A Brief Original Ode to His Fall and Rise

Into the darkness with uncertain fear,
traveling deeper than imagined,
breathing shallow as the pressure increases,
embracing pain not as a friend
but as an enemy that must be held close,
being dragged down and down
further into the cave of death,
wrapped tighter and tighter,
all breath being squeezed out,
immovable, helpless, trapped,
closeted into a total blackness,
until I am gone, stepped over
into the realm fully opposite of me,

nothing, nothing, nothing,
empty, empty, empty,
silence, silence, silence

Tiny ember... A word spoken!
I hear it! Listen...
Yes...there it is...
piercing the darkness and deafness,
"ARISE!"
Spark! Spark! Spark!
LIFE!
I LIVE!

-LJWalkemeyer

Don't Play Soccer on Sundays

In Nehemiah 13 the Israelites were marrying pagan women and adopting their worship practices. So in Nehemiah 13: 24 God describes the problem this way... "As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah..."

God has commanded us this - "Remember the sabbath to keep it holy"...or don't trade the sabbath for a soccer game.

I disagree with the Seventh Day Adventist on the subject of the sabbath. I admire them in principle but disagree with them in particulars. Oh that we would honor the principle of the sabbath the way they honor the law of the sabbath.

Because we don't honor God enough to give him our attention for a day or at least a morning, we are teaching a pagan language to our children. They don't speak the language of Judah...the language of worship, the language of the church, the language of scripture.

Instead they speak the language of soccer, softball, water polo, and other club sports that flagrantly, unabashedly and shamelessly lay claim to Sunday morning.

When I was growing up no sport team dared to practice or play on Sunday morning....That belonged to God whether you believed in God or not; whether you were waking up early for church or waking up late from a hang over...Sunday was OPEN SPACE.

There is no OPEN SPACE in our lives anymore. No quiet time to pull up to the stop sign and just sit there for a couple of hours and let LIFE get quiet again. And because there is not this time, the language of Judah is becoming extinct.

Parents want their kids to grow up and love God and the church, but then they make gods of sports and activities and academics, then they wonder why their kids are growing up without an appetite for God or his church. Wake up and smell the spiritual coffee...kids learn what they SEE not what they HEAR!

We must stop marrying the pagan practices of the world and carve out a weekly time of modeling "God attention time" and then prioritize that in a way that our children learn again the language of Judah!

Living Forever in Weird Houses?

As Resurrection Sunday (Easter) approaches  I could not resist quoting in full Albert Mohler's blog: 

Transhumanism Trips on a Ponzi Scheme?

If this article had appeared in a newspaper less illustrious and authoritative than The Wall Street Journal, I would have assumed it to be a hoax.  Evidently not.  It seems that a couple of intrepid transhumanist artists have lost their funding, thanks to the fact that their investments had been managed by Bernard Madoff, the investor who just admitted to running what may well be the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

Transhumanism, you may recall, is the movement that is determined to reverse aging and to extend the human life span indefinitely.  What does that have to do with art?  Funny you should ask.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Arakawa and Madeline Gins are artists who have committed their energies and art to the quest to make human beings immortal.  Arakawa (his entire name) and Madeline Gin base their artistic quest for immortality "on the idea that people degenerate and die in part because they live in spaces that are too comfortable."  Seriously.  Their answer is to "construct abodes that leave people disoriented, challenged, and feeling anything but comfortable."

Arakawa insists that living in these disorienting spaces can make one "become like a baby."  As the Journal reports, "They build buildings with no doors inside. They place rooms far apart. They put windows near the ceiling or near the floor. Between rooms are sloping, bumpy moonscape-like floors designed to throw occupants off balance."

The whole idea throws me off balance.  The world of modern "art" is littered with nonsense of limitless variety.  These artists have built nine "reversible destiny" lofts in Japan at a cost of $6 million.  The lofts are shaped like spheres, tubes, or cubes and are marked by odd features, misshapen floors and walls, and uneven floors.

One Japanese loft tenant, Nobutaka Yamaoka, claims to have lost both weight and his hay fever after a couple years of living in the loft with his family.  He admits that he isn't sure that the loft had anything to do with these achievements.  He can't buy furniture for his loft because of the uneven floors and his wife complains that she hits her head trying to crawl to the outdoors through a window, but Mr. Yamaoka is undeterred.  Ms. Gins told the Journal that crawling out of the low window in order to hang up the laundry is "one of the exercises."  Obviously.

