Random Thoughts

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One of the joys of posting random thoughts is that there is no organization to my thoughts. They are purely random. Sometimes they flow. Usually they don't. It's been more than a week since my last post because of the busyness of my life lately. There are lots of things to blog about but little time to blog! So here are a few random things that have crossed my mind in the past week or so.

• That stress can be very stressing on relationships. My fiancee and I are both so busy right now that we've had little time together in recent weeks. And I miss her. But she has a mountain of worries and stresses on her mind right now, mostly the end of the school year and things she has to do before our wedding August 1. She's constantly tired and so am I from an ever-increasing workload at the church. Not much fun.
• That stress has an upside, too. It provides me with a wonderful opportunity to show grace, compassion, and understanding to my gal. Basically, her stress is a ministry opportunity for me! Now I just need to figure out the best way to minister to her.
• That words have a power that no apology or explanation can diffuse. Our church sends out regular e-mails to the congregation to update them on situations, church events, or last-minute changes. Last weekend the decision was made to send an e-mail from the elders about a sudden staff change. The e-mail was lengthy by e-mail standards but very gracious in its wording. But on Sunday morning the congregation was stumbling over the words that were used. People were upset. People wanted a better explanation. The words didn't work. I tried to explain from the limited knowledge I had but came to find out that no explanation could undo the upset.
• That it IS possible to turn while your car is moving forward. Some people forget this and have to stop *in the lane* before they turn their car into a parking lot on a side street. It's not theological. But it's a pet peeve! And while I'm at it... if you're first in line at a red light, please pay attention to the light. Consider yourself a leader who has to get all your followers safely through a tough situation.
  
• That emotions can turn on a dime.
  

That's all for now.

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Button Up Your Overcoat

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At our church we have a wonderful group of older ladies who call themselves the "OWLS" (Older, Wiser, Loving Saints). Each month they meet twice in our church cafe to have prayer time, lunch and an entertainment program. Today they held a "Mad Hatter Lunch" and fashion show, at which they had a small singing group entertain the crowd with some old standards. One of them is called, "Button Up Your Overcoat," and I found its words to be amusing. It's a song written in 1928 from the perspective of a woman who's worried sick over the health and well being of her beloved. I guess you could piggyback its message on my previous posts about faith, trust, and being still before the Lord.

Button Up Your Overcoat

Words and music by DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson
Recorded by Ruth Etting on March 11, 1929 in New York City for Columbia Records.
Originally issued on Columbia 1762 D (Matrix 148029)

Listen, big boy,
Now that I've got you made,
Goodness, but I'm afraid,
Something's going to happen to you;
Listen, big boy,
You've got me hooked, and how,
I would die if I should lose you now!

Button up your overcoat,
When the wind is free,
Take good care of yourself,
You belong to me!

Oh, eat an apple every day,
Get to bed by three,
Take good care of yourself,
You belong to me!

Be careful crossing streets, ooh-ooh,
Don't eat meats, ooh-ooh,
Cut out sweets, ooh-ooh,
You'll get a pain and ruin your tum-tum!

Keep away from bootleg hooch
When you're on a spree,
Take good care of yourself,
You belong to me!

Don't step on hornet's tails, ooh-ooh!
Or on nails, ooh-ooh!
Or third rails, ooh-ooh!
You'll get a pain and ruin your tum-tum!

Oh, button up your overcoat,
When the wind is free,
Take good care of yourself,
You belong to me!

Oh, wear your flannel underwear,
When you climb a tree,
Take good care of yourself,
You belong to me!

Steer clear of frozen ponds, ooh-ooh,
Peroxide blondes, ooh-ooh,
Stocks and bonds, ooh-ooh,
You'll get a pain, ruin your bankroll!

Keep the spoon out of your cup,
When you're drinking tea,
Take good care of yourself,
You belong to me!

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The Beautiful Delight of Trust

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I wanted to share with you some of my observations from Psalm 37:1-11, the text for tonight's Young Careers small group lesson. The psalm is one of the most relevant teachings on trust for our day and times. You may notice that a lot of my postings have dealt with the issue of trust and perhaps that is due to the fact that the process of Growing Young is to regain (or develop) a childlike trust in God. He is Abba, "Daddy" a good and faithful Father who is pleased to care for His children. Yet we, His children, are seemingly always so hesitant to trust Him with the important things of life -- our finances, our family, our safety, our security, etc. Here's Psalm 37:1-11:

Do not fret because of the wicked;
do not be envious of wrongdoers,
for they will soon fade like the grass,
and wither like the green herb.

