Regular consumers of my humble ramblings know that I love to use song lyrics as a springboard to spiritual meditations. A song from the country group Alabama hit home during a hectic week. I’m in a hurry to get things done Oh I rush and rush until life’s no fun All I really gotta do is live and die But I’m in a hurry and don’t know why. It seems those lyrics describe the norm for many of us. Especially the life’s no fun part when we are crazy busy. Slowing down was a big part of my motivation in writing Waking Up Slowly. Here is an excerpt about the danger of busyness from the book. Letting our busyness get in the way of our relationship with God shows how out of balance we let our schedules become. Nowhere in Scripture will you find this command. Be busy and know that I am God. Our busyness does not please God.
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I wrote Stay: Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace during and after the cancer journey of my canine friend Hannah. She was a remarkable companion and I realized from her how much dogs can teach us about life. One of her sweetest characteristics was a total lack of condemnation no matter how selfishly I might behave toward her. Condemnation seems to be the starting point for disagreements in our angry social media world. I can carry that over into my journey with Jesus. When I trip and fail to live out the truths I espouse my first reaction is that God must be disappointed. Surely a Holy God would condemn such actions. The Apostle Paul wrote that is not the case. Here is an excerpt from Stay on that topic. Paul talks about no condemnation from an eternal perspective. It is the passage that contains a verse that has already played a role in this journey.
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A song from the Doobie Brothers got me to thinking. The title is “What a Fool Believes” and I thought about some of the things I once believed. Yep, I have believed some foolish things in my life. I used to believe that I had control. Life showed me otherwise. I used to believe that performance pleased God. Now I know that the gift of grace is that my faith pleases Him. I used to believe that I could go it alone. I have learned that is the worst way to navigate this journey and that we are designed to be in community. Philip Yancey states it beautifully. “The church works best not as a power center, rather as a countercultural community – in the world but not of it – that shows others how to live the most fulfilled and meaningful life on earth. In modern society that means rejecting the false gods of independence, success, and pleasure and
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Today I stopped during a road trip for the usual infusion of a caffeinated product. I visited the coffee shop restroom first and noticed that it could use a bit of attention. But I recognized that this was an extremely high-volume pit stop and gave the workers some grace that they were trying to keep up with drink orders more complex than the tax code. An article on Quora named the most complicated Starbucks order of all time: a Venti, half whole-milk, one-quarter one-percent, one-quarter non-fat, extra-hot, split-quad-shots (1½ shots decaf, 2½ shots regular), no-foam latte, with whip, two packets of Splenda, one Sugar in the Raw, a touch of vanilla syrup, and three short sprinkles of cinnamon. If I worked the counter and heard that order, I would curl up on the floor in the fetal position and whimper quietly until help arrived. But God raises up people who can handle that kind of stress. I try not to be
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Twitter makes cowards courageous and the anonymity of cyberspace can make the mean spirited downright evil. I have watched with sadness as Twitter tyrants have destroyed or severely damaged people and institutions. Sometimes the venom is directed at those who simply have a sincere difference of opinion on moral issues. Nothing seems to generate more glee than a Christian leader or institution failing. Without fail the hypocrite word is used with smug satisfaction. And it is true. Let me make this personal since I can only speak honestly for me. I am a hypocrite. I do not consistently live up to the teachings of Jesus. I fail. I sin. That is why I need a Savior and not a self-help course. I am confident not in my holiness but in the holiness of Jesus. I remember hearing a pastor say that “we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But that doesn’t keep us from comparing distances.”
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I have been doing this church thing for a lot of years. I have sung hundreds of songs over the four decades or so that I have been a follower of Jesus. Some lyrics moved me to deep worship of God. Some times I really meant what I was singing. Other times I was singing through the motions while thinking about when the kick off was going to happen. One song has always made me uncomfortable. The song was put to music by the legendary George Beverly Shea in 1932. The words were a poem written by Mrs.Rhea Miller in 1922. I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands, I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand. Can I really say that I would rather have Jesus than silver or gold? Maybe my retirement fund will make that decision for me. Do I mean
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Hearing a Beatles song today reminded me of a lesson I learned as a kid. “You Never Give Me Your Money” finishes with an English children’s rhyme. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, All good children go to heaven. I learned in a legalistic church that my eternal destiny was determined to a large extent by my performance. I had to be good. I had to do my part. The performance message was reinforced all around me in church and in life.. If you eat your vegetables you can have dessert. If you are good you get toys at Christmas. If you get all A’s you will get a monetary reward. If you behave your parents will be proud of you. So I learned to perform to get rewards and affirmation. Performance addiction is easy in legalism because you always have someone willing (and extremely happy) to challenge how well you are doing and where you can improve. So
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