Sitting in my home a few years ago I heard a thump. Then another thump. It was silent for a few moments so I went back to my writing. Thump! Okay, now I had to investigate. What I found was a beautiful male cardinal flying around one of our windows. He would hover near the window and then peck aggressively at the pane. Thump! He fluttered around some more and then thumped the glass! The very focused bird stayed busy for several minutes repeating this odd behavior. I did some research and found that cardinals are very territorial. This beautiful bird apparently was seeing his own reflection in the window, and he was letting that intruder know he was not welcome! I worried that he was going to hurt himself defending his family against a nonexistent threat. How often do we wear ourselves out and even beat ourselves up trying to defend our “territory”? Invariably, our busyness is generated to
Continue reading...
Music trivia lovers often talk about one hit wonders. These are songwriters or singers who had only one breakthrough song in their careers. People with similar mileage on their life odometer to mine will remember the catchy and annoying song 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians. Songwriter Rudy Martinez attempted to change his legal name to the question mark symbol but the government agencies rejected that. He had to settle for the name Question Mark. Imagine that scenario later in life. “Order for….(long pause)….Question Mark????” Perhaps the most unlikely candidate to be a one hit wonder songwriter is a Bishop who lived over 700 years ago. A chart topping hit in the 70’s came from a prayer by Richard de Wych who happened to be the Bishop of Chichester. King Henry III refused him the land he was entitled to because the King wanted a different person in that role. The Bishop of Chicester traveled around his diocese penniless and on foot. Eventually
Continue reading...
Music trivia lovers often talk about one hit wonders. These are songwriters or singers who had only one breakthrough song in their careers. People with similar mileage on their life odometer to mine will remember the catchy and annoying song 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians. Songwriter Rudy Martinez attempted to change his legal name to the question mark symbol but the government agencies rejected that. He had to settle for the name Question Mark. Imagine that scenario later in life. “Order for….(long pause)….Question Mark????” Some other examples of one hit wonders include Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin and The Macarena by Los Dos Rios. Perhaps the most unlikely candidate to be a one hit wonder songwriter is a Bishop who lived over 700 years ago. A chart topping hit in the 70’s came from a prayer by Richard de Wych who happened to be the Bishop of Chichester. King Henry III refused him the land he
Continue reading...
I grew up in legalism. We were taught accurately that you were saved by grace. And then it went South. We then were taught that sanctification came through grit. You had to work hard to stay in good standing with God. I used to laugh at this bumper sticker. “Jesus is coming soon. Look busy.” The application of that theology was anything but amusing. To grow in faith I had to do more. Try harder. Pray more. Read the Bible more. Have more devotional time. Stay busy for God and you will grow in faith. All of those things are good when properly utilized. But there is a problem in self-effort as your plan for sanctification. Nowhere in Scripture will you find this command. Be busy and know that I am God. Our busyness does not please God. Our faith pleases Him. We can’t have faith and trust in someone we are too busy to know intimately. David wrote this
Continue reading...
It comes as no surprise that the Bible regularly addresses our need for silence and solitude. Let all that I am wait quietly before God,for my hope is in him.He alone is my rock and my salvation,my fortress where I will not be shaken. Psalm 62:5-6 Perhaps the most consistent role model for the need for solitude and silence was Jesus. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesusgot up, left the house and went off to a solitary place,where he prayed. Mark 1:3-5, NIV Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16, NIV Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent thenight praying to God. When morning came, he calledhis disciples to him and chose twelve of them. Luke 6:12-13, NIV Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and makehim king by force, withdrew again to a mountainby himself. John 6:15, NIV Jesus understood the need to recenter and reconnect with the
Continue reading...
Here is a free preview of Chapter 21 in Waking Up Slowly. You can get an idea of how you can use these short chapters as daily devotionals to connect more fully to God, yourself, and one another. Maggie and I hope you enjoy! SOUNDS OF SILENCE Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of God. Ralph Waldo Emerson I love to watch Maggie when she is overseeing her backyard domain. Sometimes she goes to the fence and lets out a couple of deep-throated barks to let some perceived threat know that she is on duty. Or she patrols every inch of the yard, sniffing as if it is her first and not her one-thousandth time to do this. Sometimes she stops to growl at a feral cat behind the fence. But the routine I love most is when she lies in the yard with head high, surveying her kingdom in silence. She is completely dialed in,
Continue reading...