Here is my favorite part of the article:

"Their research is a milestone in the history of conceptual art," says Alexandra Munroe, senior curator at the main Guggenheim Museum, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, where the couple's work is currently on display. She says many of their supporters don't literally accept the couple's message on immortality but appreciate it in a "metaphorical" way.

To the artists, eternal life is a real possibility. "This is a great chance for the human race," says Ms. Gins.

Well, this "great chance for the human race" is endangered by a lack of funding, given the fact that these artists lost their funding to Bernard Madoff's scheme. "Here was someone we thought was a supporter of ours, and he pulled the rug out from under us," said Ms. Gins.

Other transhumanists were quick to distance themselves from the odd theory of age reversal advocated by this artistic couple.  Ray Kurzweil, identified as "a leading transhumanist figure in the U.S.," dismissed the theory of Arakawa and Ms. Gins and offered his own, presumably less odd theory of age reversal.  Kurzweil told theJournal that future human beings will have small cell-regenerating robots in their bodies.  He evidently thinks that robots inside our bodies would seem less odd than the idea that we are dying because our living spaces are too comfortable.

Just last week TIME magazine reported that "amortality" is one of the "Ten Ideas Changing the World Right Now."  Meanwhile, the Journal cites a professor of aging who called the promotion of longevity "the second-oldest profession."

The great quest of transhumanism is to defy death and to redefine what it means to be human.  But death will not forever be defied and those who live in uncomfortable houses are not likely to live much longer than those who reside in (apparently) deadly comfort.  God is not mocked.

This is an idea that ran out of sense long before it ran out of money.

Sexting

The following words from Jim Liebelt deeply trouble me:

The image was blurred and the voice distorted, but the words spoken by a young Ohio woman are haunting. She had sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend. When they broke up, he sent them to other high school girls. The girls were harassing her, calling her a slut and a whore. She was miserable and depressed, afraid even to go to school.

And now Jesse Logan was going on a Cincinnati television station to tell her story. Her purpose was simple: “I just want to make sure no one else will have to go through this again.”

The interview was in May 2008. Two months later, Jessica Logan hanged herself in her bedroom. She was 18.

MY ADDITION:

Our sex crazed society is paying for its sin in increasing measure. If the church does not raise the banner of the pleasures of purity and the destructiveness of porn, we will be living in a unstoppable cesspool of anguish and addiction. Sexual addiction is destroying lives...teens, marriages, men, families, leaders, women...lives are being impaled on the strippers pole that promises pleasure but ends up peircing the heart with death.

Church arise with grace, love, truth and the REAL alternative lifestyle that brings the greatest joys and pleasures!

Rethinking Money - Rich Dad, Poor Dad?

Rich Dad, Poor Dad...the book by Robert Kiyosaki has some wisdom and foolishness in it. The veracity of the author has been questioned. But the idea of two dads dispensing divergent advice is an accurate metaphor for the theological scene in America.

Is God helping us be healthy, wealthy, and wise? If we are deeply plugged into the Holy Spirit will our coffers fill and our possessions increase? Is he Rich Dad?
OR
Is God helping us be sacrificial to the point of poverty, generous to the point of simplicity, amassing our treasures on the other side instead of this one? Is he freeing us from the corrupting influence of the American dollar?

I recently had a conversation with a man in our church who wanted to tell me how rich Jesus really was. He listed a litany of reasons that Jesus was wealthy. The same week I read the blog of one of my church members who had just returned from the slums of Haiti and was seeking to awaken American Christians to the deception of consumerism.

Some bottom lines for me:
1. Money is far more deceptive and destructive than we realize.

2. Money is not a neutral medium. There is a "god of mammon" at work.

3. Money's power can only be controlled through radical generosity to the kingdom and the poor.

4. Scriptural principles of hard work, disciplined spending, simplicity of desires, wise investing, savings, tithing and alms giving, prayer for divine favor, and clean living all lead to overall prosperity and financial blessing!

5. Jesus is not a communist. His desire is NOT that all people have the same amount. Even in heaven this won't be true. His desire is that people have plenty for all their NEEDS.

6. Jesus does not deal the same with every person...some he calls to voluntary poverty, others to great wealth with great generosity.

