Typical Tune: HOLINESS
It’s a hackneyed phrase, but “How’s the world treating you?” sounds kind of like a sad pick-up line in some shady drinking establishment – I
would never refer to a bar in these hymnlines, you understand!
The world treat me
mean. I sometimes identify with that African American sentiment from "Sweet Little Jesus Boy," but
generally speaking, life is rushing by so quickly, I hardly notice if indeed I
am being mistreated.
I am reminded of a time I got thrown overboard while
white-water rafting in Colorado. In the midst of an eddy
named “The Widow Maker,” I went flying far downstream in fairly shallow water,
and when the rest of my raftees caught up with me and pulled me back into the boat, to my surprise, my knees had been banged up so badly on the rocks underneath me
that they were bleeding! I had such a ‘rush’ in the rushing river that I didn’t
even notice I was beat up by the experience!
This idea of spending time in secret with Jesus is a
precious thought to me. I don’t need to announce it to my Sunday School class
or at the office coffee pot; I don’t need to write about it on my blog. When I
find sweet communion with Christ as I talk to him and he communicates with me –
and it’s just the two of us – it is much too valuable an experience to go off
bragging about it to those who might not have had a similar close encounter of
the highest kind. Why do we want to gloat over our spiritual status, thinking of
ourselves as superior because perhaps we are drawn closer to his side… or that he walks with me, and he talks with me, and
he tells me I am his own?
That Jesus statement about not casting your pearls before
swine? I think it’s all about THIS kind of keeping your spiritual secrets close
to the vest. Who wants their precious moments trampled underfoot by those who
may doubt that I’ve had them… or who may find themselves jealous or left out
because they have not?
I don’t spend nearly enough time in secret places of the
Most High God… certainly not much time
as indicated by this hymn-line. But when I do… oh my … how rich and full, how measureless and strong! And when they’re
past, they are MY precious memories,
shared possibly with only a few of my intimates.
Taking time out to be holy is not easy for all of us; jobs,
family, commitments, church responsibilities limit our ability to be available
to Christ. For sure, the world rushes on. Sometimes, we just have to call a ‘time out,’ move off the
court/field and regroup – confer with the Coach in order to win in the game of
life… in order to make the most of the life that he already won for us, by the way!
Some things about the faith were meant to be shared; others were meant to be cherished.
Some things about the faith were meant to be shared; others were meant to be cherished.
(I apologize that the
graphics are poorly punctuated!)
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