(Post was written for a newsletter on December 26th)
The 12 Days of Christmas leading towards Epiphany continue on but already it feels like the season is beginning to pass as the debate begins on when to take down decorations and as new “things” have found their way into our homes. Questions swirl in the mind both wondering – How are we going to fit all these toys in this house? And thankful – How good does it feel to finally get new kitchen towels after 8 years of marriage? It feels good by the way. This season is definitely a time to catch up with friends and family whether through visits, calls, or Christmas cards, but for me it also seems to be a time of reflection, taking stock, or working on things that might have slipped my attention during a busy semester.
I’m sitting here eating a chocolate covered marshmallow Santa as I type this and I’m thinking how ironic it is to talk at all about looking ahead and resolutions and New Year’s as I’m staring down at a bowl of Christmas candy. So what will your resolutions be this year? Do you do them? I had a student a couple years ago that seriously did them and wrote them down and taped them up beside her computer. Go her! I’ve thought about it before and I guess have attempted a time or to, but I was much better at keeping “resolutions” while in an accountability group with some peers in college or as a Lenten practice. In my mind why do we wait til certain times of the year to start making a change in our life? Take for example me eating this bowl full of candy. I can tell myself, hey – you better eat it now because come January 1st you’re not going to do this anymore. Or I can just say, hey – if you eat more than one of those chocolate Santa’s you’re going to have a stomach ache and by the way – why are you always eating so much chocolate? Maybe you should get more sleep or should do a little exercise.
I know, I know. Enough with the inner monologue. The thing about the Christian walk is that we don’t just evaluate and assess our lives once or twice a year. We’re not just counted as naughty or nice once a year either. This is a walk, a journey, and something that often takes some perseverance, faith and a whole lot of grace. Sometimes we’re discouraged. Sometimes we’ve had enough. Sometimes it’s been a bad day, a bad week, a bad month, a bad year. Sometimes we don’t know how we’ll pick up the pieces or where to begin. But begin we will with the love and grace of God that is always sufficient if we but ask.
I am reminded of the movie, The Sound of Music, another holiday favorite that I love. When Maria comes back to the abbey not quite knowing what to do, and Mother Superior says, “Our abbey is not to be used as an escape. What is it you can’t face? You must find out. You must go back. Maria, these walls were not built to shut out problems. You have to face them. You have to live the life you were born to live.” With the help of God we can face both the small and the most humungous of bumps in the road. In this season of ponderings may we take a deep, hard look at the lives we are living and may we live them more abundantly and more hopefully in the love of Christ. May we see the challenges of our days as opportunities to grow and learn. May we know that making a change – creating a new habit or letting go of one – is not something that’s once a year, but we can keep climbing that mountain with a Savior that walks with us every day. Listen to wonderful Mother Superior. Listen to the Spirit of God alive and speaking to your heart.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right had of the throne of God.”
In this season of campus ministry – you can’t just sprint. When people talk about ministry and life in general you’ll often hear comparisons of a sprint versus a marathon. If we’re constantly sprinting – we’re going to give out – run out – tag out.
I have a couple of friends right now training for marathons and they have their run keepers set on twitter and facebook so that everyone is keeping track of their training. This is amazing to me. I have a hard enough time talking myself into any exercise, much less training for a marathon. I admire their commitment – their dedication.
I relate to the part of these verses that says “let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely…” Sometimes it does feel like there our weights holding us down. What are we carrying with us? What is holding us back with all its might? Is it unresolved hurt or anger? Is it a feeling of unworth or mistrust? Is it a sense of betrayal not just of a loved one but even in thinking about God? Is it fear?
There can be a lot that weighs us down especially in the middle of the night as we wrestle with those things that we don’t want to acknowledge in the day light. When everything is stripped away – what holds us back from running the race set before us?
We are not called to live a sedentary life. But exercise and training can sometimes get beastly, especially when you’re not prepared. Nobody is saying that the race is easy. Sometimes you need to spend the big bucks on the right running shoes or suffer the consequences. And in the race of life – sometimes you need to put in the extra time digging into scripture and forming community with one another.
