Caution, Bridge Ices Before Road

  I had no experience of driving on ice until my second quarter of college. I was living through my first winter in the far-up-north world of Atlanta, after spending the first nineteen years of my life in sunny South Georgia. It was twenty-five years ago this past week, and classes were out for the MLK holiday. Headed back to campus after having breakfast with friends, I had just pulled out onto the many lanes of Peachtree Street as big flakes of snow fell all around. I hadn't traveled a quarter of a mile when I realized the tires of my Chevy Blazer were not pointed the same way as the steering wheel. I looked up to see that one-hundred yards in front of me a delivery truck was completely stopped in my lane. Time actually slowed down, and I pumped the brakes repeatedly, praying that rubber would connect with road and I would slow down. I didn't. Instead, I ran into and under the elevated liftgate of the truck going no faster than 25 miles an hour. The front of my car was smashed, with the engine block being push up to the windshield. The truck I hit wasn't scratched.
   I learned so much in the hour that followed. First, I learned that that section of Peachtree Street is actually a bridge over Interstate 85, and therefore ices before the rest of the road. I learned that the truck was stopped because it was the third car in a chain-reaction crash that had happened some time earlier. I became the fourth. I also learned that law enforcement can opt to not write up an accident if they are busy, as the Atlanta City Police Officer drove off and told us to work it out among ourselves. My parents and my insurance did not like that part of the story. Most of all, I learned that living in Atlanta for six weeks without a car was not much fun.
   I am still learning. At the time, I considered it a terrible hardship, resulting in more meals on campus and many more miles walked on foot. It is funny what we think constitutes suffering in our youth. Kids today believe the absence of wi-fi is cruel and unusual punishment. If I am so fortunate, what I will look back on in another twenty-five years and recognize was not as difficult as it seemed at the time?
   Grace and peace, Scott

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve

On February 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached on the story of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, asking to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus in glory. King titled sermon the “Drum Major Instinct." This is an excerpt from his conclusion...

  What was the answer that Jesus gave these men? It's very interesting. One would have thought that Jesus would have condemned them. One would have thought that Jesus would have said, "You are out of your place. You are selfish. Why would you raise such a question?"
  But that isn't what Jesus did; he did something altogether different. He said in substance, "Oh, I see, you want to be first. You want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you're going to be my disciple, you must be." But he reordered priorities. And he said, "Yes, don't give up this instinct. It's a good instinct if you use it right. It's a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it. Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. That is what I want you to do."
  And he transformed the situation by giving a new definition of greatness. And you know how he said it? He said, "Now brethren, I can't give you greatness. And really, I can't make you first." This is what Jesus said to James and John. "You must earn it. True greatness comes not by favoritism, but by fitness. And the right hand and the left are not mine to give, they belong to those who are prepared."
  And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness.
  And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant....
  Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.

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  He was preaching directly from the Word of God and that word still speaks to me and I pray speaks to you, too. We are called to be first in love. We are called to be generous. And when I look out on the faces of Epworth, that is who I see. Thanks be to God! 
  Scott