Sweet Words from Maine

Do I really care?

Although the Bible speaks some amazing words, it raises some mighty big questions! The Psalmist said, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand.. “(Psalm 139:17-18) Is that just poetry, or is it truth? Those thoughts challenge even the most devout believers! Does God inhabit humanity’s fallen and broken circumstances? Is His goodness present in moments of pain, suffering, grief and injustice? What is the evidence? How can we know His thoughts? However, an overarching question lurks! Do we really care what God thinks? Are we like those of whom Job spoke? “They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ (Job 21:14-15 (ESV)

A read of the entire 139th clearly indicates that the Psalmist had a relationship with God on multiple levels. God was his Creator, his ever present caring, all knowing Sovereign, and his Savior. The Scriptures were vital to his discovery of God, whose wisdom, and insights for living brought value, stability, and joy to the Psalmist’s spirit.

“The instructions of the LORD are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are clear, giving insight for living. Reverence for the LORD is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the LORD are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb…They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.” (Psalm 19:7-11 (NLT2) “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11)

The 139th Psalm draws us to the reality that even though God’s purposes and plans are good, they may not be convenient, comfortable, or understood. As the hymn says, “There are things as we travel this earth’s shifting sands/That transcend all the reasons of man.” Yet, throughout Scripture and the historical narratives, God has cherished humanity and has opened His nature, His thoughts, His compassionate purposes, and His unfailing promises to us.

The enormity and the intensity of His mercy and grace and His faithful pursuit are most vividly illustrated in the nature, life, and sacrificial work of Christ, whom Scripture identifies as the Word, or the image and expression of God in humanity and the one whose words are “spirit and life.” Jesus said that believing in him and his word sets one “free” and brings eternal life. (John 1:1; 3:16; 8:32; 6:63; 11:25; 15:3) His words are powerful and redemptive.

God as a good Father is active in His creation. He illuminate minds, exposes character weaknesses and the inadequacy of our righteousness to redeem ourselves. Through believing faith, which the Apostle Paul calls “more precious than gold,” He lifts us up, and enfolds us in His eternal protection. His words teach and correct us, show us that He desires ultimate good for us, and give us hope. And understanding and applying God’s Word show us how to live rightly.(1 Peter 1:7)(2 Timothy 3:16-17(Hebrews 4:12)(2 Timothy 2:15; 3:16)

Although God’s Word is as important today as it was in the days of the Psalmist, the question remains: are we too entwined in the business and “reasons of man” to discover His wonderful thoughts toward us?

“As the Deer Pants for Flowing Streams….”

There is a uniqueness about the Psalms. They are emotionally raw, wonderfully poetic, spiritually deep, and personally applicable. Around 1984, Martin Nystrom wrote “As the Deer Pants,” a song inspired by Psalm 42. I first heard this hymn while riding rather uncomfortably in the bed of an old pick up truck along a rutted, dusty road in Thailand. Our small medical team was returning from several Laotian villages situated beside the Mekong River. As we bumped along in a beautiful, fading but glorious sunset mixed with warm tropical air, lovely Thai/Lao voices began singing in a language I neither spoke nor understood, but the music was deeply touching.

“As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longs for you”

As one reads this Psalm, one can almost hear the Psalmist’s sweet tenor voice: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.“… “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”…“My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you…”…“By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me…”…“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” ( Excerpts from Psalm 42:1-11)

When our personal worlds are challenging or deeply painful, our tendency is to seek immediate relief. We want today’s pain, fear and anxiety to go away, to have resolution of our situations, to refrain from borrowing tomorrow’s troubles, and to be assured that all this matters in some grander scheme.

Matt Boswell and Matt Papa also wrote a beautiful song inspired by Psalm 42. Its phrases resonate with sorrow, doubt and longing : “Lord, from sorrows deep I call/ When my hope is shaken/… Hear my desperation/…Storms within my troubled soul/Questions without answers…” However, neither Psalm 42 nor these songs leave us in despair. There is hope. “When all I possess is grief/God, be then my treasure/Be my vision in the night/Be my hope and refuge/.” (Lord, from Sorrows, Deep I Call)

Our spiritual yearnings are deep and often unfulfilled. We long for love, for forgiveness, for comfort, peace, and joy in mind and heart. Happily, Scripture attests that we have been made by God, for God, to be like God, and to live with God. He is the reality of life, the sustainer of our universe. He loves humanity and is an ever- present, behind the scenes helper. He is the God of peace, comfort and hope.

We should treasure Him. The Psalmist did.

