“Don’t Blink” by Kenny Chesney

“Don’t Blink” by Kenny Chesney

I turned on the evening news
Saw an old man being interviewed
Turning a hundred and two today

Asked him what’s the secret to life?
He looked up from his old pipe
Laughed and said, “All I can say is

Don’t blink, just like that you’re six years old
And you take a nap
And you wake up and you’re twenty-five
And your high school sweetheart becomes your wife

Don’t blink, you just might miss
Your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads
Next thing you know your better half

Of fifty years is there in bed
And you’re praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years
Goes faster than you think, so don’t blink

I was glued to my TV, when it looked
Like he looked at me and said
“Best start putting first things first”

‘Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand
You can’t flip it over and start again
Take every breathe God gives you for what it’s worth

Don’t blink, ’cause just like that you’re six years old
And you take a nap
And you wake up and you’re twenty-five
And your high school sweetheart becomes your wife

Don’t blink, you just might miss
Your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads
Next thing you know your better half

Of fifty years is there in bed
And you’re praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years
Goes faster than you think, so don’t blink

So I’ve been trying to slow it down
I’ve been trying to take it in
In this ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ world we’re living in

So don’t blink, ’cause just like that you’re six years old
And you take a nap
And you wake up and you’re twenty-five
And your high school sweetheart becomes your wife

Don’t blink, you just might miss
Your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads
Next thing you know your better half

Of fifty years is there in bed
And you’re praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years
Goes faster than you think, so don’t blink

No, don’t blink

Don’t blink
Life goes faster than you think
So don’t blink

Life goes faster than you think
Don’t blink

Don’t blink
Life goes faster than you think

Source: Musixmatch

Dear God, I started this on Wednesday morning, but I’ve truly been so busy I haven’t been able to get back to it. It was an incredibly busy week at work, but it was good too. Very good. I’m grateful. You answered a lot of prayers–especially for our fundraising dinner Tuesday night. My wife did the invocation for about 290 people in attendance, and part of it was leading everyone in the first verse and chorus of “To God Be The Glory.” It set the tone for the rest of the night. It was inspired, and I really felt like the Holy Spirit was among us all evening. I am humbled and grateful. Did we raise money and reach our goals? Yes. But more importantly, it felt like everyone (or at least everyone I talked to) left feeling inspired and joyful. I pray they realized from all we said and did that they understood it was you they were feeling.

I was meeting with a friend Wednesday afternoon and we were talking about his struggles and stresses at work. I asked him a question that, to my surprise, seemed to unnerve him a little. I asked, “What do you do to take care of yourself?” He didn’t have an answer for it. I talked to him a day later and it was still sitting with him. He told me the next day that he was realizing he was doing a lot of religious things but he wasn’t really paying any attention to his relationship with you.

So how does all of this relate to this Kenny Chesney song? Well, the second verse has rolled around in my head ever since I heard this song earlier this week:

I was glued to my TV, when it looked
Like he looked at me and said
“Best start putting first things first”

‘Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand
You can’t flip it over and start again
Take every breathe God gives you for what it’s worth

Especially the line, “Best start putting first things first.” I think at some point when we mature as adults we wrestle with the question of what is the first thing that I should be putting first? It made me think of the “One thing” line from the movie City Slickers:

By the end of the movie, Billy Crystal’s character decided that his “one thing” was his family. That was the most important thing to him. But I’ve learned something different over the years. And this would probably hurt some feelings to hear this, but, frankly, it isn’t fair to my family to make them my “one thing.”

I was listening to a pastor interviewed in June 2020 about surviving Covid and the pastor interviewing him asked him if he had one particular message to share with people. He said (my paraphrase), “Yes. We have made an idol out of certainty. We put our certainty in our spouse, our children, our job, our health, our economy, our government, etc. But God is the only thing that is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” At that point, as I’ve recounted here many times in the past, I started evaluating all of the things in my life that caused me angst and tried to honestly evaluate whether or not they had become idols to me. And I’ve identified a few. The U.S. military was one that I am ashamed to admit was an idol. When I hear about an advancement that another country like China or Russia has over us (like hypersonic missiles), it bothers me. Why? Ninety-five percent of the world goes to bed each night without the protection of the United States Military, and an awful lot of them are Christians and yet they are somehow able to sleep. Why is that so important to me? It’s an idol I’ve used to give me a sense of certainty. I’m sure there are more idols I haven’t identified, and I’m sorry for that.

