Ragamuffin Gospel

Monday, Monday

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It’s another Monday.

You could look at it with dread as an awful end to the weekend and a terrible way to start the week, or you could choose to see it as just another day in the week.

Or you could view it as one more day you get to celebrate the absolute miracle of being alive.

It’s your choice. You always have a choice.

You can look for the negative or the positive in people and situations. You can dwell in bitterness about how others mistreated you and how you screwed up royally time after time, or you can choose to see these events as opportunities to learn and grow and become a better person.

Maybe you can even choose to forgive others and yourself.

You don’t naturally drift into joy and contentment. You choose it daily in a thousand different ways in a thousand different places.

Even Mondays can be good if you choose to see it that way.

That, and lots of coffee. Coffee always helps.

 

The Key to Life

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“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, MSG).

That’s it.

Rejoice. Pray Always. Give Thanks.

That is God’s will for you.

Do these three things repeatedly until they each become a habit and you will be better off for it.

I didn’t say that you will come into untold riches and fame.

I didn’t say that everything in your life will automatically go smoothly from here on out.

I did say that you will find joy and fulfillment in living out of the center of God’s will for you.

Rejoice. Pray Always. Give thanks.

Nothing to Report Here

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I’m enjoying a very low-key Saturday night. I’m hanging out with three very sleepy dogs in the Bellevue area of West Nashville. I’m actually having a little trouble keeping my eyes open. Such the party scene this is.

I love dog-sitting. I love dogs, too, even though I am a self-professed cat person. I don’t believe you should have to choose one or the other. Both cats and dogs can be very loving and affectionate in their own ways.

The best part of all is that moment when you win an animal’s trust and a bond is formed. I tend to think that goes for people as well.

All it takes is patience and kindness. Both of those go a long way in just about every situation you find yourself in. Just patience and kindness.

I think social media could stand a little more patience and kindness, but that’s a topic that will have to wait for another day.

The Gospel as Fairy Tale: An Excerpt from One of My Favorite Books Ever

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This excerpt is from Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner. It remains one of my top ten favorite books of all time.

“LIKE THE FAIRY-TALE world, the world of the Gospel is a world of darkness, and many of the great scenes take place at night. The child is born at night. He had his first meal in the dark at his mother’s breast, and he had his last meal in the dark too, the blinds drawn and everybody straining to catch the first sound of heavy footsteps on the stair, the first glint of steel in the shadowy doorway. In the garden he could hardly see the face that leaned forward to kiss him, and from the sixth hour to the ninth hour the sun went out like a match so he died in the same darkness that he was born in and rose in it, too, or almost dark, the sun just barely up as it was just barely up again when only a few feet offshore, as they were hauling their empty nets in over the gunnels, they saw him once more standing there barefoot in the sand near the flickering garnets of a charcoal fire.

In the world of the fairy tale, the wicked sisters are dressed as if for a Palm Beach wedding, and in the world of the Gospel it is the killjoys, the phonies, the nitpickers, the holier-than-thous, the loveless and cheerless and irrelevant who more often than not wear the fancy clothes and go riding around in sleek little European jobs marked Pharisee, Corps Diplomatique, Legislature, Clergy. It is the ravening wolves who wear sheep’s clothing. And the good ones, the potentially good anyway, the ones who stand a chance of being saved by God because they know they don’t stand a chance of being saved by anybody else? They go around looking like the town whore, the village drunk, the crook from the IRS, because that is who they are. When Jesus is asked who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, he reaches into the crowd and pulls out a child with a cheek full of bubble gum and eyes full of whatever a child’s eyes are full of and says unless you can become like that, don’t bother to ask” (Frederick Buechner).

Those May-tober Days

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Tennessee weather is weird. I get that. Like weird as in they should probably make pills for this.

The saying goes that if you don’t like the current weather, stick around a little while and it will likely change.

You get all four seasons here, sometimes in one week.

Today was one of those quirky weather days we get from time to time, a day that doesn’t in the least match what the weather is supposed to be for the time of the year.

It’s May and the temperature barely got above 50. It was a grey, rainy day that felt and looked a lot like a typical fall day. Oh, and it’s May. I did mention that, right?

It’s funny how 50 degrees can feel so good after a cold spell in winter, but the same 50 degrees feels chilly after a few days of weather in the 80’s.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is to enjoy what comes, even if it’s not what you expected or even wanted. Faith trusts that God is up to something good and that His promises are more true than your circumstances or feelings. Joy is what happens when you keep trusting in the midst of fear and doubt and don’t give up.

I for one am a fan of fall weather, so I was in heaven. I’m not eagerly anticipating those super hot and humid days that Tennessee is famous for in July and August. I already sweat profusely, so it won’t be pretty.

So I enjoyed this sneak preview of fall about five months early. Hopefully when the true summer weather comes, I’ll be able to find the good then and keep the joy alive.

Maybe that gratitude thing works even in the midst of a summer heatwave?

I’m certainly counting on it.

 

 

 

Another Rare Political Post

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I can’t tell you how tired I am over political posts on social media, specifically the ones that are always bashing a particular person or party and come across as very self-righteous and holier-than-thou.

More specifically, I mean all the anti-Trump posts.

First of all, let me state in no uncertain terms that I am not a fan of President Trump. I think he definitely needs to govern more and tweet less. He comes across as a bit cartoony and ridiculous on more than a few occasions.

