Here's Pastor Dave McDowell's weekly devotional that he
sends out to members of his church. Dave is my brother and serves as the Music
Minister at Stewartstown UMC in
PA.
Sometimes you don't get what you
want,
but you get what you
need.
I have been waiting three years to
go snow skiing.
Due to various life
circumstances,
I have not been able to hit the
slopes
for the past two
winters.
And so I was looking
forward
to some winter recreation this
year.....
that's right, this
year,
one of the warmest winters on
record
in this part of the
country.
If you are a
skier,
you know that there is nothing
like
standing at the top of a
snowpacked mountain
and taking in the quiet and fresh
air
that only a mountaintop can
give.
There is a grandeur and
sacredness
that can not be
ignored,
except it seems, by 60 degree
temps.
I delayed any trips in search of
such grandeur
through December &
January
as the forecasts
repeatedly
mocked my
intentions.
When February
arrived
I knew it was now or
never.
I planned a ski trip
with
a buddy of mine for
mid-month.
But the storm that I hoped would
finally come,
never came.
Not only was there no big
storm,
the temperatures began to soar
to spring like
levels.
I was thinking about double
diamond trails
while the daffodils were mocking
me
as they began to push up through
the ground
I was thinking about freshly
fallen powder
and the pollen count was already
rising.
I was thinking about cocoa in the
ski lodge
while crocuses were starting to
bloom.
I would have had just as much
luck
going ice fishing in
Florida,
or
deer hunting in
Manhattan.
And so the night before the
trip,
I turned on the weather
report,
on my knees
praying for a
change.
Oh, I got the
change,
just not the change that I
wanted.
The word I
dreaded.....
WARM
came off the forecaster's lips
easily.
Of course it
did,
he had been practicing it for
months.
But then he uttered two other
words
that drive ski poles deep into any
skier's heart....
WET
WINDY
The three
w's.
You might as well have blogged me
on
Back into the closet went the
skis.
I called my
buddy
and we agreed that skiing under
such conditions
would be
miserable.
But we both has the time off
and we decided to still take the
trip
and find other things to
do.
And that's what brought me
to what I
needed
rather than what I
wanted.
The
memorial.
Ironically, it was located only
minutes from
the resort where we would have
been skiing.
It is the Flight 93
memorial,
the final resting place for the
40
who were aboard that ill fated
flight on 9/11.
It is a place where thousand of
people pilgrimage
each year to remember the lives of
40 people
who were thrust into the role of
defending their nation
while their lives were being taken
from them.
10 years after the
event,
a national memorial has been
raised
to honor the
dead
to remind us of the reality of
evil,
and the price that is paid when
those who seek to
terrify,
are given an
opportunity.
Some of the other groups at the
memorial
were carrying
photographs,
possibly friends or relatives of
the fallen.
By the
calendar,
it wasn't a particularly
significant day.
Perhaps it was a birthday or an
anniversary....
a holiday known only to those who
loved them.
Suddenly my no fun seemed so
insignificant.
The memorial, which is still under
construction,
allows the general viewer to
observe the crater from some distance.
Only family members are allowed
immediate access
to that sacred
space.
If it hadn't been for warm, wet,
and windy,
I probably wouldn't have come to
this Holy Ground.
I began my journey praying for
favorable weather conditions.
It ended as I prayed for peace
with justice,
for comfort for the
families,
for a world that does not know how
to live under one God.
Sometimes you don't get what you
want,
but you get what you
need.
.
I pray it be so for those who have
loved and lost.
I pray it be for all the nations
of the world,
that we all find ourselves at the
mountaintop
as we breathe in the sacredness of
where we are.
Come quickly,
Lord.
.
And the wolf will dwell with the
lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the
kid.
And the calf and the young lion, and
the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead
them.
They will not hurt or destroy
in all My holy
mountain,
for the earth will be full of the
knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the
sea.
Isaiah 11:6,
9
.
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