Trust in the LORD, and do good;
so you will live in the land, and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
and the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger, and turn from wrath.
Do not fret—it leads only to evil.
For the wicked shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the LORD will inherit the land.

Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there.
But the meek shall inherit the land,
and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

Notice anything about this passage that stands out?

I can see a few things. First of all, it is filled with commands. Almost every couplet! Don't fret, trust, Delight, Commit, Be Still, Refrain, Turn, Wait. Wow, it's almost overwhelming! Two commands are repeated more than once in this passage: "Trust" (2x) and "Do not fret" (3x). The two just happen to be closely related. One leads the the absence of the other. When a person frets, he or she does not trust. And when a person trusts, he or she does not fret. Fretting and Trusting do not go together. They are like oil and water — an insoluble solution.

What else stands out?

I see a lot of conditional promises from God to those who follow His commands. Let's explore a few.

• "Trust in the Lord and do good" — when a person trusts in the Almighty protection of a sovereign God, he or she can rest in safety. Why? Because they know someone with more power, more insight, and more love is looking out for them.
  
• "Delight yourself in the Lord" — when you seek to please the Lord with your life, He will bless you with all that you need to be pleased in this life. Notice I say "to be pleased." It doesn't take a million dollars, a shiny new car, or a big house to please a God-follower. Because our focus is on pleasing God and not ourselves. Ans as a result of our focus, we find pleasure and delight in the little things. Like the laugh of a baby, the frolicking of birds in a streetside puddle, or just simply sitting across the table from a brother or sister in Christ.
• "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath" — getting angry at things out of your control is a sure way to burn up and alienate yourself from everyone you hold dear. It does no good.
• "Do not fret" — why? It leads only to evil (or, sin). To worry (another word for fret) is a path of sin? When we worry we do not trust. We don't trust in God, we don't trust in our spouse, we don't trust anyone or anything. Anxiousness (yet another word for fret) leads to sin. And keeps a person from being close to God and close to the ones they love. Jesus said worry does not fit a Kingdom mindset. "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? (Matt 6:25)"
  

God is in the process of taking care of affairs in this world. When we choose to trust in Him for our finances, our housing, our marriage, and our security, we will find that worry and anxiety will cease. We no longer have the burdens squarely on our shoulders. Our burdens are on His!

Do you trust Him enough to take those burdens away from you and handle them? God will take care of your finances. He will make sure you have what you need for life and health and godliness. But do you trust Him to provide? Will you delight in Him and stop worrying? Can you take a deep breath and relax?

Can you?

Be God's.

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Photo of the Day

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Ever feel like you're walking on thin ice? That no matter what you say or do, it has a great chance at failure? I hate walking on thin ice. Sure makes for a tough trek filled with anxiety, fear and insecurity! Thank goodness I serve a God who secures the ice beneath my feet so that I cannot fall through! So I can live in security, peace, and rest. A big part of growing young involves learning to trust that the ice will not break. That the God who leads you across the frozen pond will see you across in safety. Little children follow their parents where they lead. Adults are a lot more skeptical. We see the sign and go around the lake. We won't even trust the ice. We avoid it. Even if it means we have to go way out of our way.

What do you think about thin ice? Will you trust God if He leads you across it? Or will you say, "No thanks," and go a different way?

Be God's.

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Recession Romance

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I saw a most fascinating report on ABC's Nightline last night about how the recession is affecting the dating lives of single adults. I wish the network would let me embed the video for you but, alas, they will not. So here's a link to the report on their website. Check it out. It's fascinating.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7563029

The conclusion of the report was that because money is tight, singles are starting to look for other things than wealth in a partner. They are actually now looking for lasting romance and people who make do with what they have. Because extravagance and wealth are not a part of every single adult's life right now. Go figure! It takes tough economic times to turn people back to what really makes romance and relationships work: time and contentment.

The video is worth watching.

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Growing Old

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Jesus said (to Peter), "Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." (John 21:17-18)

Jesus warned Peter that getting old wasn't going to be easy. That he would find himself imprisoned as an older man, forced to do things he didn't want to do and being led where he didn't want to go. As an older man, he wouldn't be able to exert his free will like he used to do. He wouldn't even be able to dress himself any more.

