Heavy

On September 26, 1969, The Hollies released a world-wide hit, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," which became a world-wide hit for Niel Diamond in 1970.  As a teenager, I was duly impressed with the song, especially once my man Niel started laying it down.

It is one of those songs that not only has a sound, which draws you in, it resonates a truth that moves your spirit.  The truth it conveys is the mutual conern family has for each others burdens or trials - that there is a natural willingness to carry a load that is not necessarily mine.  It is a truth that reflects the heart of Christ as revealed in the apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (6:2).

This truth seems to fly in the face of the rugged American individualism I was raised to believe in - what I call the John Wayne Syndrome, where one is expected to take care of himself, deal with his own problems, pull himself up by his own bootstraps.  And, it even appears to be contradicted in Paul's letter to the Galatians in the same chapter, verse 5: "each one should carry their own load."  What's up with that?

What's up is a contrast between carrying one's own burden and sharing in the over-burden of another. It is presicely what Jesus meant in Matthew 11:28ff when he said, 'Come unto me all who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me...and you will find rest..."  Jesus calls out to all who are pulling more of a burden than they can manage in their single yoke to get into a double yoke with him in which he will help them and teach them how to manage the load.

We are resposible for our own load and should carry it ourselves.  But sometimes our load gets heavier than we can bear alone and then we ought to help carry each other's burdens, focusing not on how heavy the load may be but on how much we care for the one over-burdened.  Fixing meals for someone just out of the hospital, sitting in silence with someone who just lost a child, paying the electric bill for someone who just lost their job, sending aid to hungry children in a third-world nation, an on it goes.

Jesus came to earth in order that he might bear our burden of sin.  He expects us to be willing to have that same willingness which, in fact, allows us to "fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2b).  Jus' Say'n.

The Inconvenient Truth

Do you remember Al Gore's movie in the mid-90s called "An Inconvenient Truth?"  It declared the scientific reality of global warming and predicted that before now, the polar caps would be gone, the seas would have risen dramatically, the Polar Bears would be toast - all because of a truth regarding the man-made rise in global temperature was a truth we found inconvenient to our lifestyles and refused to listen to his sage wisdom.  Not!

The temperature has not increased at all this century (2000 - 2015), the team of scientists who went in 2013 to see how thin the artic ice had beome became stuck in the ice.  The ice-breaking ship sent to rescue them got stuck too.  It took another ship, this one from Russia, to rescue them from the grip of an unpresedented amount of ice.  Jersey Shore is still there along with all our coastlands.  And the Polar Bears have not disappeared or even diminished in population.  Sorry Al, but your inconvenient truth is unconvincing in light of reality compared to your computer models based on speculation (this speculation is still regarded as "settled scientific fact"???).

Despite Al's completely unfounded but shamelessly overfunded inconvenient untruth notwithstanding, there is an inconvenient truth that we need to do something about.  And, unlike global climate change that has been going on since the dawn of time, which we can do little to nothing about, this inconvenient truth is well within our ability to effect real change.  The inconvenienet truth, which the Bible reveals from beginning to end is that evil abounds, causing pain and suffering that you and I can mitigate.  We can actually and factually make a difference.

We are our "brother's keeper" (Gen 4:9).  Our neighbor is the one who is "beaten and left for dead" (Lk 10:29-37).  Second only to our devotion to God, we are to "love our neighbor as we love oursleves" (Lk 10:17).  The Inconvenient Truth is that God wills that we allow ourselves to be inconvenienced by the need of others whether family or friend or unfamiliar.  As Paul plainly says in Galatians 6:10, "As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

The Inconvenient Truth has little to nothing to do with global anything.  It has primarily to do with what and whom comes across your path or your path crosses.  It would be inconvenient to take a beggar on the street to lunch in order to hear their story and tell them His story.  It would be inconvenient and perhaps risky to call 911 and then yell at someone attacking another.  It would be inconvenient to take pictures of a broken up sidewalk in front of a wheelchair bound resident's house, and take it to city hall.

