Saving the City

Didn’t you feel sorry Sunday for the poor but wise man who saved the city (Ecc. 9:15)… but nobody remembered? Another case of “Unfair and Meaningless!” in Solomon’s litany. But then, people have always been quietly saving the day without receiving compensation or recognition or promotion.

“March Madness” is a good example. If you’re at all interested in this popular college basketball tournament, you probably know the big names and the high scorers (usually one and the same, right?) But there’s another term floating around besides points and rebounds, vital as they are. It’s the word “assists.” What is an assist?

When a player gets the ball to a teammate in a way that results in that teammate scoring a basket, the first player receives credit for an assist. He or she has assisted in the scoring of that basket. They didn’t make the two points, but they were a vital part of the process. Without their effort, no basket.

An assist is a humble and unselfish act. It’s acknowledging that someone else is in a better position to get the job done. It’s intentionally helping them to do it. And it’s being okay with them getting the glory.

Besides, while the crowd is cheering the slam-dunking center and the guard who just sank a three-pointer from center court, a statistician on the sidelines is silently keeping record. Who fed the center the ball? Who bounce-passed it to that guard just when he broke free to shoot? Those who know the game best are watching closely. Players who assist do not remain anonymous.

In the game of life, too, Somebody is watching; Someone is remembering. All your assists – those things you do that help others in a vital way but don’t rack up any points or seem worthy of notice from others… are properly noted, and will be fully rewarded.

So let’s not get petty and self-serving. There are a lot of quietly vital things that can be done. There are many heroes poised to save the day, but they need an assist – a word of encouragement or a bit of financial backing or some wise counsel. You just may have what they need. Are you willing to part with it, no strings attached?

As famous basketball coach John Wooden has been credited with saying: “It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” Poet Henry W. Longfellow put it another way. “Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.”

Your assist and their effort… together you just might “save the city.”

The Option

Solomon scratched his kingly head over the question that was put to us Sunday: Why aren’t comforts and crosses handed out in a more predictable fashion? Why isn’t life fair? Elizabeth Skoglund wrote the question another way, in her book Amma:

Belzec concentration camp was one of Hitler’s worst…No one went to Belzec to work, and there was no way of escape except through death… A little child who was going in to be gassed at Belzic saw the darkness of the room, and like an animal who is beaten and does not understand why, was heard to say: “It’s so dark, and I was being so good.”

None of us have faced such a horrific injustice as Belzec concentration camp, and yet haven’t we all felt the bewilderment of having done our best with the difficult circumstances we were given, of having behaved well under upheaval and hostile treatment… only to see the lights go out and a fresh horror begin? "It's so dark, and I was being so good."

Life isn’t fair. But I think we have to add something to the statement, something that is bracing, something that rekindles faith and hope. Life isn’t fair… yet. Jesus’ parables repeatedly assure us: the unrighteous will be separated from the righteous and each will go to their reward. Justice will be served… in the end.

In the meantime, we have an option. To allow our faith to become stunted and our spiritual strength to atrophy as we languish in doubt and self-pity… or to feed on God’s promises and encourage ourselves in the Lord and say with a Scottish Covenanter who was imprisoned on “The Bass,” a lone island off Scotland:

“I grow under the load.”

The Spirit of Worship

A. W. Tozer, whom Pastor Rick mentioned in Sunday’s sermon, is the most qualified writer on worship that I know.

Evangelist Leonard Ravenhill once visited Tozer and talked with him in his study. “Len,” Tozer pointed to a hooked rug on the floor, “in the morning when I come in, there is where I kneel to pray… and sometimes when I get up, the sun has gone down.”

I do not relate this to elevate Tozer, but to affirm that he was a man who was captivated by God and knew what worship was – and he had this to say about it: “I believe that the reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most purifying emotion the human soul can know.”

In his sermon series, Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church, Tozer described four factors present in worship:

Boundless confidence - confidence is necessary to respect, and respect is necessary to worship.
Admiration – appreciation of the excellency of God.
Fascination – to be captivated and charmed and entranced with who God is, and struck with astonished wonder at His magnitude and splendor.
Adoration – to love God with fear and wonder and yearning and awe.

