Psalm 37:8 Refrain from anger & Turn away from wrath

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.

Psalm 37:8

David brings us back to the Put Off/Put On theme he's employed throughout this Psalm. 

So far, he's focused mostly on the characteristics and actions we need to “Put-On” if we want to successfully "put off" fretting and envying in response to wicked people.

• Actively, whole-heartedly trust in the Lord
• Intentionally do good
• Seek out ways to serve God no matter where he has put you
• Find and express genuine delight in your life with the Lord
• Commit wholly to that life
• Be still rather than leaping into hasty action
• Wait patiently for the Lord to take care of things

But the "put off" part is equally important. By intentionally removing the harmful habits from our lives, we create a vacuum which our newly acquired righteous habits can fill. This works much better than just passively expecting spiritual transformation to just happen.

Many spiritual or religious people have picked up a common attitude toward the Psalms. It's poetry, they think. And most people think the proper approach to poetry is to give it a light reading and briefly bask in whatever emotional response it prompts. 

And so, the average person reads Psalm 37 and thinks, Wow, that’s cool. And they move along with life, completely lacking in any thought of intentionally making real changes in their life as a result of what they've just read. 

But that's the problem David is writing about. Instead of letting your emotions control your response to the evil actions of wicked people, find a constructive way to respond in a more positive way.

Let your gentleness be known to all. The Lord is near. Philippians 4:5

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. James 1:19-20

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32

The intolerance and quick anger of Christians is certainly evident to non-believers. In fact, polls and surveys consistently show it's one of the chief characteristics people associate with Christians. 

If you intentionally do the hard work of putting off your anger and wrath, replacing it with a disciplined of gentle spirit, listening ear, and active kindness, it will be evident to non-believers.

Psalm 37:7 Don't focus on schemes

 

Do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes

Psalm 37:7

Our word schemes is a translation of the Hebrew mezzimah, which describes a person's thought processes and the resulting ideas and plans. Almost always it's used in reference to warped or misguided thinking that leads to wicked or evil actions.

Paul uses a similar term in a similar way in 2 Corinthians 2:10-11

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

The Greek word translated as schemes is noēmata. It also refers to the end result of a thought process. It's a favorite word of Paul's in II Corinthians, used in both positive (10:5) and negative (3:14; 4:4; 11:3) ways.

It's not at all hard to understand the concept of a person's messed up way of thinking about things when you see it at work in someone else, as David is doing in Psalm 37.

I experience this almost every day when I scan my social media timelines and see the wildest ideas and most unbelievable theories and so-called "facts" posted or shared - and this by both strangers and some of my friends.

I will admit this to be the one thing that frustrates me most and makes me want to fret and burn with anger. And yes, I sometimes struggle with envy at the attention these ill-conceived notions receive, and the popularity of such ridiculous viewpoints.

I'm not talking about opinions I just happen to disagree with. One of my chief principles is to not assume I'm always right, and to respect the differing opinions of others. 

It's the gullibility and twisted up thought processes that lead to the most extreme ideas and inflammatory comments by my fellow believers that bother me most. They lack any evidence of critical thinking, and generally lack kindness, peacemaking, and any sense of Christ's mission.

As a friend recently said, I don't like the idea that I share a belief system with such people. They claim to have come to a reasoned belief in God and in Christ Jesus, all the while coming across like they believe even more strongly in conspiracy theories and twisted versions of reality. 

As I said, this is the part of Psalm 37 I personally struggle with most. So what am I to do? What are any of us to do if we want to win the war against such schemes?

First, follow David's advice: Don't fret. As we're learning in Psalm 37, the best way to not burn with anger at such things is to use that angry energy in more positive ways.  Trust in the Lord, do good for the Lord, dwell in the land, delight in the Lord, and so on.

Second, follow Paul's advice in II Corinthians 2, and be aware that Satan, the Father of Lies, is the true purveyor of fake news and every misdirected thought process. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, not against memes and Russian bots and trolls, but against the real ruler of this present darkness. Which only serves to demonstrate the importance,a gain, of following David's advice.

Third, follow Paul's advice in II Corinthians 10:4-5, where he uses that same term again:

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We need to learn to rightly order our thoughts as people who claim to follow Christ. Take captive and cast aside any thought process that begins with any sort of political philosophy, financial gain, or personal agendas. Take captive and embrace thought processes ground in Christi's mission for us, which is to draw all people toward him.

Practice putting your mind to use as a tool for sharing the gospel, rather than sharing your theories.

Psalm 37:7 Wait patiently for the Lord

In my first year of working in hospital purchasing, I would finish my day at 4:30 each afternoon. My wife, who was a part time secretary and counselor at the Mizzou Christian Campus House, would get off at 5:00 each day. She had out only car with her.

I'd sit in the entranceway to the hospital for the wait, reading a book or just staring off into space. 

At ten 'til the hour, Lisa, a pharmacy worker I knew, would arrive in the entranceway and sit across from me. She was waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up. 

He was often late, at least according to her. And she would often complain. 

As I sat waited for Karen, Lisa would express her surprise at my refusal to complain about my wife being late.

I explained that she got off at 5, but then she had to navigate through rush hour traffic on campus and deal with two of the busiest commuter thoroughfares in the city. There was no way to predict, on any given day, the multitude of things that could slow the flow of traffic.

My waiting companion complained that her boyfriend would probably stop at a bar if the traffic annoyed him.

I would also explain that Karen's quitting time was somewhat unpredictable. 5:00 could bleed into 5:10 or even as late as 5:30 if there was something that came up at the last minute. Also, students frequently sought her out for counseling, and their needs didn't always match up to her work schedule.

Lisa groused about her guy likely getting into some pointless conversation at the bar and forgetting her altogether. She said I was an idiot for not trusting my wife.

That's just it, I told her. I do trust my wife. 

As she scoffed, I went on to say that, in my experience, there are two reasons why someone has trouble trusting other people. One is that they've been lied to, disappointed, and treated poorly so many times, they no longer think anyone is trustworthy. The other reason is that, deep down in their heart, they know they themselves aren't very trustworthy. They naturally assume everyone else is like them.

I recall the look in her eyes when I said that. It was like I had just landed a painful blow with a surgically sharp needle, directly into her heart.

Of course, she blustered and bluffed her way past it, returning to her complaints about her boyfriend.

Finally, I added one more point, saving the best for last.

Besides, I said, what else have I got to do with my time except wait? Sit here and talk to you?

Which, to me, was entirely the point. God had a reason for me to wait there day after day. And his reason was sitting across the entranceway from me.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.

Psalm 37:7

When you're fretting about the unacceptable situation people have put you in, wait patiently for the Lord.

When other people - people less faithful than you - seem to be moving right along through life with no complications, wait patiently for the Lord.

When people around you have the wrong attitude, the wrong opinions, the wrong lifestyle, or the wrong politics, wait patiently for the Lord. 

Trust me, he has a plan. Trust him to make all things work out together for his purposes - in his own time.

