Ho-Hum...

The Eastern Shore is not my original stomping grounds. I was not born here, raised here, or educated here. As far as I am concerned, I am a toddler in the ways of the Eastern Shore, having been here for 5 years. There is much to learn about this area before one can become familiarized with it, for example "Getting up" with someone means contacting them. Where I am from, that means either increasing your elevation, or waking up at the same time as them! I never knew you could eat muskrat, or get bit by a tick at the drop of a hat, but I am learning!

Let me tell you where I am from. I come from a land of mountains and snow. The high school I attended sits at the base of a 4000' mountain range, known as the Green Mountains of Vermont. There are fields of crops as far as the eye can see, and more cows than people! We can tap a tree for sap that turns into maple syrup, or create the best ice cream money can buy (Ben & Jerry's, of course!). We can swim, skate, sail, or relax on the shores of Lake Champlain, or take an international trip to Canada, just a short distance away. Billboard are actually illegal because they would take away from the beauty of the state. This ethereal land, this incredible jewel of New England, is what I called home for 18 years.

For those 18 years, guess how much I cared about the natural beauty of Vermont? Not too much. Guess how much the mountains meant to me? Not too much. Guess how important is was that Canada was so close to me? Not much at all. Now that I am exactly 528 miles away from Vermont I miss all that.

Why am I waxing nostalgic on you this morning? Well, here's the point. Every day I would wake up, and see towering mountains all around, and smell the fresh air of living so far above sea level, and sometimes look out my window to see a moose, or a bobcat, or just a neighbor's black lab, and that was normal. Mundane. Run of the mill. Everyday life for me was living surrounded by beauty. That was my ho-hum life.

I fear that in a church setting we can drop into the ho-hum life very easily. The Sunday sermon that used to be as challenging to us as a hike up a 4600' mountain is reduced to just another part of the service. The worship that could be as incredible as a silent early morning ride on a glass smooth lake on a sailboat turns into a necessary evil before the sermon starts. The challenge for today is to prepare yourself early on in the week for Sunday morning. Let the excitement begin brewing for the possibilities to come. Could this Sunday be the day where the message motivates you to move to Africa as a missionary? Could this Sunday be the day where those words in a song you haven't really given thought to before strike you anew about Christ's sacrifice on the cross? Shake off the comfort of the church service you have been a part of your whole life, and approach it this Sunday like a first time visitor.  My guess is that you'll once again see that majestic mile-high mountain of a sermon, and experience the spray off the worship sailboat and be roused to authentic worship.