7. We must be led by the Holy Spirit in our financial journey.

8. Our hearts must break with what breaks God's heart...to increase our lifestyle dramatically without increasing our generosity more more dramatically is deception. To put it more bluntly: The wealthier you become the higher percentage you must give away.

Our RICH DAD above wants to bless us BUT he is wise enough to know what a SMALL part of true blessing MONEY really is. He doesn't want us to "have" money if money is going to "have" us.
He calls us to HIMSELF, to know Him, and to share His heart for the hurting, and to walk free of the "love of money".

Cars , Crowbars, and Calling

Due to the significant repairs needed on our 8 year old car, I bought a new car...slightly used but a 2008 car, same color and make as my last one. I picked it up on Friday evening and drove it to Men's Breakfast on Saturday morning. While I was praying for some men over breakfast, some angry person was taking a crow bar to my new car's trunk.

When I found it, I was obviously upset but two other reactions quickly shoved the anger out of the way.
First, stuff is just stuff, even when it's new stuff. I think I heard the Spirit whisper, "it's only a car, it's only a car".

The second thought was, "I can't imagine how broken an angry that person is who attacked my car simply because it was shiny and new." My car with the dented trunk was probably ten times nicer than anything they had ever owned.

Third, "how safe is the neighborhood I minister in?" Not all that safe. In the past 18 months robberies, multiple murders, and various other crimes have occurred within a small radius of our church. Which simple means this...we are at the right place. We are where the gospel is needed. We are called to reach, teach and mend a broken neighborhood because that's what Jesus would do.

Events like this can make me pine for a nicer suburban church, such as the ones I have turned down on multiple occassions. But these events can also make me more resolved to remain where I am "for the good of the hood". Amen! "For the good of the hood"

Know it All or a Wise Guy?

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is never putting a tomato in a fruit salad.

Knowledge is knowing what's up.
Wisdom is living life looking up.

Knowledge is knowing if you say something stupid to your wife she is going to get ticked.
Wisdom is not saying it.

Knowledge is knowing that the road to Jericho from Jerusalem is 17 miles long.
Wisdom is stopping to help the man in the ditch on the Jericho road. (Good Samaritan)

Knowledge is the ACQUISITION of knowledge.
Wisdom is the APPLICATION of knowledge.
Lord I want Wisdom!

Jesus, Mac and Cheese

The white guy with the Ferrari and 5 million dollar golf house was sitting next to the African American woman with the four kids who lives in a one bedroom apartment.

But they both walked forward and signed their box and mac and cheese and put it in the wall.

Yesterday as I taught on Nehemiah 2, 3 I called people to grab a brick and make a difference in our church and community by doing their part to build the wall. Hundreds of folks came forward and committed to do their part.

At the end there was a wall of mac and cheese boxes stacked 10 boxes high. Next week we will give it all away to the hungry or hurting of our urban neighborhood.

Now what struck me was that 2 people as different as the two mentioned above could both make a significant difference in building the kingdom. Where else but the church of Jesus could such miracles take place?

It was a beautiful picture to see people from many different cultures, ethnic groups, and income groups say they wanted their lives to count. I pray that it wasn't just the emotion of the moment or the group think going on, but that people will remember "the walls of Jerusalem!".

Every one has a section. May all of us "put our shoulder to the work" - Nehemiah 3:5.

The Money Diet

A Money Diet: 

In the USA billions of dollars are spent on fancy diets to help people lose weight. The South Beach Diet, The Grapefruit Diet, the Slim Fast Diet, the North Beach Diet, the Watermelon Diet, the Slim Slow Diet...etc, ad nauseum. 

I go to Ethiopia every year and it's funny how I have never heard the word "diet" once. No one is spending any money on diets and there's hardly anyone overweight. How do they do it without any of our wonder diets? 

It's simple...when you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight. God made your body really complex but also really simple - 

Excercise more +Eat less = Weigh less (Physical Health)

Now a MONEY DIET is just the same as a BODY DIET: 

To get in better financial shape you must: 

Work (make) more + Consume less = Owe less ($$ Health)

Our nation is in economic trouble for one reason: We thought we could spend more than we made. We fell in love with CREDIT and thought we could get away with it. But DEBT will be the DEATH of our economy. We indulged in DEBT like hot fudge sundaes. 

John Wesley's wisdom for financial success is as sound today as it was 300 years ago: 

"Make all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can." 