So what’s my one thing? What is my first thing that must be put first? It’s you. It’s my relationship with you. It’s the submitting of myself to the two great commandments: Love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving my neighbor as myself. To quote Curly in the City Slickers quote above, “[If I] do that [then] everything else don’t mean s***.”

Father, it’s hard to do. It’s so much easier to put my certainty and priorities on tangible things. But Billy Crystal’s character Mitch will one day learn that his family can’t be his one thing either. It’s not fair to them. If you are my one thing then you will make sure I am loving my family the way I need to. If I am listening to your Holy Spirit, then you will guide me into loving them well. Thursday morning, I was getting my haircut and your Spirit nudged me to pay for the haircut of the man behind me. Later, the barber told me that the man, who was there with his wife, was just laid off from a business that closed and he was there to get a haircut as he went out and applied for jobs. That humbled and delighted me. Not because I did something nice, but because I must have heard your Holy Spirit talking to me and I acted upon it. So I give you everything. You are my first thing that I will put first. You are my one thing. To quote Rich Mullins from his song “One Thing,” “Everybody I know says they need just one thing. But what they really mean is they need just one thing more.” Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, if I live the life of Job and you take away everything, I would hope that I could say that you are still the only one thing that I need.

I pray all of this through the grace of Jesus through the blood he shed for me,

Amen

 

“I Will Sing” “First Family” “The Love Of God” by Rich Mullins

Dear God, I used to sing these three songs to my children at bedtime when they were little. I just want to sing them to you by typing out all of their lyrics before I go to be tonight.

“I Will Sing” by Rich Mullins

I will sing for the meek
For those who pray
With their very lives for peace
Though they’re in chains
For a higher call
Their mourning will change in laughter
When the nations fall

In spirit poor, In mercy rich
They hunger for your righteousness
Their hearts refined into purity
Lord, let me shine for them
Lord, let me sing
Lord, let me shine for them
Lord, let me sing

“First Family” by Rich Mullins

My folks they were always
The first family to arrive
Seven people jammed into a car
That seated five
There was one bathroom
To bathe and shave in
Six of us stood in line
And hot water for only three
But we all did just fine

Talk about your miracles
Talk about your faith
My dad he could make things grow
Out of Indiana clay
Mom could make a gourmet meal
Out of just cornbread and beans
And they worked to give faith hands and feet
But somehow gave it wings

I can still hear my dad cussin’
He’s working late out in the barn
The spring plantings are coming
And the tractors just won’t run
Mom, she’s done the laundry
I can see it waving on the line
Now they’ve stayed together
Through pain and the strain of those times

Talk about your miracles
Talk about your faith
My dad he could make things grow
Out of Indiana clay
Mom could make a gourmet meal
Out of just cornbread and beans
And they worked to give faith hands and feet
But somehow gave it wings

Now they’ve raised five children
But one winter they lost a son
But the pain didn’t leave them crippled
Only scars that made them strong

Never picture perfect
Just a plain man and his wife
Who somehow knew the value
Of hard work, good love, and real life

Talk about your miracles
Talk about your faith
My dad he could make things grow
Out of Indiana Clay
Mom could make a gourmet meal
Out of just cornbread and beans
And they worked to give faith hands and feet
But somehow gave it wings

“The Love of God” by Rich Mullins

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
I cannot find in my own
And it keeps this fire burning
To melt this heart of stone
Keeps me aching with the yearning
Keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God

I have seen no band of angels
But I’ve heard the soldiers’ song
Love hangs over them like a banner
Love within them leads them on
To the battle on the journey
And it’s never gonna stop
Ever widening their mercy
And the fury of His love

Oh, the love of God!
Oh, the love of God!
The love of God!

