Come Apart!

 

Monday, July 19, 2021

O God, listen to my cry!  Hear my prayer!  From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed.  Psalm 61:1-2a

I’m not entirely certain who was speaking the first time I heard it; it was one of those sayings understood by most people.  You hardly have to explain this one.

If memory serves, the first time I heard this was in seminary.  It was a caution thrown-out to the fledgling preachers who were sitting at the knees of professor Jerry Breazeale, who was holding-forth on how to be like Jesus.  Only he said, people…remember this…there was only ONE Jesus…and you’re not Him! 

Dr. Breazeale then reminded us how Jesus often was found early in the morning not being found.  He was alone somewhere, praying, regrouping, gathering his strength for the day by being with His Father.  The point was well-taken, if the divine Son of God could feel the boards of life coming apart, we also must pay attention to the way we’re put together; nobody’s indestructible.

As I write, the sun has been up for an hour or so.  My desk faces our deck, which has seen better days.  

The wood has dried-out, paint is peeling, and the nails are surfacing like microwave popcorn making noise in the kitchen. 

The old deck, if not given some major TLC (tender loving care with hammer, sander, and paint-brush), is going to come apart. 

I have been putting this off, because fixing the deck means getting down on my knees, (something else that’s coming apart in my life).  It will be painstaking, time-consuming, and a little costly…but the alternative is to step on the deck some day and find myself in the backyard under a crumbling wood pile.

The same is true of each of us who are children of Adam and Eve.  Our bodies, minds, and souls need spiritual attention.  We need to come apart from the rigors of dealing with life in the 21^st century, and get alone with our Father.  The alternative is to find oursleves with neatly arranged lives of self-sufficiency, only doing the next thing on the task list our smart phone dictates.  And, by the way, that’s not such a neat arrangement!  The purpose for why you do what you do can get major-lost in the flurry of a list of tasks.  And life without purpose is the description of death.

For You Today (and me)

It’s time to take a break.  Get alone with the Father and a cup of coffee, or a walk in the woods, or whatever else gives your schedule the layer of dust it needs. 

For me, that will mean putting the computer on hold for a block of time.  That means you won’t find me in your inbox for a bit, but the plan is to come back to it fresh, renewed, and – having come apart – I hope to be like my deck should be shortly, put back together, sanded, with a fresh coat of paint.  I hope to see you looking refreshed also.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

Protected

 

Monday, November 9, 2020

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.  My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.  I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.  Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you!  I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.  You satisfy me more than the richest feast.  I will praise you with songs of joy.  I lie  awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night.  Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings.  I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely.  Psalm 63:1-8

There are so many images in this short Psalm teaching us the meaning of being protected under the shadow of God’s wings: 

          ·       Searching and thirsting for more of God’s presence

          ·       Seeing God’s power and glory

          ·       Realizing how a relationship with God surpasses anything life offers

          ·       Lifting up hands in prayer as a matter of praise

          ·       Satisfied

          ·       Lying awake because God’s presence is just too overwhelmingly wonderful

          ·       Singing under the wings

          ·       Clinging for joy because you’re securely held

Today two of those are where my heart is stirred most, lifting hands in prayer, and singing under the wings.  I cannot possibly estimate the number of times I have sung the hymn “Under His Wings” either in worship or just riding down the road.  The words are not merely rhyme, set to music; they are images of safety and song, the kind of which is not for sale at any price.  It is being loved by God.

Under His wings I am safely abiding. 

Tho' the night deepens and tempests are wild,

Still I can trust Him; I know He will keep me. 

He has redeemed me, and I am His child.
Under His wings, under His wings, Who from His love can sever?
Under His wings my soul shall abide, Safely abide forever.^[3]

There are so many images of being securely held, so that no harm can befall, and love can be fully expressed.  There are parental images, a mother’s loving embrace of her child, or the father’s strong hands holding off any harm.  There is the power of a mighty force of angels, unseen by human eyes, but battling behind the scenes of this dimension to clear our pathway through life.  And sometimes it is we who energize the trust of another, standing in the gap for a friend, providing help or even life-sustaining food for a homeless person. 

There are times when a surge of the understanding of God’s love and care so overwhelms us that we must sing, we are compelled to lift holy hands in praise and thanksgiving. 

For me, this morning, that is one of those times.  Nothing particularly unusual has happened to start that effusive prayer of thanksgiving, but, in the just-before-dawn moment, when I see the sun’s lift of the night veil, and the images of my garden’s shapes begin to show me the darkness is now passing, and the light of a new day begins, there is such a sense of thanksgiving for the goodness of God. 

This praise is not just because we have been blessed with a nice spot to see every day, or the house we live in, or a thousand other blessings bestowed on the likes of one family; rather it is the abiding; it is Christ’s abiding presence.  It is as Fanny Crosby wrote, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine which helps me see those wings of protection, the love and everlasting arms of Holy God, wrapped around a sinful human child who needs Him more than my next breath.

For You Today

You may reside in the most beautiful country setting, you may live in the city, or be confined to a bed in a nursing home.  Life’s circumstances do not define who you are; they are shifting shadows on the outside of who you are.  If you belong to God, forgiven and included in His forever family you are under His wings.  Those circumstances are under the control of the loving God who created you.  When that is the truth that overwhelms your soul protected is what you know all day long.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title image:  Pixabay.com   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Psalm 63 see:  Rescued and A Little More Light – Part 2  and In Times Like These (or any time)

 

Lenten Walk - Part 10

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Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Put your trust in the light while there is still time; then you will become children of the light.”  After saying these things, Jesus went away and was hidden from them.  But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him.  This is exactly what Isaiah the prophet had predicted:  “Lord, who has believed our message?  To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?”  But the people couldn’t believe, for as Isaiah also said, “The Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts—so that their eyes cannot see, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and have me heal them.”  Isaiah was referring to Jesus when he said this, because he saw the future and spoke of the Messiah’s glory.  Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders.  But they wouldn’t admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue.  For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.  John 12:36-43^(NLT)

The real time of what John writes about here is during Passion Week. Jesus has entered Jerusalem just days before he will be crucified.  The crowds hailed him with loud hosannas, acclaiming his entry as the coming of Messiah, the promised one who would save Israel from the domination of Rome’s legions.  By the time Jesus says some disturbing things about losing your life in order to find it, the crowds have begun to die-down, and the media crush about the Messiah turns to a new cycle. 

