Wednesdays Word....

I wasn't sure what to call Wednesday's Word this week. Should I have gone with Cross? or Lead? Ash Wednesday...I know it's 2 words but I could of made it Ash Wednesday Word. Just some random thoughts there....sorry.

Ash Wednesday has different meanings for different people. For some it's nothing more than getting some ashes put on your head and rubbing them off before you leave the sanctuary. Others it's their church trilogy of the year....Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Easter; though that is probably giving those people too much credit because 99% of this group just attend the 2 biggies. And yet for some it is a true spiritual journey of prayer, repentance and fasting during the 40 days of the Lenten season that culminate in Easter Sunday.

Tonight our church choir got to lead our Ash Wednesday service with a some very fitting songs for this time of year. We started off with Lead Me to the Cross and went into The Wonderful Cross which are great on their own but together they paint a powerful picture. There was a 3rd song but I wanted to burn it and use it for the imposition of ashes next year. A little harsh; yeah probably but the publishers lied....it said SAB (Soprano Alto Bass) but there was no bass part because it was all tenor and then some. Back to these two songs. They intertwine symbolism showing us that those things that we lose are not needed and what is gained through the blood of Jesus Christ is greater than anything we could hold onto. And we're not talking about physical things here. We just have to humble ourselves and leave our pride and what ever else we need to get rid of at the foot of the cross. It can be guilt, bitterness, shame, jealousy, hate, doubt.....literally anything that can come between us and God. So do yourself a favor and give it to Jesus....he's already paid the price so we don't have to weigh ourselves done with the troubles of this life.

Here's the line that sticks with me the most....

Lead me to the cross 
Where Your love poured out 
Bring me to my knees 
Lord I lay me down 
Rid me of myself 
I belong to You 
Lead me, lead me to your heart 

So I'm going to leave you with 2 questions......What do you need to rid yourself of and where are you being led?

80's On The 8th.......Birthdays & Valentines Day

Well since it is my birthday week I figure what better time to touch on birthdays when you were a kid. The good thing about having a birthday during the school year was getting to bring treats....a fact that 3 of my kids will not get to experience due to their arrival during the summer. But there was a drawback to having a birthday close to a holiday that is every grade school boys worst nightmare.......Valentine's Day and the dreaded party that went with it. Don't get me wrong the treats were great and you got out of school work for most of the day but it was a lot of work if you don't remember...which I touched on last year because you didn't want to give somebody the wrong idea with a misguided valentine if you didn't pay attention to what it said.

Now birthday wise at school it's usually a great day; you brought some homemade treats (again something my kids don't get to experience...and not just because of when their birthdays are) and you got to be the center of attention for a few minutes and if you were lucky maybe even a game of Heads Up 7 Up got thrown in. But if my birthday fell on a Monday - Wednesday then my birthday got over shadowed by the Valentine's Party that would be held on Friday. Now if your birthday fell on the weekend you'd do something on a Friday but it's just not quite the same. So ideally I needed the 10th to fall on a Thursday or Friday which did happen when I was 8 & 9 (thank you Google) and again when I was in middle school but by then I didn't have to worry about the V-Day party.

But what happened at my birthday parties as a kid I'm drawing a blank....I don't have much recollection of having one at my house with my friends. Yes I did have some (friends and parties); but I think I blocked out a good portion of memories from my childhood on that fateful day I helped teach my little brother how to bat. He's 9 years younger than me and he was like 5 or 6 at the time so he was at that perfect height and all it took was 1 practice swing when I wasn't paying attention to drop me to the ground. I even had flashbacks when teaching my own kids to take a good cut at the ball.

So if anyone remembers coming to one of my birthday parties as a kid drop me some hints to want went on and some of it might come back to me.

The Day the Music Died

Today is the day the music died and nearly everyone my age knows the Don Mclean song American Pie which I'm referencing. We generally know this song from our high school dances or weddings receptions even though we weren't born when it was released. I'd even venture to say not everyone knows what the beginning lyrics are referencing. Buddy Holly died February 3, 1959 along with Ritchie Valens, "The Big Bopper" JP Richardson and the pilot when their plane crashed shortly after take off after finishing their concert at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake Iowa and Don Mclean learned of the crash while folding the newspapers for his paper route. The events leading up to the plane leaving changed music history as we know it today.

