Love Is...

 

Thursday, September 14, 2023

This is the message you have heard from the beginning:  We should love one another.  We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother.  And why did he kill him?  Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.  So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life.  But a person who has no love is still dead.  Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart.  And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.  We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us.  So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.      1 John 3:11-16

I’ve never been able to get comfortable with what Ryan O’Neal said to Ali MacGraw in the 1970 movie Love Story.  The iconic sentence was:  Love means never having to say you’re sorry.  What was wrong with the line is it helps hallmark the concept of love as entirely belonging to romance.  Tear-jerking aside, anyone who has ever fallen in love knows that tear-jerking, heart-wrenching, soul-claiming romance cannot last without a big bunch of “I’m sorries”. 

Five decades later I’ve become somewhat resigned to the notion.  There is an aspect of love that can’t be separated from romance, but it falls far short of God’s kind of love.

Apostle John defined the word “love” for us with the concept of self-sacrificial living.  In short, we cannot begin to say we love unless we are holding the life of another dearer than our own.  It is willingness to give ourselves up that another might live which distinguishes sacrifice from selfishness.  It is the essence of love to give the most extravagant gift we possess.

I first began to get an inkling of that concept when I was a child.  There was something of an uncomfortableness about how my Mom always took the smallest piece of pie, and let her two boys have the larger pieces (three boys, if you include my Dad).  After all, Mom had done the cutting, and there was always one piece remarkably smaller than all the others.  I guess this is where my settling-down on never having to say you’re sorry comes-in; Mom would never have to apologize for giving her boys what they loved…a bigger slice of apple pie.  I’m reasonably certain neither my brother, nor I, fully-understood that when we sat at Mom and Dad’s table all those years ago.  But we ate (and still remember) that bigger slice of pie to this day.

For You Today 

Whether it costs you a piece of pie, or the last breath of your only life, putting the other person first is what God would do; He settled that long ago when he took our sins to a cross on Golgotha, Jerusalem’s garbage dump.  He offered you the whole pie of forgiveness.

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

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Nobody Wins

 

Friday, July 15, 2022

So Abram left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev, along with his wife and Lot and all that they owned.  (Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.)  From the Negev, they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel, and they pitched their tents between Bethel and Ai, where they had camped before.  This was the same place where Abram had built the altar, and there he worshiped the Lord again.  Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and many tents.  But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds living so close together.  So disputes broke out between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot.  (At that time Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land.)  Finally Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not allow this conflict to come between us or our herdsmen.  After all, we are close relatives!  The whole countryside is open to you.  Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate.  If you want the land to the left, then I’ll take the land on the right.  If you prefer the land on the right, then I’ll go to the left.”  Genesis 13:1-9

I’m certain this text has found its way into many a sermon in the United Methodist Church over the years; more-so of late.  Sometimes it seems leaving the UMC is the only thing some folks care about.  With all the stubbornness of two mountain goats that meet on a narrow path, and refuse to yield an inch, head-butting is the political death knell to brotherhood.  This is not to say that conflict can’t have a positive effect; sometimes it is the necessary forerunner to resolution.

It was that way for Abram and Lot.  Their success was not a problem.  Rather, it was an evidence of God’s blessing.  In terms of the current stalemate of progressives vs. traditionalists in today’s UMC, Abram and Lot’s success is a valuable reminder of the God-given progress of the Wesleyan movement of old.   Failure to make adequate preparations for the expanded need both families would experience was the problem.  Even so, when the dispute began to get heated, it was critical that both sides have the Abram-mind of giving the other side a workable solution that honored brotherhood over things and power. 

That said, we must apply the principle to 2022 UMC doings….it is a very strange and sad thing when people, who say they serve God, can’t manage to offer God’s grace and kindness in the necessary parting of ways. 

It would be safe to say that I am firmly on the traditionalist side of the theological issues fueling this fire of discontent in the UMC.  But I have no desire to see judgment reign down on those in the other camp.  Nobody wins that kind of war.

