Category: Faith

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21 Days of Posts – Day 16 – The Church as a Body

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

Day 16 – Only a few days left of this fast. I hope it is progressing well for everyone.

Today’s post concerns my thoughts about the church as a body. Many of us are familiar with the passage in 1st Corinthians, chapter 12, where the church is described as a body. The main point of that passage is that the church must be in unity to be effective, and the diversity of the church members and their spiritual gifts is what makes the church strong and effective.

The comparison starts at verse 12, but the specifics start at verse 15. The absurdity of disparate body parts assuming they are not useful to, or even a part of the body highlights the various roles congregation members play in the work of the church. The cleaning crew is as important as the worship team, which is as important as the various group leaders, who are as important as the deacons and elders. Each one contributes to the body of the church to spread the Gospel of Christ to everyone around them.

Each and every part is important and just as God created our human bodies with many parts that each contribute to our continuing to live, so are the different parts of the church body so very important. Without eyes, the body can’t see; with no teachers, the church can’t teach. With no foot, the physical body is handicapped; with no cleaning crew, the church is rendered uninviting and unable to minister to the community, therefore, handicapped. Everyone can’t be up on stage leading worship to empty seats. Well, they could, but that would be weird…

The church body needs all of its parts to function effectively and in the words of our current study, have a maximum impact on the world around it. This assumes that all parts of the body are healthy, and performing their jobs to the best of their ability. This places some responsibility on the members of the church to find where they fit into the diverse body of the church and to contribute effectively.

I think this analogy is perfect, which is probably why it is included in our current Bible. It’s not the only message Paul had for the Corinthians, but it was an important one. The Corinthians were dealing with the conflict between the temporary “now” and the eternal. They were unsure how to deal with the current “now” and were unsure of their purpose, to some extent. Paul assured them that the work they were doing was important and was of eternal significance.

The passage about the body is preceded in chapter 12 by an explanation of spiritual gifts, and a reminding that not all are gifted the same way. Each person is gifted by God to be able to contribute to the body of the church in different ways, which leads right into the explanation about unity and diversity in the church body. This simple, but powerful analogy is still referenced today as a way to maintain unity in the church and make it effective. It is intimately connected to the first part of the next chapter, Paul’s exposition on love and how necessary it is. That is a blog post for another day…

Thanks for reading to the end! Tomorrow’s post will continue in this thread and talk about contributing talents to the church.

 

Photo Credit – Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash

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21 Days of Posts – Day 13 – Chasing The Lion

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

The title of this post sounds like fun..right?

There are people who do exactly that…chase lions, with nothing more than spears in their hands. We see the pictures of the Maasai hunting parties and are horrified to see them seemingly so woefully under-equipped to take on the fierce felines. The hunt is a rite of passage for the tribe and I have to assume that since the tribe still exists, they are successful more times than they are not.

But this post is not about actually hunting living, breathing lions – it is about chasing a big dream and daring to run after it, even when it scares us. It can be argued, as Mark Batterson does in his book Chase the Lion, our big dream should scare us, because we should be dreaming bigger than we could ever accomplish alone. Nothing but the power of God helping us should make our biggest dream possible. Our faith and trust in what God can do is an essential part of “chasing the lion”.

For me, “chasing the lion” this year is the somewhat less important, but still radically scary task of finishing writing a book. It’s a big goal, even with all of the nine or ten works-in-progress I have, because whichever one of those I want to finish will require completion of the first draft, then weeks of meticulous editing. Even after all that is completed, there is the task of selling it, whether I try to publish traditionally or self-publish.

I know, this sounds like a pretty selfish dream. Why chase this lion? Why not chase another, more impactful lion, one that directly helps other people and builds the kingdom of God? I have only one answer to that, and it’s not a great one. I feel that if I can complete a book, front to back, draft to final edit, blank pages to cover art and content, then I can take on something even more monumental. I feel that the lack of a completed book, with so many in progress, is a major failing, one that I must overcome.

Do I hope the book is successful? Sure. Is financial success a mandatory requirement for me to feel like I succeeded? Nope. If I can complete a project of this scope, I feel like I can do anything. It’s somewhat silly, and marginally selfish, but it is my reality for the present time.

That’s my lion.

