Downtown Franklin Revisited

May 23, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Ok, I admit that sometimes I can be like a broken record when it comes to weekends. I like going to downtown Franklin. I think I’ve established that. So guess where I went tonight, sports fans?

At least I varied it a little. I ate at Puckett’s instead of McCreary’s. I went to Sweet CeCe’s instead of Frothy Monkey. Aren’t I just a little rebel?

I brought my iPad and watched most of the movie Reality Bites. I’d forgotten how clever that movie was. And no, the fact that the movie is 20 years old does NOT make me feel old AT all.

I visited my favorite house in all the world. And by visited, I mean I walked by in a very non-stalker-like manner, not stopping to stare in the windows or anything creepy like that.

At one point, the clouds darkened and it looked like it might rain. But it didn’t.

I still think it’d be cool to live there. I know it’s not financially feasible, but one can dream, right?

In the movie Reality Bites, one of the characters is lamenting the fact that she hasn’t figured out what she wants to be by the age of 23. Another character remarks that all she has to be at 23 is herself.

I like that.

Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re a failure because you don’t meet some arbitrary standard of societal standards. It’s okay to not have your career path figured out. It’s okay to still be living with mom and dad. It’s okay to be single and not dating. That’s not what really defines you anyway.

As I’ve said many times before, God defines you and specifically, the fact that He calls you Beloved and is well pleased in you is what truly defines you.

I supposed I am a broken record, but that’s okay by me.

More Like Jesus?

May 22, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I’ve noticed that Christians sprinkle a lot of religion-isms into their conversation. I mean those phrases and terms that only us as believers know what they mean and sometimes we’re not even sure. At least not me.

Take for example when people talk about the goal of becoming like Jesus. What does that even mean? In my Life Group, a newbie asked that question and I was a bit taken aback at first, but then I thought, “What DOES that mean? I mean, really?”

I don’t think it means that we’re going to all be a bunch of clones of Jesus one day, like those stormtroopers in the Star Wars movies. Or when there were 7 exact replicas of Harry Potter in the last Harry Potter movie.

Here’s what I think it means.

It’s like that couple you know who’ve been married forever. The ones who can finish each other’s sentences. The ones who know what the other is thinking and feeling without having to use actual words.

Back in the ancient days, a disciple was someone who literally studied another. He or she followed this person around. When the teacher ate, a disciple ate. When the teacher slept, that disciple slept. The disciple was with the teacher 24/7.

Ultimately, the disciple picked up the mannerisms and behavior of the teacher just by being around him so much. He started even to think and speak like his teacher.

That’s what it looks like. If I become most like the people I spend the most time with, then if I spend the most time with Jesus, I start to look like Him. I don’t mean I start wearing a robe and sandals and sprouting a beard. I mean that I act like Jesus. I do what Jesus did.

Granted, I can never be completely like Jesus in the sense that He is divine and I am definitely not. But I can emulate His attitude (see Philippians 2:5-11) and His behavior and His attributes.

Here endeth the lesson.

A Letter to a Younger Me

May 20, 2014May 22, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Right now, you don’t like yourself very much. You don’t think anybody else does, either. You don’t like being you and sometimes you wish you could be somebody else. Anybody else. Or maybe it would be better if you didn’t exist at all.

You’re wrong.

You’d be surprised at how many people really do like you. You’d be even more surprised at how many people don’t think badly of you, because they’re too busy with their own pain and insecurity and doubt to have time to think about you that much.

If I could tell you one thing, it would be this: you be the best you possible. Those who matter won’t mind and those who mind don’t matter. It’s that simple.

You daring to be you is a beautiful thing.

You choosing to be yourself makes God smile because He made you that way and He never makes anything ugly or second-rate or worthless.

So take time to laugh at yourself and be a little crazy, a little goofy, a little uncool. Remember that everything really will be fine in the end, and if it’s not fine, it only means it’s not the end yet.

So Tired 2: 😴

May 19, 2014May 21, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I’m tired again. Funny how that happens every 24 hours or so. Especially when you’re working and meeting friends to go walking on beautiful Monday evenings. Not to mention pinning useless but fun items to Pinterest.

It’s a good kind of tired. It’s a grateful kind of tired. The kind where as exhausted as you are, you’re more grateful at the new opportunities you have.

