A Bit Player, Maybe Just a Cameo Appearance...

   Today, as I read the Scriptures for the Psalm reading and the Gospel one, I am struck by two incidents:

   One, in Psalm 105, talks of Joseph, the boy sold into slavery, and taken to Egypt, where he becomes the savior of his family and of a whole people.

   "He had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave."

   The other in John, chapter 4, concerns the woman at the well in Samaria, where Jesus pauses for rest and a drink. This woman is not named, but her story shows her role in the on-going story of God.

   "So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,  “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

   These two individuals both have roles to play. One even has his name in the program, while the other is one of many bit players, just a part of the scene to move the story along, just a person passing along the road of life that God used to impact the people of her town.

    I sense that there is a correlation in these two isolated instances. Both persons are used by God to advance the Kingdom, and there is no difference in the importance of either role. Both have parts to play, and both are put in their respective scenes for His purposes.

   Joseph may have had an inkling when he had those dreams way back in his youth, but I suppose that, on the day that Pharoah made him second in command of the whole kingdom, he got out of his bed without a clue that this was the day. The woman at the well in Samaria did what she always did, she went out in the middle of the day to get water for her house. She had no idea what the day would bring.

   God appeared to Joseph in a dream many years before he used him. God, in flesh, appeared to the woman and used her that very day. Joseph had many years to be faithful to God in his various roles, while the woman's cameo appearance in His Story seemed to come out of the blue.

   My prayer this morning, is that God will make me sensitive to the place he has me in for this day, and if I need to leave my jar at the well and go, that I will do.

There are a lot of "losers" in the Olympic Games

   Since we do not have cable, I have been watching some of the Olympics over the Internet, the broadcast originating with the BBC in London. Their coverage is very good, but, as would be normal for any country, they focus a lot on the athletes of British Commonwealth and, in particular, those of the mother country. Most of these participants are unknown to me, some because their names do not appear in our sports news, but also a lot are in, for me, obscure sports, that I don't know much about.

   Regardless of the sport, for an athlete to get to the Games is an accomplishment. For some it is their life, but, even if it is not a full-time occupation, it takes a tremendous amount of hours, honing a skill that will take you to the top of a sport, or even just an event in that sport. Sometimes those hours take you to the top spot on the winner's platform, but for the majority of those in these Summer Games, there is no medal to take home, only the chance to compete.

   In 1984, our family got to attend some events of the Summer Games in Los Angeles. It was a treat to see the athletes, from so many countries around the world, compete on the world stage, and to read their stories in the local papers.

  

   I guess I am intrigued more by the stories of those who do not win medals than I am by the stars that make the headlines. Those guys that struggle in last in the marathon, or miss the initial pole vault height,  or even suffer some injury and do not get to compete at all. How do they feel about the whole experience? Are they mad, or are they just glad to have been able to come that far? What do they take away from that opportunity, and how does it affect the rest of their lives? There may be as many stories as there are men and women competing, but I think their lives have something to say to the rest of us.

   Am I willing to put in the time to make my life all that God intends? Do I look at disappointments as the end, or just a temporary situation? Do my attitudes and actions reflect  a loss or a gain from the experience?

   We all can't be Olympic winners, but we can show the dedication that they model in their sport, in our lives. They have a purpose and so should I.

  Now someone please point me to stories about  "losers" in the Games and how their lives were impacted by that experience.

Is It All Up To Me?

   Last night I was watching a lecture on the U.S. Constitution, and the speaker quoted a passage from the first Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan. He had been talking about those men and women who were buried in Arlington National Cemetery when he spoke these lines:

 Under one such marker lies a young man—Martin Treptow—who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.

We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, “My Pledge,” he had written these words: “America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.”

   I was struck by that last phrase " as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone".

   Here was a boy, in a really insignificant position, in the middle of a great conflict with many men around him, who determined to do his best, regardless of his job, because doing that best could make the difference that won the war. He was killed trying to take a message to another unit. Evidently he failed in his task, as the words say "he was trying". Is it necessary to succeed in order to win, or is it the attitude of how we try, the important thing?

   Are there things out there that I need to step up and do? Sometimes it is easier to let the anonymity of belonging to a group, large or small, mask my individual effort. If the group fails, well, it was the group, not me individually. This group can be as large as a country, or as small as a marriage. It can encompass a church, a ministry, or a family. Whatever I am involved with is a part of my responsibility.

   At the end of Reagan's address were these words:

   "with God’s help, we can "

   Is it all up to me in my own strength? The psalmist says in Psalm 121:

   " I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? 
   No, my strength comes from God, 
      who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

   Let me live it out in that way.

An Old Familiar Passage

   What is undoubtedly the most familiar passage in the New Testament?

  

   This is it in the King James Version, the one I grew up with.

   "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

   Here it is in the Message:

   "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life."

   How about in the New Living Translation?

   "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

   How about the New King James?

   "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

   And I could go on and on with different translations of this one verse, but the question that follows is, "does it make any impact on my life?"

   Is it so familiar that it has lost its power for me? Is it just another set of words that I believe, and I do, but that I don't pause to really try to understand?

   There is a real danger in the familiar.

   John 3:16 is a powerful verse. I try to image how it sounds to a desperate man who hears it for the first time. It is like a raft that floats up to him as the water is about to close over his head, and he reaches out and grabs, knowing it is his only chance for life.

