A perfect storm of thoughts converged in my head on the way to work this morning, and it all congealed into an emotion while listening to the song, Smell the Color Nine, by Chris Rice. One thought: in an off-Blogger comment about a recent post where I stated, "I reserve the right to be wrong, but if I am, so what? What have I lost in this life if this life is all there is?", the person commenting was decidedly less-than-impressed that I had culminated my thoughts with "Pascal's wager." Two thought: My comment actually had nothing to do with Pascal. I wasn't aware that he had said anything similar. And it certainly wasn't meant as a REASON for anyone to believe in Jesus; just my personal thought that my faith is not a detriment to life on Planet Earth, and if I'm correct, it's a great bonus for whatever is after that.
Red thought: I am extremely less-well-read than the small circle of atheists/agnostics with which I sometimes converse. Their references to so-and-so's thesis and what's-his-name's counter-balancing communique most-generally go far over my head. Blue thought: Sometimes it seems like these guys have turned their intellects into their personal objects of worship; that brain power is the only true power; that they can't understand the God of the Bible, and therefore refuse to accept...and while it is conversely true that I can't understand a lot of what they're trying to say, I can't imagine wanting to worship a god who I COULD understand and keep all neat and tidy in a box made of verifiable, quantitative explanations. And now, the song in question:
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Truth is...I don't have all the answers. Sometimes I don't even know the questions. But I know what satisfies my longing for purpose and meaning like nothing else can do. Facts alone have not brought me to this place, but they led me to within shouting distance. Maybe this is what's meant by a Leap of Faith.
Thanks to Upworthy.com for finding this short video of former KKK wizard, Johnny Lee Clary, telling how one old black minister chose to fight hatred with love and started him on his road to redemption.
Truth is...true love is always a choice, not a feeling.
Soul Pancake's YouTube channel is full of encouraging, amazing, beautiful, daring things. For instance... What kind of things do you think would happen if you set up a live microphone on a city street with an encouragement for people to give a shout-out to someone who changed their life? According to the following video, beautiful things...
This brought tears to my eyes and a desire to let the important people in my life KNOW they are important to me. Truth is...there's no need to wait for a giant microphone to show up on the local sidewalk. Debbie Ann Brewer Roth, aka Beloved, you are making me a better person, even after 34 years of marriage.
A few weeks ago, I posted a piece titled "The World According to Calvin (and Hobbes)" that used a few panels from that wonderful comic strip to make a point about how to approach life. Amazingly enough, a blog called ZEN PENCILS: Cartoon Quotes from Inspirational Folks chose that very same day to publish an homage to Bill Watterson (C & H's creator) that included a quote from a graduation speech by Watterson and is practically perfect in every way.
"A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential, as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth."
I encourage you to click here to enjoy the whole thing. Truth is...Standing up for one's convictions is often unpopular at the time, but lasting respect and admiration far outweigh fleeting popularity.
Found this in some old papers. Not sure when I wrote it, but I am sure it still rings true from time to time.
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How long can I take this, God? It seems like you've forgotten me, or that you're ignoring me ... even hiding from me. I sit and talk to myself, and it's depressing. And everybody else seems to really have it all together. Will you please help me make some sense of all this, God? I could just die! You see, there are those who seem to get their kicks out of seeing me falter.
And yet, you've been so wonderfully kind and generous to me in the past ... there's really no reason to doubt that you'll do it again. You have saved my soul for eternity and you will stand by me in this life, too. I praise you, oh God, because you have blessed me more than I can thank you.
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Truth is...David was never the only one who could be filled with doubt and praise at the same time.
Tony Carrillo creates the daily comic strip, F Minus. It is a hodge-podge of wide-ranging topics, without any main characters or running plot lines, but still manages to generate a few grins and even some thought. Case in point; take a look at this recent panel:
Fill in the details of any number of differing scenarios, and I'm sure you will have run across someone basically like the above patient:
"This house is so cluttered. It's depressing to sit here and watch TV."
"I never have any extra money. I can just barely afford to get popcorn when I go to the movies every weekend."
"Why are all men such losers? It seems like every bar I go to is filled with underachievers."
Albert Einstein is credited with the popular definition for insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Truth is...in order to improve a personal situation, maybe a person needs to stop using temporary fixes and "minor course adjustments" and make an actual change instead.
In remembrance of the passing from this life of one of Christian music's true originals, and in calling attention to the soon-to-be-released biopic, Ragamuffin (the trailer for which you can see at the end of this post), allow me to reprint this piece from last year, with the addition of links to the quoted songs...
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[Six]teen years ago [Thursday], an unsuspecting world awoke on that Sunday morning to the news that Rich Mullins, Contemporary Christian singer/songwriter, had been killed in a crash on an Illinois highway. He was probably best known for having written the song Awesome God, but let me share some other quotes, musical and not, for your edification and, perhaps, growth.