For me, it’s like an adventure. Maybe not a Tolkien kind with dragons and gold at the end, but new places and new people and paychecks at the end. And just once, it would be so cool to get paid in gold. Just once.

The verse in Psalms says that God gives rest to those He loves. I’m glad it’s worded that way, not to those who love Him. Some days, I’m crazy in love with God and some days I’m apathetic and could care less (which is probably redundant and repititious, right?) Sleep goes to the ones God loves because it’s His love for us holding us together and keeping us going, not the other way around.

So good night, all you out there in La-La-Land. May you find sweet dreams and rest as only your Abba could grant them.

A Reminder of Whose You are

May 18, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Yahweh your God is there with you, the warrior-Saviour. He will rejoice over you with happy song, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you” (Zephaniah 3:17)

That’s my favorite Bible verse. If I to choose one life verse, this one would be #1 with a bullet. Why?

It’s a reminder that what matters isn’t what you’ve done or even who you are but whose you are.

You are not your past or your failures or your bad choices.

You are not even your past glories and successes and your trophy case from yesterwhen.

You are not what you do for a living or your paycheck stubs or your net worth.

You are not the names people call you or even the names you call yourself when you think no one else is listening.

You are the beloved.

You are the one that Yahweh rejoices over, the one He sings over in the night, the one He dances with joy over, the one in whom He is well pleased.

That’s you.

That’s all that matters.

Bearded Brawny Men and Other Ridiculousness

May 17, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Apparently, beards are in. I see guys wearing beards, growing beards, basically reveling in facial hair. I’m not so sure I’m a fan of it.

I don’t say that because my own facial hair is scanty. It takes me forever to grow anything close to resembling a beard, but I’m okay with that. I’m really not bitter about being beardless.

I just think it’s one thing to grow a beard and another to go for the Paul Bunyan look. I mean, what’s up with all the long scraggly beards? Is there a cult out there looking for another David Koresh?

I heard someone say that she was looking for bearded and burly in her men. I guess the blue ox and the red plaid shirt are optional. Hopefully the axe isn’t a requirement.

All that to say this. You be you. Don’t do something because everyone else is doing it. Don’t grow a beard because it’s suddenly fashionable. Life is way too short to live it for the sake of pleasing others.

If you really and truly want to grow a beard down to your knees, don’t listen to me. You go for it and you grow it. If you want to be clean-shaven, you do that.

I’ve been around long enough to know that these trends never stay very long. The more trendy you are today, the more likely it will be that your children will one day look at photos of you and laugh and say things like, “You actually went out in public dressed like that?”

So once again, you be you. Be yourself. In the words of one E. E. Cummings, “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”

Don’t ever stop fighting to be you. Ever.

Lessons from The Walking Dead

May 16, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I watch a show called The Walking Dead. It’s not for the squeamish. Yes, there are zombies (referred to as ‘walkers). Yes, there is plenty o’ blood and guts a-flying’ everywhere. Yes, you get attached to characters only to see them killed off.

But I think there are a few life lessons from this show that I’d like to pass on:

1) If these zombies ever took to lifting weights, would they then be “power walkers?”

2) Family matters, even if that family isn’t flesh and blood. It’s better to be with imperfect people who care about you and have your back than to be alone.

3) No matter what face you may present to the public, the truth of who you really are will always come out. It’s no good to fight evil and become worse than the evil you’re fighting.

4) No matter how far you’ve sunk or what you’ve done, there’s always the hope of becoming something better. There’s nothing so bad in people that can’t be redeemed. I happen to believe that God does the redeeming and I am the one being redeemed.

5) If you ever do run into a zombie, make sure you kill the brain. And be sure not to wear anything you don’t mind getting ruined by blood and guts.

I think that covers it for now. I just finished up season 3, which puts me roughly one season behind (so no spoiler alerts, please).

Eschatology and All That

May 14, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I have a new view about the millennium and the tribulation. You’ve heard of amillennialism and postmillennialism and premillennialism. I dare say you’re either on the pre-trib or post-trib side of the fence.

Well, I am a panmillennialist. That means I believe it will all pan out in the end.

I do believe Jesus is coming back. I’m not sure when and I’m not sure if it will be before or after the dreaded tribulation. I don’t know what the millennium will look like or even if it will be a literal 1,000 years or not.

