In 1972, little–known Johnny Nash from Houston, Texas, wrote and recorded an instant hit and enduring rock ’n roll classic, “I Can See Clearly Now.” Verse one says, “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone; I can see all obstacles in my way; Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It’s gonna be a bright, bright Sunshiny day.”The song sounded of hope in a time of desperation.
 Remember 1972? A terrorist attack in Israel killed 24 and injured 100. England took over direct control of Northern Ireland—and we know how that turned out! A Presidential candidate was shot and paralyzed in Maryland. Watergate erupted when five men broke into Democratic Party
headquarters; it led to the downfall of an American President. Eleven Israeli athletes were murdered by terrorists at the Munich Olympics. A train crash in Mexico killed 208. President Nixon ordered the Christmas Day bombing of North Vietnam.
1972 was a dangerous, frightening, depressing year. People needed hope. Sadly, the hope Johnny Nash sang about was all style, no substance. There’s no hint why Johnny could see clearly now. Though the rain was gone, you knew that could change at any moment (especially out here in sunshine–challenged western Washington state). Even if Johnny could see all obstacles in his way, he offered no plan to avoid those obstacles. And the dark clouds that had him blind would blind him once again.
People hope in many things. America’s fractious politics get lots of attention. Many hope a new candidate of either party will be better than the current official. Boy meets girl and both hope the other will fulfill all their dreams. Many hope they won’t lose their job or default on
their mortgage. Lots of couples are hoping they’re not pregnant—others hope they are. We
hope the bottom won’t fall out of the stock market again.
The Johnny Nash song is like lots of promises in life: it sounds nice, but there’s no basis for hope. Talk about pie–in–the–sky, by–and–by, what does he really offer that has a foundation you can trust? We need more than nice–sounding words and a great chord–progression in the middle of the song.
Millions find hope in their faith in God. Can we explain everything? Can we describe how it all works? No. But we’ve learned from experience that God cares about us, and our hope is rewarded.
It makes more sense than trusting in politics, which is so much pie–in–the–sky!
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©.They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
 In recent years I’ve had the opportunity to see three world–class British gardens: the peacock garden at Warwick Castle north of
London, the South Africa veldt fronting the British Museum and the famous botanical houses (left) at Kew Gardens, in the west London suburbs. The colors, symmetry and varied richness of those places remind me of a story about another world–class garden.
A man in a small Midwestern town was well–known for his magnificent private garden. He
had a small house and a comparatively small yard, but the whole plot was filled with flowers, small pools, trees, carefully manicured bushes and perfectly–mown grass.
A visitor drove past, was impressed with the garden and stopped to talk to the elderly man who was carefully pruning his rose bushes.
In the course of the conversation, the visitor exclaimed, “Isn’t God’s handiwork just spectacular?”
“Well, I guess you could say that,” the gardener replied, “but you should’ve seen this place when God was doing all the gardening himself!”
God could do all the gardening himself, of course. And it would be better than anything any human could do. But he assigned those tasks to humanity way back in the very first garden—in essence, God took us on as his partners—not because He had to, just to share the joy.
How can we apply this story? God cares about all our needs, and he listens to our prayers for physical needs. But he also calls us to be partners with him—to do our share in meeting the needs of others. This is one of the privileges humankind has, to share in the great work God does in the world. It’s work he could do perfectly, without our help—and probably with a lot less divine frustration. But by inviting us to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, protect the defenseless, heal the injured, God gives purpose to our lives and hope to the hopeless.
These vital tasks are things we do imperfectly on our own—in fact, too often we fail outright. And many of them, God does only through us. We need him, and he utilizes us to make a difference in the world around us. That makes us partners.
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©.They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
 If you want to find sunken ships loaded with gold, you might want to watch the beach for evidence that nearby lies
a treasure beneath the sea. When storms rage and waves churn, cargoes shift and gold coins flee their watery grave to glisten
on the sand.
In the late 1700s a ship sank off the coast of
South Africa. Years later divers went down after it and found cannon and coins,
evidence of greater treasure still to be recovered. The Grosvenor’s cargo included a throne encrusted with gems. The ship sank only 100 yards from shore, yet it took 175 years to find. Over the years the tides brought in Spanish gold coins and spread them on the beach, a few at a time. Of course, it
goes without saying that your chance of finding treasure this way is only slightly less likely than the odds you’ll win the lottery.
Though shipwrecks are usually associated with oceans, the Great Lakes contain between 6,000 and 10,000 sunken ships. About 1,000 Great Lakes shipwrecks have been identified. And they hold much treasure, some of it exotic and unexpected.
