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More About Me

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Since I have run out of ideas of what to write about, I thought I’d share a few tidbits about yours truly, i.e. me.

Some of this may be new and some may be old. Or it may all be old. I don’t really know. I’ve lost track after 2,149 blogs over almost 6 years.

  1. If I had to choose just one album to listen to for the rest of my life, I think it’d be Miles Davis’ A Kind of Blue. That album still takes me to a tranquil and happy place.
  2. I’m still not 100% decided, but I think if I had to choose just one kind of food to eat from now on, it would probably be sushi (or if I’m allowed to cheat a little, sushi and Thai). I’ve become a serious fan.
  3. I still wish I could go back in time, if only for a day, and have conversations with people I love who have passed. Especially my two uncles. I know we’d talk about music the entire time.
  4. If I could pick any place to live, I think I’d like to live on Fair Street in Franklin. It’s like a fairy tale street and all the houses remind me of something out of a George MacDonald fantasy novel.
  5. The older I get, the older my music tends to get. Currently, I’m into country and acoustic blues from the 20’s and 30’s. In my opinion, it doesn’t get any more authentic than that.
  6. I still believe the healthiest place to be is to live in an others-centered way. The less you make life about you and your drama, the better. The more you focus on helping and serving others (and most of all serving God), the less time you have for drifting into a kind of narcissism where everything that happens in life ends up being about you. The absolute best way to deal with depression and grief is to find someone else with a need that you can meet and to go meet that need.
  7. Chocolate is still my favorite in the dessert world but there’s something about hot drinks with vanilla or vanilla-scented anything that takes me to a Calgon-like happy place.

I think that about covers it for now.

Waiting

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“Young women . . ., I charge you: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time” (Song of Solomon 8:4, Holman Christian Standard Bible).

In my quest to read through the Bible in a year, I recently went though Song of Solomon. I noticed several places where the verse said to not awaken love until the appropriate time.

I have some observations about relationships (from the serial non-dater, so take it for what it’s worth):

Too many are in too much of a hurry to get into a relationship that they’re not considering whether the person they are pursuing may or may not be who God has for them, or even if the person is compatible in terms of sharing faith and life goals.

Too many are so wrapped up in planning every detail of the perfect wedding, yet they have failed to even begin to plan for a godly marriage. No one remembers the beautiful wedding if the marriage tanks. No one.

Too many are staying in relationships because they’ve already invested so much time and effort. As I read recently, don’t cling to a mistake because you spent a lot of time making it.

As much as it sucks to be alone, it’s much worse to be in a bad relationship where you and the other have nothing in common and are pulling in two different directions. To be with someone who mocks and belittles your dreams and only offers you negativity is way worse than being by yourself.

Learn to be alone without being lonely. If you can’t really ever be alone, then you’re not ready to be with someone else. If you’re not comfortable and complete in who God made you to be, then there’s no one who’s going to fix you and make you whole.

Take this with a grain of salt. Or a huge bucketful of salt. But whatever you do, make sure that if you enter into any kind of relationship, pray over it and make certain in your heart it’s what God wants for you instead of asking God to bless what you’ve already decided.

 

Slow Down And Just Be

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“Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing…. Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away” (Ann Voskamp, 1000 Gifts).

Two words: slow down.

All around me all I see is impatience. On my commute to and from work, I see that the majority of people have an extreme lack of patience and an acute inability to wait. But good things come to those who wait, as I have tested and found true over the course of my life.

You can’t rush maturity. You can’t rush healing. You can’t rush growth. All the things that are worthwhile in this life take time. There is no microwave shortcut to becoming your best self.

I’m learning how to be still and listen. I’m still not very good at it. I can’t seem to quiet my mind long enough to hear anything outside my own head sometimes. But if you can be still and silent, maybe you will hear the whisper of God over you and find healing and salvation there.

Slow down and steep yourself in as many moments as possible. Put down the social media and actually be present in your own life. See what’s around you and look for God in all the places and people around you and you will find joy and blessing there.

God still says to you and me to be still and know that He is God. Cease striving. You will never find God in the hustle and bustle. It’s in the silence and solitude that God speaks to us.

Slow down.

While You’re Here

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I heard something tonight at Kairos that got me thinking.

Basically, the main speaker, Chris Brooks, was speaking of relationships and said something to the effect that one of the things a woman should look for in a man is how he is investing in his friends and giving himself away for those he loves. Chris said that true love doesn’t wait in the sense that you don’t wait until you’ve found that special someone to become the right person.

