Behind the Music Stand

(I wrote this for a friend of mine who has recently lost a spouse, but, as I reach an age where the elders in my life--and even some friends--are starting to pass away, these thoughts are, sadly, more regularly on my mind.  But take heart and read on!)      I don't know anything about the author Jamie Anderson, but he wrote, “Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.”  I think he is close to the truth of the matter, but we, as Christians, know that we may not have a passed loved one right here to give our love to, but we can store up all that love for later delivery to our loved ones, when we see them again in Heaven.       How sad would our lives be if we had no one for whom we could grieve--no one who impacted our lives enough that their death would be a mournable loss

     They expected The Messiah to come as a king.  He came as a pauper.     They expected The Messiah to walk above the sinners.  He ate with the most blatent ones.      They expected The Messiah to be a military conquerer.  He came to bring peace.      They expected His followers to leave Him---still hungry for more.  He fed thousands.     They expected Him to drown.  He walked on water.      They expected him to fail.  He healed the sick, cured the lame, gave sight to the blind, cast out demons, and gave us hope.      Then, they expected Him to die.  He conquered death itself.     We expected He would not love us in our sin.  While we were yet sinners, He died for each one of us.     They expected The Messiah to reign on earth.  He reigns in our hearts.     Everything Jesus did was unexpected.  Don't expect Him do work miracles in your life the way you think they should happen.      Look around you.  Do you have a place to sleep?  Do you have food to eat?  Do you have friends and

     I'm still re-tweaking this blog, but I cannot wait any longer to republish it, because the message God brought in my devotions this morning was so personally soothing to a sore spot in my christianity, that I wanted to share it with you, in hopes that it may possibly help someone else      Galatians 2:20 (NASB 2020) says, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."  This verse has always rankled me.  God really wants to erase my personality to turn me into some pale immitation of Himself?  He created infinitely different people just so He could homogenize our personalities into some beige, bland sameness?      It is not so much that "Who we are" dies. It is God's omnipotent creativity that designs each of the many trillions of Artworks we call "Humans" each individually differe

     It's only been an eon since my last post... even though it's been almost three years (🤯) since my 'transition out of church work, I still deal with the emotional backlash almost every day.  It honestly makes even looking at this blog difficult.      But things that are worthy of doing aren't usually easy, and I do believe this blog has some small merit!      Today, I hope this anecdote will help you see there is also merit on both sides of the Great Church Music Debate:

Whatever style of music that brings you closer to God is *guaranteed not* to be the kind of music that brings someone else to His throne. That's not the way God made us. He made us all with different tastes. When you insist that your preferred style is better/more holy than someone else's you are depriving someone else of the music that nurtures their soul and you are insulting God's creativity! I don't know when or what paper this came from, but here is Billy Graham's take on the controversy:

I don't know if there is a good reason I am walking through this difficult time of transition in my life.   James 1:13 says, "When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone..." Matthew 5:45b says, "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."  (Note, rain in itself is neither good nor bad.) Romans 8:21 tells us creation is in bondage to decay Basically, these three verses roll around in my head and come out testifying to me that God does not send bad things into our lives.  Bad things may happen, but I believe they are a result of humans poorly exercising their free will, and of the bondage under which creation suffers. I DO know, from verses in the Bible, the testimony of countless friends, family, and other Christians, and my own experience, that God can take what was intended for bad and use it for his glory through blessi