Getting back to the mountain goats, I read an account told by one who knows goats well.  It seems a common occurrence in places like Switzrerland’s Alps that, when two goats, going in opposite directions meet on very narrow cliff paths, one will kneel, allowing the other to step over him.  In that way both can pursue their journey. 

For You Today

Call it kindness, or call it wisdom to refrain from destroying what is left of the United Methodist tribe.  If we cannot act at least as kindly as goats do with their brothers, what hope do we have of being any help to the rest of the world?

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:  So What WOULD Jesus Do?  and Playing With Fire

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

The Unselfish Prayer

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Tuesday, January 7, 2020

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.  Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.  Ephesians 3:14-21

When C.S. Lewis finally learned how to pray it was because his dying wife, Joy, needed a prayer warrior.  With her life hanging in the balance, Lewis’ spiritual advisor/pastor uttered one of those trite things we all say when we should be silent, God can change this.  

Lewis, in the throes of spiritual formation, brought on by the imminent death of his wife, looked at his spiritual mentor and solemnly replied, I pray because I can’t help myself.  I pray because I’m helpless.  I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping.  It does not change God – it changes me.[2]

Unselfish prayer is something of a redundancy; prayer is, by nature humble, not selfishly arrogant.  If self is the primary target it is hardly prayer.  Paul’s example of his deep love for the church at Ephesus is our model of praying the most important of prayers – for spiritual understanding, strength and blessing on the lives of those who co-labor for the sake of Christ.  To borrow from C.S. Lewis, that is the kind of praying which changes us.

 My Mom always had a hard time saying no to her children.  As a pre-teen I begged my parents (starting wisely with Mom) to let me bring home a free German Shepherd puppy.  (Incidentally there is no such thing as a “free” puppy).  My profuse whining brought the dog home.  We named him Bosco (after my favorite chocolate syrup in milk).  He was the resident clown in our home, more entertaining than a circus.  The way he dragged our other small dog around by the tail and flirted with the cat’s patience nose to nose – you didn’t need a TV in our house; Bosco was ever ready to play.  He could make you laugh until you cried.

Unfortunately, in just months my dog got very sick.  I then turned to prayer, whining even more profusely to God than I had for Mom’s permission.  My prayers notwithstanding, the dog died.  To this day I do not know what caused this first pet of mine to die, nor do I understand the why of it all.  What I do recall are the tears and anguish that tore my insides apart for weeks; hardly a fascinating story for the success circuit of TV evangelism or prayer manuals! 

Six decades of remembering that first heartache of loss have taught me too many lessons to list here, but a couple stand above most:

1.     I was unprepared for the death of my grandparents which would take place shortly after my dog died.  There’s something of a growing up that takes place in the middle of grief over losing your dog. 

2.     Not all prayers offered are unselfish; I wanted Bosco to live because he made me happy.  Truth be told, I was praying for me, not him.

For You Today

Paul’s prayer for his Ephesian friends was written in jail, awaiting execution.  He didn’t pray for a puppy, or his release; his unselfish prayer was a Kingdom thing.

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

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

[2] Shadowlands 1993 movie

The Wisdom of Solomon

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Monday, December 31, 2018

That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want?  Ask, and I will give it to you!”  Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you.  And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.  “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around.  And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted!  Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong.  For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”  The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom.  So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies—I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have!  And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame!  No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life!  And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.”  

1 Kings 3:5-14(NLT)

Many years ago I knew a man who was fond of this aphorism about wisdom:

There are those who know – and they know they know; they’re ok.

There are those who don’t know – and they know they don’t know; they’re ok.

There are those who know – and they don’t know they know; they’re ok.

But those who don’t know – and don’t know they don’t know; they’re dangerous!

The name Solomon is synonymous with wisdom.  It is obvious that God had blessed the young man with wisdom even before he asked for an understanding heart, because Solomon knew he didn’t know everything! 

