Musings from Psalm 66

Today, I read a portion of the Bible that rocked me back on my heels a bit. For me, it is a quick overview of what the life of a Christ-follower is all about - being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Sometimes, God does it Himself. At other times, He uses other people or mechanisms (rush-hour traffic?) to refine us. Well, read it and see if you don’t see the ebb & flow of life in these few short verses...

Psalm 66:8-12 reads:
Praise our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;
9 he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
10 For you, O God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Now this passage is a bag of mixed emotions! Praise, testing, refining, PRISON, burdens, people lording over us, fire & water and suddenly, ABUNDANCE!

This, to me, is the true life of the Christ-follower. This could even be an average day for us! I can see starting off my day with quiet meditation on the Lord and finding my heart praising Him for His provision, blessing, care & love & grace. I can see myself heading out to work and recognizing His protection from all kinds of potential evil and keeping my feet from slipping literally -- say, in the midst of a deep, hard winter - or figuratively in remaining faithful to Him, my wife & family and friends.

But, then comes THE TEST! The heat is turned up, and I begin to melt. I am melted down to the very essence of my being and found to be true-blue pure silver! But what a painful process! What an ignominious process -- all of the dirt & impurities are brought to the surface to be seen by all who pass by and look. Ugh!

And further, I am “abandoned” to prison where I am burdened with others’ commands & work -- without mercy! I am forced to do their desires and then tossed back into my cell as though I were a broom or mop simply to be used at the whim of the prison master.

All this while, I am overcome with feelings of overwhelming testing, almost to the point of being consumed by the raging inferno or suffocated by the thick depth of the water over my head. I gasp for one final breath, having lost all hope -- desperate - pathetic - dejected - despondent.

And suddenly, I stand in ABUNDANCE! No more lords over me other than You, Lord. No more prison, suffocation, burning, refining or pain. WOW! What a great God You are!

That really is the daily walk of a Christ-follower!        

Testing new blogging software

You can ignore this paragraph. I’m just making sure that my upgraded MacJournal software (which I use for blogging) is actually uploading my blog entries.

Time bomb???

Today, I feel like a time bomb is ticking away --- and I’m holding it! There’s an element of excitement because it’s something that I have some control over, but at the same time, the fuse is “burning“ and it’s not always clear when the bomb will go off.

What’s contributing to this bomb? This: In less than 30 days, we are to have all of our belongings packed up, stored in boxes or suitcases and put in a garage where they’ll stay while we take a 2-week trip to Hawaii to visit my parents, brother & sister and their families. As well, we will be attending parts of my 30th high school reunion -- OUCH! I can’t believe it’s been that long since I was a high-schooler. AND, we are going to see some old friends, some of whom are pastoring a church in Hilo that is interested in our work in Slovakia.

After returning from Hawaii, we’ll travel up north to Loyalton, CA., to see Linda’s parents and ”hang“ with them for about 10 days while we finish up support-raising (still about $300/month left to nail down), say more ”good-byes“ and prep for a busy transition to life in Slovakia.

The thoughts of arriving in Slovakia hold over me some weight as well. We don’t have a car in Slovakia and that means we will be traveling by bus, foot, bicycle or??? until we get a car. To complicate matters, we don’t really have any money to buy a car. When we sell our van (probably in August when I return to drive Caleb to school in Arizona (he’s going to be working @ Grandma & Grandpa’s house for June/July)), then we’ll have some money to put down on a car, but before that, no way.

As well, we have a team coming to Slovakia to do some ministry in July (14-24) and that means that we have basically 3 weeks to get our house in order before they arrive. I’m not fretting that so much because the team in Slovakia is handling all of that prep.

Am I whining? I hope not. I’m really just processing and I’ve found that writing or talking really helps me work through issues and concerns as well as ideas & such. So, thanks for letting me ramble and bend your ear for a while. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, I’m always open to new ideas, better ideas (than mine!) or suggestions that may make our going a little more effective and/or easier.

More later....