Ragamuffin Gospel

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

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It’s Wednesday, January 11, 2017. I’m so tired that I originally typed that it was Thursday. It’s not.

My traveling music adventures continued today as I chose Gillian Welch and her new album to accompany me on my homeward trek. Yesterday, the choice was the lovely Norah Jones. I’m keeping it mellow.

All the continued rhetoric over the election is making me tired. I don’t know how  praising one side and bashing the other has ever really changed anyone’s mind. All it does is further polarize and alienate us from each other.

I’m thankful that my ultimate allegiance is not to this or any other President. It’s not to a flag or a country or a platform, but to a King and a Kingdom that will last well beyond any President or Congress or Supreme Court. It will last forever.

In these hectic, crazy days, it’s helpful to sit still for a bit and practice breathing in and out slowly, remembering that because of the resurrection, the worst thing is never the last thing. Every trial is temporary and all pain is passing. The Prince of Peace and what He brings will be eternal.

So chill out. If you must err, err on the side of grace and forgiveness rather than judgment and condemnation. Remember that each of us is walking a difficult path.

I still believe that if you want to see difference in your life and in the world around you, you have to be the difference. Once you start doing that, you won’t have time to snipe and criticize from the sidelines.

As always, keep the music recommendations coming. I’m alway on the lookout for good new (or old) music to add to my already ridiculous collection.

Thanks and good night!

 

 

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I have friends that are dealing with health issues. I have friends who are walking through that dark valley of the shadow of death in grieving over a loved one. So many are struggling through finances, stress, anxiety, and depression.

Sometimes, life can seem overwhelming. It’s hard to look five years down the road when it’s all you can do to breathe in and breathe out and make it through the next five minutes.

The good news is that you can say with confidence, no matter what, “Whatever my problems and no matter how big and insurmountable they seem, my God is bigger. My God is able.”

Struggles are temporary. Even the worst of days only last 24 hours. God is eternal. His promises are true through all seasons and through every passing emotion.

Sitting in the doctor’s office facing the worst possible scenario is scary, but God’s perfect love still casts out all fear. The God who brought you this far in your journey will be faithful to get you through even the darkest and most terrifying circumstances.

Even in those moments, there is nothing that God can’t redeem and turn into something good and glorious. Not even death, for to live is Christ and to die is gain. It’s a win-win.

The Apostle Paul walked through every kind of trial and suffering both from within and without, yet was able to pen some of the most hopeful words ever written not because of a great big faith in God but because of faith in a great big God:

“I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:38-39, The Message).

 

Still Sick and Tired of Politics

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Warning: this is one of my rare soapbox posts, so if you’re looking for posts about fluffy kittens or rainbows, this ain’t it.

Here it is. Jesus said to love your enemies. Period.

That includes people who voted for Donald Trump. That includes Donald Trump.

That includes people who voted for Hillary Clinton. That includes Hillary Clinton.

Jesus didn’t make it optional. Jesus didn’t put in an escape clause. There are not ifs or buts.

He said, “Love your enemies.”

He didn’t say that loving your enemies meant that you suddenly agree with everything they say and stand for.

He didn’t say that it meant you suddenly become best buddies and hang out together all the time and share bonbons.

He did say to love them.

Loving your enemies means not readily believing the absolute worst about them without even checking to see if it’s true or not.

Loving your enemies means not speaking hatefully about them and wishing them harm.

Loving your enemies means to love them like Jesus once loved us when we were His enemies. Jesus didn’t read us the riot act or shun us and write us off. He showed a kind of love that went to the uttermost extreme lengths to prove itself– even to death on a cross.

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10, NIV).

I truly believe that there are decent people on both sides of the political spectrum. I refuse to believe that someone who acts, thinks, and votes differently than I is stupid or evil. I will never shame or belittle anyone who disagrees with me, no matter how far apart we are in values and beliefs.

This is the ultimate standard that we should all strive to follow in the power of the Holy Spirit: “I tell you this: love your enemies. Pray for those who torment you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44, The Voice).

 

A Narnia Moment Brought to You By WordPress

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I’m sharing one of my favorite Narnia moments with you from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

“‘They say Aslan is on the move—perhaps has already landed.’

And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning— either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer” (C. S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe).

 

Love Like That

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“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that” (Ephesians 5:1-2 MSG).

Love like that.

It’s so easy to type out but so very difficult to live out. In fact, it’s impossible.