How are we equipped in this life? How are we ready? How do we get geared up like Rocky for the fight ahead? We have to dig into the Word of God. We have to earnestly seek the Lord by prayer and supplication. We have to open our eyes and our heart to the leading of God and the many ways God answers us in miraculous ways every day.
We also don’t have to run the race alone. No one has to sit in their dorm room alone or has to hide in their office during lunch time. Sometimes it feels that way and again – it’s not always easy. But we have to band together as community – as church – with each other or we have little shot of making this trek on our own.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” In our busy world that seems to burst with “stuff” to do and weights pulling at us from all sides, boy do we need to get countercultural sometimes and ban together and get to know each other.
In a society where one could argue we have more opportunities than ever to connect, there are still so many of us that feel like we have to do everything on our own – by our own strength, our own merit, our own smarts, our own everything. To run this race with perseverance – we’ve got to drop our pride at the door and be willing to step out and reach out to the others running the race with us. If we just sit with each other on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights or whenever – and we don’t actually get to know one another – how are we being church with one another?
Sometimes even with encouragement and building each other up, it still gets to be too much. A student the other day mentioned how he and his roomate had decided last semester they were going to exercise 5 days a week. They would hold each other accountable and they would encourage each other. He then said they lasted about a week and a half. Hey – for some of us – that’s not bad, but a week and a half…sometimes on our own – even if there’s a whole group of us – it ain’t gonna happen if we’re just doing it on our collective strength.
Bottom line – just like the verse says – we’ve got to keep looking to Jesus. Because none of us are going to run this race perfectly. None of us are going to always have the nice, shiny, non-scuffed up running shoes and the perfect form. Sometimes things get tough and we need to know who to look to. Jesus – the One who sustains us, the One who knows us inside and out, the One who walks before us and beside us each step of the way. Do the training – dig into scripture, find a community that can support and lift you up – but always look to Jesus – who continues to strengthen our faith through both lifes sprints and marathons.
Am I the only one who is a little miffed at Jon Stewart’s portrayal of Methodists in last week’s coverage of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding? I know I was on vacation and out of the loop and I didn’t care nor watch any of the Clinton wedding coverage. I also know that United Methodist Communications folks probably have bigger fish to fry, but there’s a whole lot of people that watch Jon Stewart and although he’s a little whatever at times, he does usually speak some semblance of the truth. For the 18-35 year olds among us, many of us would choose to watch him, Colbert, or George Lopez than the news.
If you don’t want to go to the site and see it for yourself here’s the gist – Jon Stewart says, “Being a Methodist is easy. It’s like the The University of Phoenix of religions: you just send them 50 bucks and click “I agree” and you are saved.” Again, I know this is Jon Stewart and taken with a grain of salt. Hello, I’m from the state of South Carolina. We’ve been giving him great material for years. But I still think this comment is bothersome.
Being a Methodist is easy.
I’m a campus minister and every summer and during preview days during the school year we as a collective group of campus ministries (WCCM – Winthrop Cooperative Campus Ministries) host a table with the other student activity groups and we sign up students for more information about the various ministries. It’s always hilarious to me how many students we get from particular denominations that actually emphasize this connection, how many students are looking nicely around and smiling and then they see our sign that says Campus Ministries and they don’t make eye contact, how many times we never see the student if the parent is the one who signed them up, and those that have already heard about our ministries from their home churches even before they got there. Now that is a study in and of itself. Inevitably when I leave these exchanges, I think boy, this grace thing that we United Methodists talk about all the time – that’s a tricky thing. I don’t know if it’s helping us or hurting us in the arena of discipleship.
