Emily was a phenom on the high school marching band drum line. She did her obligatory freshman stint on the cymbals, but immediately took on the snare and quad drums (carrying/playing four drums at once) with seemingly no effort exuded to do so. It all came naturally for her, whereas I had to pull off my fair share of practicing and concentration on the bass drums while trying to maintain some sense of balance on the football field. Emily had no issues being responsible for not just maintaining the beat for other percussion instruments, but for the whole collection of brass and woodwind instruments too. Sure, a field commander directing things is nice, but if the drum line falls apart…chaos can ensue, to say the least. People like Emily are entrusted to provide a needed foundation for any worthwhile performance to amaze the crowds.
Eventually, Emily took her talents to the collegiate and the retail business world, but her true and life-meaning passion was the outdoors. She moved to the New England area scaling whatever breath-taking sight in places like Vermont and Maine, but eventually she couldn’t help herself in venturing out to the Rockies with her husband. She was followed by hundreds on social media for her hiking and climbing adventures that seemed to come so naturally for her. And, in a way, she provided a needed foundation for families and friends and complete strangers to pause in the middle of the day or night, as they scrolled through their sometimes mind-numbing screen feeds to be utterly amazed by the beautiful world we so often take for granted.
And then…last week, those families and friends and complete strangers’ social media feeds were invaded with news that…wasn’t supposed to happen. Unfortunately, as breath-taking as the Rocky Mountains are not just for us Americans, but for people all over the world, they also can be some of the most treacherous terrain, even for the most naturally gifted of nature-traversers. Emily was gone at 36 years of age…It’s just so sad, so tragic. No matter how much an obituary and loved ones can spin “tragically passed away in the place she loved most: the high summits of the Colorado Rockies,” it’s just so devastating. I cannot say I knew her incredibly well, but my heart still breaks for the people who did, who were captivated not just by her images of picturesque vistas, but by her natural full-of-life-ness, not to mention as a daughter, sibling, spouse, etc.
Now, for the church-going Christian crowds, what makes part of Emily’s life story more…(I don’t even know what the word is) is that at one point on her social media page, she described herself as “Decidedly Atheist.” Whether that changed over time, I do not know. Maybe her hundreds of mountain-scalings provided an opportunity to dig deeper into her earthly and eternal life meaning. But, for the church-going Christian crowds, it is a topic that has been debated since seemingly the beginning of human wisdom thought: just how lock-in-step you need to be with…whatever or Whomever to have a better life here or a better life after here.
Some would say that for the “Decidedly Atheists” among us, their souls are in eternal peril. Others would say they just might have a chance when Jesus Christ returns for the Second Coming. Then, there are those who will insist on the unconditional love of God being…well, exactly that: unconditional. Finally, there are some who resort to something along the lines of, “It’s not up to us anyway. It’s up to God, so why even think or talk about it?” And while that’s certainly true, I wonder if how we view the “Decidedly Atheists” among us affects how we treat them in this life here. Do we treat them with the same love as our fellow church-going Christians? Or, are we willing to treat them with the same respect as long as they’re more lock-in-step with our moral code? Do we feel that it’s our mission in life as disciples of Christ to ensure as many human beings are baptized and confirmed and keep on marching to our organized religion beat? Or do we just let them be and…hope for the best?
I know there’s plenty of Scriptural evidence to support a variety of positions not just on the eternal state, but how we try to shape the other human players on this earthly field. But I also have this feeling that no writer or shaper of Biblical accord fully grasped all that the world would turn out to be thousands of years later. I also have this feeling that no one then or now understands the fullest depth of God’s love and compassion and mercy that is even more breath-taking than any physical sight on this most beautiful earth. So much I do not know about this life here let alone the life after here, but I will always err on the side of grace. I will always cling to the cross not of judgement, but of mercy. I will always cling to God not of guilt or intimidation, but of hope and new life.
I have also come to believe that the life after here isn’t so much about pearly gates or cloudly habitats. Instead, I hope for the imagery as described especially in the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament), where the earth and Creation is restored to its intended breath-taking beauty, where wolves and lambs and humans can exist in peace beyond our understanding. And it may just be that someone not from the church-going Christian crowd was amazing us not just with the wonder of the earth now, but a glimpse of when the most worthwhile Performance of God reaches its phenomenal Finale. Amen (so let it be)!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad
Photo: From Emily’s Facebook page uploaded May 30, 2024 (Jefferson County, Colorado)