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 #11 – Sappy Reminiscing of some good friends.

Didn’t run today… got lazy, I suppose, but I did run yesterday.

Running these last couple weeks has had me thinking of my High School team again.  I think about those guys often, and rightly so:  those guys were my best friends in a time that could have been dark and lonely.  I had a ridiculous amount of good friends in High School because of the Cross Country team, but guys that changed my life were Jeff Gottschalk, Dennis Fricks and Matt Bender.  We were the Junk Yard Dogs (plus a few incredible others).  We were the Scrambled Head.  We were the Scrambled Wrestling Association.  We were the “hey-you-idiots-get-off-the-bleachers” guys.  We were stupid.  We were fun.  We were friends.  (We were the type of friends that would gag at this sentimental reminiscing of friendship.  Sorry guys, if you ever read this.)

Without those guys, the others, and our coach, Jim Wilder, I wouldn’t be who I am today.  For whatever it’s worth, you changed my life (and gave me a lot of cool scars).  Thanks.

That’s all for now.  I’m going to go cry buckets for lost friendships… not really.  Maybe I’ll play video games instead.  :)

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.

Accountability Post #5

I was really hoping it would still be raining this morning when I woke up because running in the rain is totally kick-butt!  But it wasn’t.  Instead, I had a headache.  Not quite a fair trade.  I actually ended up walking for a little stretch after a mighty hill.  It always feels so shameful, but I think it also felt much better than potentially falling over.  Fair trade!

The words, “In the year that King Uzziah died…” have the same effect on me that the words, “In the year of our Lord, 1314…” do.  I feel like I could almost quote the whole thing.  It’s SO well known if you work in or attend a youth group.  We [in the business] use Isaiah 6 as a template to devoting our lives to God’s work, especially Evangelism.  

It’s interesting the message God gives Isaiah though: definitely not one of Grace and the Gospel.  Instead He basically says He’s going to rip the whole rebellious Nation down from top to bottom, with no chance of forgiveness, till there’s nothing left of that mighty tree but an old stump.  The “old stump” – He adds right at the end – is the “Holy Seed” or “Offspring.”

So basically, there was something Pure at the core of those Holy Kids that walked away, and God let them get torn all the way down till there was nothing left but that tiny Seed of Faith.  Sounds hard to swallow…

God, maybe I wouldn’t say, “Here am I!  Send me.”  so quickly if I knew that was the message I’d have to deliver, but I guess Love is pretty hard like that sometimes.  After all, Your love for us hurt You pretty badly too.  I’m open to sacrificing for my friends as well then.  Fair trade!  Amen.