Trust him to raise up people who can correct those problems. Trust him to provide opportunities for his people to be salt and light in the midst of a world filled with frustrating people. 

And while you're waiting, look across the room and there will almost always be someone else waiting.  You can be that person who just happens to have a salt shaker and a flashlight in your pocket, and God just happened to set up this divine appointment for you.  

What else have you got to do?

Psalm 37:7 Be still before the Lord

During the Spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led cities to shut down. Stores and restaurants and bars and theaters were closed. The only people working were those consider "essential" for the minimal  infrastructure of modern life. 

Each day during that time, I would put in my usual 8 hours on my job, but not at my office. Instead, I worked from the solitude of my own home, remoting in on the computer. Along with all of my co-workers, we went through the normal habits of the workday from the totally abnormal locations in our homes 

On the first day of my seclusion, I began a daily habit of leaving my desk at the end of the workday and walking out the door and directly to my car. I grew comfortable with working in solitude, but I never stopped wanting to finish it off by going for a drive and stretching my eyeballs. 

I never actually went anywhere, never actually got out of my car. I might visit the drive through window of a fast food joint for a brief, masked interaction with an essential purveyor of Diet Coke. But usually I just picked a direction and drove around my city.

During safer times, I was a rideshare driver for Uber and Lyft. My workplace was rush hour traffic and the hustle and bustle of pedestrians downtown and on the university campus. Now, the rush hour was reduced to a trickle of traffic and the sidewalks and streets of the center city were mostly barren.

The stillness was surreal.

Some writers and preachers quoted scriptures about Sabbath and stillness, pointing us to a God-given opportunity in the midst of this horrible natural calamity. Some believers took thesis advice to heart and intentionally took time to treasure the stillness.

From my perspective, however, it seems most American believers no longer feel comfortable lying down in green pastures for very long. They're easily bored sitting beside still waters. They've forgotten the connection between stillness and the restoration of the soul.

They need to be doing something, and not just going for a drive. What's the point of the drive if there's nowhere to go?

During a time of crisis, like 2020, our greatest compulsion is to be doing something about the problem. And in the 21st century, that usually means forming opinions and building verbal walls between those of us who are right and those others who are wrong.

Social media has turned out to be really bad at social distancing. If we had been content to embrace the stillness of the streets, we might have avoided rushing like panicked wildebeests onto the information highway.

Inexplicably, science became the ball in a game of political ping pong being played out online. Christians questioned each others' spirituality over disagreements on physical vs. virtual church, masks or no masks, and how it all impacted on politics.

Had we all chosen God's stillness, we might have been able to be still and know not only God, but to grasp His priorities in the midst of the furious pursuit of rightness.

When you find yourself fretting about the wrongness of others' opinions and envious of their followers, simply stop.  

Be still before the Lord

Psalm 37:7

Psalm 37:5-6 Commit your Way to the Lord

I worked 41 years in the healthcare supply chain field, working my way through various job titles and responsibilities, only changing employers when our hospital was bought out by the local university. In April of 1979 I applied for a job in a hospital storeroom, unloading trucks, stocking the shelves, managing the inventory, and pulling orders for hospital departments. I gained a broad and comprehensive knowledge of healthcare supply chain by shifting through job responsibilities and titles over the course of four decades plus a year.

That sort of career is rare in an age where most people switch companies every few years. To my mind, committing my way to the success of my employers was the road to job security. Continually proving my value to the company and to my bosses, and I would ride that loyalty all the way to retirement.

That's how it's supposed to work, isn't it? I can trust them to be as loyal to me as I've been to them, can't I?

Then came 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic hit the university hard, like it did nearly every company in America. Thousands were furloughed and hundreds were laid off, and I was one of the second hundred who lost our jobs, three years short of the best time for me to finish with full retirement rewards.

That's not how it's supposed to work.

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: 

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, 

your vindication like the noonday sun. 

Psalm 37:5-6

During the two-weeks notice they allowed, I was asked to work with my co-workers and bosses to let them know how to do everything I do in my job. They also needed me to bequeath to them my 41 years of institutional knowledge and experience.

As the scope of my tasks and experience began to dawn on them, I felt a certain amount of vindication. It was becoming clear there would be no way everything was going to get done by the people left behind. The people left to fill in the gaps weren't at fault, they just didn't have enough hours in each day or week to do it all. Nor did they have enough years on the job to have learned everything they might need to know.

There was some selfish pride in that vindication, but it was less like the noonday sun and more like the setting sun, as I stared ahead into an uncertain future.

I could lash out at the people who made the choices that have left me in this tough situation. I could fret about the injustice, I could envy those who somehow were spared. I could take the advice of Job's wife and rail at God.

Indeed, the weight of this unexpected betrayal threatened to take my wife and I under, bringing many tears and plenty of stress. But it hasn't crushed us, because my career has never been the primary commitment in my life. I've always been the type who works in order to be able to do the other things that are important to me, rather than being motivated by the job itself.

Our commitment has always been to the path the Lord lays out before us. I've survived multiple rounds of layoffs over these past 41 years. Each time, I said that if God has a new plan for me, some new thing he needs us to commit ourselves to, the best way for him to make that clear would be to pull my current career out from under me.

This is not the first time we've learned it's possible to be thoroughly crushed and mightily depressed about our circumstances, while at the same time feeling joyful to know the Lord is unmistakably at work in our lives. 

We don't know what the Lord has planned, but we are absolutely certain He will make our righteous reward shine like the dawn, our vindication like the noonday sun. 

Psalm 37:4 Delight in the Lord

July 24th , 2020, was a delightful day. After the long pandemic-driven delay, baseball was back! How wonderful!

I spent the weekend watching whatever games were being broadcast on the channels I have. That meant no Cardinals or Royals, the two Missouri teams I like to root for. But I did get to watch a Washington Nationals game with Max Scherzer pitching. And that was a delight, since I frequently watched him pitch years ago when he was with the Missouri Tigers ballclub.

Max and his team didn't win this weekend, which was less delightful. But all in all, I was still delighted that I got my heart's desire, which is to watch some baseball. I'm the kind of oddball fan who takes pure joy in the game itself, no matter who wins. Sure, it takes a bit of my joy away if my team loses, but the greatest thief of my baseball joy is when the season is over - or it's suspended by a virus - and there's no baseball at all!

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

Hang around with 21st century American Evangelical Christians much, and you'll begin to wonder what it is that brings them delight? What is their greatest desire?

One would think the Lord would be the object of their delight. The Bible certainly points in that direction over and over.

What, though, steals their joy away from them most often? It would seem they take the most delight  in being right, whether's it about their theology or their politics. They delight in getting the last word in when there's an argument about cultural or lifestyle differences of opinion. Their greatest desire would appear to be convincing people to change their political opinions.

Do they not delight in the Lord? Oh, I think they do, some more than others. It's just that they haven't necessarily made the solid connection between their delight and their desires.

