What if...?

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

What if the Lord had not been on our side?  Let all Israel repeat:  What if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us?  They would have swallowed us alive in their burning anger.  The waters would have engulfed us; a torrent would have overwhelmed us.  Yes, the raging waters of their fury would have overwhelmed our very lives.  Praise the Lord, who did not let their teeth tear us apart!  We escaped like a bird from a hunter’s trap.  The trap is broken, and we are free!  Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  Psalm 124:1-8

I think Advent is my kind of season.  As an introspective sort, I naturally turn towards the inner self, thinking, evaluating, wondering, and (too-often) overthinking!  But, it is what it is; we are hardwired one way or another.

As much trouble as I can get into by keeping my mouth closed, and mind working, and, therefore open to criticism of being moody, or uncaring, I do sense I stay out of trouble more that way than the other.  Two sayings come to mind:

1.    Open mouth, insert foot…and

2.    Better to keep mouth closed and be thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove all doubt.

Advent was built with the thinker in mind.  To relfect is to consider deeply about what you’re doing, or what happened, or, perhaps most importantly, what’s coming.  In the Christian life, there is no larger consideration upon which to reflect than that last one…what’s coming is Jesus!

The “thinker” of Psalm 124 does all three:

He looks back:  What if the Lord had not been on our side?  The result of life in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria would’ve been a catastrophe.  The blood would have run neck-deep to a horse for miles. 

He looks at what he does now in light of what happened:  The trap is broken, and we are free!  Freedom carries responsibility; the Psalmist doesn’t want to waste this gift of opportunity to reflect positively on God’s great kindness.

He looks very deeply at what’s coming:  Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  To consider every last nook and cranny of creation takes a long time.  Somehow, the sober moment of escaping the tragedy of an enemy attack, has driven this thoughtful one to remember not only where he (and all Israel) would be without God’s divine favor and grace, but resolve to trust in no other strength, save the lovingkindness of JHWH, Jehovah-Jirah, the God who is I Am.

For You Today  

There is enough emotion at this time of year.  Hallmark sees to that detail.  For believers, it is a time to think, carefully, deeply, and with the very-pointed purpose of engaging where we’ve been, what we’re doing, and what’s coming. 

Advent is the stuff of life time.  What hangs in the balance for you and me is to either being engulfed by this world’s system, or released like a bird from a cage.  Prison of sin, or release to the Kingdom.  That’s Advent; that’s today!

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 and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       Rescue   and   Committing Advent

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

 

Thoughtful Living

 

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

So be careful how you live.  Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.  Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.  Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.  Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life.  Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.  And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Ephesians 5:15-20

In response to reading Paul’s admonition to give thanks for everything, I’m grateful to God for the life of my dear friend, John, who graduated to the church triumphant this past week.  I didn’t get to see John and his bride, Anne, in person a whole lot because our homes are separated by a four-hour drive.  We had just made plans to meet for lunch this Saturday.  Now I will have to wait for a different meeting time and place of our Heavenly Father’s choosing.  John’s passing to be in the presence of his Lord is going to take some getting-used to.  I’m going to miss the banter-by-email we shared.  He was a masterful pun-machine, able to spin one of my thoughtlessly-dropped words like a coin turning on its end.  Conversation with John was laced with joy and thoughtfulness.  I always marvelled how his rapid-fire quips rolled with such awesome humor and wisdom, entwined like a well-crafted sermon in a phrase.  I told John that if he came to visit in our church he’d better belay the “wisdom in a word” around my church family; they’d start a petition for sermons of his length.  His reply:  Sensor-ship.

Admittedly, my mind takes a lot longer to respond than did John’s.  But I have no doubt his every answer was much more than glib banter – rather a lifelong evidence of inquisitiveness about human nature, and the Divine.  An avid reader, lover of locomotives, traveller, churchman, teacher of young people’s confirmation classes, and classical music addict, JC, had interest in the gift God gave him of life and time to use it well.

There is an art to this business of living thoughtfully.  It is purposeful investment of the gift of that next breath, impervious to the mindlessness of herd mentality, and ever vigilant to the leading of God’s Spirit.  If pressed, I would characterize my friend John as one who helped me in that direction. 

Thank you, brother…may you rest in peace, and rise in glory.

For You Today

There are many people God brings into your life to help you think and live thoughtfully.  Listen closely, drink deeply, and follow the Spirit’s calling genuinely.  There’s a kingdom to gain.

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

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

Wait...What?

 

 

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.  They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.  So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.  As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.  The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground.  Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?  He isn’t here!  He is risen from the dead!  Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”  Then they remembered that he had said this.  So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened.  It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened.   But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.  However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look.  Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.  

Luke 24:1-12

Peter had a front row seat to seeing five thousand fed with a boy’s lunch, healings by the truckload, a meeting with long dead prophets Moses and Elijah, and being witness to Lazarus (still wrapped in a death shroud) walking out of a tomb that’d been sealed for four days.  And with all that evidence, the forewarning from Jesus, and the announcement of angels of resurrection, he still went home from the tomb scratching his head in disbelief!  Peter…you gotta love him!

Peter had the Wait….What? syndrome.  It’s what happens when your brain is on vacation and something wonderful happens…and you’ve brain-slept through it all.  Suddenly there is a grand, beautiful, life-changing reality filling your eyes, heart, and soul, and you just can’t get your mind around it…and you go home wondering what in the world just happened.  That was Peter, energetic, enthusiastic, ready to leap over tall buildings or fight an army of soldiers singlehandedly, and often devoid of the ability to connect the dots. 

The dots, in this unique event in human history, were the virgin birth, sinless life, miracles-abounding, prophecy-fulfilling, laughing, loving, dead-man-raising joy of Jesus, the Christ.  But for Peter, Friday afternoon through Sunday morning were nothing but grief, despair, and agony on me.  Peter, the one who could blurt-out the truth, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God ^{(Matthew 16:16)} heard the women spout (what he thought was) “nonsense” – but went to the grave anyway, saw nothing, left the unoccupied tomb and discarded graveclothes, to go home wondering…Wait….WHAT?

Fast-forward to your life.  And mine.  Can we possibly be as obtuse and brain-detached as Peter?  I can, and have been…often. (Just ask anyone who knows me well).  Has someone ever dropped a big gift in your hand…and you wonder instead of hugging that neck?  Did you ever find something long-lost and begin to take credit for your good sense to look there?  Have you ever seen a sunrise and not thought of those words…and God said, let there be light?

For You Today

The plastic Easter eggs are packed away.  The idea of hitting the beach for one of those memorable sunrise services won’t begin to surface until snow melts again.  Facebook images of empty tombs and other seasonal wonderments will fade until after Santa’s next sleigh ride.

Connecting the dots, as Peter failed to do (again), would mean instead of going back home wondering, that we celebrate and live in the wonder of the Savior’s love.  What will that look like in your life?

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

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