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Love, Hope and Something to Do
A few years ago I was in Orlando, Florida, where my biological mother lives. She and her husband, Dan, had just finished touring us around the area where they are building a new house…across the lake from Arnold Palmer and down the road from Shaquille O’Neal, Ken Griffey Jr., Tiger Woods and various other celebrities. We oohed and aahed and strained our necks to see the multi-million dollar celebrity homes…my mom’s future neighbors.
Later than night, I was contemplating that experience and had a vague sense of unease, of discomfort. I think it put, into rather stark relief, the debate about the meaning of life. I realized that those stars and their fancy homes, and maybe even my mom’s bank account, new neighborhood and rich friends, are what the world wants to call successful. But, that wasn’t (and shouldn’t be) my definition, and it for sure isn’t God’s. Later that same evening we rented a movie on their pay-per-view television system and I received sort of an epiphany that convinced me of that fact.
The movie was Flight of the Phoenix, a remake of a 1965 Jimmy Stewart movie, which also starred Richard Attenborough and Ernest Borgnine. In the remake version, a group of airplane crash survivors are stranded in the Mongolian desert with no chance of rescue. Facing a brutal environment, dwindling water, food and other resources, and an attack by desert smugglers; they realized their only hope was doing the impossible... building a new plane from the wreckage of the old one.
Captain Frank Towns, a reluctant leader, was played by Dennis Quaid. He struggled with doubts and despair and at one point refused to do anything to get them out of the desert. It was only because of a character named Liddle, played by Scott Michael Campbell, that things began to change. Liddle had a wife and young son and he wasn’t about to sit in the desert and starve. Against all odds, he decided to take things in his own hands and began a suicidal mission. He walked his way across hundreds of miles of desert to the nearest town. Captain Towns realized that Liddle would die trying this, so he went after him. During their argument, where Towns wanted to just give up and Liddle was trying the impossible, Liddle said something profound (pardon the paraphrase), “All you need to be happy in this life is to have someone to love, a little hope and something to do.”
There are so many parallels between that statement and our faith. The great commandment of Jesus was to love people. He has also given us an eternal hope through His death and resurrection. And the combination of our love and hope give us something to do. Love, hope, something to do.
That’s my vision for the youth ministry here at Grace Lutheran…that we would love people, take joy in our eternal hope and always be looking for things to do to put those into action.
I am so excited to be here and to be working with students. I have the best job in the world, and it is a privilege to be your Youth Director. I look forward to meeting you and working with you.
In His service,
C.T. Harris