Don’t get me wrong – I love grace. Heck my daughter Evy is Evy Grace. Without grace humanity would be up the creek with no paddle and not even a boat or creek to begin with. I LOVE the Wesleyan understanding of grace. Prevenient grace – God draws us to God’s self even before we know it; Justifying grace – We realize that God’s grace is not only abundant but sufficient for us – even on our most sinful and lost day; Sanctifying grace – God doesn’t leave us where we are in sin but walks with us on this journey of faith drawing us forth to living more and more like Christ. I get it. I love it. Seriously.
But dude, I think half of our people think because they have this grace thing down pat, than they’re all good to go and they forget that sanctifying part where we’re supposed to be growing more and more in the ways of Jesus. You’ve heard of cheap grace. I’ve never really liked that phrase because I don’t think grace is cheap – it came at a cost and one we didn’t have to pay. I may not like the phrase but I think we see the sentiment all around us and contrary to what Mr. Stewart may believe, living out a life of faith is not easy.
Maybe if we really believed the theology we say we do, the things that the Wesleys’ lifted up in their teaching, their music, their lives – maybe then it wouldn’t look so easy or watered down. I also argue that there are plenty of United Methodists and I know other Christians all over the world that are living out the Gospel with all of its radical, counter-cultural, transformational, and tenacious glory all over the place in all the ways they can, by all the means they can, as ever as long they can.
You don’t press the easy button and then suddenly become a Methodist. Now that would make a funny new UMC commercial – true. But it’s a balance. Grace comes to us freely and without merit. That in some ways is really easy. You just call on the name of Jesus and viola – it is that easy. A free gift – not earned, not based on gold stars we’re collecting on a sticker board in the sky. How many people do we see in the gospel accounts as they encounter Jesus and suddenly their eyes are opened and they realize he is Lord? That part – the ah hah – when we get it – is as easy as accepting it and knowing it. But the living it and breathing it and trusting it and stepping out in faith – that’s a process. That’s a lifetime. That’s a step by step, day by day.
So yes, Jon Stewart I think you are hilarious. Yes, you are right that there was way too much news coverage of the Clinton wedding. But yes you bothered me in your comments about our denomination. Then again, maybe we should be bothered. Maybe we should think about what we stand for. Maybe we should think about how we’re living out our faith and how we’re living out such a radical Gospel. Seriously, maybe that should be our new ad campaign. Ready or not? Easy or not? What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it mean to be a United Methodist? What do we actually stand for? Not just what we stand against a la Anne Rice’s rant, but what do we clear as a bell, beyond a shadow of a doubt, stand for?
Yesterday was one of those crazy campus ministry days. This weekend we’re hosting our first wedding rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception. Wow! We hosted our first wedding reception two weeks ago and it was beautiful! I have no doubt that today’s wedding will be just as beautiful and special.
I’m so glad I’m writing this today and not yesterday. Yesterday morning when I got to Wesley the air conditioning unit was making a buzzing sound. I could hear the fan going in the building but the two fan blades in the actual unit weren’t moving at all. As y’all know – this is the hottest month that newscasters have on record and this is South Carolina. Needless to say – it was hot! We have a now close relationship with Adams Services. Adams does heating, cooling, electrical, and plumbing so between all of those things we have plenty of chances to see them between fixing up Wesley and trying to continue to maintain The Wesley House. They are all great guys and I trust them completely.
They got here a little after 1 and thankfully had a temporary fix for us by 3 which was great. Yes, they’re going to fix it more next week when I’m on vacation and yes, this is still only a temporary fix because this unit is old and decrepid and we need to eventually by another unit – you don’t want to know that price tag. Bottom line for me though – it was fixed! It was a little warm for the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner last night but when I got here this morning it was a nice 72 degrees which is miraculous for this building. And now both families are decorating away and fellowshipping with each other and it’s beautiful…..and cool. Nice. Praise God for a cloudy day!
So why is the blogged titled Miley Cyrus you may ask? Well all day yesterday I could only think of one song and it was Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb.” Some of you may be shaking your head and saying that I am crazy for thinking of that song by a teen pop star/blah, blah, blah. However – I like the stinking song. Disney mistakenly sent us the Hannah Montana movie and although our kids aren’t nearly old enough to see it or care a wit about it, it wasn’t half bad. And I’m a little embaressed to admit that but who cares.
