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.
Originally Posted 08/22/2013
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