Helping those at risk in our society is inconvenient and sometimes risky.  But The Inconvenient Truth of God's love is that it reaches out to all and that He intends to reach out through all of us.  As followers of Jesus, we must allow our days to be interrupted by the needs of others.  We need to allow for unplanned events in our busy schedules to be available for divine appointment and encounters with God.  Jesus' entire life was an inconvenience he freely embraced for us.  How can we not allow ourselves to be inconvenienced for those He loves?  Jus' Ask'n.

"Flishadie"

Yesterday, in our Sunday morning Bible class, we were discussing Matthew 6.  When we came to verse 7 which reads, "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard for their many words," I was reminded of a sort of babbling I did in prayer when I was very small.

I would pray the same prayer every night: "Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  Flishadie before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."  Two things must be said about that prayer: 1) I repeated it, word for word, every night and 2) I had no idea what "flishadie" meant, I only knew I meant it.  On the surface, one could easily conclude that I was engaging in pagan-like babbling.

However, what made that not true was that fact that I absolutely meant every word and tried never to fail to come before the Father in prayer, alone, each night before going to sleep.  I wasn't doing it for show and it came from my heart.  The fact that my three and four year old mind didn't know that "flishadie" was an adulteration of "if I should die" had nothing to do with the purity of my heart and the sincerity of my prayer.

It is the heart, by the way, not the wording, that interests the Lord.  I believe that one word, offered insincerely, is equivalent to vain repetition.  Whereas, a single word cried out to the Lord over and over and over from a heart seeking Him is neither vain nor repetitious in His sight.  As Samuel was so plainly informed, "The Lord does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Sam 16:7).

When one says, "I don't know how to pray," they are really saying, "I don't have a personal relationship with the Lord for prayer is nothing more or less than pouring your heart out to someone you love.  If you know how to talk to a friend, you know how to talk to God.  The words you choose are not nearly as relevant as the connection you have with your friend.  Friends can say things even without words.  A look, a smile, a laugh, a touch - all can communicate entire messagess to someone you know and love.  They look past what others may see and check the message of your heart.

So, don't worry about the structure, form or wording of your prayer - God will read you heart.  Simply come before Him with a sincere desire to communicate your heart to Him and begin to talk.  Not knowing what to say to begin, perhaps you might want to begin with the prayer Jesus offered as a template to build upon, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on eartth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Start there and continue sharing whatever is on your heart.  Even if the words come out wrong or don't come out at all, God can and will read the concerns of your heart.  He will hear you and know what you meant to communicate, even if you did not.  Jus' Say'n.

Pleasing God

When Jesus came up out of the water, having been baptized by John,  "a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased'" (Mt 3:17).  Why did the Father make this dramatic expression of his pleasure with Jesus?

The reasons for his pleasure are beyond counting as we consider the fact that Jesus' pre-incarnate state was infinite oneness witth the Father, but at that moment, why did the Father choose to make this proclamation?  In systematic theology, I was taught it was because Jesus began, at his baptism, his public ministry so the Father publicly proclaimed his approval.  I get that and I have to agree that such timing was important to launching a new defined direction in his life.

However, I believe there was something more personal and more central to who Jesus was than ministry direction, which prompted the Father to express his pleasure with the Son.  The basis for my belief is found in the narrative leading up to the voice from heaven: "Jesus came to from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  But John tried to deter him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?'  Jesus replied, 'Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness'" (Mt 3:13-16).

Later, Paul would call us to "have the same mindset of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant" (Phil 2:5-7).  It was this mindset, one of humility, that allowed him to let go of his divine perrogative and come into this world being born in a manger to suffer and die for us.

It was this same mindset of humility that allowed him to allow John to baptize him instead of the other way around.  It was this mindset of humble desire to raise up the Father's will above his own and even his own life that I believe prompted the Father's heart to erupt with pride and extreme pleasure in his only begotten Son, saying, "That's my Boy!  I couldn't be more proud.  I love him so much."  (personal paraphrase of Mt 3:17).

