However….

God has put a new pair of glasses on my head for this time through it.

All too often, we read Ecclesiastes from an understanding of Solomon (The Teacher) as a “grumpy old man.” He’s growing older. He’s lived through a successful kingship. He understands the world is a difficult place, and clearly expresses frustrations — largely of his own making (aren’t they often such?). On the surface, it reminds me of an old grandpa telling his grandkids how not to screw their life up.

But there’s more to it than that.

Solomon is not merely cautioning us to not do what he did, but rather he is exhorting us to never forget from whence we came. (Remember your Creator in the days of your youth… – Ecclesiastes 12:1 NIV) He desires for us to understand that life is not about us. It goes deeper than that. He views life as something that shouldn’t be wasted on vain pursuits.

Vain pursuits…

You know…

Things like…

• Successful career
• Big bank account
• New car
• New house
• Brand-name clothes
• Brand-name food
• 42″ 3D TV
• Etc…

Rather, Solomon shows us through story, metaphor, simile, and exhortation that in the end all that matters is how you treat God, and how you treat people.

Hmmm… That sounds familiar.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” — Matthew 22:37-39

If you kept those words close to you as you go through life how would it change your thought/decision/action process?

• Would you measure the success of your career by the size of your paycheck, or your title?
• Would you view your bank account as a place to horde your loot, or as a holding place while you search for somewhere to give it all away?
• Would you buy a new car, or keep driving the one you have?
• Would you buy a new house even though you already have one? (Maybe if you weren’t buying as much stuff, you wouldn’t need a bigger house anyway.)
• Would you “have to have” the latest brand-name clothes, or would you be content to wear what you have? Would you keep shopping at Macy’s, Dillards, and Saks, or would Savers and Goodwill do just fine?
• Would you keep buying Cheerios or would Toasted Oats suffice?
• Would you insist on looking silly by wearing those giant 3D googles in your own living room?

In the end, it’s all about pride. Solomon teaches us that the pursuit of things is vainglory, while the pursuit of God is where life is truly lived to the fullest.

This evening we took a few minutes and toured some of devastation from the tornado that ripped through Joplin on 22 May 2011.

I can sum it all up in one word: sobering.

Simply sobering.

As we drove through the neighborhood around St. John’s Hospital and saw areas where the bulldozers had already been and areas where they had not yet been, my heart went out to those who were impacted by this violent event.

At one point I was really hit by a sign in a yard (I have a picture, but will need to update this post later and add it). The sign read: “Richardson. All ok. Donation welcome.”

All ok.

Donation welcome.

That pretty well says it all.

While, many were not “all ok” (150+ lost their lives and many many more were injured), to find a sign of hope in a wasteland of devastation is what matters.

Live is slowly moving on. People will never forget it, but you can’t stop everything to dwell on. At some point, you have to say “we’re all ok” and you move on.

Yet, for now, needs still exist. In major ways. Money is still needed. Clothes are needed. Food is needed. So many needs.

Stop and a say a quick prayer for Joplin. It’s truly mind-numbing to see, but even more so to try to place oneself in that position. To try to understand the thoughts, fears, and concerns of those impacted.

They need our prayers.

As we drove back to the house, I thought about the story of Jesus as he slept in the boat during the storm. The disciples are freaked out. Jesus slept.

When they finally had woken Him up, Jesus first rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. He then calmed the storm.

In your moment of storm, how do you respond? Panic? Fear? Faith?

If Jesus was sleeping in your boat during your storm, how would you respond?

There He is snoring,

There you are…

Faith.

Please, remember Joplin in your prayers. Your prayers will help to strengthen their faith.

And stronger faith, makes for more peaceful storms.

Me.

In charge.

Uh oh.

The best way that I can describe this transition is:

sksimants=George W. Bush

mdsimants=Barack Obama

eksimants/cesimants=Glenn Beck

Well…. maybe not Glenn Beck, but definitely one of the (slightly) less crazy FoxNews commentators.

Yeah….

“That’s not how mommy does it.”

Nope.  I’m not mommy.  I am ill-equipped to be mommy.

“When mommy’s here she…”

Is your mommy here?  No.  So Daddy does….

You get the picture.  Dad’s you’ve all been there, so I know you can relate.

At any rate…. that’s so not the point of this post.

The point is this.  My kids blew me away yesterday with the lesson they taught me.

