spirituality

Old School CCM

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Maybe this makes me super old, but old music just sounds better. It sounds like real people playing real instruments and singing with real voices.

I grew up on 80s and 90s music, but if you want to get me started and never shut up, start talking to me about 80s and 90s Contemporary Christian Music. Mention artists like Kim Hill, Steven Curtis Chapman, Susan Ashton, PFR, dc talk, Julie Miller, Rich Mullins and so many of those others.

I’m pretty sure I’d win a trivia contest based off of old-school CCM. Or at least I’d know some of the answers.

One of my favorite artists from back when was Julie Miller. She had a unique sound and voice and could write songs like nobody else. Probably my favorite of hers is a song called “Nobody But You.” It’s so honest and transparent and true. Here are the lyrics:

“I have seen the night of a million tears
I have seen an angel’s smile
I have come of age and remained, these years
With the longings of a child

Nobody but you can find my heart
Nobody but you sees in the dark
Nobody but you can call my name and scatter all my pain

I have had the fears of an orphaned heart
I have had a homeless soul
I have been embraced in the arms of grace
You have brought my spirit home

Nobody but you can find my heart
Nobody but you sees in the dark
Nobody but you can call my name and scatter all my pain

Nobody but you can find my heart
Nobody but you sees in the dark
Nobody but you can call my name and scatter all my pain

Nobody but you, nobody but you
Nobody but you, nobody but you
Nobody but you, nobody but you
Nobody but you” (Julie Miller).

A New(er) Car

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One of my favorite parts of being sick and staying home from school (not that there were many) was getting to watch Bob Barker and The Price is Right. I’m telling my age when I say Bob Barker and not Drew Carey.

The absolute best part of any episode was when they were revealing the prize the contestants would be bidding on and the announcer proclaimed, “It’s a NEW CAR!” Then everyone in the crowd went absolutely bananas.

I finally broke down and bought a new car. Well, technically a newer car since it’s a 2018, not a 2024. But fear not, loyal fans, it’s still a Jeep.

I drove home in a 2018 Jeep Wrangler. I instantly felt 33% cooler. Then later on I accidentally turned on my emergency flashers and had to consult the manual for how to turn them off and lost all my cool points. But I love it.

In a way, it’s like learning to drive all over again. So many functions are in different places that I have to think about how to roll down the windows or turn up the airflow through the car. I have to remember to use the running board because the new car is higher off the ground than the old one. But I’m thankful.

I have a car with a working speedometer where all the windows roll down every time. I have a car where I can push a button and it starts (as long as I have the key on my person or in the car). It’s blowing my late 1900s brain.

Now comes the part where I sell the trusty old Jeep. There will be some sadness (and possibly tears) when I say goodbye to the loyal Red Sled that has served me well for 11 years and been a faithful every day vehicle for 27 years. No car will ever be as good to me as that one has been.

But I’m thankful that I will have photographs and memories to look back on. I can remember all the people who rode in that car who are no longer present in this world but more alive than ever on those streets of gold in heaven.

But now I have to go study up on the manual to figure out how to work this new Jeep.

Never Getting Beyond My Need

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I was channel surfing earlier, and ran across a program called Better Together, where some speakers and authors were discussing modern idolatry and how we are all prone to it.

Basically, most of us think of idols as tiny statues made of gold or silver or wood. Most of us picture idolaters as people bowing toward some stone image that can’t possibly reciprocate.

The reality is that idolatry is taking something good, i.e. marriage, family, children, careers, success, and putting it in the place of God. It’s letting something other than God take the throne of our hearts.

The painful truth is that we are all idolaters. We have something else other than God that we put in front of God or place beside God. We never get past needing to repent our idols because our flesh craves something tangible to worship. Our flesh isn’t satisfied with God.

We will never get past our need of God because the more we grow, the more we see how far we are from the mark of God’s standard. The more we see our own faults in the light of God’s perfection and holiness. The more we understand that our good intentions rarely lead to good works.

But God is faithful even when we are not. God is faithful to His promises when we don’t keep ours to Him. God is faithful to pursue us when we so often pursue so many lesser objects instead of God. God is faithful to finish what He started in us and make us like Jesus.