David says the two go hand in hand. If you take delight in the Lord, he will give the desires of your heart. If this, then that.

Like the Bible's frequent "put off/put on" statements I've been pointing to, the conditional "if/then" statement is another favorite of the biblical writers. Frequently they're misunderstood by readers, though. We tend to read sentences like "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15) as though they were commands. The same way children learn to interpret, "If you clean your room, I'll take you to the mall."

Quite often, it's more accurate to understand such If/Then statements in the bible the same way we'd understand, "If you want to avoid catching the coronavirus, wash your hands." The "then" is the natural outcome of the "if".

David's statement in Psalm 37:4 is not a matter of getting a reward.  It's not, "If you delight in the Lord, you'll earn the desires of your heart", as though the only connection between the delight and the desire is transactional.

Instead, David appears to be saying that when you've grown so close to God that He is actually your greatest delight, then the desires of your heart will naturally be the same as the Lord's desires.

Within the context of Psalm 37, if my greatest delight comes from seeing the evildoers and wrong doers get what's coming to them, then my greatest desire will be to watch them stumble and fall on their faces.

It's much more joyful, though, to practice delighting in the Lord, in who He is, the things He does, and the things in which He delights. Then when the negativity and bad behavior of the world threatens to steal my joy, then the joy of the Lord will be my strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

Psalm 37: 3 Dwell in the Land

A common catch phrase among Christians is that we are to be "in the world but not of the world." This isn't an erroneous concept, but it oversimplifies what the scriptures describe as a more complex approach to the world in which we live.

On the one hand, I John 2:15-17 tells us clearly, "Do not love the world or anything in the world." That' what we're supposed to put off. Actively, intentionally reduce the ways in which you are in love with the world and it's ways.

That same apostle, John, gives us the corresponding opposite intentional action, the things we're supposed to put on. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

That's a lot of love. Given that our mission in this world is to share the gospel and shepherd the people of the world to be reconciled with God, does it make sense for us to do anything less than to love the world the way God does?

He certainly doesn't love the evil done by the people of the world. He doesn't love their hard heartedness, but He does love their hearts and wants to touch their hearts with his love.

We are not of the world, but God has placed us in this world in order to be His ambassadors of light in the dark corners of the world. We're charged with refreshing the world by being His salt

John 17:14-15 records Jesus' prayer to His Father regarding His disciples.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

The day will come when Jesus takes all His followers out of the world, to join Him in our eternal home before the throne of God. But until that time, our purpose is to make our homes in the place where He has put us, among the people who don't know there is a better home.

If we throw our lives into living out that mission, rather than constantly fighting against the evildoers and the imperfections of this world, the Lord will protect us and bless us while we're here.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture

Psalm 37:3

Dwelling in the land implies much more than just squatting on the land or taking up a temporary, detached residence in a place.

The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 adn Ezekiel 34 has brought us into a land that may be filled with dangers, but He will always provided green pastures in which we can rely on His protection and guarantee of eternal safety.

As long as He is with us, we can live joyfully in this world, even among the evildoers, as living examples of His goodness and grace.

A Pandemic of Loneliness

I am lonely.

As I write this, it's Sunday morning, the 15th of November, in the year 2020, the loneliest of years. 

As of today it's been 36 Sundays since my wife and I went TO church. It's kind of lonely sitting in my basement, watching on my computer screen as the "assembly of the saints" assembles on the other side of town.

We've been able to continue meeting with our small group, or Life Group, on Monday nights, via Zoom. In fact, we've had significantly fewer cancellations since we began meeting online than we did when we were gathering at our house. Our group has actually thrived during this time, like never before. I think it's because we're all a bit lonely, and we crave the virtual togetherness. We've opened our hearts and souls to one another on Monday nights, sharing our trials and frustrations, our emotional swings, our loneliness.

And I have been lonely. In March I left my office at the university for the last time, moving my laptop, it's dock, three screens, keyboard, mouse, speakers -- the whole setup - to my basement. What I didn't move to my home were my office mate and all the other people I used to see every day at work. There have been some lonely and difficult days, working at home.

And then, in August, my job left me. I was one of many who have been laid off. After 41 straight years of working full time, settled into the routine of going TO work every day, I no longer even had that. It's a whole new level of isolation. And loneliness.

There's a particular depth of loneliness that comes when you begin to suspect you've been caught out, finally exposed as a fraud. 

The thing is, there has been an incredible upside to being at home these past eight months. For the first time in 42 years of marriage, my wife and I have been together at home nearly all day every day. 

It's good. We talk more often. We talk longer. Our individual lives have adjusted to one another's schedule and rhythm. It's very good.

And yet, still, even as we are together more than ever, it's still true that we are lonely.

But we know we're no different than nearly everyone else, especially during this year, during this Covditide.

We're all experiencing a  Pandemic of Loneliness.

I know there are others, including friends in my own home church, who have also been sent home from their workplace, either to remote in from home or to not work at all (except for the never ending task of competing with all the other lonely people who are trying to find a job).

There are other people, moms and dads, who have had to quit working or remote from home or make drastic adjustments to their work schedule so they can be at home with their children who can no longer go TO school. All these parents sincerely want to be there for their children, but there is still a guilty loneliness that comes with such a drastic change.

And let's not forget the kids themselves. They're still able to DO school, with the help of a computer or tablet. But they're not IN school, not physically WITH their classmates and teachers. Karen is teaching piano lessons by way of Zoom, and she hears the loneliness in their voices when she asks them how school is going.

On the other end of the age spectrum are the senior citizens. The grandmas and grandpas and others who are at highest risk from this virus, but are physically isolated from the very people who could be their emotional support - their families and friends. I've only been in the physical presence of my son. Cody, twice in these 8 months. It's lonely.

People will say, At least you know that God is always with you. And this is true. But just knowing that doesn't really make me feel any less lonely.

This may sound like a strange thing to suggest, but I think Jesus was sometimes lonely. If he went through everything we go through, he surely must have had his lonely times.

Throughout this time I've been drawn again and again to the biblical record of Jesus going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.

There in the Garden, on that last night, Jesus went with his disciples to the Mount of Olives. He left most of the followers behind and took just his closest friends farther in with him. And then, it says in Luke 22:41, he went even farther, about a stone's throw beyond them, and knelt down and prayed.

It's so often true that, even in our loneliness, we just need to withdraw from people. Even Jesus, on the loneliest night of his life, felt the need to talk and pray with his closest friends, but then felt the urge to take those extra steps to be even more alone with his loneliness.

Why did he do this? Because it was his habit. 

In Luke 5:16 we're told that when the crowds were pressing in on him, Jesus would escape not only the crowds but also his friends. It says he "often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."

Jesus knew the truth that just assuming God's presence isn't the same as intentionally dwelling in his presence. He knew that the best answer to loneliness is to embrace that aloneness by finding a lonely place, and to intentionally spend a significant amount of time dwelling in the presence of the Father.

And that's what he chose to do on the night when he was about to be betrayed. 