Joy and sorrow are this ocean
It’s in their every ebb and flow
Now, the Lord a door has opened
That all hell could never close
Here I’m tested and made worthy
Tossed about, yet lifted up
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God

Father, I pray these songs over my wife, me, our children, and their significant others tonight.

Under your gracious authority I pray,

Amen

 

“Doubly Good To You” by Rich Mullins

Rich Mullins performing “Doubly Good To You,” a song he wrote but was originally released by Amy Grant

“Doubly Good To You” by Rich Mullins

If you see the moon
Rising gently on your fields
If the wind blows softly on your face
If the sunset lingers
While cathedral bells peal
And the moon has risen to her place

You can thank the Father
For the things that he has done
And thank him for the things he’s yet to do
And if you find a love that’s tender
If you find someone who’s true
Then thank the Lord
He’s been doubly good to you

And if you look in the mirror
At the end of a hard day
And you know in your heart you have not lied
And if you gave love freely
If you earned an honest wage
And if you’ve got Jesus by your side

You can thank the Father
For the things that he has done
And thank him for the things he’s yet to do
And if you find a love that’s tender
If you find someone who’s true
Thank the Lord
He’s been doubly good to you

Dear God, this is just a great song. Nice and simple. a reminder to count our blessings. The end.

Ah, but then there is the rest of the story. Rich Mullins wrote this for his own wedding that never happened. He lost the “doubly good” about which he was singing. Of course, Rich never experienced having children. I can attest that there can be windows in life when your marriage and kids are all great at the same time, and it really feels like even a “triple” goodness. But then those windows pass and things don’t play out like you hope. How will I respond?

I spent some time last week while I was sick pouring over old pictures of my wife and kids. Those pictures always encourage me. They remind me that there was legitimate goodness at one time. That my mind hasn’t imagined it. No, the photos didn’t capture the pain between the smiles. There are holes in the story for which I don’t know the content. But it really does help me to lean into the pain of the current loss I feel from no longer having that sense of “triple goodness” and embrace the life you e given to me now.

So, Father, thank you for the things you have done and the things you’ve yet to do. Help me to be your complete servant today.

I pray all of this under your authority and in your name,

Amen

 

“Ready for the Storm” by Rich Mullins

“Ready for the Storm” by Rich Mullins

The waves crash in
The tide rolls out
It’s an angry sea
But there is no doubt
That the lighthouse
Will keep shining out
To warn a lonely sailor

And the lightning strikes
And the wind cuts cold
Through the sailor’s bones
Through the sailor’s soul
‘Til there’s nothing left
That he can hold
Except a rolling ocean

Oh, I am ready for the storm
Yes, sir, ready
I am ready for the storm
I’m ready for the storm

Oh, give me mercy
For my dreams
‘Cause every confrontation seems
To tell me
What it really means
To be this lonely sailor

And when the sky begins to clear
The sun it melts away my fear
And I cry a silent weary tear
For those who mean to love me

Oh, I am ready for the storm
Yes, sir, ready
I am ready for the storm
I’m ready for the storm

The distance it is no real friend
And time will take its time
And you will find that in the end
It brings you me
This lonely sailor

And when You take me by the hand
And You love me, Lord, You love me
And I should have realized
I had no reasons to be frightened

Oh, I am ready for the storm
Yes, sir, ready
I am ready for the storm
Yes, sir, ready
I am ready for the storm
Yes, sir, ready
I am ready for the storm
I’m ready for the storm

Written by Dougie MacLean

Dear God, here are my thoughts on this song I know through Rich Mullins. It’s one of those songs I’ve never paid must attention to regarding the meaning of the verses. I can just sing along with the chorus.

