The Fourth Watch

Here’s a story headline that would catch the eye of anybody in the over-40 crowd! CNN ran the news piece under the heading, “Walk this number of steps each day to cut your risk of dementia” (www.cnn.com/2022/09/06/health/step-dementia-risk-wellness/index.html). Curious? Keep reading.

According to a study published Tuesday in JAMA Neurology (Journal of the American Medical Association—go here to read the original study report—jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/2795819), “people between the ages of 40 and 79 who took 9,826 steps per day were 50% less likely to develop dementia within seven years….Furthermore, people who walked with ‘purpose’—at a pace over 40 steps a minute—were able to cut their risk of dementia by 57% with just 6,315 steps a day” (see CNN).

But there’s more: “Even people who walked approximately 3,800 steps a day at any speed cut their risk of dementia by 25%, the study found” (see CNN).

If you’re intimidated by these high step counts, consider this: “The largest reduction in dementia risk—62%—was achieved by people who walked at a very brisk pace of 112 steps per minute for 30 minutes a day, the study found” (see CNN). In fact, the JAMA editorial accompanying the research report Tuesday counseled: “‘While 112 steps/min is a rather brisk cadence, ‘112’ is conceivably a much more tractable and less intimidating number for most individuals than ’10,000,’ especially if they have been physically inactive or underactive’” (see CNN). (To determine your walking pace per minute, simply count the number of steps you take in 10 seconds and multiply that number by six.)

The bottom line to all of this seems to suggest the simple daily exercise of walking is linked to numerous health benefits that now include a lowered risk for dementia. And what’s not to like about that! (The CNN piece ends wisely with this editor's note: “Before beginning any new exercise program, consult your doctor. Stop immediately if you experience pain.”)

Ellen White observed: “There is no exercise that can take the place of walking. By it the circulation of the blood is greatly improved....Walking, in all cases where it is possible, is the best remedy for diseased bodies, because in this exercise all of the organs of the body are brought into use” (Healthful Living 129).

The Scriptures describe the height of spiritual communion with God in the language of walking. “Enoch walked faithfully with God” (Genesis 5:22, 24). “Noah walked faithfully with God” (Genesis 6:9). God called Abraham at the age of ninety-nine to “‘walk before Me faithfully and be blameless’” (Genesis 17:1). Paul counsels us to “follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). And near the end of the Bible is this appeal, “As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love” (2 John 1:6).

So why not turn your brisk walks into prayer walks with Jesus? Nothing fancy, nothing difficult or strenuous—just the rhythmic breathing in and out of prayers for the new day, prayers for the family, prayers for friends, prayers for the sick, prayers for wisdom, prayers for your classes, prayers for your students, prayers for your patients, prayers for guidance, prayers of joy and thanksgiving for the God who walks beside you. Prayer walks—research documented exercises for the preservation of your heart, your mind, and your soul. What’s not to like about that?

As the drought tightens its grip on the western states here in the U.S., the dramatic plunge of reservoir water levels is stunning. If you haven’t seen the before-and-after NASA satellite photographs of Lake Mead (“the largest reservoir in the United States [that] supplies water to millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico”), take a moment to check it out for yourself (earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150111/lake-mead-keeps-dropping).

Lake Mead water levels now stand “at their lowest since April 1937, when the reservoir was still being filled for the first time.” By mid-July the reservoir “was filled to just 27 percent of capacity” (ibid). Wow!

But along with this very public regional crisis, the plunging water levels have also exposed private pain and heartache. Already at Lake Mead “a fourth set of human remains has been found at the shrinking reservoir . . . as the drought gripping the western US continues to blaze and sends its water levels plunging” (www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/07/lake-mead-human-remains-found-drought). Who were these victims, what happened, and what about their families?—questions the authorities are yet unable to answer.

But when it comes to water levels, there is one profound reversal of today’s drought headlines worth remembering. Consider the promise embedded in the ancient prophet’s prayer: “You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah of 7:19).

The ancients considered nothing on earth deeper than the sea. And into its dark and murky depths, our divine Savior is depicted, symbolically hurling “all our iniquities” where they disappear never to be seen again. No chance dropping sea levels will ever expose the private sins we have confessed to Him. No chance some sea-diving bounty hunter will come across their remains.

No, no—“all our iniquities” are buried at sea, sunk to the bottom by Almighty God, where not even He would dredge them up again to condemn us. No wonder Micah exclaims: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy” (Micah 7:18).

And if not even God Himself would dredge them up, why should we punish ourselves by recalling the very sins we have asked Him to bury? Do we really believe reviewing past sins God has buried somehow proves our penitence or double-checks His pardon?

And while we’re at it, why should we allow others to torment us with those transgressions not even Jesus would recall? If a “friend” or a spouse or even an adversary hurls our past against us, may the Spirit of God bring quickly to mind the assurance our failures have already been hurled into the depths of God’s eternal sea, never to be heard from again. So “get behind me, Satan.” 

Then I say we let these drought-stricken headlines be our quiet reminder that God’s great reservoir of grace will never, ever be diminished—not by even a single drop, not even by a single sin.

You know it is a slow news cycle when one of the hot stories of summer has to do with how fast our home planet Earth is spinning these days.

Here’s how the website Defector creatively reported the headline: “On June 29, Earth spun through a full rotation in 1.59 milliseconds short of the league-average 24 hours, a breathtaking athletic feat witnessed by an estimated 7.97 billion viewers. This sets a record for the fastest rotation of Earth since they started tracking the stat in 1955 with the advent of the first practical atomic clock” (defector.com/earth-the-true-goat-breaks-longstanding-speed-record/).

Did you catch that? On June 29 Earth spun 1.59 milliseconds quicker than the day before. Hmmm. Do you recall that day feeling a bit shorter? I can’t even remember June 29!

