Parable of the Old Chair

One day, an owner of a wonderful homestead was admiring the beauty of Creation all around it and decided that it needed a chair upon which he could rest and enjoy.

And the chair came out of the womb of its box and into the world, and it was beautiful indeed.
But as soon as the chair emerged, something strange happened.

Though it enjoyed many days of beautiful sunrises and sunsets and moonlit skies, fierce storms and harsh winds began to wound the chair, inside and out.

The storms were mean and relentless and came from every direction.

They tried to knock the chair over.

They blew branches onto it and pelted it time and again with many, many acorns.

Soon, the chair that the owner loved very much began to decay.

The owner knew his beloved chair needed rescuing, and when the sighing and creaking of the chair cried out for help, he was ready to get to work.

He knew that there could be no shortcuts.

No dusting things off and hoping the chair could hold on for a few more years.

No spray paint that is uneven, takes several coats, and easily misses the chair’s finer details.

Instead, he bought the finest brush that ever was made and he bought the finest paint that ever was applied...

Lovingly but ever so completely, he dipped the brush into a can that was labeled red but resulted in something amazing:

The decaying chair that the owner loved so dearly somehow turned pure white!...

His brush did not miss a crack, sliver, hidden corner or rough spot. 

Everything about the chair was beautiful,

And it was not just skin deep but from the inside out.

It was the same chair and yet it was without question brand new, and the owner loved it so.

And the chair no longer sighed and creaked and the owner danced over it with joy.

He could have kept his new-new chair out of harm’s way after that, but then it wouldn’t have been a very good or useful chair.

So the owner put the new-new chair back out into his yard where it belonged.

And just as before, there were many days of beautiful sunrises and sunsets and moonlit skies.

And there were still many fierce storms and harsh winds and tree limbs and sharp acorns that were mean and relentless and came from every direction, all trying to knock the chair over.

But no matter how hard they tried, they could not.

The owner had made sure of that.

In every season, the new-new chair stood strong. Nothing could kill it.

And it all brought not just many days but endless days of joy to the chair and its owner…

"For I am convinced and continue to be convinced—beyond any doubt—that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the unlimited love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

—Romans 8:38-39, Amplified

Football, Mom and the 'It'

(Photo: Charismanews.com)

"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!' And now, here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem." (Psalm 122:1, New Living Translation)

Among the many things the pandemic has revealed is something God has been trying to get through to us believers for centuries: worship of the living God is not confined to a sometimes closed or quasi-opened building. We are all mobile temples who carry His presence in us and with us wherever we go. We were meant to worship God at any time, anywhere. But at the same time, God also designed the purposeful gathering of His family in a particular location to be something akin to a stick of dynamite. It's "where the tribes go up"— different people from different neighborhoods, backgrounds, and interests with one common purpose, to...

...Worship the Lord who alone gives us life and breath and everything else we need.

Whether spaced apart and with masks on now or shoulder to shoulder once more when the pandemic passes, sparks of goodness and encouragement and faith-building occur when iron sharpens iron, elbows rub elbows, and completely different people who may never hang out with one another on a regular basis are of one mind about the incredible, daily reality of the living God working in their lives. It’s what happens when the dynamite Spirit of the living God swoops in and galvanizes it all, refreshing and re-energizing a bunch of imperfect people to go out the door and be the Church again for another week, wherever that may be.

If we’re not careful, though, doing all of that every Sunday can become routine and begin to feel like you’re going through the motions. Good. Not bad. But mostly feeling like you’re doing your Christian thing. Life gets messy and can preoccupy.  And then, “Oh look, here comes another Monday… “And sometimes, you’re reminded that it also means dealing with, well, people, and the idea of avoiding that can sound really appealing.

And so God invented football! And Super Bowl Sunday is a good day to be awakened and even humbled a bit….

Because millions of people really love football. They can't wait for Sunday. They think about "it" all week long, even in the midst of their daily stresses and routine. "It" keeps them going until that hour on Sunday afternoon when they can either enter the building with thousands of others or enter it vicariously through a 48-inch flat screen. The "it" of the game may mean one thing to one fan and another thing to someone else, but whatever "it" is, "it" has captivated their collective attention, stirred their expectancy and anticipation, and they cannot wait.

Whenever the whole idea of gathering in a building or joining the tribe online on any given Sunday feels a bit routine, it is good to think of the expectancy of the football fan. Better than that, unlike football, it is good to know that there is one very definable and powerful "it" that believers can always cling to and that should jolt alive any ho-hum Sunday into a day of worship expectancy and anticipation:

The cross and the empty tomb.

Even though none of us may ever fully understand the mystery of it all in this lifetime, when worship/church routine tries to creep in, all we have to do is look to the cross once more. That's “it!" Because through that cross, and Jesus' final gasping words on behalf of all who would believe — “It is finished! — something more amazing than the best football game ever played took place: the veil of separation between us and God was ripped open once and for all. Not only that, we are no longer destined for an eternity of death because the Savior of the world didn’t stay in the tomb but rose to life again and went back Home to be with His Father. And to this very day, He continues to intercede for us as we go on our daily journey.

This grandest of all “it” means we can regularly and always be in God's presence in every situation, and can approach Him with boldness and confidence. Every single minute of every single day... the God who always says "Yes" to His own promises, the God who has and still does the impossible, for Whom nothing is too difficult, and Who is the God of all comfort and wisdom.

