CARPE DIEM

Once upon a time there was a young guy who constantly said to himself, “One of these days when….” He had completed the sentence with so many thoughts over the years it was hard to remember them all.  Ironically, it didn’t really matter, though, because the ship seemed never to come in and the thoughts were left dangling.   

He’s wasn’t dead, mind you; just caught in a loop called, “One-of-these-days-when.”  It’s a vicious loop, really; an unending circle so rooted in “when,” that it is a fatiguing, ongoing, and never-ending cycle of unrealized hopes, frustrated plans, and aborted possibilities.

And then one day the future became the present and the young guy was old.  One-of-these-days became a footnote to a story that began with, “Once upon a time.”  He was young and then he was old and he wondered about what had actually happened in the in-between times.  Where did the time go?  How could it have passed so fast?  How did he get from there to here?  What was his story?  Did he, in fact, have a story? 

It was all such a blur now but he knew that the blur was actually comprised of very real moments and events and people and stories.  In the moments there was no blur, just very real life in a very real world.  What was now a blur was, in the moments, filled with laughter and tears and successes and failures and friends and enemies and learning and unlearning.  There was food and drink and appointments and tests and decisions and a thousand other things and places and encounters and ups and downs; there was life.  But, now it was a blur.  It was decades of life that now became known as “Once upon a time.” 

Once in a while, however, a few and very blessed, people come to themselves and see themselves as recipients of great grace.  Why it took so long to get there is a mystery.  But even mysteries can be celebrated. 

Some times when others might think a story is over and conclude that there never really was a story at all, one lone person gets a gift and sees that what once was, is only a prelude to a miracle of life so powerful that it actually shakes the foundation of a person’s soul, and they wake up.  They wake up – alive – hopeful – still breathing – still dreaming.  Only this time, because of the blur, they embrace new laughter and tears and successes and failures and friends and enemies and learning and unlearning and food and drink and appointments and tests and decisions and a thousand other things and places and encounters and ups and downs with a hallelujah.  It is a broken hallelujah, mind you, but it is a hallelujah. 

Once in a while someone caught in a loop breaks free and catapults out of the loop with such force that when they land they are bruised and broken and bleeding and fatigued.  They may even limp for the rest of their lives.  Yet, the breaking free was so powerful and creative that the bruising and brokenness and bleeding and fatigue become signs of the miracle, a miracle they would not exchange for anything.  They were dead and now they live.  They were pawns caught up in a vicious loop but now they are alive in a new story, a story that trumps the past and by which they enter into the future knowing there are still wonders to behold, stories to write, lives to love, people to embrace, mysteries to unravel.    

Søren Kierkegaard said, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”  The young guy who was now old knew it well.  Some times before we can know our story we must look backwards.  Some times when we are in the moment we forget to live the moment.  It is in looking backwards that we really see the moment and what it was or wasn’t about.  Some people seem never to look back and see.  Others take their stories, the good, the bad, the highs and lows, the victories and failures, and use them as prologue to the future.  More than this, though, they take their story and see it as a way to live into the future.  They become more intentional and thoughtful knowing that even this present moment if not embraced can simply become a “once-upon-a-time.” 

Awaken by grace, a thousand times the young guy who was now old said to himself, “Even at this late date my mantra shall be Carpe diem – Seize the day! Even at this late date it is Forward Still for me. Even at this late date I take what is given to me and I give it to God who has made this moment possible. Even at this late date, ‘My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever’ (Psalm 73:26). Even at this late date, ‘Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.’” (by Moses Hogan, published by Lyrics © Hal Leonard Corporation).

Once upon a time there was an old guy who crashed into God one day and the impact was so great that it shook the foundation of his life.  Stunned, he rose up, staggered unsteadily forward, only to recognize that behind him and beside him and before him and underneath him and over him and in him there was God.  Then he got a glimpse of something so powerful it steadied his stagger, balanced his steps, energized his life, and convinced him that grace was everywhere.  God whispered into his ear, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1, NIV).

           

The Most High was leading him, and that was enough.   It changed his way of thinking, of being, of acting, of living.  It swept him up into a story bigger than his story.  It swept him up out of the yesterdays and the “one-of-these-days-when” and into the infinite possibilities of God who is the Almighty.  The Almighty Most High was with him. 