It’s impossible to love the way God does, especially if you’re working purely on your own strength.

The only way to love like God loves is that you must first open yourself up to receive God’s love freely and unhindered. As my pastor once said, trying to contain the love of God is like trying to contain the ocean in a thimble. It will spill out.

That’s how you love like God loves. It’s from the overflow of God’s love for you.

My prayer for you is that you can stop trying to earn or deserve God’s love but instead simply stretch out your hands and receive it.

Once you understand God loves you not because of your worthiness but in spite of your unworthiness, once you realize the nature of His unconditional love for you, it frees you to love even the most unlovable people (even the Trumps and/or Clintons, depending on your political persuasion).

One day, they might very well say about you, “I know and believe God’s love for me because I have seen in in you.”

That’s the best kind of love.

“The love for equals is a human thing–of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing–the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing–to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints. And then there is the love for the enemy–love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world” (Frederich Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat).

Some Sorta Kinda Bucket List Items

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I don’t know if these qualify for actual bucket list activities, but I’ve thought of a few things I’d like to accomplish during my lifetime:

  1. I’d like to ride in a train with an actual sleeping compartment where I’d spend at least one night.
  2. I want to make a pilgrimage to the New England area during the fall to see the changing leaves, with a stopover in Mystic, Connecticut for some of their pizza.
  3. I still want to see U2 in concert while they’re still around.
  4. I think it’s be a grand adventure to go back to Memphis over a weekend and see all those places I missed while I was living there — Graceland, the MLK museum, etc.
  5. I’m hoping to go on at least one overseas mission trip for at least a week.
  6. I want to lose weight and get back down to 150-155 pounds again.
  7. I’d love to get together for an evening with some of my old Union University friends and reminisce about back in the day.
  8. There are a lot more dreams and goals and aspirations that I’ll probably add in the coming days as I think of them. Stay tuned.

Rest in the Lord

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“To wait upon God is not to sit with folded hands and do nothing, but to wait as men who wait for the harvest. The farmer does not wait idly but with intense activity; he keeps industriously ‘at it’ until the harvest. To wait upon God is the perfection of activity. We are told to ‘rest in the Lord,’ not to rust” (Oswald Chambers, The Place of Help).

I think that says it all.

May all of us learn daily how to wait well as we rest (but not rust) in the Lord.

Finding Rest for Your Souls

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“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message).

That’s the key. That’s how you can navigate through a busy life without becoming harried and hurried.

I heard today how Pastor John Ortberg had become overwhelmed with busyness and asked his mentor, Dallas Willard, what to do. Willard’s response was simple: “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

The key is to define yourself in terms not of your performance but in your identity as one dearly loved by Jesus. Once you work from your true identity and not for a false one, everything changes.

It’s good to create margins in your schedule and take seasons of rest and rejuvenation. Sleep is good. Naps are good. Finding a hobby that inspires and relaxes you is good.

The point is that none of us were ever meant to go nonstop 24/7. That’s not a sustainable way of life. Being in a hurry all the time actually causes you to get less done and to miss out on so much that’s important in your life.

I love the way one writer puts it:

“It’s ironic that in a culture so committed to saving time we feel increasingly deprived of the very thing we value. … Despite our alleged efficiency … we seem to have less time for ourselves and far less time for each other. … We have quickened the pace of life only to become less patient. We have become more organized but less spontaneous, less joyful. We are better prepared to act on the future but less able to enjoy the present and reflect on the past” (Jeremy Rifkin).

Hey, They Can’t All Be Winners, Right?

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This is what you get when yours truly (me) decides to wait until 12:58 am to write one of these blog posts. Not much.

I had a rather good day, starting off with the first church service for The Church at Avenue South to start off 2017. Then me and a friend headed over to Nissan Stadium to witness the Tennessee Titans pull out a win in their last game of the season.

I had dinner at Local Taco with my amazing new life group. The dinner was great, too. Food always tastes better with good company and good conversation.

At the moment, I’m typing these words while lying in bed with the usual sleepy geriatric feline on the pillow next to mine. I should note that she took it upon herself to start sleeping next to me. I never once prodded or prompted her to sleep there.

That’s all I know at the moment. Plus, I’m thinking of calling it a night myself. Hopefully, I can be a little more disciplined tomorrow (or later on today) and write this thing earlier so it will have actual content in it.

Good night to all my faithful readers– and to those who accidentally wandered onto this post. May your 2017 be better and brighter than ever.