Mayberry or Mayhem?

•July 3, 2012 • 2 Comments

I was saddened to hear today of the death of Andy Griffith.  I, like many of you, grew up on the Andy Griffith Show and to this day can catch myself whistling the theme song without even thinking about it.

Andy talented?  Got that right.  Remember “What it was, was football”?  It is Andy’s description of a college football game as viewed by a naive country preacher who attends the game accidentally.  Who else could have taken football and made it so cotton-picking funny?

Remember the movie “No Time for Sergeants”?  My favorite line is when Andy invites one of his fellow soldiers outside because Andy “aims to bust him up”.

Remember Andy’s musical talent?  Especially his recordings of some of our most treasured hymns that were a reflection of his own faith in Jesus Christ?

And, of course, The Andy Griffith Show.  Grew up on it.  Loved it.  Still love it.  Loved the characters.  Loved Mayberry.  Still watch every episode I can – mouthing almost every line of dialogue with the actors!

Mayberry became more than a fictional town for most of us.  It became a state of mind.  Quiet.  Charming.  Endearing.  A place where drama, hassles, or crossed-up relationships were remedied by the end of the day.

Mayberry taught us…

…that right and wrong do exist and that it takes wisdom and courage to do what’s right(remember Andy’s talks with Opie?).

…that everyone is in some way crazy, weird, goofy, and self-centered but forgiveness rules and we can still get along if we want to do so (remember the cast of crazy characters? Barney? Ernest T. Bass? Goober? etc.).  Somehow they were all welcome and tolerated in Mayberry.

…that we all have our addictions and compassion toward one another is a good thing (two words:  Otis Campbell).

…that life is to be enjoyed at a slower pace.  They did an entire episode on that very subject with a traveling businessman whose car was in need of repair on a Sunday afternoon.  One of my favorite scenes is when Andy, Barney, and the businessman are on the porch singing, “Come to the church in the wildwood.  Come to the church in the dale.  No place is so dear to my childhood as the little brown church in the vale.”  Wow.

…that going to church on Sunday is a good thing.  (I’ll leave it at that.  Don’t want to get “preachy”).

Unfortunately, for most of us 21st century folks, our Mayberry has turned into mayhem.

We go too fast.

We absorb too much.

We waste more than we should.

We spend money we don’t have on junk we don’t need to impress people we don’t like.

Our relationships are strained at best and broken at worst.  And forget about fixing those relationships by the end of the day – we carry grudges and resentment for years and years.

We go to church on Sunday only if there’s nothing better to do (if at all).

Mayberry?  I’m all for it.  My reality?  Not quite.  But it certainly has my vote – and my desire.

Hats off to you Mr. Griffith.  You gave us something to strive toward…

Posted in Uncategorized

Leading or Acquiescing?

•June 19, 2012 • 1 Comment

Francis Chan said…

“God calls us to give people what they need. Based on His word, regardless of whether they stick around. Jesus led. Few followed, but He kept leading.
 Last summer, I came to a shocking realization that I had to share with my wife: If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, mine would be bigger. People would leave His church to attend mine because I call for an easier commitment. I know better how to cater to people’s desires so they stick around. Jesus was never really good at that. He was the one who said, “He who loves father or mother…son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:37 NIV).  I’m much more popular than Jesus.”

Jesus never allowed anyone to deter him from the vision God had given him – even if it meant ocassionally “thinning the herd”.

Here are some facts:

1)  God gives the vision for a church to its pastor.

2)  Often, church people want their vision for the church followed rather than God’s vision.

3)  A pastor/leader has to decide whose vision he will follow – and therein lies the rub.

It’s a difficult thing for a pastor to stick with the vision he feels God gave him.  Sometimes that vision seems beyond reach or impossible.  Sometimes the people who follow don’t like the vision.  Sometimes the vision gets drowned out in administrative or other issues that seem urgent at the time.  And worse, sometimes a pastor will forsake that vision to accommodate the people who “don’t get it” – so he can keep his crowd.

