A philosopher once said we are all looking for God in the bottom of a well. What we see is actually our own reflection and not truly a picture of God.
In other words we create God in our image.
When the well has run dry, we are probably looking in the wrong well.
Hence, the dearth of worthwhile words in this space.
Musing about my parents long connection with their friends and fellow Slovaks I was reminded of a song by Sarah Groves:
Remind me of this with every decision.
Generations will reap what I sow.
I can pass on a curse or a blessing,
To those I will never know”*
The song ends with a blessing we all need to be offering, for generations:
“To my great, great, great, great granddaughter, live in peace….”
If we were to spend just a bit of time thinking about the generational consequences of our actions, I wonder if we would act differently.
If we were to ask, “How will this activity affect my kids, my grand kids, my great grand kids” what would we change?
The late singer/songwriter Keith Green often said, “This generation of believers is responsible for this generation of souls.” I believe our lives have the power to shape the future in ways we cannot begin to imagine, and it goes way beyond just our children. And it goes way beyond this generation.
Like water over rocks our actions will shape the lives of others. The difference is, unlike water, we have of choice. We are actually more like a sculptor than a waterfall. Let’s make something beautiful.
Very little that we do goes unnoticed, and there are consequences to our actions. I don’t believe in the butterfly effect, but I do believe in Newton’s law of motion as it relates to people. Newton’s law states regarding motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When it comes to people there are actions, consequences for everything we do. So, as I have been repeating (and attempting) for years, I need to make the wise choice.
*Sarah Groves, Generations from the album, Conversations, copyright, Past The Wishing Ministries, Mantle Music and Northern Hearts Media
I got a nice card in the mail from my mother. She also included a newsletter from her social network- The First Catholic Slovak Union-they were celebrating the 100th anniversary of their their network site- Tatra Hall.
Included was a list of the founding families; twenty-five names of the first families in the FCSU. What struck me was that I could readily identify at least seventeen of the family names, meaning my parents had remained friends with their parents friends. And no doubt my mom and dad knew all twenty-five families. After one hundred years my parents social network is still intact!
With Facebook I am just starting to reconnect with some of my friends from my early twenties, I think there is one name from my high school. May parents have kept their friendships alive for one hundred years!!! I feel fortunate that I have a few (a very few) friendships that have lasted thirty years.
No my parents are not a hundred years old, dad is eighty and mom is seventy- five. But they have maintained these relationships thier entire lives and the connections go back farther than that. This astounds me on so many leveles.
If Facebook, and Twitter, and Myspace and the next new network that crops up are able to keep people connected across the miles, the FCSU has been able to do it across the centuries. And these people really care for one another; they don’t need to pass around digital images of their pets defecating (but they do send newspaper clippings, remember those?) they don’t lol or omg but they do show up to serve a meal to a widow, and my dad helped re-roof his church when he was way past retirement age.
So while I hope that Facebook, and perhaps even this blog site will help me stay connected, I can learn a lot from my parents very low-tech but highly effective Social network.
Love one another!
Long before I knew what a minor key was I wondered why this song sounds so mournful. I would sit in church and wonder why we were singing such a sad song at Christmastime. Finally I focused on the words, and the music became more clear. The entire song is not mournful, just the verses, the chorus is joyful.
This song is very much a BC/AD kind of song. (Not AC/DC-BC/AD; there is a difference.) These verses tell our story.
O come o come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Lost and apart from a God whom we have not met yet know exists, we lived in exile, until…
Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel
O come thou Wisdom from on High
Who ordrest all things mightily
To us the path of knowledge show
And teach us in out path to go.
Now look at the names of God in this great song. Notice how every one of his names meets one of our needs. “Wisdom from on High” Couldn’t we all use some of that?
Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel
O come thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of hell thy people save
And give them victory over the grave
“Rod of Jesse” Isaiah says the savior will come from the rod, or root of Jesse. In other words the son of Jesse-King David. The savior of what? From what? From Satan! From the grave!
Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel
O come thou Day Spring come and cheer
Our Spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight
I’m going to quit babbling…just enjoy the words to this beautiful song, and rejoice!
Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel
O come thou Key of David come
And open wide our heavenly home
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery
Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel
O come on come great Lord of Might
Who to thi tribe’s on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In clouds and majesty and awe
Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel
O come thou Root of Jesse’s Tree
An ensign of thy people be
Before thee rulers silent fall
All people on thy mercy call
Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel
O come Desire of Nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind
Bid thou our sad divisions cease
And be thyself the King of peace
Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel
O Come O Come Emmanuel 12th Century Latin text, translated into English by John Mason Neale in 1851.
