Author: marettej

Forget the update, I needed the date.

Someone sent me a note the other day giving me an update! I kind of sat back down in my seat, not that I was rising to go run a marathon or anything, and read it again. Seems to me, no one sent me the “date” so the “update” was kind of, well a big surprise.

The definition of “update” is the act of bringing someone up to date, or update the version of something. I get it all the time with the computers. “Your update is ready to download” which is confusing if you don’t understand computerese.

Jesus did an update: brought an old commandment with a new version. It’s in John 13. “A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one anther as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “

So Jesus updates the Ten Commandments. They leaders loved their checks and balances. The crossing stuff off the to do list on the fridge kind of mentality: did that Lord, didn’t do that.

But Jesus does an update. Love like he loved, and then he repeats himself telling us to also, which means in addition to, love one another. Is that kind of remind you of telling someone to do something and by the quizzical look on their face you get the idea, they didn’t understand the update!

I was totally confused with the update because I didn’t get the original. Perhaps why we don’t get Jesus update to love one another is because we haven’t read enough of the original, the Bible, so that an update is possible. If you don’t download a computer program, you will never need to update it! If we don’t know God’ word, and understand God loving us through the history of the Old Testament, we won’t really need an update!

Updates also, maybe it’s because my computers are old or I am, take your pick, takes times. The circle spins in the middle of the computer screen and we impatiently wait for it to download so we can get on with life. Learning to love like Jesus loved, is a lot more megabytes than some of us have room in our hearts for. Delete a bunch of old files, clean up your computer hard drive, called the heart, and get ready for an update!

Strangely Dim….. our row sang the right words,, At first by accident and then out of refusal to accept the “new version”. The reasoning behind the change of words the pastor explained…. the putting a new tune to it didn’t go with our brains either. It’s like singing Happy Birthday to a different tune; it can be done but why? So that bothered me the rest of the day… or perhaps not bothered …okay yes, it bothered me.

What is strangely dim and why did the author put it there. So,,, according to my research “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” was written by Helen Lemmel. She was a gifted musician and singer and taught music at Moody Bible Institute. She was inspired to write “Heavenly Vision” which we call “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” based on the remarks made by a very gifted artist who felt called after praying for two years, that she must lay down her love of art in order to fix her eyes solely on Jesus, and on His calling to the mission field. She subsequently served for more than 38 years as a missionary to Muslims of Algeria. She also authored several books and tracts. The following is an excerpt from her tract, Which Passion Will Prevail?

“Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen harmless worlds at once — art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the good hiding the best.”

It is easy to find out whether our lives are focused, and if so, where the focus lies. Where do our thoughts settle when consciousness comes back in the morning? Where do they swing back when the pressure is off during the day? Dare to have it out with God, and ask Him to show you whether or not all is focused on Christ and His Glory. Turn your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him.”

– Lilias Trotter

So in light (pun intended) of knowing now what I know about the words “strangely dim” I still want to keep the old words and the melody even more than it simply being a part of my musical history. Trotter was an artist. I connect with artists. She loved putting colors on canvas and making them leap out in beauty. Yet, her love for God and serving him was stronger than her love for painting. To use “dim’ for an artist whose idea of light makes the canvas live, was to remind us that to dim the lights means you can still see the objects; they are simply not as bright. But as we are in the “dimness” our eyes get used to it and we think it’s light. God made our eyes accustom to darkness so we can see.

But strangely dim…. I see (pun intended) is not the same kind of dimness we think about. It’s a strange dimness. We can’t see as well; we can’t accustom to the darkness and the oddity of lack of light. When we focus on what God wants us to see and His beauty, the things in life that draw us away from him are strangely dim. They are there but it’s different, it’s odd, it’s dark, it’s strange and because we are focused on God, the light is so bright from His glory that we can’t accustom our eyes to the attraction the other stuff used to have on our lives. The more we focus on Him, the more we have a hard time getting our eyes to see what is in the darkness; it’s a strangely dim situation.

So actually the song written with the original words remind us that turning our eyes to Jesus who is the “light” does affect our ability to focus on things that are not in the light. I’m not sure God is calling all of us to lay down our paintbrushes and go to the Mission field, but he is called us to a mission.