Verse 1: I just picture the song writer, Dougie MacLean, sitting on a rocky coast in Ireland (to hear him sing he sounds Irish) and watching the waves crash against the shore while a lighthouse sits nearby. He’s imaging the relationships between the sailor, the boat, the water, the shore, the wind, and that lighthouse. From nature’s standpoint, the sailor is the only thing that is superfluous. They are all there for him. The sailor needs the boat. He needs the water to travel wherever he is going or hunt for whatever he is fishing for. He needs the shore for his life off of the boat. He even needs the wind, although he doesn’t need the storm. He needs the lighthouse to direct him from crashing into the shore. But none of these things need him. Their existence would be the same if he was or wasn’t there–well, maybe not the boat since the boat would be docked without the sailor.

Verse 2: The confrontations in my life leave me feeling like this sailor: Vulnerable. In danger. Dependent. Needing to struggle to survive. Lonely. “For those who mean to love me.” That could mean so many things. Did they love him and do the right things to confront him, but he rejected them? Did they reject him for the wrong reasons? With the sky clearing and the sun melting away fears…you know, this almost makes me think of someone going through rehab. The confrontation–intervention. The loneliness. The storm of getting sober. The lighthouse guiding to shore, but protecting as well. The sobriety melting away the fears. The tear realizing how others were loving him through the intervention. I could be totally wrong, but that’s what came to mind when I started to ponder the words a little.

Verse 3: Playing with my sobriety theory, the difficult thing about addiction is that it doesn’t really pass with time. Oh, perhaps it does a little, but it’s only one slip away. The distance is no real friend. You can still be lonely, even in your sobriety. But you take us by the hand, God. You comfort us. Love us. Give us peace. And the more we get to know you the more we realize that we have nothing to really fear. You are our hope and loving you is what it’s ultimately all about.

Father, I will never sing with passion that I am ready for the storm. Okay, never say never, but it is hard to imagine egging on Satan, you, or anything else in that way. But there are times when I have to set my face to the wind and just decide I’m going to do better, whatever that “better” might be. Life can be lonely, but I am blessed beyond measure by the wife you’ve given to me. And I’m not just saying that because that is what Christian husbands are supposed to say about their wives. She is unbelievable and amazing. She is so good for me. You do so much in me through her. Thank you that, for at least this moment, I am not a lonely sailor.

I pray all of this in the name of you, your son, and your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 

Rich Mullins’s “Elijah” and “Be With You”

Dear God, it’s interesting that Rich Mullins died young because he had a couple of really interesting songs about the end of life here on earth and transitioning to you. He probably had more, but these are the two that come to mind immediately.

The first one, which was on his first album, was called “Elijah”

“Elijah” by Rich Mullins

The Jordan is waiting for me to cross through
My heart is aging I can tell
So Lord, I’m begging for one last favor from You
Here’s my heart take it where You will

This life has shown me how we’re mended and how we’re torn
How it’s okay to be lonely as long as you’re free
Sometimes my ground was stony
And sometimes covered up with thorns
And only You could make it what it had to be
And now that it’s done
Well if they dressed me like a pauper
Or if they dined me like a prince
If they lay me with my fathers
Or if my ashes scatter on the wind
I don’t care

But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye

There’s people been friendly, but they’d never be your friends
Sometimes this has bent me to the ground
Now that this is all ending
I want to hear some music once again
‘Cause it’s the finest thing that I have ever found

But the Jordan is waiting
Though I ain’t never seen the other side
Still they say you can’t take in the things you have here
So on the road to salvation
I stick out my thumb and He gives me a ride
And His music is already falling on my ears

There’s people been talking
They say they’re worried about my soul
Well, I’m here to tell you I’ll keep rocking
‘Til I’m sure it’s my time to roll
And when I do

When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye

‘Cause when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Richard Mullins

There are a few lines of this song at the beginning that really speak to me.

This life has shown me how we’re mended and how we’re torn
How it’s okay to be lonely as long as you’re free
Sometimes my ground was stony
And sometimes covered up with thorns
And only You could make it what it had to be

I just bolded some specific words out of the first two lines here: “This life has shown me…it’s okay to be lonely as long as you’re free.” What an interesting thing that our society has given us. Now, I’m not saying that I want to be subjugated to the government or anything like that, but certainly the two greatest commandments demand that we give up some of that freedom so that we can be your blessing both to you and to others around us. I give up my life for you. I give up my rights to serve others.

