I have started a new blog at World Magazine’s weblog. The weekly article will address following Jesus in the real world.
Here is the link if you are interested.
Following Jesus In The Real World
By the way, that is also the link if you are not interested.
Blessings and abounding grace,
Dave
(For the next 3 weeks or so I am going to be working on the re-release of “When Bad Christians Happen To Good People”. So I hope you will forgive me and be patient as I re-release the iPod Devotional series while I am working on that project. If you are not patient you may end up in the new edition. Thanks. And blessings.)
Today the shuffle landed on one of my favorite Christian artists. A couple of years ago Andrew Peterson was not even on my playlist radar. Youngest son Brett suggested I should check out Peterson after he had performed at a chapel service at Baylor University. Andrew Peterson quickly moved to my top-rated playlist. The iPod shuffle today landed on a haunting and beautiful song called “After the Last Tear Falls”. Andrew Peterson has filled part of the void that I felt when Rich Mullins was tragically killed several years ago. His ability to use the power of music to portray truth is reminiscent of Mullins. Here are some lyrics from today’s song.
After the last tear falls
After the last secrets told
After the last bullet tears through flesh and bone
After the last child starves
And the last girl walks the boulevard
After the last year that’s just too hard
There is love
Love, love, love
There is love
Love, love, love
There is love
Andrew Peterson gives me a powerful reminder that in this fallen world, full of sin and pain, there is a love that can save me. He recognizes that trouble will not escape followers of Jesus. In the midst of our cancer journey Joni and I felt His love. That love and grace should be my focus as I navigate this crazy and confusing world.
After the last disgrace
After the last lie to save some face
After the last brutal jab from a poison tongue
After the last dirty politician
After the last meal down at the mission
After the last lonely night in prison
There is love
Love, love, love
There is love
Love, love, love
There is love
Satan tells me there can be no love from a God that allows such pain. The truth is that I am God’s hands and feet to reach out to a wounded world. If everyone who has claimed the name of Christ got serious about doing something tangible we would make a real difference. Would such a concerted effort eliminate all pain and suffering? Of course not. But the body of Christ could make an incredible difference by practicing sacrificial living, giving and service. There is love. We need to reflect that love. The body of Christ needs to focus on what unites us instead of what divides us. I am sick of the petty crap (nonsense for spiritual hall monitors) that derails us from loving one another.
And in the end, the end is
Oceans and oceans
Of love and love again
We’ll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the palms
Of the Giver of love and the Lover of all
And we’ll look back on these tears as old tales
Andrew Peterson’s message is powerful. Someday we will see how God worked in the ugly fallenness of this planet to accomplish His purpose. I once heard a pastor say that he expected to spend the early part of eternity walking around heaven making comments like these.
“Oh, I get it now.’
“Now I see how God was working.”
“I understand why that happened now.”
In the end, there is love. Sometimes I fear my actions don’t reflect that I really believe that with complete certainty. That is why I am grateful for the trials. David wrote these words in Psalm 18.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. (NLT)
The good times are fun. But only the hard times slowly mold me a very tiny bit more like His image. In those really hard times I truly realize that there is love. And that love is always available. Brokenness causes me to quit trusting in me and start trusting in God. And then something amazing happens.
Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philipians 4, NLT)
Amen.
As Easter approaches I remembered an article in USA Today titled We are Easter People. I think it is worth a second look and here is a portion of the piece written by Diane Cameron.
One of the lowest points in my life occurred years ago when I was living in Washington, D.C., at Easter time. My older sister had recently died and both of my brothers were seriously ill; my best friend was leaving town, and on top of that I was questioning my work. In my journal that April I wrote, “Am I depressed?” When I read those pages now I laugh and shake my head. “Depressed?” That I even had to ask. In that long year I thought I’d never laugh again, just as I thought I’d never again feel love, the joy of easy friendship, or the satisfaction of good work.