What’s your lion? What dream do you have that is so big, so impossible to achieve, it scares you? Do you have one? It doesn’t have to be big to anyone else but you.

Don’t tell me about your lion. Just write it down (it really does make a difference to have it written down) and start running toward the dream, not away from it.

Tomorrow is Day 14 and I may be changing the topic a bit. It will still be about music, but I think the artist will change. That post is still rattling around in my big, mostly empty head, so we won’t know until tomorrow.

Thanks for reading to the end!

 

Photo Credit – Photo by Jeff Rodgers on Unsplash

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21 Days of Posts – Day 12 – Hurt

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

Day 12…this one won’t be fun. The topic is hurt and nobody likes to hurt.

Let me clarify, normal people do not like to hurt, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Hurt is to be avoided. Hurt is the opposite of how we want to feel. Unfortunately, this life includes hurt, whether we want it or not. I almost wrote “includes hurt at no charge”, but that would be completely wrong.

There is a price to pay for hurt. When we are hurt, regardless of whether we stub our toe, fail a test, lose a parent, or rebel against our God, we want to remove that hurt, as quickly and as “inexpensively” as possible. We want the quick relief, the deus ex machina, the miracle, to happen as soon as possible so we can go back to living life unencumbered by pain and hurt.

It rarely works that way. Bodily harm must have time to heal and may require rehabilitation. A failed test will weigh upon us until we can redeem ourselves at the next one. Losing a loved one…well that one never really goes away, but we learn to grieve, then cope, then move forward. Good news, though…

Rebelling against God, resulting in hurt and disappointment with ourselves, is much easier to recover from. When we realize what we have done and that feeling of hurt and disappointment washes over us and we wonder how we could have ever done what we did, all we need to do is turn back to the Lord and ask forgiveness (1 John 1:9). We do need to forgive ourselves and move forward, but before we even ask God to forgive us, it has already happened (Romans 4:25).

Does this mean we are free from consequences? Probably not. If we indeed rebelled and made poor choices, then we will most likely have to live with the results of those choices. We’re forgiven if we ask, but we still suffer.

But what about those times when things happen to us, through no fault of our own, that cause us to hurt? We might ask the question “if God loves us so much, why do we experience hurt?”. If we’re suffering and hurting from something that has happened to us, maybe, just maybe, God needs us to hurt for a while. This world we live in almost guarantees us we will hurt from time to time. Jesus laid it out very simply for the disciples in John chapter 16, verse 33.

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Why does God need us to hurt? Maybe we are putting something in front of him and not keeping him the most important thing in our life. Maybe that thing needs to be taken away, ripped from our clutching hands, whether we knew we were grasping it inappropriately or not. Maybe we need to learn something. Maybe we need deeper faith, and nothing except having something, or maybe everything, stripped away will awaken that faith.

Whatever the reason for our hurt, we can have faith that God will uphold us, will guide us, and will never forsake us.

Thanks for reading to the end! Tomorrow, the topic will be about lions. It should be fun.

 

Photo Credit – Photo by Tom Pumford on Unsplash

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21 Days of Posts – Day 11 – The Christian Life – Contentment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

Day 11 brings us back to the topic of the Christian life and specifically, the idea of contentment.

What does that word mean? It’s not happiness, because it is possible to be happy, but not content. If the thought that whatever is causing your happiness will eventually stop is always in the back of your head, then you do not have contentment, just happiness.

It’s not peace, by the world’s definition. It is possible to be content, but not be at peace, although these two fit together better than contentment and happiness. If we are truly at peace, in a Godly sense, then yes, we can probably consider ourselves content.

Paul talks a lot about contentment. Philippians 4:11 & 12 are common verses cited here for those looking to understand contentment, in the face of any circumstances.

11 – I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 – I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Paul went through a LOT. Shipwrecked, arrested, hungry, rejected, you name it, Paul experienced it, but in it all he was content, regardless of the chaos swirling around him.