God is not the Psalmist’s idol or some abstract force or designer but is his personal, “living God.” He is confident that God has his back. When distracted from his God-thoughts, when “cast down,” when worried, sad, afraid, depressed, and anxious, his spirit is revived by consciously remembering who God is and what He has done. In that darkness, God soothes him with a lullaby. (“at night his song is with me”)

One of Christ’s great promises is that he will satisfy the thirsting soul. He said that whoever seeks first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness will have his/her needs met and that whoever is “thirsty,” that whoever believes in him and desires what he offers, will receive “living water.” (Matthew 6:33)(John 4:10; 7:37-39) The pure, unconditional, redemptive work of Christ is an enduring, life-giving gift of love for all people. It is a powerful thought that he gave up heaven to shepherd humanity through the valleys, through the days and nights of suffering, grief and adversity.

He is not just on call. He is present.

Remembering God enabled the Psalmist to face life from a position of strength. Remembering God kept him grateful and focused and confident that God was his “salvation,” the redeemer of his spirit ,and a faithful presence. Some of us may never have had any teaching about or remembrances of Jesus or may not have a mindset to consider him. If not, journeying with him through the Gospels can be life changing. Listen to him speak and teach and mentor; hear his prayers, declarative statements and promises; sense his deep compassion; watch him heal and forgive as he walked and ministered for three exhausting years which led him to a cruel, unjust death and then to a glorious resurrection in order to quench our thirst, in order to meet our desperate spiritual need for reconciliation with God.

In his humanity, Jesus bravely travelled through human trials, temptations and horrors because he relied upon the empowerment of His Father’s presence and promises and divine purposes as he survived deprivation, suffering, neglect, rejection, humiliation, sadness and sorrow and grief, injustice and persecution. He is familiar with weakness, pain, and injustice and touches the bodies, souls, and circumstances of disheartened, hopeless, lost people with resurrecting power which transforms the repentant, salvages circumstance, and reconciles the trusting to God for eternity.

A contemplative journey with Christ is worth it! He has experienced and conquered it all, even death, and he lives for us. His open invitation is to the living water which quenches our spiritual thirst forever because he promises to never leave or forsake those who trust him. (Matthew 28:20, Deuteronomy 31:8).

“ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29)

Bravely Facing “Fleeting” Time “with a Heart for any Fate”

Watching this sweet child racing the waves, flying like a fairy, building sand castles and enjoying the magic and awe of this beach and some other fantastical, ethereal place in her mind, one envies such pure, innocent, boundless imagination. She frolics unencumbered by the questions and worries of politicians, managers, philosophers, and theologians, unware of the chaos and cynicism of the culture she is inheriting, and unhindered by the nearsightedness of daily routines and worry, the traumas of surviving, and the fear of loss. She is free to enjoy the present without the restrictions imposed by reason, logic, and knowledge!

Prayfully, her imaginative energies will mature into discovering her value and giftedness , the wonders of her universe including the astonishing beauty of this world, a reverential awe of the transcendent, and the purpose and the eternality of her soul.

Henry W. Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life” is a poem containing the well known quote: “ Life is real! life is earnest! /And the grave is not its goal; /Dust thou art, to dust returnest/ Was not spoken of the soul.” Recognizing that there is more to life than our material existence, that purpose lies in a destiny somewhere beyond our earthly experiences, he said that “not enjoyment, and not sorrow/ is our destined end or way,” that human life must be faced by acting “Heart within, and God o’erhead!”

We struggle in this material world to find pleasure and fulfillment despite disappointments, failures, losses, and suffering. Scripture teaches us that there is a sovereign will for our lives, an enabling divine power by which we can live, and a faith which gives us victory over those things that can consume us. (1 John 5:4) God is the One who redeems us, our works, and our circumstances. He is all about redemption and will make the most of us and our messes through the Good News of Christ and the empowerment of the Gospel. (Romans 8:28-30)

Longfellow’s poem contains a reminder and a thoughtful exhortation about fulfilling our purposes: “Time is fleeting” and “Let us, then be up and doing/ With a heart for any fate…” That latter adage is undoubtedly the source of my college roommate’s frequent mantra that his father had taught him as a young boy. As he rolled out of his bed for early morning classes, he was motivated by the thought: ” I must be up and be doing for what can be sadder than to stop at the foot of the ladder!” But what does “up and doing “ mean according to Jesus? When he was asked, Jesus defined what it means to do God’s work: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29). Belief in Christ and his teaching is fundamental to the Christian context. Believing faith, trusting in the redemptive work of Christ, evolves into the practice of faith or living out personal circumstances with the selfless graces of Christ and his Gospel e.g. love, forgiveness, kindness, compassion, integrity, generosity, patience, and peace. Such Faith leaves “Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main/A forlorn and shipwrecked brother/Seeing, shall take heart again.”

