Isn’t it interesting that inspiration is spontaneous and seeks us out in the oddest of circumstances. Me? It found me today, bent, back aching from coughing all night, sick as a dog minus fleas…at least Im pretty sure i don’t have fleas. Medicine induced funky dreams that make as much sense as spaghetti in cereal…I know yuck! For everyone else in the world who is currently sick or about to get sick…I feel your pain, and it ain’t pretty…did I just say ain’t (don’t look now my red neck is showing)?!
I digress. I’m sick today hacking worse than a man with one lung In a marathon (no offense to my uni-lung compadres). Headache will undoubtably be at the door soon begging to come in. I’m frustrated with much to do and house bound…this truly sucks. Here today, I’m reminded though that I am not superman. I never was, and I never will be (is that a kick to my macho ego? Yep, it sure is). So in the spirit of the unhealthy and the unwell, I am putting the cape, silk yet indestructible, away today…(can I still hold on to it for a moment?).
There’s a passage in the Bible that says “apart from me (Jesus speaking) you can do nothing” (John 15:5). I’m really feeling that verse today. News Flash: I am not invincible. Sub-title: Jesus is.
Hmm…in my weakened state today, hacking and feeling achy…I realize that in every aspect of my life, I am better off with Christ than without him. There…I’ve admitted it…I don’t feel any less like a man, in fact I realize that I am not whole without my relationship to God through Christ.
He is healer, savior, friend, defender and so much more…and not just today when I’m hangin’ with the crud of sickness, but everyday.
Inspiration: I don’t want to be apart from Him…ever. It doesn’t mean that I there wont be days when I forget and try and reassume this role of superman, cape and all…what it does mean is that I’ve become more aware of this earthen vessel that is temporary and breakable…yet in my weakness He is strong.
So here I am today sick as a dog, yet feeling mighty blessed to know the one who has Saved and Redeemed me is unbreakable, mighty and everlasting. Do you still have a strong hold on your Superman cape today? Can I refer you to my Heavenly doctor? ;).
-Blessings on you today…keep reaching for Him, he’ll never let you fall!
Ok, it’s confession time. You know, that moment when you spill the proverbial beans, you spill your guts, the whole truth shall set you free…so here goes…
It happened yesterday. It was just another normal day of getting my two oldest boys off to school, and getting there on time. For me being on time is important, it’s a pet peeve of mine to be late for anything…yet somehow the rest of my family seems to think we can show up whenever we get there, which is not cool for school!
After about five minutes of looking for one of my son’s shoes, which must have been a part of Harry Houdini’s magic act, because I have found his shoes in the oddest places including outside and behind the toilet (I am not kidding). Finally we get into the minivan, I’m a little flustered, we’re a few minutes late now and the van is stone cold because we spent so much time looking for shoes that I neglected to start the van early enough to get it warmed up. I guess you could say it was my time to chill…literally. We get our seat belts buckled, and off we go to school. I take a few deep breaths to exhale the stress from my lungs and turn on the radio. It’s still set to my mp3 player, and so praise music begins to play in the van. I am finally finding my groove with now tepid coffee in hand, and soothing worship music playing in the background. At this point I am starting to feel the music, and I begin to sing along…oh don’t judge me, I bet you sing in the van too.
As I’m singing along to a song called “Love came down” I glance in my rearview mirror and notice a car is aggressively riding my rear bumper. I’m doing the speed limit…I’m not a slow driver. I’m still trying to sing this great worship song but I’m being distracted by the driver in the car behind me. It’s starting to stress me out again. Finally we come to one of those round-abouts that the city recently put in, and I expect him to slow down…instead he speeds up, and swerves into the next lane, then he darts ahead of me and proceeds to cut me off as he turns into my lane ahead of me… “Love came down” is still playing in the background…although I’m not feeling like I want to place any love down on this guy who I feel has just wronged me. In fact, I feel like speeding up, honking my horn, and if possible pass him up just like he did to me.
“Love came down to rescue me, love came down to set me free…”
Then these words hit me in the face, as I’m flustered, angry, and I’ve yelled at the guy as he cut me off…somehow I don’t feel so “set free” at the moment…I’m bound by this anger inside of me at this act that I understand to be injustice and inconsideration by some idiot in a car.
At the same moment that the lyrics of this song that I had just been singing hit me, I look over at my boys. It’s a double slap in the face. What am I teaching my children in this instance? Am I teaching them that you can sing about being set free by the love of God and at the same time curse man because of their ignorance and failure to yield to the rules of the road?
“Love came down to rescue me, love came down and set me free…and I am Yours, I’m forever Yours.” At that moment I didn’t feel like HIS…I felt guilty of being MINE. I felt guilty of being selfish and I was teaching my children how to be angry and selfish too. Was this the kind of legacy I was leaving for my kids? Did I want my boys to be angry at drivers, angry at the world and stressed out over something so temporary and silly? Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” I know this to be absolutely true…because in that moment of road rage, I lost my happiness and I lost a little bit of integrity that I had with my kids in that van.
I was convicted while singing a praise song, and instead of displaying that love that came down for me, I was displaying the wrath of my sinful state…my old self.
