God

28 Days (Not That I’m Counting or Anything)

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

gatsby_quote

What happens in 28 days?

Relax. There will (hopefully) be no outbreak of zombies.

There will however be an outbreak of autumn, my very favorite season.

There will be pumpkin spice everything, bonfires, hayrides, s’mores, flannel, crisp mornings, leaves changing colors, and a million memories that fall always conjures up for me.

There will be no humidity, no excessive sweating, no bugs, and no sunburns.

Fall means Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Advent (which leads into my all-time favorite holiday, Christmas).

Fall reminds me of the words Jesus said, of how unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it will remain only a single seed. But if it dies, it will bear much fruit. Autumn symbolizes the season where so much is happening that you can’t see, but you know that a great harvest is coming.

So many of my favorite movies are set at least partially in the fall. There’s the iconic scene of Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan walking through Central Park surrounded by a riot of colors from the leaves changing colors.

Fall seems more quiet than the other seasons, more conducive to reflecting and remembering. Maybe that’s the reason I like it. Or maybe it’s one of the plethora of reasons I like it.

I will have my pumpkin spice latte with my pumpkin spice scone and sit somewhere with a patio where I can people-watch. I will wear every flannel shirt I own at least once. I will give thanks that for every fall and winter and death, there comes a spring and a summer and new life.

I will keep typing until I get in my 300 words for the day because I am a bit OCD like that. Still not there, so still typing. Only eleven more words to go. Now only five more to go.

BOOM. Made it.

 

 

Belmont Move-In Day, 2015 Edition

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Feature_Belmont_MoveInDay

I’m sore. I don’t think I’ve been this sore in quite some time, but it was more than worth it.

I got out of bed at the most ungodly hour of 5:40 (on a Saturday, no less) to drive to Belmont Heights Baptist Church. From there, several Kairos folks and I went to the Patton-Bear Dorm to help move freshmen into their dorm rooms.

I’m feeling every bit of those six flights of stairs I climbed more times than I can count. I’m also feeling satisfaction over the knowledge that we helped to ease the stress and trauma (mostly to the parents of the freshmen). What would’ve taken all day for them took approximately five minutes.

I met four new canine friends who just happened to be hanging out at Belmont near where we were working. One was a rescued Boston Terrier who had the distinction of having one blue eye. I can’t fathom who would get a dog only to neglect, abuse, and abandon it. But I am glad he’s found a good and loving home at last.

Most of service in the Kingdom of God is being faithful in the details and small stuff. We earn the right to have our gospel message heard when we walk the extra mile with people and help them carry their burdens (in this case literal burdens). We gain an audience when we first listen to what they have to say.

I counted in my head and this makes my fourth year of toting boxes up and down stairs and seeing the faces of grateful freshmen and their parents. I also figured that most of the freshmen I helped the first time are probably getting ready to graduate in May of next year.

God willing, I plan to be back for my fifth year in 2016. Maybe by then I’ll be in better shape. Maybe we’ll get assigned to a dorm with less floors.

 

My Life is God’s Prayer

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you, From Jordan depths to Hermon heights, including Mount Mizar. Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids. Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me. Then God promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God’s prayer” (Psalm 42:8 MSG)

That’s the kind of rehearsal I really like, remembering everything I know of God and all He’s done for me. Or even better yet, looking back through ages past and seeing how many times in how many places God has come through for His people.

God’s faithfulness trumps my faithlessness. God’s promises outweigh my doubts. Not that I am so bad, but God is so good. Not that I’m so very weak, but God is so very strong.

I could go on and on, but I am really tired. It’s a good kind of tired, but it still leaves me wanting to visit my pillow in the worst way possible.

I’ll be up excruciatingly early on a Saturday, heading over to Belmont University at 6:30 am for Freshman Move-In Day. It’s still in my top favorite activities that I’m involved in over the year.

Yes, you read that right. That’s 6:30 in the AM. A nap will be had later on in the day by me. Then I think there will be the usual frivolity up and down Main Street in Franklin in celebration of surviving a week of waking up at 5:30 am.

“So let my deeds outrun my words
And let my life outweigh my songs” (Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman).

 

This Is It

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life” (1 John 5:12).

The life is in Jesus.

When I was a kid, I thought eternal life was simply living forever. Not that anyone overtly told me this, but it’s what my kid brain grasped when anybody talked about how whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. To me, that meant life that lasted a long time.

I think what I’m beginning to understand is that, while the forever part is right, there is more to it than that. It’s more than just quantity of life. It’s about a quality of life, too.

