Live Long and Prosper

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Lynn

star-trek-original-seriesIt may surprise you to find out that I have been a “trekkie” for many, many years.  I have loved the original Star Trek T.V. series since it premiered on September 8, 1966.  My husband, knowing my affinity for the series, bought collector coins for my birthday this year that commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the show.  I think I can recite by memory the “Trouble with Tribbles” episode with no “tribble at all”!  My kids patiently indulge my Star Trek guilty pleasure, but have not joined me to “boldly go where no one has gone before”.  If asked, they would probably say they can “take or leave” the new Star Trek movies with Chris Pine in the role of Captain James T. Kirk, mostly because the modern day movies showcase an extravaganza of special effects which capture their millennial interests but nothing more.

I will admit that I am more a fan of the original series, but I reluctantly warmed up to the Next Generation when it debuted in 1987.  I know of the other Star Trek spinoffs (Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise etc.) and have watched a few episodes from all of them, but they never seemed to capture my attention or my imagination as much as the original series did.  And just so you know, I don’t go to Trek conventions or dress up in Starfleet uniforms, nor do I have a collection of Star Trek memorabilia…just those three collector coins I got this year for my birthday.  I have a collection of Star Trek movie DVD’s but mostly I watch the syndicated reruns on T.V.  I may be a fan but I’m not a full-fledged fanatic.

That said, I am celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the series by binge-watching the original episodes and I may give the Vulcan hand-salute to “Live Long and Prosper” to my kids every once in a while just to tick them off.

Star Trek was the brain child of Gene Roddenberry, a man who grew up in a Southern Baptist home according to his biography but eventually grew to reject religion of any kind:

“I handed them a script and they turned it down. It was too controversial. It talked about concepts like, ‘Who is God?’ The Enterprise meets God in space; God is a life form, and I wanted to suggest that there may have been, at one time in the human beginning, an alien entity that early man believed was God, and kept those legends. But I also wanted to suggest that it might have been as much the Devil as it was God. After all, what kind of god would throw humans out of Paradise for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the Vulcans on board, in a very logical way, says, ‘If this is your God, he’s not very impressive. He’s got so many psychological problems; he’s so insecure. He demands worship every seven days. He goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. He’s a pretty poor excuse for a supreme being.”  Gene Roddenberry

It was because of his rejection of religion that many called him an atheist, but he disagreed with them: “It’s not true that I don’t believe in God. I believe in a kind of god. It’s just not other people’s god. I reject religion. I accept the notion of God.”  It is obvious to all of us of faith who watch the Star Trek series that he was a man who desperately wanted to find answers to the universal philosophical questions: Why am I here and how do I fit into God’s Story? and he created a science-fiction series to “boldly go” in quest of  that knowledge.  Roddenberry admitted that science would always fall short in that quest:

“Reality is incredibly larger, infinitely more exciting, than the flesh and blood vehicle we travel in here. If you read science fiction, the more you read it the more you realize that you and the universe are part of the same thing. Science knows still practically nothing about the real nature of matter, energy, dimension, or time; and even less about those remarkable things called life and thought. But whatever the meaning and purpose of this universe, you are a legitimate part of it. And since you are part of the all that is, part of its purpose, there is more to you than just this brief speck of existence. You are just a visitor here in this time and this place, a traveler through it.”  Gene Roddenberry

In Roddenberry’s imaginative attempt to explore galaxies far, far away while creating the Star Trek enterprise (pun intended), several biographies indicate that while the franchise soared to new heights, he struggled personally with drug and alcohol addiction here on Earth.  He had affairs with women while married to his first wife, Eileen, including Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Uhura in the original series, and Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel).  He had numerous health issues that were exacerbated by his drug abuse.  When he passed away following a stroke in September 1989, he was but a shell of a man, who had in his last years been confined to a wheelchair.  Grace Lee Whitney, who played Yeoman Janice Rand in the original series shares in her book, “The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy” that while attending Roddenberry’s funeral,  she was surprised when two kilted pipers played “Amazing Grace” towards the end of the service.

“The theme of that famous hymn is God’s amazing grace to sinners… That hymn is my anthem.  It’s the story of this book, the story of my life.  People sometimes call me “Amazing Grace,” but I’m not amazing – I’m a lost, blind wretch, saved by the amazing grace of God.  The reason the piping of that song at Gene’s funeral seems so odd is that Gene hated that song.  When “Amazing Grace” was bagpiped during Spock’s funeral near the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Gene objected strenuously, and was overruled by Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer.  It really seemed out of place at Gene’s funeral – and I doubt he would have approved.”  Grace Lee Whitney

Unlike Roddenberry, Grace Lee Whitney understood what it meant to be saved by grace.  She had battled addictions, depression and the horror of a sexual assault to find peace only God can give.

