god

The Apoc-eclipse Has Come!

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Today, August 21, 2017, will be known as the day that I officially saw a solar eclipse. With my solar eclipse glasses firmly in place, of course. Going blind from retina damage is definitely not on my bucket list.

It started around 11:58 with the total eclipse part coming in at 1:30. It was amazing. It helped that my viewing location was at my sister’s neighborhood pool.

The verse in the Psalms comes to mind about the heavens declaring the glory of God and the skies proclaiming the work of His hands, and I can’t think of any other time when that was more evident than today. Truly, it was as much a work of art as it was a natural phenomenon.

I’m not sure I can fully explain all that goes into an eclipse, or what it happens. I can say that I’m thankful to have seen it at least once in my life time.

One element that will stick with me is the phenomenon known as shadow snakes. Just before and just after the moon covers the surface of the sun, apparitions can sometimes appear on the ground that look to the casual observer like snakes crawling away. To me, they looked more like reflections of rippling water in a pond.

I’m sure my new kitten Peanut was confused by it getting dark in the middle of the day. Or possibly she used it as a good excuse for taking a nap– the Johnson tradition.

I’m also thankful that my boss decided to give us all the day off to experience this phenomenon with our friends, family, and other loved ones.

PS On a sad side note, I realized today that it’s been exactly two months since my beloved Lucy crossed the rainbow bridge. I still miss her and think about her at some point every day. I still wish that rainbow bridge had visiting hours.

I will always love and miss you, Lucy.

 

 

Everybody Can Serve

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“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Today at The Church at Avenue South, Pastor Aaron referenced the old 20/80 rule. Basically, 20% of any given local church will end up doing 80% of the ministry.

He said that in sports, not everyone is allowed on the field. In football, only 11 people can be on the field for any one team. The rest must sit on the sidelines or in the stands and spectate.

Not so in the kingdom of God. There shouldn’t be anyone spectating when it comes to service and ministry. We’re all called to engage and to serve. In the Book of Revelation, we are called a kingdom and priests. That means that we don’t pay someone else to do the work of God on earth. We’re the ones who do the work.

There’s a word for those who sit on the sidelines and watch– disobedience.

It’s interesting that the ones who do most of the complaining and gossiping and divisive talk in churches are usually the ones who are sitting on the sidelines and not engaged in active ministry.

I also think it’s important to not get so caught up in doing for God to where your faith becomes a performance-based religion instead of a relationship. There’s always a balance. To me, that happy medium is where you serve out of a love-filled heart from spending time with God.

The happy medium is where we serve and are served, where we minister to each other and with each other to others.

Each of us has gifts and unique talents. Each of us has been called to serve in a way that no one else on the planet can serve.

Let’s get off the sidelines and into the work of the ministry.

I’m Ready for Fall (Again)

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It’s still summer, or as I prefer to call it, the sweaty stinky weather season. I think I started sweating profusely on June 21 and have not stopped since.

I’m ready for fall.

There will be people who say that summer weather is best, and that 95 degrees with 110% humidity makes for a perfect day. Do not trust these people.

Also don’t trust the people who wear sweaters or jackets when it’s over 85 outside. I sweat even more even being around these people. Don’t they know it’s hot? Don’t they know that I’m about to have a heat stroke?

I love fall not only for the cooler temperatures. For me, autumn has a way of conjuring so many happy memories from my past. It has a way of bringing up faces and places that I hadn’t thought of in years.

Plus, there’s the added benefit of all things pumpkin spice, bonfires, hot tea, hayrides, s’mores, crisp breezes, leaves changing colors, and flannel (which I’ve always felt was like wearing an extended hug).

Sometimes I think I’d like to reverse hibernate. I could take an extended nap during the hotter months and wake up when the cool weather and crispness returns.

For those who are curious, there are 33 days, 16 hours, and 2 minutes left until the official start of fall season. Not that I’m counting or anything.

Another Week in the Books

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I read somewhere that the first five days of the week are always the hardest.

This week wasn’t necessarily bad or hard, just long. Each day felt a week long and the week itself felt like a month.

The good news is that I was able to accomplish a lot.

The bad news is that I am completely and utterly pooped.

The best news is that the weekend has arrived and I can hopefully rest a bit.

I still believe the best approach to living when the days get long is to take it one day at a time, one hour at a time, one moment at a time. Live the moment you’re in to the fullest and let the next one come when it comes.

Be thankful in all the moments and the miracle of being fully alive to God’s presence will come.

It helps to have a pet to come home to who will be a source of comfort and stress relief.