What could be more lonely than to be betrayed? 

To be honest, I feel betrayed by the people who laid me off. The very people who so often told me how important I was to the work we were doing, they kicked me to the curb and I haven't heard from them since. 

Betrayal and loneliness go hand in hand.

Jesus was so lonely, he begged the Father to find another way. "If possible, let this cup pass from me!"

Later, on the cross, he would cry out to the Father again in agonizing loneliness: "My God, my God, Why have YOU forsaken me?"

I know very well that some of the anger, the sense of betrayal that I have struggled with during this time is, deep down, my anger at God. Sometimes it feels like He is the one who has betrayed me.

When Jesus went back to his disciples, his closest friends, they were asleep. He asks them, "Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?" That's the agony of loneliness in his voice. 

Loneliness craves people who care. Anyone who cares. 

The next time you share in the communion cup and bread, meditate on Jesus' loneliness on that last night. And then think about the people you know who are probably lonely and plan how you can intentionally encourage them. Also, make a plan for how you can intentionally seek out a lonely place in the midst of your own loneliness, and go deeper than you ever have in your study and prayer to become closer to God.

My Father,

If it is possible, may this cup of loneliness be taken from me. And may it also be taken from my friends here at Blue Ridge, and from the many millions who are in agony during this Pandemic of Loneliness.

Thank you, Jesus, for walking the lonely path to the cross. Thank you for your lonely sacrifice.

Psalm 37:3 Do Good for the Lord

As a kid, the only good thing about a trip to the doctor or dentist was the Highlights magazines that were in every waiting room. The full-page Hidden Images puzzle could keep me busy for quite a while. And the jokes and stories were fun.

But my favorite part of each Highlights was the Goofus and Gallant cartoon. For a kid raised in a church culture of right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, the simple morality of Goofus and Gallant was appealing.

Goofus: "Gimme a pencil!"
Gallant: "Please give me a piece of paper."

Goofus: "How much will you pay me to shovel your walk, Aunt Sue?"
Gallant: "I'll shovel the walk, Dad!"

Goofus: "I wish I had no little brother."
Gallant: "I'm glad I have a little brother."

Squirrels are scared of Goofus.
Squirrels eat from Gallant's hand.

I question the wisdom of the lesson that last one was teaching to young readers, but you get the idea. Most of them were simple little two-panel morality plays. Others were disturbing in their depiction of a juvenile sociopath contrasted with an overly perfect child.

In Psalm 37, David offers up his own contrast, this time between the evildoers of verse 1 and the "good doer" of verse 3.

Trust in the Lord and do good,,,

Psalm 37:3

It might appear that David is presenting an overly simplified contrast in the same tone as Goofus and Gallant. But in the context, David is laying out three possible ways a follower of God might respond when he or she feels like fretting or envying in reaction to evildoers.

One option is to give into your worst inclinations and react with your own bad actions. Allow your anxious fretting to fester and turn into resentment. Let your envious heart take action against the object of your negative thoughts.

This is the route that leads to Christians filling social media with "Christianized" versions of the mean memes, half truths, and politicized spin used by the evildoers of the world.

Another option would be to make a show of doing good. This sort of behavior is the kind that earns the dismissive label of "do-gooder".

The do-gooder constantly reminds people he's the type of person who "doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, and doesn't go with girls who do", as though such elemental morality best represents the heart of God. Evil doers generally react negatively toward such people because they come across as fake and condescending toward people who live differently.

If the only things you can offer to unbelievers is a list of things you don't do, if the primary good thing you lay claim to is going to church, they're probably going to dismiss you as nothing more than a hollow do-gooder.

The third option is to seek constructive and productive ways of doing good. I'm talking about the kind of good things that are out of the ordinary, the sort of lifestyle that strikes people as genuinely sacrificial and loving.

When the evil deeds of the world frustrate you, find a way to help make the world better. Get messily involved in the messy lives of messy people. Help the poor and the homeless, feed the hungry, mentor people who have hit rock bottom, go out of your way to care for the sick and elderly.

Give it a try. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes for you and for others.

Doing practical good can redirect the urge to respond to ungodly people with your own evil actions or self righteous behavior.  It engages the biblical principle of putting off your bad habits and putting on good habits (Ephesians 4:17-32).

Doing good is also the best way to draw people toward the Lord - even the very evildoers who frustrate you. If you can learn to see them not only as people who are doing evil, but also as people whose only hope is to know Jesus, it becomes easier to re-train your "knee jerk" reactions toward productive goodness.

Train your heart away from Goofus, beyond Gallant, and toward Godly.

Psalm 37:3 Trusting in the Lord

Do not fret because of those who are evil
   or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
   like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord . . . .

Psalm 37:1-3a

Put off this. Put on that instead. 

The principle of Put off/Put on is found throughout the scriptures. Paul and Peter and Jesus and David and Solomon and others repeatedly come back to the concept. In Ephesians 4:17-32, Paul hammers home the idea, with numerous specific examples. 

Real change, lasting transformation, comes through this process, energized by the Holy Spirit.  Put off the ungodly and self-indulgent habits. Replace them with godly and righteous habits. 

That's what David is saying here. Your feelings say to dwell on your anger and frustration. But don't go with your feelings.

Go a different way. Go with trusting in the Lord.

Don't trust in the chemical reactions generated in your body by your feelings. Instead, trust the Lord who created you and your body chemistry. Spiritual disciplines can prepare you to make constructive use of the anger-produced chemicals like adrenaline, rather than allowing yourself to be driven toward destructive reactions. "In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold." (Ephesians 4:26-27)

Don't trust in your power to combat evil, as though you were a spiritual superhero. Trust instead in God's overall plan for righteousness. "No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause." (Psalm 25:3)

Don't trust in the self-promoting emotions of envy. Instead, trust the plans the Lord has for you, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). The more you train yourself to trust that God has a specific plan for you, the less you'll be apt to give in to thoughts of envy about the success and welfare of others people.

Don't trust in the same earthbound strategies and plans and purposes as the people who you see doing wrong. Trust in the ways of the Lord. Achieving what you see as a righteous purpose by unrighteous means will never achieve the righteous purposes of the Lord. "Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness." (Romans 6:13)

Trust in the Lord.

Psalm 37:2 Grass

On a hot July afternoon, I watched, appropriately socially distanced, while my 13-year-old grandson mowed our lawn. He looked tired and hot, not at all surprising since he'd been mowing various lawns all day in low-90s temperatures. He had wanted to earn money of his own this summer, and his parents wanted him to learn the value of working hard to earn that money.

I don't do hardly any of the mowing any more, because my deteriorating knee just doesn't deal well with the mechanics of pushing the "self-propelled" mower. My wife mows occasionally, but as the temperatures heat up, her body reacts poorly to the weather and doesn't need to be pushing a mower around either.

And so we offered to pay Ethan to mow our yard sometimes this summer. I think he charges us less than he might someone else, but we pay him more than he initially asked. And it's good to see him so regularly during this long season of the pandemic's enforced isolation.

