HE’D HAD ENOUGH

HE’D HAD ENOUGH

                His mama held my wife in a long hug, at the visitation.  Standing next in line, I looked into the casket, into the face of his dad, into the void.  Then I heard his mom whisper to my wife, repeatedly, “… we’ve made it through two days; we’ll make it through…” 

                Yesterday morning, the garbage collectors noticed his lifeless body as they worked their route for the day.  The police came.  Family came.  Their boy had “had enough”.  Maybe it was thoughtful to end it on the day he’d be quickly found?!  He had sat down in his back yard and left this world.  Now they stood near his casket and greeted well-wishers.

                How does one make sense of such?  For over two decades he had watched his body waste away with some nameless, crippling disease.  “Normal” was not a part of his brief adult life – no wife, no children, no job, no …

                I am twelve years further down the road, but had known him, through church.  I had been in his parents’ home for a couple of Christmas church parties.  I got his gift one year in the “dirty-santa” gift exchange, a nice, pecan pie.  Once, I made a two-hour trip with him to a church men’s retreat near Montgomery.  We talked and laughed there and back.

                Mike spoke haltingly and with stuttering jerks.  His mind was way ahead of his mouth desperately trying to keep up.  And his walk was similar.  The athlete’s body was still in there somewhere.  But, he could not quite break the huddle as he once could.

                I called a friend to confirm the rumor at the mill that Mike was gone when I first heard it.  We talked and he asked, “… what do you say?”  I remembered Psalm 103:14 – “He knows our situation…”  God, help us!

Rare or Well-Done?

Rare or Well-Done?

                That is one of my favorite questions!  It means that a rib-eye will soon be kicking and mooing in my plate, next to a baked potato smothered in butter and sour cream.  But, my beloved, Melanie, wants hers medium-burned.  “vive la difference” is the French expression?!

                On a recent vacation with another couple, Mark and Wanda, some old friends, we had to pick a dinner restaurant.  The wives were in agreement that we should not eat at franchises available at home!  So, instead of Hardees, we went to “the Rattlesnake Saloon” – a backwoods eatery in a cavern under a rock ledge.  Later we went to the “City Hardware” restaurant in the downtown, historic area of town, and had that medium-rare.  Two great choices.  (but, I still like Hardees burgers!)

                The conversation turned to a church-choice for Sunday morning.  Wanda insisted on trying something different than home!  I quipped, how about a snake-handling group?!  Not!  We settled on a high-church, formal but friendly, downtown group with a visiting minister who was a chaplain in the Royal Navy!  (we did not know that he would be there; but, it was a pleasant surprise)  Melanie and I have visited a variety of churches while on vacation and have seen a variety on a wide continuum of groups!  At one church, in the mountains of Alabama, I was waiting on the snakes to be brought out!  But, it is fun and enlightening to meet believers who are not the same as the crowd I hang with.

                One can eat chicken so many different ways:  fried chicken, grilled chicken, baked chicken, (hungry?!) chicken soup, chicken salad, chicken teriyaki, chicken gumbo, … BUT, they all have chicken.  It is the main ingredient.  Without chicken, all you have is flour, spice, rice …  celery soup?! 

                Jesus is the “bread of life” and the “Passover lamb” (which was eaten as part of the holiday) and he mentions his body and blood as our remembrance-meal!  So, how does one best devour Jesus?  Consume Christ?  There are many different ways believers “do Jesus”.  There are high, formal churches.  There are spontaneous, Spirit-filled holiness groups.  There are liturgical, priest-led groups.  There are house-churches with no network or organization.  But, the essence of each is Jesus, ideally?!

                Also, there are different lifestyles that believers lead as the “do Jesus”.  Some believers have banded together in communes.  Other believers barely know those they see on Sunday morning, and have no real relationships outside of that hour.  Some people place a great deal of emphasis on ritual and disciplines in their devotional lives.  Some have “quiet times” where they try to draw nearer to Jesus.  Some are lone-wolf believers, reading and thinking.  Others volunteer at kitchens and homes.  There are many different ways different believers “do Jesus” in their lives.  I have watched shift-workers scanning their phones for devotional posts from pages they have liked, and then “share” them for others to digest.  I do wonder how truck-drivers nourish their souls?!