It helps to have at least one friend to whom you can be completely honest, who will ask the tough questions, and won’t settle for surface answers like “I’m fine” when he or she asks how you’re doing.

It helps to exercise and get in at least 30 minutes a day of brisk activity, especially if it’s out in nature. Losing yourself in the outdoors is one of the best kinds of therapy I know of.

It helps to do something you love once a day, like reading a good book or watching a favorite TV show or simply relaxing in a hammock. It gives you something to look forward to when the day seems unending.

Most of all, if helps if you remember that your identity and self-worth come not from your performance but in how God sees you. Once you can fully embrace that God calls you His Beloved and live out of that, you can better face the obstacles in your day knowing that the victory is already won.

 

A Good Mid-Week Prayer

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“Lord
Enlighten what’s dark in me,
Strengthen what’s weak in me,
Mend what’s broken in me,
Bind what’s bruised in me
Heal what’s sick in me,
And lastly,
Revive whatever peace and love
Has died in me.
Amen.”

Many of us come to this point in the week and wonder how we can ever muster up enough energy and strength to make it through the second half of the weak.  We already feel so depleted and drained.

The hope expressed in this prayer is that when we feel completely inadequate, we find that God is truly enough. God is our strength in weakness, our joy in despair, our overcoming in defeat.

I found another prayer you can say when feeling weary and overburdened. I’m posting a link to the source so you can read the rest and subscribe if you like what you read.

http://www.motheringspirit.com/2015/08/the-theology-of-tired-and-a-prayer-for-the-sleep-deprived/?subscribe=success#blog_subscription-2

Anyway, here’s that prayer as promised:

“God, I am tired.
Give me rest. Give me peace when there is not enough rest.
Grant me patience. Grant me forgiveness when there is not enough patience.
Lend me clarity. Lend me charity when there is not enough clarity.
Help me love. Help me believe there is always enough love.
Amen.”

Last of all, I wanted to add a benediction I found on the inter-webs. It’s a fitting close to this blog post:

“May God the Father
prepare your journey,
Jesus the Son
guide your footsteps,
The Spirit of Life
strengthen your body,
The Three in One
watch over you,
on every road
that you may follow.”

Amen to that.

I Got Nothing (Again)

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I’ve been sitting here, meaning to create something beautiful and meaningful to share with all of you via social media. Instead, I’ve been looking at pictures of cats on Facebook again. Oh, those crazy felines.

I’m a little sad that people still believe that they are superior to others based solely on the color of their skin. I would have thought that kind of thinking died out with the Jim Crow laws and segregation from the 50’s. It’s the height of ignorance to think that people who look different than you are somehow less.

Then again, I catch glimpses of what’s in my own heart from time to time. I see snatches of what I could have been apart from the grace of God, and it’s not a pretty picture. I know that I as a fallen human being am capable of the worst kind of cruelty and hatred imaginable.

I believe that Jesus died for all people. That includes the woman who died while protesting in Charlottesville. That includes the man who was driving the car that ran her over. No one is ever excluded from the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. No one.

You don’t fight hatred with more hatred. You fight it with love. Not the sentimental, sappy kind of love that’s vague and tolerates everything, but the kind that led Jesus to a cross. The kind that led Him to forgive those who were in the very act of murdering Him.

As the saying goes, always be kind because you never know what private battles people are facing. You never know when it will be you who is struggling and desperately longing for kindness from someone else.

And now back to those crazy cat videos. Those just never seem to get old, do they?

 

 

My Takeaways from the Wild and Wacky World of Politics

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I normally don’t get into too much political speculation on these blog posts, but I feel like this one is just about dying to get out. Here are some of my takeaways from what I’ve seen of the political world lately:

  1. When it comes to the media, I follow the old X-Files mantra– “Trust no one.” I think these days, the media indoctrinates more than it informs and I feel like facts and the truth often lose out to biases, agendas, and spin. As an actor put it, if you don’t read (and watch) the news, you’re uninformed. If you do, then you’re misinformed.
  2. I still believe that if you’re not an Independent by now, you’re either 1) not paying close enough attention, 2) still drinking either the red or the blue kool aid, or 3) ignorant of the fact that both parties kowtow the knee to the interests of lobbyists and special interest groups and no longer represent the American people.
  3. We’re all in this boat together. Red and yellow, black, and white, as the song goes, are all precious in God’s sight. White supremacy is a doctrine straight from the pit of hell, and no one who claims to follow Jesus (who was not white) can in the same breath condemn anyone else on the basis of their gender or ethnicity or background.
  4. That love your enemies thing? Yeah, Jesus really meant that. It’s easy to love those who love you back, who are on your side politically. It’s easy to fall into self-righteousness when condemning the other side (anyone who disagrees with you) as imbecilic and evil. But those who follow Jesus heed His words to love your enemies and pray for those who actively persecute you (which meant those Romans who were pretty much bad guys on an epic scale).
  5. I’m still looking for kindness and grace from either side in the political arena and finding it way less common than arrogance, sanctimoniousness, and that self-righteous smugness that is convinced that anyone who has even the tiniest amount of heart and brains will be on your side. A smidge of humility would go a long way in this dialogue.
  6. Ultimately, I know that the problems of this nation aren’t political or social or racial or anything other than spiritual. As I heard it put once, it’s not a skin problem nearly as much as it is a sin problem, and we’re all sinners in need of the grace of God.

