Through the connections of my friend Larry, several of us were privileged to spend a day at Six Flags Over Mid-America two weeks before the official opening date of their very first season in 1971. And one of the few attractions that still survives from that time (as far as I know!) is the Cinerama Theater. Originally billed as The Chevy Show, the screen was bent in a curve towards the audience. When a film was shot with the same type of lens and projected onto this screen, the 3-D effect became very powerful.

Many of the early films consisted of mounting a camera on a roller coaster and filming the ride. The effect was so startling that if you got sick riding the real thing, you had better not watch this! What was even more fun than ‘feeling’ the twists and turns was to pull your eyes away from the screen and watch your fellow audience… even though the only thing actually moving was the film through the projector, everyone would lean to the right or left during a ‘hard turn’, or forward when the ‘brakes’ were suddenly applied. The effect was just too real for most people to ignore. Another standard that seems to be in all of these types of films over the years is the obligatory helicopter dip into and through a narrow canyon… a ride sure to get your adrenaline pumping by any measure!

Some years later I had an opportunity to ride the helicopter in Branson for a seven minute ride up and over Tablerock Lake and back. In those days, the helicopter was one of the early Bell models with a clear bubble cockpit and no doors. I sat on the outside edge with nothing but a seatbelt separating me from eternity. Believe me… as exciting and life-like the movie may have seemed, there was absolutely NO comparison with the reality!!!

I, like many others, went to see The Passion of the Christ when it first came out. I had been told how graphic some of the scenes were by friends who had already seen it… indeed, some said that they had to close their eyes or look away… it was just too intense, too real for them to watch… so I felt somewhat prepared as I sat in my seat just before it began. And you know what…? I didn’t see anything that I had not already seen in my own mind any number of times over the years!

I have often pondered and spoke about the fact that Jesus was a real, living, breathing human during His time on this earth. I feel like we far too often tend to think of Him as being more the Son of God and less the Son of Man.

What I mean by that is I think we are sometimes tempted to discount His human side because He was the Christ. After all, when Satan tempted Him in the desert, didn’t Jesus know that all Heaven and earth was already subject to Him? When He prayed in the garden for deliverance, didn’t He know that it was only temporary? The obvious answer is ‘yes’. But, that then begs the question, if He knew these things… if He knew that in the end He would sit at the right hand of God, His Father… what’s the big deal? How could He really feel and understand the things that you and I have to deal with in our lives everyday? What kind of sacrifice did He actually make if He knew that He would be alive again in three days? My answer to that lies in accepting the premise that Jesus really was a man… and was as human as you or me!

Consider, if you will, what I believe to be one of the basic premises of the human psyche… that no matter how positive we might be about something… no matter how sure we are of our facts and/or our beliefs… there is always room for doubt. In fact, in at least my limited experiences with my own life and those of whom I have had the pleasure of interacting with over the years, I believe the human mind is incapable of being one-hundred percent certain of anything!

Thus, the true nature of what exactly Jesus felt and dealt with while human depends on just how human He really was! And I believe He was 100% human! Because of that, He felt every temptation that we feel… lust, self-importance, the desire for success and acceptance. He knew pain… He knew hunger… He knew joy… and He knew sorrow. Because He was truly human, He felt all of these things, as well as the myriad of other feelings and failings that confront each of us everyday! And perhaps most important… because of His humanity, He was forced to doubt all that He knew was true.

In the movie, we saw a scene of Him as a young man working on a table and interacting with His mother in a very loving way… but I’m sure that the reality of it was even more touching. In the movie, we saw Satan tempting a struggling Jesus by attacking and using His uncertainties against Him as well as offering rewards… but I’m sure that the reality was far more difficult than we can ever imagine. In the movie we saw a scared, uncertain Jesus praying in the garden for deliverance from the anguish and torment He knew was soon to come… but I’m sure the reality was far more poignant. In the movie we saw the stripes cut into His flesh… we watched Him struggle and fall carrying His cross… we saw the nails hammered into His body… and yet I know the reality of it had to be far worse than any movie screen could ever present.

This Easter, as you ponder the sacrifice made in your name… remember that it was a human being… with all of the same doubts and uncertainties and fears as each of us have… who elected to make that sacrifice! He may have also been the Son of God… but on the Cross He was the Son of Man… in other words… on the Cross, He was human!

        Let none of us ever forget that!

