Month: January 2010

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Blackberry, Beatles and bLove

Have you noticed these new Blackberry commercials with the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” song as the primary theme?  I have found myself stopping and staring at the television whenever they are playing.  I am still not sure what in the world it has to do with a mobile device, but they are a little bit inspiring.  They almost make me want to go and exchange Amy’s RAZR for a Blackberry Curve. ( however, I think Amy’s likes texting on a numeric keypad, its makes her happy).

Anyway, although the ads pull me in with the little storylines, I can’t figure out what this has to do with a phone.   But it has always interested me that John Lennon was able to capture the essence of Christian thinking in this song, and popularize it in a way that Christians never have been able to!  All we need is Love.

Paul tells us its the greatest thing in 1 Corinthians 13

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

and John reminds us about the greatness of Love in 1 John 4

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

Sometimes its a hard thing – especially for the men among us, but Love is all you need, it should be the backbone of the way we treat each other.  So today go ahead and sing this song.  Love is all we need.  And then – apply it to you life.  Will you live that way as well?

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Going Home

This morning, I will board a 6am flight, and travel across air back to my Southern home.  Its such an amazing tribute to the gifts that men have been given that we have figured out how to make machines that fly.  That aside, going home is always a wonderful thing.  No matter how enjoyable the trip is, the anticipation that comes with traveling back to the comforts of your home can not be topped.   The warmness, the deep relationships, the ability to completely relax and be yourself. 

Sometimes, I think about heaven, my eternal home, and I wonder why I don’t always have the same excited feeling about going there.  Imagine how that place will be – for some reason I think it will feel more like home, then a church building.  I am going to use this little return trip to consider they way I view and feel about the return to heaven to be with God.  Its always these little things in life that help us understand and set our perspective.  I hope you spend a little time, as you return home – whether its from a day at the office, or a run to the grocery, to consider the trip.  Notice the anticipation, the  excitement and the relief.  And then consider these words about our “heavenly homecoming”.

2 Corinthians 5

 1-5For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.

 6-8That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.

 9-10But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what’s coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:1-10, The Message)

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Falling Down

“Yard Sale”, my skiing companion yelled, as my ski went one direction and I went the other.   That’s how my night started.  Yes, I fell forward, I spun, I lost skis, I fell backward, and I think I actually fell in ways, I did not know you could fall.  And there I was, later, in the evening, with my body in a pile of snow at the edge of the trail, and my skis tied up the the deep snow and the branches of the small tree I had almost hit, thinking how in the world I am going to make it down this mountain.   It was that fall, which was actually on the third or fourth run at this particular trail, that I decided that I would get myself back up, cast aside what was really holding me back and go.  What was holding me back – fear.  Fear of the exact thing that I was doing – falling! 

On the last run of the night, I made it from the top to the bottom without falling – even taking a slightly harder trail to the bottom.  YES, I shouted as I hit poles with my companion at the bottom of the run.  I had overcome, I had cast fear aside, I had gained confidence in the skills I had been given, and I was actually really skiing ( vs just making it down alive!)

Our lives are like that.  We fear.  We fall.  We think we are not good enough.  We think we don’t have the skills to do what we should or what we want.  We lie in the deep snow caught up in trees and give up ( read sin and dispair).  However, we have something that should prop us up and should give us the gumption to get back up and get in there.   Life is meant to be lived in the fray, and we should be in there, not worried about our own inadequacies.

I mean check this out in Romans 7.

24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Yes, we can yell that out on any day – what a wretched man that I am, WHO CAN SAVE ME!

Just a few verses down, we see the answer in Romans 8

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

We are free, we can get out and live it.  We can get up and overcome.  I did! Hey, I can now say I am a skier ( with some asterisks, but still a skier).  Get up! Get out of the snow, point those skis and go man!  GO!

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Little Things

There are so many little things that bring joy.  For instance when I returned to my rental after a day full of work yesterday, I found this is the parking lot where I left my vehicle:

Parking Lot after Work
Parking Lot after Work

I was so excited.  Finally, after years of traveling to Maine I was going to be able us the scrapper thingy they provide for you in the car.  ( By the way, that thing is in the car in the middle of the summer!).  But yes, I was going to be able to scrape off the windows of my car.  To most Mainers, that is a pain – an unwelcome sign of winter.  But to me, on this day, it was a source of joy.  A simple event,  but a one that I cherished. 

You probably have things like this in your life as well.  Most days, these are over whelmed by the trials and mundaneness of life.  Today, challenge yourself to find those little things that bring you joy, cherish those, and give thanks for those.  And if you don’t mind – add a comment to this post, and share those moments with all of us.

And I will help you will one – just to get to you started.  The Good News from Acts 13.

 32“We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers 33he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm:
   ” ‘You are my Son;
      today I have become your Father.34The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words:
   ” ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’ 35So it is stated elsewhere:
   ” ‘You will not let your Holy One see decay.’

 36“For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. 37But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

 38“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

Joy Joy Joy!

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Anxious for Nothing?

Today’s post will be quick.  The hotel’s wake up call came an hour late! Yikes.  So all morning, I am been reminding myself that God is in control and to not be anxious.  You know its times like this that you want to yell and rant and rave and your stomach in up in your chest.  But it is calming if you can keep remembering words like these:

 

Philippians 4:6 (New International Version)

6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

 

and this which is what I kept repeating in my mind this am.

Matthew 6:25-27 (New International Version)

 

Do Not Worry

 25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[a]?