More Wisdom from Mr. Bonhoeffer

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“Do not worry! Earthly goods deceive the human heart into believing that they give it security and freedom from worry. But in truth, they are what cause anxiety. The heart which clings to goods receives with them the choking burden of worry. Worry collects treasures, and treasures produce more worries. We desire to secure our lives with earthly goods; we want our worrying to make us worry-free, but the truth is the opposite. The chains which bind us to earthly goods, the clutches which hold the goods tight, are themselves worries.

Abuse of earthly goods consists of using them as a security for the next day. Worry is always directed toward tomorrow. But the goods are intended only for today in the strictest sense. It is our securing things for tomorrow which makes us so insecure today. It is enough that each day should have its own troubles. Only those who put tomorrow completely into God’s hand and receive fully today what they need for their lives are really secure. Receiving daily liberates me from tomorrow” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

Give us this day our daily bread. That means that God gives us just what we need for each moment and for each day, not for next month or next week or even tomorrow, but for today.

I also believe we are to live each day our daily bread. That is, live each day being present to each moment and not dwelling on past might-have-beens or future could-yet-happens.

That said, I confess that I am an expert worrier. I suck at living out the principle of daily bread. I feel like I’m much too anxious about if I’ll have enough or do enough or be enough for tomorrow that I can’t fully appreciate and engage today.

Give us this day our daily bread. Give me enough of You for today that I can be all that You created me to be today. Amen.

PS That post on the sermon from Kairos will hopefully come tomorrow. I haven’t forgotten. At least not completely.

Fall Sneak Preview Part 2

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Just when I thought that summer had returned in full and brutal strength, today happened. It was another one of those cooler, almost fall-ish days that make me long even more for the real thing.

It also happened to be Kairos tonight. I had the privilege of greeting the good folks as they meandered in from the parking lot. My goal is to be a smiling friendly face on a day when many people may not have seen a lot of smiles or experienced much happiness.

I confess I smile a little easier when the weather’s not unbearably hot and oppressively humid. It’s easier to be friendly when you’re not melting into a puddle in the middle of the sidewalk like the Wicked Witch of the West.

The drive home was even better. I was able to roll the windows down and let the night air in, even if it did ruffle up my hair a bit. I don’t think my kitten will mind my messed-up hair too much.

Again, I’m reminded that gratitude for the smallest blessings makes the bigger blessings come. Being thankful gives you eyes of faith to see the bigger blessings.

Another sneak preview– tomorrow I will hopefully write about the sermon by guest speaker Kelly Minter on being obedient to the fullest. In the meantime, don’t forget to count your blessings one by one . . . all of them.

 

A Word from Mr. Bonhoeffer

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“Thankfulness works in the Christian community as it usually does in the
Christian life. Only those who give thanks for the little things receive the
great things as well. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts
prepared for us because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think that
we should not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge,
experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be
seeking the great gifts. Then we complain that we lack the deep certainty, the
strong faith, and the rich experiences that God has given to other Christians,
and we consider these complaints to be pious. We pray for the big things and
forget to give thanks for the small (and yet really not so small!) gifts we
receive daily. How can God entrust great things to those who will not
gratefully receive the little things from God’s hand?” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

To receive the greater gifts and blessings, it’s important for us to give thanks for the seemingly smaller gifts (which in hindsight turn out to be not quite so small after all).

Above all, I think it’s important to give thanks for each day God wakes us up and not take for granted another 24 hours that we got to see and touch and taste and smell and live.

No matter what happened today, good or bad or ugly, the fact that you survived is an indication that God’s not done with you and that He still has a purpose for you being here.

I believe those who are the happiest and most joyful are the ones who are grateful for everything, not just the obvious blessings. I know those are the people I want to get to know and to be like. May we all be those kinds of thankful people.