In 1924, the Lakeland sank off Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, carrying hundreds of new automobiles packed into train cars. They have never been recovered. The insurance company suspected it was sunk deliberately to collect the insurance money, but was never able to prove it. Today, it’s cargo would be worth millions, as the cars would probably be like
new (no corrosive salt water), and are now valuable antiques.
Another favorite shipwreck is the Rouse Simmons, which foundered near Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 1912. The wooden schooner disappeared in a storm while delivering 10,000 Christmas trees to Chicago, one cargo not worth recovering.
In the late morning of May 7, 1965, a big ore freighter, the 588–foot S.S. Cedarville, was working its way through dense fog in the Straits of Mackinac when it slammed into a Norwegian merchant ship. The Cedarville sank within 30 minutes of its collision and ten sailors died. She lies on her starboard side 3.1 miles east of the Mackinac Bridge’s south tower. It’s one of the most visited shipwreck sites in the entire Great Lakes. Her cargo is still valuable, but not to you or me.
Literally billions of dollars in gold, gems, artifacts, even automobiles, lie below the seas and Great Lakes, waiting to be brought up and redeemed for fabulous sums of money.
In the spiritual realm, Christians have a similar opportunity. God’s promises in the Bible are gold and gems galore. Most are not lying around on the beach. It takes some effort to bring their riches up from the depths. And every believer has the God–given right to claim them.
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©.They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
M.R. DeHaan tells the fanciful story of a small chunk of ebony that complained bitterly about its treatment at the hands of its owner. He kept whittling away at it, filling it with holes, filing it down and sanding it. “It hurts me when you do that,” the stick cried out in pain.
But the artist just kept on shaping the wood, drilling a long hole the entire length of the stick, paying no attention to the loud, unhappy complaints he heard.
Eventually, the plain piece of ebony had been shaped into a beautiful flute, which the carver played with great skill, making lovely music
out of what had been nothing more than a piece of scrap lumber.
 The owner said, “Little piece of ebony, without these holes and all this cutting and shaping, you wouldn’t have any complaints, but you would only be a stick of firewood. What I’m doing now might seem cruel. But instead, I’m turning you into a beautiful work of art that brings joy to many. Only by carving you and shaping you painfully, am I able to bring out your greatest value.”
And so it is with us. God’s handiwork sometimes hurts. We suffer or we endure hardship, and we complain that God doesn’t care about us. But in fact, He’s turning us into a work of art, if only we are willing. And when he’s finished, we’re able to make beautiful music and enrich the lives of others.
Philip Yancey writes that God seems to use suffering and hardship to single out some people for his greatest blessings. He cites Jesus’ statements, like “The first shall be last and the last first” (Matthew 19:30); and “He who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11). Then Yancey asks, “But why would God single out the oppressed [through suffering or hardship] for special attention?”
The answer can only be that through pain and suffering and hardship God may be at work, turning us into priceless works of art.
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©.They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
They say that the bears of Yellowstone National Park aren’t as common as they once were. Apparently, through the years, these woodland behemoths were not only the subject of photography and nature watching, they were being fed everything from pizza to burgers to the now–extinct Hostess Twinkies®. You don’t need me to tell you that this diet is very different from the natural foods bears find in the wild, like nuts, berries and fish.  You might thrive on pizza, burgers and Twinkies®—or not! But the bears of Yellowstone Park found the conse-quences to be deadly. During hibernation a bear lives off the fat it gains during the spring, summer and fall. This fat will sustain the bear all winter. When spring comes, it emerges from hibernation thin, but healthy and able to resume an active life. But before too long the naturalists of Yellowstone Park discovered that pizza,
burgers and Twinkies® are incapable of providing the kind of fat that will sustain a bear through the winter. Apparently, the bear’s metabolism burned the fat from people food more quickly, and many bears starved before they awoke from hibernation.
Finally, to keep the bear population from being decimated, the scientists relocated large numbers of bears to high elevations where there were no tourists.
I can’t help but wonder how many people need to be trucked to high country so that we are living on the kind of mental–emotional diet that’s good for us. Mental junk–food is
incapable of sustaining healthy spiritual life in a person (notice the symbiosis between mental and spiritual). We seem to choose mental Twinkies® that poison us, when what we really need is internal health food available only from wholesome sources.
If we fill our minds with pessimism, anger or violence, negative thoughts, ideas and images that degrade other people or the opposite gender, what would we expect to come out of
our lives? Those same harmful things, of course. An old proverb says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
The Apsotle Paul instructed us, “. . .whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). That’s good mental–emotional nutrition for everyone. And it’s essential if we hope to thrive in our spiritual lives.
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©.They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
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