I have a sense of humor not everyone appreciates. Without trying to hard I can easily lean into sarcasm, which I really do not intend. I try not to make a joke at someone else’s expense, but then I speak before I think. That’s why, although it frustrates me, I like the written word so much. There is a backspace key, and if need be even a delete button. Trying to take back words is like trying to get toothpaste back in the tube or push water up a waterfall.
So I have to regularly remind myself to “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29
This verse reminds me to think before I speak. It also is a helpful verse when I choose movies. I am pretty picky- I won’t go to a movie that is nothing but a running sex joke, and I stay away from films that use God’s name flippantly. Not only should I not let unwholesome talk come out of my mouth, I try and avoid it going into my ears whenever possible.
So please laugh at my dumb jokes, even if you ar not an eight-year-old boy. But remind me if you think I am crossing a line that I should stay away from. I would appreciate it. And while you are at it, perhaps you could tell me…
What’s another word for thesaurus?
Why is abbreviated such a long word?
Why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
Proverbs 16:16
How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!
No I’m not talking about silent flatulence; I’m talking about a misbehaving tug boat. Little Toot was a song I learned when I was three or four, we played it with a record player that actually had a sewing needle for a needle. I remember sitting on the cold floor of our bedroom and playing Little Toot, and Your A Grand Old Flag over and over again. I still remember the words, and it’s been close to fifty years since I heard those songs.
Songs have staying power which is why you should be picky about what you listen to. For some reason I listened to the chapstick song on Youtube recently and the dumb ditty is still swirling vacuously around in my head.
Little Toot was a pretty innocuous song about a lazy tug boat that finally stepped up and saved the day, and Your a Grand Old Flag is pretty patriotic, but think about this for a moment: while I was listening to those harmless and possibility educational songs, Diane was sitting on her bedroom floor listening to a message about God’s love, and at age three she became a Christian, something she also still remembers almost, ahem, twenty six years after hearing it.
Words and music together make for a powerful memory making team. Use good music to teach and instill positive, godly values to yourself and your children. You won’t soon forget the lessons you hear. 
Up until early June of this year I had music playing in my office almost continuously. Then the music died. Children’s music made me melancholy, classical made me depressed (I know a lot of people who always feel that way about classical music.) Rock music just seemed like noise (I know a lot …never mind.) And worship music made me cry. So as I moved from working in an office to working in my home, the stereo rarely came on, and when it did, it was like listening to music I used to like. I rarely picked up my guitar. Things started getting very quiet.
Now the Christmas season is upon us and I am bringing out my Christmas music. I am happy to say I am enjoying it. I hope it will allow me to get used to song once again and then I will be able to turn it all back on once again and start to listen to the music with fresh ears.
For the next few days I am going to talk about music; how it has affected so many areas of my life. I hope it will not be background music, or worse yet elevator music to you. I would prefer that it put you in first chair as opposed to front row center seat. in other words I hope my musings allow you to participate, not just listen in on my tunes. I hope it takes you on a mental journey to some of the places music has taken you in the past.
So if you don’t like music you don’t have to read for a while. I’ll see you soon.
And oh, yea, the music died, but I believe in the resurrection. Or as I would say to kids, it didn’t stay dead.
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
Shortly after moving to the area we discovered Perry’s ice cream at John and Mary’s. We’d just finished dinner when Kay and Harry and walked in, so we sat and chatted. Ice cream was a great ice breaker. We compared all the dairies any of us had ever experienced. We, being the newcomers asked about all the great ice creamerys in the area, as well as the places to avoid.
Now nine years later, although we don’t socialize as much as either of us would like, we count them as dear friends and always have something to talk about. (“Been to John and Mary’s lately?”)
When our friends from Michigan come to visit, even in the middle of winter, we always go for ice cream. Partly because it has become a fun tradition; partly because we want to compare the best New York has to offer with the best from Michigan; but mostly because I like ice cream. We even took a tour of a Ben and Jerry’s factory when we went east a few years ago. As our job came to an end in the spring we counted many visits with friends at Nick Charlap’s as the highlights of our summer.
I remember the time my four year old niece dropped an ice cream cone on the sidewalk, thirty years ago! (I picked it up and put it back in her cone while she was watching her three year old sister drop her cone on the sidewalk.) I remember Diane winning an ice cream eating contest more than thirty years ago. (useing her bare hands instead of a spoon)
One of my favorites was the annual gathering of men in the fellowship mall of our church as a dozen men with Popeye arms dished out fifteen hundred dishes of Anderson’s Ice Cream in under a half hour. (It only seemed like an hour guys.) And when you find good ice cream, you find good people, Nels Anderson donated all that ice cream every year!