The Peace of Christ

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“‘I give you MY peace’ John 14:27. Jesus, thank you for a peace that doesn’t just prepare us to die well, but also to live free. The peace of no condemnation and your full delight. The peace of knowing you’re working in all things for our good” (Scotty Smith).

I’m thankful that the peace of Christ isn’t based on my ideas of what peace should look and feel like.

My idea of peace is no conflict, no discomforts, no pain, no trials. If I had my way, I’d go from ease to ease, from comfort to comfort, and never grow up. Jesus’ way isn’t about making me suffer simply for the sake of suffering, but in my trials and tribulations I can 1) become more like Jesus, and 2) identify with Jesus in His own sufferings (which were way worse than mine will ever be).

Peace isn’t the absence of storms, but being sheltered in the midst of those storms. As the old song says, sometimes Jesus calms the storm, but often He comforts His child in the storm.

Peace is ultimately an inner solitude that nothing from the outside can shake, a confidence of faith that no outside crisis can kill, and a trust that says, “Even if He kills me, I will still keep trusting” (adapted from Job 13:15).

Grant us peace tonight that passes all our human understanding and guards our hearts and leads us to adoration of You, O Lord.

There’s Always a Choice

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“I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deut. 30:19-20).

The children of Israel had a choice. They could choose to serve and obey God, or they could follow after the gods of the peoples in the land they were called to occupy.

Both choices had consequences. Choosing to follow Yahweh led to life and blessing, while running after idols led to curses and death. There was no third option with no consequences.

Today, we have a choice. Following God leads to life, and following sin, self, and Satan leads to death. Jesus said that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one could come to the Father and eternal life but through Him.

The good news is that while you’re living, there’s always time to change the road you’re on. No matter what you’ve done in the past, what terrible choices you might have made, what wreck you might have made of your life, you can always come to God, and He will never cast out anyone coming to Him in faith.

Choose today. Choose Jesus.

Obedience and Trust

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Here are some words from George MacDonald on the importance of obedience and trust:

“Trust and obedience is the greatest thing that is required of any of us. The care that is filling your mind at this moment, or but waiting until you lay the book aside, to consume you, that need, which is no real need, is a demon sucking at the spring of your life. Do you object, saying, ‘But no, you do not understand. The thing I am worrying about is a reasonable anxiety, an unavoidable care.’ ?

‘Does it involve something you have to do at this very moment?’, I ask.

‘Well, no.’

‘Then you are allowing it to usurp the place of something that is required of you at this moment. The greatest thing that can ever be required of any man or woman.’

‘And what is that?’

‘To trust in the living God.’

‘What if God does not want me to have what I need at this moment?’

‘If He does not want you to have something you value, it is to give you instead something He values.’

‘And if I do not want what He has to give me?’

‘If you are not willing that God should have His way with you, then in the name of God, BE MISERABLE, until your misery drives you to the arms of the Father.’

‘Oh, but this is only about some financial concern. I do trust him with spiritual matters.’

‘Everything is an affair of the Spirit. If God has a way of dealing with you in your life, it is the only way. Everything little thing in which you would have your own way has a mission for your redemption. He will treat you as a willful child until you take your Father’s way for your own.'”

There is no area of your life that does not concern God or is outside of His purview. Every part of your story is sacred because God is using that small part to showcase His glory in a way that only you can see. What everyone else can see is your faithfulness to trust God when it doesn’t make sense or goes against what you think is best.

When you choose God’s way over your way, then people see where your allegiance really lies. They see that you are God’s and that He is yours. While it is important to speak your faith, how you live it out is just as vital to a good testimony of the goodness of God.

Is Winter Over Yet?

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Some of you know that I am not a fan of winter. I like the part in December where we get Christmas and New Year’s Eve. I even like the first few weeks into January and February, but after that I’m over being cold and having to scrape my car’s windshield in the morning.

I’m the same way with summer. I like summer through the 4th of July and a few weeks past that, but at a point I start longing for fall. Fall is still my absolute favorite, with spring falling behind into second place.

One annoying aspect of Winter is how it pretends to go away, but doesn’t really. Already, there have been a couple of sneak previews of spring, but then in a day or two it gets rainy and cold again. Typically when I take the lining out of my rain jacket, I can predict that the temperatures will plummet again.

I know the groundhog didn’t see his shadow, so theoretically that means spring comes early. But winter isn’t ready to let go. Winter really wants to have the last word. But I think we’d all agree at this point that the song from Frozen applies — winter just needs to “let it go.”