I think that is something that frustrates me about the American Evangelical Church right now. It is fighting for its rights and its freedom. I heard a pastor I respect say, “The Church is at its worst when it’s fighting for its own rights, but it is at its best when it is fighting for the rights of others.” I think the same is probably true for us as individuals as well, but we need to make sure that right is a legitimate right that they need.

I think the next lines in that of that stanza I pasted above are even more poetic and meaningful to me: “Sometimes my ground was story//And sometimes covered up with thorns.” Of course, this is an allusion to the parable of the sower (Matthew 13). The stony-soiled heart has no depth or root. No discipleship. The thorny-soiled heart is overrun by the cares of the world. Yeah, there are times when I let my soil get hard and the roots are shallow and fragile. More often, however, my heart is distracted by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth. When I look back, how much of my life will have been spent providing the Holy Spirit good soil with which to work? No enough.

Then there’s my favorite of Rich’s death songs, “Be with You.”

“Be with You” by Rich Mullins

Everybody each and all
We’re gonna die eventually
It’s no more or less our faults
Than it is our destiny
So now Lord I come to you
Asking only for Your grace
You know what I’ve put myself through
All those empty dreams I chased

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?

And when You start this world over
Again from scratch
Will You make me anew
Out of the stuff that lasts?
Stuff that’s purer than gold is
And clearer than glass could ever be
Can I be with You?
Can I be with You?

And everybody all and each
From the day that we are born
We have to learn to walk beneath
Those mercies by which we’re drawn
And now we wrestle in the dark
With these angels that we can’t see
We will move on although with scars
Oh Lord, move inside of me

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?

And when You blast this cosmos
To kingdom come
When those jagged-edged mountains
I love are gone
When the sky is crossed with the tears
Of a thousand falling suns
As they crash into the sea
Can I be with you?
Can I be with you?

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Benjamin Justin Peters / Richard Mullins

This song is just a simple request. Earth is good. Life here is good. It’s taught me a lot. But it’s just a staging ground. It’s a vapor. Each person has their own course through it. Destiny, if you will. Some were murdered this week in Ukraine, in Uvalde, and in different parts of our country and the entire world. Some died of disease, and some in simple accidents. Unbeknownst to me, my time could be just around the corner. But none of that really matters in the grand scheme of things, I suppose. 100 years from now, with very few exceptions, just about every person who is alive now will be dead. We will all be in the same place. When that happens, this is the request all of us will have: “Can I be with you?” That’s what the TV show “The Good Place” missed. It saw heaven as just a good place that (spoiler alert) got boring. But they missed two things: 1.) the measurement of time as we know it now won’t exist there and 2.) we get to simply be in your presence and I assume that, if time were still measured in the same way, your presence would still make it disappear. No, I’m not worried about getting bored there. I just want to be with you.

Father, help me to prepare fertile soil in my heart for you today. Do it through time with you, through worshipping you with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Do it through me learning to love my neighbors better. Do it through your Holy Spirit guiding, comforting, and counseling me in the right direction.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 

Genesis 11:26-12:4

After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This is the account of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. But Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth, while his father, Terah, was still living. Meanwhile, Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. (Milcah and her sister Iscah were daughters of Nahor’s brother Haran.) But Sarai was unable to become pregnant and had no children. One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there. Terah lived for 205 years and died while still in Haran. The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

Genesis 11:26-12:4

Dear God, maybe we aren’t as great as we think we are. Maybe, sometimes, we are just convenient to your plan.

It’s interesting that Genesis doesn’t really give us any great insights into why you chose Abram. I imagine it had something to do with the fact that he was pretty much willing to do any weird thing you asked him to do.

• Leave your family and go where I tell you (to be disclosed later). Okay
• Listen to Sarah and send Hagar and Ishmael off to seemingly die. Okay.
• Sacrifice your son on an altar to me. Sure.

I would imagine that the people around Abram/Abraham thought he was pretty weird. A religious zealot. But you gave him credibility through the blessings you gave him so I would imagine that was enough reason for the people around him to go along with him.