This is the character of Christ that allowed him to be our Savior as much as his sinless life, his willingness to be humbled for our benefit above himself.  And, when we, like him, adopt this model for our lives,  we will "humble ourselves before the Lord and he will lift us up" (Js 4:10).  Jus' Say'n.

Wise Guys vs Wise

When I think of wise guys, I think loud, rude and crude.  The kind of people I would labe wise guys tend to be very boisterous, bloated and boastful.  Wise guys are not so much full of wisdom as they are full of themselves.  And, far from being a fount of wisdom, my experience with these fellows is that while they are never in doubt, the are seldom correct.  Additionally, I find them to typically be agressive in their attempts to press others to agree with them.

The individuals I've known and experienced as wise seldom lose any sleep over whether another agrees or not.  Their goal is to share insights with those who are interested and show graee to those who do not agree.  They feel no need to inflate their ego, knowing their wisdom is a gift of God delivered through the experiences of life - especially the painful ones typically brought about by one's poor use of personal choice.  In other words, acting stupid.

The wisdom from stupid actions is achieved when one is able to embrace his/her stupidity, admit the need for a course correction and make the appropriate changes in word or deed.  Embarassment is a temporary flushing of pride before an onward and upward moving forward in life.  Wise men can easily embrace their mistakes without losing face becasue their face is preoccupied with a smile or a grin of insightful humor at their mistake.

Wise guys do not tend to learn from their mistakes as they seldom will admit to them and so often deny them or try to place the blame on someone else.  Wise guys generally speaking are weak men whose egos cannot bear the weight of their poor choices and the shame that comes from simply admitting a foolish outcome.

There really are two kinds of wisdom in the world, one coming from earthly man and the other coming from the Man of Heaven (Jesus).  Earthly wisdom is marked by the "unspiritual and demonic attributes of envy and selfish ambition (Js 3:15, 16).  While, "wisdom that comes from heaven is pure; then peace-lovig, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit" (Js 3:17-18).

Can you see the stark contrast between the two kinds of wisdom?  Wise guys, depending on earthly wisdom, are self-focused and therefore unable or unwilling to admit mistakes, therefore learning nothing from them.  They can never grow much as they use their energies denying their mistakes and blaming them on someone else, never learning the lesson to be gained and doomed to repeat the mistake and continue in their foolish thinking.

Wise guys walk around in a circle of their own making, stepping into the same messes over and over again, blaming others and defending their stupidity, often with agression.  Wise men break that circle as they embrace their failure and look for a new and better path.  Instead of trying to put a better spin on their mistakes, wise men seek to change for the better.  

Another way to put this is that wise guys take the "broad path that leads to destruction" (Matt 7:13), while wise men choose the "narrow path that leads to life" (Matt 7:14).  In the simplest of terms, wise guys stumble in the dark while wise men follow the Light (cf. John 3:20-21).  Jus' Say'n.

Difficult, Impossible, Done

Guess what kinds of things will be coming your way here in 2015 land?  Difficult things!  That right, although we get to start a new year, we don't get to start a new life.  Your life will be an extention of what it was in 2014.  Sorry, this is not the new you, it is the old you in a new year.  And, to make matters worse, the problems you didn't tackle because they were difficult last year, have gotten even more difficult this year.  And, if you leave them unattended long enough, they will look to be impossible.  They may have already become impossible for you to handle.

Let's supposed that you haven't paid your mortgage in the last three months because you couldn't afford it.  Now that you are three months behind, how possible will it be to pay it now?  Perhaps you derailed you diet at Halloween and have been on a holiday eating bing ever since - how easy is that weight control thing going to be this year?  What if you haven't started that project that you intended to have ready to have ready right after the holidays?  Do you see a problem?  Do you see your life?