In the first epistle to Timothy, we are warned against thinking that godliness is a means to financial gain (6:5). There was much controversy and many false teachers surrounding the believers. The oft misquoted verse of 6:10 follows shortly after this warning, attempting to explain why contentment in financial matters is important, whether wealthy, poor, or even enslaved.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Hebrews says this even more plainly in chapter 13, verse 5 –

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

The bottom line is this – contentment is a choice. We choose to be content, once we learn how to be. Unfortunately, it doesn’t usually come immediately as part of the “welcome to salvation” package. It must be learned and it starts with trusting that God’s plans are better than our plans (as mentioned on Day 9 of this series) and that he has us where he wants us, and how he wants us, for a reason.

Do we always see and understand His reasons? No, absolutely not, but as we learn to trust in him, we will eventually (and correctly) conclude that is doesn’t matter if we understand, just that we learn to be content and always be listening for what God wants us to do.

That’s it, short and to the point. Thanks for reading to the end!

Tomorrow’s topic is hurt – specifically why do we have to experience it, if God loves us so much?

 

Photo Credit – Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

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21 Days of Posts – Day 10 – Why I Like To Listen To The Cure

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

Day 10 of this 21 day journey brings the first of three (planned) “why I like to to listen to” posts.

This post will cover why I listen to The Cure, that wonderful English band that defies categorization aside from “rock”. The labels “alternative”, “post-punk”, “new wave” and the band-hated category of “gothic rock” have been applied to them as their music (and the band personnel) has changed over the years. They still manage to not fit neatly into any given musical category.

They’ve been around in some form almost since I was born (which makes them…nope, not going there), but I didn’t really discover them until I was in college, a year after Disintegration came out. I was hooked hard by that album, and even more hooked by the following album, Mixed Up. When Wish came out, I realized I was permanently addicted. My favorite tracks are on those three albums and the compilation album Staring at the Sea.

But why, you ask, do you like this gloomy, goth, sneaker-gazing, band with the alternating whiny or nasal vocals, quivering guitar, and mind-invading synths?

I’m glad you asked. Three reasons.

First, The Cure are the absolute, hands-down, best intro writers ever. The instrumental introductions to their songs last anywhere from thirty seconds to well over two minutes. They generally start with an instrument or two, and they build and build until you almost forget there’s supposed to be lyrics for the song, and may not care if anyone ever starts singing.

The best examples are To Wish Impossible Things from Wish, and the exquisite Plainsong and Homesick from Disintegration.

To Wish Impossible Things has only a ninety second intro, but it is one of the most beautiful intros ever written. The violin that starts about a minute into the track is hauntingly, achingly gorgeous, and the buildup to the vocals at the ninety second mark is a tingly, progressive affair. I love this song, despite its heart-breaking lyrics. The black hole of loss it leaves you in doesn’t diminish its beauty.

Plainsong is half intro and half lyrical song. The track lasts for five minutes and fifteen seconds, and two minutes and thirty-five seconds of that is wordless intro. Homesick takes it even further. The intro doesn’t really start to boil over until two and half minutes in and the words don’t start until three minutes and fifteen seconds into the seven minute song. These two songs are also markedly dark and melancholy, and speak of unspeakable loss or the fear of such a loss. Again, this doesn’t detract from their absolute brilliance and beauty.

Second, while The Cure could do dark and gloomy really, really well, their songs at the other end of the spectrum are also incredible and completely different, both in style and mood. The Cure has some wildly happy and exuberant songs, like Friday I’m In Love, High, and Doing the Unstuck from Wish, and of course Love Song from Disintegration (which Adele masterfully covered on her album 21, but listed it as Lovesong, all one word). These uptempo songs have short intros, the longest at thirty seconds and are bursting with happiness, love, affection, and optimism.

There are other masterpieces in between the gloomy and the ecstatic, including the creepily good Lullaby and the oddly indifferent Fascination Street, both on Disintegration, and the Never Enough, Close To Me, and In Between Days remixes on Mixed Up. The originals for the last three are so-so, but the remixes are fantastic.

Third, these songs became a part of my extensive and diverse musical psyche during a remarkably formative time – college. It was a time of happiness, learning, pain, sorrow, and frustration experienced during a time when I was probably as far from God as I had ever been since I was saved. I accidentally and actively rejected any ideas of regular church attendance, finding Christian friends, studying the Bible, or any other activity related to my salvation. How much easier college would have been if I’d had the support of Christian friends, a church community, or if I had simply studied the Word.