Hi, and welcome to my first posting! As I work and go to school full-time, I’m not certain how often I’ll get a chance to work with this, but we’ll see. My intent, for the most part, is to post various articles, letters, and sermons that I have written over the years (with an occasional update and/or correction noted for clarity) and respond to comments made about them. This one was first published in October of 2002 but was written for a school I attended some short time before. So, without further ado…

Until I first moved to the Jacksonville (IL) area in 1973, or thereabouts, my only knowledge of Springfield (IL) had come from a fourth-grade field trip, an outing with the Cub Scouts around that same time, a weekend youth rally with my girlfriend’s church group, and two or three visits to the State Fair while I was growing up. So, needless to say, I knew almost nothing about how the streets were laid out.

At that time, the only thing on the western outskirts was the K-Mart store. It stood all by itself on the edge of what was then the primary road to Springfield from the west, Highway 36. But, I had come to this area as a heavy equipment operator because there were a lot of building projects just getting started, and that next summer found me running an earthmover shaping the dirt for the buildings and parking lots of what would become White Oaks Mall, as well as the new four-lane from Chatham.

Halfway through the summer, the job foreman decided that I was good enough to start doing finish grade work, and made arrangements to rent a paddle-style earthmover just for me. We went in his pickup from the job-site on the southwest edge of Springfield and zigzagged diagonally across to the equipment dealer on the opposite corner of town. There, they showed me what I needed to know about that machine, I climbed up into the operator’s position, fastened my seatbelt, and headed back across town.

I had never been to that part of Springfield before. In fact, that drive across town had been the first time I had been on a number of those streets. I had expected to follow the foreman back but he was following with his flashers on. So it was that, at one stoplight, I zigged when I should have zagged. I drove that earthmover right through downtown Springfield! I finally stopped at what I now know is South Grand and ran back to get directions. So I wound up driving the rest of the way on South Grand, MacArthur, and Wabash! What a way to see Springfield!

As time went by, I came to know Springfield and the surrounding area pretty well. I have worked for a number of businesses over there from time to time and have had to make deliveries all over, I have hauled busloads of school kids to various sites, and I have made many trips with family and friends. In fact, I would say that at one point I knew Springfield as well as anybody, and maybe better than most.

But as always, time moves on. In recent years my (former) wife’s and my lives have gotten steadily busier and busier, and our trips to Springfield have grown fewer and fewer. So much so that, when over there the other day, I found myself trying to figure out how to get from one point to another again. Between all of the new roads being built and old ones closing, not to mention my memory starting to fade, it was almost like driving in a strange city again! And it came to me how like our lives that was!

We all start out in unfamiliar territory. But over time, we learn about what is around us, and eventually what lies beyond. We grow…we learn skills…we experience new things…and soon we feel confident and competent about most aspects of our lives. And as long as we make use of that knowledge we not only retain it, but we continue to augment it! But what happens if, for some reason, we stop? If you were to stop playing baseball, say, you would soon loose your ability to play baseball. The muscles and skills would slowly change so much that, should you decide to pick up a bat again, the experience could be both painful and embarrassing! And unless you find cause to use it, much of the information you learned in school and such will disappear. Can you still name all of the states and their capitals? My point is this…in order for knowledge and experience to be of any value, we not only have to learn it, but we also have to make steady use of it!

The same holds true for our spiritual lives. We all begin as babes in the family of God. But slowly we grow in our knowledge of and faith in God. As that knowledge and faith grows, we become aware of God’s calling to each of us. And, as we each respond to that calling, we discover the ‘gifts’ that God has made to each of us!

In 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul talks about these gifts. He even lists a few of them…counseling, teaching, healing, prophesy, speaking in tongues. They are not earned…they are not given to believers asking for a specific one…they are not chosen by people! God alone controls gifts! And as we begin to use them, we grow in our understanding of them, and in our understanding of God’s intent for them. We get better at using them…we get better at serving God in the service that He intended for us.

But what happens when, for whatever reason, we start ‘moving away’ from using the gifts that God gave? Someone gets ‘too busy’, someone else moves or changes jobs…it becomes all too easy to start letting God’s work go by the wayside. And then, like anything else, we start to loose our ability to make use of that gift!

Every one of us has a gift! I have seen many different people serve God in many different ways. And while some may not be as visible and obvious as others, every one of them is just as important to the over-all workings of the church. Every one of those gifts is a necessary part in God’s plan! That means that YOU are an indispensable part of God’s plan! Without you, God’s church will not operate as it should! Your gift is important…and appreciated by all who experience it!

But they will only experience it if you make use of it! If you choose NOT to make use of them, then you may well eventually loose the ability to use them.

And what will God think about that?