Sunday, January 26, 2020

The wedding ring that won't come off


I have been missing a significant item in my Every Day Carry (EDC) for nearly 6 months...my wedding ring.

I actually felt embarrassed that I was missing it and could unintentionally give the wrong impression. If anyone knows me, you know I adore my wife and want to show that to her in every way possible.

But I couldn't bring myself to buy a replacement ring. There were plenty of options, of course. We could go pick one out. We could order one of those silicone ring sets online. In fact, my wife did order one of those sets (an off-brand). I tried them on and couldn't get over how "cheap" they felt. I value our marriage so much that I wanted a proper ring to symbolize that. And in my mind, it had to be the original!

I've taken my ring off to split wood and do yardwork. When I head into the woods to hunt, I leave it in my cupholder so it won't fall off in the "pursuit" of wild game for dinner. I've even had it slip off my finger while pulling a fish into the boat or through the hole in the ice, so I've been extra careful. I couldn't resize it because it is tungsten. This time, I had no idea where it went. I held out hope that I'd find it when I clean out the garage, shed and truck in the spring.

But after 6 long months, I came home, and my wife is going down on one knee, laughing, "will you marry me?" A few days before, I had been thinking about the significance of the man going down on his knee, laying his life and his future down for the woman who may say yes or no. He is laying his heart on the line along with all his hopes and dreams for their life together. And here is my wife on her knee.

Where did she find it? In the glove compartment of our van, inches from where the passenger sits. She promptly ordered inserts that can be put inside the ring to make it a snug fit. Alissa comes through again!

I'm going to take this beyond marriage now, to the enduring spiritual thing marriage really points to. Marriage is for this life, but marriage points to a love that outlives this one. Marriage is a vivid picture of Jesus Christ's love for his people, for all people really. A love that's so true. A love that's really love. Jesus' love is the ideal we all strive for but seem to fall short of. But that doesn't make his love any less "ours".

Jesus got down on his knee for us. At creation, he envisioned a people who did not yet exist. A people he could love and bless. And his vision became reality when God got on his knees in the dirt, formed man, and breathed life into him. But he wasn't done. Man was not complete. He was missing something, someone. God put Adam to sleep and knelt down again. God took a rib from Adam's side and made woman.

Man and woman lived to lay down their lives before God and each other. They knelt in a position of mutual love, respect, and service. But, they wanted to stand on their own two feet. They stood up against God's purposes for them to live in harmony and stretched for the fruit. And as they stretched and ate, they fell horribly. Marriage and family life and work life went to pot.

But God didn't ask for the ring back. He didn't serve them papers. He came and found them as they hid in regret and shame and fear. And he promised to keep laying everything on the line for them so he could lift them up once again. He promised to lay down his Son for them.

When you read the Old Testament or study it in this fantastic podcast https://www.1517.org/podcasts/40-minutes-in-the-old-testament, you will see this story of trying to be independent from God repeating over and over. You and I will find this attitude in ourselves if we look in the mirror. But you will also find that God keeps coming after you. He keeps warning you of the heartache of living apart from him. Hear these as calls to come back! Come back to where you belong! And in the Old Testament, you will see God doing everything within his power to preserve a people from which the man of true love could enter the world.

This man knelt down before God and agreed to do whatever it would take to bring us back. As he knelt before God, he let himself be placed into a woman's womb. He knelt before God his Father and before his parents in everything he did. He knelt down to the sick, to the mentally ill and the demon possessed, to those who knew little or nothing about God or who thought they knew a lot about God. Finally, he fell onto his knees as the weight of his cross, our guilt, shame, and regret, drove him into the ground.

He comes to you today and kneels before you and me, offering us a ring that will never come off. He holds out his hand, "come, follow me." He will teach us to lay down our lives with a truer love than ever before. We have nothing to lose because with him there is no more guilt, shame, or regret. There is only forgiveness, approval and a new tomorrow. Only unconditional love. A ring that will never come off.




