THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS AND A BUCKET OF YELLOW PAINT

I recently read a quote by William Phelps Eno, the father of modern traffic safety who said, “I can solve 90% of the world's problems with a bucket of yellow paint.”  Now I notice so many things marked with yellow: patterns of yellow stripes on the roadside telling when I'm permitted to pass and when not; curbs where parking is prohibited; yellow caution signs, caution tape, caution flags, caution wet floor, caution icy surface, caution watch your step, yellow traffic lights, and more, all in yellow. In all cases caution is proclaimed.  It implies a warning with accountability and consequences.  In some cases, it’s a matter of life and death.

In India a bucket of paint literally saves lives.  What do you think is the number one killer (unnatural deaths) in Mumbai, India?  Fire? Car wrecks? Suicide?  According to a World Development Report (2015)*, it is railway track accidents.  Ten people die every day crossing the tracks.  The annual total is 3,500 just in Mumbai. In several major cities 15,000 people are killed every year crossing the railroad tracks.  The paradox is that fewer people are killed when they can’t see the train coming.  More are killed when they have a clear view.  What accounts for this surprising outcome?  Perceived risk.  Those who lack visual cues imagine greater risk of the train suddenly coming. When they can clearly see the oncoming train, they misjudge how fast the train is approaching believing they can beat it.  They take the risk and BAMMM!

What could be done to prevent such deaths?  The genius solution was remarkably simple and inexpensive.  It wasn’t building pedestrian overpasses, nor mounting a nation wide education campaign, nor building barriers to prevent pedestrian movement.  It was a bucket of paint.  They painted alternate ties of the railroad track yellow.  This helped people to better judge the speed of approaching trains.  It gave them a reference point to help them better judge the risk.  As a result, in four locations this simple use of yellow paint reduced fatalities up to 71%.  In one location, over a period of a year, fatalities dropped from twenty-three deaths to only one.

Here’s a thought:  In some Bibles, the words of Jesus are printed in red.  Yet, all throughout the Bible we find words of caution.  What if all the scriptures of caution were highlighted in yellow: Exodus 20:1-17 (Ten Commandments); Mark 10:113-15; John 15:5&6; Hebrews 12:14; 1 John 15:17, and so many more.  Perhaps it would give us an abundance of reference points to help us better judge the risk of disobedience.  It just might save the world!

*  http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/saving-lives-bucket-yellow-paint

BEYOND SUNDAY: A life "more betta"

If you are like me, you’ve been blessed with others who were older, wiser, and placed by God in our lives as guides and mentors.  Like me you learned that they knew much more than we did.  If we followed their lead it would result in a better life.  They were exemplary models, and coaches in the ways of life that led to blessings in life’s good times and through life’s challenges. Their strength and wisdom came from their own personal walk with God.  When they arose each morning, they responded to his knock at their door to go out into His day, to follow his lead, and conform to his agenda.  And they did it not just on Sunday, but beyond.  

Not everyone has guides and mentors, but all may have Christ our ultimate guide and mentor.  As you can sometimes hear said often in Hawai’i, such a life is “more betta.”  Through the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the ultimate guide, mentor, and coach. The joy of daily following Jesus’ lead is that in him there is always more:  more joy, more grace, more wisdom, more life.  Life in him occasions the assurance that he is the Lord who makes possible greater strength, deeper love, and sweeter peace.  This life in him is a life together with him and with others who long for the fellowship such life makes possible.  But it is not a life that comes to us only because we will it to be so.  The desire that it will be so must be ignited and maintained by disciplined action.  Jesus said, “If you remain in me, you will bear much fruit.  (John 5:4).  It takes sustained commitment to actively seek increasing intimacy with Christ and a growing

love of others wherein love is an action, a life given over to the benefit of       others.  It is a life that is lived beyond Sunday and has a rhythm of daily immersion into the presence of God.

To lead such a life is to ask God to part the veil and let us see life with him on the high road beyond  Sunday and then to take that road. Often, when I speak to groups about growing in the Grace of the Lord, I say that one hour in church on Sundays is not following Christ.  It is not remaining in him. The fruit he promises is on the high road beyond Sunday.  Such episodic contact with God at 11:00 am on Sunday may occasion moments of God’s divine touch upon our hearts and mind, but it is not the same as a sustained, daily life of journeying with Christ.  Nor is it the same as a continuing fellowship with others throughout the week who are God’s means of grace in our lives to help us grow our capacity to love as Christ loves.

There is a rhythm of daily life in Christ that goes beyond Sunday.  To go beyond means to pursue more of him, to move in a direction (the direction in which God is moving and calling us to follow), to go beyond a place of initial discomfort, into places of discovery, of wonders, of daily habits that form our imagination and shape our character, and increasingly to the place called the Kingdom.  Beyond Sunday is a life of daily, close proximity to and frequent encounters with Christ.  Beyond Sunday is a life of discipline and obedience with Christ on the high road of faith.  Beyond Sunday there’s a life even “more betta!”

