March 2010

Dear Friends in faith,
The Olympics have always been my favorite sporting event. Not only is it the pomp and pageantry of the opening and closing programs that captures my excitement. Even more captivating are the daily competitions among the best athletes from around the globe. I’ve always considered the quadrennial winter games as a wonderful showcase of the fastest, brightest, strongest, and most artistic young men and women in the world and an example of peace and harmony among nations. That’s why I was disheartened recently when American Evan Lysacek’s gold medal in figure skating was challenged by the second-place Russian Yevgeny Plushenko. Not only did the Russian figure skater complain about the multinational judges’ award given to Lysacek, his wife also called for a “thorough investigation,” and even Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin weighed in with a derogatory remark.
Without a doubt, losing any contest is painful; yet this most public display of self-pity by a sore loser highlights how self-centered and presumptuous the world has become. Whether it’s a world-class figure skater griping about a lost medal or a parent threatening a teacher for a child’s poor grade, somewhere society has lost the ability to live with defeat or even with less than expected. Is this the product of a spoiled life, of a ‘no-failure’ policy in education that refuses honestly to evaluate poor performance, or of the overzealous movement to affirm mediocrity? Whatever the cause, the outcome has disastrous consequences in society when so many youth and adults believe that they have a “right” to succeed regardless of performance and fly into angry rages when they don’t get their way. Whether it’s a disgruntled employee returning to work with a gun to go on a shooting rampage or an angry tax payer who flies a suicide mission by crashing his plane into a Texas IRS building, such actions a blatant portrayal of our inability to accept less than we wanted.
In this season of Lent when we are encouraged to reflect on our spiritual lives, each of us needs to consider how we ourselves react to the disappointments of life. Do we get angry? Do we blame others unfairly? Do we seek revenge? Do we gripe and complain? Do we demand our own way? Do we become bitter and hateful? Dear Friends, did not Jesus teach us to rejoice with those who rejoice? Did he not show us how to count others better than ourselves? Did not the Lord give his life to save us from selfishness and hatred? Does not the Gospel teach us that God’s love is sufficient to give us contentment and security in life whatever comes so that we suffer no loss of esteem when someone stronger, smarter, more experienced, or just plain luckier does better than we?
In this season as we ponder the cross, let us surrender our disappointments to God so that we may be free from bitterness and blaming others; let us rise up instead with a new desire to do the best we can and be satisfied with that. James wrote that this world’s wars begin with the fiery anger within us. Let us keep calm within so that the world will learn how to live in peace. As that much-sung chorus encourages: “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
With affection, Pastor Carlan