And when these factors are present, Tozer believed, we are worshipping. Sometimes simply and quietly, sometimes with overwhelming emotions; sometimes from the mountaintop and sometimes from the valley. Sometimes the praise will come pouring forth, and sometimes it will be a statement of faith in spite of feelings that have temporarily run dry…

And it’s easier, I believe, to learn true worship than we realize. It’s not some lofty state that’s attainable by only a few. We just need to confess our own inability to worship God like that, and our desire and intention to do what it takes to get there. Do you think God would ignore a request like that?

No, He will not… but beware. He will most certainly dismantle all our lesser gods. He will take away our confidence in earthly things. He will make us dissatisfied with things that captivate most people’s attention, and casual about things they consider sacred. We will be different… and it will be worth it. Because God will increasingly reveal Who He is and what He’s up to and why we can trust Him, until we are captivated and charmed … “lost in wonder, love and praise.”

What a Wonderful World

Back in the sixties, Louis Armstrong recorded a memorable song by Bob Thiele, "What a Wonderful World." You remember Louis’ throaty “I see skies of blue…red roses too… and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”

If Solomon were alive today, somehow I don’t think Louis would be invited to sing for the king’s supper. Solomon didn’t seem to think it was a wonderful world at all. In fact, he and Louis appear to be polar opposites. While Solomon plaintively wailed about oppressed people and lazy fools and solitary workaholics, Louis crooned of “friends shaking hands,” “bright blessed days” and “dark, sacred nights.” Where the jaded king saw loneliness and oppression and fruitless toil and meaninglessness (and declared that the dead are happier than the living), Louis saw beauty in the faces of those around him and celebrated the potential in a baby and summed it all up with, “What a wonderful world.”

It’s telling that Solomon’s pessimism came from looking at the effects of sin –injustice and discontentment and futility. Louis’ optimism came from looking at God’s handiwork – skies and roses and rainbows and babies and true friendship…

We can’t write off either perspective. One is just as real as the other. But one is temporary and one is eternal. The good news is that Solomon’s awful, terrible, pointless, unhappy world is on its way out, destined to be overpowered by a Kingdom where no tears or loneliness or discontentment of any kind is even possible. In fact, it’s being overpowered now as sons and daughters of the King turn from fruitless and selfish pursuits and seek His will and His glory. As they realize they are never alone. As they work in confidence that all their toil will be rewarded, and in the assurance that Someone will right every injustice - and not just in the sweet bye and bye. They know that even here, under the sun, where the prince of this world holds humanity in chains of darkness, the lonely days are made bright and blessed and the dark nights are made sacred because Jesus has redeemed even them if we trust in Him.

It’s not a “Pollyanna” approach that has us stuffing our fingers in our ears and singing loudly to shut out the harsh realities… It’s just the Truth. In this world we will have trouble… loneliness, victimization, heartache… but Jesus has overcome it. Past tense. So we can “be of good cheer.” We can live here and now, under this sun, to the tune of “What a Wonderful World.” Because of Jesus. Only because of Him.

Sing it again, Louie. And Solomon, listen up. This one’s for you.

A Time for Everything

Where did we get the phrase “fly by the seat of your pants”? Language-lover Gary Martin points to a 1938 newspaper article entitled 'Corrigan Flies By The Seat Of His Pants', which appeared in The Edwardsville Intelligencer:

“’Douglas Corrigan was described as an aviator 'who flies by the seat of his pants' today by a mechanic who helped him rejuvenate the plane which airport men have now nicknamed the 'Spirit of $69.90'. The old flying expression of 'flies by the seat of his trousers' was explained by Larry Conner, means going aloft without instruments, radio or other such luxuries.’

‘Two days before this report Corrigan had submitted a flight plan to fly from Brooklyn to California. He had previously had a plan for a trans-Atlantic flight rejected (presumably on the grounds that the 'Spirit of $69.60 wasn't considered up to the job). His subsequent 29 hour flight ended in Dublin, Ireland. He claimed that his compasses had failed. He didn't openly admit it but it was widely assumed that he had ignored the rejection of his flight plan and deliberately flown east rather than west. He was thereafter known as 'Wrong Way Corrigan' and starred as himself in the 1938 movie The Flying Irishman.”

