A Little Peace

Featured song: I Need A Silent Night, by Amy Grant, from the 2007 album, Amy Grant Christmas: The Complete Collection.

It is so easy to spend time working on various things to try to make me happy, whether they are related to music, or computers, or entertainment, or anything else. What I’ve seen over and over is that all of these things, though perhaps innocent themselves, are not ultimately satisfying. You would think that hours spent doing something wonderful that I enjoy would make me happy, happy, happy! Right?

But sometimes, after spending a long time doing what I enjoy, I come out of it not feeling happy, not feeling fulfilled. And I may go on to the next activity, hoping and expecting that to make me happy.

C.S. Lewis put it well in one of his writings. He felt that the things in this world that make us happy and give us joy do so because they are a dim reflection of the real joy that is in the life to come, the life that will be eternal with Jesus. (In the same way, Lewis wrote that things that cause despair or sadness are just a small taste of what eternity apart from Jesus will be like, if that is your destination.)

If my joy in Christmas is from it being a “perfect” Christmas, one in which all of my plans follow through perfectly, I likely will not be satisfied. But if I focus on Jesus and His coming, then all these peripheral things that we’ve added to the season will fade to the background, and I can get that real joy, the joy that does not leave.

I’ve made this same mistake before
Too many malls, too many stores
December traffic, Christmas rush
It brings me to the push and shove

Children are cryin’
While mothers are tryin’
To photograph Santa and sleigh
The shopping and buyin’
And standing forever in line
What can I say?

I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
Through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a silent night

December comes and disappears
Faster and faster every year
Did my own mother keep this pace?
Or was the world a different place?

Where people stayed home
Wishin’ for snow
Watching three channels on their TV
Look at us now
Rushin’ around
Trying to buy Christmas peace

I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
Through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a silent night

What was it like
Back there in Bethlehem?
With peace on earth
Good will toward men?

“There were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said, ‘Fear not! For behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that shall be for all people. For unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace.’ ”

I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
Through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a silent night

To end this crazy day
With a silent night

Tags: Amy Grant, Christmas

Today’s song, “Blessings” by Laura Story from her 2011 album “Blessings”

One of the failings that I experience in life is the tendency to forget God and His work in my life when everything is going well. I would think that when the world is sunny and bright that my first response would be to give thanks and rejoice in what God has brought to me. And yes, there are times when that is on my mind. But I regret to admit that it is way too easy to just blindly go forward and enjoy that day with an easy work schedule, the sunny weather, the happy family gathering, and forget He who made it possible.

This blog mostly focuses on the classic Jesus music of the 70s and 80s. Sometimes, however, there is something newer that simply deserves to be played. Today, this song was sung in my church, and it reminded me of how God sometimes talks to me more loudly in my trials than in my successes. It also renewed my faith that no matter how far God may seem to be from me, no matter how deep the pit I may be in, I must remember that He is deeper still.

My feelings don’t dictate the reality of God; He is real and is there constantly, even if I am unaware if Him.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family
Protection while we sleep

We pray for healing
For prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand
To ease our suffering

And all the while
You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much
To give us lesser things

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger
When we cannot feel You near

We doubt Your goodness
We doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word
Is not enough

And all the while
You hear each desperate plea
But long that we’d have faith
To believe

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?
And what if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not
This is not our home –
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can’t satisfy?

And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?

Tags: Laura Story

The messages at church are sometimes consoling, confirming, inspiring, challenging, or convicting. And sometimes a message can be a slap upside the head, something that I’ve needed to hear.

At my church, King Of Kings, Pastor Mark Zehnder delivered a great message on September 11, 2011. It was not focused, as I had half-expected it to be, on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks on Washington and New York. That event was mentioned, but the major focus of the sermon time was on the importance of prayer. Specifically, prayer for our leaders. It recalled to me this comment on the Scott Ross Show over 30 years ago:

Here is the text of what Ross said here:

First of all, Paul the apostle says, I urge that entreaties (requests) and prayers and petitions (that’s asking) and thanksgiving – thanksgiving! – be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority (no matter what you think of his politics) in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. That’s 1st Timothy 1, I’m sorry, 1st Timothy 2, one through three.