We were getting in the car to leave.  I was dropping the kids off at Nana’s and then was headed to Youth at the Church.

We get strapped in.

Shut doors.

Turn the key.

NADA.

Nothing.

Zilch.

Not even a remote attempt at starting.

Dead.

As a doorknob.

While I go into panic mode, the kids sit peacefully in the back.

I hear a soft voice: “God, please help our car to run.”

I get them out of the car, and begin to check the things I know to check.

Papa is on his way to the rescue.

The kids are staring at the frantic daddy through the front door.

And, I learned later, were praying.

On a whim, I put the key back into the ignition.

Turned the key.

Started right up.

Turned it off.

Again.

And…

Again.

About the time that Papa pulls up, the car is working great.

As we load the kids into Papa’s car, I hear eksimants tell Papa that her and cesimants had been praying for the car.  She was almost in tears at the goodness of God to answer prayers.  She told Papa that she was so glad that mommy and daddy had taught them to pray.

I was humbled and convicted.

As I drove to the church, I stopped to repent of my unbelief and my attempts to go it alone.

The kids did exactly what we have taught them to do in all circumstances.  They prayed.

I did what we as humans do in all circumstances.  I fretted and tried to go it alone.

I’m so grateful that their way worked and mine did not.

Folks, prayer works.  In every case.  In every circumstance.  PRAY.

Thanks, kids, for teaching me what I’ve been trying to teach you.

When all else fails.  When you can’t see the end of the tunnel.  And when you are on the mountaintop of victory.

PRAY!

We were in San Juan, Puerto Rico about four years ago.  We were in a taxicab.  Our driver had one arm and one leg.

Seriously.

One arm.

One leg.

From what I could tell, he wasn’t much good in the eyesight category either.

He drove.  We prayed.

Spiritually, that’s how I have felt here lately.

I’m merely a passenger.  My Father God is the driver.

I’m riding.

He’s driving.

Sometimes it feels a bit like He is driving with one leg and one arm.  Like the car is a bit out-of-control.

Well, it is.

It is out-of-MY-control.

And it’s good.

As we allow the Father to drive, we become more in-tune to the miracles that He is constantly performing.  We view more clearly His work.  We learn what the Proverbs mean when they say that the “Fear of YHWH is the beginning of wisdom (seeing things through God’s perspective and acting on it).”

See, to allow God to drive (without us backseat driving) is to Fear Him.  It is to say, “I love You, so I will do what You say.”  It is saying, “Not my will, but thine.”  It is to say, “Show me where You are working, and let me join in.”

It’s beautiful.

It’s scary.

It’s incredibly exhilarating.

So, yes, I do realize that the automobile looks like it is careening out of control.  Yet, I remain content sitting here quietly in the backseat and letting Him take me wherever He determines the next stop will be.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yesterday at about 4:45pm, we made a major Kingdom step of faith. By 6:15pm, eksimants was complaining of a headache.  By 1:30am, she had a fever of 103.  This afternoon, we spent time in the emergency room since her fever spiked at 105.6. 

Yesterday at about 4:45pm, we made a major Kingdom step of faith.  This morning, I had a reaction to my medication for MS.  After that subsided and I headed outside to get yard work completed, I had issues with MS.

Here’s the thing…

When you make a major move in faith for the work of the Kingdom, the enemy will attack.

Everytime.

Mark it down. 

You decide.

You act.

He attacks.

Thankfully, our God hems us in on all sides!

Be prepared though for the attack.

The folks who are in the “it might all be faked” are just plain nuts, so I will leave that completely alone.

I have two thoughts developing.

First, we Christians have a lot to learn about discipleship.  Osama Bin Laden had this concept down to an art.  That scares me.  Someone said this morning that radical extremists aren’t born.  They’re made.  Same is true of radical Christians (you know, those who forsake all to follow).  We have to disciple folks to make that a reality.  Bin Laden knew how to disciple.  We don’t.

Second, the word justice has been tossed around like a ragdoll.  But, I don’t believe that the Biblical definition of justice fits with the definition(s) of the word justice that’s being tossed aroud in regards to this.

So…

As I spend time in being discipled, studying the Word, and prayer over the next two weeks those are the focus.  How should we be discipiling?  What does God say about justice?

Expect a blog on each to follow in a couple of weeks.

Friday night, sksimants and I had the privilege of serving at the Little Rock Compassion Center.  My job during dinner was to rinse glasses and pass them back to my friend Clemente for washing.

