When I was a child I talked like a child. I had questions for everything. I’m sure they didn’t always make sense to others, but they were asked anyway. Endless questions. So curious.
When I was a child I thought like a child. I actually trusted the answers I was given to the questions I asked. I didn’t think I was always right. I may have given my opinion, but my thoughts were still impressionable.
I reasoned like a child. There was something profoundly simple to the reasoning. For instance, if I steal that money off the counter I better hide right away.
Now…I see things imperfectly.
I have a lot of respect for a man that brings a message of reconciliation with him into every situation, however, I do think that there are some things that cannot and should not be reconciled. This is a well spoken, well thought, respectful, and decisive rebuttal to our president’s view of abortion…
I tend to measure my life by the relationships that are going on at the time. Right now, we have a lot going on, which means, we are interacting with lots of different people…family, work, school, softball, friends, young adults, old adults, little people, big people. We are busy, busy, busy…and we love it! I love longing for a ‘night in’ with just the family or a meal around the table or squeezing in a favorite tv show at midnight(thank you DVR!)
The challenge then, for me, comes in how will I recharge my batteries. With relationships come problems. Keeping a focus and a good attitude is important to handle problems. Focus + good attitude = hard work = low batteries. Will I try to skip exercising and sleep in? Will I eat whatever I want whenever I want? Will I start making jokes at other peoples expense? How will I handle things?
What’s appalling is that I will do all those things. Why is it appalling? Well… I know that I have a heavenly Father that went to great lengths(to put it morbidly…he killed his own son…btw, I can back that up with scripture) so that he could walk with me like he used to walk with Adam. He wants to talk to me, to help guide me, to heal me, to show me how much he loves me every second of everyday. He wanted a relationship with me! Why do I look for things that make my body happy when infinite pleasure for my soul can be found in Jesus? When my soul is happy, I’m happy and that pours out to everyone around me…I think I will go to the fountain…
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I like playing the guitar because I like finding different combinations of individual notes, and when played together, they make very different but very beautiful sounds. If you just put your fingers anywhere on the guitar, chances are your ears will tell your brain to tell your hands,”Cover me!” But when your fingers are carefully placed and a chord is played, the sound can actually illicit a wide range of emotions. (One of my personal favorites is an E chord played somewhere near the 8th fret.)
Vocabulary is the same way. I love words and the power that they have. When you find the right words put together in the right way…wow!…what an impact they can have. And where there are countless number of chords you can play on a guitar, there is actually an endless number of word combinations to put together, making a good vocabulary that much harder than playing a guitar. Here are some recognizable and some not-so-recognizable examples. Read slowly and enjoy…
‘Today the headlines clot in my blood.’
‘I have measured out my life in coffee spoons.’
‘We feasted on love.’
‘The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.’
‘What a beautiful piece of heartache this has all turned out to be.’
And here is a sentence from an actual conversation I had this week…
‘It seems we are all maladroit marauders for the service of His Majesty.’
Yesterday, Ann’s first comment to me after having read my post was, ‘I can’t wait for part two.’ To which I dumbfoundedly replied, ‘Uh, whaddaya mean?’ She says I need to explain what it looks like to be a window. So, here is my best shot…
There needs to be a transparency to our lives. The clearer the glass, the less visible we become and the more visible this extraordinary power we have shines through. Of course, this means we have to get honest with ourselves first. We have to see where God’s light is coming through and then deal with areas that are keeping out the light, not just pretending they aren’t there or that they are so dirty they could never possibly come clean. And, of course, this means that we are going to need to be offended at ourselves enough to cause us to want to change, knowing that we may be trading something that is perfectly good for something that is even better. His way is always, always better.
In a way, it goes back to the basics of Sunday school… We have a light(a window scene). We aren’t going to hide it. We are going to protect it from Satan’s stinky breath. And we will persevere till Jesus comes back. Let is shine, let it shine, let it shine. And let all the people SEE the beauty through you.
