brennan manning

An Inauspicious Start to 2018

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

In all my wildly imagined scenarios, never did I picture myself standing in the 5 degree weather at 6:20 am, waiting for a tow truck.

It all started normally enough until I went to take a left turn out of my subdivision. First the power steering went, then the power. My car stalled mid-turn.

I sincerely repent of all my comments about all temperatures below 20 being the same. They’re not.

In my short wait for a AAA tow truck, I ran through all the possible causes of my Jeep being in a frozen coma on the side of the road (after I got out and managed to push it to the side of the road).

It could be anything from a bad battery to an engine apocalypse. I was hoping for a dead battery but secretly fearing worse.

Thankfully, the tow truck dude showed up within 20 minutes of me calling AAA for roadside assistance.

Thankfully, he took me to an auto shop close to where I work. They were able to take my car and drop me off at work.

Thankfully, all my beloved Jeep needed was a new battery.

It really could have been much worse on so many levels.

At least I wasn’t pulling out onto a busy street when my car died.

At least I was able to get to work and get my car taken care of.

At least it wasn’t a monumental, wallet-sucking repair.

So a day that started off bad ended up good.

Truly, God is still able to work all things together for good for His beloved, even at a ridiculously early morning hour on a frigid January 2 day.

It’s all about being intentionally grateful and not taking my every day blessings for granted. It’s about thanks-living and not just thanksgiving.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

 

A New Year’s Day Poem

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this on the eve of the new year 1945, the year in which he would later be executed by Hitler, days before the concentration camp he was in was liberated by the Allies. Note: this may or may not be a repeat, but if so, it’s worth a second read.

“By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
and confidently waiting, come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
and never fails to greet us each new day.

Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
O give our frightened souls the sure salvation,
for which, O Lord, you taught us to prepare.

And when this cup you give is filled to brimming,
with bitter sorrow, hard to understand,
we take it thankfully and without trembling,
out of so good and so beloved a hand.

Yet when again in this same world you give us,
the joy we had, the brightness of your sun,
we shall remember all the days we lived through,
and our whole life shall then be yours alone.”

Only God knows what 2018 will bring, but just as certainly we can know that whatever prevails, God will be with us all the way. He will still work all things together for your good and His glory.

I still believe that God’s plans are far better than mine, and whatever He brings ends up  exceeding anything I could have wished or dreamed for on my own.

My prayer for all of us is to know the love of God that passes all understanding and casts out all fear and anxiety, and to know that no matter what happens, for good or bad, that Emmanuel, God with us, is still with you and for you and in you.

 

 

A New Year’s Day Prayer for 2018

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I’m sharing this prayer from one of my heroes, Billy Graham, at 12:51 am on January 1, 2018. Happy new year!

“Our Father and our God, as we stand at the beginning of this new year we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance as we face the future.

We each have our hopes and expectations for the year that is ahead of us—but You alone know what it holds for us, and only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we will need to meet its challenges. So help us to humbly put our hands into Your hand, and to trust You and to seek Your will for our lives during this coming year.

In the midst of life’s uncertainties in the days ahead, assure us of the certainty of Your unchanging love.

In the midst of life’s inevitable disappointments and heartaches, help us to turn to You for the stability and comfort we will need.

In the midst of life’s temptations and the pull of our stubborn self-will, help us not to lose our way but to have the courage to do what is right in Your sight, regardless of the cost.

And in the midst of our daily preoccupations and pursuits, open our eyes to the sorrows and injustices of our hurting world, and help us to respond with compassion and sacrifice to those who are friendless and in need. May our constant prayer be that of the ancient Psalmist: ‘Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end’ (Psalm 119:33).

We pray for our nation and its leaders during these difficult times, and for all those who are seeking to bring peace and justice to our dangerous and troubled world. We pray especially for Your protection on all those who serve in our armed forces, and we thank You for their commitment to defend our freedoms, even at the cost of their own lives. Be with their families also, and assure them of Your love and concern for them.

Bring our divided nation together, and give us a greater vision of what You would have us to be. Your Word reminds us that ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord’ (Psalm 33:12).

As we look back over this past year we thank You for Your goodness to us—far beyond what we have deserved. May we never presume on Your past goodness or forget all Your mercies to us, but may they instead lead us to repentance, and to a new commitment to make You the foundation and center of our lives this year.

And so, our Father, we thank You for the promise and hope of this new year, and we look forward to it with expectancy and faith. This I ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, who by His death and resurrection has given us hope both for this world and the world to come.

Amen” (Billy Graham).

Happy New Year’s Adam 2017

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Well, it’s New Year’s Adam again. In case you forgot from last year, Adam came before Eve, so New Year’s Adam comes before New Year’s Eve. Then it’s 2018.

I’m still just getting used to 2017.

Seriously. By the time I adjusted to writing 2017 on everything, the year was already half over. Then it was Halloween. Then Thanksgiving. Then Christmas. Then bam! 2018!

I think 2017 was about fretting and worrying less and trusting more.

2017 was about learning how much worrying is really just planning for a future without God in it, and how the antidote to all that worry is trust and prayer.

Just as much as 2017 was, 2018 is in God’s hands.

 

Pray Big

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment


(Ann Voskamp)

With only two more days left in 2017, one resolution I intend to restart in 2018 is to pray bigger and bolder.