In campus ministry land I do often feel like it’s the climb. It’s an amazing and awesome climb 98% of the time. I love, love, love my “job.” It’s hard for me to imagine doing anything else. But let me tell you, yesterday when the air conditioner is broken and I hear the pricetag for fixing it and next door at The Wesley House, we’re fixing a bathtub, front door lock, and calling Comporium to fix a cable box…things feel like an uphill battle trying to keep this property in shape and accessible.
What makes it all worth it though is things like today. Yep, this property stuff drives me crazy, but it’s worth it to see this wedding today! It’s worth it to have gone next door to Wesley House this morning to borrow the vaccuum and see one of our new residents at home in her new room and her facebook status, “is an OFFICIAL resident of the wesley house. love my life. 😀 😀 :D” That makes all of this other junk worth it!
So maybe it is the climb. And maybe it is Miley Cyrus. But it sure did speak to me. Thank God there’s no limit to what God can speak to us through. In this life sometimes we have to keep climbing and bounding over the hurdles thankful for the daily mercies and blessings that come our way even in the midst.
I can almost see it
That dream I am dreaming
But there’s a voice inside my head saying
“You’ll never reach it”
Every step I’m taking
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking
But I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high
There’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose
Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb
The struggles I’m facing
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I’m not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going
And I, I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on
‘Cause there’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose
Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb, yeah!
There’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Somebody’s gonna have to lose
Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb, yeah!
Keep on moving, keep climbing
Keep the faith, baby
It’s all about, it’s all about the climb
Keep the faith, keep your faith, whoa
I realized earlier today I haven’t really updated folks on the latest health stuff. It’s both easy and difficult to push that to the back of my mind – especially this time of the year as we prepare for the students return.
Mike and I went a couple weeks ago to the new neurologist and she’s great! An Emory Med School grad and it was like night and day from before which was great. Mike particularly liked her which is high praise. We talked to her about the small things that have changed since the surgery and she did some tests that proved that we weren’t just imagining things. I have found that I can’t always remember simple things or people’s names even I’ve known them forever. She showed me some flash cards with simple objects on them and although I knew what each was and they were simple like an umbrella or something like that. I couldn’t actually say all of their names for a little while. It’s like I know it but there’s some sort of delay or block. I knew that I had been feeling this way but when she did that test, I knew for sure, that everything wasn’t “back to normal.” We then did a test where you’re supposed to walk in a straight line. Yes, like the drunk test. Welp, totally bombed that one too. I haven’t noticed any difference in regular life with my motor skills so that was a little startling to know that even that’s a little off. She said she would testify on behalf if I failed a DUI test – no worries there since I can’t drive but it was funny nonetheless.
I know that this is normal after brain surgery and many people laugh and say this comes with age. I get that. I’m not expecting to do everything that I could do before or to be able to snap my fingers and that this all will disappear. But it’s tough because like she said that day – I look perfectly normal. The way my hair is cut and the way I part it now completely covers up my scar that stretches 22 sutures from the top of my head to my ear. Now that is a great haircut! When you look normal and you’re trying to go back to your life and all of the same challenges and demands, it’s easy to forget that things are different.
For someone that talks and remembers things as part of her job – her ministry – her vocation – her life – not being able to think clearly on your feet is hard. There’s no way around that. Am I worried about August quickly approaching and getting ready for the school year? Heck yes. Am I worried that my normal “meditations” with the students in worship will be that much more difficult trying to remember and bring things together? Yep. Am I learning that I need to depend on other people more and I need to rest in the grace of God more? Oh yeah. I feel like a middle schooler without her license as I ask people for rides all the time. But then again, it’s good to let others help you sometimes. If we really are community it’s a balance of each of us helping and taking turns and building up the body.
