I Believe...😌

😌 Blogger describes this emoji as a relieved face. I think it's more of a "Thank you, Lord" face. Yesterday I blogged about my total frustration with a photo book website. They had changed so much that I couldn't figure out even where to start in spite of having used their site over the last decade to design nine books. I was trying to create two pictorial documentations of road trips we took last fall to the Canadian Northwest and the Northeastern USA. The changes were so radical that I was at a very frustrated place. 😡 This was the pouting-face emoji I used in my previous blog to describe my feelings.

I closed that blog asking God 🙏 to send my guardian angel to guide my technological efforts as I investigated a different photo book website. God did it...again! With his help by the end of the day, I had created two photo books with no frustration, no pouting, and a real sense of fulfillment. He promises, "Ask and you shall receive." He even threw in a 70% off coupon code. It was like getting two books, shipping, and tax for the price of one book. Don't even try to convince me that was a coincidence! The posted deadline for taking advantage of that offer was midnight May 12, 2020.

photo by Zoltan Tasi on unsplash.com

I've always believed in God, in guardian angels, and the power of prayer. After yesterday's events, more than ever. God took me from  😡 to 😌 in a few short hours. There's a country song that's been a favorite of mine for two decades. Angels Among Us was written by Don Goodman and Becky Hobbs and first recorded in 1994 by the group Alabama. The lyrics express my sense of relief and even victory over technology and change during these recent happenings.


Feel free to sing along. You might even find a recording of it on YouTube. There are about a gazillion.

Angels Among Us

I was walking home from school, on a cold winter day. Took a shortcut through the woods,

and I lost my way. It was getting late, and I was scared and alone;

But then a kind old man took my hand and led me home. Mama couldn't see him,

Oh, but he was standing there; And I knew in my heart, he was the answer to my prayers

Oh, I believe there are angels among us; sent down to us from somewhere up above.

They come to you and me in our darkest hours; to show us how to live,

To teach us how to give, to guide us with the light of love.

When life held troubled times and had me down on my knees,

There's always been someone to come along and comfort me:

A kind word from a stranger to lend a helping hand;

A phone call from a friend just to say, "I understand."

But ain't it kind of funny at the dark end of the road,

That someone lights the way with just a single ray of hope.

Oh, I believe there are angels among us; sent down to us from somewhere up above.

They come to you and me in our darkest hours; to show us how to live,

To teach us how to give, to guide us with the light of love.

They wear so many faces, show up in the strangest places;

To grace us with their mercy in our time of need.

Oh, I believe there are angels among us; sent down to us from somewhere up above.

They come to you and me in our darkest hours; to show us how to live,

To teach us how to give, to guide us with the light of love...to guide us with a light of love. 😇

GodFather

A few months ago, before church became a distance online thing to do, a friend of mine led a very moving prayer in our Sunday morning assembly. Mike's habit is to use the terms Father, God, and even Father God numerous times when leading us in talking to the Lord. All of a sudden that prayer caught an extra level of focus from me. He rearranged the order as I'd never heard him do before. It wasn't wrong; it was just different...unique, especially for him.

He used the term God Father. It almost sounded like Godfather. He had my attention. I'm not sure why; he just did. The Godfather trilogy of motion pictures is among the most critically acclaimed in all of filmdom. It just so happens that I am a movie buff; a movie buff who has never seen any of the Godfather flicks. They just never appealed to me. I'm more of a Hallmark, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, and Fifties Sci-Fi Classics kind of guy. I even like the old musicals just not the Godfather.

NOT my God Father!

I was caught by surprise that all of a sudden we seemed to be praying to God-Father. Unlike the gangster mafia family head, our God Father is caring, loving, merciful, compassionate, and understanding. Additionally HE is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. I'm pretty sure He looks nothing like Marlon Brando. Thanks Mike, I relish the opportunities to speak personally with our God Father!

Comfort

I am amazed that I was led to 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (NIV) for today's blog in these times of pandemic and social distancing. Nine times in those five short verses the apostle Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to repeat the word comfort. Notice the first two verses of that passage:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

God is the source of all comfort. The reason He comforts us in our troubles is so we can pass it on to our neighbors. Let's ponder just a few of the ways we can comfort others during COVID-19:

• Offer condolences and sympathy for loss.
• Share empathy and commiseration during hard times. We are all in this together.
• Communicate cheer or an offer to help. Perhaps run an errand for someone who can't.
• Speak a kind or encouraging word via phone, text, or social media.
• Visit with a neighbor from 10 feet across the yard. Social distance doesn't mean isolation. Many are lonely during these times.
• Try to love like Jesus...from a safe distance perhaps wearing a mask.



photo by Hannah Morgan on unsplash.com

• Emulate the God of compassion.