I am praying for the people of our church to: 

1. Make more...new jobs, better jobs, more hours, raises, side jobs, creative new ways to make money. 

2. Save more...spend less, lower lifestyles, cancel cable, sell their clutter, find creative low cost pleasures instead of expensive entertainment, stop buying unnecessary stuff, walk more - drive less, start piggy banks again, put money in safe cds, etc. 

3. Give more...invest in God's kingdom to release God's blessing in their finances, help the hurting because God promises to bless those who bless others. 

I have a friend who was just told by the doctor. "Go on a DIET or you are going to DIE"

The same is true for our nation's economy: "Go on a DIET or you are going to DIE!" 

Consume less, borrow less, produce more, sell more or you are going to die. 

Larry, a prophet?

Respect prophecies!

Yesterday my friend taught me something. Steve Fitch brought the word in our church and taught on a neglected passage. 1 Thessalonians 5:20 "Do not treat prophecies with contempt".

The opposite of "contempt" is "respect". So we are to respect prophecies...but what is prophecy?

It is certainly not predominately the doom and gloom of the Old Testament. The New Testament definition is revealed in 1 Corinthians 14:3 "But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort."

Plus it goes on to let us know that all new testament believers CAN prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:31 "For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged."

So what's that mean for me? When a brother or sister in Christ have a word of blessing, or encouragement, or strengthening, or comfort...I need to respect it, really receive it, and then live by the truth of it. If their words are in line with THE WORD then they may be speaking God's word to us and to pooh-pooh that, or discount that, or despise that... is to miss out on what God has for me.

PLUS I need to GIVE prophecies - Words of encouragement, instruction, promise, strength from God's heart, in line with God's Word, to God's people to meet their need of the moment.

Prophecy in the New Testament is much more "FORTH telling" than "Fore-Telling"...speaking forth the truth of God in a particular moment, to a unique situation, to a individual person.

May we all be "prophets" to strengthen one another...especially during these tough times!

My Recession Proof Security System

I was pondering security systems...We have one at the church. It detects when doors are open or when there is motion. It something is wrong, it sounds an alarm and dials the security team who show up with guns drawn. 

The idea of our security system is that it keeps us from being vandalized or stolen from. It keeps us safe and lets life go on as usual. 

What's my security system? Someone said to me something to this effect recently, "You are in a luxury industry. People can stop giving to the church and boom there goes your paycheck."

I don't see it that way. First, church is not a luxury, it's a necessity for anyone desiring to seek God, grow in the knowledge of His word, and be part of a family that helps you through the recession. 

Second, people can stop giving but they shouldn't. God's principles always work but they are especially needed during hard times. That's when those principles work most obviously. People who want to weather the recession most effectively and be blessed in the midst of it, continue to give with great faith. 

Third, what about me? My security system is the Holy Spirit. If I will listen carefully for His voice, he will alert me to when something is wrong...to when the devil is trying to steal or destroy something good in my life. God will show up in those times of trouble and show off his power and put the enemy to flight. 

My security is not in the economy, or in the offering plate, or in my bank account. My security system is staying tuned into the promises of the Word and the voice of the Holy Spirit! 

Is there Recession on my Forehead?

Is their recession on my forehead? 

Recession is in the air. It's a fact and it's tough. I don't need mean to diminish the very real pain and hardship of it. Long Beach, my hood, is approaching 12%  unemployment. Yikes! 

But as Christ-followers we face the recession with faith and even occasional laughter! Therefore, this post. 

I am trying to determine whether there is actually recession on my forehead. Recession means moving backward...as opposed to progression which means moving forward. 

My daughter is convinced that I am living in a season of recession. She says that my hairline has moved backwards by at least an inch. I am filled with fear that she might be right. 

IF it is true, it is being driven by factors beyond my control. Although my uncle used to tell me that if I drank coffee my hair would fall out. My uncle was wrong. After 20 years of Starbucks, I should be cue ball bald. 

I am not yet ready to try desperate measures like Rogain or "No Gain" as I like to call it. Baldness cures have been around since Cleopatra used ground horse teeth and deer marrow to help out her boyfriend, Julius Caesar. And though ‘Caesar’ in Latin actually means “abundant hair” there was no amount of deer marrow or rancid hippo fat, another popular hair remedy from antiquity, that was going to prevent Emperor Caesar from becoming another victim of the baldness cure industry. 

