Lost, Alone, and Out of Gas

This isn’t the Musing I planned for you to read today. That one goes back into the file for another time. Instead, let me tell you about my morning.

I arrived at the church building a little after 8:00 to find an older Jeep Cherokee abandoned in the middle of the parking lot. The smashed lift gate window and shattered side windows meant somebody had a cold ride overnight. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find inside.

When I opened my car door to take a look, I expected to discover someone passed out in the SUV. It wouldn’t be the first time. Our location, adjacent to a major highway in the Twin Cities. makes our parking lot a convenient rest stop for weary and occasionally inebriated travelers. But this vehicle was empty. The broken glass in the backseat probably meant the damage was recent. The driver left a note, pink ink with big curvy writing. I’m guessing a girl.

“Ran out of gas. Be back soon. Sorry.”

“That’s good,” I thought, “Now I don’t have to spend my morning trying to figure out how to get this piece of junk out of our parking lot.”

It wasn’t long and Emily walked up the hill from the main road carrying an empty gallon jug, the kind that usually holds window washing fluid. The closest gas stations are over a mile away, and the bank tellers across the street probably couldn’t help.

“Hi. It looks like you’re still out of gas.”

“Yeah, there wasn’t anyone across the street to help.”

“I’ll check in our church garage and see what we have.”

A few minutes later I returned with a small gas tank and started pouring gas into her tank.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Emily.”

“I have a daughter named Emily. Are you from around here?”

“No, I’m from Anoka (Anoka, Minnesota is 35 miles northwest of our church building).”

“That’s a cold ride without any windows in the back.”

“Yeah, my boyfriend and I had a domestic. So…”

“Anoka’s a long way away. What are you doing down here?”

“I got lost. I don’t have a phone. Then I ran out of gas. I only have $6.”

“Do you have a church up there in Anoka?”

“Yeah, St. Stephens.”

“Is that a Lutheran church or a Catholic church?”

“A Lutheran church. Sister Marie helps me out.”

I emptied the last of the gas from the can into her tank and asked her to give it a try. The engine fired. She said thanks and drove away. I watched her leave and wondered, “Lord, what did you want me to do for her?”

Do you ever wonder how many women like young Emily drove our Minnesota roads last night with nowhere to go? I’m guessing the “domestic” with her boyfriend happened sometime late last night. The fighting escalated. Lots of screaming and cussing and she tells him she’s leaving. She is so desperate to get away from him, she doesn’t grab her phone. How threatening must her life have been to run without her trusted companion?

She races to the car, and he follows her with something in his hands, maybe a baseball bat? He threatens as she climbs behind the wheel. Suddenly, glass shatters, and he winds up for the next swing. Smack! There goes another window. She stomps on the accelerator, shaking uncontrollably as she speeds away.

Getting as far away from him as possible, she turns on this road and then takes that exit as warm tears stream down her face. Before long the moonlight fades to sunrise, and her gas tank is nearly empty. She’s lost and without a phone. Her car lurches toward the exit ramp and comes to rest in our church parking lot. “Now what do I do?” had to be part of her thoughts at the moment.

Again, I ask, “Lord, what did you want me to do for her?” The only answer I can surmise is, “Put gas in her tank.”

“Yes, Lord, but what about the abuse?”

“I’ll take care of that.”

“Yes, Lord, but what about her soul?”

“I love her, and I died for her. I will woo her and chase her. I want her to love me like I love her.”

“Yes, Lord, but what did you want me to do?”

“I wanted you to put gas in her tank.”

“Yes, Lord, but she lives too far away to invite for Friend Day, and she drove off too fast to even give her a gospel booklet or to offer a prayer with her.”

“Like I said, I wanted you to put gas in her tank. That’s all. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Yes, Lord.”

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Why We Must Pray Corporately?

This Sunday evening we begin a new event at our church, our Spring Prayer Refresher. Jonathan Edwards of The Great Awakening fame helps us with why we should give these days to corporate prayer.