Eternal life is life with Jesus at the source. It’s where Jesus becomes my life. It’s where even my best days now are nothing compared to what my eternal future will be like.

As I’ve said before, I like to think of C.S. Lewis’ description of the New Narnia in his book, The Last Battle. It’s like everything you were always looking for but never knew it.

It’s like waking up on the first day of summer after school ends, knowing you have freedom up ahead. It’s like that first day of pure vacation bliss. Oh, and it doesn’t end in August or when you go back to work. It never ends.

It’s like that one book I read so long  ago. I can’t remember any of the detail, only that it was one of those books that I couldn’t put down and was sorry to see it end. Eternal life is the realization that this life now are like the title page and the introduction and the rest is the real beginning, a story where each chapter gets better than the last.

 

 

Family Bible

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“There’s a family Bible on the table each page is torn and hard to read
But the family Bible on the table will ever be my key to memories
At the end of day when work was over and when the evening meal was done
Dad would read to us from the family Bible
And we’d count our many blessings one by one
I can see us sittin’ round the table when from the family Bible dad would read
I can hear my mother softly singing rock of ages rock of ages cleft for me” ( P. Buskirk, W. Breeland, C. Gray).

I’m reading through the New English Bible this year. I picked it up at McKay’s Used Books, Movies, Music (and Everything Else Your Nerdy Little Heart Could Possibly Desire).

This Bible previously belonged to Jo Ann Hardin, who received it as a gift on September 5, 1975. She was married to Robert Allen Hardin on March 13, 1954 by the Rev. Cecil Ewell. They had four children.

She was good about taking notes and marking favorite passages in her Bible, and I benefit from it. I love to see what verses spoke to her and what struck her out of a sermon she heard on any given Sunday.

My mother has underlined and dated verses for years. If a given verse speaks to her or relates to her current circumstances, she highlights it and writes the date in the margins. That’s a good way to go back and see how God has been speaking through the years. After all, we are so very prone to forget.

I love how God doesn’t leave it to each new generation to figure out the faith-life. He provides the example of the preceding generations, the “cloud of witnesses,” to show us how it’s done.

I hope one day to pass a Bible on to some future generation to carry on the legacy of the Family Bible.

 

Something I Read Lately

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 4 Comments

philippians

 

I’ve prayed this prayer many times on many different occasions. Never once has God answered my prayer by changing my circumstances, i.e. making my life easier, taking away my difficulties, instantly transporting me to the other side of my trials. What He has done is reminded me ever so subtly that He will be with me as He always has during my dark road.

Peace isn’t always  a feeling of contentment. Sometimes, the butterflies remain but so does the promise that God won’t forsake me. For me, a feeling of peace doesn’t always mean peace, nor does a lack of it indicate its absence. Try and work that one out and see if it makes sense.

After all, it is a peace that is beyond my utmost understanding. I don’t need a god who I can figure out and manage and understand. I need a God who is bigger than me, stronger than me, wiser than me. I need a God who is completely Other than me (not a bigger, stronger, wiser version of me).

My advice to you? Keep praying for that peace that passes all understanding and keep claiming it, whether you feel it or not. Keep trusting that the God of peace is walking with you through your dark road.

Sometimes the absence of peace means there is something in your life that needs to change. You’ll generally have an idea of what that something is and how to go about making the changes. You can’t have peace if you’re consistently making choices that go against God’s Word and refuse to submit to His will for your life.

Even then, peace comes with repentance. Peace comes to those whose hearts are broken, like King David’s, over their sin. Peace comes to those who admit once again their total and complete dependence on God.

That’s all for tonight. Come back for something completely different. Or maybe more of the same. You never can tell with me.

 

 

 

Keep On Keeping On

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God’s Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God’s creation, says: “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to the conquerors!” (Revelation 3:14,20 MSG).

That’s who wins– the conquerors. Those who keep showing up day after day and never give in or give up. Those who stand by their convictions, no matter how popular they are, and don’t compromise for the sake of appeasing others and fitting in.

It may not feel like winning at the time. It may feel like all that you can do to make it out of bed, put on clothes, and put one foot in front of the other until it’s time to go to bed again.

You may feel defeated. You may feel hopeless. But you still keep getting up and going forth. Sometimes, that’s what winning looks like.

To be on Jesus’ side is to be on the winning side. To have Jesus in your corner is to already be more than a conqueror.

Jesus has read the past page in the last chapter of your book. In fact, He has written it. He knows how your story ends. He’s even promised that it would be the best ending you could ever imagine. And the best part? He’s not only read it; He’s in it as the main character. The hero.

