Taking Time to Smell the Roses

 

Friday, June 30, 2023

“Be still, and know that I am God!  I will be honored by every nation.  I will be honored throughout the world.”  Psalm 46:10

Each year at annual conference the several days at Lake Junaluska was enjoyable and inspiring in the mountain setting of Western North Carolina.  There was one opportunity I always loved, and the half-week stay would have been empty if I’d missed walking the half-mile of roses.  

The variety of sizes, colors, and textures, combined with the astonishing mixture of beautiful delicate scents, are always a welcome contrast to the sturdy ruggedness of mountains and lake…you cannot walk that half-mile without stopping to take it in and dwell on the majesty of God’s handiwork.  Breathing-in the crisp morning air, and seeing the dew-kissed petals of God’s creation, is one of life’s wonderful joys.  It’s hardly a mystery why we all know that familiar phrase:  take time to smell the roses!

It's also no surprise to me that today marks an end to the last 18 years serving as a pastor to United Methodist churches, and the 25 years before that as a Baptist minister.  I am retiring from vocational serving, and entering serving for the pure joy of being obedient to He who has been faithful and my Rock every day of my life, including that first nine months when my Mom carried me around.

I have been expecting this day to come, and since it is now here, I can share the mixed emotions that flood my soul, as surely as the beauty and scents of the Junaluska Rose Walk. 

One of those emotions is, of course, sadness.  The many challenges and joys of serving as pastor cannot be placed on a scale to see which outweigh the other.  Despite the hard times, even if they overwhelmed the good and great times, I would not trade loving what God called me to do these last 45 years, ever since a pastor, long overdue for vacation, invited an inexperienced church member to fill his pulpit while he was gone.  I had promised God I would never say “no” to an opportunity to proclaim His word.  It’s been a ride!  And God has blessed, never failing to teach, help, heal, and direct me all along the trail.  The sadness I feel is that this chapter on what I have loved so deeply is now closed.  And that leads me to the second emotion at the other end of the spectrum:  I feel great joy!  That joy isn’t relief from the pressure, or the weight of caring for others 24/7/365; rather it is in knowing, with all my flaws, sermon-flops, missed opportunities, and times of never knowing the next step…God has it all sorted-out.  And, much like Joseph, the 13^th son of Jacob (Israel) who was sold into slavery by his brothers, in the end, faced with either revenge on his evil brothers, or forgiveness, God enabled Joseph to figure it all out just what God had in mind.  Here’s what he said to them:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.  Genesis 50:20

My joy is that I trusted God for it all, and that trust wasn’t wasted!  He will use all of it, because God’s Word never comes back to him empty-handed![1]

For You Today 

Smelling the roses (for me) is going to mean thinking-back, evaluating, and just plain resting.  There will be a little golf, some aimless mountain roads to drive, just to take-in life along the way, spending quiet time with my bride.  I’m going to be still, and know He is God.  I’m also going to hit the pause-button on publishing Rocky Road Devotion for July, and much of what I have been doing as a pastor these near 5 decades.  Going to smell those roses…be back in August.

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

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] It is the same with my word.  I send it out, and it always produces fruit.  It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.  Isaiah 55:11

When Evil Plans Backfire

 

Monday, July 11, 2022

The wicked conceive evil; they are pregnant with trouble and give birth to lies.  They dig a deep pit to trap others, then fall into it themselves.  The trouble they make for others backfires on them.  The violence they plan falls on their own heads.  I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.  Psalm 7:14-17

Conception, pregnancy, birth…a perfectly logical sequence, but when conception is the product of evil plans, the backfiring of such a pregnancy is justice.  In recent years we’ve seen a Ponzi scheme take down a greedy monster, Bernie Madhof, and sexual predators in the entertainment industry, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, wind up in prison.  The wheels of justice are still slowly grinding on the January 6^th investigation.  Those who plan for violence always succeed; they just don’t know it’s accumulating above their heads in a bubble that’s getting ready to burst!

Long before Bernie Madhof, Epstein and Maxwell, or the attack on our Capitol, Joseph’s brothers were unaware of that balloon.  They couldn’t stand their little brother, so they tossed him in a pit, eventually selling him to a band of nomadic human traffickers.  Joseph wound up a slave in Egypt, the result of his brothers’ evil plans. 

Fast forward 20 years and that same boy-dreamer, Joseph, is second in charge of Egypt’s empire, holding the keys to the food vault during a major famine.  And just whose brothers are sent to buy food from Joseph?  In the end, all the brothers could do was humble themselves at their brother Joseph’s feet, and plead for mercy. 

The payback of a malfunctioning trap stings!  But, in this case, God gave Joseph the spirit to take the high road.  He saw God’s purpose in his suffering and his brothers’ evil plans.  As the (now) helpless brothers bowed before their brother, Joseph, sitting on the throne, with the power to decide their fate, he forgives and blesses what was unforgiveable and cursed:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.  He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.  Genesis 50:20

For You Today

If you’ve lived for five or ten minutes in this world you’ve run into someone who gave you some trouble (and you’ve probably caused a little trouble too).  The account of Joseph and his brothers is the account of the human race.  For each of us the question always begs an answer:  Whether you are the one doing the evil to another, or the one who has been wronged, what are you going to do about your brother? 

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

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts on Rocky Road Devotions. 

To dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text:  Ambushed Again

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

 

Finding God

[1]

Monday, August 21, 2017

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  Jeremiah 29:13^(NLT)

Jeremiah’s message is a great comfort to those who are earnestly seeking to know God.  And especially comforting to those who still have many questions about who God is, and how you can be certain you’re finding him among all the clamoring voices in the world proclaiming they have the truth.

Have you ever felt like the Roman centurion who came to Jesus about healing his critically-ill child?  Jesus asked him if he believed, because that was important. 

The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”  

Mark 9:24^(NLT)

C.S. Lewis took on many of humanity’s questions about God, because he was a brilliant thinker who wouldn’t settle for someone else’s faith; he had to struggle (as do we all) with doubt and fear that he might miss God.  Much of this comes out in his writings.

This is what we see in his children’s Narnia fantasy series.  In The Last Battle one of the characters who has been serving Tash (the enemy of the lion, Aslan, representing Jesus) comes face to face with the true king:

…in a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. . . . He was more terrible than the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, and in beauty he surpassed all that is in the world even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert.  Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honor) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him.  Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him.  But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, ‘Son, thou art welcome.’  But I said, ‘Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.’  He answered, ‘Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me.’  Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one?  The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false.  Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him.  For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him.  Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him.  And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted.  Dost thou understand, Child?  I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand.  But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.  Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly.  For all find what they truly seek.”[2]

In Genesis Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers; years later when they met Joseph had the upper hand and his brothers stood trembling before him.  Joseph had Pharaoh’s authority to have them all put to death immediately.  But he said:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.  Genesis 50:20^(NLT)

They didn’t deserve that…but neither do I deserve God’s kindness.

For You Today

If you haven’t worked out the last detail of who God is, and whether you’ve got it all together how to have a relationship with him…but you’re hot after that, you’re seeking God with all you’ve got…try to relax and breathe a little in the knowledge that you will always seek, until the day you see Him face to face. 

And what a surprise and joy that will be!

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy Pixabay.com

[2] The Last Battle. Copyright © 1956 by C. S. Lewis Pte., Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1984 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With Aslan: Daily Reflections from The Chronicles of Narnia. Copyright © 2010 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Extracts taken from The Chronicles of Narnia. Copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1950-1956.  Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.