Love Another

      The tears were what captured my attention.  I was looking through (and praying over) a sea of powerful images from Haiti, all taken shortly after the earthquake, when one little girl's close-up seemed to capture the terror.  She couldn't have been more than 18 months old, and the caption read that she had just awoken in the midst of hundreds of frighten people that were sleeping in the street the day after the quake, afraid of all buildings.  As the little girl looked up toward an unseen care-giver, her expression was one that I pray my own daughter never knows - an expression of total despair.  It looked as if she had been crying nonstop and had yet to be comforted.  Exhausted, her innocent hope had all but died.

       Unable to look through any more of the Haiti pictures, my eyes shifted slightly to a picture of my wife and then-18-month-old daughter that resides next to my computer.  "I would do anything to protect them," I thought while choking back my own tears.  I realized that if needed, I would gladly lay down my own life to prevent my family from knowing that same despair and terror.

       Later, I was reminded of the words of Paul in Romans 5: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  What hit me most as I read those words was the vastness of His love and grace.  I can imagine giving up my life for those I love - and perhaps even for an innocent stranger like that young girl in the picture.  But God convicted me of something - something so powerful I had to go back through those Haiti pictures.  

       There - a few pictures before the close-up of the girl was a picture of men fighting in the streets.  They were not fighting for food or water, but over commercial goods stolen and looted from a demolished building.  While newly-orphaned children weep nearby, they are trying to make a profit.  One man in particular caught my attention as he raised a makeshift weapon in anger - ready to kill to secure his advancement.  

That man - full of hatred and selfishness, consumed with rage and blind to compassion - that man is loved by my Savior as much as anyone else.

      As I sat wondering about the moments after that snapshot was taken, God gently reminded me that there have been times when I have been that man - perhaps not physically hurting someone, but angry and blind just the same.  Yet even while I was a sinner, Jesus laid down His life for me.  How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ!

     I heard a quote recently that has stayed with me:  "If you don't have someone or something in your life worth dying for, then you probably aren't living."  The love that Christ has modeled for us is total and unconditional.  If I am to follow Him, than I need to strive to love others with that same agape love - not just toward my family or those whom I deem worthy, but toward everyone.  Just imagine how different Haiti - how different America - would be if we lived out that kind of selfless and total love.

Avoiding the Echoes...

Standing in front of 96,828 fans, your ears tend to deceive you. Yet standing there on the field of Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia, it was hard to ignore what you heard. With trombone in hand I fought alongside the rest of the Redcoat band our biggest temptation: to play with the echo.

(Ok... second biggest temptation. The first was to trip the Georgia Tech players as they ran past us into the locker room...)

With 400 plus members, our band produced a massive sound - a sound that bounced around the stadium for what seemed like minutes. If we weren't careful, it was very easy to begin playing along with the echo that came bouncing off the red-clad fans. The result was musical chaos. The key to staying together was for each member to keep their eyes on the director, the drum major standing on a platform on the sideline.

We've probably all experienced some sort of echo or another. Whether we're standing at the edge of a canyon or in the midst of downtown skyscrapers, echoes are a faint reflection of the original sound. While echoes can be fun sometimes, there are plenty that should be avoided. One of the most critical occurs in our worship services. Songwriter and worship leader Paul Baloche developed this idea recently: the songs we sing to God (and perhaps even the way we sing them) can be categorized into two groups. They are either a true expression of praise (an original source), or an impartial repetition of something previously heard (an echo).

Baloche focuses this idea on the songs themselves (how some songs seem to truly be a fresh voice of praise while others seem to only repeat previously heard ideas), I believe that this concept applies to each person that attends a worship service. Think about this: two people, standing side by side, can sing the same song at the same time to the same God, yet one is an authentic voice of worship and adoration and the other an unemotional and uninvolved echo. The difference lies not with their voices or with the lyrics, but with the focus of the heart. The first person has their eyes on the Director - on His holiness, on His grace, on His love. The second is lost in thoughts of lunch, or someone's wardrobe, or perhaps they're too weighed down by all the baggage they dragged in to realize that freedom is only a prayer away.

