From My Heart to the Heavens: A Worship Revolution

 “Here I raise my Ebenezer; Here by thy great help I’ve come”, is a line from an old hymn, Come Thou Fount, that eluded my understanding for many years.(I understand it now and love this hymn.) From childhood I wanted to sing words in church that meant something to me. And in my lifespan I have seen my desire fulfilled. 

It began with the Jesus Movement when I was a young teenager and it was exactly what I craved. It was created in a controversial church in California that was reaching out to hippies with rock-and-roll worship music. Many evangelists claimed it to be devil music until Billy Graham stepped up and endorsed this new Jesus music. This was the ember that started a fire burning, breathing life back into church worship services.

Later, when I went to college, I chose a college that was promoting new Christian music with understandable lyrics and a strong beat. Wayland University had their own radio station that played new Christian music and even allowed new Christian artists a stage. I joined their symphonic band that was led by a free-thinker who taught us to play our instruments and sing loudly in worship. One time we performed at the stodgy Baptist Convention and watched old men in suits lifting their heads and loudly singing praises to God along with us. This was an answer to my heart’s desire. 

Then college was over and church service returned to some old lady quietly playing the organ while we sang along with our faces buried in the hymnal, wishing the song leader would skip verses two and three to put us out of our misery. In my heart I knew this was not worship. Then…

The new Baptist hymnal was in and there it was, right beside Fanny Crosby and Charles Wesley: Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. Oh my joy! A breath of fresh air was breathed into ancient songs in archaic language that I had sung three times a week for my entire 31 years of life. It was only one song but it was a major breakthrough. 

Twenty years later, worship was transformed by lyrics being printed on the screen, someone on the guitar and piano, accompanied by bass and drums as well as an orchestra and choir. My cup runs over! I still have an appreciation for old hymns. In fact, I dearly love them. I just love them loud and proud and skillfully arranged. All I wanted was for my praises to be powerful enough to reach from my heart to the heavens. 

Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Psalm 150

Velvet Jesus

 

Gift giving season is upon us and everyone approaches it a little differently. In our primarily German immigrant family, most of us are very pragmatic and want a list to check off. However, my brother who was nine years my senior, was very different in his approach to gift giving. With my brother, it was all about the joy he received by giving and the sky was the limit when it came to spending. He could deal with the bills in January(or not). 

He delighted so much in selecting just the right gift that we were all drawn in by curiosity as to what he got us. Sometimes he got creative with the wrapping too. When I was very young,(and we are talking 1960’s), he secretly used his paper route money to buy our family an electric toothbrush set for Christmas. He wrapped the main body in a large package with all our names on it. Then he labeled separately wrapped gifts with our name containing each colored toothbrush head. He kept bragging about his secret present so I snuck a peak before Christmas to find half a toothbrush. Confused sigh. 

Another Christmas when he was older, he came home with a huge present for my mom. He stowed it away and carried on about how surprised she would be. Later, he showed it to me and my dad under a shroud of secrecy. It was a gigantic painting of Jesus done on black velvet. We appropriately carried on about how much she was going to love it, so much so that mom dreamed about that present on Christmas Eve. She claimed that she dreamed he got her a hideous painting of Jesus. Much to her delight and surprise on Christmas morning she found this one to be beautiful and told us about her dream.

I don’t remember what happened to Velvet Jesus but we had him hanging in our living room for quite a few years. My brother was not worried about the eventual disappearance of Jesus because he was excited about the next gift he was going to give. He was such a great gift giver! His excitement made me anticipate opening his gift more than the others every single Christmas. So thinking back, I see that his gifts were not all that great but his delivery was stellar. Maybe it isn’t about the perfect gift but the perfect effort and attitude.

One Right Decision

I have been rescued. And I am rescued on a daily basis. No, I was not a drug addict. No, I didn’t suffer from alcoholism. My demons are covert, they are many and I am under the delusion that I hide them well. They vary and come at me from every angle. They resemble self-pity, anger, bitterness, selfishness, self-righteousness and a plethora of other chains all of which stem from pride. Any one thing on this list can destroy faster than a heroin addiction and I am inflicted with these demons on a daily basis. But God…

Yes, I have been rescued today. And I was rescued yesterday and I will be rescued tomorrow if I choose. All I have to do is make one right decision. I have to let go and give it to God. It is a choice. It is the one right decision. To let Jesus take the wheel even though I grab at that wheel during the stressful moments of a day. But making this choice consistently and daily over the last seven years has brought me peace and joy that has rooted and grown. Most of my days I am not aware of this change since it isn’t one of those bolt-of-lightning type changes. But sometimes I am given a glimpse of someone who is like me who hasn’t made that decision and my eyes see the miracle that God has produced in me and I want this so badly for them too. He is cutting my chains off one by one, replacing each with his peace, love and understanding and I am so grateful. 