   God loved and God gave, for me.

  I pray that these words will never become just words in a Book, but will always be real in my life, real because He did it for me (and you).

Trouble, Trouble, Toil and Trouble

   Toil and trouble, now that is a pleasant thought to begin the day. Why do those words stand out of the reading for today?

   From Psalm 90, a psalm written by Moses, I read in The Message:

   "We live for seventy years or so 
      (with luck we might make it to eighty), 
   And what do we have to show for it? Trouble. 
      Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard".
   The span of life that is given here hits me right where I live. Seventy or maybe eighty years and then it is over, and I see myself right in the middle of those years, right now.

   So, how do I treat the days that I am living right now? Do I want to look back on my life and see it as trouble and wasted?  No, of course not.

   But I look at the days that I live, take yesterday for an example, and I see a morning filled with some true thoughts about prayer and the consideration of others, and then I see a time on the golf course that was frustrating for me and probably embarrassing to my partners, and then a time of activity with my wife, I and realize the inconsistency of it all. How can I live in the right way and the wrong way in the same day, and why is it so obvious to me when I look back on it? My priorities are askew, for sure.

   So what is to be done? How can I make the days left in my life count for something? Not on my own that is for sure.

   A little farther down in that same psalm, Moses pens these words:

   "Oh! Teach us to live well! 
      Teach us to live wisely and well!"
   It may be bad to have to ask for this at this late stage, but it is better late than never.

   Help

In The Morning...

   What is it about the early morning when the world is still asleep?

   The following scenario has happened to me quite a few times over the past couple of years:

   I know that I have a schedule to meet the next day, and I set my alarm to a time that I know I can be ready to move out when I need to. Then the last thing I think before sleep comes, is to say to God, that "You know my schedule for the next day's activities, and if You want me to wake up and spend some time with You, You will need to wake me before the alarm". I know this sounds mighty presumptuous, that God would even care, and sometimes I even feel that way myself, but with regularity, it happens.

   This morning, the alarm is set at 6:30, and when I wake and look, the time is 5:30, and I know I have a whole hour to listen for God to speak, usually through the readings of Scripture that are put in front of me through the program that I use. When I realize how all this unstructured time has come about, when my natural self would rather still be in the bed, I actually anticipate what God might have in store for me.

   So, today the portion, indeed it is only a phrase, of the Scripture reading in Psalm 88, is brought to the forefront of my thinking, and it is this:

   "in the morning my prayer comes before you."

   My praying is not always good, and a lot of the time, I do not even think it is that important, but God says that the morning is the best time for it. So what do I pray for?

   Some months back, I began a small list of people that I needed to think about and present before God. Not that He did not already know about each situation, but I wanted to care about them in a specific way also. So I took that out this morning and read the names, bringing the specifics of each back into my memory. There are names of my kids, their spouses and their kids. There are friends from different places and time periods of my life. There are folks that appear on the prayer notices that come on email from our church. Each of these needs seems to bring to mind other people in those circumstances that I have not written down.

   God seems to say: "use this time to pray for others this morning and get your mind off yourself and your day ahead. These people are important to Me and should be to you. Morning is not just a time to read and write some words down on your blog, although this may be important on some days, but it is also about the lives and concerns of people you know and love. Pay attention to that urging, too."

   So I do on this morning, and it is good.

Walk The Path, With Me..

   With Me?

   Three things seem to be my focus this morning. One from the Psalm reading, one from the Gospel reading and one from a song that comes to my mind. Let's see if I can weave them together to make some sense.

   First the verse from Psalm 119:

   "105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
   Then some verses from John 1:

   "Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.”

   Then some words from a verse of the Servant Song that seem to apply to all of this:

   "I will hold the Christ light for you
In the night time of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you
Speak the the peace you long to hear."
   A light on a path, one that I can use, and one that I can share. An invitation from Jesus to follow along with Him and see what He is about.

   How does all of that apply to my life today? I may not know, even when the day is over, but I can see some possibilities.

   Mayre and I are meeting with a couple this evening that are looking for some direction in their marriage and lives. We were asked to be a guide in this process, and wonder if we are the right people to do this.

   First of all, in these types of situations, we have to be willing to share our lives and struggles with them, the good with the bad. In a sense, we have to invite them to come along with us as we live, to see us as we really are and, to not only pass along timely wisdom, but be real people in our relationship with them. To do this we have to question whether or not our lives, separately and together, are a good example for them to look at. Who are we to do this, anyway? Do we dare say "come and see"?

   Secondly, we need to know where the wisdom comes from, this wisdom that will allow them to tap into the real source of happiness for them. The psalmist says, "Your word". The words that God speaks into our lives, from The Bible, from what He shows us in our circumstances, and what He indicates to us from what other believers say. It is not our wisdom, but His, that will make the difference.

   Thirdly, we must be willing to be used in this way. We will hold that "Christ light" for them and be the guide on that path, and as the song says, "I will...".

   So, all of this can apply to our assignment, and now we just need to pray that God will strengthen us for the task, guide us in the words and actions that we present, and keep us honest and real. We pray also that the other couple will want to hear, and want to take it to heart.

   "I will hold my hand out to you
Speak the the peace you long to hear."