Anyway – long story short – the neurologist says I’ll be on the seizure meds for 2 years if nothing happens again. One piece of good news that I liked since I’m a little afraid of the seizures – if I have a little seizure (not go unconscious) then that doesn’t start over my 6 months wait to drive. Scary I know. Only if I go unconscious does that restart so November 28th I am looking forward to you! I’ll see the neurologist again in January so the only thing on the docket now is the MRI in September.
That and getting ready for the school year! But hey that’s just the normal crazy campus minister to do list…
Mike has done a lot of songs by Michael Gungor in The Journey service and I really do like his music a lot. We’ve been playing the Gungor album “Beautiful Things” in our car for a while. Below is a song by their group called “Please Be My Strength.” It’s melody and lyrics speak to me and I hope it will speak to some of you.
I’ve tried to stand my ground
I’ve tried to understand
but I can’t seem to find my way
like water on the sand
or grasping at the wind
I keep on falling short
please be my strength
please be my strenth
I don’t have anymore
I don’t have anymore
I’m looking for a place
that I can plant my faith
one thing I know for sure
I cannot create it
I cannot sustain it
It’s Your love that’s keeping (captured) me
Please be my strength…
at my final breath
I hope that I can say
I’ve fought the good fight of faith
I pray your glory shines
through this doubting heart of mine
so my world would know that You
You are my strength
You and You alone
You and You alone
Keep bringin me back home
This Sunday’s Gospel lectionary text is Luke 11:1-13. It begins with the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray and Jesus teaching them Lord’s prayer followed by him talking about seeking and finding and words that I say in just about every other sermon or talk with students at one time or another. Very familiar words… “Ask, and it will be given you; search and you fill find; knock, and hte door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Then it goes on talking about eggs and scorpions. It’s a rich text. And when I picked it at the beginning of the week when I working on the bulletin, I really wanted to work on it and see where the Spirit led because while saying the Lord’s prayer in the midst of The Journey service last week, I actually stumbled over some of the words – can’t even remember which ones now – because I was thinking about what they actually meant and what we’re actually saying when we say that familiar and yet powerful prayer.
I admit that as often is the case when I pick a text as time gets closer to Sunday I start to second guess and think that I might should have gone with one of the others. It is always awe-inspiring for me to think about all of the little and amazing things that God brings to us when we’re wrestling with something. This week it has been prayer for me. Part of me does regret picking that text because there’s a part of me that’s not ready to think seriously and openly about this text after the events of the past couple months. It’s still a little too personal to put into a sermon or to reflect on.
Mike brought in the poster board card that the folks at SC’s Annual Conference made me while I was having surgery. Who knows how it ended up in my trunk and I have no clue who brought it from Florence but it ended up in Wesley on Thursday morning as Mike was cleaning out my trunk. I can’t say how much those prayers meant to me and continue to mean to me. I can’t begin to express how much I want to keep asking and knocking on that door in prayer in hope.
I’ve been reading various women’s books over all this time out of sheer boredom from doctor’s office visits and when the kids are watching that episode of Caillou or Dora or Phinneas and Ferb for the millionth time. (Sidenote: most women’s books are so depressing and sad – does no one believe in happy endings anymore besides the Christian fiction authors???) One of my dear students here let me borrow The Time Traveler’s Wife before she left for the summer. Beautiful story. Deep love. I will never watch the movie because it’s more sad than I want, but beautiful. Yet again I do think God brings random things into our lives that wake us up to a truth we need to see or things we need to realize or just that guidance that we can’t always even understand. In reading the ending of that book – I found myself realizing that even though I have prayed and felt uplifted throughout this journey and I have appreciated the prayers of so many, I’ve never actually cried out specifically for God to heal me.
It kind of freaks me out even to type it. I know that’s weird. Especially for a pastor that does believe that prayer can do miraculous things. And someone that does believe in the “Heal me and I will be healed. Save me and I will be saved. For you alone are God.” So in thinking about the sermon that I have no idea what I’m going to really say tomorrow – what makes us afraid to ask or knock or seek? What holds us back? What stands in our way?