I am beginning to understand this verse from the Apostle Paul. 

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

'Tis the Season--No, Not THAT One!

 Christmas? No. Halloween? No. Elections? No way! Remember that in November it will be Thanksgiving and it is all about that attitude of gratitude. I find it ironic that this season of gratitude falls right before the season of making lists of stuff we want.

In the past year I have been given a heightened awareness of prayer and many answered prayers have resulted in a renewed vision for prayer. This is not to say that I have successfully manipulated God to give me stuff. It is to say that I have been learning a few things from experience, participating in a study of the Lord’s Prayer and am currently reading a book about prayer called Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Timothy Keller. So I thought I would share some of the things I have learned about prayer.

Since Jesus gave an example of how we should pray, this will start with what he said. There are entire sermons written about just one of the lines of this prayer, however, it is the overall attitude that I see in the Lord’s Prayer that speaks to me the most. So each line will be followed by my own summarizing note about each phrase, emphasizing the attitude and focus.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. The focus of this prayer is God. Shift my focus to him.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Prayer should be about listening to God’s agenda, not the reverse.

Give us this day our daily bread. We should recognize our dependence on God for our physical existence.

And forgive us our trespasses… We should recognize our reliance on God for our spiritual existence because we are sinful and dependent on his grace.

…as we forgive those who trespass against us. We are expected to follow his example in our life.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We have no control and depend on God for our protection for the very real forces of evil around us.

This is how Jesus said to pray. It is a humble prayer. I see the overall attitude of this prayer as reverence for the majesty of our creator and admission of our total dependence on him. This leads me to believe that the wrong way to pray is the opposite…with pride. So I must check my attitude before I jump in with a wish list for The Giver of All Life. And if I do this correctly, my wish list will vanish along with my pretense.

From the aforementioned book by Timothy Keller about prayer, I have discovered these important points about prayer. They resonated with me so I will share them here. They originated from John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion but they are my paraphrase of his points. He refers to them as prayer rules but I think of them as prayer attitudes.

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His first point is to approach God with joyful fear. It is my biggest challenge to retain my awe of God in a lifetime of familiarity. I like to think of this description: tremble with the privilege of speaking to the Creator of the Universe. This makes me think of a song by Lauren Daigle called Tremble. I will place the link here so you can go listen to it. This song expresses this point of view excellently.

 

Calvin’s second point is an attitude of spiritual insufficiency. This is described as being ruthlessly honest about my flaws and weaknesses. No grandiose facades. God knows.

In restful trust, let go and let God handle our issues. In Keller’s book it is suggested that we could say, “Here’s what I need–but You know best.”

The fourth attitude is to pray with confidence and hope, knowing that God will give us the best answer in his own time and it will be so much better than our ideas.

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So may we all remember in this season, that prayer is about a frame of mind of joyful reverence, honesty, trust and confident hope. ‘Tis the Season!

Tired of Being Watched?

 Ad nauseam, I hear an ad that asks if I am tired of Google tracking me. Well, it is not just Google, my friend. It seems like we are tracked everywhere we go, with every move we make.(The song is going through my head right now.) We miss the freedom of “Be back home before the street lights come on.” Recently I sat and talked with a group of ladies who quickly recited four or five ways their husbands could track them when they were shopping. I was amazed. Then when I thought about it, nothing they mentioned was out of the ordinary. Holy Cow! What kind of world do we live in? Well, we live in a super safe world. We maintain contact, minimize risk and reduce our worry load with all our devices. 

                         

As I thought about the motivation of these husbands tracking their wives, I realized it came from insecurity, fear, lack of trust as well as love. Our obvious knee jerk response to being tracked is to throw out all our devices and move off the grid. But that is not realistic. 