Thursday, January 16, 2020

A prayer for the distressed



I often find myself coming face to face with reality. A whole lot of it. I have a friend who is not afraid to speak of reality. I appreciate that. When you really know what you're dealing with, you can actually work on it. Or, more and more often, pray more specifically about it and look to wise ones for counsel.
When people bring their realities to me, I try to 1. help them understand that reality as a fellow human being with my limited abilities 2. help them understand that reality with the wisdom God gives in Scripture and 2. assure them that God is with them in that reality, no matter how dark the road.
I remember praying this one Psalm daily, if not several times a day during some rough stretches of college.
I recently opened up a Bible study on "Dealing with Depression" with this Psalm to give those who suffer in the "cloud" a light. Does it make the cloud go away right now? Not necessarily. Is the light there in the cloud? Yes, even if you can only see a sliver of it. And even if you're wondering why you can't see the light yet, remember how the star led the wise men to see Jesus even as Herod sought to kill Jesus. Remember how God's smile glowed from heaven when he was baptized, even though Jesus would later be condemned for what we have been and said and done that God frowns upon.
Our light, Jesus, had much more darkness in front of him after those moments in the spotlight. In fact, the darkness was always all around him while he was here. But every time he came up against darkness, his light pierced it. Demons fled. Diseases reversed. Life came from death for Lazarus and for him. Jaw-dropping perfection came from his life instead of oh-so-common sin.
And even though he now sits in the most brilliant light in the heavens, he is with us in our darkness. He has rescued us from the darkness of not knowing God or where we stood with him. He has brought us into God's light. Why would he turn the lights off on those he has already rescued? His light can't go out because in him there is no darkness at all. He will finish what he started. He will lead us all the way through the darkness. He will light our way through our present darkness until light is all there is and all we see.
Psalm 13 English Heritage Version (I love the guidance in praying this Psalm that the headings provide)

Anguished Questions

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I experience worries in my soul,
sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy tower over me?

An Urgent Prayer

Look at me. Answer me, O Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes
    so I do not sleep in death,
    so my enemy does not say, “I have overcome him,”
    so my foes do not rejoice when I fall.

A Solid Answer

But I trust in your mercy.
My heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord
    because he has accomplished his purpose for me.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Be courageous in 2020!


As for man, his days are like grass.
Like a wildflower he blossoms.


Then the wind blows over it, and it is gone,
and its place recognizes it no more.


Psalm 103 gives us a liberal dose of reality at the end of 2019. You might even say a harsh dose of reality.
That’s why you’ll  want to pray the rest of the psalm.


In this new year, the Psalms give us a liberal dose of reality. And the Psalms give us a liberal dose of
courage. That’s why it’s good to look at the world every day and year gone by, every new day and every new
year, through the Psalms.


You might argue that we get enough reality just by paying attention to the global and national news. You may
be right. Partially.


We get one side of reality. We get the human perspective on what’s going on. You remember when the Notre
Dame burned this past year. Horrific. 12th century religious architecture that will now take years to repair. And
it was almost gone forever. From a human perspective, what a relief that it didn’t burn to the ground! We can
rebuild it! Wow, just like that, something so iconic can melt away in the flames. We better be more careful. We
better improve our wiring systems so this doesn’t happen elsewhere. Human progress will win after all! We will
always rise from the ashes! Do you see where the human view of reality can lead us?


But what if we look at this event from God’s perspective, through Psalm 103? “As for man, his days are like
grass. Like a wildflower he blossoms. Then the wind blows over it, and it is gone, and its place
recognizes it no more.” A liberal dose of reality. We are but mortal. We are like the grass. We have our time to
grow and produce and build and accomplish and blossom. And then something comes along. A windstorm. A
fire. Winter. And the grass is gone. It dies. Goes brown. Blows over. Unless you’re in southern Wisconsin,
apparently people are still cutting their grass there during the holidays. But winter will soon move through there
as well. 