Immediately upon my assignment, Clemente began to open up to me.  Clemente is homeless.  He is currently living at the center and is working off a societal debt in the kitchen.  Clemente told me of his family.  How they came to the US from Mexico when he was a child.  How he got into alcohol.  How he had sobered up.  Then, about eight months ago, he lost his mother.  He came to Little Rock to live with his brother, but he started drinking again and is now in recovery after his brother couldn’t take him anymore and booted him out.

Clemente also told me how he had come to know Jesus and was praying for relationships with his two children and his brother to be reconciled.  He also told me that he had–that afternoon–finished reading the Book of Job.

I told him of my love for that book.  How God has used it to work in my life.  I asked him what he learned from it.  He gave me three lessons.

IT’S NEVER AS BAD AS I THINK

Clemente said that losing his mother–his best friend–was the hardest thing ever to happen to him.  He was at the end of his rope and turned to alcohol to be his way of coping with the pain.

Reading Job helped him to realize that others have it worse than he does.  He told me how he watched the faces of the men in the shelter.  They have nothing.  Some of them are completely dead inside.  But he has something to hold onto–faith.

I showed him that the first beatitude is:

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.  With less of you there is more of God and His rule. — Matthew 5:3 (The Message)

Job teaches us this principle: It is never as bad as I think.  As Clemente put it: “Job showed me that even in the worst of times, I can still have faith.”

PICK YOUR FRIENDS WISELY

Who you hang around is important.  Clemente made the decision to move into the Center for one reason: “I had to get away from my old friends.”  His old friends–he told me–enabled him to drink.  In fact, his biggest fear right now is summer–drinking season.

Job taught him to pick his friends wisely.  Job’s friends were not very helpful to the cause of maintaining his faith.  They didn’t really encourage Job to remain reliant upon God.  Instead they tried to get Job to take matters into his own hands.  Granted, not by some evil and wicked means.  As Clemente pointed out they had good intentions.  They had some truth.  But, they didn’t have God.  Clemente had come to realize that his friends had good intentions.  Yet, they didn’t have a God-driven approach. 

You become what you hang around.  So, pick your friends wisely.

GOD IS BIGGER THAN OUR PROBLEMS

The last lesson that Clemente gave me was that no matter how big our problem–God is bigger! 

He told me how he couldn’t wait to get to the end of the book to see what God would say and do.  (I tell you, Job is a great book!  A real page-turner!)  And when he got to the end, he said that he knew that no matter what he was going through God was in it with him and God was bigger.

God would see him through his problems.  He was so excited about how God provided Job with restoration.  That was something that Clemente could latch on to.  God rides out our storms with us, and then restores us on the other side.

I asked Clemente which book he was going to read next.  Without hesitation he said, “Only a fool wouldn’t read Job a second time.”

Job lived on another hundred and forty years, living to see his children and grandchildren–four generations of them!  Then he died–an old man, a full life. — Job 42:16-17 (The Message)

The church in which we serve sponsors a 9th/10th Grade and an 11th/12th Grade Boys
Basketball team. Tonight was a playoff game for our 9th/10th Graders.

I learned upon arrival that we were only going to have five boys in uniform tonight. In
case you know nothing about basketball, five is the minimum you can have on a team and
is the maximum you can have on the floor at any given time.

In the first-half, our boys hung tough against a team that seemed at times to forget it was
church-league ball.

And then, late in the first half, the fear that all of us Asbury fans had hanging in the back
of our minds came into being: One of our five fouled out.

For the remainder of the first-half and the entire sixteen minutes of the second-half, we
played four boys against their five.

Before you try and predict the outcome of the game (and you’re right), let me say this:
These four boys played as hard in the last minute of the game as they played in the first
minute.

It brought to mind 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (MSG):

You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one
wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for the gold medal that
tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.

I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving
it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top
condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it
and then missing out myself.

Paul doesn’t tell the Corinthian church – and by extension all of us – that they had to win,
rather he tells them to run like they want to win.

Stay alert!

Train hard!

Run hard!

Press on!

Play to win even against insurmountable odds!

These boys tonight played to win. The odds were pretty big against them before we went
down a man, yet they kept pressing on. As the other team pushed on like a golden ring
and a trip to DisneyWorld was on the line, these young men from Asbury kept on playing
to win.

They played out the words of Paul.