I buried myself in these songs, the dark and gloomy for my dark times and the happy and exuberant for my good times. I can vividly remember sitting in front of my tiny aquarium in my dorm room, watching my fish swim around, oblivious to my mood, good or bad, with my stereo (which was my pride and joy at that time) audibly thrusting  Disintegration or Wish into my ears, depending on my circumstances. This was my go-to “wild mood swings” music (yes, that’s a reference to another album by The Cure).

It’s why I still listen to The Cure, regardless of my mood.

Thanks for reading to the end of this somewhat longer post. Tomorrow I will get back to posting about the Christian life and contentment. Contentment is why I can listen to The Cure now, as I said above, regardless of my mood. Please join me again tomorrow.

 

 

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21 Days of Posts – Day 9 – The Christian Life – Our Plans vs. God’s Plans

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

Day 9 already? Wow! I hope you have enjoyed at least some of what I have written over the last eight days.

Today’s topic is just amazing. I had debated on whether to start this post yesterday, or write it all today, and I am so glad I waited until today because…God’s plans are better than our plans. Let me give you this simple, but incredible example.

I spent most of the day trying to figure out exactly what I was going to write in this post. The church has been over the whole “our plans versus God’s plans” a lot over the past year. Our primary “mantra” is based on Jeremiah 29:11, which talks about God having plans for us – to prosper us, and not to harm us. I was looking for an angle, a new perspective, another way to explain the same thing. Then God hit me over the head with it…

I  received a text (and you probably did also) from the church about a prayer meeting scheduled for this very evening at 6:00. I got it while in the middle of work and didn’t think much about it other than “I probably won’t be going to that, because, supper and all”. I finished my work day, still wondering about what I was going to write in this post.

As I got in the car, my wife mentioned the prayer meeting and the fact that we were going…

Really?

Funny how God’s plans are so much better than our plans. Just before I got in the car, I had already started wondering what might be for supper. I had run through a few things, but finally let it go, as I figured my wife had it all planned anyway.

Nope. Well, she did have supper planned, but first, we were going to the prayer meeting.

So there we were at the prayer meeting. I was able to spend over an hour in prayer with others in the church. We covered a number of topics, from being a maximum impact church, to the city council meeting that was happening as we were praying, to covering the pastor in prayer, to covering the entire worship center in prayer. It was a good time.

I can’t say I was overflowing with great prayers, or that I was overwhelmed with the magnificent prayers that were lifted up during this time, but that had nothing to do with those who were praying, nor with the prayers themselves. It had everything to do with me. So I tried very hard to concentrate on the prayers being lifted up and to get behind them with prayers of my own, and to a degree I believe I was successful. My prayers were so simple and inelegant, but I lifted them up anyway.

It certainly wasn’t like the last prayer meeting I attended. It also wasn’t like the spontaneous group prayer in the worship service a few weeks ago. Again, it had nothing to do with anything or anyone but me. My simple prayers, as I walked around on stage and to the back of the worship center, were about three things – the worship ministry and how I could contribute to it, the people who sat in the chairs every Sunday, and asking God to help me to break out of this rut I’m in.

I have every confidence that He will answer those prayers, in his time, in his way, and in his plan, not mine.

 

Photo Credit – Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

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21 Days of Posts – Day 8 – Why I Write About Relationships

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

Day 8! Wasn’t sure it was going to happen, given the storms we had around here. Our power was out overnight and estimated to not be back until late tonight. Thankfully, it appears that Georgia Power was fairly conservative with their estimates, so this post will go out on time, which you know already, because your reading it now…aren’t you?

If I was brave enough to include anyone else besides my wife as a beta reader for my books, you would see a common pattern in my writing, whether it is my science fiction stories, my action/thrillers, my fantasy novel, or the others I have started. You would see that regardless of the background circumstances, one of the key elements of my works is relationships.

Duh, you say…all books are fundamentally about relationships. Without relationships, books are dull and characters are uninteresting. Why would I read a fiction book that did not include relationships of some kind? Relationships define characters, determine how characters react to circumstances, and become motivation for the main plot of the story. You can safely argue they are essential to any good story.

