What if My Thoughts Were Mic'd Up

Lebron James was mic'd up during the recent round of the NBA playoffs. While there are moments where he may be kind of playing up to the mic (the pregnant woman comment for instance), I do think we see Lebron's leadership front and center. Very happy he is back in Cleveland (where he belongs).

Which leads me to think - "what if my thoughts were mic'd up". I heard Pastor Joe say this weekend that God knows our thoughts and if others would see it on the screen of life, we would be so rapidly disqualified from just about everything. Probably just in the past 24 hours my thoughts would reveal the following:

• Calling someone (under my breath) a "f---- ass----" who almost cut me off on the trail.
• Lusting over the scantily clad girl in Panera
• Getting impatient over a slow driver in front of me
• Feeling I am not getting recognized for something I should
• Being covetous over some recognition someone else got
• Mind wandering in church while we are singing hymns (thinking about the Cavaliers interestingly enough)
• ..... and that is in the past 24 hours or so

It is not surprising that when Jesus talks to the Pharisees he brings things always back to the seat of the mind. Permit me to paraphrase Jesus.  "You say do not commit adultery, but I say you have already committed adultery in your mind". "You say do not commit murder, but I say whoever curses or calls someone fool is guilty of fiery hell".

No way you would be my friend if you knew what I thought. There is a very fine line separating me from the worst person we can imagine. That is what is so amazing about grace. Grace is God seeing me and knowing me at my absolute worst and loving me, pursuing me, caring for me, sacrificing for me. God, the creator taking my absolute worst upon himself in judgment and freeing me from the tyranny of my own thoughts.

I get heaven - God judicially paying the penalty for my worst. That is grace. But I also get life here. Seeing good in people, loving people, caring for people. Not perfectly - that will never happen this side of eternity. But imperfectly through my own carnal flesh. Lord, as you mic up my thoughts, thank you for accepting me at my worst and transforming me into your image.

Acts of Honesty

We live in a fallen world where it seems like daily we are disappointed by others or we seem to disappoint them. But then there are days where seemingly simple acts just overwhelm us. We had two incidences in the past few weeks where simple honesty was evident.

The first is when we were in Arizona and we were on our way to the wedding when Deb realized she had left her camera and iPhone sitting on the bench outside the hotel. We were already 20 minutes away when she realized it so I went back. When I got to the hotel, the hotel receptionist said that the husband of one of the housekeepers had picked it up and turned it in. "Thank you sir whoever you are" (should have gotten his name).

The second is even more amazing. We got this voice mail a few days ago. The quality is not great but listen to this message.

The TSA agent, Chris O' Brien had found the billfold of a friend of mine with my card in it and called me. I had met with my friend for breakfast that day and I knew he was traveling to St. Louis so it was pretty easy to determine who it belonged to. It had a fair amount of money it and Ms. O'Brien went the extra mile to call me and then to make arrangements to send the billfold back to my friend. He has since told me he has received the billfold with a Money Order for the full amount of cash.

How easy it would have been to keep it or just turn it in. As someone who has bashed the TSA from time to time as an ineffective, bureaucratic organization, I was reminded by the Holy Spirit that people work there and people make the difference. Thank you Ms. O'Brien for your simple act of honesty!

The breath of God (Holy Spirit) lived out through people is how I term this. Now I don't know if Ms. O'Brien or the husband of the housekeeper knew the Lord. But I do know that honesty is one of the marks of a spirit-filled person. It is a mark of common grace. Common grace is exhibited in our world every day. I know I sometimes don't appreciate it like I should and these little reminders are so helpful that though we live in a fallen world, the breath of God is evident.

A Promise I Made 30 Years Ago

Tomorrow, I will be celebrating 30 years of keeping a promise. I made a promise 30 years ago to take a person, Debbie to be my wife. I promised that I would love and cherish her as my wife for a duration of time - till death do us part. I made a contract (a covenant) in front of God and witnesses. The contract had a symbol in the form of a ring. I still wear that ring and it reminds me of the contract I entered into. And in the beauty of old technology, here is that promise I made.

 

Marriage is very hard. Deb and I love mentoring young couples that look starry-eyed at each other not knowing what the future holds. We say that the first 10 years of our marriage were pretty brutal. We say that we both made a promise and God honored that promise. The promise is what mattered - the feelings come along. I "feel" more strongly about Debbie than I ever have but those feelings are secondary and come from the promise.

We live in a world where promises have little resolve. We hear of marriages where the couples "grow apart". We look for compatibility using online dating sites. We "try it out" by living together. Trying it out sounds logical, but without the covenant promise it carries no weight. I am utterly convinced and so is Deb that God saved our marriage by a) us honoring the promise we made, and b) us committing our marriage to prayer. I heard a statistic just this week that marriages have a divorce rate of 1 in 1500 where the couples pray together. The general odds are 50/50. It does not surprise me - marriage truly is supernatural! God weaves together two broken, selfish, sinful people together as a couple. The marriage union is a symbol of Christ's love for His people the church. It is the closest thing we get on this earth to the supernatural union of Christ with us. Christ's love for us was evident for us on the cross and ratified with these words "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). When I make a marriage promise, I am using these same words.

Righteous vs. Unrighteous Anger

A number of years back I was playing for our church softball team. It was a large church so we actually fielded a very competitive team and played in an industrial league. One game we were being beaten fairly badly and the other team seemed to be yukking it up at our expense. Our coach came in and said in all seriousness that we need to kindle our "righteous anger".

Now, I am not sure I can peg exactly righteous anger vs. unrighteous anger, but I know that was not it. I will give it my best shot however using the lens of Scripture and the Holy Spirit to guide me. Righteous anger looks at things through God's eyes. Well God hates sin but loves the sinner. That is why Jesus could go into the temple (twice) and turn over the tables of the moneychangers who pretended they knew God but could love the woman at the well, or the woman caught in adultery, or rich young ruler, or the cheat Zacchaeus. Not once did he approach these obvious sinners in anger. The difference - they did not know God or really even pretend to know God.

Unrighteous anger is looking at things through the lens of man. All too often we flip the two - we hate the sinner before we hate the sin. No wonder James says that the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (James 1:20). Truth be told, many of us are not that far off from the hatemongers at Westboro Baptist Church.

I have said many times that I have an anger problem. Many people would not say that that know me but those who know me best can attest to it.  As I was thinking about this blog today while I was riding my bike, a car came up behind me and laid on the horn as I was turning left at a red stop light. No doubt from a legal perspective I had the right to the lane and there was one car at the lane. I should have let it go, but instead I cursed at the man in flowery words that I am quite capable of letting loose. The man yelled right back at me. I doubt seriously that man knew I name the name of Christ in my heart.  That is the anger of man illustrated before my very eyes.

To nip anger in the bud requires me to look at another sinner like me through the God lens. God sees another lost person just like me. He sees another man or woman worthy of His grace just like me. I missed it today and pray I will see it tomorrow.