Various
I wasnât in heaven this past six weeks, but I was very close. Northeast France is extraordinarily beautiful. The photo on the bulletin cover is a taste of what we experienced. You can see in the distance Mt. Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and in Western Europe. We ate at a restaurant looking over this view. To the left were alpages where the cows and sheep are brought up to the higher elevations for the summer. An alpage is a grassy area high in the mountains where the sheep and cows are taken each spring to eat the rich, sweet mountain grasses before coming back down in the early fall before the snows arrive. We could hear the bells they wore ringing across the valley. This view of Mt. Blanc was the most beautiful we saw, but it is visible from many locations in the area around Albertville where I studied French this summer.
Albertville is in the central east of France by Geneva and is nestled between a number of mountain ranges. On days off we would take a drive on any of a number of winding, twisty, serpentine roads that made their way up the hills surrounding us and from time to time as we made a turn in the road, we would see a view of Mt. Blanc. It took our breath away and we never tired of seeing it.
Even without Mt. Blanc this part of France is stunningly beautiful. I took early morning walks which generally involved a lot of uphill and downhill walking. I could hear in the distance the clanging of bells and then as I got closer would find a herd of cows or sheep all wearing bells with different pitches so not only would it be a beautiful sight with the cows or sheep eating lush grass dotted with beautiful wild flowers, but the beauty would be reinforced with a symphony of sound.
It rained while we there which is why it is so green. One week it rained every day and I still went out for the morning walks. There were wonderful rains with great thunderstorms whose booms echoed off the hills. The result of this rain was that the air was sweet with the smell of wet woods and grass.
As I climbed up the hills in the early morning, I could look out and see medieval castles and churches and hillsides spotted with small villages and houses with pitched roofs and decorated with flowers.
The houses had neatly stacked firewood that was cut, I would guess, with a precision of a couple centimeters. The fields were being harvested for hay and this was rich hay, not a dry, arid hay. Everyplace I looked I saw beauty.
We ate several times in an auberge in a village called Venthon, just across the river from Albertville. This was a beautiful wood building with high ceilings and the whole building was built without using nails. Wood pegs were nailed through beams to hold the building together which is a popular construction for new buildings in this area. I love buildings constructed from wood and stone. I get quickly tired of cement buildings. Cement buildings are dead and boring but wood buildings live and breath.
We ate in this beautiful wood building, looking out over the hills above Albertville at Pallud and itâs old church building, and had delicious meals. The food in France is extraordinary. This restaurant had a veal cutlet with a Beaufort cheese sauce that was just incredible.
Beaufort cheese is made in the village of Beaufort at the top of the mountain above Venthon. (This reminds me of the American who visited France and wondered why it was that the French named so many of their towns after wines and cheeses.) Beaufort produces three cheeses each year, depending on the kind of grass the cows are eating. They have a winter cheese, a spring cheese and then in the summer an alpage cheese.
One night we had a fondu made with three cheeses, including the Beaufort alpage cheese, that was extraordinarily delicious.
My cooking is not up to restaurant standards but I made a couple very tasty tartiflets with the Reblochon cheese that also comes from this area of France.
I am not a fan of liver but the fois gras in France, made from goose liver, is wonderful on salads and toast.
We often ate our lunches and suppers with the local sausages and pates and cheeses which are, once again, delicious.
My friend Allan was with me for three weeks at the language school and we walked together in the mornings. On our last morning, we climbed Le Belle Etoile, the mountain peak above Albertville. This is a very steep climb and at the top, with a view looking out to Lake Annecy and Mt. Blanc, we had a snack of some of these sausages and cheeses with fruit, chocolate and bread.
The temperature this summer was wonderful. Even when it was a warm day, all we had to do to cool off was go up into the mountains where the temperature became very pleasant.
On warm days we found a place on Lake Annecy where for two euros, we could spread out our blanket and chairs on the lawn under great shade trees. Lake Annecy is a long, large lake with clear, cool blue water. To dive in and be cooled and then to dry off and warm up under the sun was a delight.
A picnic of French cheeses and meats and fruit and bread sitting on the lawn looking out at the lake and the mountains, it doesnât get much better than this.
In addition to all this, there was a wonderful simplicity to the summer. I woke up in the morning, went walking, had my devotional (reading Mark in a French Bible), went to class where we spent most of the time discussing different issues, came home and relaxed, did some homework and that was all I had to do. The study of French was intensive but it was just French to do. There were not five different areas of responsibility, just one, and that was very relaxing.
I walked around town in my shorts and did not stand out for doing so. In fact, I blended in with the population and that was a nice change.
So I left the wonderful cuisine, beautiful scenery, the simplicity of life and came back to Morocco. Why?
I do not dislike Morocco. There are many wonderful parts of living in Rabat, but Morocco is a land of brown, not green. Morocco is a Muslim country that tolerates but does not support my Christian presence. Tajines, couscouses and brochettes are wonderful but they are not at the level of French cuisine. (Neither is American food at the level of French cuisine.)
