Sunday Review: Amped Up

Last Sunday, we Plum Creekers gathered together for the seventh time under the roof of the Riverside Park Amphitheater for our annual outdoor worship service that we call "Amped Up."

Amped Up is special for a variety of reasons. First, it's cool that a church would do something like it. It's so very out of the box, and takes a lot of work to pull off. My unending thanks to Mike Ooley, Jack Harmon, Bob Hoel, Dave Halterman, Steven Boyer, Mona Sterwerf, Betty Thomas, Bill Craven, Carolyn Kieth, Shelly Griffin, and many, many more who put in so much time and effort to make the event possible. Everyone who helped from setting up the stage to organizing food to parking cars, truly, thank you for your efforts this weekend.

In the past, Ray always tried to make Amped Up as much about evangelism as possible. I don't disagree with that, not by any stretch of the imagination. But I have noticed that Amped Up has become that "third Sunday" that so many casual church goers attend. You know, Christmas, Easter, and Amped Up. So I wanted to deliver a message that, while certainly and appropriately evangelistic, might also "amp up" some of those more casual attenders, as well as make the regular attending crowd excited about our goal of winning people to Jesus.

From the response that I have been getting, it sounds like those efforts weren't in vain. I'm grateful to God for blessing our day, and for being with us as we worshiped him.

Leading up to the day, I had asked those on facebook to take a look at the 1953 Merrie Melodies cartoon "Duck Amuck."

In the picture, Daffy Duck believes he is about to star in a cartoon about the Three Musketeers. Instead, the animator of the picture spends the length of the film drawing in different scenery and costumes on Daffy, and at one point even goes so far as to erase the exasperated duck and draw him back in as a flower headed monster.

In this preview of post-modernism, we are entertained by a slowly maddening protagonist, (Daffy Duck) and eventually learn the identity of the somewhat sadistic antagonistic animator (Bugs Bunny in this case).

We have a good laugh at Daffy's expense, but I think more than we are necessarily entertained, we also find a common thread with Daffy in the pattern that he's knitting (See what I did there, Pam?).

Daffy spends the picture arguing with the narrator, insisting that he's not doing his job correctly, that he's making mistakes left and right, and even goes so far as to try to tell the animator how to do his job.

How often do we do the same thing with God? How much time do we spend arguing with him and yelling at him and telling him how to do his job?

If we're honest with ourselves, we've probably all done that at least once. But if we could just... back off for a second and let a cooler head prevail, and think, and feel, and ask him...

Ask him? Ask him what? What is he doing? Why is he doing it? Is he even there?

No. God is there.

Psalm 139:7-10
Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the grave), You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will lay hold of me.

So, if God is there, and he's everywhere, why can't I sense him? Why can't I feel him? Why does my life often feel like a Daffy Duck cartoon that spinning out of control?

Good questions. But I have a better one. You see I think we often spend way too much time looking for answers, when we aren't focused enough on asking the right questions. So, what's the right question to ask? Well if God isn't present everywhere, all the time and with us, the question isn't "where are you, God?" But instead, "God, would yo reveal yourself to me?"

God I can't find you, God I can't feel you. Show me yourself. Prove to me that you're still here and haven't left me. Help me to find you again.

I admire my wife for the heroic battle she's fighting and winning. Most of you know that life has been insane for our family lately. Between Jesci's fight with lymphoma, her Dad's passing this summer, and a few other odds and ends here and there, life has at best been busy, and at worst, very, very difficult. But Jesci has a theory - That God is preparing us for something stronger.

I really admire that. I admire it because Jesci hasn't allowed the negative circumstance in her life to dictate how her life will be lived. Instead, she has asked God to reveal to her what he is up to. And in doing so, she has been able to see that God has a plan here.

Let's not forget what we learn from Jeremiah 29:11 - God has plans for a hope and a future for us.

So that begs the question, will you be like Daffy and spend your days uselessly arguing with God? Or will you spend your days like Jesci, and ask God to reveal himself and his plans to you?

Let's take an example from a faithful servant. Let's lay down our burdens, our woes and our complaints. Let's strap on the armor of God and let's reach out to a world that's hurt, lost and dying. God has given us marching orders in 2 Corinthians 5. We are to reconcile the world to him! And we need to be at our best to perform such a task. Let's lay down our burdens, let's pick up our armor, and let's amp it up!