Tag: worry

Categories
Life

Strength

Featured song: Strength Of My Life, by Leslie Phillips, from Dancing With Danger, 1987.

Life can be incredibly difficult. No matter how good things may seem to be, we live in a world that is broken, and that brokenness may impact me at any time. It could be something that affects me personally, or it could be something that affects someone close to me, or it could be a place in the world that is hit by a disaster, natural or otherwise. Any of these things may be the straw that “breaks the camel’s back”.

Upon waking up in the morning, the disasters in my life can make me feel like I want to just put my head under the pillow to try to make it all go away. The reality of life is that I cannot really escape from these things. The greater reality of life is that I have Someone to carry these burdens for me. There is no way that I am strong enough, especially when that burden is there facing me day after day after day. Jesus takes the load that I cannot, and supports me in my weakness. Let Him be the strength in your life.

I open my eyes to the sound of morning news
And wish for ten more minutes left to sleep
And as I get into the shower
The thoughts of facing one more day
Overwhelm me and I begin to weep
And I’ve never felt
Like I’ve needed Your help,
So bad

Well, my tears are pushed away now
For the sake of morning rush
‘Til the Bible on the table catches my eye
And I read that You are near to
The hearts that break with grief
And I realize that I don’t have to try
To live life myself
Because You’re ready to help
Me live

And every day I look to You
To be the strength of my life
You’re the hope I hold onto
Be the strength of my life

Be the strength of my life
Strength of my life
Be the strength of my life today
Be the strength of my life
Strength of my life
Be the strength of my life today

Each day has its problems, it troubles and its tears
And it seems I’m always anything but strong
When I learn to know my weakness,
I understand Your strength
And even when the hard times last so long
I won’t try by myself,
I’ll just ask for Your help
Each day

And everyday I look to You
To be the strength of my life
Breathe on me and make me new
Be the strength of my life

Be the strength of my life
Strength of my life
Be the strength of my life today
Be the strength of my life
Strength of my life
Be the strength of my life today

Be the strength of my life
Strength of my life
Be the strength of my life today
Be the strength of my life
Strength of my life
Be the strength of my life today
Categories
Life

Today

Featured song: It’s Only Today That Counts, by Larry Norman, from the 1985 promotional album Back To America.

This song says it so well. Worry is the one thing that nearly everybody has, and  is something that benefits nobody. You think about the things you’ve done wrong in your life, where you’ve hurt someone else, hurt yourself, done something foolish, acted foolish, said something hurtful, and so many other things. Focusing on those failings of the past accomplishes nothing; you cannot rewind the tape and do it again correctly. It’s over, it’s done with.

The future is just as bad. Will I be able to get a job? Will I lose my job? Will I lose my wife or my family? What about the economy? What about the risk of wars in the world? Is it safe to drive the streets today? Can I go to the store? Will I be robbed or injured there?

So does this mean I should simply act like the things in my past never happened? Absolutely not. The successes and mistakes of the past are there to give me guidance on my actions for today. Rather than spending time whipping myself for my past failings, I just need to incorporate the lessons learned into today’s behavior, in order to not fail that way again. And something painful in the past — a personal injury, the loss of a loved one, being ridiculed in school — those things lose their power when you use the grace God’s given you and forgive yourself, or those who abused you, or even the God with whom you may be angry, because He didn’t prevent it.

Should I pretend that the world is perfectly safe, and not be concerned about anything? Again, the answer is no. There is a difference between worry and a healthy concern. Worry involves sitting and ruminating about something over which I have no control, and letting that helpless and hopeless feeling run my life and direct my actions. On the other hand, a healthy concern pays attention to possible dangers, and prompts you to either avoid them, or prepare to face them. It is dangerous to drive a car; the danger decreases considerably when I take appropriate measures to do what I learned in school: Stop, Look, Listen. Assume the worst might happen and prepare for it, but don’t make it a matter of fear; make it yet another reason to trust in the Lord.

Defeat the power of the past and the future,  live in the moment. As Norman says in the song — “It’s only today that counts, so live it like it might be your last.”

It ain’t no good to lay in bed at night
And worry about the past
About think of how you could have done things differently
But things just happened way too fast.

Just close your eyes, and go to sleep
Let the angels guide your dreams.
And let that pain unwind behind you
And float away on silent streams.

You must live your life the best you can
Though you sometimes do your worst.
And learn to laugh when you fail,
It’s not the end of the world
Your life’s a play you can’t rehearse.

Don’t make big plans for tomorrow,
You can’t control what lies ahead.
You must try to live each moment
As it comes instead.