This passage of Solomon’s beginnings as a king is a typical genie-in-a-bottle tale; except the Lord God is no genie…He is Jehovah, the Almighty, Who grants what He will, to whom He will.  In this case, carrying through on His covenant with David and Israel, God is willing to grant Solomon whatever the young king requests.  You get ONE wish, Sol…what do you want?  Remarkably, with a chip that big to be cashed, this young man asks for understanding to govern well, and do a good job of it for the sake of God’s kingdom.  He could have asked for long life, riches, or a whole list of personal perks; but this (already) wise young man requests wisdom so he can please God and bless the people. 

You’re familiar with the saying about giving a man a fish or teaching a man to fish?  If you simply give a handout, the person will be satisfied for a day; tomorrow he’ll be begging again!  But if you teach a man how to fish, you’ve fed him for a lifetime.  As a young man Solomon already understood the value of wisdom.  He knew, for instance, that riches, looks, health, relationships, power, and all things material can fade away, die, or be taken away as quickly as they appear.  Wisdom to make right choices, however, is priceless and will endure.  Solomon chose wisdom to choose wisely.

So, here we have a young king without much life experience, full of vigor and a promising future.  He understands that the best thing he could do, despite his position as king, being on top of the considerable inherited heap of the kingdom his father David established, is humble himself before God, and beg for a right and balanced heart. 

Would that Washington DC were populated by Solomon’s descendants!

For You Today

Tomorrow the calendar moves from 2018 to 2019.  It’s common to set some resolutions to live better, lose a little weight, and/or be a little different in the new year. 

Maybe God hasn’t appeared to you in a dream lately to ask you what you want, but perhaps before that personal resolutions list is carved in stone, you would do well to go to Him and ask for an understanding heart.  It might make the rest of the process, and the new year, run a whole lot better.

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

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[1] Title Image:  Wikimedia Commons

Taking One for the Team

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Thursday, August 9, 2018

We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this.  We must not just please ourselves.  We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.  For even Christ didn’t live to please himself.  As the Scriptures say, “The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me.”  Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us.  And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.  May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.  Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 15:1-6 ^(NLT)

Paul believed in taking one for the team.  The first time I heard this expression was in high school.  Our football coach was showing us a film of Tommy Gandly taking one for the team.  Tommy wasn’t the biggest guy on the team, but he had football sense; he knew how to get the job done.  Coach Weitz focused on that quality by showing one play from the video of last Saturday’s game over and over.  The play was Tommy playing defense; the other team came at Tommy’s side with what looked like a wall of red…huge guys running at top speed, ready to knock any resistance out of the universe.  Tommy knew he couldn’t make the tackle, but just as the “wall” reached him, he dropped low, like a snow plow and took out three of the biggest guys.  They went down like bowling pins, and that cleared the way for our team’s players to tackle the ball carrier!  Tommy gave up the glory of making a tackle to others.  But, without laying himself out for the team, they might have bulldozed through us for a touchdown.  His sacrifice made the team’s success a possibility.

I talked with Coach Weitz a few years ago before he passed and told him how that one scene has stayed in my mind all these decades.  It indelibly printed a picture for me of how unselfish sacrifice can mean the difference between winning and losing.

It’s that way in football, and it’s that way in life.  Church, business, family, school, community relationships all depend on getting the job done.  And sometimes that means you lay yourself down for the good of others.

That’s quite a bit different from the kind of entitlement mentality that seems to pervade our culture these days.  Somehow Jack Kennedy’s famous speech on Inauguration Day 1961 makes a good sound bite, but fades quickly when it comes to rubber touching the road.  Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country has morphed to the lower level of get out of my way, give me this, and that, and bring it now!

In Paul’s letter to the Roman believers he reminded them that caring for others is the stark difference between selfishness and Christlikeness.  It is only in putting the needs of others above the preferences we may hold that we find the true character of Jesus present.

