New Names

“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.

Jesus appeared to John and gave him this message as written in Revelation. As I read these words, “I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name”, I sometimes wonder what will my name be. My parents named me David. I called my mom and asked her why they choose my name. She said, “David and Goliath, it’s a strong name. Your dad and I both liked the name David.” It  isn’t a name I have earned or it might not even be a name that describes who I am. I haven’ slain any giants, or lead an army or ruled a nation. There have been many days during my childhood when my parents called me by some very creative names that did describe me or my actions at that moment. The Hebrew meaning of my name is beloved.

God changed peoples names in the Bible. Sarai became Sarah. Jacob was changed to Israel, “Because you fought with God and man and have won.” God gave them new names to reflect who they were in His eyes. I wonder what people thought when Jacob and Sarai said, Hey God changed our names, I am now Israel and she is now Sarah. A few raised eyebrows maybe?

I find it exciting and maybe a little scary to think what my new name will be. If it is based on my life here and a name I have earned I might be in trouble. Messed up again, or stubborn, not quick to learn. According to God’s standard we are all liars, thieves, murderers. The list is endless of our failures during this life. Yet God keeps no record of wrongs that is not what he will remember. Through the blood of Christ we are clean. Jesus has set us free from our failures and He will be giving us a new name.  “And no one understands but the one who receives it.” It will be between Him and us. A name that summarizes who we are in Christ. Who God created us to be. It will be a name that remains with us through eternity and we alone will understand it’s meaning.

What will your name be?

Blessings

Ezekiel 34:26 “I will cause my people and their homes around my holy hill to be a blessing. And I will send showers, showers of blessings, which will come just when they are needed.”

My wife and I recently attended the Casting Crowns concert in Duluth. It was an amazing night, featuring great singing, the performers sharing their stories, and prayer. One of the performers that night was a woman named Laura Story. Laura shared about the trials life has thrown at her and her husband, Martin. In 2006 Martin was hospitalized with a brain tumor. It wasn’t cancerous, but it was growing aggressively. They had been married less than two years and suddenly their lives took a huge detour. Martin almost died and at one point he was being kept alive by machines. He has suffered memory and some vision loss. For the past seven years Martin has not been able to work full time so he has toured with Laura and helped with her ministry as he is able. It is not the life they had planned yet they are making it work and finding blessings and hope on the new path God has put them on. Their suffering has allowed them both to minister to hurting people in ways that would not have been possible before their suffering.

Laura has written a song about their journey titled, Blessings. Laura says, “The song shows that we still have more questions than answers,” Laura says. “But there’s a decision that I find God is asking us to make: whether we’re going to judge God based on our circumstances, or whether we are going to choose to interpret our circumstances based on what we hold to be true about God.”

Her song in part, “Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops- 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- What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life- Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy- What if trials of this life-The rain, the storms, the hardest nights- Are your mercies in disguise” She says of the album, “It is about worshipping God when life is hard.”

“Worshipping God when life is hard.” To see beyond this life to what lies beyond it. To find a cause greater than ourselves. To keep fighting and choose to believe God is still there even when we cannot hear or feel him. To keep believing, trusting and seeking God even when He seems to be ignoring our prayers, to be ignoring our pleas.

Abraham, Paul, Joseph, David, Noah they were able to endure all their suffering because they knew God was for them. They endured tears, rain drops and sleepless nights knowing that there was a prize awaiting them, knowing God’s blessing would come, “Just when they were needed.”

Sweet Water

Sweet Water

Proverbs 27:19 “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the person.”

A couple of Sunday’s ago I visited a church in Duluth and the Pastor shared this analogy from Joni Eareckson Tada. We are like empty pitchers and as we go through life our pitchers start to get filled up. They get filled up with bitter water or sweet water. Life is a series of bumps and other people will bump us. What spills out is either bitter water or sweet water. The natural tendency when bitter water spills out is to blame the suffering to blame the bump, to blame the person. In doing so we keep filling our pitcher with bitter water. Things keep bumping us, we say we got an unfair shake. When we blame the bumps we are completely missing the point. For bumps will come and what spills out of us is enlightening of what is really in our heart.

This really hit home for me and I was embarrassed to think of the things that have spilled out of me when I have hit the bumps in my life. I was convicted thinking of how many times I have blamed the bump for the bitter water that has spilled out of me. Even the little bumps in life. How have I reacted to my family when they rub me the wrong way. The same with friends or coworkers, other drivers. I think about the person who has served me in restaurants or has waited on me in a store. When things don’t go the way I want them to or think they should, what has spilled out of my pitcher?

Over the past couple of weeks this message of the pitcher keeps replaying in my mind. I have been making an effort to really watch what is filling my pitcher. To control what thoughts I am letting play out in my mind. To not dwell on the negative. I have been trying to live out Philippians 4:8.9 “Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.” Is it easy? Have I been entirely successful? All I can say is I am very glad my life is not part of a reality T.V. show open for the whole world to see.

Lord I pray that you help me and help us to fill our hearts with good things from you. That you will fill us with sweet water. I pray that as the bumps do come that we do not place blame. That sweet water will pour out and that our hearts will reflect not only us but you.

