Didja ever notice how often we end up involved in the very evil we start out to oppose? How we end up hating the hateful? or gossiping about gossips? or looking down on others who look down on others? We judge people who judge people and resent the resentful. We become stingy with tightwads and hold grudges against grudge-holders.
Self-righteousness is a deadly poison. Humble love is its only cure. I hope that in writing this I have been thinking more of my faults than yours. I hope the same for you.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
And Jalal ad-Din Rumi said . . .
"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
Monday, August 24, 2009
"Tempted and Tried"
I was born (or early infused) with an innate reverence for books. They were my ships to far-off lands, my passage to distant times. They brought me face-to-face with the giants of Earth's history, the towering intellects of remote eras and of my own day. By them I walked right through the bloodiest battles as they raged with men and beasts dying amind the clash of iron on iron or blasting weapons discharging left and right. Walked right through . . . and emerged unscathed a handful of pages later!
I believed in books.
I believed anything and everything written in books. Until . . .
'Farther Along' is a favorite country Gospel hymn of many. It has been sung by everyone from Elvis Presley to your favorite local church choir. And I am blessed -- through nothing I have done -- to be a descendant of the author of that precious song. Rev. W. B. Stevens is my maternal great-great-great-grandfather.
I will sometime recount here the story that lies behind the writing of that song but suffice it to say that it has to do with the death of his last living daughter and the sorrow of a grieving father's heart.
But the details of that story were, as you might imagine, early etched upon my heart and memory through their frequent recital around the family circle. And, too, it existed in written form within a carefully compiled and meticulously transmitted family history passed down from generation to generation.
So, imagine my surprise when, upon opening my first book of hymn stories, I discovered a HUGE discrepancy between the "received" version and the "published" version of the song's background! Across the years, few stories of "how it was written" have jibbed with the version I learned within the family circle.
So how does a boy (now of 52) react when his books, his lifelong guides into all things wonderful and awesome, prove to be less than reliable? It has only served to remind me that this is life drawn small -- that a life is only as credible as the person living it. To leave a record of real integrity, we must live integrity. . .we must exemplify integrity in things both great and small in our lives.
Tempted and tried? Yes. But -- cheer up, my brother! -- farther along we'll understand it all by and by!
I believed in books.
I believed anything and everything written in books. Until . . .
'Farther Along' is a favorite country Gospel hymn of many. It has been sung by everyone from Elvis Presley to your favorite local church choir. And I am blessed -- through nothing I have done -- to be a descendant of the author of that precious song. Rev. W. B. Stevens is my maternal great-great-great-grandfather.
I will sometime recount here the story that lies behind the writing of that song but suffice it to say that it has to do with the death of his last living daughter and the sorrow of a grieving father's heart.
But the details of that story were, as you might imagine, early etched upon my heart and memory through their frequent recital around the family circle. And, too, it existed in written form within a carefully compiled and meticulously transmitted family history passed down from generation to generation.
So, imagine my surprise when, upon opening my first book of hymn stories, I discovered a HUGE discrepancy between the "received" version and the "published" version of the song's background! Across the years, few stories of "how it was written" have jibbed with the version I learned within the family circle.
So how does a boy (now of 52) react when his books, his lifelong guides into all things wonderful and awesome, prove to be less than reliable? It has only served to remind me that this is life drawn small -- that a life is only as credible as the person living it. To leave a record of real integrity, we must live integrity. . .we must exemplify integrity in things both great and small in our lives.
Tempted and tried? Yes. But -- cheer up, my brother! -- farther along we'll understand it all by and by!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
"Just Old Stuff"
It was a call from another state, a previous pastorate, this past week . . .
A dear lady is preparing to go into an assisted living facility and knowing and trusting us from our previous years together called now to ask a question about how to dispose of her belongings.
"All my stuff is just old stuff," she said. "Should I just call the Salvation Army and let them haul it away?" I asked if it would be alright to have another friend, from yet another pastorate, drop by and check things out and she agreed.
A couple of night's later I picked up the phone and the man on the other end said, "Pastor?"
"Yes?"
(A long, low whistle.) "You would not believe all of the beautiful things A_______ has! She is living in a goldmine!"
