Do any of you happen to read the daily devotional “Christ in Our Home”? If so, you know that today’s entry reflects on Psalm 99, and quotes verse 6 about crying out to the Lord. Anyway, I thought that would be a great entry point as I head into my last blog posting of the week, as I come clean with my street cred and love for Cali.
I grew up in Minnesota, but there was always something about southern California that had an appeal - even as a kid. It may have started because the Gopher’s football team stunk, while USC had a guy named Marcus Allen who ran up and down all around on a field that, get this, was actually STILL GREEN at the end of the season! Green grass, sun, a winning team, beaches, Disney ... as a kid I thought it was heaven on earth. We had extended family that lived in Orange County, and we’d visit them often. I was a SoCal boy at heart. It was, to me, utopia.
Fast-forward now ... and the heavenly image of L.A. started to tarnish a bit. Charlie was probably in kindergarten when we were on one of our annual USC junkets. We were driving along when Elizabeth decided that we should head off the interstate, as she charted “a short-cut” thru unknown neighborhoods of Los Angeles. As we exited the freeway, literally, a S.W.A.T. truck rushed past us with sirens blasting and lights blazing. Later, after stopping to get the kids a treat at a candy store, another squad car came whistling by. Charlie then uttered a line that we now repeat often on our family vacations. “Wow, Mom, you sure know how to take us on an adventure!” :)
A few years later, I had quite the adventure. As part of my seminary education, I took a J-term and lived with host families in inner-city L.A. “South Central” to be exact. It was an amazing experience. Ever see the movie, “Boyz N the Hood”? It was in that environment were I lived with two different host families. I could go on and on about my experiences that January, but I think blogs are supposed to be fairly short. ;) Anyway ... If you have $1.99 and about 45 minutes, the best insights into what life is like in this area (outside of my stories, of course!) can be seen in Anderson Cooper’s CNN special “Homicide in Hollenbeck” – which can be downloaded thru iTunes.
Anyway ... This was a VERY long introduction to say that when we say things like “Christ is with you in your darkest hour” and “prayer matters”, it was here that I first really felt that to be palpably true. Never before did Luther’s morning prayer mean as much to me as it did when I said it each morning in L.A. Living where drive-by’s were commonplace, and where gang members were outside my bedroom window patrolling the streets at night, I’d wake up and say Luther’s morning prayer - “I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that you would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings in life may please you. For into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.”
I’m not sure what you may be going through right now in your life, but may the living Christ provide you the safety and comfort and consolation he gives so freely. Go ahead and cry out to the Lord. He’s there for you!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Mark
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