Is everything I just typed heresy? I don’t know. Maybe. But then I think of Paul. It certainly wasn’t his love for Jesus or goodness that made you call him. It was his zeal that you knew you could redeem and redirect for your purposes (is that more heresy?). Samson? Well, Samson was just a mess of a person, but certainly your person for a specific time. It certainly wasn’t his goodness or love for justice and mercy that earned him your favor. Jacob? A scoundrel if ever there was one, but you had some specific plan for this clan spawned by Abram through Isaac and Ishmael. Thousands of years later, and these are the two dominant religions in the world.

It makes me think of a Rich Mullins song called “Who God is Gonna Use.”

As part of the intro to this YouTube video he said, “Some people say, ‘Rich, don’t you feel like a phony talking about Christ?’ And I say, ‘No, I don’t because I don’t believe Christ loves me because I’m good.'” Then he goes on to sing about all of these people in the Bible you used about whom there was nothing particularly Godly. Balaam’s donkey. Pharaoh’s daughter who found Moses. Esther. Pilate.

So what’s my point in all of this? I think it’s that I can let go of any search for significance and rest assured that whatever significance you want my life to have you can accomplish with or without my decision to be significant. My job is to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love my neighbor as myself. I’m called to do that because you deserve that. As to my worth in your kingdom, one day you will hold me accountable for what I did or didn’t do with my life.

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Matthew 25:31-40

I’ll admit that I don’t try to solve every problem I see. I don’t think there is any way that I possibly can. But then again, that is why you have the body of Christ and not just me. My job is to be sensitive to what you are calling me to do.

Father, give me ears to hear and eyes to see. Help me to not embrace my own posterity, but to embrace you. Help me to also see others through your eyes. Help me to not judge. To not assign a “kingdom value” to them. I would have totally discounted Abram, Jacob, and Samson. There are national leaders whom I discount now. I definitely have my opinions about who should win the next election for president, and I will vote that way, but I can also recognize that I don’t know your heart on this and I will trust that you are working out a greater plan that I cannot see even if it looks on the surface like we are taking two steps backward.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 

“Peace” by Rich Mullins

“Peace” by Rich Mullins

Though we’re strangers, still I love you
I love you more than your mask
And you know you have to trust this to be true
And I know that’s much to ask
But lay down your fears, come and join this feast
He has called us here, you and me

And may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls
This drought has dried
In His Blood and in His Body
In the Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you

And though I love you, still we’re strangers
Prisoners in these lonely hearts
And though our blindness separates us
Still His light shines in the dark
And His outstretched arms are still strong enough to reach
Behind these prison bars to set us free

So may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls the drought has dried
In His Blood and in His Body
In this Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you

And may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Like those little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls the draught has dried
In His Blood and in His Body
In the Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you

Songwriters: David Strasser / Richard Mullins

Dear God, I was thinking about the potentially tumultuous day I have ahead of me today, and I thought of this song. I need your peace to fall on me today and then flow through me. I need it to fall on everyone at the office. I need it to fall on the patients and volunteers. I need it to fall on the staff. Peace. Peace of Christ.

What does “peace of Christ” look like? Well, it’s hard to explain because it is the peace that passes understanding. I cannot describe what the peace of Christ looks like, but I do know some things about it. First, it can get angry because Jesus did get angry. It also looks beyond the surface of others and sees them with your eyes. It comes from loving you with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving our neighbor as myself. It will help me to die to my rights and what makes me comfortable if it means doing what you’ve called me to do, and being truly okay with it.

Father, I am really going to need your wisdom, discernment, strength, and peace today. I submit myself to you and ask that you please be with me. Help me to be firm, but gentle. Help me to do something that is for your good and, ultimately, the good of everyone involved.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 

Funeral Songs (Part 3) – “Be With You” by Rich Mullins

For anyone reading along with these prayer journals, this is a series in which songs I would want played at my funeral. Here is a link to the original post for more explanation.