2: As we age, we begin to forget stuff; our joints stiffen; our heads go a little soft…getting old is part of getting past whatever illusion we have about ourselves. It is part of getting free.
3: ♪♫♫♪♪♫ Faith without works, baby, it just ain’t happenin’. (Screen Door)
4: It used to be really popular to wear little buttons…that said, “Smile, God Loves You.” And that would always hack me off, ‘cause I go, “You know what? God loves everybody. That doesn’t make me special. It just means that God has no taste.”
5: ♪♫♫♪♪♫ When he rolls up his sleeves, he ain’t just puttin’ on the ritz. (Awesome God)
6: At the Y today, this one guy…talked a little bitterly about how I seem to have it so good. I suppose I do….I think I would envy me too, if I didn’t know me better.
7: ♪♫♫♪♪♫ There’s a loyalty that’s deeper than mere sentiment, and a music higher than the songs that I can sing. The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the giver of all good things. (If I Stand)
8: I think a lot of American people are infatuated with God, but we don't really love Him, and they don't really let Him love them. Being loved by God is one of the most painful things in the world, it's also the only thing that can bring us salvation and it's like everything else that is really wonderful: there's a little bit of pain in it.
9: ♪♫♫♪♪♫ Talk about your miracles; talk about your faith: My dad, he could make things grow out of Indiana clay. (First Family)
10: You can never get so healthy that you don’t have to continue to eat right. Because every day I have to make the right choice about what I eat and how much exercise I need. Spiritually we’re in much the same place.
11: ♪♫♫♪♪♫Well the Lord said “let there be” and there was, on the earth below and in the sky above. Then he knocked off work ‘cause it was Friday night; come Saturday morning everything was just alright. (Alrightokuhhuhamen)
12: Sometimes it concerns me, the number of people who can quote my songs…but they can’t quote Scripture—as if anything a musician might have to say would be worth listening to….If you want entertainment, I suggest Christian entertainment, because I think it’s good. But if you want spiritual nourishment, I suggest you go to church or read your Bible.
13: ♪♫♫♪♪♫You was a boy like I was once, but was you a boy like me? I grew up around Indiana; you grew up around Galilee. (Boy Like Me, Man Like You)
14: The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart—it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence and tenderness and sex and betrayal that befits mankind….It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask.
15: ♪♫♫♪♪♫You never know who God is gonna use; a princess or a baby…or maybe even you or me. (Who God is Gonna Use)
16: When Christ has stripped away…all of our lame, Protestant kind of stupidity, all of our Catholic hang-ups; when Christ has stripped away everything that we have invented about Him, then maybe we will encounter Him as He really is. And we will know ourselves as we really are.
17: ♪♫♫♪♪♫Love is found in the things we’ve given up more than in the things that we have kept. (What Susan Said)
18: I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there were people who were willing to be nuts and bolts.
19: ♪♫♫♪♪♫When I leave, I wanna go out like Elijah. (Elijah)
20: If you give a tithe, you get rid of ten percent of the root of all evil. You should be giving ninety percent, ‘cause God can handle money better than we can.
21: ♪♫♫♪♪♫Sometimes I think of Abraham, how one star he saw had been lit for me. He was a stranger in this land and I am that, no less than he. (Sometimes By Step)
22: When I started writing songs, I thought you had to say everything that you knew in every song. You can always tell a young writer because they always do that. And you just kind of go, "OK, I know all about your theology, but I have no interest at all in your song."
23: ♪♫♫♪♪♫I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am. I did not make it; no, it is making me. (Creed)
24: Never forget what Jesus did for you. Never take lightly what it cost Him. And never assume that if it cost Him His very life, that it won't also cost you yours.
25: ♪♫♫♪♪♫I’d rather fight you for something I don’t really want than to take what you give that I need. (Hold Me Jesus)
26: Scriptures don't teach us to be assertive. The Scriptures teach us—and this is remarkable—the Scriptures teach us to be submissive. This is not a popular idea.
27: ♪♫♫♪♪♫I will be my brother's keeper, not the one who judges him. I won't despise him for his weakness. I won't regard him for his strength. (Brother's Keeper)
28: If you want a religion that makes sense, go somewhere else. But if you want a religion that makes life, choose Christianity.
29: ♪♫♫♪♪♫The hope of the whole world rests on the shoulders of a homeless man. (You Did Not Have a Home)
30: So go out and live real good and I promise you'll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you're dead, you'll be rotted away anyway. It's not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live.
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Truth is...there is no greater wish for me to confer upon you than the two words that accompanied Rich's autograph: BE GOD'S! And now, the promised trailer...
