It struck me as most appropriate this past week to observe that exactly at the time of the “changing of the guard” in the Presidential inauguration ceremony, we were given a time to hear an extraordinary musical performance by some of America’s most renowned musicians. Their gifts, celebrating a wonderful occasion in the life of our nation was a gift to all those present and all those who were watching from places around the globe.
It was not only a beautiful moment, but it was coupled with the delicate strains of an old Shaker tune, but so beautiful a musical theme…"’tis a gift to be simple…’tis a gift to be free.” For this moment in history, such thoughts were overwhelmingly welcomed and redemptive in their message to the world.
In the midst of our times, when the complexities of economies and wars and challenges of every sort were looming in the background, those beautiful reminders allowed us a sure moment to breathe in their certain truth. It is a gift to consider the most simple of life’s gifts as the most precious. No true gift of life is something bought or sold, but rather are gifts to the heart and of the Spirit. God’s grace is received when it is perceived and known in the power, not of men, but of divine healing and mercy.
To value the simple gifts is to aspire to know those things that truly are our gifts for life. In the midst of those best gifts is the freedom of each day. We share the freedom to think and to act and to respond to our Creator and to one another. It is a freedom to live, to love, and to celebrate joy.
I overheard a young child’s prayer this week…“Dear God, Forgive me of my sins. I have an empty place in my heart, and I want you to come and fill it with joy.” Truer words of expectation and hope have never been spoken. God’s love fills us with the knowledge of His abiding presence and peace…“’Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free.”
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
"Necessity is the Mother of Invention"
Whoever said that first is probably someone who recognized that difficulties, while challenging, may encourage creativity and new thinking, both of which may turn out to prove more helpful than the difficulty ever was.
As a Christian, I am reminded that Jesus stated that our real needs would be met, food, shelter, clothing, etc. when we were willing to first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Jesus also noted that God knows we need those things, even before we ask. It still helps to ask, I think, in a relationship of faith and trust and desiring His right way of relating in doing the things we do, saying the things we say, seeking the things we seek and trusting Him to lead us as we trustingly follow the example of Jesus in living by faith.
Over the years, in my own journey, I have found many resources that at first glance, seemed of little worth or help, but became very useful with perspective, creativity, and God’s blessing. The list of those provisions is lengthy, but just to share a few:
As a child, an old dynamite crate that I slid under my bed was my first “chest of drawers” for my clothes. Now more than 50 years later, it still holds a useful and fondly remembered purpose in our home, besides still using it for storage, each Christmas we utilize it as a “manger” for our church’s preschool nativity portrayal.
In seminary, funds were tight, and one semester I lacked money for books. At the same time a speculator was escalating the value of silver on the commodities market and coin dealers and jewelers were offering high prices for silver coins and flatware. Years before as an older child, an elderly neighbor had given me a pint jar filled with foreign coins from his war years travels. I had held on to them up until that time when it turned out that a number of them were silver. I was able to convert a handful of silver coins into enough cash to buy my books for that term. Shortly afterward the silver price fell drastically.
In one particular year of church ministry, resources were extremely scarce. Money for food and household bills was seemingly diminished to nothing. In thinking through our situation, I remembered a small life insurance policy taken out by my father for me when I was a teenager and which after I had married, I had paid a few dollars a month for until it reached its full value. It had been years since the last payment, but upon investigation, I found I could borrow against its value. I did so and the financial crisis was overcome.
As a young college student, I spent a summer selling books door to door in a state distant to my home. After weeks of work and after the other 19 members of the sales group I had started with had given up and gone home, I found myself still knocking on doors late one evening in a new part of the county when an older couple invited me to supper. In the course of the meal, my host served a helping of small tomatoes, that she had canned the previous year and which I had up until that time avoided in my diet. Out of politeness for their hospitality, I cleaned my plate and have enjoyed tomatoes of all sorts ever since. In fact, I love eating tomatoes and especially homegrown ones.
Seeing how God leads us to value things differently and in different ways is a good lesson to remember in the midst of difficult times. We often learn the greatest lessons of all when we are the most earnestly looking for answers. One of those for every circumstance is that God is with us in all our circumstances and indeed He does bless and multiply and change us in ways that allow His joy to be known and shared.
As a Christian, I am reminded that Jesus stated that our real needs would be met, food, shelter, clothing, etc. when we were willing to first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Jesus also noted that God knows we need those things, even before we ask. It still helps to ask, I think, in a relationship of faith and trust and desiring His right way of relating in doing the things we do, saying the things we say, seeking the things we seek and trusting Him to lead us as we trustingly follow the example of Jesus in living by faith.
Over the years, in my own journey, I have found many resources that at first glance, seemed of little worth or help, but became very useful with perspective, creativity, and God’s blessing. The list of those provisions is lengthy, but just to share a few:
As a child, an old dynamite crate that I slid under my bed was my first “chest of drawers” for my clothes. Now more than 50 years later, it still holds a useful and fondly remembered purpose in our home, besides still using it for storage, each Christmas we utilize it as a “manger” for our church’s preschool nativity portrayal.
In seminary, funds were tight, and one semester I lacked money for books. At the same time a speculator was escalating the value of silver on the commodities market and coin dealers and jewelers were offering high prices for silver coins and flatware. Years before as an older child, an elderly neighbor had given me a pint jar filled with foreign coins from his war years travels. I had held on to them up until that time when it turned out that a number of them were silver. I was able to convert a handful of silver coins into enough cash to buy my books for that term. Shortly afterward the silver price fell drastically.
In one particular year of church ministry, resources were extremely scarce. Money for food and household bills was seemingly diminished to nothing. In thinking through our situation, I remembered a small life insurance policy taken out by my father for me when I was a teenager and which after I had married, I had paid a few dollars a month for until it reached its full value. It had been years since the last payment, but upon investigation, I found I could borrow against its value. I did so and the financial crisis was overcome.
As a young college student, I spent a summer selling books door to door in a state distant to my home. After weeks of work and after the other 19 members of the sales group I had started with had given up and gone home, I found myself still knocking on doors late one evening in a new part of the county when an older couple invited me to supper. In the course of the meal, my host served a helping of small tomatoes, that she had canned the previous year and which I had up until that time avoided in my diet. Out of politeness for their hospitality, I cleaned my plate and have enjoyed tomatoes of all sorts ever since. In fact, I love eating tomatoes and especially homegrown ones.
Seeing how God leads us to value things differently and in different ways is a good lesson to remember in the midst of difficult times. We often learn the greatest lessons of all when we are the most earnestly looking for answers. One of those for every circumstance is that God is with us in all our circumstances and indeed He does bless and multiply and change us in ways that allow His joy to be known and shared.
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