Right now, we need to be praying for the president of the United States; for the vice-president; for the cabinet; for the Supreme Court; for Congress. Lord Jesus, we pray for our leadership, and we pray, Lord, that you raise up godly men and women, that this country would be turned from its ways. Lord we turn to You, we look to You to deliver this nation. In Jesus’ name, thank you Lord, Amen.

Consider the context of the time when he spoke those words. We had just come out of the Watergate scandal, President Ford was in the White House, and we were facing the 1976 elections. Ross, using this scripture from 1st Timothy, points out that all of our leaders are in need of our prayers, even if you disagree with part of all of what he stands for. Pastor Zehnder, when discussing this verse, pointed out the context in which Paul originally wrote those words, during days in the Roman Empire when Christians were being actively persecuted and imprisoned for their beliefs. And yet, despite these evil actions, Paul here urges his readers to pray for those in authority.

Pastor Zehnder reminded me of this important truth, and brought it up to the present. Whether I am a fan or or a critic of President Obama and his policies, this scripture urges me to pray for him, for his wife and family. The same applies to leaders of my local community, or church council, or club board, etc. And he pointed out that this command applies not only to leaders, but can be extrapolated to other people in my life. Pastor Zehnder found an excellent commentary about the 1st Timothy 2:1-3 passage, and read from it. This is from The Expositor’s Bible, and the volume The Pastoral Epistles, edited by  W. Robertson Nicoll, M.A., printed in 1900. From “Elements of Christian Worship“, pages 91-92, consider these words:

Only in the attitude of mind which makes us pray and give thanks for our fellowmen is the tranquillity of a godly life possible. The enemies of Christian peace and quietness are anxiety and strife. Are we anxious about the well-being of those near and dear to us, or of those whose interests are bound up with our own? Let us pray for them. Have we grave misgivings respecting the course which events are taking in Church, or in State, or in any of the smaller societies to which we belong? Let us offer supplications and intercessions on behalf of all concerned in them. Prayer offered in faith to the throne of grace will calm our anxiety, because it will assure us that all is in God’s hand, and that in His own good time He will bring good out of the evil.

Are we at strife with our neighbors, and is this a constant source of disturbance? Let us pray for them. Fervent and frequent prayers for those who are hostile to us will certainly secure this much – that we ourselves become more wary about giving provocation; and this will go a long way towards bringing the attainment of our desire for the entire cessation of the strife.

Is there anyone to whom we have taken a strong aversion, whose very presence is a trial to us, whose every gesture and every tone irritates us, and the sight of whose handwriting makes us shiver, because of its disturbing associations? Let us pray for him. Sooner or later, dislike must give way to prayer. It is impossible to go on taking a real interest in the welfare of another, and at the same time to go on detesting him. And if our prayers for his welfare are genuine, a real interest in it there must be.

Is there anyone of whom we are jealous? Of whose popularity, so dangerous to our own, we are envious? Whose success – quite underserved success, as it seems to us – disgusts and frightens us? Whose mishaps and failures, nay, even whose faults and misdeeds , give us pleasure and satisfaction? Let us thank God for the favour which he bestows upon this man. Let us praise our heavenly Father for having in His wisdom and His justice given to another of His children what He denies to us; and let us pray Him to keep this other from abusing His gifts.

In the words of this commentator, I see one of the most important basics of prayer itself that I find myself forgetting from time to time. It points out that prayer intends, even expects, that I pray for others, whether they deserve God’s help or not. And the result of that pray may be that the other person changes, and it may be that it results in a change in me. The important thing is that I need to pray.

Tags: prayer

Yes, there has been a virtual flood of recollections about the events of September 11, 2001 that have showed up in the news outlets in the past week. And as much as I believed I was past this, I found the replayed news stories of the the plane crashes that day were just as intense for me as they were when I put up this post I put on on September 11, 2009. I can say nothing better than what I said on that post, and I have no better song to share than the one from that day.