What can you do to follow the example of our God of all comfort? Please share your ideas in the comment section of this blog.

From the Past

It's been a busy day with worship fellowship, food, the first half of the Tennessee Titans loss (all I needed to see of that one), and packing for our 49th anniversary getaway. I have been thinking all day of a blog idea and simply ran out of time. Since that has happened, I gave myself permission to reach into the past for what inspired me decades ago. I needed a quick way to publish 19 days in a row.

Here is a phrase by phrase presentation of a most amazing verse, John 3:16 (NIV)...

For God ... the greatest being

So Loved ... the greatest action

The World ... the greatest multitude

That He gave ... the greatest deed

His One and only Son ... the greatest gift

That whoever ... the greatest selection

Believes in Him ... the greatest faith

Shall not perish ... the greatest ending

But have ... the greatest possession

Eternal Life! ... the greatest forever

John 3:16 ... the greatest message

Hind Sight

Hindsight is generally 20/20. Coaches and armchair quarterbacks find it so when they evaluate a team's weekend performance on Monday. Pharaoh discovered that truth as his army drowned in the Red Sea.

We have the details of the first time Moses and Aaron appeared before the King of Egypt to deliver their divine message. At that point all they sought was the aristocrat's permission to take a three-day trek into the wilderness to sacrifice to their God. Without the benefit of foreknowledge, Pharaoh's response was a vehement "NO!" Exodus 5:2 (MSG) records his exact words: "And who is God that I should listen to him and send Israel off? I know nothing of this so-called 'God' and I'm certainly not going to send Israel off." He could've/should've left his reply at a simple "no." He was all-to-correct when he stated that he knew nothing of this God.

His stubbornness lasted from the bloody waters to the plagues of frogs, lice/gnats, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness, all the way to the death of the firstborn. When Pharaoh lost his son, it knocked him for a loop. I'm guessing his mind wandered back to the moment he first viewed the blood-red Nile. If he had just listened then, none of these horrific events would have happened. Perhaps his wife's sorrowful nagging added to his temporary distress. He couldn't get rid of the Israelites fast enough.

It didn't take long for Pharaoh to regret his weakness. He summoned his chariots, pursued Moses, and caught him at the Red Sea. He could've/should've waved a last farewell and returned to the palace with his army intact. Alas, this dictator is a few spears below the learning curve. He sent his entire militia into the parted sea to kill or recapture the multitude of escaping slaves. The bad guys all died mired down in mud as the waters reclosed over their heads.

This story doesn't prove the step brother is always smarter than the true heir to the inheritance. It does, however, confirm that hindsight is 20/20.

Silence

In Psalm 46:10 God encourages us to, "Be still and know that I am God..." Sometimes I try to be stationary and silent to know God better. Whether watching the sunset or squirrels frolicking across the street, it works. I feel closer to my Creator when I am inactive and listen.

I remember my senior year of high school as if it were 53 years ago. I transferred that fall (1966) from my New Orleans public school to Harding Academy in Searcy, Arkansas. I was destined to enroll at the college the next year. I lived in a campus dorm. Since my parents didn't move with me, I was ineligible for participation in interscholastic sports. I did serve as manager. My love of music and an ability to carry a tune in a bucket qualified me for singing the bass part in the academy's chorus. It became the highlight of my senior year.

One of my fondest memories is opening our choral performances singing the hymn The Lord Is in His Holy Temple. We immediately repeated it humming softly as someone recited the poem In Silence:

In silence comes all loveliness.

The dawn is ever still.

No noise accompanies the dew

That glistens on the hill.

The sunrise comes up quietly;

The moon is never heard.

And love that animates the eye

Surpasses any word.

And prayer is best in solitude.

It seems so very odd

That long before I did not know

In silence I'd find God.

This poem is still very special to me. I remembered most of the words even five decades later, but I was unsure of the precise rendition. Thanks to Google, I discovered the original version and its author Marianne Moore (1887-1972). She was a modernist poet of her era. Thanks to God, Marianne, and Google for help as I composed this blog.  In Silence is public domain. Use it as you wish when you search in silence for God.