Carpe diem!

REMEMBER

Last weekend pastor Scott Chamberlain brought us to the end of our brief journey through the book of Joshua and to a pivotal point in the life of God’s people.  It was a good moment for them.  Joshua 23:1 says “the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies.”  That’s a good moment, isn’t it?

Joshua is now old, though, and his days of leadership are coming to an end.  So he calls a meeting “for all Israel,” and he shares what is in his heart.  He spoke about how faithful God had been, about how their story of conquering the Promised Land was a God thing from start to finish.  He challenged the people to stay faithful. “Keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses” he said to them, “so that you may not turn aside from it to the right or to the left” (23:6). Then he called them to a personal moment of choosing.

It seems like we’re always choosing something.  Choosing is a part of the human experience, I suppose.  From trivial issues to matters of great concern, we humans are always choosing.  Joshua brought the people to a matter of great concern.  It was time for them to search their souls.  It was time for them to focus on things that ultimately and finally matter.  Joshua said it this way,

Now, therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15). 

 

With that Joshua “took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.  Then he said to the people, “Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us; thus it shall be a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God” (Joshua 24:26-27).

Every time the people looked upon that stone they were to be reminded of two things: The faithfulness of God, and their commitment to be faithful to God.  At this point the text simply says, “Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance” (24:28).  That’s it.  They were off to whatever the future held for them ever mindful of God’s faithfulness and their commitment to be faithful.

Pastor Scott spoke to us of how important it is for us to have things in our lives that help us remember.  He spoke of stones of remembrance and places of remembrance -- tangible reminders of what it means for us to be caught up in the story of God.  Do you have stones and places of remembrance, things that keep you aware of God’s story in your life and keep you aware of how serious you were once upon a time when you chose to serve the Lord, and in that choosing chose not to serve other things that would be god?  Do you have some Stones and Places of remembrance where time and time again you are brought back to that profound moment of remembering again who you are?

I have some Stones and Places of remembrance.  There is an altar in a little church in central California where I invited Jesus Christ into my life.  That is a precious place to me.  Every time I go back home, I go to that little church and kneel at that same spot, because that spot was the place of a new beginning for me, a beginning that literally changed the direction my life was going. 

I have a picture of me standing in front of a U-Haul truck. I’m smiling for the camera, and everything looks fine.  Yet, deep down inside my heart on that day I was dying.  I thought there would be no future.  It was one of the lowest moments in all my life.  I hold on to that picture, however, because it ever reminds me that on my darkest day God was present even though I didn’t know it.  He was being faithful even though I was being shaken to the foundation. 

I was baptized at the age of twelve and I still have the baptismal certificate.  It means more to me than I could ever express.  I met God in those baptismal waters.   When I was seventeen I received my first local minister’s license and I have a picture of my pastor handing it to me and shaking my hand.  I met God in that handshake.  I have a small pocketknife that belonged to my dad. When he went home to heaven in 2003 it was the only thing I asked for from all that he had.  It reminds me everyday of my dad and of how this very simple and unpretentious man lived a solid rock Christian life in his world.  I have an ice bucket that I got from my mom when she passed away in 2010.  It is round with penguins forming a circle around it. She never used it for ice, though.  To us kids, it was always a cookie container.  Every time I see this cookie jar I am reminded of my mother and of her simple, child-like and, yet, strong, faith in Jesus Christ. 

These things always remind me of who I am.  I am a man coming out of a heritage, a heritage with Jesus Christ right down in the middle of it all.  By a grace I don’t deserve God has called me to Himself, and along time ago I decided to follow Him.  Today, a whole lot of years later, there is nothing I would do to compromise my heritage, my journey, or my faith.  I’ve been knocked around some, got a few bruises, and my track recorded isn’t spotless.  But today, I’m still standing.  God is still faithful. Jesus is still Lord.  The Holy Spirit is still pouring out into my life God’s amazing grace.

What’s your story?  What are your stones and places of Remembrance?  Where, in your life, have you built some altars and made commitments to God at them, commitments that mean so much to you that you would never compromise the memory or the grace? 