It goes without saying that when it comes to the American church, well, it’s pretty consumer oriented.  If you don’t give people what they want, they’ll go somewhere else to find it.  And when you’re in the buckle of the Bible belt, with churches on every street corner, it’s easy for your congregants to be “led” to another church – that just so happens to meet their consumeristic wants and desires.

The temptation is for a pastor to shelve his vision and acquiesce to the consumeristic demands of people to maintain his crowd / attendance.

I was simply encouraged by Francis Chan’s observation and reminder that…

Jesus led – few followed.

Pastors need to follow their God-given vision (warning:  make sure it was given to you by God) and leave the size of the crowd up to God.  Some will like it; some won’t.  God only us asks to be faithful to the calling and vision he has given us and leave the results up to him.

That takes the pressure off.

Posted in Church

Father’s Day

•June 16, 2012 • 1 Comment

Tomorrow is Father’s Day.  My dad passed away of cancer in 1997 at the age of 70.  Gone too soon.

I’m pushing 50 and I’ve lived long enough to realize that much, if not most, of the good in me was influenced, molded, and shaped by my dad.  Just a few examples…

My dad taught me to get up and go to work everyday … and work hard.  His motto was, “You don’t ‘call in’ sick – you ‘crawl-in’ sick.  He was the hardest working man I’ve known.

My dad taught me that I was entitled to nothing and if I wanted something that it was up to me to work hard and get it.  I think a lot of Americans have forgotten that principle.

My dad taught me, and I quote, “If you make your bed – you sleep in it”.  What he meant was that life is all about sowing and reaping.  If you make bad decisions – don’t whine when the consequences hit home – and they will hit home eventually.

My dad taught me to handle my money wisely.  Now, I confess I could have done a better job over the years.  But the lesson I’ve learned is (as other lessons I’ve learned that dad tried to teach me) dad was right about how to handle money.  If I’d handled my money like he taught me … well, let’s not think about that.

My dad taught me it’s not your past that counts – it’s what you do with your future.  My dad was born dirt poor during the Depression and grew up on the side of mountain in north Georgia.  He quit school in the 9th grade.  He married at 19 and had three kids.   At 27 his first wife died – leaving him with three young kids.  He married my mom in 1958, moved to McDonough, Georgia in 1960 and I came along in 1962.  There was a time in my infant years that all six of us lived in a single wide trailer!  But because of my dad’s entrepreneurial spirit, common sense, and no-stop-all-go attitude he became a successful businessman with several businesses and many real-estate holdings.  He built the nicest house on our street and had it paid for by the time he was 40 years old.  We lived well.  He was proof that it’s not where you came from – it’s where you’re going.

My dad taught me a great love for music.  Dad was an excellent guitar, banjo, and mandolin player.  He started me on guitar at age four and piano at age five.  There’s was a joke in our house that if you couldn’t play an instrument or sing by the age of five – you didn’t eat!  The countless hours I sat around playing music with my dad are precious to me and I will never forget them.  The joy music has brought me over the years is priceless.

And the most important thing – my dad taught me to follow Jesus.  Dad became a follower of Jesus in 1973 and it changed his life.  Dad taught me the importance of reading the Bible, attending church regularly (our family calendar was centered around the church calendar) and being generous with God.  My dad was very generous with the church, other ministries, and pastors.  In fact, one year the IRS audited him because he’d given so much money away!  They didn’t believe he’d giving away so much.  After the audit, though, the IRS owed him money!  My dad died knowing the grace of God in his life.

My regrets?  Not spending more time with my dad and not following his advice more.  Oh well, live and learn.  But I do miss the old man terribly.  His body rests in a grave yard on the side of a mountain in north Georgia not far from where he grew up.  It comforts me to know I’ll see him again in heaven one day.  Maybe God will let us pull out the guitars and sing You Are My Flower (by Flatt and Scruggs) one more time.

Happy Father’s Day, Pop.

Posted in Family

Just some Saturday night ramblings…

•June 2, 2012 • Leave a Comment

1.  God’s grace is stupendous, freeing, liberating, spectacular, awesome, redeeming, forgiving, reconciling, regenerating and deserves more parties than we give it.  Every church service every Sunday should be a throw-down to celebrate the wonderful grace of Jesus that reaches all the lost – including me.