Growing old is tough. As I have watched my grandparents get older, it has been difficult on my emotions. For my memories are not of older individuals, but folks in the prime of life. My mom's dad was 51 when I was born. Her mom was in her upper 40's. Not old at all! Yet they are both in their 80's now and not quite so strong and able. Both have battled cancer. But both are still of sharp mind, which is a blessing. My other grandmother is 86 and lives in assisted living. She still has a driver's license, which scares us, but mainly uses a walker to get around.

My fiancee's grandmother, however, is not as well off. A tender, wonderful woman of 93, she resides in an assisted living facility here in town, where she receives care 24/7. Stripped of her hearing and her sight by time and trial, she needs help to move, eat, dress, and hear. Yesterday, she was treated to a special Mother's Day lunch by her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. As I watched her eat in the restaurant, my heart broke for the woman. She struggled to eat, drink and understand what was going on around her. Her daughter, my future mother-in-law, had to help her with her food (she couldn't see her fork or the pieces of prime rib on her plate very well). The glass of lemonade seemed heavy, full and burdensome.

It once again dawned on me that once we reach a certain age, we start to regress in ability, not the other way around. If evolution is true, each generation of the human race would be able to keep its faculties longer than the previous one. And improvements in motor skills would continue into our 50's and 60's and 70's. After all, we are evolving into a higher life form, right?

But our bodies are not evolving into a higher form. They are breaking down. And the longer we live, the less able we are. I read a statistic once that said the human body reaches its cellular maturity in the late teenage years. From the age of 18 or 19 until we die, our bodies are gradually deteriorating. Our cells become more susceptible to disease and our muscles to fatigue. That's just the way it is. I'm a young 32 and I can already feel it in my own body.

Saint Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:2-3 that our bodies are sick of breaking down. They are "groaning" for that which never breaks; cells that never lose their chemistry and muscles that never ache. And we'll get that new imperishable body -- after this one dies! For it must die. We must get old, if we're allowed to.

And children become parents of their parents who have become like children. Not in immaturity but in ability. This is the way of life. And it is another reason why I want my heart and my faith to be growing young, so that even as my body wastes away my heart and mind remain tuned to the wonderful Creator who once made me and who will one day re-make me.

And I'll be forever young.

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Jesus Paid It All

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"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18-19)

When I think that Jesus wrote a big check to purchase my unworthy self from the penalty of my own sin, I shudder. Don't you? I got into trouble. It was bad enough that my race was fallen from the first man, Adam. But to be guilty of my OWN sin, too? Double shame. Bad enough that I broke the laws of God even before I knew what those laws said. Even worse, I broke those same laws with full knowledge of their content! Double shame.

But Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe.

Just recently I have been reminded of the price of sin through transgressions of my own -- not necessarily transgression against God but against my local government. Yep, I got cited for traffic violations. Not speeding or making an illegal turn, but my expired car registration and inspection stickers stood as badges of my guilt. For three months I had tried to avoid the keepers of the law -- those black and white fiberglass horses with eyes flashing blue and red. Like any transgressor, when I saw one of them I held my breath and tried to act nonchalant. I was a sinner and I knew that I was a sinner. And I knew that I deserved to be punished for my sin. But my time ran out. I was caught. And two traffic citations later, I was forced to face the penalty of my sin.

So John paid it all. All to Flower Mound I owe.

The problem with my other sin-- the spiritual kind -- is that I could not pay the penalty that God demanded. There was no checkbook deep enough but His to cover the cost. There was no "silver or gold," as Saint Peter put it, to bail me out of my emptiness and spiritual bankruptcy. I needed another monetary source, one that I did not possess. I could not renew my spiritual registration with a check or inspect my soul with a turn of the key. Nope. God's price wasn't a couple hundred dollars. It was a couple of trillion dollars, a sum that must be paid all at once and not through an installment plan.

So here stepped Jesus with His royal, holy checkbook -- two blood-stained hands and a heart of mercy. He offered his hands and heart to the Judge and the Judge accepted. I was set free. No more citation. All square with the house. Set free to live a life of gratitude to Him who looked with mercy upon a wretch like me.

Jesus paid it all.
All to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow.

Be God's!

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Can You Hear Me??