However, faith looks beyond good works, social justice and immediacy to a spiritual journey and intimacy and future with God with great confidence in the declaration of “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?…But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1( Corinthians 15:55-57 )

God has done all that is possible to give us meaning and purpose and power to bravely face “fleeting time,” to embrace it “with a heart for any fate,” and to live in hopeful expectation.

Bravely Facing “Fleeting” Time “with a Heart for any Fate”

God has done all that is possible to give us meaning and purpose and power to bravely face “fleeting time,” to embrace it “with a heart for any fate,” and to live in hopeful expectation.

No Matter How Far away You Roam…

Hopefully, as we leave this Christmas season with its bright lights and uplifting music, worship services, and warm gatherings of family and friends, we have garnered excitement for a new year.

For some, it has been a sweet time. For others, this is a difficult time of year. Unfortunate or even tragic circumstances, seemingly unending pandemic uncertainties, severe family dysfunction and disconnectedness, loneliness, or unwarranted stress and lack of simplicity may have blunted Christmas joy because much of this season’s deep specialness is due to a sense of place and of connection with people with whom we have shared life. However, even if we have had losses or have not felt the sense of belonging or of being loved, this season is a gentle reminder that we are always on God’s mind, that we are never alone, that we have the eternal gift of Emmanuel-God with us.

For those who have been fortunate enough to have had a warm place from which as fledglings they could barely wait to leave, they long to go back at least once a year to the innocence and closeness of what “used to be.” We all listen to Perry Como or the Carpenters sing about “…the man who lives in Tennessee/…heading for Pennsylvania/And some home made pumpkin pie” and that “no matter/How far away you roam/If you want/To be happy in a million ways/For the holidays, you can’t beat/Home, sweet home.” So, like the sparrows returning to Capistrano every mid March, we eagerly return in December to relive favorite, family traditions with those who still love us. Sometimes, we can only memory-travel to sweet people and years past, but often we take those “Country Roads” back to “mountain Mama” or to quiet, fishing villages in Maine, or to places about which John Denver sang, “Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend/Yes, and hey, it’s good to be back home again.”

Actually, Christmas is more about leaving home than about returning, about new experiences rather than reliving the past. God, who is a historically proven, faithful promise keeper, had promised many centuries before Christ that there would be One who would take the chastisement for our sins and heal our wounds. Then in time, Christ left heaven’s safety, splendor and perfection and miraculously joined humanity in his difficult pilgrimage of love through this chaotic world only to be rebuffed by its cold evilness. (Isaiah 53) Although his advent was announced with great joy and with a promise of peace for a troubled humanity, (Luke 2:10-14) he and his message were not readily accepted, and he longed to be home with his heavenly Father, who was his constant source of joy and peace. However, divine love and purpose conquered his difficulties and homesickness.

He journeyed from Christmas to Easter through a vail of harassments and human afflictions. Only after completing the objectives designed for him, after accomplishing the will of His Father, after dealing with the difficulties and temptations of humanity, after enduring the wrath and shame of a cruel, criminal’s cross for our unholiness so that we could be at peace with God, after guaranteeing our hope of everlasting life with an astonishing resurrection, after he had done what he could, he joyfully returned home leaving us with the promise that those who will trust him will also have a heavenly home (Hebrews 12:2) ( John 14) which the Apostle Peter described as “…an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (John 14:1-6) (1 Peter 1:4-5)

Regardless of who we are, what our earthly traumas have been, what we may have done, or what our current situation may be, God understands us, values us, and has never abandoned us. His love is immeasurable. (Romans 8 :38)(John 3:16) Even in our rebellion, He mercifully opens His welcoming arms like a shepherd rescuing a wandering, lost lamb by carrying it back to the protection of the fold. He longs to be our home, our Refuge, our mighty Fortress, our Salvation.

On a special night in Bethlehem, He fulfilled that ever so distant, wonderful prophetic promise as angels declared the good, joyful news for all people that God had sent forth His Son. The Savior had been born to heal mankind, to make those who desire to to be God’s sons and daughters, to be His family. (Luke 2:10-11) (Galatians 4:4-7) That is His gracious gift to all who choose to receive it. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

That was and is great news! His love pursues us regardless of where we may roam. By faith, we arrive where we are accepted, where we were made to be–home with God.