If you have ever been a parent of a teenager, you know this issue from the other side. We worry about what they are up to and if they are safe because normal teenagers usually don’t tell us what they are thinking or why they are thinking it. As a parent we have doubts about what our child is like when we are not around so we resort to tracking them with technology because this world IS a dangerous place. We wish we understood what motivates them and we do not intend this to be punitive. We only want the best for them and it is our job to protect them in this world.

So what if we did with our spouses and close family exactly what we wish our teenage kids would do? What if instead of becoming more sleuth and secretive, we become more transparent and leaned into it? By transparent I mean honest. What if we told our loved ones the moves we make before we make them? And what if we shared our motivation behind our choices in a conversation instead of forcing our loved ones to depend on technology to figure out what we are up to? Of course that would involve taking the time to sit and talk, which is a whole other subject. And to set an example for our kids we need to be transparent ourselves. Ouch!

Here are a few ideas to get us started. 

1. Post some not-so-flattering honest moments of your day on social media.
2. Tell a loved one about a really stupid thing that you did that makes you anxious when you think about it. 
3. Call or text your love one before every impromptu choice you make in your day.
4. Make sure your next of kin has access to ALL your accounts. 
5. Let your significant other know what you are buying and why before you make your purchases.(This is not the same as asking permission to do so.)

If this list makes you very uncomfortable, you are not alone. I believe that transparency is the key to freedom in our technologically advanced world. Take baby steps to be more transparent and I believe you will find that with honesty comes peace. 

Flashlight Holders Unite!

Like the meme implies, if you have ever been a flashlight holder, it is not a job for the faint of heart. Nothing in this life teaches you more than holding a flashlight while someone else does the job at hand. And those lessons are usually quite harsh.

Flashlight holders are not always holding a flashlight for their dad while he is fixing the car. If you have ever been an assistant anything, you have held a flashlight and you know it is not as easy as it sounds. Some of us spend a lifetime being in the position of helper. Not only do you have to support the doer, but you have to be in the right place at the right time. You have to listen and clench your mouth shut when you want to offer unnecessary advice. You have to know when to open your mouth and how to do it without offending the director of operations. You need to have done your homework and be knowledgeable enough to anticipate the next move of the doer and sometimes you need to offer supportive comments while dodging all the accusation and blame that may be thrown at you. And if you are like me, you have to calm your itchy fingers that want to take over.

Chances are, your job is in the business of support and not leadership. It takes a village to support but only one to actively lead. There is only one surgeon and multiple helpers in the operating room and even though there are many behind the scenes, being one of them is quite challenging. When the job is well done, you are never the one who accepts the accolades and at best, you may only have a word or two of thanks thrown your way.

So who are some famous flashlight holders in history? No one knows. Do you know the name of Thomas Edison’s helper? Do you know if he had one or a whole staff of helpers? What is the name of the influencers of Isaac Newton? How about the people behind the inventions of the assembly line or the airplane? There is no glory in being the support staff but we all know that nothing would get done without them.

Where should we look to learn how to be a top-notch helper? It is not a popular topic but if you look carefully, the Bible is full of flashlight holders. Queen Esther’s cousin Mordecai, King David’s friend Jonathan and Pontius Pilate’s wife(he didn’t listened to her) come to mind. However, my favorite biblical flashlight holder is Mary Magdalene. She shined her flashlight into that tomb and saw that it was empty. Without her and other women, Jesus would have had to ‘Gibbs slap’ the other disciples before they figured it out.

So next time you have to work in the shadows of a leader, remember that progress stops without knowledgeable, calm, and supportive flashlight holders.

Funerals and True Love

 

Everyone hates funerals. 

Except me. 

I have been to funerals for presidents, preachers, janitors and bus drivers. And also to funerals for those who were great church leaders and those who never once stepped foot in the church. I have been to funerals of those whose lives were well lived and those whose lives were wasted; for the proud and for the humble. I have been to funerals where there was standing room only and for those who had mostly empty pews. I have been to funerals for the very young and for those who took their own lives. Most of the funerals I have been to have been for the elderly. Even then, they are sad because goodbyes are so hard. And I shed tears at most of them. But in those tears are truth.

In those pews are people who are hurting and dealing with truth. And in truth I find comfort. For a moment in time, honesty and consolation is found in a world that has forgotten that this life is not all there is. For a moment in time, division and barriers are left behind and we are all mourning in unity. 