Similarly the real recession has no quick cures, no magic bullets, no quick money solutions. We can't stop the factors that are causing the big picture problem. But we can take actions and have attitudes that will help our personal situations. Lowering consumption, increasing savings, creating new revenue streams, simplifying life, enlarging our networks, improving our skills, are all helpful but they won't completely cure economic baldness. 

The recession on my forehead won't change who I am. You can take the hair off the man but you can't take the manliness off the man....unless the man confuses his masculinity with his mane. 

A man and his mane are not the same and a man's mane is not the main matter that makes a man masculine. 

So even if there is recession on my forehead...I am going to forge ahead into all that God has for me! So should you! 

The Former Athiest Who Got His Knees Back

I sat staring for a couple of moments. He was back. After a month of absence he was back. 

He was tenderly holding his wife's hands as she held them in her lap. 

With a sincerity, faith, and love that I have rarely seen equaled, he engaged in the act and art of prayer. 

There were six of sitting in non-descript church chairs pulled into a tight little circle. It was a full hour until the service would begin. It was only  8am but there he sat...changing the world with his expressions of faith to a Father he could not see. 

The pain he was in that morning had not been able to confine him to his bed. He had bravely made his way to the passenger seat and ridden happily to the church as his sweet wife cheerfully drove. 

This brother is brilliant. A great mind that was geared for rational equations of engineering feats. This mind had denied the very existence of God for years. There was no reason for him to believe in God and his reason told him there was no God. 

But love broke through. God pursued his heart through people and circumstances and reason. Finally love busted a crack in the hardened heart and stubborn mind. 

The marriage that had been shattered to the point that peices were scattered all over the floor of their lives, was gradually reassembled into a beautiful mosaic that people now stop and admire. 

The former anti-believer now rides his bicycle around the 30 mile permeter of our city each Saturday...praying earnestly for revival. 

The knees that propel him had been broken down but now they were recovering from a reconstructive surgery assisted by prayer....Healing so they could soon return to their high act of Saturday ministry and worship. 

So I sat there staring in awe of a great man and an even greater God. His own life and acts of faith were enough to decimate any doubts I was feeling. I got on my knees and looked up.  

Procession in Recession

Processions are what happen at graduations, weddings, and other noble events. It is a serious, significant, and happy move forward to a new place. I want a Procession in my Recession. 

Recessions are tough for sure. Especially on the folks that I pastor. The urban poor feel the brunt of this in disproportionate ways. With low end jobs they are often the first to be let go. With no savings to fall back on and limited resources available in their extended family, they are soon in the welfare line to grab what little they can. My comments today are not directed to them.

My comments are aimed at the rest of us who have more than we need but less than we want. 

Procession in Recession...I believe with God's help we can move forward in significant ways during economic downturns. Here are a few thoughts I have on moving ahead when your standard of living is falling behind: 

1. It forces an analysis of our spending patterns. Every dollar for a Christian is a sacred trust, one that we take too lightly too often. Squandering money on unnecessary things easily becomes a habit...a habit that is only broken when necessity forces a deeper concentration on every dollar.

2. It can bring a detachment from things to a deeper attachment to people. A 30 dollar trip to the movie can be replaced with a free trip someones house for a game of Scrabble. 

3. Replacing a habit of replacement with an act of rejuvenation. We have become the "throw away and buy a new one" generation. Very few things are repaired and kept. While it is true that things are manufactured that way these days to force continual spending- we can break the automatic reflex we have developed and seek to repair what we have. And we can seek to only buy things with greater longevity. 

4. A simplification of pleasures...we have become an unimaginative lot and to access other people's imaginations cost you money...think cable tv, movies, computer games, entertainment parks, dvd's, etc. Recession can help us rediscover our own imaginations and find joy in the simple. 

5. A rediscovery of what is free in the world...one public library has enough free entertainment to keep you busy for years...listening to pandora.com instead of subscribing to sirrius radio... samples at Costco...pedaling a bicycle...sunsets....free days at art museums...

6. A discovery of new skills. When forced to broaden one's marketability, you can discover or develop new skills that become a joy and a source of income throughout life. 

7. Deeper trust in God. When times are tough, we have the opportunity to meet God in deeper ways, to know Him more directly as provider, to be satisfied more often by HIM instead of by things. 