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Dear God, I’m up to the third song on my funeral song list and the last one for the slideshow. I decided to keep the slideshow all from Rich Mullins. In this case, this is the first ever funeral song I ever picked. I probably first heard this in my early 20s and I told my fiancé (now wife) that this would make a great song for my funeral.

“Be With You” by Rich Mullins

Everybody, each and all, we’re going to die eventually
It’s no more or less our faults than it is our destiny
So now, Lord, I come to you asking only for your grace
You know what I’ve put myself through
All those empty dreams I chased

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will you pick up the pieces that were pure and true
And breathe life into them, and sent them free?
And when you start this world over again from scratch
Will you make me anew out of the stuff that lasts?
Stuff that’s purer than gold is, and clearer than glass can ever be
And can I be with you? Can I be with you?

And everybody, all and each, from the day that we are born
We have to learn to walk beneath, those mercies by which we are drawn
And now we wrestle in the dark with these angels that we can’t see
We will move on, although with scars.
Oh, Lord, move inside of me!

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will you pick up the pieces that were pure and true
And breathe life into them, and sent them free?
And blast this cosmos to kingdom come
When those jagged edged mountains I love are gone
When the sky is crossed with the tears of a thousand falling suns
As they crash into the sea
Then can I be with you? Can I be with you?

Well, it’s pretty obvious why I think this is a funeral song. What is it I want to say to those who ware at my funeral? I guess my message is, “It’s okay. I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

The first verse is really just about the reality of death. But the chorus is a worshipful response to that, acknowledging my sin–my lies, my selfishness, my vanity. Then it’s followed up by the hope. I will be recreated in a new Heaven. I will be yours. I will be your worshipper.

The second verse talks about the journey of life. It’s a struggle. It is, indeed, a journey of mistakes, wrestling with you, getting scarred up, but allowing the scars to make us stronger. Oh, Lord, even today, move inside of me!

Finally, the last chorus changes at the end and brings us to the end of Earth and the beginning of the new Earth and the new Heaven. If the apocalypse should come before my death, then can I be with you? Can I be with you?

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 

Funeral Songs (Part 2) – “The Love of God” by Rich Mullins

Dear God, as I go through the list of songs that I would have played as part of my own funeral one day, I’m up to the second one for the slideshow. In case anyone is reading these, here is a link to the first entry that will explain this a little more.

So now I’m up to “The Love of God” by Rich Mullins. I actually just journaled on this song a couple of weeks ago, but this is a different topic and reason for looking at this song so I’ll press on.

Here are the lyrics:

“The Love of God” by Rich Mullins

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
I cannot find in my own
And it keeps this fire burning
To melt this heart of stone
It keeps me aching with the yearning
It keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless, raging fury
They call the Love of God

Now I have seen no band of angels
But I’ve heard the soldiers’ song
Love hangs over them like a banner
Love within them leads them on
To the battle on the journey
And it’s never going to stop
Ever widening their mercies
And the fury of his love

Oh, the love of God!
Oh, the love of God!
The love of God!

Joy and sorrow are in this oceans
They’re in its every ebb and flow
Now the Lord a door has opened
That all hell could never close
Here I’m tested and made worthy
Tossed about, yet lifted up
In the reckless, raging fury
That they call the love of God

I can’t for the life of me figure out why Rich said one time that he didn’t particularly care for this song. Was there something about it with which he disagreed? Were there too many times when he didn’t feel your reckless, raging fury of love?

Today, I want to focus on the mercy part of this song. In the second verse it says, “Now I have seen no band of angels/But I’ve heard the soldiers’ song/Love hangs over them like a banner/Love within them leads them on/To the battle on the journey/And it’s never going to stop/Ever widening their mercy/And the fury of his love.” It’s the journey that grows us. It’s the battle. It’s the battle against Satan. And we can fall victim to his plans or we can walk under your banner of love. Your love drives us forward. We carry your love and your Holy Spirit into the battle. And if we will stay under your banner then the battle will refine us and widen our mercy for others. It will also reveal to us more and more the fury of your love. Sorry, Rich, but you’re wrong. This is a great song.

