December 28 – “Immortalized in Trivia”

Well, well, well.  Kel and Christina and their family headed back to LaMarque.  Josh and Christi and their boys went on to the other in-laws in Crosby.  Nathan and April and Cailyn went to Corpus Christi to see April’s Dad and grandparents.  Mom asked when we were leaving to go home, too.  The silence was deafening.  And almost immediately I started coughing and feeling rather puny.  But I have a funeral to attend today up in Houston, and preaching to do on Sunday before I have time to be sick.  I am counting on my usual body clock of feeling good in the mornings and crashing in the afternoons.

I noticed that several of my friends and relatives checked off something from their bucket lists recently.  They went to see some orchestra from Siberia.  Did I get that right?  I have never been, but I hear it is quite impressive.  Well, I can check something off my own bucket list as well.  I am now officially the answer to a trivia question.  Of course the question probably ranks right up there with “What actor played one of the bodyguards in the movie Thor?”  Or “What was the name of the fire fighter in the red bunker hat who rescued the second kitten from the Great Galveston Christmas Eve fire of 2013?”  Pretty obscure information, I know.

The hot story came out in today’s Galveston Daily News.  They challenged readers as to how well they have been keeping up with “the most interesting stories involving churches and faith in Galveston County in 2013.”  As I said, I know that’s a pretty narrow category that will never make it to a Jeopardy round, but it is still part of the Daily News “Annual Year-end Quiz.”  Even came with a picture.  What was my claim to fame?  Here it is in case you blinked on that page and missed it:

     “3) Police chaplains have long been common in Texas, but after a number of serious losses struck fire departments across the state, there may be more fire departments also seeking such counsel.

     This year a local pastor, whose son is a Galveston firefighter, took up spiritual responsibility for the island’s fire department.
     The firefighters call him ‘Chappie,’ but what is his full name and what church does he lead?”

I have been immortalized. 

1 Corinthians 15:51-57 says, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ 

‘Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Father, thank you that real immortality is not garnered through trivia questions and bucket lists and appearances in the newspaper.  Thank you for real victory through Jesus.  Amen.