Crying out to God that night, trying to figure it out – I don’t know. It’s a lot of things. Fear that it won’t happen. Fear of what healing really means and for how long. Fear that even if everything is healed, I won’t know how to go back to life as usual. Is it pride? Do I pray for others but not want to pray for myself? Why is that? I’m no more resilient or together and certainly not any more godly. Is it that I see people all around every day and I hear stories of people that need healing so much more and I wonder and rail that I’m sure some of them ask, seek, and knock and where are their good gifts and not scorpions? I just saw a blip of Ann Curry’s special on the Today Show with the family of 10 living on $500 a month and I’m like why am I even taking the time to write a blog or eating lifesaver gummies when there are people out there that are struggling and hurting needing “good gifts” as much as the rest of us.
Do we think we’re not good enough to ask? Or not deserving enough? Or needy enough? Or nice enough? What is it that holds us back from prayer? What makes it hard to ask and give these things over? Control? Pride? Fear? Anger at what we’ve seen as unanswered prayer?
In watching Anne of Green Gables on PBS for a couple weekends I noticed how Marilla first taught Anne how to pray and she explained to her in a very simple manner – that she should thank God for God’s blessings and then ask God if there’s something she’d like. Hilarious scene. Sadly youtube does not have it. I think about the whole ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. I think of all the prayer circles and prayer ministries and prayer shawls (and Windsor UMC I love the one y’all made me! it is in my office and i’ve already had a couple students wrap in it and i hope feel your prayers!). I read this passage and think very layered/complicated back and forth theology blah, blah, blah statements but you know it’s really pretty simple. Ask – it will be given, search – find, knock – door open. It’s not complicated. And yet somehow we make it so in our minds. Or maybe that’s just mine.
I don’t have all the answers and I feel sure that I won’t have come up with them by tomorrow morning at 11 am, but I do know that God is a God of love and that God does love us as God’s very own. So those scorpions or the AIDS or the heart attacks or the car accidents or the cancers or the abuse or the hurricanes are not from God. They can be used by God for our good but our God knows us, loves us and seeks the best for us.
Maybe that’s what it boils down to…the trust and the faith to believe not only that God answers prayer and that God hears us, but that God is love and is good and is not going to bait and switch us and give us a mouse trap to stick our fingers in instead of an awesome gigantic lollipop. It is with confidence and boldness that we pray knowing that we are heard and held by the great God of the universe. We can cry out when we’re starting a new job, or a new school, or a new adventure and we will be answered. We can continue to ask the hard questions and wrestle and just not understand and as we seek, surely we will find…Can’t wait for each of us to knock on that door and to see the warm light and smile when the door is opened.
Found this from Celine Dion and Josh Groban on youtube. I know a little cheesey but I do think there’s a love and emotion in there that is present in these passages about prayer…that love of parent and child – that guidance and leading.
I pray you’ll be our eyes, and watch us where we go.
And help us to be wise in times when we don’t know
Let this be our prayer, when we lose our way
Lead us to the place, guide us with your grace
To a place where we’ll be safe
The light you have
I pray we’ll find your light
will be in the heart
and hold it in our hearts.
to remember us that
When stars go out each night,
you are eternal star
Nella mia preghiera
Let this be our prayer
quanta fede c’è
when shadows fill our day
How much faith there’s
Let this be our prayer
in my prayer
when shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place, guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we’ll be safe
We dream a world without violence
a world of justice and faith.
Everyone gives the hand to his neighbours
Symbol of peace, of fraternity
We ask that life be kind
and watch us from above
We hope each soul will find
another soul to love
The force his gives us
We ask that life be kind
is wish that
and watch us from above
everyone finds love
We hope each soul will find
around and inside
another soul to love
Let this be our prayer
Let this be our prayer, just like every child
Need to find a place, guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we’ll be safe
Need to find a place, guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we’ll be safe
It’s the faith
you light in us
I feel it will save us
Yesterday’s Upper Room devotional lifted up these verses from the Psalms and the passage really struck me in this time and place in my life. What particularly stood out was the beginning, “O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.” Each of us has times when we’re searching for a new song – whether that be around New Year’s, Lent, the beginning of a school year, or facing something just a little life-changing.