I went to church that Easter out of both habit and desperation. I had grown up in a church-going family. It was what we did. And so to honor the family that I was losing I went. Easter after all, is the centerpiece for Christians, honoring and recalling Christ’s triumph over death.
I chose a big downtown church for Easter services — one with hundreds in the congregation — not daring to visit a smaller church where I might have to speak to people or be embarrassed by my own tears. I wanted the paradoxical safety and anonymity of being in a crowd.
The minister that Easter Sunday said many things that I don’t remember, but one sentence has stayed with me all these years. He said, “We live in a Good Friday world.”
That I understood. A Good Friday world is a world full of suffering, questioning, unfairness, trouble, mistakes, hurts, losses and grief. Good Friday in the Christian faith is the day Christians commemorate Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. So that certainly made sense to me at that difficult time in my life.
“But,” he continued, “We are Easter people.” Those words stopped me cold. I was stunned to be reminded that painful morning that there was something other than what I was feeling.
Wow. What an amazing message as we head into the Easter week. We do live in a Good Friday world. How easy it is to stop right there, just short of healing, not realizing the hope of resurrection. The story of Easter week did not stop on Friday. The hope of this season is all about Sunday. Tony Campolo writes about a life changing sermon he heard in his book It’s Friday but Sunday’s Comin’. (Note to spiritual cyber hall monitors…I know Mr.Campolo is controversial. Just enjoy this illustration, take a deep breath, and move away from the keyboard). Campolo writes about hearing a wise African-American pastor preach about the events of Easter week.
For an hour and a half he preached one line over and over again…”It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!” He started his sermon real softly by saying, “It was Friday; it was Friday and my Jesus was dead on the tree. But that was Friday, and Sunday’s comin’!” One of the Deacons yelled, “Preach, brother, Preach!” It was all the encouragement he needed.
He came on louder as he said, “It was Friday and Mary was cryin’ her eyes out. The disciples were runnin’ in every direction, like sheep without a shepherd, but that was Friday, and Sunday’s comin!”
The preacher kept going. He picked up the volume still more and shouted, “It was Friday. The cynics were lookin’ at the world and sayin’ `As things have been so shall they be. You can’t change anything in this world; you can’t change anything. But those cynics don’t know that it was only Friday. Sunday’s comin’! It was Friday, and on Friday those forces that oppress the poor and make the poor to suffer were in control. But that was Friday! Sunday’s comin’!
It was Friday, and on Friday Pilate thought he had washed his hands of a lot of trouble. The Pharisees were struttin’ around, laughin’ and pokin’ each other in the ribs. They thought they were back in charge of things. But they didn’t know it was only Friday! Sunday’s comin’!
Campolo continues, “He kept on working that one phrase for a half hour, then an hour, then an hour and a quarter, then an hour and a half. Over and over he came at us, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin!” By the time he had come to the end of the message…He had me and everybody else so worked up that I don’t think any of us could have stood it much longer. At the end of his message he just yelled at the top of his lungs, `It’s FRIDAY!’ and all 500 of us in that church yelled back with one accord, `SUNDAY’S COMIN’!”
A lot of people who stumble across this site might be in the middle of what seems to be an interminable Friday. It is hard to accept suffering and illness. Relationships that hurt us make Friday seem like it will never end. The trials of living on a fallen planet will make this seem like a Friday world at times during the journey. Three years ago Joni’s diagnosis of cancer put us into a Friday state of mind. But we trusted that Sunday’s comin’! As we told our wonderful sons, if your faith doesn’t work at times like this it is of little value for the rest of the time. And it does work. We have been blessed with healing for now but we have the greater hope of the resurrection of Jesus as we continue. We trust in a God that has been faithful to strengthen us for the battle, work through us for His glory and teach us to be dependent on Him.