For me, as the author, there is more to it than that. I get to explore, in my head at least, and sometimes on the page, relationships that I’ve never experienced. I can write about brothers (I only have a sister). I can write about terrible parents (my parents are/were wonderful). I can write about love triangles, sacrificial relationships, codependent couples, lost spouses, whatever strikes my fancy and contributes to the story.

It’s not a requirement that I experience these things for real, just that I can dive into them in my head, and, thankfully, remove myself from them when I’m done writing about them. It’s another method of experiencing things I’ve never experienced, and frankly, probably don’t want to experience, in most cases.

Who would want to be the man or woman who loses a spouse, or the person whose parents were terrible, or that person stuck in a love triangle, codependent, or otherwise abusive relationship? But how much do eager readers gobble up those experiences in the form of fiction? We can look at the astonishing sales statistics for everything from the Twilight series to the Fifty Shades of Grey series and see how popular these pursuits of broken relationships are. Why?

We can ask fifty different people and get close to fifty different answers, but the bottom line is escape. Escape from this day-to-day life, which for most may not have a lot of excitement in it. This life may not be exactly what they envisioned and they are looking for…excitement? Catharsis? Escape? Romance? A redemption story? A happy ending? Something else?

As with all human pursuits that disregard God, some of the things these readers hope for are only ever fiction. They’re not becoming a vampire to love and live forever, or attracting the attention of a ludicrously rich love interest. However, within the will of God, we can get both of these things, if not exactly the same form as the rest of the world expects.

Our Christian life, lived within the will of God, will result in eternal life (thankfully, not as a vampire), and will connect us to the God to whom everything belongs, because he made it all. We might not gain access to all of that here in this life, but there are far better riches we inherit.

Am I saying that reading fiction is wrong? No, no, no no! There are great stories out there that will enrich our lives if we take the time to read them (or watch the movie), but realizing that the greatest story ever told, that of God and his redeeming love for us, is actually true should remain foremost in our minds as we enjoy the fruits of man’s writing labors.

Thanks for reading to the end! Tomorrow’s post returns to the Christian life, as i mentioned previously, diving into the differences in our plans and God’s plans.

 

Photo Credit – Photo by The HK Photo Company on Unsplash

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21 Days of Posts – Day 7 – Disappointment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

If you read the title, you’ll know that today’s topic is, as I mentioned at the end of Day 6’s article, definitely something we all experience from time to time – disappointment. It is as certain as the sign in the picture above.

Other people will disappoint us. That is frustrating. We will disappoint ourselves. That is even more frustrating. At least in the former instance, we had no real control over what the other person did, but we had complete control over what we did, so disappointing ourselves almost always is the more frustrating and infuriating feeling.

What do we do to disappoint ourselves? I can only really speak for myself, so here are some of my most disappointing actions, or inactions (mostly inactions).

  • Getting frustrated too easily with other drivers while driving. I truly over-react to other people’s driving. My family can attest. I’m always disappointed with both the other drivers’ actions or inactions, and my negative reaction.
  • Not posting regularly to my blog sites (this one and my other one). I am hoping to stop disappointing myself at the conclusion of this 21-day fast.
  • Not saying the right thing in my daily conversations. or not saying anything at all, thereby allowing the inclinations of others to dictate what divergent path our conversation takes.
  • Not immediately following the gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit in my daily conversations and actions.
  • Not finishing a book…a HUGE, continuous disappointment.
  • Not “taking care of business” in relation to all the things that need done in our (still new to us) house.

It’s a short list, but chock full of typical ways I disappoint myself. You may relate to some of these examples, you may not. The best that I can do is get up the next day, promise myself I’ll do better, and move on.

But what does scripture say about disappointment?

There are a number of verses, particularly in Proverbs where the righteous are NOT disappointed, but the wicked are (10:28 and 11:23 in particular). Job also has some references to this same idea (11:20 and 20:18), but these are very situational.

Jeremiah ran into disappointment with his people over their sin (Jeremiah 8:15)

However…

In Psalms we see where there is assurance and declaration that God will not disappoint us (62:5) and in the New Testament, Peter tells us to cast all our anxiety on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7) and we will not be disappointed by Him. In Romans we see the declaration that God works for the good of those who love him (8:28), so it is inferred that we should not expect to be disappointed.