I have often said it would be a thing very desirable and very likely to be followed with a great blessing, if there could be some contrivance, that there should be an agreement of all God’s people in America, that are well affected to this work, to keep a Day of Fasting and Prayer to God; wherein we should all unite on the same day…Some perhaps may think its being all on the same day, is a circumstance of no great consequence; but I can' t be of that mind…It seems to me, it would mightily encourage and animate God’s saints, in humbly and earnestly seeking God, for such blessings which concerns them all; and that it would be much for the rejoicing of all, to think, that at the same time, such multitudes of God’s dear children, far and near, were sending up their cries to the same common Father, for the same motives. Jonathan Edwards, 1742

Edwards delivers impactful ideas in the brief quote. For me, I like the clause, “(corporate prayer) would mightily encourage and animate God’s saints.” We want that in our church, right? We long for encouragement for ourselves and our church family. We hope for each of the church to live the Christian life within our Christian community and to a lost world. Prayer is the catalyst for both.

Would you commit to corporate prayer, “for the same motives?”

Our corporate prayer begins Sunday night as we gather around the Lord’s Table. Our emphasis will be confession. Monday we will commit to obeying our Lord. Tuesday will find us declaring our dependence on God, and Wednesday we will ask God for his intervention. I trust this emphasis will be good for the church and glorifying to God.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Don't Be Afraid Unless You Should Be

Like money and our bodies, fear is a great servant but a brutal master. When money rules, acquiring it or holding on to it become the prime directive of life. When bodies rule, satisfying its cravings and meeting its pleasures become the morning drive and the evening fix. Fear is like this.

When fear is the master, fear stops you from doing what you should do or could do and goads you into doing what you shouldn’t do.

When fear is the servant, fear prompts you to do what you otherwise would not do and prevents you from doing what you shouldn't do.

Think in simple terms. Fear is a heartless master when it stymies a guy from asking out a godly and beautiful Christian girl. On the other hand, fear is a great servant when it prevents a married Christian man from flirting with the attractive woman at work or behind the counter at Starbucks. I could spend the rest of the day providing examples from work, school, athletics, marriage, friendships, swimming, horseback riding, sports car driving, and so much more. You don’t have time for that, and this is a musing not a paperback. But be certain, from the time you read this Musing until you go to bed tonight, you will encounter a circumstance where you will choose if fear is your master or your servant.

In the Garden of Eden and before the fall, fear was unknown to the human condition. The Bible tells us so when we read, “Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame (Genesis 2:25).” No body shaming meant no reason for fear. No sin anywhere meant no threats to the first humans. Fear was unknown because sin was unknown. But when sin entered, fear came with it as a source to combat sin and as an impetus to sin. Fear is a great servant but a merciless master.

Think what God says. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning people away from the snares of death (Proverbs 14:27). If terror of God’s response turns you away from a trap that brings spiritual or physical death, fear served you well.

On the other hand, Proverbs says, The fear of man is a snare, but the one who trusts in the Lord is protected (29:25). Fear betrays you when it lays the trap of “What will she think?” or “You can’t risk this relationship” or “Your job is on the line.”

The challenge for us is to identify where and when fear is a master and remove him from the throne. Then, welcome the efforts of the helpful servant named “Fear” who can deliver to us a protected life.

May God help us all to know the difference.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

What's Your ID?

Last week I sat at a conference table with the new chief of police in one of our neighboring suburbs. With us were other pastors and spiritual leaders from the community invited by the department to offer help to the officers. To the best of my knowledge, the chief does not know our Lord, but what she said next grabbed my attention for Christian reasons.

“The over-identification of officers with their job leads to vulnerability. The identification adds to their value as a human being, but what happens when that’s taken away, then what? Should they fail at their jobs, then what?”

By “over-identification” she means the officer looks in the mirror and sees first a cop. By “over-identification” she means the officer does nearly anything to promote the reality of being a cop to the exclusion of other responsibilities. By “over-identification” she means the officer will do what is necessary to protect the identity against any threat that would take the identity away. By “over-identification” she means the officer rejects any other identity as superior to the identity displayed by uniform and badge.