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In the early hours of the morning, before the sun came up, the kids stood in line for the bus and the garbage man came to grab the black and blue containers outside my friends home, I struggled with 1 Corinthians 14. It’s after the love chapter: what could be more difficult than love? Actually, love is not a feeling, love is not a place, love is not a ring. Yes, love hurts, love is not endless, and it fades, and you sometimes have to do more than, tell someone you love them in a song. Love isn’t as easy as some people make it look and it’s much easier than others struggle to express. So the struggle? The struggle is to internalize, process then pass it on.

1 Cor. 14 reduces it down to three things.

“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.”

We get so scared of the word prophecy. It’s like that word no one wants to utter on the playground. It’s actually being the mouthpiece of God. So technically, we prophesy all day. Sometimes we actually are the mouthpiece of God. Other times we are our own trumpet blaring loudly. Tear the verse apart-

Follow the way of love. Stopping there could take a long detour. Simply spoken, love leads you to do things that honor others and honor God by honoring others. Do that. Do you want the things that the Holy Spirit has for you? Things like, evidence God is working in your life, such as actions of love, joy, peace ? From there, the verse talks about tongues which is another topic people hide under the coffee table so they don’t have to understand it’s meaning. So skip it because it doesn’t really help or hinder the meaning of the verse and jump right into prophecy, or being the mouthpiece of God.

We are mouthpieces. Just bring up a topic, any topic, and you will find people loudly sharing their mouthpiece. We try to convince others, persuade by vocalization loudly proclaiming our opinion and hope someone else quits talking so we can assert another opinion. God doesn’t really speak opinion have you noticed? We do, but God pretty much says, love me, love the one beside you. There isn’t much room for opinion there. There is plenty of room for love. The verse ends by telling us to encourage, strengthen and comfort. Well, that’s more of a piece than a mouthpiece. However, if we take the mouth-piece and live it, it will become something that shows encouragement, lives to strengthen others and demonstrates comfort. That’s a bit harder than just being a mouthpiece. I like to talk, spoiler alert, but there are times when I sit and marvel as I watch God unfold in front of my eyes a living canvas that words cannot describe. Prophecy or the mouthpiece of God? Yes- big time! Can I do it? I can try, and somewhere through my efforts and my struggle to be Jesus, I pray I encourage, strengthen and comfort. At least I am walking along side and making an effort to blow God out so others see, feel or hear his voice and hopefully they hear God louder than they hear me.

The phone ringing jolted me out of the calm silence. One glance at the number told me that I was needed at the trailer: Grandpas’ trailer. The phone number simply said, “grandpa needs help.” That was the identification we put on the lifeline number. I headed out the door toward the trailer on the run. Coming into the trailer entry way, I called out to see if Grandpa was okay. I could hear laughter as I turned to push the door open. Sitting at the table was Grandpa, and the laughter was obvious: it was Mary, Grandpa’s wife. I didn’t know her well; she died a month after we were married but her laughter was infectious and very identifiable. Grandpa was laughing and making up for 30 plus years of lost time.

The shock in the room was obviously only mine. I watched for what seemed like forever as the scene in front of me unfolded. Gone, forgotten, now sitting at the table visiting and laughing as if it had never happened. Nothing happened? Like 34 years never happened. Like grandchildren, daughter in laws, great grandchildren, and lots of water under the bridge. The bridge Grandma Mary never got to see built. Those thoughts go through my head in a second- and then I said, “did you call Jim. “The lifeline call always goes to Jim, then me then Lori. They were too busy laughing and talking and so lost in the moment, I looked at my cell phone and then started running up toward the shop! Jim doesn’t often, ok almost never, does he hear his text dingee thingee, and more often than that, doesn’t reply. Well, for some odd reason, he had seen the lifeline alert and was on his way, not to be outdone by Lori flying in, the LOJO license plate zipping by us as she turned to go down to the trailer. We got to the open door and stood with wonder as we watched life disappear into an amazing moment of, life come back from where it had stopped.

It was a dream. You might have figured that out by now. Grandpa J passed away almost a year ago. But maybe, it happened like that when those who came to the tomb then saw Jesus in person felt. I can only imagine that’s what it might have felt. The realization that Jesus was alive. The heart skipping a beat, the burden or sorrow being lifted like the pulleys move the big curtains at the theatre.

John 20:15 “Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him. Jesus said to her, “Mary”. She turned toward him and cried in Aramaic, “Rabboni (which means Teacher)”.

The abrupt realization that Jesus was alive must have been quite the moment. Mary was caught in her grief, and instantly went from tears to absolute astonishment! Just as it would be quite the moment if we walked into the trailer and saw Grandma Mary sitting, laughing with Grandpa.