Father, I am about to talk to a congregation about bitterness and unforgiveness. Absalom was obviously just going through the motions when he did sacrifices to you. It was a ritual to him–it wasn’t worship. If it had really been worship then he would have known that he would only be able to be king if you ordained it, not because he was good enough. Help everything that I do in relation to you be through true, God-seeking, Holy Spirit-driven, and Jesus’ redemption-receiving worship.

I pray all of this in Jesus’ name,

Amen

 

Funeral Songs (Part 1) – “Elijah” by Rich Mullins

Dear God, I was talking with a friend recently about the songs I would want played at my funeral. I have a couple in mind, but as I woke up this morning and thought about praying to you in this journal, I got to wondering about those songs and what they say both about my relationship with you and what they reveal about what I want to say to others in one last message to them.

So, first, I need to look at the songs. Here is what I have:

• “Elijah” by Rich Mullins (for the slideshow)
• “The Love of God” by Rich Mullins (for the slideshow)
• “Be With You” by Rich Mullins (for the slide slideshow)
• “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” (Processional)
• “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing“–Howard Butt style (I’ll explain later)
• “Ode to Joy” (Recessional)

If I can’t speak at my funeral, and I won’t get to write the eulogy, these will be my words to the people there. What am I trying to say with each one?

“Elijah“

The Jordan is waiting for me to cross through
My heart is aging, I can tell
So, Lord, I’m begging for one last favor from you
Here’s my heart, take it where you will
This life has shown me how we’re mended and how we’re torn
How it’s okay to be lonely as long as we’re free
Sometimes my ground was stony, and sometimes covered up with thorns
And only you could make it what it had to be
And not that it’s done, Well, if they dressed me like a pauper
Or if they dined me like a prince
If they lay me with my fathers
Or if my ashes scatter on the wind I don’t care!

When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the starts
Well it’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye

There’s people been friendly, but they’d never be your friend
Sometimes this has bent me to the ground
Now that this is all ending, I want to hear some music once again
‘Cause it’s the finest thing I have ever found
But the Jordan is waiting, Though I ain’t never seen the other side
They say you can’t take in the things you have here
So on the road to salvation, I stick out my thumb and He gives me a ride
And His music is already falling on my ears

There’s people been talking, They say they’re worried about my sould
Well, I’m here to tell you I’ll keep rocking, ’til I’m sure it’s my time to roll
And when I do

When I leave I wan to go out like Elijah,
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
Well, it’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye

I think I want this song to kick off the slideshow (is this prayer too morbid?), but I think I’ll need to make sure the lyrics for all of these songs are provided for people to at least look at later.

Rich died in a dramatic car accident about one month shy of his 42nd birthday, but then I guess you know that. But I think he wrote this song in his 20s. I try to imagine him reading the story of Elijah and putting himself in Elijah’s position, but I’ve always found it interesting that someone so young could write the lyrics, “my heart is aging, I can tell.” I think there are moments, no matter how young we are, when we feel beaten down and our hearts feel old. Even a 15-year-old can experience an old-feeling heart. But there is something about this song that just feels hopeful. It speaks a message to me that says, “Yes, you can get tired on this journey, but there will be some goodness and some respite on the way–and believe me, there’s something amazing to come.

I really like the second verse when it talks about the music: “Now that this is all ending, I want to hear some music once again/’Cause it’s the finest thing I have ever found…So on the road to salvation, I stick out my thumb and He gives me a ride/And His music is already falling on my ears.” Obviously as a musician, Rich loved music. But I think most of us do. You built us to love music in a special way for some reason. Words put to a tune are even easier to remember than words without a tune. I like how he mentions here that he can imagine something that he loves this side of the Jordan is provided for, and even more so, on the other side of the Jordan.

Father, I think I’m going to spend the next few days going through these songs and thinking about why they touch me and what I hope they say about me and about you to those who are gathered to look back on my life. If nothing else, my desire is that they will see someone with flaws–many, many flaws–but who earnestly loved you and did his best to get over himself and point others to you.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen