Tuesday, June 26, 2007

On Empty


That’s just about where the gas gauge in my sons’ car is right now – a fact which made me a little nervous as I drove it this morning. I’ve decided that I will visit the nearby gas station before heading out to do errands this afternoon. Unless, that is, habit kicks in and I’m in Peach Jam, engine sputtering, before I remember my resolve...

Empty is scary. Not just in cars, but in everything from careers and finances to families and friendships – right down to the heart and soul. It puts us in situations we hadn’t anticipated and can’t control. Empty is needy – it doesn’t command the respect of others; rather, it puts us at their mercy. Empty is accusing – “Why didn’t I plan ahead?” It’s defeating – “Look around. No one else is sidelined like this.” And just unnerving: “You’ve got miles to go yet – and you’ve got nothing.”

It’s scary, that is, unless you do what Pastor Rick urged us to this past Sunday... bring the empty bucket to Jesus. And even then, we’re afraid of empty. Even with Jesus. It feels better to be busy with a ministry or planning a vacation or contemplating a job change – something to fill the void. Something we can hold up to Jesus and plead, “Lord, won’t You work with me on this?”

The woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment had an empty bucket. She’d spent all she had on physicians, and was still not healed. She had no more resources, likely no more alternatives. In the crowd surrounding the Master, she was the sputtering engine, the one sidelined, empty, frightened.

And she was the one who got the miracle.

Empty is no shame. After all, God can’t pour His riches into full hands! So let’s not try to deny it or hide it or substitute something – anything – to fill the void. Let’s let empty be a starting-place for Jesus, and for one long-awaited bucketful of miracle.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

When Life Snarls

I was thinking, as I was praying one morning this week, about tangles. (Sounds like my mind was wandering a bit, doesn’t it!) I’ve had some experience with tangled things, and you have, too. Trying to run a hairbrush through a child’s long hair. Staring helplessly at the hopelessly intertwined strings of two downed kites. Sitting on the riverbank with two fishing poles - and one mass of snarled line...

But I was thinking of other kinds of tangles... the kind you really pray about. The sticky situation confronting your child, the strained relationship between two people you love very much, the decision that needs made when none of the options look promising - those kinds of tangles.

Does your life have any? I think most of ours do. In fact, sometimes the various tangles seem to pile up until we’ve got quite a collection going. And the question is, “What do we do with them?”

When I get to that point, I often do what any child would do... I picture myself picking up all the unsolvable conundrums and carrying them to my Father’s lap (I had a pretty good pile of them this week):

“I can’t fix these. I’m giving them to You. Can You take care of them, please?” He’s never been too busy. Never thought such work was beneath Him. He’s untangled everything I’ve ever brought Him.

Sometimes it takes awhile. In fact, He’s pleased when I go off and trust him to work on those problems, knowing He’ll call me back as He eventually works each one out. Not always the way I thought. Not always the way I’d hoped. But always for good.

We often hear Christians say, “I don’t know what I’d do without Jesus. I don’t know what other people do who don’t have Him.”

I think I can make one pretty good guess... without a Father’s lap nearby and a Father’s experienced hands reaching out, I’d say they spend a lot of time sitting among snarled things, picking helplessly at solutions, or trying to ignore the tangles altogether.

Makes you glad you have a Father, doesn’t it? You might want to recommend Him today to someone who doesn’t.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

It Is What It Is


“It is what it is.”

That phrase has been popping up in recent weeks – during a phone conversation with my son, and in a committee meeting, and from another place or two I can’t remember... until my curiosity was piqued. Where was this new cliché coming from? Was it a line from a sitcom? A hit song? A celebrity one-liner?

I asked the internet. On USA Today’s website, writer Gary Mihoces, called it “The Sports Quote of 2004,” used “to sum up troubles of all sorts and send an instant message that it’s time to move on.” He says the origin of the phrase is uncertain, but it’s been around for years: John Barlow, former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, wrote a song by that title, and President Bush quoted it in response to discouraging early exit polls on the day he was re-elected. And it has been used to explain various losses and sudden reversals and even unexpected successes in the world of sports. “It is what it is.”

A Christian blog by Doy Moyer points out the wisdom in that phrase. “The solution is not denial. We should learn to admit reality, then work with it as it is.” I agree. The daydreaming I did as a kid didn’t change anything. Better to learn to work with reality, even when, as Pastor Ben said Sunday, the phone call comes from the doctor or the spouse leaves or the son looks you in the eye and rejects everything he has been taught. Best to say, “It is what it is”...

...as long as we truly recognize “what it is” (because reality for the Christian is far different than for the unbeliever): It’s something God’s got under control. Something He has a plan for. Something He’ll walk us through, offering us what we need when we need it. Something that won’t last forever. And something He’ll make more than worth our while.

Factor God into the biggest challenge facing you today. Recognize Him for Who He is and look long and hard at His power and His faithfulness and His grasp of every detail and His persistent love and His inexplicable mercy. When you sit down to worry about your problem, factor Him in. When you have a decision to make about it, factor Him in. When you’re talking to others about it, factor Him in. Make Him the biggest part of the reality you are struggling with (because He really is greater than it is). Factor Him in...

Then say, “It is what it is.”

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Perfect Timing


Hmmm... What was that game... where you turned the crank that hit the shoe that kicked the bucket, sending a little metal ball rolling down rickety stairs and continuing down a curvy chute, to finally hit a spring that popped a yellow ball through a bathtub drain and onto a diving board, launching a poised plastic diver into a little tub and jarring the cage into a slow descent on your opponent’s little rodent?

Yep – has to be Mousetrap! And if you played Milton Bradley’s classic very many times, you soon discovered that all too often, something went wrong. You forgot to set the spring (a fact your opponent noted in silent glee), or the shoe kicked the bucket with such force that the metal ball jumped the stairs, or the diver somehow listed to the left and failed to jar the cage... and you could only vow through clenched teeth to set up a no-fail run at your next opportunity.

God never plays Mousetrap with His children. That is, He never sets things in motion and hopes they come out all right. He never sits with us beside the game board of life and wonders whether the timing will be right, whether a blessing will come too late to be of benefit, or a trial too early to be handled correctly.

At the age of twenty-eight, missionary Jim Elliot was murdered by the Auca Indians as he tried to bring them the gospel. From all appearances, something had gone terribly wrong. But that was first appearances. Jim’s wife, Elizabeth, returned to take the gospel to the Aucas, and many have since believed. In addition, many thousands, it is said, have gone to the mission fields as a result of Jim’s sacrificial example.

Somehow I think Jim would be pleased, but not shocked. He had already declared, “I am particularly conscious of the Christian’s right to expect events to be exactly timed for good” (Shadow of the Almighty).

That’s a comfort to me. I don’t have to worry about the timing of seemingly random happenings. Jesus was four days late at Lazarus’ tomb – but right on time for what He wanted to do. What He launches – or allows - in my life will be exactly timed for my good and His good purposes, too:

“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 NKJV). It’s not just a cliché – it’s the truth.