For You Today

If you need a witness statement to support that idea, try this one:

He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.  Matthew 26:39^(NLT)

If going to the cross wasn’t taking one for the team, such a concept doesn’t exist!

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Sarah Walsh, Hauppauge High School Homecoming

When You Need a Friend

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Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Saul now urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David.  But Jonathan, because of his strong affection for David, told him what his father was planning.  “Tomorrow morning,” he warned him, “you must find a hiding place out in the fields.  I’ll ask my father to go out there with me, and I’ll talk to him about you. Then I’ll tell you everything I can find out.”  The next morning Jonathan spoke with his father about David, saying many good things about him.  “The king must not sin against his servant David,” Jonathan said.  “He’s never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could.  Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill the Philistine giant and how the Lord brought a great victory to all Israel as a result?  You were certainly happy about it then.  Why should you murder an innocent man like David?  There is no reason for it at all!”  So Saul listened to Jonathan and vowed, “As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be killed.”  Afterward Jonathan called David and told him what had happened.  Then he brought David to Saul, and David served in the court as before.  1 Samuel 19:1-7^(NLT)

The proof of Jonathan’s friendship with David is found primarily in the fact that he had everything to lose by helping David, and virtually nothing to gain.  Jonathan was the king’s son, and therefore heir-apparent to the throne of Israel.  It was a dangerous game to play, helping David, when the king wanted him dead.  But Jonathan not only loved his friend David, he was bound by integrity to do the right thing.  Many years later David’s son, Solomon (perhaps remembering his father’s friend, Jonathan) would write:

A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need. 

Proverbs 17:17^(NLT)

“Always loyal” is the key to friendship.  Now, that doesn’t mean always patting you on the back or being ready to follow you down an ethically-questionable pathway.  Loyalty does always mean being truthful, and to be depended upon to stand with you in the hard times and rejoice with you in the triumphs of life. 

I believe if David had in mind a coup d'état to overthrow King Saul, this story would have had a very different ending; Jonathan might have let David sink!  David may have been Jonathan’s dearest friend, but Saul was his father and the king.  When loyalties collide, friendship must take second place to truth and doing the right thing. 

Solomon also wrote:  It is wrong to punish the godly for being good…. Proverbs 17:26^(NLT)

For You Today

It’s an easy thing to imagine what you’d like a friend to be in your life…loyal, courageous, funny, helpful, strong, supportive.  All this and more roll quickly off our brain’s must have list for friends.  But we should also consider our friendship effort we give to others.  If you’ve got a Jonathan in your life, treasure the gift, and thank God.  And while you’re at it, ask God for the wisdom, generosity and faithfulness to BE a Jonathan to your friends.

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

Lenten Walk - Part 26

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Thursday, March 22, 2018

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.  You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.  When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.  

Philippians 2:3-8^(NLT)

I have often inserted a memo-to-self at the end of this passage.  It is in the form of a challenge question for Russell:  Give me a list, preacher, of those for whom YOU would die like a convicted felon, pinned to a tree!   I have to admit my list might be pitifully-small…my wife and kids…their kids.  The list might include a few I’ve known who inspire great admiration because of their goodness.  I suppose, if I unpacked my list and picked it down to to the bone and marrow, my list includes those who impress me – as important to me.  And I am comfortable with that until I remember the first part of Paul’s instructions, to remember the interests of others as well as my own.

When I begin to seriously consider that responsibility to others, my list grows bigger quickly.  And then it is a bigger problem, knowing when to cut the list off.  And that becomes quite a conundrum; how good to you have to be to make my list?  How much bad stuff do I have to know about you before you don’t make the cut? 

This exercize becomes a migraine of epic proportions.  How do you choose who is worthy of your attention, being on your list, let alone suffering, or even dying for them?