                Old hymns.  Christian rap.  Southern Gospel music.  African spirituals.  Contemporary Christian.  The list goes on and on of the variety of music God uses to conduit His Spirit into the hearts of believers.  King James.  The Message.  NIV.  RSV.  There are lots of English translations that tell the story of Jesus.  (and, I am just thinking in English; imagine other cultures?!)  Personally, I like to vary sermon styles from week to week – keeps them guessing!  Textual, topical, dramatic, academic, comedic … but Jesus should shine through in any and all messages.

                What distinguishes Jesus from junk?  Christian from carnal?  Spiritual from stuff?  A lot of activity can fill the life of a believer and the program of a church.  A while back, a pastor determined that his flock was getting lost in the fluff and missing the real.  A song grew out of his demand for that church to get back to the fundamentals.  [Matt Redman, The Heart of Worship]

                The results that give evidence that Jesus is moving in our hearts and groups, imho, are the list in Gal.5 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Jesus mentioned two great commandments.  Paul pushed the “nobler gift”.  The evidence to the world of “doing Jesus” is love – not so many of the things we push to the foreground, center-stage.  And, “you cannot make chicken soup out of chicken feathers”.  Without Jesus, it really matters little whether we serve salad, soup, grilled or fried, whatever. 

                I have watched friends and family, and myself, shop around, look around, stand around – trying to “do Jesus” in a meaningful, refreshing, personal manner.  Some want stability.  Some want spontaneity.  Some want spirituality.  Some want service.  Some want …  But, imho, Jesus is the key ingredient, however prepared and presented.

I MAY BE WRONG, BUT …

I MAY BE WRONG, BUT …

                How important is “being right”?  Can one be wrong, but right?  And, can one be right, but wrong?!  Sounds confusing?

                In math class, I remember getting credit for work shown on a complicated problem, even though one mistake doomed the final answer.  And, I also remember getting dings for not showing obvious steps which were skipped, even though I had the right answer?!  (I loved math!  It seemed to be the language of God, to me, in some strange way.)

                Science was, seemingly, less precise.  Long held axioms and conclusions were rejected by modern minds.  It was “obvious” to these new thinkers that man had evolved to higher enlightenment. 

                Philosophy?!  “two blind men in a dark room looking for a black cat, that’s not there …”  (I do like to read that stuff, though!)  Or, is that theology that I like to read?!  Both.

                (Still there?)  When children came along in our marriage, competing ideas were offered, unsolicited, on any number of child-rearing issues:  “don’t spank…”  “don’t count to three…”  “don’t feed them cereal…”  There IS more than one way to do parenting!

                Now, let’s talk Jesus.  Should one “spank” or “distract”?  Oops, that was last paragraph.  So many groups.  So many doctrines.  So many positions.  Calvinists.   Arminians. Wesleyans.  Catholics.  Baptists.  Who’s “right”?!  Who can stand before God and man and declare, “I am right!”?  Not me.

                I have concluded that the only way to be right is to confess, humbly, honestly, that one is wrong!  Much like the tax-collector (Luke 18), one can only fall down and beg for mercy!  In effect, the weary pursuit of being “right” ends with recognizing and acknowledging that one is “wrong”!  (I certainly hope that I am not wrong about this?!)

                How much room is there in the “wrong” box?!  More than in the “right” box (es)!  And, in the “wrong” box, strange things sometimes begin to happen – patience, mercy, love begin to flourish?  Meanwhile, seemingly, in the “right” box there is an odor of condemnation, doubt, insecurity?  The walls on the “wrong” box seem to move and accommodate.  Yet, the walls of the “right” box get thicker, stronger, higher, no way in, no way out?!

                Homosexuals?  Homophobes?  Drunks?  Gluttons?  Bums?  Workaholics?  Racists?  Thugs?  Addicts?  Womanizers?  …  In which box are they?  BOTH! (imho)  Which box is helping them become more like Jesus?  (your answer may reveal more about yourself than it does anything else?!)

                We try to put Jesus in a box and then depend on the box; and defend it, to the death – of our … 

It’s about Jesus, not the box!  “Jesus, have mercy on me, the sinner!”

maybe it is more about service than certainty?  

 

Besides, Jesus is out of the box!