We also get to see his parents, because someone has to drive the truck to bring the 13-year-old and his mower. They also do more than their share of work while he's mowing. Our son makes the rounds with the weed eater and he and our daughter in law have worked hard over the past few weeks to clean up the large amount of sticks and leaves accumulated in our near-forest backyard.

Cooter commented that July was starting to be like it normally is in Missouri. He's seeing signs on all the lawns they visit of the grass becoming sun-bleached and dry.

Like the grass, all three generations of this family are growing older. Karen and I are like the grass and vines and weeds that are declining under the summer's heat. Cooter, as a little boy, didn't really care for short pants. He would try to tug them down to cover his legs.  Now he's 35, an astonishing age for someone who was once so small.

Even Ethan and his younger brother Jude are growing older at a speed I can hardly keep up with. They'll be grown and gone and approaching the time of withering like grass themselves, long after the thresher has harvested my soul.

It happens to all of us, to the best of us and the worst of us.

Do not fret because of those who are evil
   or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
   like green plants they will soon die away.

Psalm 37:1-2

Why would Ethan fret about the grass and what new challenges it's going to throw at him next week when it comes time to mow again? Our lawn is not going to suddenly develop sentience and plot to do us harm, like in that silly movie, The Happening. It's just grass. Grass does what grass does.

People do what people do. Evil people are going to do wrong, because that's the direction they've trained their hearts to lean. People who have trained their hearts toward good will do good, and should keep their minds and actions focused on doing good.

Our grass is just going to keep being grass, even after Etan mows. It'll keep being what it is until it dies. 

And it will die.

Ethan will also die. But before that time, he'll find greater things to train his heart toward. Over the past two or three years, as he's passed through those most formative waking up years of 11-13, we've all - his parents and grandparents - watched the scatter-brained boy begin to seek out just who it is God is training him up to be.

And we saw, and it is good.

Psalm 37:1 Envy

They say there's a heaven for those who will wait
  Some say it's better but I say it ain't
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
  The sinners are much more fun
You know that only the good die young
  I tell ya
Only the good die young
Only the good die young

    Billy Joel, Only the Good Die Young

Recent polls and studies agree that a majority of young people who have grown up in the church will leave the church within a few short years after finishing high school. For some reason we're not hanging on to our kids.

One reason is that the churches where they're growing up are not preparing them to think critically and to be intellectually prepared for the challenges they face outside the cocoon of their youth.

"We need to think more clearly, to teach more clearly. We need to stop using words like liberal and conservative and, instead, talk about things like critical thinking in the church. We should be talking about how to sort through what’s biblical and what’s not. How to “think Christian” is really, really important. " (David Embree, The State of Campus Ministry, Christian Standard Magazine)

Another common reason for young people leaving the church, perhaps greater than being ill-prepared intellectually, is the lure of the culture of the "unchurched".

Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong...

Psalm 37:1

Even those millennials and Generation Z who do stick with church involvement are highly likely to accept and adopt the philosophy and lifestyle of the post-modern, post-church world at large in which they spend their lives

They (we) look at the life-in-a-box rules taught by previous generations of Christians and then look out through the stained glass windows at the seeming freedom and fun of the rest of the world and think, "I want what they have."

Envy is not only wanting what someone else has, but being willing to go out of your way and compromise your otherwise pure principles to take it for yourself. It's usually thought of in terms of stealing or cheating or even committing violence against someone in order to take what they have.

In the context of young believers envying the lives of their unbelieving peers, they're willing to steal from the lost people around them the opportunity to see God-flavors and God-colors of a life lived intentionally for the Lord.

Maybe they're willing to make that selfish choice because the church in which they grew up never actually set concrete examples and trained them in how to be salt and light.

Most of them, having made that choice to be a n imitator of those who do wrong rather than an imitator of Christ, leave the church altogether. A lot of those continue to think of themselves as believers of a sort. They're the ones who will shrug and answer "sure" when asked if they still believe. But they want their cake and to eat the forbidden fruit, too.

Psalm 37 provides a curriculum for teaching and leading young believers in a better way to make choices about the bert way to live.

Psalm 37:1 Evildoers

Who is evil? Who are the evildoers?

In Romans 1:29-31, Paul refers to "they invent ways of doing evil." Such people are lumped in with a list that includes not only generally agreed upon evils (murder, God-haters), but also things most of us would have to admit to commiting at some time in our lives (gossip, disobey parents).

Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 9:12, warns about the danger of being ensnared into the jumbled net of the evil around us.

Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:
As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Satan is at work in this world to mess with us, to get us to become evil like him. His primary tactic is to lure us into getting involved in things that aren't good but don't seem to be actually evil. From there, it's  a slippery slope.

In my own heart, I know the greatest evil to which I've fallen prey is the temptation to see myself as 'good", compared to THOSE evil people.

“People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”

  Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

He's right. Those EVIL PEOPLE are no worse than you or me, but not because it's okay to be evil. They're no worse than us because we also have evil in our hearts.

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

Nurturing evil in your heart leads to psychological problems, to “madness in our hearts”. Not just the sort of evil madness that leads to murder, rape, or criminal activities, but also heart-driven anger, jealousy, impatience, selfishness. Once evil sets its roots in you heart, it bears fruit through misdirecting your energy and focus.

Don’t swim around in the pool of evil that builds up in your heart. Instead, intentionally engage in positive acts of goodness, thereby overcoming the evil that wants to take over your heart.

Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:13-15

The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

Matthew 12:35

And then there's Psalm 37.

Do not fret because of those who are evil . . . 

Psalm 37:1 

David begins by telling us not to get pulled in by the evil around you, pulled into worry, frustration, anger. Don't get sucked into responding to evil with evil.

He goes on to list about two dozen positive, concrete actions we can take as our righteous and productive response to evil times and evil people.

Try this as a first step: dwell on one verse from Psalm 37 each week. Read it and memorize it.

Repeat it to yourself when you're following the news reports each day, and think creatively about how the week's verse provides practical advice for responding intentionally to evil times.

Repeat the verse of the week to yourself every time you're considering posting something on social media or engaging in conversation. Make sure your public comments reflect the Word you're hiding in your heart, rather than the evil that's trying to invade your heart.

40 verses, 40 weeks.  Do it in 40 days, if you prefer.

The change in your life will be amazing.

Psalm 37:1 On Fire

Do not fret because of those who are evil . . . 
Psalm 37:1 

The Hebrew word translated here as fret is charah (חָרָה) kaw-raw.

The word literally means to burn with anger. That’s what happens when we let ourselves fret over evil people and the evil things they do. Our annoyance catches fire and ignites frustration, which flares into anger and soon becomes a wildfire of wrath. The energy burning in the heart needs to go somewhere, so it expresses itself in bitter speech, boiling over toward violence.

Charaw is most often used to describe God's anger toward evil people. It’s never used to encourage us to allow our anger to burn out of control. In fact we're specifically told in Psalm 37:1 to NOT burn with anger against evil people.