It’s hard for us to think about the dead coming back to life. Very few except in the medical community have seen such miracles. So, allow me to think out loud. To hear my mother in law’s laugh, watch someone walking down the street and realize it’s my father’s walk, or to hear Grandma Campbell whistling. Those moments would take my heart up a notch and I know I won’t see them alive on earth again.

Jesus had told them, I will rise. And he did. And we walk by the wonder with a, just another manic Monday attitude. The difference is also Jesus will never die. If such a wonderful gift comes to my heat as having a loved one brought back to life, the reality is they will die again. Lazarus had to go through it, dying, again! Jesus, is alive, will always be alive and the way I see the morning sunrise, the way I look at a flower, the moments I can’t breathe and then a calmness comes upon my heart, the scripture that comes into my mind: those are the living Jesus, alive and present in my world.

“He is risen- He is risen indeed”, echoed through many corridors yesterday. The question to be reconciled within the heart is, will that still be bouncing off the walls of my week? He is risen doesn’t simply end when we go back to normality! He is risen changes where I find myself walking, what I find myself thinking and who I find myself loving. He is risen goes far beyond the euphoria or the thought of a loved one back in our lives again. It places the God of the universe walking beside us every moment of the day and throughout the dark of the night when we can’t sleep. We will head home from family time full of ham, potatoes, chocolate eggs and jellybeans. We are also heading home full of love, hugs, laughter and talking about the things life has us wound in its web. Regardless of the direction we drive, there is nowhere Jesus will not be with us. “He is risen, he is risen indeed”, aren’t simply 6 words, they are the focus of our hearts lens.

When we slow down enough to see what we are passing by it’s interesting. I flew out of the cities this morning early with Ethel and Louise (crutches) . I will have surgery in a few weeks to scope and scrape (my medical jargon) but until then, we will celebrate Tyler’s seminary graduation and I will go slow. Going slow, is kind of a necessity but it’s kind of nice.. nice and slow.

Our culture is a quick culture. Go fast, go often, go past, move over slow people, use the right lane, set the cruise and don’t look back to see who you have run over. After all, they were in the way!

Jesus is counter culture and asks us to pull over and let people go by not simply because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s when we notice things. I saw things this morning- like the little boy that hadn’t probably seen crutches before. The older woman who had sad eyes. We hear conversation when we slow down and pull back the volume on the world around us. With the air pods, the headsets and the “entertainment in our hand culture”, we just don’t listen to people, we listen to stuff.

I may be tempted to do that but I can’t walk with crutches and hold my phone watching a movie at the same time. Perhaps it’s better said “I don’t want to do that”. I want to look in people’s eyes. I want to smile at the dad holding that newborn so gently as if she was a china doll so he knows I think he’s awesome. I want to see the little girl grabbing at her daddy’s hand and talking non-stop. If I wasn’t listening, I might miss the sound of the moving sidewalk, and they do make noises. I almost kissed the rubber belt as it carried me much farther with less work on my part. Some were walking fast on the moving sidewalk. Others were standing like me, to the right like the sign says, and watching people and smiling. I didn’t have my ear buds in. I had my ear-God in.

I began to Pray for people whom I passed. I prayed for people that were looking unhappy. I smiled at the many faces that now without masks one can engage easier. We might be total strangers, but yet, for a moment, being kind and noticing the existence of another is what kindness is all about.

Jesus did that well. He noticed people. He listened to the world going on around him. He engaged in conversation in the oddest of places. No, not an airport or an airplane but if they existed in his day, he would have. He would have helped carry my bag, like a gal did in Minneapolis. He would have pushed the wheelchair transports and asked them where they were going. (No- I didn’t take a ride) He would have smiled at the mom calling, “Finley, focus, 1,2, 3. ” Jesus would have unplugged as they say in our culture and listened to where he could just say a word, or plant a seed, or pick up on a conversation or… You get it- Jesus slowed the world down and got on it’s speed to love us.

And Jesus would have probably given an extra boost of speed to the gal who just ran by trying to make her flight. FYI- if you are going to the airport, and are going to be late, wear shoes that you can run in. Well, except for me. I have the right shoes, just waiting for Jesus and Dr. Jared to work their magic.

Take time today to notice things our culture hurries by. Even if it’s just a flower, or a cloud, or another heart. When we slow down, it’s amazing what we will hear!