The chief’s observations must not be limited to the officers under her command.

Can you see the vulnerability for a man whose identity over the last 40 years has been in his job? Who is he when he no longer gets behind the wheel, stares at the monitor, reads a blueprint, or executes a plan? He ponders, “What value do I have for the remaining years of my life?”

What happens if the young or middle-age man fails in his career either through his own mistakes or the company’s demise? Is anyone surprised when he blurts out, “What am I going to do now? This is the only thing I know how to do!”

Can you see the vulnerability of a woman or man who is a spouse or parent who suddenly and tragically loses a mate or a child?

Can you see the vulnerability of a young athlete, vibrant, strong, and skilled, whose world is rocked by a devastating injury, a family move that takes him away from his school and teammates, or a new coach who doesn’t see his importance to the team like the previous coach did?

Can you see your own vulnerability in how you identify yourself?

Like the chief said, in each scenario the identification adds to the perceived value of life for every person. Because the identification resides in something temporal and finite, the identification can never deliver the hoped for satisfaction, and the identification will, at some future point, abruptly cease.

As the chief asked, “What then?”

For any human being how we choose to identify ourselves leads to extreme vulnerability, with one outstanding exception. You are a Christian, and, therefore, you have a choice to identify with something, someone eternal and infinite.

Over and again, the New Testament declares Christians are “in Christ.” The phrase affirms identity, teaching us our primary identity – who we are – is Christian. For example, “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah” (Ephesians 2:13).

Fight back against the thinking that sees identification in title, status, accomplishment, or reputation. These are finite; they cannot deliver what you seek. These are temporal; any satifaction exists on a timeline with an abrupt end. Instead, find your primary ID in Christ.

When you identify first as a Christian, you eliminate vulnerability inherent to our world. No matter what is taken away from you, your identification in Christ can never be stripped from you. His work done for you will never abate. His love for you will never diminish. His promise to bring you to himself will be fulfilled. This is your primary identity – you are a Christian.

When you look in the mirror, look past the wearied face and troubled eyes and see first a follower of Jesus. No matter what the day, week, month, or year brings, who you are in Christ will remain.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

You're Right, You Can't

It’s just too much for any person to realistically perform. No, not the new job description at your work or the calling to be a mom of three little ones, but The Law, Moses’s law as it is spelled out in the book of Leviticus. In social media language “I can’t even” is the appropriate response.

Over and over and over the book of Leviticus told the ancient Jews what made them “unclean” in God’s presence. In 92 occurrences the word unclean restricts diet, physical touch, the furniture where a person could sit or lie down to sleep, and even the plaster on an interior wall of your home. Should the mold in the house not pass the priest’s inspection, the priest would order the house destroyed to the foundation (Leviticus 14:43-45). If you think reading the book of Leviticus is hard as you go through your Bible reading plan, imagine having to live under the code. “I. Just. Can’t”

Instead of declaring how good they were by keeping every nuance of the law, every honest Jew would have to declare an inability to do what the law said. Daily failure in some area of the law would only add to the weight of the guilt a person bore. There simply was no escape from the law. Like Paul wrote, the law is a prison guard keeping the inmate perpetually confined (Galatians 3:23).

Paul masterfully explains what we were unable to do (keep the law), Christ did fully (Romans 8). God then applies Christ’s full obedience to the law to our lives as if we fulfilled all the law ourselves. This is grace, God gives us something we do not deserve and cannot acquire. Our Lord’s righteousness is ours, having obtained it by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). “I can’t even” becomes “Jesus did.”

So we rest, not in our own good deeds but in Jesus’s.

And we read the laborious, repetitive, lengthy, and minute matters recorded in Leviticus and breathe a sigh of relief, “I don’t have to because Jesus did.”

And we live this life free from our old master whom we could never fully please and in joyful submission to our new master whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

Be encouraged, Christian, Jesus did for you what you could not do for yourself leaving you free to live a joyful life to God’s glory.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.