Just take moment to wonder

Just take a moment to wonder

What does this life really mean?

If Jesus never had risen

How would it change a thing?

So much around us is sadness

So many reasons for pain

Where is the hope Where is the joy

That Jesus has risen again

What does it mean in my life?

What does it mean in your day?

What does it mean that Jesus rose again

What does it mean to me?

If there is no resurrection

He has not risen at all

We have no faith for salvation

Hopeless in Adams fall

But now he is risen in glory

Now in his life we can share

And from his throne

Now he will reign

Soon we will be with him there

Lord, make this truth make my Mondays

More than a case of the blues

And let my sins’ crucifixion

Give me the life you would choose

Make me respond to your freedom

Take all my life as I give

This is my hope this is my joy

Rising with you I will live

That’s what it means in my life

That what it means in my life

That’s what it means to me

by James Ward

Holy Week

So here we are at Holy Week. Some people are unaware. Some people go through it ritualistically and others turn up their noses at the ritual. Hopefully, I land somewhere in between where the ritual serves to make me more aware of what Jesus’ work on the cross means for me in an ultimate and a quotidian context. For the past several months I have been trying to read  the Bible with fresh eyes and not the ones that have read it more times than I can remember. The story of the Exodus has amazed me ever since I saw the words, “Then they will know that I am the LORD.” Then it began to dawn on me that God works in our lives in such a way to help us to know him. In Philippians , Paul talks wanting to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. It is the resurrection that shows us what God has done for us. But back to Exodus. It is easy to read the OT stories as Israel’s story, but they are a picture for us of our own story. I have been thinking that passing through the parted Red Sea is much like being delivered from our sins. Behind them was slavery and hopelessness and death, and in front of them, well, they had to continue to trust that the water walls would hold up until they were through. They could not see God, but they could see what he was doing. Then after they get through it to the other side for a few days they start complaining. If we remember every morning what God has done for us, can we complain? Can we fret? There are repetitions of the account throughout the Bible of the incident as a reminder of why the Israelites ought to continue trusting in God. So he saved me from my sin. He saved me from hell. He left heaven and lived among a bunch of scumbags  so he could redeem  their stupid lives and transform them into glory. It puts me in mind of a James Ward song, “Just take a moment to wonder, “What does it really mean? If Jesus had never risen again, how would it change a thing? So much around is sadness, so many reasons for pain, Where is the hope, where is the joy…….(I’m missing a few words here in my head but the chorus goes on) What does it mean in your life? What does it mean in your day that Jesus rose again? Lord! make this truth make my Mondays more than a case of the blues!”

Maybe this afternoon I will scrounge around for more of the words. I can’t find them with a simple google.

I am…..Musing Melinda on a Monday Morning

St Patrick’s Day again.

The last time I posted about this, 2 years ago, this video did not exist on Youtube. So here it is the whole thing. You can see the words in the right margin. I read this line by Tennyson this morning (very early!) “The good men do lives after them.”  what a way to be annually remembered hundreds of years after you die.

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In a world of one earthquake after another, economic explosions and corrupt leadreship, How does anything go right? How does the sun keep shining? This is a refreshing reminder.

The perfect day, You think it can last forever, but it is 24 hours like all the rest.

Grace

Everybody is talking about grace these days. Where was it before? I don’t know that answer to that one, but what is grace, anyway?  The Merriam Webster seems a bit terse to me as it tries to accommodate this big word, and yet it is probably adequate for its purposes. My etymology is this. It comes from the Latin word ‘gratia’, which means ‘thankfulness’. Now change the word. Treat each other with thankfulness. Accept thankfulness when it is extended to you. Can we go wrong when we are thankful? I must confess I have spent some time yesterday and today being something less than thankful. I’ll probably do it tomorrow. I really would like to set someone right, but all the words running through my head feel like words that will alienate, rather than show grace, so I haven’t said anything. Another response is a cold shoulder. Less than gracious, ugh! So if  neither of my options is setting someone straight or ignoring them, what to do? Write a blog about grace!!!! Actually, I have had occasion to encourage my adult children to treat each other with grace . You can’t miss AND you’re probably going to need it yourself one day and you will be glad that you are being gracious now. So instead of saying what normally runs through my head I will tell you of a little grace I have experienced and share it with you.

I probably learned more about communicating teaching middle schoolers than anything else, including having my own.  I really did ask God to show me the way into their tender hearts because I knew so well what it meant to miss that connection. I had one little girl who was very subtly naughty. But she had it all over her face, and I knew there were things that I needed to address with her. I knew that saying, “My dear, your grades are really bad and your lack of attention in class will get you nowhere.  What are you going to do about it? “  would probably end up in silence and shrugs. I decided to ask a question and I put myself in the place of responsibility and said “What can I do to help?” She opened up her sinful little heart and let out a lot of issues that really needed dealing with. And we began to. I will never forget it.

Another thing. One summer I took a course on how to tutor kids with learning disabilities. It was so enlightening. It is so easy to think that everybody ought to work the same way, but God has made us with incredible variety, and yet in types. One day the teacher gave us a list of words and told us to tell why the words were spelled correctly. I said, “I don’t know. I just always could.” (Any misspellings are typos) . It’s so easy to say “We did ________ in school” because I did it in school. I learned a lot about myself in that class and not because I would be labeled as learning disabled. I am the type that will answer quickly if I have the answer. People need to learn that they need to let others think for a few minutes, then they might have an answer, too, and wise is the teacher who creates this space. That does not usually happen in adult Sunday School!

So this is what I have to say:  Next time you don’t think you agree with someone OR you have the answer on the tip of your tongue, ask them, is this what you are saying? Is this what you asking of me? before you jump on a soapbox and preach a sermon. Sometimes a lot of words just pound your point in and no one can appreciate a pounding very well. Unless they accept it with grace. But if you extend the grace, you might be surprised.