Barak, Rick, Larry

Names...it was all about names today. Big names.:Barak Obama, Joe Biden, Martin Luther King, Jr., Aretha Franklin, George W. Bush, Rick Warren, etc.

Deb and I watched the streaming live video on our computers while leaning back on our patio chairs under the bright California sun while those in D.C. were huddled together like sheep in a snowy field.

We were cheering the fact of an African American president being sworn in on a terrace built partially by slaves! I felt like congratulating every African American I met yesterday.

As we were listening, one commentator said, "Anyone who is anybody is here". I was a bit offended by the statement. I don't want to be "somebody", but I am NOT a "nobody", which means I am an "anybody" and I wasn't there.

My closest link to the event is about as distant as can be. Rick Warren was there and I once had lunch with Rick Warren...well there were six other people at the table so it wasn't like Ricky and Larry hanging and shooting the breeze...but still...does that make me "somebody"?

Rick gave the book I coauthored 5 stars...does that make me "somebody"?...of course he may have had some of his staff review it for him. Which means he still wouldn't know my name.

Rick did a great job today praying his inaugural prayer. I voted for Rick for president...but it was "write in" campaign that never got anywhere. :)

Anyway, I was impressed today by the fact that there is only one name that really lasts and Rick said it in 5 different languages---"JESUS". That's the only name you can invoke to enter heaven, to get right with God, to bless a President, to lead a country".

JESUS that's the NAME of the greatest person by FAR that was there, yesterday. Now HE IS a personal friend of mine. We hang out all the time. He thinks I am fantastic and I feel the same about him. And that does make me "somebody"!

Forgetting Myself Into Greatness

"Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity while one wise man forgets himself into immortality" - Martin Luther King Jr.

"If a man would gain his life, he must lose it." - Jesus Christ

The strive to "make a name" for myself is a hopeless, petty, and foolhardy ambition. It colors my "serving" in an ugly hue of "self".

I have "a name" and it's one that is cherished on the lips of Jesus. When I see him face to face, he will give me a new name.

Revelation 2:17 tells us "If we overcome...He will give us a white stone with a new name written on it."

Too often I try and "become" somebody important. The important thing is that I "overcome". I seek to see my name in "white lights" but Jesus is going to write it on a "white stone". Unlike the faddish coming and going of the names of the stars, this engraving will last forever.

Martin Luther King was not out to become someone great, but to overcome something great. He was not out to see his name rise, but to see others rise. He was not out to be a celebrity, but to be a servant.

Mother Teresa lived this style of servanthood also. She said, "Anyone can be great, because anyone can serve".

To give yourself away in service. To overcome on the mission God has placed you on, this is the real way to "MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF"!

URP about AARP

What an insult. The AARP (American Association Retired Persons) had the audacity to send me a membership card on the last day of 2008. I wanted to URP (evacuate).

Do they think I have grey hair, wrinkles, drive a 2001 Sebring Convertible, creak when I get out of bed, and am growing hair off my ears now? ....oops...guilty on all counts.

But come on...I am only 51 and longevity rates are rising alot faster than the stock market.
I will live to be 78 if I am average and since I have hit 50 without major health complications...83 should be no trouble for me.

If 83 is my number then I have 32 more years....they seriously want me to adjust my self-image enough to join their organization for the next 32 years??? And "retirement"...what gives with that word? They think people can afford to retire at 51 years of age?

With 401Ks sinking faster than the reputation of Illinois politics, there is not a chance of retirement. Besides I love what I do and have no desire to ever retire...get out of the way for the young bucks, yes...but not to get off the payroll and let them miss decades of the wisdom I got from all my mistakes.

So AARP back off for a couple of decades....although 15% off at Denny's is very tempting.

Merry Chemo Christmas

"Have yourself a merry chemo Christmas"...somehow that lyric doesn't jive right with the melody. Yet here I sit in the Fred Hutchison Cancer Center in Seattle as mom receives a 5 hour chemo treatment.

Mom is still alive this Christmas. Is it chemo or is it Christ? Doctors had thought the multiple myeloma cancer would have taken her by now. Instead they are saying she's going to be around awhile...that's the best gift I got this Christmas.

Should I thank the Doctors or the great Physician? Of course the answer is both. The book of James makes it clear that EVERY good gift comes from the Father above. The gift of MEDICINE and the gift of MIRACLES are ULTIMATELY from the same source. So while I thank the doctors, I praise our God.