Okay, confession time is over. They say it’s good for the soul, but you know what’s better for the soul? Avoiding those trappings that lead us to confession in the first place. It’s much, much harder to do, but in the long run we would all be better off. This is a truth that I’ve learned, road rage and worship music make for very awkward road companions, let alone improper parental examples of godly living.
I guess what I’m trying to say is summed up in Ephesians 4:29; “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” I was singing one tune and letting sin lead me astray back into my old sinful ways…and my kids were in the van. I wasn’t building anyone up in that moment; I was letting my tongue destroy.
We can’t possibly do both at the same time as children of God. We either let love come down and be a part of who we are igniting others with this joy, love and hope; or we let sin in and we treat others through selfish intentions and shameful acts. Perhaps you’ve also been there a time or two…it’s a slap in the face, conviction follows and we need to confess and modify that behavior if we are to truly live as children of God bringing that love and freedom into this world.
Take it from a guy who sang a song of praise while my actions were singing a song of wrath…it’s time to change.
It’s about to happen again. Those promises spoken under the breath. The pleading to one’s self to do better this time. The clean slate, slightly dusty, chalky residue coating it still as it reminds us there’s still something left of yester-year just above the surface. It’s about to happen again. The ‘Y’ down the street will see an influx of travelers, the “magic” pill company will peddle its ’emperor’s new clothes’ gig for another year. The husband will promise to be a better father, and spouse, while the wife will promise not to feel so guilty about piling laundry and late slightly under cooked meals.
Do I sound a little cynical? Perhaps so. Although perhaps it’s a little too close to home for most of us. Perhaps as people toast to the close of another year, silencing the book at the very last page of the very last chapter, there is that one small word that eclipses the disappointments. It’s a relatively small word, though it promises to mend the broken fences and extinguish the fully engulfed bridges. It’s a word that sends butter flies in flight in the stomach and rekindles the yearnings of the youthful child in us all to be good little boys and girls…or to die trying. Perhaps as the final page, though yellowed and singed, is turned we are drawn to the “what could be’s” of tomorrow. Perhaps the “maybe’s” once again carry promises far more inviting than the “should have’s” of our last year’s yesterdays. So as we turn that final crinkly, protesting, crusty page, closing its book, pushing it aside and picking up our tomorrow’s, that word escapes our lips once again in our maybe’s and our want to be’s. Hope. It’s what allows us to strive to improve upon. It’s what motivates us to flee our regrets, divorcing our estranged worries and fears and embrace the hopes and reigniting the dreams once again.
Perhaps resolutions aren’t all bad…perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a train at all, but the warmth of a brand new day inviting us to part take in it. This is my way of wishing you a happy new year, embrace it well, drink deeply in its promises and just maybe that child in us is right after all …you can be a better little boy or little girl in the new year. Here’s to Hope, may it become deeply rooted in us all in the coming year. Not just ‘Hope’ in and of itself, but Hope in something far beyond our grasp and understanding. A hope that stems from the Author and Creator of this life. An Alpha and Omega kind of hope, one that isn’t shaken at the gusts and gales of a single day, but remains rooted in us all so that we can resolutely say at the end of this year’s pages we are ready, come what may!
-Best of wishes as you embrace that hope once again.
2 Timothy 1:11-12 (MSG) “This is the Message I’ve been set apart to proclaim as preacher, emissary, and teacher. It’s also the cause of all this trouble I’m in. But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground—the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end.”
I find it fascinating and invigorating to think of the Apostle Paul living out his convictions even in the midst of certain and eventual death. Paul wasn’t a waffler, he wasn’t some guy who couldn’t make up his mind, in fact faith and conviction led him to proclaim the message of Christ and His kingdom even when it would cost him his life. That’s conviction.
A few years ago the “No Fear” labels appeared and were very popular in our culture. Why? Because it evoked this brazened mentality that no matter what took place in life, the one wearing the “no fear” label would approach life’s problems without fear. That too is conviction that doesn’t waffle or change. I’m reminded of Tom Petty’s song “I won’t back down” where it states this; “I won’t back down, no I won’t back down, you can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won’t back down.”
Living a life without regret isn’t easy, in fact it is the hardest thing to accomplish. The tides of life sometimes cause us to doubt, circumstances beyond our control sometimes challenges us to quit, and living without regret, at times, seems impossible. But I want to encourage you that living a life without regret is possible. Paul did it, and so can you. But here’s how we are even able to think about living this regret free life: Zechariah 4:6 says;
…” ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.” Now this verse comes from a different time, and different circumstances sure, but what it says to me and I hope what it says to you is that God and His power can overcome anything in this world!
Our convictions and hope should be rooted in the one who created everything around us! Jesus even said in John 15:5;“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Did you catch that? Apart from Him, we’re a lost cause. Living a life without regrets, begins with where our convictions are rooted in. If they are rooted in our own self confidence, something or someone will eventually come along and uprooted them and we will be greatly disappointed. If our convictions are rooted in other people, chances are those other people will eventually let us down or our expectations will not always be met. If our convictions are rooted in anything but the relationship and love that God has for us first and foremost then we will eventually experience regret in this life. Living a life without regret, like Paul lived begins in our convictions.
What are your convictions today? Are you living a life without regret?
If not, perhaps re-evaluate where and in whom you place your trust and convictions. We too, like Paul can bold state: “But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground—the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end.”
Pastor's Ponderings 