Are you gaining ground in your life?  That is what this series of messages have challenged us to do.  Come near to God, finds ways in your life to keep His grace front and center.  Let God be God, and move into your future within the embrace of God.

Would you pray with me this prayer from A. W. Tozer?

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace…O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory…so I may know Thee indeed…. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

DO WE DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE?

This past weekend pastor Dave Roberts spoke to us of our call to make a difference in the world, our call to work with Jesus so that His prayer will be answered, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). In the message he shared with us the Serenity prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity 


The things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things which should be changed, 


And the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Living one day at a time, 


Enjoying one moment at a time, 


Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, 


Taking, as Jesus did, 


This sinful world as it is, 


Not as I would have it, 


Trusting that You will make all things right, 


If I surrender to Your will, 


So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, 


And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

                                                        Amen.

           

            Then Pastor Dave spoke to us of Caleb, an eighty-five year on man of God who refused to retire to the sidelines, and took upon himself a challenge that forever endears himself to people of God who really do believe that in God they can make a difference in this world.

           

Caleb had a dream he needed to see through.  It was a dream that got placed on hold for some forty-five years because of a 10-2 vote not to do the will of God.  Caleb was one of the two that voted to do God’s will, but he, along with Joshua, were outnumbered, outvoted, and overruled.  The future was put on hold.  The dream had to wait.

           

The future belongs to those who believe in God, however.  In time the condition was right, the attitude of the people was right, and the dream catapulted itself to the surface once again.  Caleb, with his eyes on God, went to his old friend, Joshua, and asked of him to let the dream loose again, with the promise, “The Lord helping me,” I can do this (See Joshua 14:12).  Joshua agreed, and gave the hill country of the Promised Land to Caleb, knowing that the work there was not yet completed, and that Caleb would, indeed, have to lean hard on God to achieve the fulfillment of the dream.

           

Pastor Dave got us to thinking about Caleb and about how, with the prime of his life behind him, gave it all to God and made a profound difference in the life of God’s people and in his world. 

           

Caleb sets me talking to myself and listening to God.  The conversation goes this way: “God, how can I make a difference for you in this world?  If I gave myself to You, and let You help me step-by-step, what dream would you dream in me and let loose in my sphere of influence?  What might you do with a thousand people who began praying, ‘With the Lord helping us we can ….’”?

           

Our congregation is being called day-by-day to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  With this in mind, pastor Dave has called us over and over, and will most likely do it again and again in the future, to pray with “shameless audacity” (See Luke 11:5-13, NIV).  Montrose Church has stepped out by faith, praying with “shameless audacity,” that God will raise up a healthy church in the East Washington Village of Pasadena.  How might you be apart of the answer to that prayer? 

           

Our church is stepping up and coming alongside a sister church in Santa Monica to make a difference so that congregation might have a fresh start in this new day of ministry, and that it might know there are people praying with “shameless audacity” for God’s “Good and pleasing and perfect” will to be done in that town and in the surrounding communities.

           

Our church is shamelessly praying that God will lead us as we consider the possibility of uniting with another congregation in coming alongside the people of Swaziland in Africa, to minister for Christ in a place in desperate need of grace and hope.

           

What dreams shall we dream?  What mountain are we asking for with “shameless audacity?”  “Do I dare disturb the universe?” T. S. Eliot asked in his poem (“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”).  Do we dare?  It’s a big universe and there are just a thousand of us.  Do we dare disturb the universe? 

           

What was it Reinhold Niebuhr?

God, give us grace to accept with serenity

The things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

Which should be changed,

And the Wisdom to distinguish

The one from the other.

           

There are most likely things over which we have no control, and we ought not to fret over the fact that we cannot change them.  There are some things, however, “which should be changed,” and in these we ought to rise up with our God and “dare disturb the universe,” and with “shameless audacity,” pray, “Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

           

Is it too dramatic to speak this way, too grandiose a thought?  I will leave that to others to debate.  I only know that to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” captivates my heart and stretches my imagination.  Give me Caleb’s spirit.  Give me the hill country.   

My old professor, J. Kenneth Grider, who is now in heaven, prayed it this way.  May we pray this prayer with “Shameless audacity,” and then give our lives to Jesus as He gives His life for the world.         