The architecture of Morocco is unimaginative and cement can only do so much. Plus, in a developing country, there are a lot of rundown buildings and areas. I turn the corner and my breath is not taken away by the beauty of what I see.
I drive to Fes on the autoroute and see a section that reminds me of the area around Albertville, but it is a very dim reflection.
My life here is very complicated with many different areas of responsibility competing for my time. My life here is far more stressful than it was in France.
So why did I come back? Why not simply stay where it was so beautiful, so refreshing, so relaxing?
On the way south from Albertville, we stayed with friends in Marseilles which is a city on the Mediterranean coast of France. For each of the three days we were with them, we went swimming in the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. We went out on a boat one day and motored past the prison island that in the novel was where the Count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned. We motored out to a small cove, went snorkeling and saw many beautifully colored fish. You can see over the side of the boat straight down to the bottom. It is such wonderfully clear water.
Five years ago we visited them and went swimming in the same location and there is a spot where houses surround a small inlet that leads into the Mediterranean. If you live in one of these houses, you can step out your front door, walk about twenty meters to your personal dock, get into your boat and motor out into the sea.
My friend Bill asked me five years ago, âWouldnât you like to live here?â and my immediate response, which surprised me a bit, was, âBut what would I do if I lived here?â
I was surprised by my answer because in the past when I had been on vacation and seen beautiful houses, I had lusted after them, thinking how wonderful it would be to live there. But my instinctive response five years ago revealed why it is I live in Morocco.
I tell people I do not live where I would choose to live but that I am more fulfilled living here than anywhere I have ever lived.
As I was walking in the mornings around Albertville, it crossed my mind that if this life were all that there was, then the French have mastered the art of living. They know how to eat, how to work, how to relax. There is a beauty to French living.
I sat in McDonalds a number of times because they had free Wifi and I could check my emails and do research I needed to do. So I watched the lines of people coming up to buy the same food that you buy at a McDonalds in the US. The difference is that the people standing in line at the McDonalds in Albertville were thin. It was amazing. McDonalds is very popular in France and people buy fries with their hamburgers but they are not overweight as are the people who stand in line in a McDonalds in the US.
The French know how to eat well and even when they descend to the depths of American cuisine, they know how to eat those meals once in awhile and not every day. They know how to exercise and stay fit.
I donât mean to idealize the French. I know that there are a lot of problems in French society that lie below the surface, but from what you see, there is a wonderful civility and beauty to French life.
The problem is that there is more to life than this world. You can live this life as best as it can be lived and that will not take you far. This world is not all that there is and, in fact, this world that seems so real is only temporary for the longest living of us. Each of us, young or old, will discover this reality.
Because this is capital T true, the deepest needs in our lives cannot be satisfied by what this world has to offer. No matter how sweet the water is we are drinking, there is a deeper, cooler, more satisfying water deeper down and it is when we drink from this deep water that we are most satisfied.
In an unending barrage of propaganda, the world tells us that we need to be healthy, wealthy and powerful. There is a never ending list of what we need to buy to make us happy. No matter how much money we have there is always a new trendy restaurant to which we must go or a new vacation spot developed somewhere in the world that must be visited or a new device that must be purchased.
All of us are influenced by this barrage and if we do not stop to think about it and resist the pull of this advertising, we will get pulled into an never ending search for fulfillment.
But fulfillment is not what the world can offer. Frederick Buechner defined lust as the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst. Thirsting or lusting for money, power or pleasure will always, will always end up to be unsatisfying.
Letâs say that you are successful and begin to be wealthy and powerful. When you hunger and thirst for money and power, can you ever have enough? Once you have it you have to worry about how to hold on to it. Where can it be safely stored? What do you do at the end of your life when you realize you will die? What can you do with all that you have accumulated? The Pharaohâs of Egypt had it buried with them but wherever they went, they left their riches and power behind. As you grow in wealth and power, the satisfaction you were seeking doesnât show up so the solution seems to be to get more power and more money in the hopes that that will satisfy. You are thirsty but all that you pursue only accentuates your thirst.
What deeply satisfies comes only from what will endure. When we hunger and thirst for Jesus and his righteousness, we receive satisfaction that endures because only Jesus and his righteousness will last and endure. As we continue to hunger and thirst, we continue to receive more and more of what does satisfy and what we receive is not fickle. It is not inconsistent. It is even more present in difficulty than when things are going smoothly. It will not fade away. We will not leave it behind.
The satisfaction the world offers through money, power and pleasure is deficient because it doesnât satisfy when hard times come, because these things will sooner or later disappear and because the pursuit of these things results in increasing dissatisfaction, not satisfaction.
This tension between what the world offers and what God offers has always existed. Next week I will begin a series of sermons from I Samuel and we will look at Eli, Samuel and Saul. One of the lessons to be learned from this book of the Bible is the comparison between Saul and David.