But we might be…and bear with me on this point as I believe it is very important. For us humans, down here in the Lower Story, circumstances may occur which do not seem favorable to us (and very well may not be, by all practical measure) and we will want to be disappointed that God did not do for us what we believe he promised. But our definition of “good for us” and God’s definition of “good for us” tend to be very different things.

We have to keep that difference in mind as we move through this life. Yes, others will disappoint us, we will disappoint ourselves, but God will never disappoint us as long as we understand that his plans for us are better than our plans for us.

We’ll dive deeper into this idea two days from now, on Day 13. Tomorrow’s post will provide some insight into my writing process and style, but will unlikely be tied to an obvious spiritual point, but we’ll see.

Thank you for reading to the end! If you have missed any of these posts, you can simply walk back through the previous posts, but I suggest you start at Day 1, or whichever one you missed, and read them in chronological order, or some things may not make a lot of sense, or may seem out of place.

 

Photo Credit – Photo by Oscar Sutton on Unsplash

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21 Days of Posts – Day 6 – Hope

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

Welcome, faithful reader! It’s now Day 6 of 21 days of Posts. Today’s post is about hope and could be the most difficult one I’ve written in this series.

If you went back to read Day 1 of this series, you know that I’ve been feeling quite unsettled this new year. Discombobulated is the term I used. I’m still there, and not really seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. I’m fairly certain it will pass…eventually, but for now, I’m counting myself confused and disoriented.

With that said, I hope that writing about hope will help bring this funkiness to a close soon.

It’s funny, or comforting, or amazing how God works sometimes. I started a new devotion series on Bible.com/YouVersion on Sunday, deep in the midst of my affliction. I had observed, to myself, that I had not been singing much lately, or even had good music listening sessions. I admit, many of the “new” songs on Way-FM are tiresome and remind me too much of bad pop music and I’ve not been listening to it lately. But at that moment on Sunday morning, I realized I had not had a real good listening session of really good music in weeks, aside from a short session of Christmas music while putting up the tree in December. Never mind a good sing.  I hadn’t sung…really sung, in many, many days.

So there I was, starting a devotion on hope, hoping to stir myself to some degree and what is the very first day of the devotion about? Singing. The actual title was “All Creation Sings” and it spoke of the fact that almost all creatures make noise while going about their lives – birds, whales, mice, wolves, crickets – on and on the list went. Many of these sounds are soothing or pleasant to human ears. Some are mournful, others are frightening. We don’t even know why some of these animals make their sounds. The devotion points out that God could have made all of these creatures mute and they would still perform their fundamental tasks, but in his wisdom, he did not.

It pleased God that he had made all these animals so they could sing and testify to their creator. The Bible says that “God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:25).

It delights God when we sing to him. The praises of His people are a delight to him. Singing is good for us, as well. It can help us to have hope, to persevere. It can give us strength and motivation (Psalm 59:16).

It’s hard to feel down while singing the praises of God. As the devotion explained, singing encourages you and those around you (Colossians 3:16).

Singing is also warfare, claimed the devotion. See the story of the walls of Jericho (Joshua 6), or when Paul and Silas were in prison singing and the walls shook and the doors opened (Acts 16:25-26).

“Hallelujah!” I almost shouted, sitting at the table eating breakfast. I was excited. This devotion hit home with me and hope was peeking around the corner, urging me toward it, offering me an open, helping hand. I was amazed that this devotion, which I had picked almost at random, opened with an incredibly pertinent and resonating message of what I seemed to be missing.

I confess, unfortunately, that the thought and feeling did not last. I am certain it was my fault, but I still don’t know why it was so. All I know is that I sang not a word in service that Sunday. It was certainly not the fault of the musicians, or the song choices, or any other external influence. My throat felt physically choked off and dry. My lungs refused to gather within me enough air for anything more than just respiration. It was unsettling, as I love to sing in service. I was actually relieved when the worship music ended and Pastor began to speak. That’s just not me…

But I continue to reach for hope. I almost changed the topic for today’s post, but knew if I did, I would not move in the right direction mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. So I stuck with it, my post about hope, that thing I grasp for as I continue in this discombobulated state. I pray that none of you fall into this crevasse of confusion and disquiet and that your hope is strong, centered on Christ, and lifting you up every day.

