What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Rev. John F. Hazel Jr.

RETIRED Palmerton PASTOR

A little boy was standing on the banks of the Mississippi watching a river boat go by. A fellow who was walking along joined him to watch the very impressive site. Soon the boy started flapping his arms and calling out, “Come over here!”

The fellow looked at the boy and spoke. “You’re just a little kid, and you think that big ship going to change its course just to please you?”

A few minutes later to his surprise, he did notice the ship changing course and coming over to the little boy. “How on earth is this happening?” he asked. The little boy, smiling replied. “The captain is my daddy!”

Too often, it seems we can be stressed. Ever noticed that “desserts” spelled backward is “stressed.” Just ask anyone trying to diet. “

Sensory overload” might well be considered the big social contagion for modern times.

Poor Robin Williams played a Russian defector in the movie “Moscow on the Hudson.” Used to waiting, under the old Soviet system, for hours to get a can of coffee, he walked into a New York Supermarket for the first time. There on the shelves were 37 different brands of coffee. “Coffee, Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!” he yelled. Fainting he ended waking up in a hospital bed suffering from a sensory overload.

Going to a college reunion later this month, I still remember Alvin Toffler’s book” Future Shock.” In it he posited that before his generation, humankind could keep abreast of its technology. Now technology was outpacing humankind. It is “too much change in too short a period of time.” I don’t think the problem has gotten any better. Even with supply chain issues our markets still give us a wealth of choices. Remember when coffee was just regular and decaffeinated? Now you can get it flavored, a big can or a little cup, acid reduced and a hundred other ways.

In Philadelphia we had three channels of television, then public television came. Every boy on the block pestered his dad for a UHF converter so he could watch Speed Racer. Then we had a whole seven channels. Now we have hundreds to draw from.

On my wall stands a plaque I bought at a yard sale many years ago. It is a rendering of First John, fourth chapter, fourth verse. “Greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world.”

My freshman year at Muhlenberg College my roommate and I went to see, “The Exorcist.” The movie theater didn’t help the mood of the picture in the fact that as you went in, you walked by a hospital gurney and an oxygen tank. For a while it seemed every body was looking under their bed for demons.

Yet, upon reflection I find that Satan can use that natural world to do his business, as well a supernatural.

In Genesis the serpent asks Eve, “Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every of every tree in the garden?” From the beginning he uses creation to confuse, amuse and abuse us.

A favorite Warner’s brother cartoon shows a chameleon, pridefully he leaps from colored to panel to color panel. He stops looking at the next panel. Blubbering he cries out, “I can’t do it, I can’t do it!!” The next panel is plaid. I feel that is a good analogy for the sensory overload we deal with today.

Remember in school when you got caught talking in class. My friend and I will always remember the night we had to write “I will not talk in class” 100 times.

One of my hobbies is exercise and over the years I’ve tried to develop spiritual exercises. One I use each morning is to take up a Bic pen. This reminds me that I am “beloved in Christ.” Then I write five times. “I am a forgiven child of God.” That completed I write, “I am a forgiving child of God” five times.

Then finally I’ll write, “I am a forgiven and forgiving child of God. It helps to center me, drawing me closer to the One who lives inside us. In our baptisms, God calls and empowers us to forgive as we have been forgiven, feed as we have been fed, heal as we have been healed, loved as we have been loved.

Feeling a little like that poor chameleon? Remember that you have been loved to love. Press the eject button on cares and bask in the kindness of God.

Unlike poor Jacob Marley of the “A Christmas Carol” fame, you can drop the chains that bind. While there was a lot of “movements” in the sixties, well Paul McCartney would write, “the movement you need is on your shoulders.” (Hey Jude).

Like Emerson draw on the strength of the eternal that his been given you in the love of Christ. Yours is not pilot the ship, but know who the captain is. Come know God’s love and let the divine direct your paths.

“ Desserts” or “stressed,” it’s all how you look at it.