Maybe that applies to more than just relationships.

Perhaps you’re in a job that’s not your dream job. Work as though it were your dream job and give your absolute best every single day, and maybe one day a door will open for you to find your dream job.

Maybe you’re in a season of life that isn’t where you thought you would have been in by now. Learn to embrace your circumstances and find the joys in each day of living– including the ultimate gift of being alive.

Don’t mark time while you wait the next phase of life. Be the best possible you, trust God as fully as you know how, and leave the results to Him. Do everything in your power to make the small world around you, and the people in it, better for your having been there.

There is no rewind on the remote control of life. You don’t ever get to go back and relive a moment once it’s gone. The key is to live each moment while it’s still in the present rather than looking ahead to what may be or looking back to what might have been.

In the Bible, Ruth didn’t waste time chasing down her Boaz. She was faithful where she was to the one she was with– her mother-in-law. She loved and served  the person right in front of her with everything she had.

I can think of no better example of how to live in a season of waiting.

 

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

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I had a frustrating experience today. I had my massive quantities of potato salad in tow and was on my way to a singles cookout at Edwin Warner Park for this Memorial Day. The only issue I had was that I never got there.

I spent at least an hour driving up and down Highway 100, walking up and down a few trails, to no avail. I still have no idea where pavilion #9 is. I gave up and went back home.

A thought popped in my head: if that’s the worst that ever happens to me, I’m doing okay. I’m not saying I want to repeat the experience. It was like something out of one of the nightmares I used to have where I never could find what I was looking for.

But look at the upside. I had a nice drive with some good tunes playing in my car. I got some exercise in. I emerged unscathed and only mildly annoyed. I think I will survive.

People I know have been through far worse. Some are in the midst of going through far worse. Some are getting very close to saying a final goodbye to loved ones.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the same God who makes sunshine and sunny days also walks with us through the deepest darkest valleys imaginable. He takes the absolute worst case scenario and turns even that into something glorious and good. That’s what God does.

That doesn’t make the dark days any less bleak. It does provide a ray of hope in the midst of those days. It means that your worst moment will never be your last moment. God will make it right. He will see to it.

I still have lots of potato salad left over if anyone wants some. It’s really good.

 

The Paraclete

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“I will ask the Father to send you another Helper, the Spirit of truth, who will remain constantly with you. The world does not recognize the Spirit of truth, because it does not know the Spirit and is unable to receive Him. But you do know the Spirit because He lives with you, and He will dwell in you” (John 14:16-17, The Voice).

I saw something remarkable today. I’m a greeter at The Church at Avenue South, so I stood at my usual position at the front door and welcomed the good folks on their way into the building.

I saw an older man walking beside a younger man. Upon further inspection, he had his arm around the younger man’s arm, guiding him toward the door. As they drew nearer, it became apparent that the young man was blind. Ok, so I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes.

That to me was a beautiful picture of the Holy Spirit, who is often called the Paraclete. That translates as Comforter, but it literally means “One who walks alongside.”

I couldn’t help thinking after this morning how often the Holy Spirit will come alongside us and guide us into truth in much the same way. I know that I can so often be like the Pharisees who bragged about how they could see but were really so blind to the truths coming out of Jesus’ mouth.

Often, I need help getting where Jesus wants me to go. On my own, I’ve been known to stray from the narrow path and miss what Jesus is trying to tell me.

That picture will always be in my mind. It wasn’t a picture of someone being frog-marched against their will but of gentle nudges in the right direction. It was complete trust and surrender that the one leading knew best.

Do you and I trust that the Holy Spirit of God knows best? Will we allow ourselves to be lead by Someone who knows where He is leading us and that it is for our ultimate good? Will we surrender to our ideas of where we need to go and what we need to do and simply follow unquestioningly without hesitation?

That’s my prayer for tonight. I hope it’s yours as well.

There Will Be Days

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“How fortunate are those You discipline, O Eternal One,
    those You train by Your divine law;
You relieve them in times of distress,
    until a grave is dug for evildoers” (Psalm 94:12-13, The Voice).

There will be days when you’re not at your best. You won’t be 100% and you might even feel a bit fuzzy-headed.

There will be days when all the old fears and anxieties that you thought you had mastered come rushing back once more to haunt you.

There will be days when it feels like two steps forward and roughly about 9,998 steps backward.

There will be days when the lies seem so much easier to believe than God’s promises and God seems so very far away.

There will be days that you start off already feeling weary and worn even before your first cup of coffee.

