Hello,
As you who regularly read the Bungee Cord know, I have made myself a Man
Cave with quadraphonic University of Illinois garb blasting from each of the
four walls. Lately, it has been a
place of mourning and weeping and gnashing of teeth as the Illini have taken
their place in the football and basketball rankings in the locale of my Man
Cave….the cellar. Ah,
but no sunshine fan here…maybe next year for the Illini…ahhhhh…… probably not.
So as I developed my layout for my Man Cave, I determined that there are
certain things that a Man Cave must have… a T.V. (check), a stereo (check), a
Man Cave rug (I found one on the internet that says in bold letters “ILLINI MAN
CAVE”… check), a game table (I went with ping pong over a pool table or card
table as I don’t gamble and I can use the moderate exercise that ping pong
delivers… check), and a dart board (check).
Mind you, I haven’t played much darts in my five and a half decades of
life, but it does seem to be a mandatory piece of man cavedom, and it is also
one of those things that an aging person can learn to master. So, I build a wooden backing that is
about four feet by four feet
suspended on the cinder block wall on which to hang my dartboard. I covered it
with cork, and set my dart board in the middle of it. I was pretty proud of my carpentry work, yet as I eyed it, I
could tell that it was not complete….it was neither orange or blue.
So, I went to the local WalMart to get some burlap that I could stain
orange. I found the burlap, but
there was no orange stain to be found (heresy!), but being a graduate of
Madison elementary school I know that orange can be created by mixing yellow
and red….two colors that were there.
So with burlap and dye in hand, I returned home to bring my dartboard
backing up to par.
I have never worked with dye before, but the directions seemed easy
enough…heat some water…dump in some salt…and stir the dye in. So, that is what I did…..and in doing
so, I discovered something. I began
by dumping the red dye in, and then proceeded to follow with the yellow, and
much to my surprise….no matter how much yellow I dumped in, the red overpowered
it, and the dye stayed red. So,
off to WalMart I went again to purchase another set of dye packages….red and
yellow. This time, when I set off
to do my dying, I started with yellow, and sprinkled in the red….and I
discovered something this time, too…. It doesn’t take but a pinch of red to
turn yellow to orange. Actually, I
feared that the small amount of red had overwhelmed my yellow to the point that
I had created something far more red than orange…but when the burlap dried, I
was satisfied with the orange that it had become, albeit a bit redder than I
had hoped. Red is an overpowering
color!
My dying (pun intended) experience was a great entrance into the
upcoming season of Lent, the time when Christians ponder the passion of Christ
that led him to die and shed his blood on the cross, red blood that has made
its way into my life. And this
Lent, as I consider my relationship with God, I will do so having seen the
overwhelming power of the color of red….red that I have come to see overpowers
my weak yellow….yellow so weak that no matter how much I might dump into my
relationship with God, the relationship is still dyed with the color red. Red because as the Bible tells me, my
relationship with God was begun by God, emptying himself into my life…holding
nothing back….not even a drop of Jesus’ blood.
This Lent, as I toss darts at my dartboard, with each throw that I make,
I will remember the power of the color of red….the power of Jesus’ blood….a
power that with a pinch turns yellow to orange, and a power that when the
packet of red is emptied completely…..it is unchanged by an entire packet of
yellow.
Thank you, Lord, for the powerful love and forgiveness with which you
have dyed my life.
Have a great week!
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
P.S. – Lent begins this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, where we
begin these 40 days of Lent, marked with a cross of ashes, ashes that we see
every time we look into the mirror, an image that tells us the truth, that if
not for Jesus death on the cross, we would have nothing to hope for but ashes.
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