I am reminded of my mom in her golden years, when walking and standing too long were painful and slow. It would take her forever to get from the car to her seat in church each Sunday, but nothing was going to stop her. And when the songs of praise and worship began, she wanted to be helped to her feet so she could grab the chair in front of her with one hand and have the other free for expressing her love for Jesus…

"Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe”…it’s more than a great song to sing, it’s a battle cry to follow the lead of the endlessly passionate football fan (and my mom)  and always be eager to worship with our very lives, both together and one-on-one, every single Sunday and especially all the Mondays-through-Saturdays to come. 

"Salvation is not mainly the forgiveness of sins, but mainly the fellowship of Jesus. Forgiveness gets everything out of the way so this can happen. If this fellowship is not all-satisfying, there is no great salvation. If Christ is gloomy, or evenly calmly stoical, eternity will be a long, long sigh." —John Piper

A Sunrise Like None Other

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." —Romans 15:13, NIV

Not a breeze, not a bird’s early morning call, not a sound from creation

Only a holy hush greeted the rising of the sun this morning on this hilltop back road in my hometown

A praise of deafening silence

One filled with a symphony of unspeakable glory and seemingly every color on the Artist’s palette

As if all in heaven and on earth were breathless at the Promise,

Bowing at the wonder as perhaps never before

To celebrate more than just another new day, but:

“He is risen…just as He said.”

And as I join the silence, three more unspoken words stir assurance as never before:

Hope ... is ... alive! 

Three words which trigger memories of earlier words written, perhaps for such a morning in such a time as this…

A hope that is not wishful thinking but anchored in the only One with a perfect resume;

A hope that is not "out there somewhere” but that is as real and as close as your next breath.

The perfect theme song for this often-crazy-unpredictable Journey;

Especially right now.

The kind of tune that is good to have stuck in your head.

A hope that restores…joy unspeakable, but joy nonetheless

And peace.

And trust for putting one foot in front of the other.

Over and over again…

And so in the deafening silence, before a sunrise like none other, my heart this day joins all of creation:

“Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You.”—Psalm 143:8

Pointing When Words Fail

"But if there are words for Him, then I don't have them...but what I do have is Good News..."― Pastor Isaac Wimberley, from the poem "Jesus, Forever"

The setting is mingling, networking, socializing, hanging out, and the conversation goes something like this...
So what do you do for a living?
Well, I'm in communications. Been working for years with words to try to express things clearly so people can understand a bit better.
Cool.
Also, a worship leader.
[insert blank stare] A what?
You, know, if you've ever been to church, that person up front who leads the singing?
Can't be. You would look weird in skinny jeans.
Haha, yeah, well don't believe everything you see on the Internet. This is New England. We come as we are and are comfortable in our own clothing, just like you.
It sounds like it could be fun.
Could be? Could be? Fun doesn't even come close to explaining it. It's joy, but that doesn't even come close to explaining it either. It's grueling and frustrating at times along the way, but not because it's really grueling or frustrating....see, that's the problem.
What could be the problem? You make music for 20 minutes and your day is done. Pretty sweet.
If only it were that easy.
Huh?
You see, well, I'm in communications. Been working for years with words to try to express things clearly so people can understand a bit better.
Yeah, so you said.
Except sometimes, many times even, in the days that lead up to Sunday, I've got nothin.' No words. Zilch.
Why, what's the problem? Just find a bunch of songs that everyone knows, and you're done.
Done that, and it's OK. But it's not the same as, well, I can't really explain...
You lost me.
OK, so if you're a woodworker, you agonize over the details of every curve and line before you hand it off to your customer, or if you're an athlete like TB12, you sweat every detail to achieve success.
Right.
Well, you can follow Jesus all your life, and experience Him in your day-to-day, and you think you know Him until He surprises you with something quite amazing or jaw-dropping at just the moment you need something amazing and jaw-dropping, and you can try to describe it, and try to describe Him, and you want to, need to, tell someone what it's like, to encourage them...but all the words in the world are not good enough.
So yeah, well, you said this thing you do is fun beyond fun, so I don't get it.
No, it really is, totally. It's just the head-on collision between my finite brain with its finite dictionary and the totally unconfined, ever-present everywhere you and I are God of the universe.
Woah.
That's it. Yes, woah! Wonder. To not just say words like "look" but strong words like "behold"―don't miss this!―the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That's the whole point.  He's the whole point. Jesus. Say the Name, over and over. That's where the power is. He's the only reason why we sing, why someone like me is up there leading the way, or trying to anyway―not to fill in the gaps leading up to the sermon or as some kind of pump up the crowd warm-up for all the other stuff to come.
Never thought of it that way before.
That's good! Next time you go to church, think woah! Here's what I mean, it's good to have a Christmas mindset all year long.
Huh?
Behold, this new twist on a familiar message:

For a Child has been born―for us!
The gift of a Son―for us!
He'll take over the running of the world.
His Names will be
Amazing Counselor
Strong God
Eternal Father
Prince of Wholeness.
His ruling authority will grow.
And there'll be no limits to the wholeness He brings.
He'll rule from the historic David throne, over that promised Kingdom.
He'll put that Kingdom on a firm footing
And keep it going
With fair dealing and right living.
Beginning now and lasting always.
The zeal of the God of the angel armies will do all this.

Good point.
When it comes down to it, worship leaders, you see, really would rather be contagious and put themselves out of a job....Just think what could happen if we all could communicate this woah!, in word and deed and attitude, as we walk out those church doors on any given Sunday....

[VIDEO: Pastor Isaac Wimberly, "Jesus, Forever," from "Forever" by Kari Jobe]