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It seems that several truths about communication have become lost in our world of immediacy these days. Whether it is at work or in the home, the loss of these truths have frustrated and embittered many employees and partners. Here are two that I have experienced just today:

• Truth #1 -- You cannot be held responsible for knowledge you have not heard. If you fail to tell somebody something (even if it is a detail about something) then they cannot be held responsible for what they do not know! Too often there will be a meeting going on here at the church among a select group of individuals but the decisions made in that meeting will never be told to the staff they affect. And, as you might imagine, eventually problems start arising when the result of those decisions is made known, usually weeks after the decision was made! Sound confusing? It is!
  
• Truth #2 -- You cannot expect anyone to remember everything you have told them. This one affects relationships more than workplace situations. "I once heard that you had an Aunt Susie," I would say, "but where she lives and how old her kids are...? No idea." Women, by nature, tend to remember more details than men but where communication fails is when they expect men to remember more details, too! As I've told my beloved, "I have this little cup up in my brain. And every bit of information is like a drop of water. Eventually, my little cup gets full and information just spills over the edge! I can't retain it all. I need some grace."

Do you have any communication truths that often get ignored other than the ones I've mentioned?

Be God's!

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Another Favorite Verse

.My place of rest. At least, I want it to be!

Here's another of my unusual favorite Bible verses. See if you can relate to the emotion of wishes of King David, who penned these words in the midst of great personal stress.

Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest — I would flee far away and stay in the desert;
I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.” (Psa 55:5-8)

Don't you just want to run away from it all? Yet, don't you know that running won't make a problem disappear? But we desire to run anyway. Some to shelters of family, friends or church. Others to addictions. A few find vacations as a shelter. The odd person or two actually does run away!

What do YOU do when stress gets to be too much to bear?

Be God's!

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In Praise of Sleep

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"31:23This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling, O sacred mountain.’ 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns — farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

26 "At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me."

I like to sleep. How about you? When I read in Revelation 21 that in the new heaven there is no more night, I get kind of mixed feelings. I like nighttime! I like, no, I love to sleep! Sleep is, as the prophet Jeremiah muses in his book, very "pleasant to me."

One of my favorite verses is Jeremiah 31:26. I like to pick favorites that are off the beaten track. In this section of Jeremiah's prophecy, the Lord is describing the exile of Judah and the following restoration. Bad things are coming, He says, but I will restore my people and refresh the faint. Sounds like Isaiah 40, doesn't it? At this sentence, the prophet wakes up and realizes he had been dreaming. But what a dream! Not only that, he realizes that the Lord has refreshed him! He found his sleep to be just what the doctor ordered for his weary heart.

Sometimes sleep can do that to a person. It can be our "reset" button for our emotions. It can be a calm in our stressful storm. It can refresh and energize unlike any tonic or potion we have invented.

I write this as I sit at my desk wide awake. It's 1:30 in the morning. I cannot sleep. Did I mention that I love sleep? Thought so.

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Hit the Panic Button!

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I never cease to be amazed at how quickly and easily Christians panic. I tend to do it, too, at times. Yesterday an e-mail came to my home account from a well-known evangelical ministry telling its followers to, well, panic over a piece of legislation in the Texas Congress. The bill up for debate was a hate crimes law that broadened the definition of a "hate crime" and could make it easier to arrest people for harassing a person of color, race, gender, or sexual orientation. The fear of this evangelical ministry is that the passage of this bill would make it easy for pastors and evangelism-minded believers to be arrested for sharing their faith. That a pastor who spoke out against homosexuality, for example, could be arrested for preaching hate and could be arrested and charged with a hate crime is a homosexual happened to be in church that Sunday and was offended.

The whole "hate crimes" agenda has spiraled out of control, in my opinion. But the panic among evangelicals has also spiraled out of control. We fear EVERYTHING. And we panic at the first sign of potential persecution. This, I do not understand. It amazes me. After all, the God we serve calls us to trust, not fear. Jesus called us to follow Him even to death, if He wills. But we want to pick up our couch and not our cross. We preach trust in our pulpits and practice panic in our homes.

The bill up for debate easily passed the Texas Senate yesterday and will now move to the House. I don't know if the governor, a conservative, will veto it if it passes the House. But this panic is uncalled for, in my opinion. Believers can voice our view of issues. But to fear and panic? That does not honor the sovereign God we proclaim.

Be God's!

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