Religious fads come and go!

What is born in the midst of religious fads is religious fear. 

John makes note of the fact that even some of the Jewish leaders began to believe, but they put more stock in their place in the synagogue, than in the Lord of creation and eternity.  Little faith comes…and goes.

As we’ve noted in previous parts of this Lenten Walk series, this is a time of preparation, which cannot be effective without introspection…looking within to see the condition of our ongoing conversation with God.  And while we’re looking at our hearts we measure the progress of where we’ve been with who we are now.  Like the doorpost where your Mom measured your height from last year in third grade, to this year’s height.  We keep track of such things to see how far we’ve grown. 

It is the same in Christian living; we take stock of our walk with Christ in areas of faith:  stewardship, witness, ministry, prayer, and devotion in worship.  I believe[2] it was William Barclay, or perhaps C.S. Lewis, who wrote that with every decision we make we become more like a child of heaven, or more like a child of hell.  For me Lent is the process by which I keep track of my progress away from one and towards the other. 

The measuring stick of growth, however, can be tricky.  When you try to measure your spiritual commitment you can be fooled by lots of busy-ness.  When you’re busy doing something, like trying to write a good devotion, or a sermon, or answer six dozen emails about this or that…or if you’re serving meals at the homeless shelter, or visiting the nursing home, or, or……  Busy-ness may be because you’re growing, and the opportunities to serve are also piling up; it may also be that you’re busy because you’re not growing and simply too busy to pay attention to the voice of God.

For You Today

Lent is a time to slow-down, turn-down the volume of tv, media-turbulance, activities, and the tyranny of the urgent thing to be done…and listen…listen for that still, small voice.  It’s that voice of God calling your name…the voice that says:  hi, child; how about you climb up here next to me…let’s visit awhile.  Sound good?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Source not remembered

Lent!

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Thursday, February 18, 2016

VIDEO

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
    And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”   

Psalm 27:8^(NLT)

Our home’s curbside appeal is often centered more around liturgical colors than HGTV’s Property Brothers.  This season has our purple-draped cross adorning the outside wall near the front door.  The cross announces this season of Lent – preparation for suffering, death, and, finally, resurrection! 

In the front yard there is a brass cross on the tombstone-shaped rock easily seen from the driveway.  (I’ve been asked more than once what – or who – is buried there; but that’s grist for another day’s devotion!).

For someone raised in a Christian tradition which did not include an emphasis on Lent, or other more formal practices of faith expression, my love of worship, including the likes of Ash Wednesday ashes, Good Friday, and the discipline of lectionary daily readings, could not have been expected. 

Why would someone raised on “free-tradition” hymns, extemporaneous prayers and sermons love unison and responsive readings, and hymns of Isaac Watts?  Why would corporate confessions and singing the Gloria Patri send chills up and down my spine?  And, further, why would I love all that enough to have the whole neighborhood look at our house and yard like the only thing missing is a steeple? 

The simple answer is that I spend a lot of time in that yard and I love the visual reminders of the Psalmist’s response to God – the God who wants us to come close; Lord, I have heard your call, and I’m coming.  Every time I come home I drive up and see that cross on the rock and think of an empty tomb. 

I’m just an average guy with the attention span of a mosquito, and I need all the visual reminders I can get.  Because, while I am average, and sinful, and my heart is, as the song-writer has it, prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love[2], I am also travelling an extraordinary journey towards an eternal home that is anything but average.  And I’m going there to serve, love, and fellowship with an unparalleled God who loves me with an everlasting love and kindness.

So Lent, for me, is all about keeping that perspective. 

All the liturgical wanderings through written prayers and sermons, call and response, and dirty foreheads in pre-spring rituals are my help in keeping close to the One who called me to be close enough to hear his heart beating-out that melodic, incomparable cadence:

I love you; love me…I love you; love me…I love you; love me.

For You Today

Can you hear it?  Can you hear the cadence of love? 

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”

And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”  

Lent is singing!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Images:  Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen, U.S. Air Force, & dadblunders, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Robert Robinson, 1758, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, The United Methodist Hymnal, 400

First Things First

On the day of dedication of "Solomon's Temple," the king erected a brazen platform in the outer court.  All the people gathered, as the king ascended the platform, in full view of the altar.  The altar would be the site of many offerings, many sacrifices.  However, before the first sacrifice, the first exchange of money for doves or lambs, the king offered himself on the brazen platform. 

This is much like the Macedonian Christians whom, Paul said, "first gave their own selves to the Lord" (2 Corinthians 8:5).  When we give, pray, lead, witness, conduct business, change a diaper, do homework, drive to the mall, there is a calling to "do all as unto the Lord." 

We may want to do much "for" the Lord, however we must be surrendered "to" the Lord's will for those deeds to be acceptable. 

Thought for Today

• When it comes to giving, put yourself in the offering plate first! 

• When it comes to business, determine He will be the Senior Partner. 

• When it comes to anything -- remember Solomon's Temple -- it was immersed in consecrating prayer and surrender to the Lord's will before a single sacrifice was placed upon the altar.