He then proceeded to describe several pieces of furniture and other antiques that the dear lady owned . . . things purchased by her now deceased husband years and years ago, the value of which she had no idea! One music box, alone, is worth in excess of $5000, having seven different songs and a bevy of mechanical birds that "fly" upward when the lid is opened!
And her whole house is full of such treasures. The proceeds from their sale will help her to enjoy a better standard of living than she has been experiencing for many years.
It set me to thinking. What treasures do you and I take for granted, unaware of their true value? Family? Friends? Church and Sunday School? Scenery? Even some material treasures long forgotten in boxes and attics? I'd like to make a suggestion . . . let's both spend a little while this week thinking of the overlooked treasures God has blessed us with and thanking Him for each one. And, if that treasure is a living human, pick up a pen or, perhaps, a phone and let them know that, among the blessings of life we have received, we're grateful that God has given us them!
A dear lady is preparing to go into an assisted living facility and knowing and trusting us from our previous years together called now to ask a question about how to dispose of her belongings.
"All my stuff is just old stuff," she said. "Should I just call the Salvation Army and let them haul it away?" I asked if it would be alright to have another friend, from yet another pastorate, drop by and check things out and she agreed.
A couple of night's later I picked up the phone and the man on the other end said, "Pastor?"
"Yes?"
(A long, low whistle.) "You would not believe all of the beautiful things A_______ has! She is living in a goldmine!"
He then proceeded to describe several pieces of furniture and other antiques that the dear lady owned . . . things purchased by her now deceased husband years and years ago, the value of which she had no idea! One music box, alone, is worth in excess of $5000, having seven different songs and a bevy of mechanical birds that "fly" upward when the lid is opened!
And her whole house is full of such treasures. The proceeds from their sale will help her to enjoy a better standard of living than she has been experiencing for many years.
It set me to thinking. What treasures do you and I take for granted, unaware of their true value? Family? Friends? Church and Sunday School? Scenery? Even some material treasures long forgotten in boxes and attics? I'd like to make a suggestion . . . let's both spend a little while this week thinking of the overlooked treasures God has blessed us with and thanking Him for each one. And, if that treasure is a living human, pick up a pen or, perhaps, a phone and let them know that, among the blessings of life we have received, we're grateful that God has given us them!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Vacation
I vacated.
For the first time in years, I shut "the shop" down and headed to Nowheretown for a week. I didn't answer the phone. I didn't answer the door. I didn't even answer myself .
It was beautiful.
And habit-forming.
I'm going again in a couple of months.
Vacate.
It'll do you good.
Just mosey along and bother someone you love . . . or not. Whatever you wish.
But do it soon . . . or you may do it permanently.
For the first time in years, I shut "the shop" down and headed to Nowheretown for a week. I didn't answer the phone. I didn't answer the door. I didn't even answer myself .
It was beautiful.
And habit-forming.
I'm going again in a couple of months.
Vacate.
It'll do you good.
Just mosey along and bother someone you love . . . or not. Whatever you wish.
But do it soon . . . or you may do it permanently.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Disappointment
I had a surprise encounter with disappointment yesterday. How like an unexpected death are these times when, quite out of the blue, the trust one has invested in another is suddenly dashed and the safety assumed to be found in relationship with another is discovered to be but an illusion.
As usual in these matters, it involved a person well-trusted and close to me. It was one who should have known better and, indeed, probably did. Yet, despite this better knowledge, they chose to act in a way that injured others, betrayed a professional trust that others had posited in them and, instead, acted in a low, mean and petty way.
I can do little now that the deed is done. I can remonstrate and will. But the deed is done and cannot be undone.
However, to myself -- to my own heart of hearts -- I have spoken a few words of counsel that, perhaps, bear repeating here.
"See to it that you never, likewise, betray a trust. O, watch over yourself lest in some unguarded moment you do in weakness and foolishness what in your strength and wisest moments you would know to be loathsome and repugnant! Be true clear through to the end!"
As usual in these matters, it involved a person well-trusted and close to me. It was one who should have known better and, indeed, probably did. Yet, despite this better knowledge, they chose to act in a way that injured others, betrayed a professional trust that others had posited in them and, instead, acted in a low, mean and petty way.