Remember that the next time you feel dragged down and beat up by life. Just think about that when you’re closer than ever to throwing in that proverbial towel. You have already won.

 

 

Return to Randomness

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

This is what I do when I can’t think of anything productive to write about. I start typing and let the words fall where they may.

I’m thinking a lot about what it means to live gratefully. It’s harder than it sounds. It’s definitely counter-cultural when every other ad tells you that you need to be more, do more, buy more, invest more, and try harder in order to be happy. It’s funny how each of the ads has a different idea about what will make you whole and complete.

I’m thinking still about Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner. He/she may look and act different, but those old fears and hang-ups are still there. You can’t change yourself from the outside in– it’s the other way around. I do hope he/she finds true peace and fulfillment, but I wonder what will happen when all the hoopla dies down and they turn off the cameras.

True peace comes from knowing Jesus and reclining fully on everything He is– everything He said and did and promised– and believing in that completely. Not minus anything and not plus anything else.

The key to fulfillment (as I am learning) is to see your life as a gift and every adversity as a tool to chisel you into something better. That’s what truly transforms you. Plus, it costs a whole lot less than an operation.

I know people are struggling with issues that I can’t even begin to comprehend. I can look at a person’s profile picture on Facebook and see only a smiling face and not all the secret baggage, hurt, and pain that person bears each and every day.

I still believe that Jesus is in control and that He will set all things right one day soon. I still believe that nothing is impossible for God and it is never too late to become who you might have always been.

On top of all that, I’m starting to get interested in Major League Baseball again. According to Back to the Future Part II, the Chicago Cubs are supposed to win the World Series this year. Also, those day-glo hoverboards should start showing up just about any day now.

That’s all the randomness I can muster up for one night. I’ll see you again tomorrow with something more organized and normal.

 

Back at McKay’s

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God” (1 Corinthians 1:27-31, The Message).

If you’ve kept up with my posts, you know that my idea of heaven is a place like McKay’s Used Books, CDs, Movies & More. It’s a place where the inner book-nerd can bask in the glow of the warmth that comes from a warehouse filled with everything to satisfy his geeky little heart.

I went Saturday and did my usual trading old unwanted stuff for new wanted stuff. I picked up The Beatles Anthology Volumes 1 & 2. Lo and behold, when I got home I discovered that Volume 1 consisted of two Disc 2s and no Disc 1.

So I went back today. What else could a self-respecting multimedia nerd do?

I ended up trading in a bit more and picked up a fantastic (to me) CD called Music Box Christmas Creations (which I am currently listening to as I write this) for the princely sum of 19 cents.

I also got the Beatles Anthology Volume 1 with both discs.

I had thoughts of putting up a hammock and calling it home, but then I realized my cat Lucy might object. She’s already camping out on my backpack to keep me from leaving home after I spend four nights dog sitting in the Bellevue area.

The best place is still in the “Very Scratched” section. Most people will pass that up, but I’ve learned that with the miracle of a little 70% rubbing alcohol (and occasionally some toothpaste) you can get any CD with scratches to play, In fact, you really have to work hard to make a CD unplayable (as I’ve learned).

Most of us are like that. We’re not new. We’ve got some scratches and scars and wear and tear from a life of poor choices, unfortunate circumstances, and that old persistent problem called a sin nature.

God still chooses to use us. He goes to the discarded section and picks us out because He has plans for us. I love that about God.

I only wish I had more stuff to trade at McKay’s. Maybe one day soon.

 

Those Sleepless Nights

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I had a rough night last night. Well, that may be overstating things a bit. Last night, I didn’t sleep as well as I normally do. That’s more accurate.

I tossed and turned until after 1 am, then managed to wake up several more times in the night. At least I didn’t wake up one minute before my alarm is set to go off. That’s the absolute worst.

So I’m tired.

The Bible says that God grants sleep to those He loves.

I know that more than a few of you know what it’s like to go whole nights without sleeping. It can get to be a frustrating process, with you getting more and more weary and less and less able to sleep.

Maybe God has you up in the middle of the night for a reason. Maybe He’s putting something (or someone) on your mind to turn over to Him in prayer.

Pay attention to what God whispers in your ear on those sleepless nights. Maybe cease from all your tossing and turning and be still. Listen for that still, small voice that calls you Beloved.

I hope that I’ll sleep better tonight. I think I will. But in case I don’t, just know that I will likely be praying for some of you.