Pride and Joy

I never really appreciated Stevie Ray Vaughn until after his tragic death in a helicopter crash in August, 1990.  He played a mean blues guitar; I'm talking wicked mean.  Not many folks could make a Fender sing like Stevie Ray, not even his brother Jimmy. 

One of my fave SRV tunes is Pride and Joy.  The last verse of this song is

Yeah I love my baby....heart and soul
Love like ours wont never grow old
Shes my sweet little thang....shes my pride and joy
Shes my sweet little baby....Im her little lover boy

Man, Stevie is proud of his girl!  The lyrics lead you to believe that she is, in return proud of him.  As much as Stevie and his girl love each other, though, they got nothin' on God and His love for us.  

You might think that I'm stretching here but did you know that God wants to be our pride and joy?  Isaiah 28:5 (NLT) tells us that after God's children have been exiled and returned to Him that

 

Then at last the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
      will himself be Israel’s glorious crown.
   He will be the pride and joy
      of the remnant of his people

 

God desires to be my pride and joy, your pride and joy?  He wants me to want Him more than I want any other person or thing in my world.  He wants to be my One desire, the One place where I place my hopes and dreams, more so in Him  than in my husband, my children, my friends, my job, or any other thing.  He wants me to take pride in Him, in being His child, in having the Creator of the Universe as my Father, and in knowing that all things come through Him and by Him.  

 

Don't be shy!  Let the whole world know that God is your pride and joy.  Let Him reign supreme in your life and watch others notice the change that is evident in your life.  Maybe you'll get to break out your blues guitar and put a little rhythm to your praise.  Something tells me that God (the ultimate creator of the Fender Stratocaster) loves a good blues guitar, too! 

Toilet Prayers

The Bible has much to say about communicating with God.  We are to tell God the thoughts of our heart, sing His praises, listen to Him, worship.  We are also to go to a special place:  Moses spent 40 days with God on top of Mount Sinai.  Elijah experienced God's presence on Mount Hoerb.  Jesus continually withdrew to the Garden of Gethsemane so that He could spend time alone with the Father.  

And for us in contemporary America, an open altar on Sunday is a great place to drop to your knees and start your week praying, alone or with friends.  Worship music is playing, the lights are set at "just right".  You are alone with your Creator regardless of being in a church congregation of 10 or 10,000. 


The above are all very official ways to spend time with God. But what about toilet prayers?  

Yes, toilet prayers.  Here are scenarios that will possibly lead you to this place:  

• At work, the day is overwhelming.  Deadlines loom, bosses scream, co-workers don't produce necessary information.  You need a minute to stop and regroup with God. In case of emergency use the office facilities . . . 
• The kids are out of school after a highly sugared holiday party and you didn't get enough sleep.  They're wired; you're tired.  The coffee maker broke yesterday.  What you would do for just two minutes with God bring endless creative possibilities and solutions.  Can I just make it to the guest bathroom, the one at the back of the house?
• Serving others is fun and you love to do it but you need a second to catch your breath and ask God to remind you why you are serving.  Oh, no!  There's nothing in site but a porta-potty. 

The humble bathroom.  A less-than-dignified place of and far-less-discussed place for prayer. 

Let's be honest.  I have found myself in all of the above situations praying desperately and I am inclined to believe that God hears these prayers.  I actually think that He may even be a little more in tune with these than with my Sunday morning altar prayers.  Why?  The answer  is simple.  When I find myself huddled into a bathroom stall, in the stale gray of a public restroom, or the overly green hard of a plastic outhouse, rest assured that pretenses of pride are gone.  I cry out to God and He hears me.  I have left myself and my own efforts behind.  I am crying out to Him from deep in my heart and I am completely relying on Him.  

This is the essence of prayer.  Abandonment of self and focus on my God.   In the bathroom?  Yes.  


I am a huge proponent of getting me out of the way, looking to God with my entire being, and focusing on WHO HE IS and what I am not.  I'm ready to spend time with a toilet trivia book and a little extra Charmin if that's what it takes to talk to my Daddy. 

Are You Radical?

Radical hope, faith, love, joy.  When I first heard about the campaign and we talked about getting back to the roots of Christianity, I though that the items in the list of "radical elements" were things that I had licked.  This campaign was going to be for someone else and I was going to coast through this six weeks. 

Famous last words (well, famous last thoughts). 

This six weeks has proved to be grueling for me.  The struggles that I have faced as I let my spiritual guard down have been overwhelming at times.  The battle has raged during fall campaign for us as individuals and as a congregation.  Satan has been playing hardball and he's hit us low and dirty.  Personally, I have been angry, confused, frustrated, lost, doubting, and a list of other emotions that are all negative.  I have hardly felt joy or hope or love.  I have felt much more like I was manifesting acts of the flesh (anger, rage, hate, discord, selfish ambition) rather than the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-26). 

As we draw to a close of this campaign I am grateful for God's goodness and His never failing love.  I am so thankful that even as I have not proven myself a mighty warrior during this time that He has and is lovingly showing me where my weaknesses are, where I must rely more on Him, and how to be better prepared for the next battle I face. 