I do know there will be a new heaven and a new earth. I do know God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and there will be no more pain or sorrow anymore.

I like to think it will be like Narnia in The Last Battle. I like to think all the best parts of this life will be there. Maybe all those pets we’ve loved and lost will be there. Whatever it looks like it will be like those dreams we have that we can’t remember but are always trying to get back to when we sleep.

I used to not be all that keen on heaven. I suppose it’s because I had the idea that heaven would involve sitting on clouds playing harps or sitting on wooden pews for an eternally long church service. Neither of those particularly appealed to me.

Then I read The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. It talked about heaven like that feeling on the first day of summer after school has ended. I could relate to that. I still can. It’s like that first day of vacation when you realize you don’t have to be anywhere or do anything by any certain time.

That feeling. Only better. Like a million, gazillon times better.

So yeah, that’s what I believe.

A Beautiful Worship Prayer

May 13, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“God, deliver us from the professionalizers! Deliver us from the ‘low, managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among us.’ God, give us tears for our sins.

Forgive us for being so shallow in prayer, so thin in our grasp of holy verities, so content amid perishing neighbors, so empty of passion and earnestness in all our conversation. Restore to us the childlike joy of our salvation.

Frighten us with the awesome holiness and power of Him who can cast both soul and body into hell (Matt. 10:28).

Cause us to hold to the cross with fear and trembling as our hope-filled and offensive tree of life. Grant us nothing, absolutely nothing, the way the world views it. May Christ be all in all (Col. 3:11).

Banish professionalism from our midst, Oh God, and in its place put passionate prayer, poverty of spirit, hunger for God, rigorous study of holy things, white-hot devotion to Jesus Christ, utter indifference to all material gain, and unremitting labor to rescue the perishing, perfect the saints, and glorify our sovereign Lord.

Humble us, O God, under Your mighty hand, and let us rise, not as professionals, but as witnesses and partakers of the sufferings of Christ. In His awesome name. Amen” (John Piper).

God, help us always to worship in spirit and in truth, whether that be in a setting with hymns and an organ or with a band and modern worship songs or in the midst of our daily lives in how we reflect the glory of God in our actions and words.

Forgive us yet again for reducing worship to singing songs on certain days of the week. Help us to remember that every day we worship by laying down our lives as an offering, holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1-2).

Help us always to remember that the sweetest sound in God’s ear is a joyful noise and a grateful heart.

Amen.

I Need, I Need, I Need. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.

May 11, 2014 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Today at church, the pastor spoke from Matthew 6:25-34 about not worrying because God will supply your need. I’ve heard that before many, many times, but for some reason it hit me in a fresh new way.

Many times, we as Americans get our needs and wants confused. I know I do.

For instance, one of my needs is reliable transportation to get me to and from work. My want is a red Mini-Cooper,preferably one that has a British flag emblem on the roof and/or on the side-view mirrors. I currently drive a red’ 97 Jeep Cherokee with nearly 275,000 miles on it that still looks and runs great.

I have an iPad 3. I love it. Still, sometimes I find myself coveting one of the new iPad Airs, especially the ones with 128 GB. But I’m content with what I have. I’d also have to be seriously delusional to call either one of those a need.

There’s a house in downtown Franklin that I’d love to live in. It’s like a storybook cottage and it’s right in the middle of one of my favorite areas of Middle Tennessee. I do have a roof over my head, so I think I’m covered when it comes to my need in that area.

I’m not saying wants are wrong. I am saying sometimes we all need a little bit of perspective about what our needs are and what our wants are. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but if you have more than one set of clothes, a roof over your head, access to clean water, more than one meal a day, and transportation, you are wealthy. So many around the world don’t have these things.

Oh, I’d still like one of those MacBook Pro laptops. Or even a MacBook Air. I’d settle for one of those, too. But I’m not going to say either of those are needs. Still, if someone wants to donate one to me out of the goodness of their heart, I wouldn’t complain too much.

All that to say that I know God will take care of my needs. Sometimes, He has to remind me of what those needs REALLY are, but He’s never failed to take care of me and my true needs. The same God who looks after those lilies in the field and those sparrows will look after me.

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