kingdom

Deep Album Cuts

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I’ve been listening to some Eagles albums. Most people associate them with songs like Hotel California and Takin’ It Easy. In fact, if you listen to most adult contemporary radio stations, you’d only think they ever recorded like five songs.

I personally have always been one who’s been drawn to the less popular stuff. Most of my musical tastes don’t necessarily align with what’s popular with most other people.

So far, the songs that have caught my attention are Saturday Night and I Wish You Peace. I doubt you’ll ever hear either one of those on the radio, but they’re really good songs.

I do believe the life of faith is like that. Some of the best people and experiences  come from the most unlikely of places. Sometimes, the best relationships are the ones where you have to dig a little deeper to find the proverbial diamond hidden in all that rough.

God’s motus operandi is to look for the least likely kind of people to do His best work. He almost never goes for the obvious choices– the learned, the religious, the well-to-do. He usually picks peasants, shepherds, foreign astrologers, fishermen.

I’m thankful He operates that way. I’m one of those God chose. So are you. Some of you probably know what it’s like to be passed over and always picked last. But not with God.

God chose you and me not because there wasn’t anybody else left to choose. He didn’t choose us because the people He really wanted were unavailable.

He chose us because He wanted us. He pursued us because He had set His affection on us and desired that we be a part of His Kingdom.

That’s a good reminder on a cold and rainy day where the sunshine seems a long way off. That’s something to hold on to in the midst of a long week full of Mondays.

So take heart and give thanks for a God who likes those deep album cuts as much as the popular stuff.

 

Thag You Very Buch Again

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“Thorin looked and walked as if his kingdom was already regained and Smaug chopped up into little pieces. Then, as he said, the dwarves’ good feeling towards the little hobbit grew stronger every day. There were no more groans or grumbles. They drank to his health, and they patted him on the back, and they made a great fuss of him; which was just as well, for he was not feeling particularly cheerful. He had not forgotten the look of the Mountain, nor the thought of the dragon, and he had beside a shocking cold. For three days he sneezed and coughed, and he could not go out, and even after that his speeches at banquets were limited to “Thag you very buch” (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit).

Once again, I have a cold. At least that’s my amateur non-medical opinion. I have a scratchy throat, stuffed nose, and a fluffy head. Oh, for the joys of being able to sleep in tomorrow.

I know most guys turn into babies when they have colds. At least that’s what the prevalent opinion is all over social media. I for one am not going to dispute that. I will crawl into my bed in the fetal position and possibly suck my thumb.

I am thankful that I got my flu shot this year. Colds are bad but the flu is worse. I should know.

Still, I am grateful for another day to be alive, even if I don’t feel so alive at the moment. When I ask a friend of mine how he’s doing, he almost always responds with “I’m living the dream.”

That’s me. I can say I’m living the dream. I’m living God’s dream for me and I eagerly await to see how that dream will unfold, but I know it will be good. It will be better than my wildest dreams and beyond my imagination.

Maybe I’ll dream about that instead of having the usual cold-inspired weird dreams that I normally have when I’m under the weather.

 

Politics, Schmolitics

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“The anything-goes passiveness of the religious and political Left is matched by the preachy moralism of the religious and political Right. The person who uncritically embraces any party line is guilty of an idolatrous surrender of her core identity as Abba’s Child. Neither liberal fairy dust nor conservative hardball addresses our ragged human dignity” (Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging).

“All religious and political systems, Right and Left alike, are the work of human beings.  Abba’s children will not sell their birthright for any mess of pottage, conservative or liberal.  They hold fast to their freedom in Christ to live the gospel-uncontaminated by cultural junk, political wreckage, and the complex hypocrisies of a bullying religion” (Brennan Manning).

Yep. That sums it up.

I normally don’t post anything political on any of my social media sites because anything that smacks of politics tends to generate reactions rather than well-thought-out responses. These days most people seem to fall into one of two camps– either those who blindly support the current President and think he’s nearly divine or those who hate him and everything he does and have labeled him as the Anti-Christ. At least that’s the way it seems to me.

It was the same 8 years ago with the last President. For some he could do no wrong. For others, he could do nothing write.

I love the song that says that my hope isn’t in a flag or a President or a country, but in a King and a Kingdom. That’s where my ultimate allegiance lies. That’s where my ONLY allegiance lies.

True, the Bible does say to respect, honor, and obey those in power, but that service is done as to God Himself.

So yeah, I take all these comments I see on Facebook and Twitter with a grain of salt. A very, very large grain of salt. Ultimately, my future hope isn’t in this President or the next. It isn’t in a political party. It’s in the Jesus who was Lord before George Washington took office and will be Lord after the last President leaves office.

That’s my soapbox blog for the year, people.

A Non-Advent Prayer That I Love

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I know this prayer has very little to do with Christmas or Advent or even cold weather, but I just LOVE it.

“Dear Lord, you are the first of the just. You lived the righteous life. It is because of you that your heavenly Father keeps this world in existence and shows his mercy to us sinners.

Who am I, Lord, to expect your love, protection, and mercy?

Who am I to deserve a place in your heart, in your house, in your kingdom?

Who am I, Lord, to hope in your forgiveness, your friendship, your embrace?

And still this is what I am waiting for, expecting, even counting on!

Not because of my own merits, but solely because of your immense mercy. You lived for us the life that is pleasing to God. O Lord, you are the just one, the blessed one, the beloved one, the righteous one, the gracious one.

I pray that your Father, the Father of all people, the One who created me and sustains me day in and day out, may recognize in me your marks and receive me because of you. Help me to follow you, to unite my life with yours and to become a mirror of your love. Amen.”

-Henri J.M. Nouwen
A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee

Confessions of a Ragamuffin (inspired by good conversation tonight at Ben & Jerrys)

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My greatest fear is that people will find out who I really am deep down inside and will leave me and want nothing else to do with me. I project my own self-condemnation onto others and believe that they are angry with me or upset with me or have written me off when it is just me that is not liking me.

Most of the time, I feel the constant need to be approved, affirmed and admired by everyone and my biggest peeve is to be ignored (or to feel that I am ignored). I try to be all spiritual and come across as so very wise and super-saint, when many times the words coming out of my mouth feel like hay and rubble that will not stand the test of the fire. I say I trust in God, but I am almost always working on a backup plan in case God fails me and does not come through for me. I am a mess.

I am also beloved by the God who knows all this about me and more. He was not willing that I should perish, but that I should come to repentence and He will not ever stop loving me. I am blessed. I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies (so why do I still want more?). I am becoming who God has already declared me to be. I am constantly amazed just about every single day at the extreme lengths God will go to in order to prove Himself to me through friends, circumstances, reminders and (most importantly) through His Word.

Thank you to my friends who have inspired me by their honesty and willingness to be naked emotionally and spiritually. Your words and actions make me want to be more like my Jesus. You help pull me out of myself (notice how many “I”s are in this blog) and keep me wanting to live for a kingdom bigger than my own. You will never ever know how you have blessed me. I feel like I have given one tenth of what you have given me, but I want to do more.

So who am I? I am not my weaknesses or my strengths. My greatest strengths apart from God become my biggest weaknesses and the biggest obstacles to me being who God wants me to be. My greatest weaknesses in the hands of God will turn into His perfect strength working in and through me to impact the world around me. I am BELOVED, BLESSED and BECOMING LIKE JESUS. My Abba is very fond of me.

As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.