2.  Having said that, I still hurt for those who can’t embrace God’s grace.  Just saw a Facebook post this week decrying the “sinfulness” of tattoos.  Really?  If you’re going to take one verse from Leviticus (19:28) to denounce tattoos – what do you do with ALL THE OTHER COMMANDS of Leviticus?  For example (in the SAME chapter mind you), Leviticus 19: 30 says, “Observe my sabbaths…”  Did you observe the Old Testament Sabbath last Saturday?  Leviticus 19:32 says, “Rise in the presence of the aged…”  Did you stand up the last time your father or mother entered a room?  And another, Leviticus 19:33, “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him.”  Does that have anything to say to us about how we tend to treat “aliens” in our land?  See what I’m talking about?  God gave the Old Testament Law to show we COULDN’T keep it. The New Testament is about grace, grace, grace.

3.  One other thing – it amazes me how often people who absolutely ignore God and his church everyday of their lives tend to be the first to blame him for everything bad that happens to them in their lives.  They want full control of their lives until they make a mess of things then they want God to step in and fix it – interesting.

That’s it, just some Saturday night ramblings.

Have a great Sunday tomorrow in your church.  Support your worship leader and pastor.  Pray hard.  Sing loud.  Worship intensely.  Listen tenaciously.  Learn much. His grace is worth it.

Peace.

 

Posted in Uncategorized

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying

•April 24, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I’ll turn 50 years old this October.  I’ve been thinking a lot about my life lately – how I’m investing my life, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, my true-blue friends, the friends that I thought were true-blue … but weren’t.  You know, stuff like that…

Anyway, today I came across this research in an excellent periodical I read regularly called Leadership Journal.  It seems an Australian nurse named Bonnie Ware has spent years working with dying patients during the last 12 weeks of their lives.  She says that her patients gain a “phenomenal clarity of vision” as they approach death.  During her years of caring for the dying she would ask her patients about any regrets they had or what they would do differently.

Here are the top five responses…

1)  I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself.  (Most of us never have real conversations with ourselves about ourselves.  We just accept the labels others place on us.)

2)  I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.  (Ware says every male patient she nursed said this.  I made a decision last year to stop the madness of 60-70 hour work weeks and you know what?  No one noticed.)

3)  I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.  (Many people suppress their feelings in order to keep peace with others … afraid I’m guilty of that one.)

4)  I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.  (Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.  I’m not the most social person in the world but God’s given me a few good friends.  I hope they know how much they mean to me.)

5)  I wish I’d let myself be happier.  (People get stuck in the same old patterns and habits never realizing that happiness is a choice.  Fear, shame, and guilt paralyze so many people – been there myself – God never intended for it to be that way.)

If you died tomorrow, what regrets would you have?  Well, I hope you don’t die tomorrow.  I hope both of us have some time left.  So, what could we change now so that we might not die with such regrets?  Give it some thought.

Just thought I’d share that today…

Posted in Uncategorized

Every Spiritual Blessing

•April 12, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I’ve been meditating on Ephesians 1:3 this week (Ephesians rocks, by the way).

“Praise be to the God and Father of our lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

What does “every spiritual blessing mean”.   Note what Paul says about these spiritual blessings…

1.  God is the source, provider, and ultimate cause of spiritual blessings.  The Gospel begins with God, not me.  God keeps his promises, he delivers.  God doesn’t give you a little and then demand you fill in the rest.  He doesn’t point you in the right direction and leave you on your own for the rest of the journey.   God does it all – from start to finish.

2.  These blessings come because I am “in Christ”.  It is “in Christ” that I receive what I desperately need, not Abraham, not Moses, not the Law, etc.  The tense and voice of this phrase indicates that what Christ has done for us happened in the past but continues now and will continue on into the future – talk about security!

3.  These blessings are in regard to our salvation.  In the following verses, Paul enumerates some of our spiritual blessings God has provided for us:  he chose us (vs 4);  he made us holy & blameless (vs 4);  he loved us (vs 4);  he predestined us (vs 4);   he adopted us (vs 4);  he redeemed us (vs 7);  he forgave us (vs 7).  Wow.