Underneath Change

A recent poll of Americans found them to be exhausted and fearful and confused about the future. Sometimes it seems that “time” is filled with a jumbled, disconnected series of stories without a cohesive meaning.

“Time” does change things, or things change with time. Seasons pass. Years pile up. Successes and happy times come and go. Changes may be filled with joy or despair, readily apparent and dramatic, or barely perceptible and overlooked. But “time” holds both personal and cosmic trajectories.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox captured the uncertainties of “change” in her poem by that name: “ Is it so very strange/ That hearts, like all things underneath God’s skies/Should sometimes feel the influence of change?/The birds, the flowers, the foliage of the trees/The stars which seem so fixed, and so sublime/Vast continents, and the eternal seas/ All these do change, with ever-changing time.

The face our mirror shows us year on year/ Is not the same; our dearest aim, or need,/Our lightest thought, or feeling, hope, or fear/ All, all the law of alternation heed./How can we ask the human heart to stay/Content with fancies of Youth’s earliest hours?/The year outgrows the violets of May/Although, maybe, there are no fairer flowers.” (portions of the poem, “Change”, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

Our safety, health, economic stability, national security, affections, and commitments are fragile, not guaranteed, and waver if unattended. However, in the background of human existence, God’s commitment has remained purposeful and unfaltering because His nature is immutable. Nothing about God’s nature changes. His holiness, His sovereign power, His unwavering redemptive love, and His principles for living well are constants. His Word lives and endures and does not mutate with the follies and philosophies of culture. It is firmly established. (Psalm 119:89) (Isaiah 40:8) (Matthew 5:17-19) ( Matthew 7:24-27) (1 Peter 1:25)

Even when tested by Israel, God loved them and told them “…I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. (Malachi 3:6) Those profound and reassuring words echo throughout history as a message for all of mankind, a message which He proved through the extreme price paid for the world’s redemption through the sacrificial death of Christ for our sins. And Jesus Christ’s purposes do not change. He is “ the same yesterday, today, and forever.”(Hebrew 13:6)

In 1882, George Matheson, a Scottish parish minister, expressed this same thought differently but beautifully: “O Love that will not let me go/I rest my weary soul in thee/I give thee back the life I owe, /that in thine ocean depths its flow/ may richer, fuller be.“

Over 400 years ago Isaac Watts wrote “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”, a beautiful, magestic hymn which we sing in our churches today : “Before the hills in order stood/or earth received its frame/from everlasting you are God, to endless years the same.// O God, our help in ages past/ our hope for years to come/ still be our guard while troubles last/ and our eternal home.

That is tracking into time’s highest trajectory for all creation….Underneath and beyond personal dreams and successes, beyond altruism and common good, God wants our weary souls to know Him and enjoy Him forever. He has done everything possible to make that possible as He redeems His creation.

No Matter How Far away You Roam…

Hopefully, as we leave this Christmas season with its bright lights and uplifting music, worship services, and warm gatherings of family and friends, we have garnered excitement for a new year.

That was and is great news! His love pursues us regardless of where we may roam. By faith, we arrive where we are accepted, where we were made to be–home with God.

Romancing the World

Bucks Harbor, a small, fishing harbor in Washington County, Maine, lies in the distance beyond the sheep. Lobster boats are gently rocking on the tide but are invisible in the foggy, snowy distance. Jesus probably would have been at home here. It was the life he lived! Sheep and fishermen were elements in his earthly life’s experience and fodder for his practical teaching and parables. His closest friends were fishermen, but it was to Shepherds that his astonishing birth was announced.

Dr. Luke detailed that astounding, awe inspiring, but somewhat odd event. A heavenly blaze of God’s glory illuminated the sky; a small field of humble shepherds who were watching their flocks at night were startled with a shocking, bewildering, dramatic, angelic message that the long awaited Messiah had been born and was lying in a manger. Then a multitude of the heavenly host appeared praising God for peace among those with whom (God) was pleased! (Luke 2:1-21)

What a strange, baffling, and inconvenient way to deliver such a powerful message! Why would this universally needed, supremely important message from heaven itself be committed to poor, powerless people who had no technical way to broadly convey it? “Downhere,” a Canadian Rock Band, poses similar questions: ” A child in a manger? Lowly and small, the weakest of all/ Unlikeliest hero, wrapped in his mother’s shawl/ Just a child/ Is this who we’ve waited for?” “Cause how many kings stepped down from their thrones? How many lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? And how many Gods have poured out their hearts/To romance a world that is torn all apart? How many Fathers gave up their Sons for me?