Usually, about the time my mind gets to this complicated level of list-building, with its maze of who’s-in/who’s-out rules, qualifications, disqualifications, and exceptions, my head hurts sufficiently to crumple up my list and toss it in the recycle bin.  It is always then, in this nightmarish wondering that I realize I’ve fallen into the trap one more time of Russell playing God, instead of Russell listening to, accepting from, and following-after God. 

God has not called me to build a list of worthy recipients I would choose to bless.  I’m not called to build another ark to choose and save a few, two-by-two.  I don’t need that much wood; you don’t need more than a few logs to build a cross.  God has called me to be a servant to all…just like Jesus. 

It is the mind of a servant God is after. 

For You Today

If you’re worried (like I tend to be) about whom to serve and save…don’t be so much.  Just keep your eyes, ears, and heart open; God will bring them across your pathway, and you’ll find yourself doing strange and wonderful things you never imagined.

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

A Life of Sacrifice

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Thursday, August 31, 2017

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.  He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.  Ephesians 5:1-2^(NLT)

I am always somewhat embarrassed when someone refers to my brief stint as a member of the U.S. Army and says:  Thank you for your service.  It’s not that I’m ashamed; it’s just a part of my life that I endured.  I did not join-up to defend home, hearth and freedom; I was drafted because my number came up.  I didn’t request to go to Vietnam – I was assigned because they needed another grunt to fill a spot.  I didn’t do anything particularly heroic; I was there for a year and came home.  When I took the oath to defend the United States against all enemies, domestic and foreign, it was for two years, and then, if I survived, I would be free to go on with my normal life.

I’m glad I survived, but there were those many that didn’t.  They, along with many others from many other wars, are part of a group to which we refer as heroes, those whose sacrifice made our freedom possible.  We don’t investigate those lives too deeply.  We want our heroes to stay heroes; it’s much easier on Memorial Day to have a parade and be glad we survived, and be at least momentarily thankful that others died to protect our way of life.

But what of the living heroes, those who gave up so much and yet survived to carry the scars and stress, bearing the cost of our wars in their bodies and minds?  And how do we genuinely honor such sacrifice?  I trust, for the sake of those who live in the shadows of their horror–filled, PTSD daily nightmares, which can never truly be repaid, we are finding ways to sacrificially support recovery and rehabilitation.  And that we do not just throw money at the symptoms.

Of course the sanest way to push-back against the need for the kind of heroes we honor and memorialize is to make bigger heroes out of peacemakers, people who find ways to diffuse anger and make war a faded archive.

How you do that is another thing.  I’ve never been much of a joiner in the waves of political movements; I hate waving any kind of flag.  It may be somewhat emotionally exhilarating to get on a charismatic leader’s bandwagon, but most of it is simply to get a political career off the ground.  Rather, I see value in living an authentically changed life.  I see movement one life at a time.  I guess my calling as a pastor is tied to that kind of core value; I cannot change the whole world and I know it.  But if God can use me to make a difference one life at a time, at one moment in time, it somehow resonates with Paul’s challenge to live in imitation of Jesus who loved me, and loved us – enough to sacrifice His life to clear our sins out of the pathway to God. 

I cannot offer a world peace strategy, or save everyone ravaged by the infections of natural disaster, war or some heinous deed.  But I can be ready to be involved with the person right in front of me.  I can come alongside and be a voice of hope for one other human soul.

This is the working out of what Jesus said is the key to genuine life:

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.  Luke 9:24^(NLT)

Trying to hold on to everything that benefits your selfish desires spends life like a prodigal son in the far country, but a life of sacrifice, investing in the lives of others is what will make our life blossom and mature into the kind of Kingdom vine you were meant to be.

For You Today

Somewhere in this day you’ve been given will be an opportunity to plant a sacrificial Kingdom seed.  The authentic follower of Jesus Christ living a sacrificial life will not hesitate to kneel down, dig a little hole, and plant deep in someone else’s life!

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy  Pixabay.com