Perhaps you're thinking, "Well thanks for the cheery thoughts!"  Yeah, well, the truth isn't always cheery.  But, "the truth will set you free" (Jn 8:32).  Knowing that you have avoided the difficult things until they have become increasingly difficult and seemingly impossible - perhaps truly impossible for you at this point, is the beginning point of freedom.

When is the best time to begin controlling your weight, regardless of how much you have to lose?  Yesterday, tomorrow, after the first of the year?  Not!  The best time is today, right now.  If you begin now, you will have results tomorrow and more as you continue day by day.  If you begin working on that project today, it will be completed at the earliest possible date, provided you keep working on it.  Do you see the light of reality, the path of truth here?  What was difficult yesterday, is more difficult today until you begin to tackle it and then it deminishes in size and difficulty daily as you work on it.

Even what is impossible for you is not necessarily impossible to be accomplished if you get some help.  Instead of hiding from your mortgage holder, call him and lay out your problem to see what assistance can be offered.  They are much more likely to work with you if you approach them than if they have to come after you.  And, if it truly impossible for you, it is not impossible for God: "What is impossible with man is possible with God" (Luke 18:27).

I have been in several impossible situations in my life, some very recently, that have worked out despite my inability.  Laying my life before the Lord, doing what I can despite how meager, and then watching to see what God can do with what little I have, increasing it in ways and by means that I could not have forseen.  Four years ago, I had to filed bankruptch, my house was foreclosed on, my truck was repossessed and all my cash was consumed by medical bills in an amount that was completely overwhelming.  Today I have a house that is paid for just recently and am buying another one in a nearby town to which we are moving.  There is even a renter we know and trust ready to move in this house as soon as we move out.

In a slightly different context than President Obama had in mind, "I didn't build that.  Someone else did."  It wasn't me, it was God working through others in ways that I could not have predicted even a few months ago.  We can only do our best but God can do all the rest, even when it seems or even is impossible for us.  It can be difficult, even impossible and still get done.  Jus' Say'n.

Resolve to Love

New Year's Resolutions tend to have a very short shelf life.  Most don't survive intact to the end of January.  We start out with the best of intentions but usually end up aborting the ideas and rewind to the same spot we were in the previous year.  I believe the reason is that resolutions tend to be unwanted ideals that are self-imposed to create a desired outcome.  The outcome we want, the input we have no interest in.

We want to drop weight, but we don't want to drop the donuts or the eating out or the sodas.  We want to increase our muscle mass but don't want mornings in the gym.  We want morning quiet time but don't want to get up earlier.  We want to return to college and finish that degree but we don't want to sit though lectures, sit up at night doing research or take exams.  The dilemma seems clear enough, but what do we do about it?

Well, we could just give up and accept the version of  ourselves that is unhealthy, uneducated and unspiritual, etc.  Or, we could give up the idea of resolutions and embrace the notion of genuinely loving ourselves.  Jesus said, "If you love me, you will do whatt I command" (Jn 14:15).  Why?  Becasue, as the great theologian, Meatloaf, croons, "I will do anything for love."

That really is the ticket. learning to love ourselves the way God does.  God loved us enough to send his Son to die for us (cf. Jn 3:16).  Jesus loved us all the way to the cross.  If we love Him, we will want to serve him, which includes treating ourselves right.  If we love ourselves like He does, we will want the best for ourselves, which will include doing things that we would otherwise not do.

How many undesired trips to the mall have you husbands made because you love your wives?  How many, less than desirable, fishing jaunts have you wives taken because you love your husbands?  How many of you parents have sat through mind-numbing episodes of "Barney" for your childrens' sakes?  Do you get the picture of what we will do for love?

If you really choose tto love yourself, something you want to do by the way, what good things would you do?  Would you exercise your body to give it relieve from the excess pounds that threaten your heart and flattens your arches?  Would you trash the cigarrettes that are trashing your lungs?  Woul you find time daily to nourish your soul, feasting on God's Word?  What wouldn't you do to take care of one you loved - even yourself?  Jus' Ask'n.