So that’s the reality God wants us to see? Yes. Part of it. A liberal dose of it. Why? He wants us to see our
condition as it really is. He doesn’t want false hopes to mislead us. He doesn’t want our trust to be placed in
human progress and achievement. He wants us to see our limitations. Our frailty. That “the wages of sin is
death.” 


And once we have drunk that reality down and it’s burned our throat and our nostrils like that nasty medicine
we have to take this time of year, then he gives us another dose to follow it up. A liberal dose of courage.
The very next verses of Psalm 103...


“But the Lord’s mercy is from eternity to eternity
over those who fear him,
and his righteousness is with their children’s children,
with those who keep his covenant,
with those who remember his precepts in order to obey them.
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his royal power rules over all.


Buildings burn down, people die of ebola and tropical storms, Walmart shootings, synagogue shootings, Isis,
and old age. But the Lord’s mercy doesn’t vanish or fail us. The Lord blankets us with his mercy through all of
this. The Lord does not forget to be merciful to us! No matter how many times we have abused his mercy or
taken advantage of his patience. No matter how often we have sinned knowing full well what we are doing and
all those other minute by minute sins of attitude we don’t even realize. You know what does vanish? You know
what is forgotten? All of our sins from 2019!


His mercy is over those who fear him.  We fear him because we see reality. We see our frailty. And we see God
putting his hands around us through the winter storms and the chaos of this world like a gardener cups their
hands carefully around a tender new plant. He takes delight in us. His mercy will do anything to keep us in his
care. How can we be sure of this going into 2020?


We just saw again this Christmas how our Lord Jesus sprung up like a tender shoot. He grew into full maturity,
full blossom, exactly what God’s will was and is for everyone he has created! To borrow the words of Psalm 1,
Jesus did not walk the way the wicked world walks. He did not stand in line with sinful humanity, going with the
flow. He did not sit in the company of mockers and demean others and spend his whole life griping about
everyone and everything. But his delight was in the law of the Lord. He meditated on his Father’s law day and
night. He truly was like a tree planted by streams of water, which yielded its fruit in season, his leaf did not
wither—whatever he did prospered!


Until he walked the painful road towards God’s judgment on Calvary, the road to the slaughter that we would
have walked. Until he stood in our place right between us and God as if he were the guilty one. Until he sat
under the mockery of the crowds, the soldiers spit and games, the sign over his head, and the thief next to him
on the cross. And ultimately, worst of all, God hid his face from Jesus because he could not stand the sight of
him who took our place. And then he was assigned a grave with the wicked, though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.


But the Lord’s mercy is from eternity to eternity! He did what we cannot do with our bodies, our aching joints,
our failing organs and forgetful minds, our things and buildings that rust and break down...he sprung back to
life, better than ever! My friends, he has blanketed you with his mercy as a quilt covers you in the cold. He has
covered you and blanketed you and your children and all those who fear him with his righteousness before
God! You are under God’s mercy, not his judgment in 2020, no matter what happens. You are righteous, not
wicked, in his sight. Fear him. Respect him. Be amazed by his mercy again this new year, just one year in an
eternity of years to come. Meditate on his Word, the Psalms, his mercy, his law and how he would have you
live. In 2020, you live underneath his throne no matter who is elected. In 2020, his power rules over you, no
matter what other powers threaten you.


We appeal to his mercy every day in 2020 as we continue to see humanity and our great works blossom and
then blow right over and be forgotten. Here’s what it could look like to process current events from now on like
Psalm 103 does.


Be courageous in 2020. Get your courage from God, from the prayers in the Psalms he has given you.
A liberal dose of reality. A liberal dose of courage!


We pray the rest of Psalm 103 courageously together.


“Bless the Lord, you his angels,
you strong warriors who obey his word
by listening to what he says.
Bless the Lord, all his armies,
you who minister to him,
you who do whatever pleases him.
Bless the Lord, everything he has made
in all places where he rules.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.”