Fifty-four

   One phrase from the reading this morning:

   “Blessed are you"

   That is my story as I look back on fifty-four years of marriage, and all those years with the same woman.

   Did I know back in 1958, what I was getting into? No Way! It is a good thing that God knew, even if I did not have a clue. Did I over marry? Sure, I got much more than I should have, definitely more than I deserved.

   Some would say that I was lucky, but I would reply that I was blessed. God knew all that would happen over this time, and He gave me a companion and friend that would see me through it all. Through the many good times we have had together and through some rough times also. The main thing was that He allowed us to share those times together.

   How many more are in front of us? On earth, there is no telling, but for eternity there is no counting, and that is worth a big Thank You.

  

   I am truly blessed...thanks be to God!

What Makes Parents Proud?

   When I look at the two Examens each morning, I plan to use the Psalm one to pray by and the Gospel one to reflect on, but some days I get caught up in the first, and it seems to speak to me more than the second. So today, Psalm 72 is my starting point. In this Psalm, which is a Psalm of David about his son Solomon, it states:

   "May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,"
   David is asking God to bless his son, who will be the next king, in ways that will allow him to govern his people wisely and well, causing the land to prosper under his reign. One of the things David asks God to give his son is a concern for the poor and needy in the land, justice for the people who have no advocate to look out for them.

   As parents we want God to bless our children and their families as well. We are always proud and happy when we see the evidence of those concerns for others manifested in their lives.

   I think of Dwayne's encouragement of service learning projects with the students in his school in North Carolina. Teaching students that school is not just a gathering of facts to be proud of, but cultivating a sense of caring for those less fortunate and making those needs personal for the students.

   I think of Donna in her college class, using her knitting skills to lead her students to create items for unwed mothers and their babies. Just to get the guys and gals in that university, first of all to be aware that there are needs out there, and secondly that they can individually and collectively help.

   I also think of Doug and his family as they support children overseas, kids who might have nothing if not for the money and prayers of those of us who have more than enough. This is not just the sending of a check, but it is a learning opportunity for the kids in the home, making them aware of people in need, and then they can put a face on at least one person who falls in that category.

   Small things maybe, but steps on the road to making a lifestyle the consideration of others. I believe that God smiles when we care.

   It is so easy for me to get caught up in myself. I need this reminder.

Satisfaction, Long Term

   There was one thing about Jesus that is hard to escape. Wherever He went, He attracted crowds of people. They probably came to Him for a variety of reasons, some to find something, some to see the attraction, some to deride, some to find fault, and some for curiosity. The people in the crowd of today's reading are spoken of this way:

   "Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel."

   The next verse goes on to say that they had been with Jesus for 3 days already, so these were folks that were into what He was doing and saying. At least most of the fault-finders and curiosity-seekers had probably checked out and gone home by now.

   I see at least 4 things about that crowd:

      They came, they brought, they were awed, and they glorified God. What a recipe for my life each day as I come in this early morning hour.

   And there was one final thing that spoke of the crowd at the end of the reading:


   "and they were satisfied"

   Sure they had been physically fed by The Master, but they went away with much more than that. They had seen and heard and received. The food that had satisfied their stomachs would soon pass away, but the other things that were made known to them would last forever.

   How about me in that crowd?

Let go!

   There is a cartoon that comes to me as I meditate this morning. I see a man clinging to a small bush on the side of a cliff. He has fallen off the edge and all that is keeping him from falling to the bottom is this piece of root sticking out of the wall of the drop off. In desperation, he calls out "Help" and the voice from the top simply says, "let go". Dismissing the advice, and not wanting to look down at his fate, he calls out again and again the voice comes back, "let go".  Little does the man know that a ledge is only inches below his feet, and, that by following the instruction from above, he will find safety. Instead he pleads, "Is anybody else up there?"

   What do I need to let go of?

   The woman in the portion of Scripture, that was the reading for this morning, gave up her pride, as she fell at the feet of Jesus and begged for the life of her daughter, who was dying. Pride is also a big stumbling block for me, and I can relate to this.

