched by life.

Paul the apostle did not play ice hockey. However, he knew
what it was to be frazzled by frustration and bedraggled by
discouragement. He knew despair. But he also knew hope. He
knew disappointment. But he also knew joy. He knew poverty.
But he also knew abundance. He knew sickness. But he also
knew health. He knew anxiety. But he also knew the peace of
God that passes all understanding. He knew the temptation to
give up. But he also knew the energizing power of the upward
call of God in Christ Jesus. It is the Olympic call to rise
above our circumstances-not by force of will, or strength of
inner courage, but by obedience to the call of God.

Compared to the Roman Empire the early church was Team
Kazakhstan. It was overmatched ten times ten thousand. But
where is Rome today? The Church will triumph but not because
we are strong. The Church will triumph because God is strong
and we are obedient to His Call. He has called us to press
on despite being overmatched. We have received and will
receive something of far more lasting value than a
perishable wreath, or even an Olympic Gold Medal. Ours is
the cross before the crown. Ours is a name despised before
receiving Name from the One who is above all names who has
named us from the foundation of the world.

The call has gone out. Let us press on until that day when
we shall ultimately receive the prize for which God has
called us upward in Christ Jesus.

You think about that.

MM

I am at this moment still basking in the radiant warmth of a
hunter’s satisfaction with a successful campaign. I have rid
my home of a mouse.

Said mouse was discovered-dead-at approximately 5:18 a.m. on
Wednesday morning February 8, 2006. The time of death is
estimated to have been between midnight and 5 a.m. The cause
of death was the result of the primitive ingenuity of the
Victor mousetrap company (69 N. Locust St., Lititz,
PA/www.victorpest.com).

I shall not mourn said mouse, nor shall I regret my action,
which hastened its demise. A man must defend his home
against vermin after all. My Jill can now sleep peacefully
at night. Her man got his man, or mouse as in this case.

Would that my tendency to sin were so easily trapped and
killed. This business of the mortification of the flesh
often finds me caught in traps a more prudent man (or mouse)
might otherwise avoid. But then the bait is so enticing-the
Sirens’ song an alluring one be it lust, greed, gluttony,
anger, pride, envy, or sloth. For the mouse it was peanut
butter.

It is the nature of bait to blind the tempted to the
seriousness of the trap. The trap is not unseen merely
ignored. It may well spring but it won’t catch me. I am too
clever. I am too fast to be caught. I am invincible. The
truth is otherwise. I am stupid. I am slow. I am mortal. I
am caught in the trap not because I cannot avoid it. I sin
because my desire for the bait is greater than the fear that
I might get caught.

The mouse must have sensed the danger. Did the mouse treat
it as a game? If so, the game ended most unfavorably for the
mouse. The creature’s position on the trap indicated that
the bar almost missed-almost. The mouse is (after all) dead.
The force of the bar’s swift snapping jaw caught enough of
it’s snout to kill it. The same trap that painfully pinched
my fumbling fingers when I set it killed the reckless
vermin.

The bait used by sin to tempt creates the same sense of
danger/adventure. The game is on. How close may I approach?
How near the edge? How far may I go? I am aware of the trap,
but the longer I eye the bait, the more I inhale its
seductive aroma, the longer I listen to its siren song, the
less I care about the sudden snap at the end. And when it
snaps I am hurt. I am remorseful. I mourn my stupidity. I
moan a prayer for mercy. I plead contritely for grace. I cry
for help.

And God is gracious. He opens the trap with hands that bear
the marks of another trap. He forgives. “I, too, once felt
the snap of sin’s deadly trap,” He says. “My death is the
reason I can rescue you now. I was sinless, but I became sin
for your sake so you might become My righteousness. I died
so you may live.”

We would think a man insane were he to die for a mouse.
Moreover, we would consider him beyond recovery in his
madness were he to insist on becoming a mouse. And yet Jesus
was in His right mind when He died for us stupid, slow,
fumbling mortals down here. Jesus is not insane. He is
infinitely gracious; endlessly merciful; eternally loving.
Jesus, the Eternal Son of God stepped into our flesh for the
very purpose of stepping into sin’s trap. He gave Himself
the cross. Each clang of hammer on nail, pealed like a bell
tolling the good news of His conquest and our liberation.
Sin is paid for. Death is beaten. Christ has died and in
dying He triumphs over His foes. In rising His glory is
displayed as the Lord of Life.

So while I will not mourn mouse’s demise I will be thank for
its having entered my life. Through its death God opened a
window into His character and my soul to remind me that when
I am weak He is strong. When I am afraid He is courage. When
I am tempted He is able to deliver. When I am trapped He is
willing to forgive.

And set me free.

You think about that.

MM

Friday 3 February 2006

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the
things revealed belong to us and to our children forever,
that we may follow all the words of the law.”-Deuteronomy
29.29

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be
comforted.”-Matthew 5.4

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will
give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is
light.”-Matthew 11.28-30

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who
comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort
those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have
received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow
over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort
overflows.”-2 Corinthians 1.3-5

Some events land in our lives like a boulder thrown into a
pond. They send out ripples that affect us for years to
come.

This past Tuesday, a boulder landed in the lives of the
lives of the students, faculty, and administration of
Bowling Green High School. The ripples from Jeff Laskey’s
suicide spread out from the school to the Wood County
Hospital ER eventually affecting the entire community of
Bowling Green, including here at Bowling Green Covenant
Church.

Death is a painful reality always hard to come to terms
with. Death by suicide makes dealing with that pain even
more difficult. Why Jeff took his own life will likely never
be known. The secret things do indeed belong to the LORD our
God. Ours is to carry on trusting God to make things known
in His perfect time. Ours is to hold firmly to the faith
once delivered to the saints-a faith that believes God is
merciful and just and that what the Enemy intends for evil
God intends for good in order to accomplish that which we in
our nearsightedness cannot now see, but trust He will
perform. Until then we must seek the comfort He has promised
to those who mourn as well reach out to comfort those with
the same comfort we ourselves receive from Him.

And so our prayers are with the Laskey family. We pray God
will comfort them. We pray the Holy Spirit will ease their
infinite pain with an even more infinite grace and mercy.
We pray that He who is Sovereign will, in His time, bring
life from this tragedy. Our prayers are with the students,
faculty and administration of BGHS. One suicide is hard to
deal with, but three suicides in three years leave an
indelible mark on the soul. We pray God will comfort them.
Our prayers are for the students who knew Jeff and who will
wrestle with why they have been exposed to so much death at
so young an age. We pray that the Holy Spirit would cover
them with the comfort promised to us all by Jesus-that all
who come to Him will find rest for their souls for His yoke
is easy and His burden light. May they seek not the false
rest promised by suicide, but the true rest of a life lived
to the full through faith in Christ.

Let we who are parents pray for the courage and the wisdom
to talk with our children about a subject that cannot be
ignored. Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death in
the U.S. claiming 30,000 lives each year (approximately 1
every 18 minutes). More than 4,000 of those who commit
suicide annually are under 25. For people between 15 and 24
years old, suicide is the third leading cause of death. The
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates
that between 500 and 1,500 people seek care in emergency
rooms every day for suicide attempts. Research indicates
that in any given year 20 percent of all high school
students seriously consider suicide.

The surest deterrent to teenage suicide is for parents to
spend time listening to their children. Each minute we spend
with our kids is a pebble thrown into the pond of their
lives. Pebbles may make smaller ripples than boulders, but
throw enough pebbles into the water and it’s amazing how far
the ripples will go.

With confidence that we will receive mercy and find grace to
help us in our time of need,

Pastor Michael Malanga