Ok I like ice cream, but why all this space devoted to sugar, milk and chocolate? Ice cream serves as a connecting point for me. And there is at least a bit of analogy to life.
The best ice creams contain the best ingredients…it really is a simple as that. Haagen Dazs has a new variety called Five (Thank you Ray and Marcia). It has just five ingredients; milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and the right flavoring, like vanilla, or chocolate. Yum..
Relationships, like ice cream, are only as good as what you put into it. Our best and strongest relationships include, love, prayer, honesty, time and energy. (Hey, maybe I can call this Life Five, do you think Haagen Dazs has a trademark on that name?)
If you are currently struggling with a relationship, take another look at your ingredient list. Maybe you will have to take something out of the recipe, but my guess is you just need to add a bit of the right things.
So sweeten up your relationships with love, empower them with prayer, strengthen them with honesty, build them with time, and grow them with energy.
Who know, relationships might even be better than ice cream.
The prayer of a godly person is powerful.
It makes things happen!
James 5:16
“Jesus called a little child over to him. He had the child stand among them. Jesus said, ‘what I’m about to tell you is true. You need to change and become like little children. If you don’t you will never enter the kingdom of heaven ’” Matthew 18:2-3
We adults know that God does not always answer our prayers the way we want him to, so many of us start to believe that he doesn’t answer them at all. However God always answers our prayers, he just has a bit more information than we do. God, who knows all things, answers our prayers in a way that first, brings glory to himself, and second, provides the best possible answer to our prayers. He goes beyond what we ask for and gives us what we need. “Even though you are evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7: 11
If you have not had specific answers to your prayers, perhaps it is because you have not been praying specifically enough. Or because you don’t believe God answers prayer. “Ask, and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks will receive. He who searches will find. The door will be opened to the one who asks.” Matthew 7:7-8.
So change and become like a child again. Trust God’s word. He promises that he will always answer your prayer in a way that glorifies Himself and meets your needs.
Pray trustingly, pray specifically, and pray expectantly. If you need to, create a target to remind yourself to pray for a specific thing, place or person. And then look for results.
Keep a list or journal of answered prayers to remind you of his goodness. (The Israelites were told to remind and keep reminding themselves of God’s goodness.) And one more thing… teach these things to your children at every opportunity: “The prayer of a godly person is powerful. It makes things happen.” James 5: 16
Here’s something I’d like you to think about for a moment. Not counting his own birth, death and resurrection, what do you think was the greatest miracle performed by Jesus?
Depending on what season of life you are in, your answers may vary. If you have young children, healing the children may be the one that comes to mind. If you are struggling financially it may be the loaves and fishes. If you have had a struggle with depression or mental illness you may have a different response. The miracles of Jesus speak to us no matter where we are on our life journey.
Are you more impressed with Jesus power over illness and the healing miracles, or is it the power over nature miracles, the calming of the storm, the large catch, the feeding of the 5000 that impress you most today.
This might not seem fair to you, but in my mind the greatest miracle Jesus performed was when he saved me! And since I have this space reserved my vote counts the most.
The miracles fit into the category of power of nature, power over sickness, and power over death. Salvation fits into the third category.
So, if you are a believer, let’s stop for just a moment to say,”God, thank you for saving me.”
Sometimes I forget to thank God for his salvation. I think it happens when we have been a part of his family for a long time. We tend to take things for granted after a while, don’t we? It happens in marriages, and it happens in our faith walk. For example, Diane and I have been married more than thirty-three years, and there are many things I take for granted. I don’t thank God enough for Diane.
God, thank you for giving me a friend and a wife like Diane!
The miracle that Christ worked in us the day that he saved us is power over death. You see when Jesus saves us, it is not that he heals our wounds, though he does that. It is not that he can make us good people, though he does that. When Jesus saves us, makes us part of his forever family, comes into our life or heart, or any way you want to put it, when he saves us, he takes us from death to life.
Jesus says in John Chapter 5:24. “I tell you the truth, anyone who hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
The joy that comes to the father of the prodigal son is not that he came to his senses, not that he came home, but he said. “Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again!” Not a changed life, not a better life, though those of those are fringe benefits. We are celebrating a new life.
My hope for today is that for a time at least we stop taking for granted God’s greatest miracle; that we pause to remember and we pause to say thank you. Then, like the father of the prodigal son we can say, “Let’s have a feast and celebrate.”