I believe the message of this week. Sunday’s comin’. And I believe that with all of my heart and soul. Paul wrote in Romans…
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1, NIV)
I am not ashamed of the Gospel. I fact I am excited about the Gospel. Even though I may be living in a Good Friday world today I am convinced that Sunday’s comin’!
(For the next 4 weeks or so I am going to be working on the re-release of “When Bad Christians Happen To Good People”. So I hope you will forgive me and be patient as I re-release the iPod Devotional series while I am working on that project. I only get a few original thoughts a week and my publisher wants me to direct those to their project. Thanks. And blessings.)
Regular readers of the humble ramblings know that I am a big fan of the group Casting Crowns. I love their CD “The Altar and the Door”. I hoped it would be as good as their previous efforts. I was not disappointed. Today’s song in the iPod Devotional series is a song from that CD called “Slow Fade”. The lyrics struck a chord with my heart:
It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It’s a slow fade, it’s a slow fade
I don’t become overweight in a day. I didn’t get out of shape in a day. And I do not become spiritually lifeless in a day. It is a slow fade. Sometimes the spiritual fade is the hardest to see. Having troubling buttoning the jeans pretty clearly reveals the dietary issues. Puffing after a flight of stairs is a good sign of conditioning lapses. But the spiritual fade can be easy to overlook. C.S.Lewis wrote in the Screwtape Letters that “the safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
How can I avoid the slow fade? One way is making sure my road has signposts and milestones. Those signposts and milestones are found in God’s Word and I must keep them in my sight daily. Avoiding spending time in His Word is the surest way to begin my personal slow fade. The Gospel of John presents one signpost to monitor the slow fade.
“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.
Jesus is saying that He is the true vine and if I am joined to Him I will produce fruit. It does not say I might produce fruit. It does not say I could produce fruit if my circumstances are right. Doesn’t say I will occasionally bear fruit. Jesus says that if I remain in Him I will produce fruit. A gardener knows that a vine may not produce for a season because of disease or bad conditions. But if that vine continues to be barren it is worthless and must be removed.
How do you produce the fruit that Jesus is describing? If I was speaking Christianeze I would say that you must abide in Jesus. I would wager (with a promise to tithe on all winnings) that the majority of churchgoers could not give a cogent definition of what it means to abide. The simplest explanation I have heard is that our relationship with Christ is an unbroken connection. It is not a one-time or yearly or monthly or even weekly synchronization with Jesus. It is a daily and even moment by moment awareness of our connection to Christ. That connection to Him allows the fruit of the spirit to be a part of who I am. Paul describes what can be ours in his letter to the Galatians.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
By remaining in an unbroken connection with Christ we can begin to take on His character and produce that kind of fruit. And realizing that the only way to produce this fruit is being connected to Christ can help stop the slow fade.
The lyrics of the song Slow Fade contain another valuable truth. We are always closer to the slow fade than we realize and we are not as strong as we imagine.
The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you’re thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking
I have experienced the slow fade more times than I would like to admit. But what I am learning is that Jesus is not standing with arms crossed shaking his head at my weakness. He is waiting for me to return to that fruitful connection. His grace abounds when I am connected. His grace abounds when I am not. I am learning to remind myself that I am a new creation in Christ. The old things are gone and dead. I can, as my friends at Truefaced so eloquently say, mature and grow into what is already true about me. I am righteous because of Christ and nothing else.
I do not crumble in a day. If (make that when) it happens again it will not be in a day. And Jesus has provided a way that I do not need to suffer the slow fade. My role is to stay connected by trusting God to love me and love others through me.
(For the next 4 weeks or so I am going to be working on the re-release of “When Bad Christians Happen To Good People”. So I hope you will forgive me and be patient as I re-release the iPod Devotional series while I am working on that project. I only get a few original thoughts a week and my publisher wants me to direct those to their project. Thanks. And blessings.)