That said, I don’t like how people who profess faith in Jesus can turn around and post how much they hate him and wish him harm. That has no place coming from the mouth of one of Abba’s children.

I do believe that Jesus told us to love and pray for our enemies. I also believe He didn’t qualify that statement. We don’t get to pick and choose which enemies we want to love. Jesus doesn’t give us the option for disobedience simply because it makes us uncomfortable or we don’t like it.

This is my suggestion. Perhaps instead of bashing the current President, try praying for him instead. Try remembering that you were once an enemy of God, yet God in Jesus sought you out and redeemed you.

I don’t mean that you have to love everything Trump does. Far from it. You can speak your mind. But maybe do twice as much praying as you do speaking out.

I also wish that all the people who were so adamantly opposed to President Obama would have spent a lot more time praying for him and a lot less time posting criticisms.

Again, in case you missed the point of all this. Pray. Pray all the time. Pray for the people you like AND the people you don’t. Pray for those in leadership, EVEN if they are with that dreaded evil political party that you despise.

That loving and praying for your enemies thing? Yeah, it’s not optional.

 

Thankfulness Makes You Rich

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“I discovered that being thankful and experiencing the power and presence of Jesus Christ are tightly entwined. As we practice thankfulness, we experience more of God’s transforming grace, God’s there-ness” (Mark Buchanan, The Road We Must Travel: A Personal Guide for Your Journey).

I keep thinking about what Dietrich Bonhoeffer said. And no, I normally don’t go around pondering the words of dead German theologians, but what he said has stuck with me ever since I read this: “It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”

It’s not possessions or wealth or status that makes you rich. It’s not what car you drive or what shirts you wear or what part of town you live in.

It’s gratitude.

I’d forgotten to give thanks. I let envy and anxiety creep in (like all of us do from time to time) and forgot to be thankful for all the little things that make life great.

I still believe that when you give thanks for the minutiae, that’s when God shows up and that’s when the miracles start happening. That’s when your life becomes rich in a way that no amount of money could ever buy.

That’s what I want to get back to.

Thank you, God, for this life and forgive me if I don’t love it enough.

Amen.

 

 

Sabbath Rest

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“In a culture where busyness is a fetish and stillness is laziness, rest is sloth. But without rest, we miss the rest of God: the rest he invites us to enter more fully so that we might know him more deeply. ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ Some knowing is never pursued, only received. And for that, you need to be still. Sabbath is both a day and an attitude to nurture such stillness. It is both time on a calendar and a disposition of the heart. It is a day we enter, but just as much a way we see. Sabbath imparts the rest of God—actual physical, mental, spiritual rest, but also the rest of God— the things of God’s nature and presence we miss in our busyness” (Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath).

I’m still mulling over what Chris Brooks said at Kairos tonight about Sabbath rest. We don’t rest from our work as much as we work from our rest.

Most of us go non-stop full speed ahead for five days and then come to a screeching halt for two days. Then we start the madness all over again.

Some never stop. They go all out, thinking that sleep and rest can wait. Unfortunately, their bodies often have different ideas.

I think very few of us know how to work from our rest as a form of worship. That’s what the Hebrew word for work also means– worship.

Rest sounds really good to me right now. Actually, sleep sounds great. I think I’ll take myself up on my own advice and call it a night, but not before leaving you with this little nugget.

May you find the rest of God by resting in God, staying your mind on Him throughout the day and working not for but out of your approval as a son or a daughter of God.

 

 

May Day: Seven Years Later

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As I was hiking through Radnor Lake State Park on this picture perfect day, it hit me. Seven years ago, the rains started that led to the floods that devastated much of the Greater Nashville area.

Seven years ago, I saw a portable school building floating down an interstate that looked more like a river than a highway. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much rain in a 48-hour period in my entire life (and I hope I never do again).

It wasn’t just a bit of flash floods here and there. It was called the 1000-year flood for a reason because Nashville hadn’t seen anything like this in a very, very long time.

Not only did we survive, we have thrived since. Nashville is back and better than ever.

I was reminded yet again that in the life of faith, whatever we may suffer or lose cannot begin to compare to what we gain in the end. Any loss or pain we go through doesn’t come close to matching the glory that awaits and the inheritance that is ours in Christ.

It’s easy to lose perspective in the daily grind and forget that Jesus has already overcome all that we face (or will ever face). There’s nothing that was or is or will be that God can’t work to our good and His glory, nothing that can ever separate us even for a moment from His love.

I still remember seeing the words on someone’s garage door just days after the flood subsided: Storms leave. Love shines. We Survive.

That’s still true because the same Jesus who spoke peace to the waves can still speak healing and peace and victory to the hearts that need it most today.

 

It’s Monday Eve Again

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My cat Lucy is purring, so I’m thinking she’s unaware that tomorrow is Monday. Either that or she’s in complete denial.

I’m leaning toward the latter.

Of course, her schedule for tomorrow is a little less complicated than mine. Her to-do list goes something like 1) eat, 2) take a nap, 3) poop 4) take a nap, 5) dash crazily around the house for 45 seconds, 6) take a nap, etc.

Monday’s not my favorite way to start off the week.

Then again, Monday means I’m alive and made it to another day.

I can choose to complain or I can choose to give thanks. Gratitude is a much better way to live than grumbling. You can see every day as a burden or as a miracle. It’s your  choice.

So to that end, I say that God is great, life is good, and I am still very much blessed.

The end.