Many of us can identify with Wrong-Way Corrigan. Flight plans keep getting rejected. Compasses fail all the time. Life happens, and we just go with the flow, live by the seat of our pants and trust God to help us get through whatever comes. And if we were honest, we’d further admit that sometimes life “by the seat of the pants” is a cover-up for willful rejection of God’s plan. It’s smiling and feigning ignorance while drifting east rather than west; it’s steering toward a selfish goal after submitting all the right plans to the Father.

Yet the apostle Paul had a warning for Wrong-Way Corrigans. “Look carefully how you walk [or fly]. Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as sensible, intelligent people, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:15-17 Amp, adapted).

“Look carefully,” he says… there’s a clock ticking in your life. Pay attention to what time it is. “Live purposefully”…there’s a season passing by… don’t waste it. “Make the most of every opportunity”… there’s a purpose, an activity, that’s just right, that’s beautiful in this time. Don’t neglect it.

“Firmly grasp the Lord’s will”… because it’s safe to say that if you don’t, unlike Wrong-Way Corrigan, there will be no starring roles in glamorous movies. No wiggling out of negligence by blaming a failed compass. Our Compass, the Holy Spirit, cannot fail. He knows the time. He knows the season. And He knows what you should be about. Ask Him.

Extreme Heart Makeover

Driver… MOVE THAT BUS!!!

The TV show Extreme Makeover Home Edition is exciting. Talk about Solomon’s 100,000 workers! It seems that Ty Pennington has resurrected that crew and put them right back to work. And what they produce is surely only a little less grand than one of Solomon’s houses…

I’m not casting suspicion on the generous intent of the cast, but I sometimes do wonder… How do the recipients of such a lavish gift cope with their success? How does it feel, beyond the initial rush, to be suddenly elevated above everyone in your neighborhood? And to be introduced to a lifestyle that no part of your background has prepared you for?

And I’m plagued by other questions… How do they pay the taxes on those monstrosities? For that matter, how do they clean them? Who pays for the upkeep of such grandeur, and the repairs on high-tech equipment? And what happens when, in three years, Mattie outgrows her ballerina bedroom?

No doubt the new homes are a Godsend to some of these people, a literal answer to prayer and a solution to agonizing dilemmas. But my guess is that for most of them, the homes are mixed blessings. And for those who bank on finally having their problems solved, they’re a huge (no pun intended) disappointment. Many of those problems follow them right in the front door of their new home. Broken relationships, dysfunctional interaction, emotional baggage, fears and addictions will all claim their territory under the new roof. We’ve all found it to be true.

It’s time we stopped looking hungrily at the shiny apples Satan still holds out to us. No use being peeved at Eve; we haven’t learned to say no either. We haven’t learned that if you can see it, you can lose it. If you can touch it, it can disappear. Happiness and satisfaction are offered by another hand, a nail-scarred one. It’s an empty hand – Jesus doesn’t want to give you something; He wants to give you Himself. He wants to draw you into Himself.

Think of it as being invited into your new Makeover home, and that home is Christ. Do you really want to see Him? Then make a spiritual fuss about it! Insist that the bus be moved – the Bus of Trivial Pursuit – so that you can see Him in all His glory. Go ahead - rush for the Door. Exclaim over His astonishing beauty. Run through the hallways of His promises. Open the doors of His goodness and blessing. Explore the wonders of His grace.

And relax. If anyone is in Christ, the old is gone (it didn’t follow you through the front door) and the new has arrived. Solomon in all his glory never had such a dwellingplace.

Enjoy!

All Things are New

I think Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes in Erie (he must have traveled more widely than historians realize) and in February. Like ours, his “life under the sun” was full of gray skies and low-hanging clouds. But unlike us, he had no spring to look forward to. He wasn’t anticipating warm breezes and bright sunshine and colorful spring tulips… There was nothing new under his sun. The meaningless, changeless gray was there to stay.

Solomon, Solomon. Weary, jaded, cynical. Except ye become as a little child - faith-filled, hopeful, eager – you will always miss the new. And, yes, there is new everywhere. Brighter spirits than yours wrote of it in the Old and New Testaments:

New mercies every morning
New covenant
New creation
New heart
New commandment
New fruit
New name
New Jerusalem
New heavens
New earth
New song

In fact, they wrote that if anyone places his trust in Christ, all things are become new - not just in the bye-and-bye, but here and now. Today, in each of our lives. And if we’re listening expectantly, we’ll hear a Voice saying, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Is. 43:18-19 NIV).