Heaven is An Attitude
A Sermon by the Rev. Mark D. Pendleton
Lessons: Genesis 39 (1-2,4,6,20-23); 50:15-21; Secrets of Heaven, 2568.4, 3923.2
W
e are well into 2015, and at the turn of the year I was thinking of Pearl
Street in downtown Boulder, Colorado.
Pearl Street isn’t a street that cars drive on. It’s a wide, outdoor, brickpaved, walking mall, with shops on either side and lush shade trees and
benches placed down the middle.
But it’s not the brick pavement, landscaping, or absence of cars that most
makes it attractive. It is the type of people you meet and interact with along the
way and in the shops.
Boulder is a college town nestled up against the first tier of the Rocky
Mountains as they jump up out of the western plains. That means Boulder
attracts people who have a young, active, energetic, athletic, outdoorsy mind
set and interests. Boulder is also just far enough west to gather in a taste of
“hippy,” health-conscious, healthy eating-type culture. Combine these factors
and what you often encounter are people who are young, physically healthy,
energetic and capable, possessed of a “Can do,” “Will do,” “Can conquer,” “It’s
all good” mentality that is infectious.
Don’t we admire and even love people who carry that kind of indomitable
spirit? Nothing gets them down! Often they even look more handsome or
beautiful than they otherwise would because of the attitude they carry.
A good attitude is a strong and valuable asset. There are stories of people
in prisoner-of-war camps – people living in some of the most challenging and
cruel environments known to humankind – who were able to rise above their
hardship and overcome huge mental and emotional adversity because of the
attitude they carried.
A movie that came out at Christmastime – Unbroken – is about one
such man: Louie Zamperini. He survived terrible, inhumane treatment in a
Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.
Louie died last summer at age 94. Before he died, he was interviewed
while the movie was being finished. He was asked: “While you were in the
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