   Standing right there next to pride is the feeling of self-sufficiency. I can do it, I can solve it, I can, I can... If I can put just a little more effort into that, I can get it done. There is nothing that I cannot do, or cannot be, if I can just channel my mind and body to do it, and I can do it by myself. I need to let that go, for sure.

   Akin to those two ideas, is the notion that my worth is tied up in what I can do, or who I am. Whether it be on the golf course or tennis court or even in writing this blog post, I can let this define my net worth. These things cause an up and down roller coaster of existence, and they need to go.

   Added to the above is the trust that I have in material things and even health. These are truly blessings from the hand of God, but the trust in them should have no place in my life. That sort of trust is uncalled for.

   And there are others: holding on to the past, holding on to some scenario of the future, even grasping tightly the things of the present. These don't belong either.

   Truthfully, when I think on these things, and others that God brings to my mind, I want to say, "is anybody else up there?" I am comfortable in my ways, and the unknown of letting go, is not appealing.

   BUT, I hear two words on this subject, and they appear to come from above,

   LET GO

 

Everything Will Work Out...

   One of my favorite things to say as our kids were growing up was "everything will work out".

   Now the following is not a movie recommendation, but there was a line from a film that we saw yesterday that went something like this: "Everything will work out right in the end. If it is not all right now, then realize that the end has not yet come".

   From a Christian point of view, the right end may not always come in this life, though it may, but will definitely be there in the second. God will make all things right.

   That movie line surfaced again to me as I sat and listened to the pastor's sermon this morning. He was talking about living a life in front of your children that will make their faith vital and alive. The takeaway was the question regarding how vital was my faith and how observable to my family.

   When we say that it will all work out, is it just a passive waiting time or more than that? It occurs to me that there is an active ingredient to the whole recipe. It is not just putting myself in all the right places and sitting back, waiting for all the right things to happen.

  If I put myself there and do not heed the voices that come out of those experiences, what good has it been for me to be there?

   God is in control, but He wants me to actively follow his leading, not just sleep and wait.

   And it will work out.

  

A Little Scary Sometimes

   What I say matters, and even the way I say it matters.

   There are some verses in Matthew 15 this morning:

   "what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It's from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That's what pollutes." (The Message)

   The tongue can be an instrument for good or bad. It is a powerful weapon and a powerful indicator of who a person is, really is.

   People judge me by the words that I speak, and I try to be careful in my speech, but there is One other that listens to me also.

   From the reading in Psalms 55 today:

   "He hears my voice."

   There are words that do not even reach my lips that are important, because God hears my voice. The audible one and the one of the heart are both accessible to Him. It is good to know that God hears me, but I want Him to hear the right things. I not only want to sound right, I want to be that way too.

  "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer." (ASV)

  

Come and Get Out

   After I wrote this blog yesterday morning, I had a good feeling. I had taken a portion of the Psalm I read and saw how it applied to my life. It seemed to come easy to do this as the thought of thanksgiving resonated with my soul. Whether anyone else read it and could apply it to their life was pretty immaterial, I saw it as the correct interpretation of Scripture, at least for me in that moment.

   Then this morning, as I read the episode of Jesus walking on the water and Peter wanting to do the same, I saw something else, something that gave me pause.

   After Peter asks if he could come to Jesus on the water, the story continues:

   "Peter, suddenly bold, said, "Master, if it's really you, call me to come to you on the water."

 ^29-30He said, "Come ahead."

   Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, "Master, save me!"

 ³¹Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, "Faint-heart, what got into you?"

   Yes, the first command is Come, but after Peter obeys and then realizes what he is doing, he is met with a term from Jesus, faint-heart.

   It seems easy for me to sit in the boat of thankfulness and let the feeling of thinking that, yes, I am truly thankful, forgetting that it is a sacrifice to be truly that way. When asked to live in that mode, to get out of the feeling good boat and show it in other ways than just writing words in a blog, I start to sink. In fact I do not even want to get out of the boat.

   I can see ways to show my thankfulness, God places some things on my heart, but then I think I see some consequences of those actions, and I pause. Faint hearted is too mild a term. Unwilling might be closer to the truth.

   At least Peter got out of the boat!