4.  These blessings are heaven-based.  The antonym for heaven is earth.  The New Covenant God has made with us in Christ is heaven-based, not earth-based.  The Old Testament/Covenant Law was earth-based – temporary.  What we have in Christ is heaven based – eternal.  The Old Testament Covenant was based on the temporary sacrifice of animals.  The New Covenant is based on the once-for-all offering of Christ on the Cross.  Again, we are secure in Christ.

5.  These blessings are based on the grace of God.  Verse 7 says, …the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.”

There is nothing we really need that we don’t already have in Jesus Christ.  We can stop asking God for what we already have.

PRAISE BE TO THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Posted in Salvation

The Necessity of Emptiness

•April 5, 2012 • 3 Comments

I’m continuing recovery from a back injury that sent me to the floor on March 1, 2012.  The pain from this caused me to miss four weeks from the preaching at my church as well as a host of other things an active guy like me enjoys doing.  It was four weeks of much physical and emotional pain and a great deal of solitude, prayer, acceptance, and emptiness – lessons I’ll be walking away with after this wonderful, albeit painful, Sabbatical.  The first was SOLITUDE, the second was PRAYER, the third was ACCEPTANCE (see prior posts), and the last (for now)…

Fourth,  THE NECESSITY OF EMPTINESS.

Our life-cups are pretty full.  Full of schedules, activities, work, kids, deadlines, payments, appointments, opinions, ideas, speculations, stereotypes, assumptions,  religious stuff, hopes, dreams … did I mention opinions?!

Sometimes our cups get so full that we simply have no room for anything else – even God. There is simply no space left.  Oh, we might give him a glance now and then; a Sunday once in a while, a prayer if we need something.  But nothing even close to the intimate relationship he so longs to have with us.

Yet, the usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness.

Philippians 2:7 says that (Jesus) made himself nothing.  This English translation comes from a Greek word that literally means Jesus emptied himself.  He emptied himself of everything he deserved as God so that he could fulfill the task his Father commissioned him to do on this earth.

Jesus emptied himself.  Even though it meant humanity, goofy disciples, religious intolerance (from the Pharisees and Sadducees), being misunderstood, pain, struggle, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Cross, death.  Wow.  Yet his resurrection proves that in his self-emptying the Father filled him with his purpose and Jesus accomplished it.  Wow, again.

Maybe it’s time to empty the cup and begin again.

Perhaps during this Easter season we could die to self – empty the cup – and be open to what God wants to put in it – resurrection and life.  REAL LIFE.

Posted in Uncategorized

The Liberation of Acceptance

•April 4, 2012 • 1 Comment

I’m continuing recovery from a back injury that sent me to the floor on March 1, 2012.  The pain from this caused me to miss four weeks from the preaching at my church as well as a host of other things an active guy like me enjoys doing.  It was four weeks of much physical and emotional pain and a great deal of solitude, prayer, acceptance, and emptiness.  So, here’s a few things (probably will be more!) I’ll be walking away with after this wonderful, albeit painful, Sabbatical.  The first was SOLITUDE, the second was PRAYER (see prior posts), and …

Third, THE LIBERATION OF ACCEPTANCE

We are constantly encountering new situations and/or people.  The word for that is CHANGE.  Many people hate change and refuse to accept it.  Elizabeth Kubler Ross says that change can be a result of a door closing in our lives, loss, a death, etc.  At first, change usually renders an uncomfortable feeling in us.  If we don’t learn to accept change and move on – complications arise.

Do you accept your reality the way it really is?  Have you accepted possible recent changes in your life?  TS Eliot said, “We can’t handle too much reality and that includes the reality of ourselves, situation, and social relationships. We often live in a dream world rather than in the reality”

When it comes to change and one’s current reality, some people tend to deny it, suppress it, mask it, or distract ourselves from it.  There are different ways people to do this.  Some drink too much, some use drugs, some participate in illicit and/or unhealthy relationships, some work too much, etc.  However, this fighting of a new situation just leads to bitterness, frustration, and weariness.  It teaches us that we no longer have or never really have had … control.