God uses even these days to mature you and prune you and refine you. God works even these days for your ultimate good.

You can still find blessings and gifts on days like these if you know where to look and how to look in anticipation with joy and thanksgiving.

These days still only last 24 hours and not one second longer.

You will get through. God will see to it.

 

What I’m Up To These Days

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So I’m sure that many of you are dying to know what I’ve been up to lately. You know, like what amazing music I’m listening to and what great restaurants I’ve been frequenting. Because I am such the trend-setter.

I’ve continued my old-school trend. In the car today, I listened to a Steely Dan retrospective and Miles Davis’ Miles Ahead (another fantastic collaboration between Miles and Gil Evans).

I tried out a new (to me) Thai restaurant on 8th Avenue South called the Smiling Elephant. It was as good as the hype had led me to believe it would be. If you go there, be sure to order the Pad Thai. You will be wanting to slap yo momma.

I picked up a classic devotional at Goodwill called Come Away, My Beloved. Think of it as a kind of early version of Jesus Calling. And it was only $2.99. Win.

I’m still trying to figure out how to slow down and savor more when I’m reading God’s Word. I’m ahead of schedule on my plan to read through the Bible in a year (I’m working through Isaiah as of this writing) and I don’t want to speed-read through and miss out on what God might want to say to me.

Oh, and I could use a couple extra hours in the day, solely for the purpose of getting more sleep. I find that 5:15 comes ridiculously early these days, though it is nice to see the sun already rising when I wake up.

Every day of life is still a miracle not to be wasted on bitterness, regret, anger, fear, or envy. Every set of 24 hours is unique and precious and will not come again, so make the most of each day like it might be your last. Don’t die wishing you could have a second chance to do what you never got to do the first time.

 

 

Blinded by the Light

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I’ve been thinking quite a bit about something I heard recently about the Apostle Paul. Hopefully, you’re familiar with the story of how Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and how he was blinded by the radiance of the risen Christ.

The gist of what I heard was this: Paul’s subsequent blindness wasn’t from the absence of light but from too much of it. All Paul could see for the days and weeks that followed was the brilliant light of Jesus’ countenance. Even after, his sight was affected by this encounter (I think) to the point that he called it the thorn in his flesh.

That’s what I want. I want to be so captivated by the radiance of Jesus’ face to the point that He’s all I see. To the point where it changes the way I see everything else. To the point where everything else grows strangely dim in the glory of His resurrected presence. To the point where all the trinkets everyone else seems to be chasing lose their luster for me.

I want to be like Moses whose face literally glowed from the effects of his encounters with God, speaking face to face as with a friend. He was so transformed by his time with God that it unnerved people and they asked that he cover his face because it bothered them so much.

I don’t want people who meet me to say what a great guy I am or how witty or intelligent I am. I hope and pray they will remark on how wonderful Jesus is in the way He can take a single life and completely transform it. If they completely forget about me and remember that they encountered Jesus in a real and lasting way, I will have done what I was put on this earth to do.

Making Every Day a Sabbath

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“There are days when we seek things
for ourselves and measure failure
by what we do not gain.

On Shabbat, we seek not to acquire
but to share.

There are days when we exploit nature
as if it were a horn of plenty
that can never be exhausted.

On Shabbat, we stand in wonder
before the mystery of creation.

There are days when we act as if we
cared nothing for the rights of others.

On Shabbat, we remember that justice is
our duty and a better world our goal.

So we embrace Shabbat:
day of rest, day of wonder, day of peace” (Mishkan T’Filah, Shabbat service– borrowed from 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker)

You can argue all day long about whether Sabbath belongs on a Saturday or a Sunday. I personally believe the day isn’t as important as what you do with it.

Sabbath is a day of rest and restoration. Not necessarily a day of doing nothing. Perhaps it’s a day when you step back from the rat race and let yourself breathe in and out and just be.

Sabbath is a day to remember that it’s not up to you to get it all done. In fact, the most vitally important work has already been done. God in Jesus did it through Calvary.

The universe does not revolve around you and all your drama. You aren’t the point of the story God is writing but you still get to play a part in it. You do matter very much to the same God who never lets a sparrow fall to the ground.

The world will go on just fine if you step out for a moment. Contrary to popular opinion, the universe will not cease to exist if you take a break from your hectic 24/7 schedule. Go and take that nap.

Sabbath is about trusting the Maker of the Universe to keep it going. To keep you going. To keep you safe. To keep you sane. To get you through and get you home.