GO WITH THE FLOW

Springs and streams of pure, mountain water are most refreshing when we are most thirsty.  That was my experience years ago when my ten year old daughter and eight year old son went camping in the White mountains of New Hampshire.  There’s nothing like a cold draught of water on a hot summer day of hiking.

Jesus had something to say about springs and streams.  To the woman at the well from whom he asked for a drink of water (John 4:4-26) he said, “He who drinks the water I give will never thirst.  In deed the water I give him will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  Later, in a very public setting in Jerusalem on the last and greatest day of the feast Jesus said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By streams of living water, he meant the Holy Spirit given to those who believed
in him. (John 7:37)

I don’t know about you, but I want the continual stream of God’s living waters to flow in me and from me.  I want to sing not just “fill my cup, Lord. I lift it up, Lord,” but    instead, “Let it go, Lord.  Let it flow, Lord!”  I will go with the flow!

I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me’

Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see.

Opens prison doors, sets the captive free.

I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me. . .

. . . Spring up, O well, and give to me

That life abundantly.

THE TOUCH OF JESUS

Our sense of touch is a remarkable gift.  Even the most mundane activity can remind us of how wonderfully our Creator made us.  This morning I was at the sink scrubbing a stainless steal Dutch-oven pot.  It looked perfectly clean.  Then I rubbed the inside with the tip of my finger feeling the inside of the pot only to discover areas that the eyes had missed.  The fine sensitivity of the touch gave me new eyes to know where more work needed to be done until the pot was truly clean.

Isn’t that the same with our spiritual lives?  From our perspective, we look clean, but we need the touch that reveals more work needs to be done.  Often it is only the touch of Jesus that can give us new eyes and awaken us to feel that spot where our heart is not yet truly clean. Then his touch cleanses and heals at the point of our need. The songwriter* captures this truth when he writes,

Lord, here today my great need I am feeling,

Whilt thou not visit my soul once again?

I long to feel thy sweet touch and its healing

Wonderful Healer, touch me again.

Only in thee can I find liberation,

Cleansing and freedom from sin’s hidden stain;

Only in thee can I find full salvation,

Wonderful Healer, touch me again.

At times, God touches our hearts about someone else's need. He moves our hearts with compassion and calls us to intercede in prayer, advocacy, or action. This is especially true in our lives lately as we pray for God's touch upon members of our family, especially the children.  In prayer we bring them to Jesus for his wonderful, grace filled touch.

“People were bringing babies to Jesus 

to have him touch them.” 

Luke 18:15

*William Henry Woulds (1874-1940) SASB 610

TO KNOW LOVE THAT SURPASSES KNOWLEDGE

     The Salvation Army Songbook (SASB) is a treasure trove of inspirational poetry.  You may turn to the pages of the songbook and find inspiration for reflection.  Many of my personal favorite songs are written by one of the songbook’s most eloquent poets, Albert Orsborn (1886-1967), the  6th General of The Salvation Army.  Recently the heart of Albert Orsborn’s poetry has been captured in Rob Birks’ reflective book entitled Orsborn Again (Frontier Press, 2013).   Two lines in one of General Osborn’s songs (SASB 527) has me thinking more about the importance of knowing and acting deeply with one’s heart.

. . . the mind cannot show what the heart longs to know 

nor comfort a people distressed . . .

. . . Except I am moved with compassion, 

how dwelleth thy spirit in me . . .

    I am reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul to the Church at Ephesus (Eph. 3:19).  Speaking of the magnitude of Christ’s love and praying that they would “grasp” an understanding of that love, he writes “to know that love that surpasses knowledge.”

    Here’s the question then:  What kind of knowing surpasses knowledge?  It is not enough to know about Jesus. It is not enough to only embrace propositions about him and have a faith that is only cognitive.  Both the Apostle Paul and Albert Orsborn point us to an understanding of the heart,  to know at a deeper level, a level of heart felt intimacy with God.  This is a knowledge of the heart that truly grasps a deeply profound understanding of the enormous magnitude of God’s love in its fullness.  This gift of understanding is occasioned by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence bringing illumination (head), compassion (heart), and life (service) together.

      Of course, Orsborn is speaking in the context of Salvation Army ministry and mission.  But more broadly, he addresses our faithfulness to the Great Commandment to love the Lord with all we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  This is a directive that cannot be obeyed by means of the intellect only.  Faith propositions won’t suffice.  The life of wisdom blended with compassion is only possible by God’s indwelling Holy Spirit.

Unless the Holy Spirit dwells, how could we have the fullness of love in our hearts and the power to compassionately love and “comfort a people distressed.”

Holy Spirit, 
promised presence 
fall on me 


Holy Spirit, make me all 
I long to be 


Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit 


Give Your pow'r to me, O Holy Spirit