I can do little now that the deed is done. I can remonstrate and will. But the deed is done and cannot be undone.
However, to myself -- to my own heart of hearts -- I have spoken a few words of counsel that, perhaps, bear repeating here.
"See to it that you never, likewise, betray a trust. O, watch over yourself lest in some unguarded moment you do in weakness and foolishness what in your strength and wisest moments you would know to be loathsome and repugnant! Be true clear through to the end!"
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
What a Difference a Day Makes!
As I write these words I am sitting in the beautiful international headquarters of the Wesleyan Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. Here the affairs of this God-focused, Jesus-sharing, Good News-witnessing, and socially-active integral part of Christ's Kingdom are directed for maximum effectiveness each weekday.
As one born into the home of a Wesleyan pastor and whose grandparents were Wesleyan ministers, I have a deep sense of love and gratitude for the spiritual nurture and social network I have received from this marvelous group of devoted people.
Unique to our history is the role of leadership in the struggle to abolish human slavery in Britain and America. Later, after that long and difficult contest had been won, it was in a Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, that a conference dedicated to obtaining women's equal treatment under the law -- including the right to vote --was first held. Again, Wesleyans led the way -- before the cause was popular, before it was deemed "the right course", while it was still opposed by the vast majority.
Wesleyans have taken courageous stands for the defense of the legally impotent and socially powerless, not because we were wild-eyed radicals looking for some cause for which we could agitate. We have simply followed where the Bible, the Word of God, dictated the right course lay and tried, to our utmost, to be faithful to the One Who has gifted us with our freedom and rights.
Yet, our mission to win the spiritually searching has never wavered. We see ourselves as the unembarrassed co-workers of an Almighty God who so loves the world that He will stop at nothing (short of the individual's own refusal) to reach and rescue a fallen, ruined and doomed world. He has come to change our doom into deliverance and our defeat into dancing!
But Wesleyans own one further distinction: we rejoice in all who know and follow the Lord Jesus Christ as fully as in those who bear our name and share our history. All who serve the Lord Jesus and are on mission with Him in the world are warmly embraced as our sisters and brothers in the Lord and as our beloved co-workers in the work of His Kingdom. There is, among us, to be no air of superiority, no glorying in anything but in the Christ by whose atoning work we have been redeemed from our sins and adopted into His family!
So every Wesleyan may enthusiastically say: "Wesleyan? Yes, and gratefully so! But Christian first and forever!"
As one born into the home of a Wesleyan pastor and whose grandparents were Wesleyan ministers, I have a deep sense of love and gratitude for the spiritual nurture and social network I have received from this marvelous group of devoted people.
Unique to our history is the role of leadership in the struggle to abolish human slavery in Britain and America. Later, after that long and difficult contest had been won, it was in a Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, that a conference dedicated to obtaining women's equal treatment under the law -- including the right to vote --was first held. Again, Wesleyans led the way -- before the cause was popular, before it was deemed "the right course", while it was still opposed by the vast majority.
Wesleyans have taken courageous stands for the defense of the legally impotent and socially powerless, not because we were wild-eyed radicals looking for some cause for which we could agitate. We have simply followed where the Bible, the Word of God, dictated the right course lay and tried, to our utmost, to be faithful to the One Who has gifted us with our freedom and rights.
Yet, our mission to win the spiritually searching has never wavered. We see ourselves as the unembarrassed co-workers of an Almighty God who so loves the world that He will stop at nothing (short of the individual's own refusal) to reach and rescue a fallen, ruined and doomed world. He has come to change our doom into deliverance and our defeat into dancing!
But Wesleyans own one further distinction: we rejoice in all who know and follow the Lord Jesus Christ as fully as in those who bear our name and share our history. All who serve the Lord Jesus and are on mission with Him in the world are warmly embraced as our sisters and brothers in the Lord and as our beloved co-workers in the work of His Kingdom. There is, among us, to be no air of superiority, no glorying in anything but in the Christ by whose atoning work we have been redeemed from our sins and adopted into His family!
So every Wesleyan may enthusiastically say: "Wesleyan? Yes, and gratefully so! But Christian first and forever!"
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