New Church Life Mar/Apr 2015 | Page 23

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 133