American culture in the 21st century demands the opposite, doesn't it?

Not only are we encouraged to be angry about actual evil actions, we're also supposed to burn with outrage when people say or do something that simply "offends" us. If you think I'm exaggerating, you haven't been paying attention to talk radio, 24-hour news networks, and social media.

Twitter gets fired up easily over a choice of words that would have been acceptable a decade ago, but now is completely unacceptable. Comment threads on Facebook expand like wildfire over a perceived politically correct or politically incorrect meme or viral video. Talk shows are intentionally designed to pour gasoline and a match on every word or action that offends.

The very word, offended, has been stripped of its real meaning and turned into a flammable substance.  To be offended is a personal thing, an emotional response to something that often isn't even personally directed at the person who takes offense.

That phrase, "take offense", exposes itself for what it really is. To take something is a choice. He said or did something I don't like, so I intentionally reach out and grab hold of it and stab myself in the heart with it, as through I've been attacked. The reason I do that is to strike a match to my anger, to get myself worked up about it so I can let the "offender" and everyone else know that his action or words were all about me. When I take offense, I'm robbing the other person of their right to an opinion and their right to free speech, and turning it into something I own.

People of every political, philosophical, or spiritual stripe are guilt of taking away others' freedom of thought for the sake of their own freedom to be offended. Sadly, many Christians wear it as a badge of personal faithfulness.

Many Christians will argue that we ought to be offended by the actual evil words and evil actions of evil people, that we are called to call it out loudly and vehemently. But actually, that's not our calling.

But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

Romans 2:8-12

Who is the judge? No, it's not you. It's God.

And he's not judging people for offending, but for sinning.

Psalm 37:1 Don't Fret

If you watch the video of this song, you'll see a guitar and a bass guitar, both of which operate on similar principles. Strings of varying gauge are stretched along the length of the instrument and tightened to produce a specific note. The musician presses his fingers on various frets - the metal bars spaced along the neck of the guitar - altering the string's tone, higher and lower as needed.

On all Jimi Hendrix' songs, his riffs on the high notes, produced by pressing the frets closest to the body of the guitar, are the dazzling sounds that catch the average listener's attention. But it's the bass notes that actually do the heavy work in his songs, laying down the emotional depth that supports everything else.

The same can be true in life. It's easy to get lost in seeking the highs while forgetting to go deep and establish the kind of emotional and spiritual depth that anchors life.

A life spent tuning in to the highs is risky. Sure, there are plenty of times when things are going great, when you're doing wonderful things with people who share your passions, when you're riffing on those high notes and feeling good.

But while you're grooving to that tune, there will always be things that go wrong, people who disappoint you, others who downright oppose you. When you're riding the high notes, there will be discord. Not everyone will want to pick up on what you're putting down. A sudden fall is always a possibility amid the stress of it all.

It would be so easy to let it get to you. Shout! Scream! Curse!

And before you know it, you've become the note out of tune. You're the one always expressing your frustrations, loud and insistent. And then you find yourself aiming your frustrations at God.

David knew just how you feel. He faced all sorts of difficulties and conflicts during his life. Psalm 37 is his poetic expression of how he learned to deal with it all as "a man after God's own heart."

The Psalm begins, in many of our English translations, with, "Do not fret..."

The original Hebrew word carries the meaning of kindling or burning with anger. That's the unrighteous way of responding to stress in our lives. Tightening the tension by fretting and letting the frustration heat up is not the way to have a heart like God's.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. Psalm 40:3

As people of God, we have a better way to approach the troubles of life. We have a song in our heart that picks up on what God is putting down.

When we sing along with His new song, others around us on the road of life will pick up on what we're putting down, and be drawn to the song of the Lord.

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Zepheniah 3:17

Psalm 119:176 The Shepherd

I have strayed like a lost sheep.
 Seek your servant,
  for I have not forgotten your commands

Psalm 119:176

I've often pictured myself as a gallant knight on a great journey, striving to do great things for the Lord. With my wife, a true soldier princess, by my side, we're ready for whatever he throws our way.

But, if I'm to be honest, I'm more often like a stupid sheep.  I stray...daily. I've been completely lost a few times, clueless about where I was and where he wanted me to go next.

Except I always seem to want to make it all about me. If I only could grasp hold of my special role in the Lord's grand plan, I tell myself, then I'd finally make it.  I'd arrive at the pinnacle of life.

Every time I think I'm getting in step with the Lord on this road of life, I stumble and fall flat on my foolish face.

I think it's no coincidence that on the same week I finally sat down to write this final blogpost about the final verse on Psalm 119, I was also preparing to lead our Life Group in a conversation about Romans 7.

As someone who has loved Psalm 119 all my life, I've resisted and wrestled with some of Paul's comments about the Law.

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.

Romans 7:7-11

Some preachers and writers today are interpreting verses like that to say we should at all costs avoid preaching and teaching people to follow rules. It's all grace, all the time, because the laws were never any good.

The truth is, the flaw in the law has always been interconnected with the flaw in us. As Paul says, the sin in us seizes the opportunity presented by the law and turns us into even worse sinners.

And  yet Paul spends a large portion of his epistles teaching the early Christians how to be transformed from unrighteous rule-breakers to righteous rule-keepers.

The law - both the capital-L Law of Moses and the numerous rules and commandments of the New Testament - represents the heart of God about how He intends for His people to live. Under the New covenant, He has given believers the Holy Spirit and written His laws on our hearts.

If we put our main focus on trying to obey the rules, we'll fail as badly as Paul describes his own efforts in Romans 7. If instead we focus on praising the Lord (Psalm 119:175) and rely on Him to seek us and guide us as our Shepherd (v. 176), then we'll be fulfilling His best intention for His Word.

On the one road of life, I'm no one special. I'm a stupid sheep, just like everyone else walking alongside me.

What makes me different is this: I know the Shepherd. And the Shepherd knows the way.

And most of the other sheep on this path not only don't know the way, they don't know the Shepherd.

Stupid sheep.

Who will point them to the Shepherd?

I will. Because I have not forgotten His commands.

Psalm 119:175 One Road, One Purpose

When I drive for rideshare, I've learned to be intentional in how I go about it. I've studied the rideshare market here in Columbia and I know where and when the best passengers, the ones seeking good long trips that will pay the best, are most likely to be found. So I drive during those peak times and intentionally park in the spots most likely to be near those passengers.

I could be like a lot of rideshare drivers, who spend their time driving around town, constantly on the move, hoping to get lucky and be in the right place at the right time.

I used to be one of those drivers, when I first started driving rideshare. Until I realized I was just wasting gas and eating up all my potential income. Sometimes I really would get lucky and get a lot of calls for rides. But more often the rides I got weren't that great and my income was hit or miss.