“You can’t lead anyone out of the desert unless you’ve been to the desert yourself. You can’t lead anyone out of the gutter unless you’ve spent some time there… I think that’s why God saved me, and why he saves a certain remnant of alcoholics and addicts and doesn’t let them die in their addictions. A lot of his precious children are out wandering in the desert, they’re dying in the gutters, and it’s breaking his heart. So he let Grace Lee Whitney go to hell and back so that she could point the way out of the desert… Apart from God, Grace Lee Whitney is a miserable wretch who hasn’t enough sense to stay out of the gutter. And that’s okay. Because, as it turns out, that’s exactly the kind of person God was looking for. God uses the foolish to confound the wise. He uses miserable wretches like me to tell his good news to all the other miserable wretches—the news that there is hope, there is love, there is a way out of hell, there is a way home.”  Grace Lee Whitney

Grace passed away at the age of 85 in 2015, and as much as I love the series, I will never be able to watch the episodes that feature Janice Rand in them without remembering the powerful testimony of the actress who played her.  I will also not be able to watch the shows and movies without feeling profoundly sad that the creator of Star Trek, ended his life journey without ever discovering what Amazing Grace is all about…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I’m Missing the First Day of School – Sort Of

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Lynn

I have been scrolling through FB this morning as my friends post their kid’s First Day of School pictures.  “Happy 1st Day of Grade One!” First Day of School Prayershows little ones with brand new runners and backpacks on, proudly holding up the colourful signs.  Excited kindergarteners meeting their teachers for the first time, and the more sombre pictures of teens who would rather not have their mother’s take the obligatory first-day pictures every year.  I smile at the toothy grins of the young ones, so excited for their school year to commence as well as the youth who may not have as wide a smile, but are nonetheless looking forward to connecting with their school buddies even if they’re not keen on the school year ahead.

I remember my oldest daughter’s first day of kindergarten like it was yesterday.  I snapped the First Day picture of her on our front porch and then watched with tears in my eyes as her tiny legs climbed up into that big school bus for the twenty-minute bus ride to school.  No sooner had the bus turned the corner from our house that I was blasting into the house to grab my purse and car keys so I could beat the bus to the school to snap the next picture of her stepping off the bus!  I followed her into the school with all the other parents who confessed they had done the exact same thing as I, and then waving good-bye to my baby, reluctantly leaving her to face her First Day of School without me.  I remember crying all the way home.

It was the same scenario every year more or less.  First Day of School pictures snapped as the kids waited for the bus and me crying all the way down the driveway when the big school bus picked them up.  Truth be told, it seemed harder and harder each year to see them go.  When we dropped our daughter off at the University of Lethbridge to live away from home for the first time, I wept all the two and a half hour drive home!

I have not snapped “First Day” pictures with my kids for several years and I miss it – sort of.  It’s nice to not have to worry about school supplies and all the stresses that go with First Days in school.  Now I look forward to seeing my grandchildren’s First Day pictures posted, one is starting Grade One this year and the other is starting preschool.  My daughter is homeschooling them both and so she is spared the angst of seeing them climb up on a bus and meeting a new teacher and wandering into an unfamiliar school classroom for the first time and yet she admits she is overwhelmed with emotion still.  She snaps the pictures of them on their First Day even though their “school” is in their basement and she cries like I did.  She is her mother’s daughter.

The last several years I have been on the other side of the desk, so to speak, welcoming new students into my classroom.  My kids threatened last year to take First Day pictures of me because I was the only one going back to school.  Not so this year.  I’m not teaching this year and it’s weird not having to prepare my days around a busy teaching schedule.

I slept in this morning, and it wasn’t until I saw all the pictures posted that I realized it was the First Day of school.  I have mixed emotions.

I scroll through the pictures and I can’t help but feel a little on the outside looking in.  I miss those First Days.  I am feeling a little melancholy – sort of.

My husband is calling to me…

While everyone else is in school today, my husband and I are going for a wonderful drive to the mountains.  It’s the first time we’ve been able to do that on The First Day of School in eons.  We’ve got some trips together planned during this school year.  I’ve got some writing projects in the works, there’s a new grandbaby coming in December…

I’m feeling a little less melancholy all of a sudden. 🙂

 

 

 

 

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Storing Up Treasures

Posted on August 19, 2016 by Lynn

Matthew 6 21I always thought that Matthew 6:19-21 was more a passage about greed and focusing on the attainment of wealth.  I suppose it does allude to that to some degree, but I was challenged recently to look at that particular passage from a different angle.  When asked what my “treasures” were, I did not think about the possessions I’ve accumulated through my life but the precious PEOPLE  I have invested my energy, time and all my love on: family, close friends, church friends, students and work colleagues.

I have said that Christians should always have an eternity focus and I believe wholeheartedly that heaven will be a gathering of all those people who have accepted the gift of salvation through Christ.  My single purpose in life, if I believe that, is to ensure that I am surrounded in heaven by those people I care the most deeply about first and then concentrate on drawing others to God as is our mandate in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).  My heartache as I grow older is knowing that there are loved ones who have rejected God and unless they repent and accept Christ into their hearts they will never join Him in the afterlife.  I know heaven is supposed to be free of pain, heartache etc. but I wonder if I wouldn’t experience an eternal grief if one of my most precious loved ones were to spend an eternity separated from God.

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left“.  Matthew 25:31-33

“And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life“.  Matthew 25:46

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation“.  John 5:27-28

“But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness–indignation and wrath“.  Romans 2:5-8

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord“.  Romans 6:23

“So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth“.  Matthew 13:46-47

“And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire“.  Revelation 20: 12-15  (NKJV)

These are difficult passages of scripture to read, especially if I think about one of my most beloved being judged and then “cast into the lake of fire”.

So, I am devoting my energy to ensuring I am storing up my “treasures” in heaven.  I couldn’t imagine heaven without them!

 

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