There’s no use dreaming of a perfect future
Or regretting a troubled past.
It’s only today that counts
Live it like it might be your last.
It’s only today that counts
Live it like it might be your last.

It never helps to worry,
And it never hurts to pray,
Tomorrow will come soon enough;
Try to take care of today.
Just relax, and trust your life to God,
The future is in His hands,
Only faith will help you face this life’s demands.

There’s no use dreaming of a perfect future
Or regretting a troubled past
It’s only today that counts
And it might be your last.
It’s only today that counts
So live it like it might be your last.
Live it like it might be your last.
So live it like it might be your last.

Back To America, Larry Norman, 1985
Categories
Praise

Grace

Featured song: Grace Like Rain, by Todd Agnew, from the 2006 album of the same name.

Photo credit - Flickr, LordKahn
Photo credit - Flickr, LordKahn

For me, the awesome thing about music is how it can take a moment, and make it suddenly slow to a stop, as the instruments and the singing suddenly wash over me, and I “hear” what is being sung as if it were for the first time. Possibly this happens because it is the music and words I specifically needed to hear at that time. To paraphrase what others have said, I believe that the reason music I hear on earth can sometimes cut so deeply is because it is a dim reflection of what the music in heaven will be like.

Today, I am dealing with a day that (so far) is a little less full of stress and strain than yesterday was. And as I drove from the hospital to my office, I’m enjoying the music playing in the car, and this song came on, and “washed over me”.

It was not a feeling of my wretchedness, my blindness, or my fears that spoke to me from this re-take on an old hymn. Rather, it was the chorus line: Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me. Grace. God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. It matters not whether today I am battered by storms of stress, or experience a calm and easy trip – the day is covered by God’s grace.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see, so clearly

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, and all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, and all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, and all my stains are washed away
They’re washed away

Grace Like Rain, Todd Agnew, 2006 a
Categories
Life

Wind

I live in the heartland of the United States, in eastern Nebraska. I suspect that people living in other parts of the country say the same thing to each other, but we often find the weather here to be somewhat unpredictable. Certainly, the broad sweeps of the seasons do cause some certain changes; the middle of the summer is usually hot and dry; the middle of the winter is usually cold, and possibly snowy. Fall and spring are somewhere between those extremes. But to expect a particular type of weather on a particular day? Unlikely to happen. I’ve seen a warm 70 degree day in January, and a chilly 40 degree day in June.

The local weather forecasters do their best to tell us what is going to happen tomorrow, or next week or next month. But all they have to go by are what the current conditions are, and where things seem to be moving. We recently had a “winter weather watch”, that anticipated the “first winter storm of the season”. Two to four inches of snow was expected, with blowing and drifing possible. Within twelve hours of the expected event, it appeared that the winds had shifted things more to the north, so it totally missed my part of the country. We got the cold temperatures, but not the snow.

What this tells me is that even when an experienced meteorologist attempts to make a prediction based on current conditions, he might be right; but a million variables can combine to make a forecast totally wrong.

In Matthew 16:2-3, Jesus criticizes the spiritual leadership of his day, the Parisees and Sadducees, for being intelligent enough to make predictions about the weather, but blind enough to be unable to see clearly the times in which they lived. And even today, with our twenty-four hour news networks, instant reports from around the world, and even instant messaging between each other, we still find ourselves getting lost in the details, and unable to see the broad sweeps of the times in which we live.

The thing with the future is that it is totally unpredictable. I live every day with the expectation that I will be around tomorrow, but I have no guarantee of that. The only certainty that I have about tomorrow is that Jesus will be there to take care of me and my life, regardless of the events of the day. A sunny day with warm temperatures? A cold windy day with snow? The best day of my life? The worst day of my life? He has it all covered, and He will be there to help me through it. The old quote is true: “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds tomorrow.”

The 2nd Chapter Of Acts sang about this on their 1974 debut album, With Footnotes, in their opening song, Which Way The Wind Blows.

Feel a feeling
Say a saying
But you’ll still
Be lonely
If you think life is only
For this moment

Do a doing
Mourn a mourning
Still won’t get you off your sorrow
So go ahead and cry, but you
Can’t pry a look at tommorrow

You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?
You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?

Run a running
Hide a hiding
Whenever you hear the truth
And when you ask for the proof,
You won’t listen
Listen

Praise a praising
Build a building
Trying to get peace into your life
And you don’t even know wrong from right
Oh, where’s your wisdom?

You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?
You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?

Die a dying
Ressurecting
By believing and receiving
Forgiveness from Jesus
Who took the sin from sinning

You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?
Jesus knows which way the wind blows
So how give Him your tommorow!

Believe and recieve
Believe and recieve

You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?
You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?