Surely, such long awaited, dramatic news deserved better press! However, anonymity and humble beginnings protected the Christ child from the corrupting influences of religion and politics, from opportunists, and from opponents who would have either annihilated him or would have manipulated him into goals and ideas that perverted the Gospel’s redemptive message and the transformation of souls.

Nobody was prepared for the Messiah to be born in suspect circumstances in a cattle stable to humble parents only to slowly grow into the person God meant him to be, to become an itinerant rabbi who championed the eternal Kingdom of God but would die a criminal’s death instead of becoming a warrior King who could improve Israel’s circumstance and advance its political goals. But “Emmanuel,” God embodied in flesh, had stepped into His creation in a unique way in order to bring peace to all humanity. (John1:1-5) (Colossians 1:15-16) (Hebrews 1: 1-3) Was there a catch? Was there an exclusionary clause in the message “and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased” ? Were they speaking only of Israel? Was this a contradiction? Wasn’t the message one of joy to all people?

God’s grace is immense; it covers the world. His inexpressible love and mercy are for the undeserving; His special peace and joy come through belief for “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come” to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Religions have spent centuries devising suggestions and methods and dogma on how to please and implore God for peace and joy through works, sacrifices, self humiliations, deprivations, rituals, and traditions. However, Christ revealed God’s grace : his advent, his life, his teachings, his cruel crucifixon which showed the awful punishment that unholiness deserves, his bodily sacrifice and death which took God’s wrath for that unholiness and built the bridge of reconciliation between man and God, and his resurrection which gives us the great confidence of life eternal. Clearly, the message of redemption was for “whosever will,” for the whole world, for Jew and Gentile, for the civilized or uncivilized, for the “sinner” as well as the religious or socially “worthy.” (John 3:16; 8:12) (Acts 2:21)(Galatians 3:28) (Colossians 3:11) Christ is the “once for all” Savior. (Hebrews 7:26)

Charles Wesley wrote a hymn beautifully stating the truth of Christ: “Love divine, all loves excelling/joy of heaven, to earth come down/…Jesus, thou art all compassion/ pure, unbounded love thou art/Visit us with thy salvation/ enter every trembling heart.” “Come, Almighty, to deliver, let us all thy life receive…”

God wanted the world to experience heaven’s joy through Christ, who said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11; 17:13) Therein lies the true Christmas story, the story of God’s steadfast, ever enduring, ever pursuing, immeasurable love for us. That story demands a response. It impacted Isaac Watts, who wrote: ”Joy to the World the Lord has come, Let earth receive her king, Let every heart prepare him room, and Heaven and Nature sing”

Romancing the World

“In the Bleak Midwinter”….

Long, cold, 18th century, English winters inspired Christina Rossetti’s Christmas poem, In the Bleak Midwinter. In the course of this dreary weather season, several religions celebrate special days which include the Jewish Festival of Lights or Hanukkah and the Christian celebration of Christ’s Advent or Christmas.

During the extended Christmas holiday, the airways are filled with festive music ranging from rock and pop to country, choral and classical. There is a genre for everyone. Musical moods vary from silly and light hearted to deeply worshipful, from “Grandma got run over by a Reindeer” to “O Holy Night.” There are traditional, Christmas carols or new Christmas albums by favorite vocal and instrumental artists and choirs. The list swings from sentimental to sacred, from I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “Home for the Holidays” to Joy to the World , Silent Night, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and Handel’s Messiah with its magnificent, stirring Hallelujah Chorus. These familiar songs rekindle the emotion, enjoyment, and excitement of Christmas year after year and hopefully help us remember the real reason for celebration!

Over a century after 18th Handel’s masterpiece, Christiana Georgina Rossetti composed In the Bleak Midwinter, a poem which became a hymn that was published as “A Christmas Carol.” Although recorded by artists such as James Taylor and Susan Boyle, its beautiful lyrics deserve the majestic sound of a cathedral choral group to give it a full, deeply worshipful sense. Those renditions can be found on YouTube.

The first verse describes the desolate circumstances surrounding Christ’s birth: “In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, /earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone…” The second verse speaks beautifully of Christ’s advent and his eventual, promised return: “Our God, Heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain/ heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign/ In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed/ the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. Verse three is about Jesus’ humble, isolated birth, and the fourth verse is a personal response to God’s great gift of love: What can I give him, poor as I am? /If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part/ yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

That last phrase clearly states the reason God sent his Son into humanity’s bleakness. Christ came so that mankind would know and respond to God’s incomparable, redemptive love with grateful hearts of love and loyalty.