© 1997 Rev. Gregory Young
© 1997 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
| My Acceptance of The Urantia Book | Fall 1997 — Index | Suggestive Preamble for the Constitution of a Religious Organization Based on the Fifth Epochal Revelation |
Some years ago when the Denver zoo was going through a major renovation, there was a polar bear that had arrived at the zoo before a large naturalistic environment being constructed was ready for it. The cage that the bear was put into temporarily was just big enough so that the polar bear could take three nice swinging steps in one direction, whirl around and take three steps in the other direction, back and forth. The polar bear spent many months in that particular cage that restricted its behavior. Eventually the naturalistic environment was completed and the bear was released from his cage…and guess what? The polar bear still paced back and forth as if the cage was still there.
How many of us live our lives as if we were in a similar cage? We continue our repetitive, often negative, behavior over and over again. Like that polar bear, many of us are prisoners of an invisible cage. Many people are prisoners of their own lack of self respect. Our anger, our guilt, or our shame confine us and keep us from growing into the person that God intends for us to be.
Most of us have been frustrated in our efforts to change something about our lives. How many of us feel that change is just not possible for me, that even though I gave it a good effort, I just couldn’t let go of the things which bother me and seem to get in the way? Always, we need to remind ourselves that faith and persistence brings new life. Just as Nicodemus in his meeting with Jesus was dumbfounded when Jesus said, “You must be born again,” so too we must face the potential of living a new life with faith and courage and letting go of the things of the past. In partnership with God the impossible becomes possible.
As a people of faith, I sometimes wonder if we haven’t forgotten the spiritual power of the resurrection to new life? Sometimes we live as if the power of God in our lives does not exist. We must remind ourselves that the stone in front of the tomb holding us captive has been rolled away. The cage, the cell, the prison that prevents us from stepping forth in spiritual growth toward a new life is actually of our own making. Christ, our Lord, stands before these tombs that confine us and invites us to come forth, saying, “Behold, I make all things new!” He invites us to a new life and his love will sustain us as we grow in spiritual stature and resurrection power in the here and now.
Those of you who know me, know that one of my “petpeeves” is triggered when I hear someone say, “I can’t change,” “They’ll never change,” or “They’ll never amount to anything.” In statements like that, where is our faith in human beings who are indwelt with the spirit of God? That kind of talk flies in the face of the message of the Gospel, and that which the spirit of God is constantly doing in the lives of people. It seems that the world is full of Good Friday cynics who will tell you that you can’t do this, or become that. They are perpetually on the prowl pointing out what people cannot do.
I believe that most of us like to see others rise up victorious from the ashes of defeat and despair. We love to see people turn a wasted life around because they show us that we have more potential than we have realized. They are reminders of what God can do with our lives. The indwelling spirit of God is eager to work miracles in our minds and hearts when we deeply desire to follow God’s leading. Friends, never underestimate the power of faith and the strength of the spirit to fashion miracles of love within you. Never, for a moment, doubt your self-worth. You are loved by God and the Heavenly Father longs to work miracles in your life as he has in countless individuals in the past and present.
Think of the wondrous things that God’s love has done to bring renewal to countless lives of people who seemingly were buried beneath disastrous and impossible circumstances but looked deeply within themselves and reached for the outstretched hand of God to give them the guidance and strength to rise above their calamities. They show us that it can be done and these pioneering souls give us inspiration to renew our own lives. This newness of life is at the heart of the Alcoholics Anonymous program. There are literally hundreds of people in this metropolitan area who have been in this program who could tell you and show you that with the help of God, one can turn one’s life around. New life is possible. We can transcend the things that imprison us, and be free to grow into the person that God intended us to be.
Consider Ben: While Ben was in grade school his mother and father went through a divorce, and he moved with his mother from Boston back to Detroit. His mother did the best she could, and she continually stressed the importance of doing well in school, which he did. But Ben had a crippling flaw; he had a terrible temper. When he was fourteen years of age he got into an argument with a friend named Bob. Ben pulled out a camping knife and lunged at his friend. The steel blade struck Bob’s metal belt buckle and snapped.
Realizing that he could have killed his friend, Ben raced home, locked himself in the bathroom, and sat on the edge of the tub, his heart filled with shame and remorse over what he had done. He prayed that God would give him strength to overcome his temper. Ben stayed in the bathroom for over two hours that day, and he tells us that a quiet miracle — a new life — began to take place. It revolutionized his life. Ben still uses knifes today, but to save lives rather than in attempts to take them away. The Ben I’ve been telling you about is Dr. Ben Carson, who is the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. When a human being goes into partnership with God great things can and do happen.
God is closer to you than your own breathing. God knows you inside out-your imperfections as well as your enormous potential. God understands and God loves you. It is this unwavering love that transforms. In the musical, “The Man of La Mancha,” Don Quixote meets a woman of the streets, a wild and wanton woman named Aldonza. The man of La Mancha stops short, looks at her intently, and announces that she is his lady. He will call her “Dulcinea.” She responds with mocking laughter, knowing that she is hardly a lady.
Still Don Quixote sees in her the seed of a new life, a potential greatness, and tries desperately to give her a new self-image of the person she really is — if she can believe it. He insists that she is his lady. Angered and hurt, with wild hair flying over nearly naked breasts, she screams that she is only a kitchen maid! She is Aldonza, not Dulcinea! She runs from the stage as the man of La Mancha affirms again and again that she is his lady.
At the close of the play Don Quixote is dying. He feels that he has failed. The good he has tried to give has been rejected. The love he has offered has been shunned. But then to his side comes a changed Aldonza. She is now lovely with a new gentleness. Confused, he does not recognize this lovely stranger until in a warm voice she tells him that she is his Dulcinea. His love was victorious. In like manner, God sees the Dulcinea in each and every one of us.
In closing, I share with you a poem entitled “The Master’s Touch,” by Myra Brooks Welch, that tries to tell us of the transforming effect of God’s love.
‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile;
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”
“A dollar, a dollar,” then, “Two.” Only two?"
“Two dollars and who’ll make it three?”
"Three dollars once, three dollars twice;
Going for three,…” But no.
From the room far back, a gray haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
and tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said, “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars.” “And who’ll make it two?
Two thousand. Who’ll make it three?”
“Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
and going and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?” Swift came the reply:
“The touch of the Master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of potage, a glass of wine,”
A game — and he travels on.
He is “going” once and “going” twice.
He’s “going” and almost “gone.”
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Can never quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.
Gregory Young is pastor of St. John United Church of Christ in Germantown, Wisconsin.
“Urantia society can never hope to settle down as in past ages. The social ship has steamed out of the sheltered bays of established tradition and has begun its cruise upon the high seas of evolutionary destiny; and the soul of man, as never before in the world’s history, needs carefully to scrutinize its charts of morality and painstakingly to observe the compass of religious guidance. The paramount mission of religion as a social influence is to stabilize the ideals of mankind during these dangerous times of transition from one phase of civilization to another, from one level of culture to another.” (UB 99:1.3)
| My Acceptance of The Urantia Book | Fall 1997 — Index | Suggestive Preamble for the Constitution of a Religious Organization Based on the Fifth Epochal Revelation |