Well…there’s the sixth of these 21 posts. Thank you for reading to the end, patient reader.

Come back tomorrow for a post about something we all experience from time to time.

 

Photo credit – Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash

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21 Days of Posts – Day 5 – Writing

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Hello to all who have decided to follow along as I post for 21 days straight as part of our church fast. As you can see, each entry is numbered as a particular day, so if you are reading this and the title above doesn’t say Day 1, then you should stop now and go read from Day 1, or take a peek at Day 2 and pick a topic you are interested in. Thanks for being brave enough to join me.

Writing. It has been described in a number of creative ways (imagine that), but my favorite description right now is captured in my email signature and goes as follows:

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. — George Orwell

I see where Orwell was coming from, and I, sadly, have not fully recovered from that painful illness, even though I have started down the path many times now. You would think I had developed an immunity by now. I have yet to complete a book. I have ten books in progress, at various stages of completion, from rough sketches to nearly completed first drafts. My wife begs me to complete something and I agree with her on that point.

But every November, I infect myself with a new bout of this painful illness by starting a new book for National Novel Writing Month. Every year I tell myself that this time I will be so interested and invested in my new creation that I will not stop writing even into December, into the new year, into the following spring, but it hasn’t happened yet. Invariably, I convince myself to just take a short break and start back up later in December, but the holidays wrap themselves around my intentions and violently smother them. Every year.

What do I get out of it, you might ask? First and foremost, expression. I can safely write about things I fear, like complicated relationships, impossible decisions, or crushing experiences resulting in broken characters. I can project my deepest, darkest fears onto characters and into situations without having to truly experience such things. Best of all, I can hide behind the well-worn mantra of “it’s just a story”.

Not that every crushing experience, impossible decision or complicated relationship is directly based on my personal life. It’s more like I take some of the experiences I have had and inject fiction steroids into them, wildly over-developing their worst aspects, resulting in some unsettling situations for my poor, broken characters, and for my adventurous readers.

Second, I can remove the restraints from my imagination and devise new technology, new challenges, or even entire worlds. I have to be careful in this though – I can get caught up in world-building and stop writing the actual story. It’s fun to create new things – races, currency, languages (those are tough), places, names, religions, or whatever. I believe the trick is making these imaginary things just similar enough to real things that the reader can make a connection, however tenuous. Lots of fun, but can be very hard and even get in the way of the story.

Third, I can make events, people, and circumstances occur, behave and twist exactly how I want them to. I know you’ve watched a movie or read a book and said to yourself, “why don’t they just do this?”. The simple answer to that question is that there would be no story if the answers to the character’s problems were simple, or that obvious. The reader has both the advantage of not being in the story and suffering under the characters’ circumstances, and the disadvantage of not being able to mold the narrative. They’re just along for the ride. They have to deal with every missed opportunity, or stupid decision the characters make.

But as a writer…I get to determine what happens. I get to throw a wrench into the works. I get control of the things I want and can make them as simple, complex, or stupid as I want, because it is my story. There is immense freedom in this, with only a small catch – I have to make it interesting for the reader. If the good guys always have a backup plan, or no one ever gets hurt, or there is no conflict the hero or heroine can’t handle, then it’s not a story any more. It’s just words on a page. If the story doesn’t make the reader desperate to turn to the next page, I’ve failed. But being the one in charge of it all is nice. I know my story from end to end, backwards and forwards, because I created it. I know the resolve of my heroine, the weaknesses of my hero, the next tragedy to strike. It boils down to a feeling of control. Control is nice.

We like to be in control (at least, most of us). But we know, in this life, we are not in control, and that can be scary. At least as Christians, we know who is in control, and we can rest in peace and contentment knowing that His plans are better than our plans, that he has plans to help us, not hurt us (Jeremiah 29:11). That’s not to say we won’t have pain or suffering in this life, but knowing that God is in control can help us through that pain. It’s been said that if God brings you to it, he’ll bring you through it, and at its foundation, this saying is absolutely true, but “getting through it” may mean something totally different to God than to us. We must be willing to let the author of the world work out his plan for our lives.

Thanks for reading to the end! Check back tomorrow as I expound on hope.

 

Photo Credit – Photo by Mona Eendra on Unsplash