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The Tick of God’s timing

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I know I’ve said it before, but the voice of fear and anxiety says that everything has to happen right away or it won’t happen at all. Sometimes, anxiety sounds like maybe you’ve already missed it and blown your chance. Or maybe something like God won’t really keep His promises after all.

But as the old song says, the voice of truth tells me a different story. If you can breathe deep and take a moment, you might remember all those times when God came through at the exact perfect time. You might recall how His provision wasn’t a moment too soon or a moment too late.

But sometimes fear speaks so loudly, it’s hard to hear the still small voice over all the shouting. Over all the earthquakes and whirlwinds and fires that try to imitate God’s voice. But there is a Prince of Peace that can tell those winds and waves to be still. There is one whose perfect love still casts out all fear.

The more we live surrendered, the more we get in sync with God’s rhythms and learn His ways and learn to trust His timing. The less we are to give in to anxiety and fear over each new circumstance and setback.

“I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned or his children begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25, HCSB).

That’s a promise. God won’t forsake the ones He declared righteous by the work of Christ on the cross. When He sees you, He doesn’t see a past littered with failure and mistakes. He sees the perfect blood of His Son shed for you and covering you.

You can trust in God’s timing because you can trust in God’s heart for you. Neither will ever let you down. Both are faithful and true.

Music and Endorphins

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I read somewhere that one of the reasons so many people love good music is that it causes the release of the endorphins which cause pleasure. In other words, for me a good song can take me to my happy place.

There’s nothing better than the right song at the right moment to create a soundtrack event. It’s almost like you’re suddenly inside a movie when that song comes on.  Maybe I’m the only one, but I have those moments often.

I think all the hymns and praise songs are a testament to the power of music to convey truths in a powerfully emotional way. Music is the only experience that engages all of your brain at one time (and I’m fairly certain that’s right because I read it on the internet. They can’t put anything on the internet that isn’t true, right?)

For me, the perfect song was Creepin’ by Stevie Wonder right as the sun was setting on my drive home tonight. Heck, there is no bad time for a Stevie Wonder song. Any Stevie Wonder song.

Jazz is good for late at night, especially after midnight. Nothing is more perfect than some Red Garland in the wee small hours of the morning.

My point? I love music. I probably love it too much, if that’s even possible. I have music and songs in my head almost non-stop. It’s like my life has it’s own incredible soundtrack that no one hears but me. Maybe they make pills for that. I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t change it if I could.

While music in worship is important, worship is more than music. It’s more than singing. In fact, if you’re not worshipping already when the music starts, if your worship isn’t a lifestyle, then you’ve missed it. But that’s another topic for another blog on another day.

 

Coming to Stay

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“The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
    true from start to finish” (John 1:14).

Have you ever noticed how sometimes friends come and go?

I mean, have you ever had a friend completely disappear from your life? It’s like one day you see them all the time and the next you don’t see them anymore. It feels like they moved on and forgot about you.

Not all friends are meant to be in your life forever. Some are meant for only a season or two. Yet it still hurts when they’re no longer around.

I love how The Message puts it. Jesus moved into the neighborhood. He didn’t come to visit for a while. He came to stay. He came to take up residence and be among us.

Jesus may have physically left, but He’s still around. He promised He would be when He sent His Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself promised that He would never leave us or forsake us.

That’s what I cling to some days. I cling to Jesus as the only constant in a world racked by constant change and turmoil and instability. My pastor said that when the Bible talks about the glory of God, it conveys almost a kind of weight. It’s like saying that only God deserves glory because He’s the only one weighty enough to hold our lives in orbit and to keep us from spinning out of control.

That’s what Jesus does. He keeps us together on those days when it’s all we can do to put one foot in front of the other and to remember to breathe in and breathe out.

That’s what Immanuel means. God is still with us.

 

Good Times, Bad Times

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alexander

I had a really good day. In fact, nearly all my days are good days. It helps when you’re an optimist like me and choose to focus on the good instead of the bad. That helps.

But what about when you have bad days?

What about when you have those days when you don’t feel confident? When you feel like all those old fears and insecurities have crept right back into your mind and taken up residence again? When you feel like you’ve regressed back into the you that wasn’t very fun to be around?

Even as much as I, the eternal optimist, would like to say differently, you will have bad days. You will even have crappy days. You will have those terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad days (just like that Alexander kid).

Bad days do more than just take up the necessary 24 hour allotment of space. They give perspective. They help you see how good the good days are in comparison.

The good news that I need to remember (and I’m sure you do, too) is that God is just as faithful and present on the bad days as He is on the good. He may not seem as tangibly present, but trust me, He’s there. You just have to trust what you know of God and His promises rather than what you feel. After all, feelings lie. Feelings can be misleading. Feelings can be such fickle things. But God never lies.

Even when it seems like you’re having a month of Mondays, remember that all the promises of God still hold just as true for you as they did when you were having a good day.

And remember, you DID wake up this morning. You DID get out of bed. You ARE reading this, so you still have your mind. Even on a bad day, there are still so many things to be thankful for. Good things. Just you remember that.

 

 

A Repeat

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image

“Everything will be fine in the end. If it’s not fine, it’s not the end.”

Every time I hear those words, they ring more true than ever. These words are from a movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but that doesn’t make them any less true.

That’s the story of the Bible. That’s the story of unfolding redemption, played out through history. The Gospel.

Adam and Eve knew fine, but their wrong choice ended that. Their sin, the choosing of self over God, made it so that everything was not fine. And so it remains.

Ever since that first sin, it’s been the opposite of fine. It’s been a catastrophe, a disaster, an epic fail. We are cut ofd from God, from each other, and from our true selves– who we really were designed and created to be.

But Jesus came to undo what Adam did, to bridge the gap between man and God, as only God in human skin could. He came to make everything fine again.

Paul says it a little more poetically in Romans 8:28: “We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.”

That’s the whole story. It will be fine in the end because God has promised it would be.

Everything will be fine in the end. It’s not fine yet, but that only means it’s not yet the end.

Hope

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shawshank

“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies” (from Shawshank Redemption).

I love The Shawshank Redemption. Especially the last 15 minutes. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I will say that you find out that appearances can be very deceiving.

The line about hope is one of the best lines in the movie, and there are plenty of good ones. I think the apostle Paul said something similar when he wrote, “This doesn’t mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys—we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles. Taken in the right spirit these very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us” (Romans 5:3-4).

I want a hope that never dies. I need a hope that doesn’t disappoint.

I’ve put my hopes in things that certainly let me down, like relationships or jobs or even sports teams. I fully know what it’s like to be disappointed when a friendship doesn’t go the way you wanted, or a job you banked on comes to an end, or that team you wanted so badly to win loses.

But I’ve found when my hope is squarely set on God, I’m never disappointed. Ever. I’ve never been let down. Not even once. I haven’t always understood the paths he’s led me down, but I’ve always known the destination would be worth it.

God is a sure thing. Though heaven and earth pass away, his word will remain. That’s something you can hope in. And you and I both need something we can hold on to and hope in in these very uncertain times.

I’m praying you find this hope to be better than you ever thought it could be and the God of hope more faithful and true than you ever dreamed he could be,