Accountability Post #14 – Watch out for the Naked People

This morning before my run, I got to go see some friends at Kirkwood High School for See You At the Pole.  Here’s a shout out to my K-Wood friends (even though, there is only one who will actually see it)!

I also saw this Bumper Sticker on the way home.

I didn't take this picture... I found it on another blog.

The blog I found this on thought this sticker was pretty great, but seriously, this is about as bad as the anti-Bush “Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for him!” sticker.  What a grumbly nation we live in!  We’ve been given Freedom to do so much, but we use it to openly complain about our leaders.  Our leaders are not all men of integrity (…), but they are our leaders, non-the-less.  We need to follow them, but be wise at the same time (they are all human, after all).

 

Isaiah 20 is pretty strange.  For starters Ashdod is defeated by King Sargon of Assyria, and secondly God tells Isaiah to walk around COMPLETELY NAKED for 3 years!  He’s making a point through Isaiah about Egypt being led captive, and he says they’ll be lead away “both young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered.”  …um, ok.

But I ask you, after the initial shock factor of about a week… maybe two… where everyone is getting used to you, and you’re getting used to you, would it really be that bad to not have to wear clothes??All the freedom? Not having to match your belt to your, um, shoe laces?  Seriously though…  you don’t have to answer that.

Accountability Post #12

Howdy!

This morning I took a 31 mile (that extra mile made the difference) bike ride with my friend and boss, Don.  It was a lot of fun, but I borrowed a friend’s bike and the seat was slanted down just a bit to much, so there was a lot of friction… nuf said.  I think I’ll be struttin’ a little like ole’ John Wayne for a day or two.

You may have noticed a post I left about Dying in 30 seconds (you may have not noticed, too).  I’m going to start leaving those post around here every now and again.  You never really know when you’re going to die (or dye!  Spontaneous Crafts are the new fad these days…), and not to sound morbid, but we should live each day like the last one we get.  Those post are going to be a collection of my last words, some serious & some ridiculous.  I hope you are encouraged and slightly confused.

There’s verse in Isaiah 15 & 16 as He’s talking about the downfall of Moab, that He says, “My heart cries out for Moab; her fugitives flee…”  I didn’t know a ton about Moab (I must have slept through the “Concise History of Ancient Moab” day in school), so I looked them up.  When Abraham’s nephew, Lot, fled from the Sodom – his wife having turned into a pillar of salt – it was just him and his two daughters.  Well, as if the story wasn’t weird enough already, his daughters decide it’s necessary for survival to get their dad drunk and try to get prego with him.  They do, and the boys they have, Moab and Ben-Ammi, go on to start two mighty nations, the Moabites and the Ammonites.  Israel’s history with them is up-and-down, mostly down, but I guess God held out hope for these nations until His judgment was completely necessary.

It just re-enforces the fact that God is slow to anger and abounding in love.

Why You are patient with us, God, I will never know, but thank you.  Please continue to be patient with those I love and those I don’t know.  Be patient with me, my wife and my boys.  I love You.  Amen.

Accountability Post #9 – Empathy

We cleaned out a large storage closet of youth ministry junk the other day at work, and among some other things, I got to bring home two Fantastic Inflatable Superdudes!  Check it out!

Shiny!

It may seem to you that they are small, but I’ll have you know, they’re taller than my 1 year old son.  And their dimensions may seem improbable, but if you squeeze their heads, they squeak.  Try to imagine how you would feel if you’re dad brought home two, squeaky-headed, oddly proportioned superheroes that were a foot taller than you; what would you do?  You’d probably do what my boy did, grab them by the cape and throw them around for a while. 

One more thing about inflatable superheroes:  they deflate.

I’ve spent a lot of time the last couple days thinking about, praying for, listening to, trying to give council to and hurting over friends/loved ones who are just plain-old-struggling.  The abundance doesn’t depress me because I think empathy is part of what makes being a human being doable, but it does cause my heart to hurt for the human condition.  Ooooo doggy, life is hard sometimes.

It was with the deflated heart of an inflatable superhero that I came to Isaiah 11 & 12.  I promise you that my best attempts at writing would not be able to convey to you the beauty of these Words as I sat hunched over my Bible at the end of a long day – better than a good cup of coffee.  You’ll just have to read them yourself, but before you do… read the World News for a while to achieve the right level of deflated-ness.

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!

p.s. I finished ground tilling/raking today and returned the tiller to our friends who let us borrow it, so combined with the golf club swinging of this week, my arms have had a pretty good workout. 

So long, Ground Tiller, you will not be missed.

Accountability Post #8

I know.

3 in one day is a bit much, but they were forthcoming.

I’m playing in a golf tournament this weekend for my Mom’s Non-Profit Organization, and I’m horrible at that pass-time.  So, for the last two days, I and a member of our foursome, Steve, have hit up the local driving range before work.  That means I didn’t run (mwa ha ha!)

Last year

I did read Isaiah 9 & 10, and both (despite their harsh language) contain great hope for us who didn’t deserve it.  Rock on!

Accountability Post #7

Really didn’t want to run today, but strength of will won out.  I figured out I’m running around an 8 minute mile.  I don’t know if that’s good or not, but I guess I can confidently sign up for the army now.  (OH, except for the parts of the army that I would not enjoy:  i.e. being away from family for long periods of time, the rigorous schedule, the lack of sleep, the potential for being shot at, and… the food.)  (Actually, now that I think about it, minus the “being shot at” thing, that’s what it’s like to be a touring musician, which I’m totally in favor of… Hmmm.)

Also didn’t want to read Isaiah 9, but I guess I was mighty of will today.  Although I read it, I’m really stuck at the end of Chapter 8.  I need more time to sit in those Words.  I need to understand what was happening when God instructed that His Testimony and His Teachings be bound up among His Disciples.  When He hid His face from the house of Jacob.  When He called His Faithful Ones “signs and portents.”  And when He says of the mediums and necromancers that they “have no dawn.”

It feels to me like the beginnings of war.  The gathering of supplies, the pulling into bunkers, that deathly silence before the bombs drop.  You can sneak a peek at Chapter 9, but I’m thinking that’s what’s about to happen.

Oh, for those who are “greatly distressed and hungry!”  God, please don’t hide Your face any longer.  Please don’t let them “speak contemptuously against their King and their God.”  Turn their hearts back to You, the one true God!

Accountability Post #6

Back to running today.

Let the brevity of that statement sink in and speak to you in profound and un-intended ways.

If you want a crazy picture to think about, think about this one…

Sorry about that.  That picture creeps me out.  But another weird picture is in Isaiah 8:1-4. That’s just strange; probably could have done without that.  Chapter 8 is another great section of God’s control of our circumstances.

God, You’re in control.  Amen.