People have talked to me about a “new” normal and I think those words fit just as good as any of the other surreal things I’ve heard, but I think I’d like to claim these verses as my new theme song. Primarily because there’s a continuity and an unchanging sense in this passage that God has not and will not leave or forsake us no matter what. There’s something unshakable about God’s faithfulness to us in the midst of all of life’s storms and that unfailing love that keeps shining through.
There’s a song that we sing in The Journey at St. John’s UMC called “A Thousand Amens” by Tim Timmons. The verses are the standard doxology and the chorus is “Unfailing love comes with the morning/It’s Your faithfulness we sing at night/It’s Your kindness Lord that leads to our healing/All glory to our Maker and a thousand amens.” I love this song. Whether in good times or tough times, all glory is to the One who created us. Here’s a link if you want to hear it: http://www.ourstage.com/tracks/AMCYESKVIIVO-a-thousand-amens
A HUGE thanks to y’all for being a resounding chorus in singing this song with me. I’ve appreciated all of your thoughts and prayers and well wishes during this still surreal crazy change in my life.
Love and Grace to each of you!
Can’t get Leeland’s “New Creation” out of my head today.
That and the old hymn “I Love to Tell the Story”…
1. I love to tell the story
of unseen things above,
of Jesus and his glory,
of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story,
because I know 'tis true;
it satisfies my longings
as nothing else can do.
Refrain:
I love to tell the story,
'twill be my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story
of Jesus and his love.
2. I love to tell the story;
more wonderful it seems
than all the golden fancies
of all our golden dreams.
I love to tell the story,
it did so much for me;
and that is just the reason
I tell it now to thee.
(Refrain)
3. I love to tell the story;
'tis pleasant to repeat
what seems, each time I tell it,
more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story,
for some have never heard
the message of salvation
from God's own holy Word.
(Refrain)
4. I love to tell the story,
for those who know it best
seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory,
I sing the new, new song,
'twill be the old, old story
that I have loved so long.
(Refrain)
The kids were watching Mary Poppins the other day and I was struck by the story of the lady feeding the birds. Mary Poppins is talking the kids into being excited about going with their father to work the next day and she starts telling them about the lady as she holds a beautiful snow globe of it.
In talking about the father in the story and of course of you know the movie he’s kind of a tough rules and order-oriented dad, the kids ask why people don’t stop and give lady money or why they don’t see her altogether. Mary Poppins answers, “Some people don’t see past the end of their nose.”
Some of us don’t see past the end of our noses. If we’re too busy in the goings on of life it’s easy not to see the world around us or the needs around us. I read an article (http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/please_dont_feed_our_homeless_many_cities_say)You give and last night about some cities outlawing or making it really difficult for people to feed the homeless in their cities. Wow. I’m not even going to get into the statistics of how many of our homeless are veterans or are mentally ill or the many, many folks who have found themselves homeless for the first time in the past couple years in our economy.
But a challenge to each of us is to see past the end of our noses and our own little worlds and to see what we can do. It’s easy to see issues like hunger or homelessness or human trafficking or immigration or education reform as these big, huge things that we can’t make a difference in. But all those commercials that say that all of us together, all of our little drops in the bucket CAN make a difference – that’s not just Hollywood or a pipe dream. That’s real. What can we do today? What are you passionate about? What has God given you a vision for?
Trying to see past the end of my nose…
“Feed the Birds” Lyrics
Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul’s
The little old bird woman comes
In her own special way to the people she call,
“Come, buy my bags full of crumbs;
Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care
And you’ll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds,” that’s what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies
All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares
Although you can’t see it,
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares
Though her words are simple and few
Listen, listen, she’s calling to you
“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag”
Blessings on the Journey 