For most people, daily life, moment-by-moment life, is lived unintentionally. We go about our days by habit, led by routine, with no grand purpose other than making it to lunchtime, going home at 4:00, eating three meals a day, working five days a week, and escaping the routine on the weekends - often just replacing the weekday routine with the weekend routine.

We think all that unintentional living will somehow satisfy us, but it seldom does. At best it numbs us, turning us into caricatures of what God intended us to be.

Even a lot of Christians seem stuck in their unintentional lives. The only difference is they added Sunday church attendance and a few other church-related habits. Maybe they've also adopted an unhealthy taste for Pharisaical moral judgment and politics.

Whether spiritual or non-spiritual, the vast majority of people traveling alongside each other on the road of life seem to have stumbled into one of these unintentional ruts.They stay there because they don't realize there's a better way. They've become satisfied with the happenstance rewards of unintentionally living.

But there is a better way. There is a reason for living, a purpose for the journey.

David waited until the second to last verse of his trip diary to spell it our for us.

Let me live that I may praise you,
 and may your laws sustain me.

Psalm 119:175

God didn't give you life so you could spend it stumbling blindly along, with no vision, without purpose. He gave you life and He sustains your life so you can fulfill His greatest intention for your life: that you may praise Him.

The reason for continuing the journey is to praise God with every choice you make. A life spent pursuing anything else is pointless.

The goal is not a destination. Yes, God has promised eternal life with Him in heaven. But that's not the goal of the journey. The goal is to praise God along the way.

Praise Him with your voice of worship. Praise Him with your voice as part of your daily conversation with your fellow travelers.

Praise Him on your knees in prayer. Praise Him with your hands and feet as you walk through your days among people who have no purpose.

Praise Him by loving each of your fellow travelers who are unaware they're also seeking God. Praise Him by helping them, listening to them, counseling them, encouraging them. Praise Him by keeping your spiritual senses attuned for the divine opportunities He puts along your pathway to plant and water and cultivate seeds. Praise Him by being the light in the world's darkness, by letting your words be seasoned with salt.

If that sounds like God is asking a lot of you, He is. That's why He made you a new creature, re-creating you to do the work He has prepared for you.

And He doesn't expect you to do it alone. He'll send other intentional people to walk and work alongside you.

And He'll continually turn your attention back to His Word, His laws that are not only written in a book but have been inscribed on your heart. The laws can help you by reminding you in hundreds of ways how to intentionally live to praise Him. They sustain you and keep the pilgrim progressing.

Intentionally.

Psalm 119:174 Delight

I long for your salvation, LORD,
 and your law gives me delight.

Psalm 119:174

I continually long for salvation.

I long for your salvation, Lord, when I'm in a rut. The road of life is filled with ruts. When I realize I'm stuck in one, I go back to God's Word, where you save me from my doldrums with a renewed perspective and purpose.

I long for salvation, Lord, when I'm feeling alone. Even surrounded by people, I often feel like no one looks at life the way I do. When I'm having a personal pity party like Elijah, I take time out to listen for the still small voice of God. It's often just a simple phrase, a verse, or a forgotten story from His Word that delights me all over again, and fills me with feelings of love and community.

I long for salvation, Lord, when I feel overwhelmed by the people I encounter on this road we're all traveling. Sometimes they're just too much. Too much rudeness and too many sharp opinions. Too many voices clamoring to be heard, even if all they have to say is memes and snark and flippant remarks. An over-abundance of us vs. them and a drought of empathy and kindness. Your Word, though, keeps me centered in your holiness and lovingkindness. It trains my eyes to see the world the way you see it, filled with people longing for your salvation, just like me.

I long for salvation, Lord, when changes descend on my world too quickly. Nothing stays the same. My comfort zone keeps moving around when I'm not paying attention. My job changes. Or my career of four decades comes to an abrupt end. I'm getting older, and countless physical changes accompany aging. More than once in my life, my circle of friends has dissipated overnight. And then I take a step back and revisit your never-changing but always new Word. I delight in seeing how the old, old story speaks to my new situations in surprising ways.

I long for salvation, Lord, when I've failed you miserably. When my hands are dripping with blood, my heart is hardened with apathy, and my mind has been corrupted by the world, it's then I long for your salvation. I can manage the mess I've made. I can pretend to care again. I can try to hide from the lure of the world. But only you, Lord, can clean my hands and soften my heart and transform my mind. Only you can restore delight to my soul.

Psalm 119:173 Choices

May your hand be ready to help me,
 for I have chosen your precepts.
Psalm 119:173

God is ready to give a helping hand while you're traveling the road of life.

Are you?

Are you ready to help people make the most important choices of their life?

When I first wrote the previous question, it was Are you ready to help people make the most important choice of life? But it should be choices.

The difference is vital.

In 1978 I made a choice of whom to marry. It was a very good choice, one I've never regretted. 

I've made the choice each and every day since then to continue being married. I keep making that choice because choosing to be with her and stay with her is part of choosing His precepts.

We've chosen many times to be patient with each other. We've chosen to support one another, to be honest with each other, to never talk smack about one another to other people. We've chosen repeatedly to communicate, to make decisions together, to make time for each other.

When we went through heart-rending times as foster parents, we agreed together to choose to not let the stress tear apart our bond, but to make the hard choices that would cement our bond even tighter by working through the tough times together.

Everything that's important in life requires making a choice. And making that choice again and again.

God has always been there with us when we're making choices. Even if we skipped a few days or weeks, forgetting to live intentionally and choose intentionally, He chose to hang in there with us, waiting patiently for us to choose again.

God's precepts are also always there when we're making those choices. It can become all too easy to fall out of the habit of making good choices, but making the good choice to meditate on God's precepts every day is the best way to stay on track or get back on track.

Another good choice to make, and to remake every day, is the choice to help others make good choices.

I used to think my job as a Christian is to convince people to choose to believe and be baptized, and once I did that I could move on to someone else.

That's so short sighted.

There are people I encounter every day who need to be encouraged to make good choices in small ways. As a rideshare driver I regularly encounter people who need just a little piece of advice or a word of encouragement about relationships, their job, their children, or their choices about setting boundaries.

I could easily rationalize that I'm just there to give them a ride and I shouldn't get all up into their business. And I don't butt in. I don't force myself into their lives. But I do make the choice to ask the kind of questions that prompt them to open up a little. God and I can use that window to help travelers along their way toward discovering His heart.

Because that's the destination. That's where we're all headed to on this journey of life, whether or not we all know it.

We're returning to the heart of God.

And we're in it together.

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life

 

This catchphrase has never been more true for me than it is today. 

41 years after being hired by Carol Clark to unload trucks and manage the storeroom at Columbia Regional Hospital, I find myself without a job. For the first time in over four decades, I woke up this morning and it wasn't a weekend, it wasn't a vacation day or sick day or personal day, but I didn't have to go to work.

When you've followed the habit of the 40-hour week/8-hour day for several decades, the routine can get to be a drag. It was kind of nice this morning to get up early, go to the pool at the gym, and spend nearly an hour and a half working out, never wondering what time it was getting to be.