When Saul was chosen as king, it was because he looked like a king. He was tall and strong. Samuel reluctantly gave Israel what it wanted, an earthly king, and Saul filled the role magnificently. When Samuel acted again as Godâs messenger, he chose David, who did not fit the role quite as well – at least not from outward appearances. When Samuel came to Jesseâs household to anoint the new king, son after son came forward but God told Samuel this was not the one. Finally after all the sons had appeared, Samuel asked Jesse if he had any other sons and then David was brought down from where he was shepherding the sheep. He was not tall; he did not obviously fit the role of king of Israel.
I have more respect for Saul than I Samuel gives him credit but the point of I Samuel is clear that God looks at the inner person more than the externals. God sees beyond what the world sees and chooses people to follow him and to lead his church who would not be the worldâs obvious choices.
This was true of the disciples. The world would have chosen from among the educated, influential Pharisees and Sadducees to lead a new church. God chose uneducated fishermen, radical Zionists and a despised tax collector to lead his church.
This was true of the church in Corinth. Paul wrote (I Corinthians 1)
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised thingsâand the things that are notâto nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
It has been true throughout history. God looks deeper and sees what the world through its superficial eyes does not see.
When Peter wrote about the beauty of women in his letter, he said (I Peter 3)
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. 4 Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in Godâs sight. 5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.
Peterâs point was not that women should not braid their hair or wear gold jewelry and fine clothes. His point was that beauty does not come from these externals. True beauty comes from inner qualities.
I talk with single men from time to time who would like to be married and ask them what they are looking for in a woman. Sometimes the first thing I hear is that they want the woman to be beautiful.
The world tells us to marry someone who is beautiful or handsome, someone who is wealthy or who has good family connections that will help us. But beauty and wealth do not last long in a marriage. I know people who married for beauty and ended up with very unhappy marriages because they did not look deep enough.
I think it would be difficult to marry someone to whom I was not attracted, but where does attraction and beauty come from? We find attractive what we value and what we value becomes beautiful to us. When you look deeper you see qualities in a person that are attractive and even if the person you marry does not meet the worldâs fickle standard of beauty, that person will be beautiful to you because of where you are looking.
When you look for a job, where do you look? Too many people choose what they will do based on where they can make a lot of money. Students in university choose their major based on how much a graduate can earn rather than on what will satisfy and fulfill.
When we were on the ferry from France and coming into Tangiers, just east of Tangiers I saw six Moroccans in two rubber tires swimming across to Spain. This was nine in the morning and they were in the middle when we passed them. They were just about 40 meters on the north side of us. This is very dangerous. They cannot move very quickly and these large ferry boats and container ships move steadily through the water and cannot maneuver very well.
Estimates vary but a good figure is that fifty Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans die each month trying to make the passage to Spain or the Canary Islands.
Why do they take such risks?
The ferry was full of Moroccans who work in Europe and were coming back to Morocco for the August vacation. In my early morning walks after returning to Rabat, I walked some days through Youssefia and saw the shiny cars of these MREs (Morrocan RĂ©sident Ătranger) parked in the poor sections of this quartier. These Moroccans come back with a nice car, nice electronics, money to go out to a nice restaurant and the local Moroccans who are having difficulty finding a regular job and donât have money turn their eyes to Spain and lust and scheme how they can get there to get some of that money.
And so great risks are taken despite the fact that times have changed and the climate in Europe for illegal migrants is much more difficult now than it has been in the past.
Christians who love God and want to serve him also take this dangerous, illegal journey. Why? They have looked at the superficial. They have looked at what the world can offer and have neglected to look at what God is calling them to do.
The countries of Africa desperately need strong Christians to combat the corruption and promiscuity that is destroying so many lives. If the Christians who are making this illegal voyage would turn their faith and strength to building up their country, wouldnât that be a much better use of their God-given talents?
Where God calls us to go – or stay – is not always the most pleasant place to be. God called Abraham from the civilized city of Ur to go to the wilderness of Canaan. God called Paul to go from the security of being a well-connected, up-and-coming Pharisee to defy the system he had served and take the Gospel to the Gentiles where his body would be broken again and again. God has called many of us to come to Morocco at the expense of being separated from our families, unable to be with them when someone is ill or dies, unable to be with them for family events.
Over the past seven years I have learned that it is more important for me to live where God has called me than to seek out where I will be most comfortable.
I would love to live by a lake in the northeast of the US or in the beauty of central east France or a number of other beautiful places. If I lived there it would be great, for a while, but then I would start to feel that something was missing.
Part of me did not want to come back because of the tensions that exist within the church and outside of it. But I came back because this is where God has called me to come. This is where God is using me. This is where I find fulfillment and purpose.
Paul wrote to the Philippians (3:20)
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ
This tension of living in this world but being citizens of heaven is at the heart of our struggle as Christians. We are meant to enjoy this world and the fruit of this world but we are meant to remember our true home and desire what only that home can offer. We are meant to enjoy this world but desire our future home.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is I John 2:17
The world and its desires pass away, but the [one] who does the will of God lives forever.
As a citizen of heaven you need to make decisions that reflect your true citizenship. When you have a decision to make, look past the superficial aspects to the decision and make a decision worthy of your citizenship in heaven.