You're probably thinking why a 30 something from Iowa cares about Buddy Holly's music. Well here's the story behind that. Growing up I used to listen to my dad's old records and 8 tracks; so my musical influence was formed listening to Buddy Holly and The Beach Boys on vinyl and Cheech & Chong on 8 track. OK I know they weren't exactly music but my dad used to have this CB and an 8 track player hooked up to a car battery down in our basement so my friend Mike & I used to spend some time down their after school working on our 10-4 good buddies and cracking up over "Ralph". OK back to task now.

Holly helped from a lot of rock & roll as we know it today. Makes me wonder what he could have been considering he was only 22 when he died but he was the 1st rocker to write, produce & perform his own music and the band set up of a drum, a bass guitar and 2 guitars (lead & rhythm) was his doing too. He influenced some of the greatest of any generation from Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles (homage to Buddy Holly and The Crickets), Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones to Elton John (who didn't need glasses but did to imitate Buddy). He also crossed the color barrier playing with Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

But you could probably say Waylon Jennings was influenced the most since he gave up his seat on that plane to Buddy and ended up having an exchange of words that haunted him for a long time. You have to rememer it is usually extremely cold here in the Midwest; especially in February and when you couple that with a bus that the heater was broken and you have a drummer with frostbitten feet and no one wanted to be on that bus heading up to Minnesota for the next stop. Holly was quoted to have said "I hope your bus freezes up!" Jennings quipped back, "Well, I hope your plane crashes!" Had that exchange of seats not happened we wouldn't of had the Dukes of Hazzard theme song. Here's a little bit of the Buddy Holly story.





His music continues to live on and much to the chagrin of my family I will continue to play his music.....now if I could just get that glottal stop down I'd be set. FYI that's the vocal style he so uniquely used.

Wednesdays Word......Available

First off sorry you're stuck with just me this week. No music, no lyrics, no polished speaker, not even a slide show; just a few of my thoughts.

These last couple of weeks there's been a recurring thought that has been stuck in my head and it has been constantly brought up and reaffirmed by those I come in contact with and that is "making yourself available" to God. To be used by God, to share God, to hear but more importantly to listen to God, to be moved by God, to be open to the call of the Holy Spirit....it really doesn't matter because when you make yourself available things just happen and there's really no other way to describe it.

It can be kind of a scary notion though because when you make yourself available by putting aside your will for His and by just humbling yourself by being obedient to His word you generally end up being used in a manner you may not exactly anticipate or like for that matter. We aren't wired to be servants so taking on those tasks we may see and menial are sometimes just what the doctor ordered to help fix our vision and get it more in tune to what God wants us to see. We are His hands and feet in this world and unless we see the world around us through His eyes we aren't going to be much use to those who need us the most if we can't see their "needs".  

Many times we see ourselves as unworthy or not ready for a task even when we know that God will equip us in due time with what ever we need. It's just hard to see past "us". We always have that doubt. We know who and what we are and many times we get hung up on who or what we were and are ashamed or embarrassed or feel we can't do a lot of things because we have failed in the past. I taught (I use that term loosely) OK maybe led (they'd probably laugh at that one) or better yet how about I just touched on the topic of the term talent in our small group's most recent get together. Most of us know the parable of the talents from Matthew 25:14-30 either from Sunday school or have probably heard it preached on many times but I finally saw it from a slightly different view because we've been going through the book The Hole In Our Gospel written by the president of World Vision Rich Stearns. While it was only 2 pages of the book it stuck with me the most. But he focused on the fact that our talent regardless of what we or others see it as; is us. It's just not our athletic ability or propensity in a specific academic field; it's everything about us. It's our life story. Everything combined from our up bringing, our circumstances, our experiences both good and bad to our attitudes and beliefs. It's one giant puzzle piece in God's grand plan and while it is unique and has a place; just remember it touches others and they need it to make their piece fit too.

Even though we may not think the pain or even the joys we've been through in our life can help others it most certainly can and does. I'm not talking about engineering some world altering event (thought it could be) it just needs to make a difference to that one person who needs you to help them connect the dots so they can make sense of it all and to possibly complete just a little bit of the bigger picture for them. I think I'm in the midst of making myself available. It could just be through putting these thoughts here for someone to see but I don't know. I will find out though.....I just have to listen and be available.