Thus says the Lord

Dear Friend,

You asked for a hug today. And any other day, that might be the one thing you need most. But not today. Because today, you need a word from the Lord. And it is this

Dear Child of mine. Extricate your head from your backside.

Why does your God need to say such a word to you today? Because, friend, you don't really believe that He delights in you. Instead you believe that you have somehow failed Him, and that you are somehow a failure. So many times that dusty old Book expresses that our God delights in his children-- in those who fear him and put their hope in him-- like a groom delights in his bride-- and yet, friend, you've chosen to ignore, well, all of that.

What's more, as we talk, you tell me "I know all those things." Excuse me while I pick myself off the floor and try to stop laughing. All of the sudden I see why I have this assignment I did not want. You are speaking with someone who knew all the right answers, but KNEW nothing of the right answers. There is a great distance between the head and the heart-- some pundits put it a a foot but that might mean that the population skews toward thick no-necked humans. Better said, there is a world of distance, and indeed a life change of difference, between accepting a truth and embracing the Truth. For truths, understand, are propositions to which I may merely assent and move on. The Truth, is nothing less that the very person of Jesus Christ, who will turn my entire world upside down.

So maybe, just maybe, honesty is a better tack. Let's try something different. How about this? It's a simple prayer that I borrowed once upon a time from Andy Stanley. It was the prayer I taught my daughter when the mean girls ruled the day (because, I told her, the mean girls were not going away) and it goes like this:

I can't

You can.

Help me stay close.

When we pray this prayer, a couple of things take place.

I can't First, we lay our burdens at Jesus' feet, which He absolutely loves. I can't change the way I feel. If I'm honest I don't want to. I can't change my situation. I can't change him. I can't change her. I can't change my work place. I can't change my life. I can't change the world outside my walls.

You can. And here, we turn to worship. The problem, so often, is we get stuck. Our focus is on the problems in front of us. They are the things we speak about and the things we look at. And it does truly seem that the things we look at most and the things we speak about most are the things we worship. In this simple prayer, in these few words, we move from worshiping our problem to worshiping Jesus. At least for the moment.

Help me to stay close. For it is moment built upon moment that makes a life. And in staying close, two things take place. When we stay close to someone, it is above all things protection for us. And when we stay close to someone, over time, we become more like them, and we begin more and more to see the world the way they see the world. And it is in seeing the world they way they see the world that it is easier to simply walk where they walk and do what they do.

And of course what is at stake is your littles. I know. They are not so little. And they are less little every day. But how, dear friend, if you do not truly believe-- TRULY BELIEVE-- that Jesus delights in you, will they? Low hanging fruit, I know, but important fruit, still the same.

So it is with love I come, friend. Not with a hug, this time. I'll save that for another day. Today is crow bar day. Because I love you. And by extension, them.

thus spake,

me.