As mom and I sat in the waiting room waiting for room in the "inn of chemo", I watched the hairless cancer soldiers as they bravely marched through. Some looked as if the fight had taken flight and they were merely walking zombies waiting for the end. They needed a bigger dose of Christmas pumped into their hearts.

Christmas is the only effective drug for our death sentence. Our eyes can stay full of life, even if our life is ebbing away. For those who know Christ, chemo is not their real hope. Christ is the one who gives life to those that Isaiah said live "under the shadow of death".

Christmas shatters the darkness with the light of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Even Chemo is transformed by Christmas truth.

Christmas Ashes

Yesterday I picked up Len. Nothing unusual about that, right?
A month ago that statement would be ordinary. Today it is strange and sad.

You see, the great leader and CEO of ProMark Financial Services has been reduced to a 14 inch by 8 inch box. A small pile of ashes is all that physically remains of one of the most extraordinary human beings I have known. Yesterday I brought Len to our house.

On the way home with Len, I had to stop and do some Christmas shopping. It was surreal to think here I was buying presents and Len was no longer present.

As I pondered the reality of this sorrow, I began to feel a heaviness invade my soul. Life is so fickle, so superficial, so capricious, so unpredictable, and then it's reduced to a few ashes.

Christmas songs were playing in BARNES & NOBLE...but "Here Comes Santa Claus" wasn't giving me much hope...but then right there in the liberal aisles of books on "How to Make a Million" and "How to Seduce a Woman" and "How to Become Your Own God"....the truth of Jesus began to pierce my melancholy meditations.

As the song "Joy to the World, The LORD has come" rang out it hit me Jesus was born in a BARN and He is NOBLE!

His regal nobility shatters the darkness of death, it reframes life from a few short years to an eternity of glory. His coming breaks the curse!! Ashes are not the end of us. They are only the evidence that we were once here, but have left for heaven forever.

As the song goes on to say:
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

My SORROWS will not GROW, for HE has broken the curse! Let the blessings flow!
This is the message of Christmas! Ashes are not the final word. Jesus Is!

My Misery, His Majesty

GOODBYE MY FRIEND, LEN!
Sometimes there is a part of me that would prefer to sit in the crow, instead of stand on the platform...that would rather be a griever instead of a comforter...that wished I could be the listener instead of the speaker...that could be poured into rather than pour out...that would rather simply be the weak one instead of be the rock.

But note the words "sometimes" and "part of me" which start the above sentence. I feel honored and fulfilled to lead, to speak, to reach out, to lift up, to be able to point people heavenward.

Yesterday was a mixture of MISERY and MAJESTY. My friend, Len's funeral was the hardest one that I have ever led. Len was a close friend, a partner in dreaming about kingdom building, still a young believer whose spiritual trajectory was just really launching upward, a man with a profound influence, brilliant intelligence and fearless generosity. Saying goodbye was MISERY.

Today I am simply exhausted fromr carrying the grief of so many people on top of my own grief. Questions, fears, doubts, sorrows flood my soul.

Last week I literally touched death 3 times in 5 days. 3 friends and church members died in one week. All had something wonderful to offer, something that will be profoundly missed in the days ahead. It has been MISERY.

"YET"..."YET" what a great word...the word "YET" does not negate what has gone before it, but rises above it to declare what is true.

Consider the Christmas song, "O Little Town of Bethlehem":
YET in they dark street shineth,
The everlasting light
The hopes and fears
of ALL the years
Are met in thee tonight!

It is TRUE...into the darkness of my MISERY a brilliant light dawns...the light of Jesus' love and truth and promises and comfort penetrate my misery and visit it with undefeatable MAJESTY!!
MY hopes and my fears are met in the CHRIST of CHRISTMAS!
MY MISERY is overwhelmed by HIS MAJESTY!

His MAJESTY is the reality that lifts my humanity into glory, into hope into certainty.
The apostle John wrote, "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our FAITH!"
The misery the world visits upon me, canNOT overcome or defeat me, IF I take my stand by FAITH in His MAJESTY!
So here I stand today by Faith!...Faith in the babe of Bethlehem who is now the KING of heaven!

Merry Christmas is a shallow holiday greeting, UNTIL we realize the reason we can be "MERRY' in the midst of MISERY is the MAJESTY of CHRISTmas!!