I’m not so much praying the impossible for myself (though I will be bold in my own prayers) as much as I’m praying it for family and friends.

Maybe our new motto, modified from the original Star Trek slogan, is to pray boldly where no man (or woman) has ever prayed before.

So pray big. Pray boldly. Pray in such a way that the answer can only be explained by God– and nothing or no one else.

Pray, knowing that the Holy Spirit still helps us when words fail and only groans and sighs come. Even if it seems you get it wrong, the Holy Spirit always gets it right.

Pray as much and as often as possible.

Just pray.

 

Come to Me

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, The Voice).

That’s the promise.

To all who are weary and heavy-laden, as the old King James puts it, to all who work to the point of exhaustion, as another translation puts it, there’s rest.

All you have to do is come to Jesus.

You don’t have to figure your life out or get your mess cleaned up.

You don’t have to have your five-year life plan perfectly mapped out or all your goals and resolutions lined up for the new year.

You don’t have to have perfect theology or doctrines.

You don’t have to be perfect.

All you have to do is come to Jesus, and you will find rest.

 

 

 

It’s Resolution Time Again

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

By my count, we have 4 more days of 2017. That means it’s time for those new year’s resolutions again.

I have some advice, not original with me, about how to go about making those resolutions go from wishful thinking to reality.

  1. Write them down somewhere. Even if it’s on a roll of toilet paper, writing them down moves them from hypothetical to real goals.
  2. Make them tangible and visual. Don’t just say that you want to lose weight. Say that you want to run in a 5K or fit into size 32 jeans.
  3. Make them realistic. Don’t aim to run an Ironman Triathlon if you’ve never done any serious running in your entire life.
  4. Celebrate the victories, even the small ones.
  5. Remember that the ultimate goal isn’t hitting goals but improving your quality of life.
  6. Make at least one goal very attainable, like taking a nap every day. Ok, that one’s mine, but I think it’s a good one.

So there you go. I actually wrote something that has bullet points and everything. Unlike my Pinterest boards, you can actually use it to do something constructive.

Now go and do it.

 

364 More Days

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Yes, it’s only 364 more days until Christmas 2018. Yes, I’m already counting.

I’m always a little sad when Christmas Day ends. I know that technically if you count the 12 days of Christmas, we have until January 6, the Day of Ascension.  But still, it feels like some of the magic has ended for another year.

Maybe this year, I’ll go crazy and watch Christmas movies in months other than December. I could always pick a few to watch on the 25th of each month.

Or maybe I could go even crazier and actually buy some of my Christmas gifts early, so I can actually enjoy the Advent and Christmas season without worrying about who will get what.

Best of all, I can always be like that old Ebenezer Scrooge at the end of A Christmas Carol and honor Christmas in my heart all the days of the year, especially the Child in the manger who doesn’t just live in the hearts of men and women one day of the year.

But you can rest assured that I WILL be counting down the days until December 25, 2018. Darn tootin’.

 

 

That Magic Blanket

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance – a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved” (Augusta E. Rundel).

If you asked me to name all the gifts I received last year, I’d probably get about half of them right. If you went further back — say five years– I probably wouldn’t have the first clue.

It’s not about the gifts. It’s about remembering and creating new memories.

It seems that on Christmas all the ones we’ve ever lost seem nearer, and their loss felt more keenly, than on any other day of the year. I even found myself missing my old cat Lucy more today than I have in a while.

It’s also remembering the Child born in the manger who grew up to be the Savior of the world. His life and death and resurrection mean that those we’ve lost don’t have to live on only in our memories. Those who have died in Jesus will be the first to be resurrected, and we will see them again.

Christmas and Easter mean that nothing good in this life is ever lost. True hope never dies and true faith never fails.

In 48 minutes, another Christmas will be in the books, but the meaning and spirit of the day will live on into 2018 and through all the days of all the years.

 

 

This is Still the Time God Chooses

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“For this is still the time God chooses.”

It still amazes me the way God broke into the world, not as a powerful ruler but as a helpless infant born to a peasant couple in backwoods Bethlehem.

It still amazes me how the first evangelists weren’t the highly trained religious scholars who had spent their entire lives searching the Scriptures but some smelly illiterate shepherds guarding their flocks on some remote hill out in the middle of nowhere.

It still amazes me that the place God chose to lay His head that first night wasn’t on some soft downy pillow but among the straw in a feeding trough.

It still amazes me that God chose to come on the darkest night at the bleakest moment in history and become Emmanuel, God with us.

It amazes me even more that God looked into the darkness of my own heart and said, “For this one, I’m willing to be born in order to die on a rugged cross.”

I’m most amazed that I’m not more astonished at this marvelous event. Most of the time, I take it for granted and presume on God’s mercies like I’m entitled to them, when in reality I’m the least deserving of but most overwhelmed by the grace of God.

Christmas reminds me of what a pastor once said about how heaven isn’t a reward for the righteous but a gift for the guilty. Emmanuel didn’t come for those who are confident in their own abilities and righteousness but for those who know how desperately they need a Savior. He came to seek and save those who know they are lost.

“When the time was right, the Anointed One died for all of us who were far from God, powerless, and weak. Now it is rare to find someone willing to die for an upright person, although it’s possible that someone may give up his life for one who is truly good. But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display—the Anointed One died for us” (Romans 5:6-8, The Voice).