Elizabeth Kubler Ross goes on to say, though, that when change is properly mourned (and it is OK to mourn any loss), something new emerges; a reinvestment; a reintegration; a change; an acceptance of the way things have been and now are.  When properly dealt with, one can journey beyond the idea of being a victim into a new acceptance that empowers a person to move on.

If you fight change you’ll be fighting your whole life.

The good news for Jesus-followers is that we don’t have to accept the syrupy platitude of “Now, just accept it” that some well-intentioned people give.  The good news is that you are a child of most high God.  He knows you, your situation, what he’s accomplishing in your life & has allowed this change in order to provide the absolute best for you

We’ve all heard the first line of the Serenity Prayer:  “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

More to come…

Posted in Acceptance

The Power of Prayer

•April 3, 2012 • 1 Comment

I’m continuing recovery from a back injury that sent me to the floor on March 1, 2012.  The pain from this caused me to miss four weeks from the preaching at my church as well as a host of other things an active guy like me enjoys doing.  It was four weeks of much physical and emotional pain and a great deal of solitude, prayer, acceptance, and emptiness.  So, here’s a few things (probably will be more!) I’ll be walking away with after this wonderful, albeit painful, Sabbatical.  The first was SOLITUDE (see prior post), and …

Second, THE POWER OF PRAYER

Prayer is not 1) an intellectual exercise where I try to impress God with how much I know about him (most of our views of God are distorted anyway), 2) giving God my laundry list of stuff I need him to fix, 3) a chess game where if I make a move, God will make a move, 4) a fast-food type order I give God to be quickly executed by him, bundled in a neat, convenient package, and given to me at the drive-thru so I can be merrily and expeditiously on my way.

Prayer is simply being along with God;  simply keeping company with God; simply telling him what’s on your mind; and simply listening for him to tell you what’s on his mind.

It is phenomenal that this Holy Other, this Lover of my Soul invites me to approach him; linger with him; remain in him; abide in him.

More than anything these last few weeks, God has not so much given me everything I’ve prayed for but he has comforted me during my times of prayer and given me hope for the future – regardless of what the future holds.  Especially when my prayer has been the rawest, most honest, and least verbally pleasant.

I encourage you to read two classic books on prayer by E. M. Bounds – Power through Prayer and Purpose in Prayer.

To be continued…

Posted in Prayer

The Strength of Silence

•April 3, 2012 • 3 Comments

I’m continuing recovery from a back injury that sent me to the floor on March 1.  The pain from this caused me to miss four weeks from the preaching at my church as well as a host of other things an active guy like me enjoys doing.  Four weeks of much physical and emotional pain and a great deal of silence and solitude.  So, when I preached last Sunday (April 1, 2012), I preached out of this experience on four (of many) things God taught me in this wonderful, albeit painful, Sabbatical.

First, the STRENGTH OF SILENCE

We love being busy.  But why?  It seems we Americans refuse to let one minute go uncluttered.  Is it because we fear what the silence may bring?

We fear silence because when there’s no TV, email, spouse, kids, job, Facebook, Little League practices to get a child to or dance lessons to get another child to, computer, etc, all that is        left is ME – and ME is the very one I’m trying to avoid.

Because when confronted with ME, I have to cease judging others and deal directly with my own issues.  So I cover it up with busyness and busyness is a barren place.  Busyness keeps my from evaluating my interior life.  Busyness keeps me from entering into a more intimate relationship with the God who created me and loves me beyond belief.

Jesus was unswervingly devoted to solitude (read the gospels).  King David, the man after God’s own heart, was committed to time alone with God on a regular basis (read the Psalms).  Paul, the greatest missionary and church planter ever, went through three years of solitude in the Arabian desert before he began his ministry (read Galatians).  Seems like a pattern there.

Silence is a spiritual discipline meant to create space in my life in which God can act.  It provides God an opportunity to speak in his still, small voice.

“You have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence we shall be strengthened.  By your Spirit lift us to your presence where we may be still and know that you are God”  (from the Book of Common Prayer)

I encourage you… get alone…get quiet…listen…

To be continued…

Posted in Solitude

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