You see, His mercies are new every morning.  His faithfulness is great.  As Jeremiah said, "The Lord is my inheritance; therefore,  I will hope in Him!" (Lamentations 3:22-24)  Because of God's goodness, I can say with confidence,  "I am radical".  I hope you are, too. 

You're in Good Hands

(This is for Amanda - I owe her so many apologies for my fledgling attempts at parenting!  I have more love for her today than the day that they placed in her in my arms and thankfully she still loves me, too)  

AllState insurance will tell you that, "You're in Good Hands with AllState".  The message?  That you can trust them.  They have what it takes to walk with you through accidents and disasters and they are going to take better care of you than anyone else could ever imagine doing.  


This is the message we need to let our children know.  We need to tell them that they are in good hands. 

Point 3 from this week's message is:  Remember your child being able to trust you is more important than you being able to trust your child.  I have known this for a long time; my daughter is 21 and through our trials and victories this is a lesson that has been hammered home.  Sometimes I was good at it, sometimes I failed miserably.  However, thanks to God's grace and mercy, we have reached the point of her adulthood with a strong and trusting relationship. 


Don't get me wrong - your children and my children can be trustworthy people of great integrity.  However, they deserve to know that when they mess up (and mess up they will, no matter how small or large the egregious choice may be or what consequences this will bring) they need to know that they can find safety in the arms and hearts of their parents.  They need to know that  we'll be parents, that they can be kids, and we'll see whatever comes their way together, with God, in love. 

Today, find a way to let your children know that they're in good hands with you. 

Follwership

I saw a quote today that by A. Maureen Carroll that reads We don't need any more leadership training; we need some followership training. (Side note: if you can find out who A. Maureen Carroll is, please let me know - I'm having difficulties finding out who she is.)

Anyway . . . I bring this quote to your attention because I agree with this sentiment. Don't get me wrong. We need leaders. As a matter of fact, we need good, godly leaders. However, our leaders need a leader and that leader is God. He is

• Jehovah, LORD.
• Adonai, Master
• Jehovah El Elyon, God Most High
• Jehovah El Elohim, The Lord God of Gods

All of us need to learn followership. All of us.

This is a day and age of "my way is right" and "I don't like your rules so I will make my own". People don't like being told what to do. As Christians, however, we are called to follow. And we have, as our example, the life of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Spotless Lamb, the Prince of Peace.

Jesus is a follower. He followed the will of the Father, even to death on a cross. Luke 22:42 tell us that Jesus, agonizing so fiercely about what was waiting that His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground, asked the Father to remove this cup from Him, but then He told God that "not my will but Yours be done".

It's time to follow. It's time to realize that our way is not always the right way. It’s time to subject our stubborn, fierce, and faulted wills to His.

Embrace followership. You’re in great company!

The Struggle with Silence

Being quiet is a lot harder than I thought. I am learning that silence is something that I have to practice not only in my speech but also in my thoughts. I am also learning that there are reasons for this of which I may not be immediately aware but below are some of the ones that I have become cognizant of:

1. Let’s just start with the big one, the one that hurts my pride the most, and knocks me to my knees the hardest. This may not be a shock to you but it comes as quite a surprise to me: I may not be the most important person I know, there may just be someone else who has something valuable to say.  (Like God, maybe?!)  Maybe I need to be quiet simply because of this.
2. It’s easier to listen to someone else when I’m not talking. Again, this is a no brainer for most people but I guess I needed the reminder.
3. Another reason is that sometimes the stuff that I say is just not okay. Jesus says in Matthew 12:34, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks”. OUCH! Sometimes what comes out of my mouth reflects my heart and simply is not pretty.
4. A tried but true reason for silence is: you cannot take back what you say.
5. Talking about something unpleasant or something that is out of my control keeps my brain on the treadmill or negative emotions, doubt, fear, and all sorts of dark things. Shutting up and turning to God in prayer or singing a worship tune reminds me that God is in control and that in the end, we still win.

Silence is not easy, at least not for a girl like me. But God is showing me that all things are possible with Him, even me, shutting my mouth. The bonus in all of this for me is that my silence is confirmation that miracles still exist, too.

Be Quiet

"Be quiet." Lately I hear this from God. It is an imperative, a command, but I also understand that the choice is mine. God is telling me what to do to be obedient to Him but I have the option to obey or keep going about life as normal.

"Be quiet" to me is confounding. Why would God tell me to be quiet? Doesn't He realize that He made me the chatty person that I am??? Does Michael Phelps have a life outside of the pool? I'm not convinced he does. This is how I see me with no words: I am a swimmer in a waterless pool, Eric Clapton with no guitar, Maya Angelou without a pen.

So what now? The idea of me without the spoken word confirms to me that my sense of humor comes from my Father. Obviously Daddy likes a good laugh, too.

Stay tuned. I know that I can trust God so now I will sit in silent confusion and wait to hear what He tells me next.

This is going to be a good.