Lone Grave Cemetery

Paul made his way through the streets of ancient Athens, setting his eyes on every idol trinket and statue being sold in the marketplace. Approaching a particular altar of sacrifice, the etchings caught his attention: "to an unknown god." (Acts 17:23). Paul would use this engraving to preach to the Athenians about the one, true God who does not "dwell in temples made with hands." (17:24)

Coming across the bridge in front of the Kentucky Dam, water was pouring out of the flood gates...churning the river below like a giant pot of chocolate milk. Giant electrical lines stretched as far as the eye could see...their lines all gathering power from this behemoth hydroelectric facility.

Passing the dam, and exiting to the right, I soon came to the border of Land Between the Lakes for my morning hike. A few miles into LBL is the North Welcome Station, a small building (with a rather large parking area in front of it) containing any map one would need to traverse the park. One mile past this Welcome Station, down a side road, is a large, metal gate protecting a campground (for the winter months when it's not in use).

Parking my truck, I walk around the gate toward the place where the North/South trail crosses the road...and I begin my morning hike. This was new territory for me (seeing the trail is 60 miles long, there are a lot of parts I haven't seen). About a mile in, I come to a high place overlooking Kentucky Lake, and once again, an object catches my attention. It's about 40 yards off the trail...and it appears to be...a road sign.

Trudging off the path to investigate, the sign says: "Lone Grave Cemetery". A single, small stone (weathered by many-a-year) marked the grave of an early settler. It was a rather surreal moment, as I looked across the glimmering lake.

The ironic part: passing the hydroelectric dam, the Welcome Station, the enormous campground, the metal gate (all built on land seized through 'eminent domain', in which NUMEROUS graves were destroyed by TVA), I see a warning sign mounted on the cemetery pole: "disturbing/vandalizing a grave is a federal offense, punishable by law". I had to laugh a little. I felt kind of like Paul walking through Athens, knowing the truth of the situation...and seeing the ignorance some people have toward it.

P.S. I'm not bashing LBL by any means, but history left unlearned is bound to repeat itself.

Destroyed Graveyards: Ashes on the Trail

A light, almost eerie mist was falling as I hiked through Land Between the Lakes this morning. Treading through the wet leaves on the packed trail-ground, a figure caught my eye that didn’t belong among the natural landscape of trees and undergrowth: a chimney. Coming off the beaten path about 20 yards, I stepped across a long, thin line of block foundation where a house used to be. Among the leaves and brush, almost puzzle-like, was the outline of room after room on the forest floor. I was standing in the remains of the living room of someone’s house. My feet were settled where a family used to cook and warm themselves by the fire that came from this old chimney. My heart sank.

Why? In 1963, by order of President Kennedy, the federal government used ‘eminent domain’ to force 700+ families out of the land between the rivers (my grandfather and grandmother among them). Many of those families were the descendents of Revolutionary War veterans who were given that land as payment, by the same government that then stole it back. If a family didn’t leave by their specified date “federal marshals arrived to escort you from your home…while a bulldozer pushed down the house, which was then burned…” (betweentherivers.org)

Ultimately, 170,000 acres of land meant far more to the TVA (and the government) than moral decency, as they destroyed multiple family graveyards, Indian burial sites, and even Chinese immigrant graves. “The Promise” (as it has come to be called) was given to the people whose lives were uprooted so long ago: there will be no commercial development within the borders of LBL. They lied.

The over 200 miles of hiking trails in LBL are beautiful, the mountain bike trails are fast and pristine, the lake landscape is gorgeous, recreation is almost endless, and the sensation of being immersed in nature is awe-inspiring…but “cursed is he who removes his neighbors landmark.” (Deuteronomy 27:17) “No man may go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because the Lord is the avenger of them all, as we also have forewarned you…” (I Thessalonians 4:6)

Gut-Punched

My first instinct was to walk faster. After arguing with the cashier at Dollar General about being able to buy cell phone minutes with a money order, this rough-looking-young man stood outside the Dollar Store. Eyeing me as I came to the door, I knew the conversation that awaited me when I finished shopping. Sure enough, as I started walking toward my truck, I heard, “Hey man…” I felt my eyes roll back, as he circled around to the driver’s side door and said, “I just sold some speakers, and I guess they won’t cash a money order, so I’m (expletive) on gas for the day. Can you help?”

In my mind I was having this dialogue: “Are you kidding me? I just heard you trying to buy cell phone minutes, and now you say you need gas money? Seriously, you‘re asking me to help you?” I said to the guy, “Nope.” I mean, COME ON…right?

Then, I got this feeling. The nearest way I can describe it…is that it’s like the few seconds of confusion that come during a mountain bike crash. My mind’s thinking, “Am I getting up from this one?” Then, as I lay there on the trail, there’s this eerie calm where everything has come to rest, and my stupidity is clear.

I shut the door on my truck and sat there thinking: “You’re an idiot!” This is the guy that was going from Jerusalem to Jericho in Luke 10:30. He’s fell on some hard times, maybe he’s strung out on meth or some other drug…but he just asked me for help! I pulled out of my parking space and passed by on the other side of his car and thought to myself, “You’re just like the priest who passed by on the other side!” I’m the preacher at a church a mile down the road, and I just left the guy in the Dollar Store parking lot. “Go and do likewise,” just gut-punched me harder than an MMA fighter (Luke 10:37).

Opportunities to help others see Christ show up every day. Sometimes we get it right…sometimes we don’t. Lord, forgive me for the times I just don’t get it.

A Like-Precious Four Thousand

Never have I been in the presence of so many Christians in one place. Entering this massive building there are folding chairs as far as the eye can see...it seems like a quarter mile from one end to the other. By the time the early session of the Challenge Youth Conference started last Friday night almost 4,000 people of like precious faith had trickled into the Gatlinburg Convention Center. 4,000 people seeking God! The words of “Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place” kept resonating in my mind.

This was as close to the numbers of Pentecost that I had ever experienced, as we all “praised God” with glad and generous hearts (Acts 2:47). Thousands of voices singing like that “great multitude in heaven, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.’” (Revelation 19:1). 4,000 heads bowed in prayer like the multitude outside the Temple in Luke 1:10, waiting for Zechariah to emerge. 4,000 hearts seeking God like those who had long been estranged from the Passover purification, and now (with zeal) crave the worship of God (II Chronicles 30:18-19).

Gatherings like this help me realize how many God has reserved that have not bowed the knee to Baal. The assembly at CYC helped me to know that I am never alone in this fight of faith…there are thousands walking with me. And as we sang praises to God last weekend, my focus looked toward a future meeting-place on heavenly Mount Zion, where the true number of the faithful will be revealed as countless.