Precious Faith

When I was playing music professionally, I had a drive to improve and grow musically. This was evidenced in the amount of practice that I placed into it in band rehearsal and in personal time. While I was in college, my commitment level to music was such that I drove a total of 6 hours three times a week just for band rehearsals ... when you add in shows, I don't know how I managed to graduate from college. My desire to do well in music was genuine.

Soften my heart, O Lord, and help me to regard this gift of faith more highly than gold or silver. I love reading the Psalms because I'm always blown away by the honesty with which the Psalmist approaches God. Never afraid to speak right from the center of his being, often the words are questioning. Often the words are probing. Often the words express depression so deep and excitement so high it's hard to imagine reading a Psalm with the same emotion with which it was penned. While teaching a bible college class on 1 Peter, I came across two words that really struck me. In verse 7 of the first chapter, there are two words ... genuine faith.
These words challenge me. I think of 1 John where it talks about evidences of faith and hits really hard on love. The truth of our love ... the actions of our love ... proof of our faith. Lord, teach me to love others.

Inclined to havoc

1 Cor 1:27-29
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
NKJV

I remember a CD release show at the Wherehouse in Winston-Salem, NC eight or nine years ago ... As usual, I was messed up and at one point in the set, I stepped off stage and into the crowd. As I stepped off, I pulled the cable out of my flange pedal. When I realized what had happened, I tried to jump back on stage and ... WHAM! There I am face down on the stage with the breath knocked out of me, a nose bleed and a broken tuning key.

I have a pretty strong track record of doing stupid things. When my son was a few months old, he had a shirt that said, "If I can reach it, I can wreck it." I think I should have a shirt that says the same thing because there's a lot of evidence in my life that testifies of my own knack for havoc.

Yet the Lord uses me. I can't take any credit for the things which the Lord uses me because I know and everyone around me knows that I'm one of the foolish, weak and base things of the world. All the glory goes to God.

When in chains ...

At Mississippi State University, there is a place called the "Free Speach Area" ... basicly a raised concrete platform with some benches on it where if you had something to say in a public forum, you could. One day I happened to be walking by and there was a dude preaching the gospel from this platform. A crowd (many of them my friends) had gathered around him and they were yelling insults at him. I stood there, long jet black hair, black leather jacket, black jeans and combat boots and observed this thing ... then walked away. I was not a Christian at that time, but this was a seed planting moment.
We really don't know who is being affected by our words or actions at any given time ... even moments when we feel ineffective, incapable or even trapped or persecuted. In the letter to Philemon, Paul wrote: "I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains." Paul was bearing fruit even while confined and in chains.
Every moment in a Christians life is a seed planting opportunity. Whether there's just enough time for an acknowledging smile or 5 minutes from a concrete bench or 2 hours from a pulpit. Every moment counts.

Florida

Wow. Fort Lauderdale, Florida in July is quite hot, but that didn't stop me from getting out and making the most of the opportunity. Growing up in Alabama and having spent a lot of time in Mississippi and Louisiana as well, I kinda got used to hot weather. I remember one time when Solar Coaster was on tour and I was packed with the band gear in the bed of a covered truck in the middle of downtown Atlanta rush hour traffic in the summer. No air conditioning. I was wearing jeans and a sweater. By the time we reached our destination, the sweater had started to disintegrate. Don't know if it was the toxins in my sweat or from the truck exhaust that did it. Of course, I still wore it for that night's show ... and probably woke up the next morning in it as well. Typical for the road.

There is a certain amount of "heat" that we all deal with on a daily basis. It could be job stress or family or finances. There are going to be times when the heat is turned up and it is how we react at those times that reveals where we are in our relationship with God. I wish that I always reacted to trials in the manner of Job who said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job also said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."