It sounds, I know, like the description of someone on his first day of retirement. That might happen for me in four months or two years or five years, but that's not why I'm unemployed.

I got laid off from my job. Thanks to COVID-19, my career ended short of qualifying for full pension benefits. I'm getting paid my full salary through the end of 2020, which relieves some urgency. Nevertheless, I find myself job-seeking for the first time since April 1979.

For today, though, I just want to enjoy the freedom and contemplate what to do with the unscheduled and non-routine days ahead.

 Not focused on yesterday

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

For the past four decades my primary focus has not been on my job. I've never been a company man or a career climber. There have been a few times I'm sure my bosses have wished I would be more dedicated to the job.  But it was never true.

Sure, I cared about my job. During the past two weeks that they kept me around to finish out my time, I was surprised to discover how much I do care about both the minutiae and the big picture of my job.

But I've always had two motivations for working. One of those was to support my family. The other was to have the freedom to do whatever God had in store for me.

As a follower of Christ, my real career has always been to follow him, leaning hard into whatever tasks and purposes he put before me. That has meant teaching, preaching, counseling, small group leading, worship leading, mentoring, servant leadership, subversive following, foster parenting, home schooling, writing, campus ministry, prison ministry, and church ministry.  And also going to work every day, whether at the office or in my rideshare car, always staying attuned to divine appointments to share the world's God-colors and God-flavors with the people I've encountered.

Sometimes I've done a poor job of pursuing that career. Some of my co-workers who have known me best are the ones who know that best.

But as I begin the rest of my life today, no matter what it winds up looking like from a job perspective, I can't help but wonder what the Lord has in store for me next.

The goal to win the prize that Paul says he's pressing on toward in that verse from Philippians is not heaven. Yes, God is calling Paul - and me, and you - heavenward. But the goal and the prize are the things he mentioned in the previous verses. 

3:8  the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord 

3:9   and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ 

3:10   I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death

That's the goal. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, I want to know Christ and to become more like him.

Seize Today

So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12

The chief portion of wisdom I've learned about numbering my days is that every day is number 1. If yesterday I made a mess of representing Christ to my world, today is Day #1 of starting again. If I did a great job of knowing Christ yesterday, I can't settle in and count on yesterday's success. Today is still the first day.

My routine for today is all shot, at least in terms of my job of 41 years.

My routine for Day #1, though, is clear. 

• Dedicate today to the Lord. Exodus 32:29
• Deny myself today, take up my cross, and follow Jesus. Luke 9:23
• Keep my ear tuned for whatever God wants to teach me today. Proverbs 8:34
• Eagerly study the scriptures today. Acts 17:11
• Look for opportunities to encourage whoever God puts into my path today. Hebrews 3:13

I just did that last one by inviting you to join me in intentionally making today the first day of the rest of your life, pursuing the only goal that lasts.

In the day of prosperity be happy, But in the day of adversity consider— God has made the one as well as the other. Ecclesiastes 7:14

Psalm 119:172 Rigtheousness

May my tongue sing of your word,
 for all your commands are righteous.

Psalm 119:172

A few things I've learned about God's righteous commands during my travels on the one road:


All of God's commands are righteous because they all reflect the righteous heart of God. When I learned to focus my study and prayer on knowing the heart of God, rather than on dissecting the commands, obedience and faithfulness became much easier.


Time spent in the Word led me to God's commands about righteousness and purity, like II Timothy 2:22

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Moral purity has always been a struggle for me. Oh the joy of realizing I should stop obsessing about those evil desires. I've learned instead to pursue purity by pursuing a pure obsession with God's heart of righteousness, faith, love and peace.


I spent years trying to prove I possessed all the right opinions about all the right things. After I learned to stop taking so much pride in my opinions, I then got off track by becoming obsessed with demonstrating how I had reconsidered those opinions and now was in possession of a better brand of right opinions about the right things. Our obsession with being right is so difficult to shake.


I still remember the day I actually understood II Timothy 2:15 for the first time, after having considered it one of my favorite verses for years.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (II Timothy 2:15)

It shocked me when I realized how stupid I've been, only paying attention to the last part of the verse. Correctly handling the Word of truth is extremely important, but that's not the point. The goal isn't to prove my correct understanding of the Word of truth. It's to step up and present myself as a willing worker, approved by the blood of Christ. Only through doing the work given to me by God will I begin to correctly handle the word of truth.


It's not about carefully accumulating the right opinions. It's about training to be a workman after God's own heart.


The more I've allowed myself to walk alongside people whose beliefs and experiences are different than mine, God has proven this statement to be true:

The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. (Isaiah 32:17)

I used to looked at those others as people to either avoid, tolerate, or correct. The fruit of my self-righteousness was arguing. I saw my job as letting them know I'm part of the "in" crowd and they're not, an attitude that only leads to belligerence and arrogance.

But once I learned to trust God and His righteous commands, I learned to see my interactions with the others on the one road as opportunities to bring out the God-flavors and God-colors of life.

Psalm 119:171 Tell It

I grew up with the sure knowledge that I was blessed to have born into a family that went to the right church and knew the right things. . . If the Truth was a place, we were already there. Our task was to bring people to the same place we were.

That's a quote from People of the Book, the blogpost at the beginning of my three-year-long trip diary through Psalm 119.

No doubt, I was blessed to have been born into a family that taught me to love God and His Word. For all the misdirected teaching and the self-righteousness of the "right church", I was getting a better start on the one road of life than most of the people I've encountered traveling alongside me over the past 60-plus years.

And no, I'm not talking about the "faith-only Baptists" or the "annual-communion heretics." I'm glad to claim many of them as my brothers and sisters and co-workers in Christ.

I 'm talking about the young lady in her 20's who admitted she had never been to church, not even once in her life. I'm talking about the 30-year old woman who admitted that the first time she was sent to prison was the first time in her life she had a bed of her own she could count on to be there each night. I'm talking about the co-worker who gave lip service to faith but had been raised in a streetwise culture of 'grab whatever you can whenever you can'.

Another thing that church taught me was about the greatest mission anyone could possibly have in life. Sure, the way I understood it back then ("our task was to bring people to the same place we were") was condescending and misdirected. But I've never lost sight of the lifelong call to be a reconciler, drawing people toward Christ (not to my church or my personal theology).

All of those people - all the others, the fellow travelers who aren't like me - they're all on the same road, traveling alongside me. They're all heading toward the same destination, whether they know it or not. That doesn't make me better than them. It doesn't mean I should avoid those other people and stick with the travelers who are like me.

My job is to help them all understand why we're all on this road together. If I don't tell them, they'll just keep on thinking we're all just plodding along aimlessly from birth to death.

I can't help them understand unless I'm actively, eagerly, and intentionally walking beside them, helping them along the way.

My job - your job - is to let our lips overflow with praise for the God who is also walking alongside us all.

May my lips overflow with praise,
 for you teach me your decrees.
Psalm 119:171