I remember reading Chicken Little when I was a child. The story tells that a young chick walking along was unexpectedly struck on the head by an acorn. With no further investigation Chicken Little came to the kind of well reasoned conclusion that floods our social media today. The sky is falling! Today Chicken Little would be an excellent politician or cable news anchor. Every time I violate my own personal mental health policy and turn on the news I am plunged into despair. The sky is falling! Look! There is an expert displaying a colorful chart to prove it! Hear me out. I know is important to communicate information for our actions and safety. But the tone and sheer volume of fear mongering is depressing. When I fall totally into the abyss and survey social media I see overwhelming fear, anger, gloom, and apocalyptic doom. Again, I understand the need to be informed. But I am beginning to think
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Most of us have been “sheltered in place” for a month or longer. I think that 99.9 percent of us are ready to resume normal activities. Maybe that will happen soon but I do not want to miss any lessons that I can take forward after this uninvited isolation ends. I am going stir crazy after 30 days of limited socialization. I fight off frustration over a litany of truly minor inconveniences. And then I pick up my Bible and I read these extremely annoying words from Paul written from prison! I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. (Philippians 4:12-14, The Message) I could wrap
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I think of Keith Green every Easter week because he recorded one of my favorite songs about the power of the resurrection. What I loved most about Keith Green was his passion for Christ. Like many who came to faith during the Jesus movement Green was sold out to the Gospel. Every Easter week I listen to his recording of the Easter Song. Hear the bells ringingThey’re singing that you can be born againHear the bells ringingThey’re singing Christ is risen from the dead The angel up on the tombstoneSaid He has risen, just as He saidQuickly now, go tell his disciplesThat Jesus Christ is no longer dead Joy to the world, He has risen, hallelujahHe’s risen, hallelujahHe’s risen, hallelujah He is risen indeed. Keith Green experienced the resurrection power of Christ when he died in 1982. I sometimes wonder how his music might have changed as he matured in his faith. His journey just before his death offers a clue.
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There is much written about Good Friday. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross is incomprehensible to my puny human intellect. There is much written about Easter Sunday. Christians around the world rejoice and proclaim that “He is risen!”. But there is not nearly as much written about one of the saddest and most confusing days in history. The Saturday between the Friday horror of Jesus on the Cross and the Sunday mystery of the resurrection. Some churches do observe Holy Saturday but it was never a tradition in my faith upbringing. I have been thinking about what that day must have been like for those who dropped everything to follow Jesus. How crushing those events had to be. I imagine the fear they felt that they would also be killed. And for what? On Saturday they feared they had given their careers and their very souls for a false hope. I think in particular of Peter. I identify
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Thanks to all who have joined me on this journey to become more connected to God and one another. This is a hard season for our country, the church, and for many who are reading this today. God does not promise that everything will be perfect. Far from it. You and I are pretty much guaranteed to have some degree of suffering; none of us gets out of this life unscathed. Here is what God does promise. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) The idea of suffering for Christ does not get people to buy prayer cloths, miracle water, and books. However, God’s promise to shower me with comfort should give me confidence that
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Every day I am gifted with 86,400 seconds of precious time. I cannot possibly use all of it wisely. But I can invest more of that daily gift into my relationships with God and others. I can’t draw interest on unused time to be used later. Time is far more valuable than the money we so doggedly pursue. I can lose all my money and make more later. But if I lose my time, it is gone forever. Solomon actually beat me to this message by about three thousand years, give or take. He decided that, all things considered, the best way to live is to enjoy the moment. After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’swhat I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take careof yourself, have a good time, and make the most ofwhatever job you have for as long as God gives youlife. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, weshould
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There is a country song by George Strait that laments about how long it took him to figure out things in his life. The lyrics humorously admit that he was wrong about a lot of things and slow to the dance on many others. One of my favorite lyrics in that song is when he hears “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong and it brings a tear to his eye. “After all these years,” Strait sings, he finally gets that song. Me too. That song by Louis Armstrong sees the beauty in this sometimes-ugly world. Flowers, the blue sky, rainbows, smiles, love, and babies crying. And like a modern psalmist, Armstrong sits back and with a smile in his distinctive voice proclaims to himself and others that it is a wonderful world. Martin Luther said that “God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars.” I believe that more than
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