The reason spring isn’t my favorite season is that along with warmer weather come all forms of pollen, mold, and dust that don’t like my sinuses. Or my sinuses don’t like them. I think the feeling is mutual.

Also, all those bugs that have been napping all winter wake up and want to get all up in your business right away. Plus, this year two different kinds of cicadas will be invading the land. I get that insects are an important part of the circle of life, but I wish they could be important somewhere away from me rather than constantly flying in my face all the time.

But every season serves a purpose, as it says in Ecclesiastes. Winter, spring, summer, and fall all have a part in God’s creation. I may not like them all equally, but I can appreciate each one and find the good in each season. Then I can really celebrate fall and bust out all my flannel all over again . . . in about seven months or so.

A Lenten Prayer

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“O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly,
I entered into it with fear, but also with great expectations.
I hoped for a great breakthrough, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart;
I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace 
of darkness would be left in my soul.
But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning.
Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness
before they could see your light.
Let me be thankful for your gentle way.
I know you are at work.
I know you will not leave me alone, 
I know you are quickening me for Easter – 
but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament.
I pray that these last three weeks, in which you invite me to enter 
more fully into the mystery of your passion,
will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way you create for me
and to accept the cross that you give to me.
Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own cross.
You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you.
Be with me tomorrow and in the days to come,
and let me experience your gentle presence.
Amen” (Henri Nouwen).

Lord, may the last three weeks of Lent not be wasted. Help me to use my time away from social media to create margins of unhurried space within my day for me to hear Your voice speaking to me. Give me a quiet heart and a calm mind to receive Your words. Above all, grant me the ability and willingness to obey what I hear. Amen.

Funny Socks

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It’s good to have hobbies. Especially these days. You need something to take your mind off of everything that’s going on around the world. Something to occupy your mind beside death and taxes.

My hobby of late is collecting funny socks. I inherited this from my father, who has an impressive array of funny, odd, and just plain different pairs of socks. I only started a few years ago, but I feel like I’m catching up.

I have all kinds of socks, from Bob Ross to bacon to cats (which suits me as a cat person). Whenever I head up to the Gatlinburg area, I pick up a pair that give off a kind of Smokey Mountains vibe. I got several pairs for Christmas one year that were Friends-themed.

I’m always on the hunt for unique and quirky socks that match my personality. I always throw them on my birthday or Christmas wish lists. I also accept all forms of funny socks in lieu of payment. Imagine using funny socks as currency instead of cash.

I’m currently wearing an old pair of Mickey Mouse socks that have Season’s Greetings on them. I am aware that we are past the Christmas season, but they are comfy and no one else sees them but me. I feel like I’m allowed.

Growing Through Obedience

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“‘Aslan” said Lucy “you’re bigger’.
‘That is because you are older, little one’ answered he.
‘Not because you are?’
‘I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.’ (C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian).”

There’s one part in Prince Caspian where Aslan calls out to Lucy to follow him, and to get the others to do the same. The catch is that Lucy is the only one who can see or hear him. The others will have to take her word for it.

That’s the moment where Lucy chooses to trust in Aslan and obey him, even though it might feel like she’s the only one. She has to go even if she goes alone.

That’s what genuine faith looks like. Faithfulness and obedience can be lonely sometimes, especially when so many others are too busy trying to blend in and not make waves to truly follow Jesus. When you are obedient, sometimes your biggest critics will come from inside the Church, not outside.

William Carey, the father of modern missions, faced opposition from other clergymen for wanting to take the gospel to India. Imagine that. Pastors and church leaders not wanting to take the gospel to unreached people. But it happened.

William Carey’s faithfulness made it possible for others to take the gospel around the world, so that heaven could be filled with voices from every tribe and tongue, every skin color and hair color, gathered around the throne as depicted in the book of Revelation.

Obedience might mean standing in the minority for what’s right versus what’s popular. William Penn once said, “Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.”

In Prince Caspian, Lucy gets the rest to follow her. Some were more willing than others to go, but they all went. None of them could see Aslan until after they had stepped out in faith, but once they were committed to following, they could see him leading the way.

That’s the way faith is sometimes. You can’t see God until you obey what He’s told you to do. Obedience leads to faith being made sight.