Heroes are made by God.

The beach pathJack and I walked to the beach today, or I should say we tried. With all the snow and subsequent plowing, the path down to the shore had become completely impassable, unless of course I wanted to trudge through neck-high drifts with snow-filled boots. Even Jack couldn’t navigate the depth, struggling first to get into it, then to get out.

Lake Michigan was frozen white as far as I could see, and it’ll be months before that icy water becomes swimmable. No one would jump into frozen water like that with the possible exception of the Polar Bear Club. Certainly even they wouldn’t venture where their feet couldn’t touch bottom, since hypothermia can be quick and deadly. Yet last week in Chicago, a man found himself thrashing in deep, ice-filled Lake Michigan water with little hope of survival.

It all started with a routine dog-walking event, the man and his 3 standard poodles. One of them, off a leash, ran around a 10 foot sea-wall at the Monroe Street Harbor, ending up on the ice. Immediately he broke through and was unable to get out, so his owner jumped in after him.

Quickly realizing he’d miscalculated, the man screamed for help, and the other two dogs began barking atop the sea-wall. A lone cross country skier heard the distant commotion and immediately dialed 911. The man and his dog were weakening fast, though, and both seemed doomed.

Enter God…. who brought along our former next door neighbor.

Adam DominikAdam Dominik, physically fit as an experienced climber, was jogging in that remote place near the empty harbor for the very first time. He heard the man’s cries and ran over to find a face peeking out of the broken ice and a dog tangled up with him.

Adam knew the man couldn’t last much longer but stayed calm. He noticed a yellow nylon rope stuck to a nearby sign, just the right length and strength to be of help. That morning he’d been practicing knots used in climbing and had mastered something called the Figure 8, strong enough to pull a man and his wet clothes from the water.

Icy poodleAdam said, “At first I threw the rope over him but the dog was kind of pulling on him with his weight, pushing him under the water. He kept saying, ‘Save the dog first!’ I kept saying, ‘No, we’re going to save your life first and then the dog; your life is more important,’ but he insisted on pulling up the dog first.”

Then at a crucial moment, when Adam had the dog out and the man half way up the sea-wall, the 911 team arrived to finish the rescue. (View the 1 minute NBC news video below.)

Jogger-Rescues-Man-Dog-From-Montrose-Harbor-243596711

So, how was God involved? Tomorrow we’ll find out.

“Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up.” (Psalm 69:14-15)

Bountiful Burdens

???????????????????????????????Here in southwest Michigan we received another exquisite blanket of snow last night, 6” more. We (along with our next-door-neighbor Bob) have cleared the driveway so many times it’s become a calisthenic event to “throw” shovels-full to the top of the piles.

Today while navigating the now-narrow roads of my subdivision, I noticed the evergreens were so heavily laden with snow their branches could no longer hold up. Some of them had been pressed all the way to the ground.

 

Heavy loadMany of us have felt much like those evergreens, bent beneath our loads. On any given morning it might even be difficult to roll out of bed and stand up, if we’re faced with a day overloaded by burdens. And when life’s storms come in multiples as snowstorms often do, each new layer feels like another 6” of heavy.

God tells us it’s not supposed to be that way, not when we’re partnered with him. He actually describes burdens and “easy” and “lightweight”, though he’s referring to his, not ours. (Matthew 11:30) He wants to convince us to roll our burdens over to him, and in the process, the things that formerly weighed us down will disappear. Then those same weights become feather-light to him.

Our only problem is the roll-over. Just like it’s strenuous to throw a shovel of heavy snow on a high pile, “tossing” our troubles to the Lord is hard work, too. They tend to stick to us like snow sticks to mittens on a good-packing day. We might try to release them, but just when we think we’ve done it and are waiting for that feeling of sweet relief, we discover we’ve taken them back.

The reason for handing them back and forth to God is that we aren’t completely sure he’s going to deal with them as effectively as we would. And surrendering our control goes against our natural, prideful instincts. Incredibly we’d rather stagger around under a heavy weight than let him take over.

But once we truly believe he’s better at burden-bearing than we are, the hand-off becomes easier and we can enjoy a freedom of movement like we’ve never known.

But lest we get flippant in our new, weightless reality, God gives us an additional reason why he’s eager to shoulder our burdens: so we can lift the loads of others. In Galatians he says, “Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (6:2) As always, he is our example. He unburdens us so we can unburden others.

???????????????????????????????Today as I study the small evergreens in my yard, it seems doubtful they’ll ever recover. Not only have they been weighed down by winter’s storms, they’ve had additional shovel-fulls piled on top of them. But these old bushes have been through difficult winters many times before, and when spring finally arrives, I’m going to hope they’ll be standing tall.

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” (Psalm 55:22)

 

Getting Into It

Living in southwest Michigan as we do, we’re often the benefactors of “lake-effect storms.” Weather systems rolling across the country from west to east fly over Lake Michigan, picking up water as they go and then dropping it when they hit land on our side of the lake.

The creekToday is one of those days. We all thought January wouldn’t be snowy, since December had more than its fair share. But after 11” of accumulation in 5 days, we’re in the process of receiving 12 more. This time, though, it’s impossible to measure, since wild winds are swirling it like cake batter in a Kitchen Aid mixer.

I walked Jack to the lake today, hoping for a few dramatic pictures. But powerful winds swept me into a snow drift before I even got there, camera and old lady going down together. Though a foot of snow makes a soft landing, the eye-sting of high speed snowflakes made us turn back.

???????????????????????????????This was a crushing disap- pointment to Jack, who lives for winter weather. He does his happy dance in the middle of  snowy roads and snoofs his whole face into drifts looking for interesting scents. Bounding over snow banks like a young pup, he behaves nothing like the 77 year old guy he really is, and heading home today was his last choice.

But back we went, with me trying to stay upright and him racing around me in circles. Once back inside the house, I had to agree with Jack that the storm was beautiful. But looking at it through a window and walking outside in it were two vastly different experiences. One was just observing; the other was being engulfed by it.

A spiritual parallel might be to intellectually know about God’s love without actually experiencing it. To know the facts is to observe from a distance; to experience it is to be fully surrounded.

I know several people who’ve read the Bible repeatedly and can recite chapter and verse better than I can, but who’ve never embraced Jesus personally. That’s like standing at the window and commenting on how gorgeous the snow is without experiencing it firsthand.

Yes, there’s risk in going outside on a day like today, just like we sometimes view following Christ as a risk. We say, “What if he asks me to do what I can’t? Like reconcile with that person I don’t like? Or love someone who’s completely unlovable? Or give away money I can’t afford? Or take precious time to do things I’d rather not?”

Linda makes a snow angelHe might.

But if we’re willing to “get into it” with him the way Jack gets into snowy weather, we’ll find the risk is worth it…. much like my friend Linda learned that being in the snow is way better than just looking at it through a window.

All done!“The Lord alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.” (Psalm 91:2)

 

Linda's snow angel