An interesting thing occurs in worship services each week that most people fail to recognize: No one leaves unchanged. Those that join together in truly praising their Savior are drawn closer to Him and encouraged to live a life that honors Him. Those that only sing an echo of praise usually leave more hardened and cold; their lives descending more and more into chaos. To be sure, nothing is impossible with God, and His Spirit can melt even the hardest heart at any time (just ask Paul!). But any encounter with God that does not lead to repentance and submission (at least in part) leads instead to hardening and bitterness.

I would like to encourage us all to keep our eyes fixed on the Director, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy of praise, and He is truly worth worshiping. May the words we sing each week be more than an echo - may they be an authentic voice that exalts our King.

Lessons from the Magna-Doodle

“Oooo… what a pretty snake,” I said as I looked down at my daughter’s drawing. She frowned and exclaimed, “No, Daddy, [it’s a] dog!”

We were sitting more or less patiently in the portrait studio’s lobby, waiting to have Christmas pictures made, and Micah had just discovered a new toy in their toychest: a Magna-Doodle. This fascinating evolution of the Etch-a-Sketch uses a magnet-tipped pen to draw on the screen. Then, with one swipe of a lever at the bottom, the picture is erased, thus allowing even two-year-olds to draw continuously until their heart’s content (usually about 12 seconds…).

As Micah sat drawing various curved lines (“elephant, Daddy!”), I was pondering upon some of the profound ideas that this little toy presented: How does this thing work?! Would it be worth it to open it up to see? Or just messy? Is it on sale at Wal-mart? Will this fit in Micah’s stocking?

Seriously, one thought did present itself as I watched Micah erase giraffe after giraffe. The erased picture is truly gone once the lever is swiped. There is no recall, no “restore” button. Only in our memories does it still exist. I was reminded of an amazing passage in Psalms:

God is sheer mercy and grace; Not easily angered, He’s rich in love. He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, Nor hold grudges forever. He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, Nor pay as back in full for our wrongs. As high as heaven is over the earth, So strong is His love to those who fear him. As far as sunrise is from sunset, He has separated us from our sins.

Psalm 103:8-12 (The Message)

Another translation says that God has removed our sins from us as far as east is to west. What an incredible thought! There is no limit to the distance between east and west. So in other words, God completely erases our sin. There is no recall, no “restore” button. In fact, God forgets our sin (Heb. 8:12). It unfortunately remains only in our own memories.

As we look to the start of a new year, I cannot think of a more comforting thought – that God can totally erase our mistakes and allow us to start off the new year fresh. No matter what we’ve done, or how badly we’ve drawn our lives, He is gracious and will forgive us if we repent and turn to Him.

The lesson of the Magna-Doodle doesn’t end there, however. Micah eventually grew tired of trying to imagine that her misshapen lines were actually pictures of Mickey Mouse. No matter how hard she tried, she simply hasn’t developed the skill to draw recognizable pictures, yet. So she handed the toy to her father and said, “Here, Daddy, draw Mickey.”

It wasn’t until a few days later that the profundity of this scene hit me. Micah knew that her pictures were not right. No matter how hard she tried or how many times she started over, she simply couldn’t draw it the way that she wanted. So, she gave the job over to her slightly-more-artistic father.

The lesson? Wiping the slate clean and gaining a fresh start is absolutely worthless if the flawed “artist” retakes control of the pen. Forgiveness is always available, but what God desires just as much as our repentance is our submission and obedience.

The problem that most of us face is that we hate giving up control. Even while we are drawing a mess in our lives, we resist letting the Master take over. But oh, what a picture the Creator can make when we allow Him to draw for us! Suddenly our lives begin to transform into what they were meant to be all along. Joy and hope spring up in unexpected places, and love begins to be our theme.

Something else begins to occur when we allow God to paint our life’s story. As I finished drawing the famed mouse for Micah, she excitedly began to capture all attention by squealing, “Look!Mickey!!!” (Trust me, Mickey wasn’t that great, but he was recognizable…) Mommy, Granna, Papa John, and even the photographer were made very aware that a mouse had been drawn.Likewise, when we submit to God and He begins to paint a masterpiece in our lives, others can’t help but take notice (and we can’t help but make Him known).

This coming year presents each of us with an opportunity. Will we continue to make a mess out of things, or will we repent and submit – allowing our Daddy to paint in us a beautiful picture of Christ that is certainly worth sharing?