As I sat in the stands as one of small cloud of witnesses, I thought about that great cloud
of witnesses in the Hebrews (12:1-3). How they cheer and push us on.

They tell us, “Keep playing!”

They tell us, “Keep running!”

They tell us, “Don’t slack off!”

And we persevere on.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus.

Knowing that He has run the race.

He has finished the race.

He has won the prize.

Yet, we run on. Not to win. Rather to point others to Him.

Asbury men, you did a great job tonight in showing us all how to keep on running.

eksimants Studying the Scriptures

I went up to eksimants’ room a few minutes ago to tell her “Good Night”.

She was sitting on her bed copying Scripture from the Bible into her journal.  The passage was from Luke 21:

As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.  He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.  “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Thinking I would seize on a teaching opportunity (and not realizing I was walking into a learning opportunity), I asked, “What does that story tell us?”

eksimants’ reply:

It tells us that we should give everything we have and rely on God.  If we give everything, then we don’t have to worry about anything because God will take care of it.

It’s like @jaredanderson song: Giving everything to God, becuase He gave everything to me.

It’s like the story of the woman with the oil.  Judas told her she wasted the money, because he wanted it for himself.  But Jesus said that Judas was wrong.  He knew that the woman did the best thing for him and for her. 

We should always just give everything.

When Job heard this, he tore his clothes and shaved his head because of his great sorrow.  He knelt on the ground, then worshiped God and said:

“We bring nothing at birth

We take nothing with us at death.

YHWH alone gives and takes

Praise the name of YHWH!”

                                       — Job 1:20-21

Job has just lost his entire livelihood.  His oxen and donkeys were stolen and servants killed.  His sheep and shepherds are dead.  His camels and camel-herders have been taken by Chaldeans.  His sons and daughters killed in a windstorm. 

All he has left is his health (for now), the four servants who escaped to tell him bad news, and his wife who isn’t very supportive.

It’s bad.

Bad.

We’ve all been there.

Those moments when it seems that the world is closing in around us.  When it seems like we’re lost in a fog and have no idea which way is out. 

The boat is being cast back and forth in the storm. 

Certain death.

It’s bad.

It’s that moment when you find out …

… your best friend hates you

… you’re loosing that dream job

… that promotion you hoped to get isn’t going to happen

… your wife is leaving you

… the cancer is terminal

It’s bad news all around.

How do you respond?

For Job it was to do the natural thing and begin to mourn.  Yet, in his mourning, he knew that he had to worship. 

Here’s where Job meets David.

Fast-forward to Psalm 13:1-4 (NIV).

How long, YHWH?  Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, YHWH, my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

My enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”

And my foes will rejoice when I fall.

It’s bad. 

The world is crushing in.

Yet, Psalm 13 has one more verse.

But I trust in your unfailing love;

My heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing to YHWH,

For HE HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME.

cesimants Praying

In the midst of the bad, David, like Job, recognized that YHWH has been good to him.  That in the midst of all the rough circumstances, YHWH is still on the throne.

That when he was being chased by Saul, hiding in a cave, fearing for his very life, he was able to stand on the promise that YHWH was still with him. 

Even when YHWH wasn’t evident, David knew YHWH was there.

Fast forward again.

This time to the Disciples.

They’re in the boat.

It’s storming.

It’s bad.

Certain death.

These were fishermen and they were afraid.  These were men who made a living on the water.   They knew the ferociousness of the storm.  Fear was legitimate. 

Jesus is sleeping.

They wake the Messiah up and ask Him if He just didn’t care that they were about to die.

Jesus calms the storm, and then gives a lesson in faith.

In the midst of the storm, Messiah brings peace.

One more fast forward.

John Wesley is on a boat.  Ferocious storm.  Certain death.  Legitimate fear.

In the corner sits a group of people.  Moravians.  Answering their own prayers by going to serve God in a dark land.

They are at peace.

They are praying.

That experience begins the process for Wesley that culminates in the Aldersgate experience.  The peace of YHWH in the midst of the bad-stuff sets the spark in motion that becomes the Methodist movement.

Four stories.

Four bad situations.

Four impossible circumstances.

All changed by worship.

All changed by the knowledge that YHWH has all things in His hand.

All changed by the peace that comes from knowing the unfailing love of YHWH.

All changed by knowing that even in the bad HE HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME.

In the midst of your bad, how do you respond?