Friday, October 26, 2012

Prescription: Laugh more

I need to laugh more. I’m a fairly serious person. I’m envious of those with the deep, uncontrollable, tear-inducing laughs. I’m more of a two to three chuckle person. If something funny is said, I respond with a genuine haha, then moving on with the business of the conversation. I’m even uncomfortable sometimes with the people who respond to the same situation with that rolling laugh, the one that carries on for an almost awkwardly long time. The discomfort comes from that fact that I want that, the laughing. Don’t get me wrong, I laugh. My sense of humor rests more in the ridiculous, the Happy Gilmore-falling-on-his-ice-skates kind of stuff. America’s Funniest Home videos still makes me laugh. To my wife’s wonder, many of the same things that make our 5 and 7 year old boys laugh, make me laugh. Yet, it’s always too short-lived. My releases of laughter are too often interrupted by the agenda of life. I need to choose more of the former more and more.

Read more over here, at Y Talk, today...

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Why Blog?

A Prayer for Bloggers

I am no longer my own blogger, but Yours.
Refine me with each post how You will, rank me how You will.
Put me to service, put me to suffering.
Let me be a follower — instead of seeking followers
Let me post for You —  or be put aside for You,
Lifted high, only for You, or brought low, all for You.
Do with me and each post whatever You will, because You alone know best.
Let me not strive but submit
Let me not compete but care
Let me not desire hits but holiness
Let my blog be full of You, and let it be empty of me.
Let me crave all things of You, let me care nothing of this world.
Let my words be focus only on the greatest of audiences: You.
And You are enough.
May I write not for subscribers… but only for Your smile.
May my daily affirmation be in the surety of my atonement not the size of my audience.
May my identity be in the innumerable graces of Christ, never, God forbid, the numbers of my comments.
May the only words that matter in my life not be the ones I write on a screenbut the ones I live with my skin.
I freely and heartily yield every sentence, every title, every post, every comment… or no comments… all to Your pleasure and perfect will.
My only fame is that I bear your name
My only glory is the gift of Your Grace
My only readership, Your eyes that seek to and fro to find
Make this so. Lord…
Yawhew, you alone are my God, not Google
Jesus, you alone are my Savior, not sitemeters
And Holy Spirit, you alone are my Comforter, not comments
So be it, today, yesterday, and every post to come.
O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
This is my prayer I have made on earth, over thie keyboard…
let it be ratified in heaven.
In Jesus’ Name…. Amen.

- Ann Voskamp

Monday, October 15, 2012

Riding on Bent Rims

Our youngest son is quite content.  He's five, so discontentment erupts when he is forced to eat veggies or take a shower.  However, on a typical day, he is a very satisfied child.  He doesn't express a need to buy new things.  He doesn't tug on our shirttails to go somewhere.  He doesn't whine for us to entertain him.  He faces trials, as any five-year-old does.  He is a younger brother, so there is always a striving to attain something that his brother has already achieved.  There is heartache over lost toys and fears over troubling episodes of Scooby Doo. Yet, he finds deep contentment in most of his day with joy overflowing in his hearty laughter.  I need to laugh more.

In a Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller writes, "What I love about the true gospel of Jesus, though, is that it offers hope. Paul has hope our souls will be made complete. It will happen in heaven, where there will be a wedding and a feast. I wonder if that’s why so many happy stories end in weddings and feasts. Paul says Jesus is the hope that will not disappoint. I find that comforting. That helps me get through the day, to be honest. It even makes me content somehow. Maybe that’s what Paul meant when he said he’d learned the secret of contentment.  ...I’ve also let go of the idea things will ever be made perfect, at least while I am walking around on this planet. I’ve let go of the idea that this life has a climax. ...When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possession to complete you, you’d be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you’d be surprised how much you like spending time with God.  ...Do I still think there will be a day when all wrongs are made right, when our souls find the completion they are looking for? I do. But when all things are made right, it won’t be because of some preacher or snake-oil salesman or politician or writer making promises in his book. I think, instead, this will be done by Jesus. And it will be at a wedding. And there will be a feast." 

Many frame Paul's words on contentment to reinforce the American narrative of pulling ourselves up from our bootstraps.  Chin up and, in our human perseverance, sustain.  Or, on the other end of the spectrum Paul's words are used to encourage leaping Pollyanna through life, saying that everything is rose` even when it's blue.   I don't believe this was Paul's intent.  I believe that Paul withstood unimaginable circumstances, consistently persecuted for this faith and torn down for his transformation.  He didn't mask the circumstances with a hollow laugh or with trite writings on contentment.  Instead, he held hallowed hope in the Christ he knew to be making all things new.  He believed good, God work was all around, even if he couldn't see it. This is how he sang in prison.  Because he knew that everyday was a prelude to the wedding feast. 

Our youngest son outgrew his bicycle to the point that it was unusable.  In trying to stretch our dollars, we searched for a interim bike at a yard sale, hoping to postpone the purchase of a right-sized bike until Christmas.  We found a sad little bike for $5 and thought that it would serve to bridge the period between bike transitions.  We came home and replaced a tube, spray painted the rusty handlebars black, and oiled the chain.  The rickety bike wobbled and creaked, but sped along dutifully.  Our son rode proudly, happy for the bike, smiling as he pedaled.  He rode his "new" bike so much that the old tire quickly wore through, popping the tube.  He rode it anyway, pedaling around the lake, happy with the bike, laughing content.  Sure, the bent rim and popped tube clunked along.  Yet, he didn't see the struggling wheel because he saw so much hope all around.  His family was riding together, there were opportunities to chase squirrels, the wind blew leaves into impromptu piles inviting us to jump in, the weather allowed for shorts, and the blessings swirled causing him to laugh silly.

Luke recounts Jesus' story of the prodigal son returning home.  The father, elated, promptly whips up the banquet, prepares the feast, and ignites the party.  The Bible says that as the older son approached home he heard music and dancing.  The reunion of the father with his lost child culminated in a wedding-like celebration.  The Bible talks of this coming reunion and subsequent celebration often.  The preparations are being made for us.  The caterer is scheduled and the band has been secured.  Jesus awaits our return and we await His, all this anticipation bubbling.  

I spend too much time trying to connect God's remedies with my challenges to produce desirable outcomes.  If I was Paul, I'd have spent much time reassessing my evangelist strategies since the outcomes weren't producing quantifiable results deemed successful by human metrics.  Does God want us to plan and prepare and produce?  Certainly, in appropriate situations, he does.  But, moreover, God wants us to laugh.  He wants us to consider the feast for the prodigal and the joyful celebration in heaven that erupts when what's lost is found.  He wants us to laugh this crazy, eye watering, belly laugh at all this grace, amazing.  And even though we ride through this life on bent rims and popped tubes, He wants us to take in the view of the lake in the fall, with our family and friends, beautiful.  He wants us to RSVP to the coming wedding feast.  A tent card with our name carefully scripted is already placed.  The music has begun and if we listen closely, we can hear it, the band warming up for a very long set.        

Monday, October 1, 2012

Over 3,000 Showing Up!

In September, Compassion International asked others to blog about the work that God is doing in the many lives of sponsored children across the world.  In conjunction with this, they had a goal of securing over 3,000 new child sponsors during the month.  Yes, they wanted to find over 100 new sponsors every single day during the month and they wanted to achieve this goal through the world of blogging.  That's a stretch-goal, for sure.  Yet, certainly not a goal that God can't reach.  I join Compassion International in celebrating the 3,159 new children who have found sponsors during the month of September.  That's 3,000 lives now being impacted by having another simply show up.  Praise God!