I was reading an article on the myths of Columbine. I was startled to find that what I had thought about the situation wasn’t true. Those killers weren’t ‘goth’, they didn’t wear trench coats, they didn’t play tons of fantasy video games, and there was no Christian martyr. It seems, as the evidence has been examined, they were two individuals that were mentally disturbed. As the article states, these kids were not normal.
I started wondering how many other things have been presented to me that have wrongly shaped my thinking. I’ve also been starting to give in to the fact that there has been, and is, a shift taking place as to how we interpret the world around us. We used to govern our thoughts more by science. We had a wall of proof that someone had to get by before we would accept something. This was called the age of modernism. Now, everything has become relative. I get to decide from within myself whether or not to accept something. What works for me, works for me; if something works for you, great, just don’t try to push those views on me. This is postmodernism.
Why does this matter to the Christan of today? Because, as Christians, we are the reporters of today, sharing information of all of God’s riches, His grace and mercy, to people that haven’t experienced it first hand. With the shift in thinking, there needs to be a shift in reporting. Before, we reported as if we were chalkboards with a scientific equation written on it…the sum of man’s sin covered by the expanse of Christ’s blood equals eternal blessing. If that equation were read today, the response would be, ‘If that’s what works for you, cool.’ So, today, as a Christian, we need to report as if we were nothing more than a window. That way, when people look at us, they can exclaim, ‘I SEE it!’
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends fo the earth.” Acts 1:8
We played tug-o-war at the annual CFL picnic this year. It got me thinking about what other simple, cheap and tons-of-fun things we did as kids.
Top 5 …
1. Cardboard box (endless possibilities)
2. Hula hoop (more versatile than you think)
3. Jump rope (preferably double-dutch)
4. Tug-o-war (if you are tired of getting beat, just let go unexpectedly!)
5. Hide-n-seek (best played outside with a ‘jail’ and ‘jailbreak rules’)
I was reading a letter written during WWII to the dear Wormwood from his uncle, Screwtape. It was really helpful in dealing with the issue of pride(I promise to let this topic go soon). He said that humility isn’t a pretty girl trying to convince people she is ugly or an intelligent guy trying to have people believe he was foolish. He said it is good to know who we are and to love ourselves for who we are. Rather, pride is squashed when we go everyday from one moment to the next moment relying on God and not ourselves.
Our pastor likes to say, ‘If you want to grow, you have to read.’ It is advice that I have taken to heart. CS Lewis gave advice that every third book you read should be from an era outside of your own. In other words, there are people out there that know more about a certain subject than you do(my pastor’s advice) and it is possible that someone that lived in a completely different time than us may have known more than anybody currently living(Lewis’ advice). This helps me with my pride(I think I mentioned something about my pride in a previous blog). Piper sums it up nicely in chapter 1 of Don’t Waste Your Life…
“He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages. To this day I get most of my soul-food from centuries ago.”
Both words are from the latin ‘humilis’ or ‘humble’. As in ‘be humble’ or ‘be humbled‘.
I had a phone conversation at work with a potential customer. What I didn’t know, the conversation was secretly being recorded. My boss emailed me the audio of the phone call, and in the correspondence he says ‘I think this could have gone better, what do you think?’ My snarky response went something like this…’I don’t know, the customer came in and purchased what they were inquiring about, so could it have gone any better than that?’
Humility? or … Humiliation?
So many times we let our secret sin go unchecked. Heck, we even refuse to accept that the sin is even there as it pours out of us like water in our actions and the way we speak to others. My secret sin… pride. So, how do I confront this? Accountability. The bible says that the wounds of a friend are faithful. There are people in my life that have committed themselves to be patient with me, to affirm me when I do a good job. They put our relationship as friends ahead of any offense that might occur. Because of this, they can tell me to ‘humble myself’ and for the most part, I will listen.
In the email to my boss, I went on to explain that, indeed, I had already heard the recording of the conversation and was completely embarrassed. It most definitely could have gone better. We were fortunate to not lose that customer and I am able to walk away humbled about my position at work and, therefore, confident I can always do a better job.
“Wounds from a friend can be trusted…” Proverbs 27:6
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:10