I am taking a dual risk by attempting an iPod devotional series. If the Apple attorneys take note this will quickly become the MP3 Playback Device Devotional series. So I hope the lawyers stay busy with bigger fish. At any rate…here is how it will work. On the old iPod is a “shuffle songs” feature. You hit the button and it randomly picks a song. This month I am going to write a blog about whatever song the device selects on that day from the 1,600 plus songs on my iPod. My music list will further confirm my status as a Christian who makes others feel superior. My music goes from Al Green to the Youngbloods. Beatles to U2. Old hymns to modern praise music. Toby Keith to Frank Sinatra. Oldies to the soundtrack from Monty Python’s Spamalot. This could be interesting.
So here we go…pushing the button. The first song randomly selected shows that God does indeed have a sense of humor. The song that came up is called Smiling Faces Sometimes and it is from a group called Undisputed Truth. The song was originally recorded by the Temptations but the version released by Undisputed Truth in 1971 became the number 3 song that year. What delicious irony that the guy who wrote When Bad Christians Happen to Good People gets a song about hypocrites for the debut of this little experiment.
Here are the opening lyrics from that song…
Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes
They don’t tell the truth uh
Smiling faces, smiling faces
Tell lies and I got proof
I get hundreds of letters (okay…emails) from wounded Christians who could have started their note with those lyrics. They have been hurt and betrayed by other churchgoers, often with smiling faces. I try to encourage them. I remind them that we are all human. I ask them to look to Jesus. I try to communicate that I have felt and do feel the pain that they are experiencing. But everytime I hit send I am saddened that we allow this to happen in the body of Christ. Sometimes I am downright (ticked) off that any of us allow our agenda and self-absorption to overpower the awe inspiring gift of grace that brought us together in the first place. Not many things seemed to tick off Jesus more than hypocrites. Listen to these comments directed to the religious leaders.
“How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy–full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisees! First wash the inside of the cup, and then the outside will become clean, too.
“How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs–beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. You try to look like upright people outwardly, but inside your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
“Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?
Does that sound like the happy, happy Jesus that we like to portray? In a handful of verses He called the self-righteous leaders hypocrites, lawless, filthy inside, and sons of vipers. Ouch. Jesus was righteously furious. And He was furious over phony faith. Compare His tender response to repentant sinners. It is clear that Jesus wants honest hearts and maybe, just maybe, that is why He preferred to hang out with the not so self-righteous.
Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people–even eating with them! (Luke 15, NLT)
Oh no!!! Eating with sinners! And yet I still see that ugly scenario playing out today. We find safety in surrounding ourselves with others just like us. The lifestyles of the lost and not so famous are uncomfortable to us. So we take the safe route. I think Jesus loved being with the “sinners” because they realized their condition. They offered no excuses. They were eager to hear how this remarkable teacher would address that condition.
Just like the pharisees I can clean up the outside real purty. But God knows what lies beneath. It is scary and painful and ugly to allow the Holy Spirit to start cleaning out the dirt, the dead bones, and everything unclean. But we will never experience God the way He desires to relate to us unless we are willing to do trust God and others with who we really are. Frankly I don’t see the point of being a Sunday Christian. If this is real we need to pursue it seven days a week. The hardest truth I have had to admit as a husband, father, follower of Jesus is that I make time for those things that are a priority to me. There can be short time diversions for work or circumstance. But over the weeks and months how I spend my time and how I live my life reveals my heart. That is a hard truth.
Our iPod selection goes on…
Your enemy won’t do you no harm
Cause you’ll know where he’s coming from
Don’t let the handshake and the smile fool ya
Take my advice I’m only try’ to school ya
Isn’t that what hurts us so much when someone in the church does the wounding? We don’t expect it. We are not prepared at all to get sucker punched by a family member. But it happens in the church. Smiling faces do sometimes tell lies. Smiling churchgoers sometimes do great damage. But there is another possibility.
Smiling faces that love others like Jesus and demonstrate the grace we experience can still change this world. And, in my heart, that is undisputed truth.