As it turns out, this isn’t the first time Earth has gone into a sprint: “Terrestrial haste is a trend. In 2020, the planet recorded the 28 shortest days on record, and it kept spinning rapidly into 2021 and 2022. Before scientists could even verify that record-setting day time of June 29, our world almost outdid itself: It blazed through July 26, 2022 [a month later], 1.50 milliseconds ahead of schedule” ( apple.news/AWYlaADBKSYmI6RIzc9HB_A).

What’s up with these spurts of speed? Some scientists are suggesting that the melting polar caps have flattened the planet and are causing the spurts—but others respond such melting would actually slow Earth down, not speed it up. Another hypothesis suggests it has to do with the “Chandler wobble”—the phenomenon of “how the not-quite-perfectly-round Earth wobbles ever so slightly, like a spinning top as it slows down.” Apparently that wobble “mysteriously disappeared between 2017 and 2020, which could have helped the Earth finish the day a bit faster” (ibid).

But nobody knows for sure why Earth is breaking out into these occasional spurts.

So, are we getting older or younger? Is life speeding up or slowing down?

Here’s what I know about God. In those majestic words of the psalmist long ago:

        Lord, you have been our dwelling place
                 throughout all generations.
         Before the mountains were born
                  or you brought forth the whole world,
                  from everlasting to everlasting you are God. . . .
        A thousand years in your sight
                 are like a day that has just gone by,
                 or like a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:1-2, 3)

Peter echoes Moses’ psalm with these familiar words: “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8).

One point five nine milliseconds isn’t a whole lot of time, to be sure. But Holy Scripture promises this of God: “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). So it really doesn’t matter how much time you have left—in milliseconds, in days, in years, in a lifetime. God’s assurance to you and me is that He can take the number of seconds allotted to our lifetimes and make them “beautiful.”

And that’s the life I want as we round summer’s corner and hurry towards the autumn of a new school year. Jesus makes “everything beautiful in its time.” Which makes this the right time for you and me to discover “the beautiful life” of Christ and to make it our own, while we still have the time.

An old song from my parents’ generation crooned about meeting in St. Louis, today the chrome-arched city along the Mississippi River that is host to the 61st General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Karen and I drove down on Sunday for the opening of this Covid-postponed (twice) gathering of leaders and delegates from the four corners of the earth.

Embedded in the former football stadium of the St Louis Rams, the 1800-plus delegates were spread across the now concrete stadium floor either in person or via global Zoom (provided for those delegates who for pandemic, visa-entry or personal reasons joined the session from their homelands).

The Monday morning opening service included a welcome from the three world church officers, Ted Wilson (president), Erton Köhler (secretary) and Paul Douglas (treasurer), and was followed by a ninety-minute prayer service, interspersed with singing, group praying and the preaching of Mark Finley (evangelist), Barry Black (chaplain of the United States Senate), and me (your pastor). The three of us had been assigned themes by Jerry Page, Director of the G. C. Ministerial Association, and I know I speak for the other two preachers in saying it was a honor to lead the worshiping delegates to prayerfully focus on the daily baptism of the Holy Spirit. And it felt like being home for me with Ken Logan, our Pioneer organist and minister of music, at the convention organ console (a seat he hardly ever vacated through the long business session hours morning and evening).

One of the joys of a General Conference session is the serendipitous meetings with people you haven’t seen for months or years, in our case, fellow pastors and ministers from around the world. What a special joy those reconnecting conversations were for Karen and me.

One quick scan across the assembled delegates, and you are quickly reminded that (as it should be) our church is truly a growing and growingly international body of Seventh-day Adventists. Long gone are the days when the North American delegation dominated either the discussions or the votings. Youthful faces from the two-thirds world are a reminder of the increasing influence young global Adventists will have on the future of the world church.

A highlight for our brief time at the session came in Ted Wilson’s quinquennial President’s Report, a review of major church developments over the previous five (in this case seven) years. As you can see from my third row snapshot, the pulpit stands at the side of the sprawling backdrop that proclaims, “Jesus Is Coming—Get Involved.” 

The president’s multimedia presentation, a peripatetic highlighting of stories from across the world, ended dramatically with an Adventist World Radio (AWR) report of how communist guerrillas, fighting an insurgency war against the Philippine Army, somehow connected with AWR shortwave broadcasts there in their mountain hideouts. Long story short, one by one these rebel fighters came to know Christ and began to study the Bible via their shortwave radios. Once contact was established with Adventist members in the region, these fighters began to surrender to the army, confessing their newfound faith. Through a live Skype connection, two of the transformed former rebels (masked to protect their identity) shared their testimonies (translated by their pastor, who stood before us in the stadium). One of them was a woman (masked face on the right side of the big screen picture I took), who in tears shared her testimony for Christ. Then in a dramatic ending, our eyes dropped from the big screen to a Philippine Army colonel and his wife, who stood with Ted Wilson beside a baptistry on the stadium floor, also led to Christ by the Adventists of that mountain region. The stadium burst into applause as this military husband and wife followed Jesus and joined our faith community.

Only at a General Conference session! I’m sure the week will culminate in a celebrative Sabbath of worship there in the sports stadium. 

Karen and I returned to our quiet little village, grateful for the privilege of serving this global community of faith, and thankful for the testimonies of men, women and children in this parish who (without any accompanying fanfare or big screen drama) continue to take their stands for Christ their Savior. “Jesus Is Coming—Get Involved” is a fitting call to us here at Pioneer as well. For our own mission statement, “Love on the Move,” can come true as we all get involved for Him. 

So let us press on to love lost people to Christ, for are we not all “former rebels” won to Jesus by His unrelenting love? “‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself’” (John 12:32).