In a quote from Paul David Tripp in New Morning Mercies, he says, “Truth isn’t mean and love isn’t dishonest. They are two sides of the same righteous agenda that longs for spiritual welfare of another.” 

So I find in these moments of truth an opportunity for our spiritual welfare and for true love to shine through for each of us gathered together. This is what matters and what lasts. 

It is in those moments when we all assess what is really important in this life. It is in funerals that our priorities are questioned and sometimes turned upside down. It is in these moments that we finally stop our mad lives and are given the opportunity to find true love. 

Along for the Ride

 My Lessons in Living in Humility

People who know me probably got a good laugh that I would write about humility because that is one thing I know little about. Pride, humility’s opposite, has been my jam my entire life. In elementary school, I believed I was smarter than my teachers and scoffed at anything they tried to teach me. In high school, pride kept me from following the pack because I thought I knew better.(So in this case it was handy.) In college, I didn't listen to the voices of wisdom around me and that led to a painful seven years of regret. In my arrogance I  always thought I was the smartest one in the room. 

You can’t believe how much it hurt me to type that introductory paragraph. That is my pride rearing its ugly head. So because the first step to getting better is to admit you have a problem, I suppose I am in the process of learning humility. And in case you may have a bit of a pride issue too, I am going to reveal a couple of life-lessons in my baby steps of this recovery process.

The Lightbulb Moments

Humility always sounded so feeble and in no way was it appealing to me. You don’t have to look long on social media to see a meme declaring the cool factor of being a sassy, independent, scrappy, don’t-mess-with-me kind of person. Who would want to be humble when you can be such a cool bad-ass? I gravitate toward these messages of self reliance. I love to read a book or watch a movie about an aggressive, combative, fierce hero. This is our culture. This is pride. How can I possibly give up this attitude for humility? And why would I want to? 

My first ‘a-ha’ moment of seeing the truth about pride came from a poem written by Beth Moore about pride. I keep a copy and read it often to remind me of why I need to give up my arrogant attitude. 

My Name is Pride ~by Beth Moore

My name is Pride! I am a cheater I cheat you of your God-given destiny…because you demand your own way. I cheat you of contentment…because you “deserve better than this.”  I cheat you of knowledge… because you already know it all.  I cheat you of healing…because you’re too full of me to forgive.  I cheat you of holiness…because you refuse to admit when you’re wrong. I cheat you of vision…because you’d rather look in the mirror than out a window. I cheat you of genuine friendship…because nobody’s going to know the real you. I cheat you of love…because real romance demands sacrifice. I cheat you of greatness in heaven…because you refuse to wash another’s feet on Earth. I cheat you of God’s glory…because I convince you to seek your own. My name is Pride. I am a cheater. You like me because you think I’m always looking out for you. Untrue. I’m looking to make a fool of you. God has so much for you, I admit, but don’t worry…If you stick with me, You’ll never know.

Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

C.S. Lewis 

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Baby Steps in the Right Direction

Pride has been said to be the root of all sin and I do believe that to be true. Pride is a liar and a cheat. It cheated me out of true friendship repeatedly by not allowing me to  come down off of my pedestal. 

So do I need to be a wimp to give up my pride and become humble? Jesus modeled humility all the way to the cross yet he was far from milquetoast wimpy. He was a warrior! He was always about his Father’s business and nothing got in the way of that. Not his parents and not the rules of the Pharisees. He defied the rules of polite society and kept company with the lost and rejected. 

In my mind, Jesus words from the cross were not expressed in defeat. I think Jesus expressed “It is finished” triumphantly! I picture those final words of Jesus voiced more like when Braveheart voiced “Freedom!” at the end of that movie. Jesus life is our model for humility. He didn’t care what people thought. He only cared what the Heavenly Father thought. He wasn’t in it for himself. He was in it to save us. And that is an important note about humility. It starts with our focus on something bigger, something outside of ourselves. It gives up self-promotion and promotes the bigger cause tirelessly. 

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Micah 6:8 NIV
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

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So after my confession of pride, I next need to focus on something outside of myself, something worthy of my sacrifice. I can’t think of anything more worthy than the God of the universe, the Creator, my Savior, the beginning and the end. And so I begin this two-steps-forward, one-step-back process of fixing my eyes on Him. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, I will learn to walk humbly with my God. Like the picture of the dog happily riding in a car, I am just along for the ride.