Father,

I am Your bread. Break me up and pass me around to the poor and needy of this world.

I am Your towel.  Dampen me with tears and with me wash the feet of people who are weary with walking and with working.

I am Your light.  Take me out to where the darkness is thick, there to shine and let Christ shine.

I am Your pen.  Write with me whatever word You wish, and placard the word where the least and the lost of the world will see it and read it and be helped by it.

I am Your salt.  Sprinkle me on all the things that You want for people, so that my faith and love and hope will flavor their experiences.

I am Your water.  Pour me into people who thirst for You but do not even know that it is You for whom they thirst.  Pour into them the trust that You have helped me to place in You.  Pour into them the inward witness that is in me.  Pour into them the promise that soon the summer drought will pass and refreshing rivers of water will gush down over them.

I am Yours, Lord God.  Use me up in what You will, when You will, where You will, for whom You will, even if it means that I am given responsibilities that are considerable and costly

Amen!!

This article is too long, and for that I apologize, but allow me one last word, please.  Whether it be Montrose, Pasadena, Swaziland, or wherever, count me in. 

A VBS MOMENT

Vacation Bible School is underway this week in our church, and each night some 250 kids and their counselors take over the campus and bring it alive with sounds of laughter, energy, creativity, worship (and did I mention, sounds, very loud sounds, in fact?).  It is organized chaos, and it is a beautiful thing to behold.

An awesome thing happened on Wednesday night of this VBS week.  One of our teen counselor’s, Becca, shared with me that in her small group that night the girls were sharing that somewhere in their past they had asked Jesus into their lives, but they didn’t really know what it means, and they hadn’t taken it too seriously, and they didn’t talk to God much because they really never thought about it.  Becca asked them if they had thought about having the kind of relationship with Jesus that really mattered.  One of them responded, “You mean you get to start all over even if you mess up.”  Becca shared, “Yes.  God loves you.  He wants you and He cares for you.”  And, the girls all talked to God.  They took each other’s hands, formed a circle, prayed and asked Jesus to live in them.  And then they were off to the next event of the evening.

Way to go, Becca.   You probably didn’t think about it at the time, but thanks for sharing with those young gals that God is love and that He cares about them so much that even if they “Mess up” God is still right there pulling for them, and loving them, and caring for them.  On Wednesday you did more for God and those three little girls then you could ever know.  Thanks for being there.

As I have thought about this VBS conversation I’ve come to see again how fearful we are of messing up.  Why are we that way?  What if messing up and failing were a part of the way God works in our lives.  None of is perfect.  All of us have failed at something, even fallen short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23).  Knowing this, why are we sometimes shocked when somebody messes up?  Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think God wants us or wills us to mess up.  He just knows us too well, so well, in fact, that His Word tells us, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (I John 2:1).

You know one of the wonderful things about God’s grace is that He doesn’t write us off when we fall.  The truth is that when we fail or fall or “mess up” we have no better cheerleader on our side than “Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”  The apostle Paul even said, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful…” (2 Timothy 2:13). 

If God remains faithful let’s not allow ourselves to be defined by our failures.  If Jesus really is our “Advocate with the Father,” then when we “mess up,” let’s just get right back up and run into the arms of the Father who loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).  After all, failure isn’t fatal; at least it doesn’t have to be. 

Never let failure be the final word.  Remember that God isn’t the God who writes people off but the God whom, in Jesus Christ “left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love and bled for Adam’s helpless race” (Charles Wesley).

I think it is very cool when a VBS conversation between a teen counselor and three elementary age children remind us of what may just be the most important reminder we could ever need, that even when we “mess up” God just keeps on loving us.  I have a feeling that those three young VBS girls will not live a perfect life on their way to adulthood.  I’m pretty sure they will mess up from time to time.  I’m also pretty sure that when they “mess up,” the first person on the scene to help them up will be this incredible Advocate named, Jesus.” 

My plea is for you and me to be there for these three young gals, and all the young folks in our sphere of influence, and to keep reminding them just how much God loves them.  They may not have their act together one hundred percent of the time, but one hundred percent of the time God will have His act together and He will be faithful.

I always wondered why I loved VBS so much.  I think I found my answer on Wednesday evening.