The Tin Man

Matthew 24:12 “Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.”

I read an e-mail recently and this quote from C.S. Lewis was on the bottom of the page; “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” 


The quote reminded me of the story of the Tin Man from the “Land of Oz books, by L. Frank Braum, (The Wizard of Oz). The Tin Man was originally a man named Nick Chopper a woodsman who is in love with a young munchkin girl named Nimee Amee. They plan to be married but an old woman that Nimee works for does not want to lose her. She pays a witch to curse Nick’s ax. The ax is cursed and as Nick is working cutting down trees to build a life for him and Nimee his ax begins to cause accidents. After each accident Nick looses body parts one by one. A tinsmith replaces his body parts with tin. He finally has an accident that injures his heart and the tinsmith patches him up but without a heart. With each accident Nick would lose a part of himself. He would find himself separating more and more from Nimee. Until finally he forgets about Nimee, he is no longer able to love. He loses Nimee, his heart has been replaced by tin.

“The love of many will grow cold.” All of us know that loving does hurt, we do get hurt and sometimes we get deeply wounded. It feels like a knife or and ax has opened a gaping wound leaving us exposed and bleeding. We can be like the tin man and put on armor becoming less and less human. We can build up walls that no one will ever again penetrate. We can turn to our work and look only to the next task in front of us, forgetting our dreams and what we are working toward. Our hearts will become, “unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

God looks at our hearts, 1 Samuel 16:7 “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the person.” Proverbs 27:19 Solomon said Give me an understanding heart 1 Kings 3:9  “Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right.” Psalm 97:11 Five hundred and seventy verses talk about our heart in the Bible, we must be vulnerable we cannot let our hearts grow cold.

Treasures In Heaven

Storing Up Treasures In Heaven

Luke 12:33 “Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it.”

Last week I attended the funeral of a 29 your old man named Chris. During the service friends and family were asked to share stories and memories of Chris. Through their stories I was blessed to learn about this extraordinary young man.

Chris was a local weatherman in Duluth and he loved his work and he loved the weather. Chris also was in love with God and with people. Chris had a passion for sharing the Gospel and the love of Jesus with people he would meet. His Pastor and friend shared a conversation he had with Chris. He said, “I told Chris, you will one day stand before God and God will not be interested in how many correct forecasts you gave. He will want an account of what you did for him.” He encouraged Chris to follow his passion while he was young and to take a chance and go where God was leading him.

Chris took his friends advice and he quit the job he loved and moved to the Gulf Coast to share the Gospel and love of Jesus Christ with the people he would meet. He spent much of his time in the city of New Orleans. He would go down to Jackson Square and share of himself and his Christ. His friend Jeanine shared stories that revealed the heart of this man. Jeanine went to visit Chris and he was living and working in a youth hostel (like a hotel for the down and out). She said the conditions were less than desirable. Bed bugs, dirty and not real welcoming. She said it didn’t matter to Chris, he fell in love with the people and they fell in love with him.  Chris took Jeanine down to Jackson Square in New Orleans and as they were walking the people of the city (tarot card readers, the homeless, vendors) would shout out, “Hi Chris!” Jeanine said, “They all new him and then I noticed they were wearing Chris’s clothes. One man had on his pullover, another his pants, another his backpack.”

Chris died a poor man by the world’s standards. Yet he was wealthy beyond measure in God’s eyes. Chris stored up his treasure in heaven. “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25: 37-40

Friends

Dutches

Proverbs 18:24 “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

I spent part of New Year’s Eve day paddling on the Brule River. I had to talk myself into going as the morning started out cold and the temperature kept dropping. I had just read a funny article about winter kayaking and the man said that the requirement was to add the air temperature, the water temp and your IQ and they had to total at least 100. I did the math air temp 10, water temp around 32 that would leave me needing an IQ of at least 60. The average IQ in the U.S. is 98 so I figured I was safe to go. If you were to ask my mother she would tell you that just the fact I was going on the river showed my IQ falls way below my mark of 60. I went with the national average and not with my mothers view.

After a not so warm bike ride up to my kayak I was rewarded with the astounding beauty of the river. The ice was gaining ground on the river and after about 30 minutes I was stopped by the ice. I dragged my kayak onto the shore and was portaging around the ice when a dog appeared out of the woods and begin barking at me. We said our hello’s and she decided I was okay. After my brief portage I was again paddling on open water and my new friend was running along the bank following me. A short time later I again ran into ice and I was sitting there considering my options when my new friend came running back to see what was holding me up. She barked at me as if to say don’t just sit there we have places to go. She walked with me until I reached open water. We repeated this scene a few more times, me stopping for another portage and her barking, come on lets get going. I found myself really enjoying her company. Once we reached the landing she stood there expecting a ride home. I opened the door to my truck and she jumped in. I had a good idea who’s dog she was and I returned her to her home. Virgil was happy to have her (Dutchess) back and thanked me.

What is my purpose in writing about Dutchess. It is my prayer that in this New Year I can be that kind of friend. To accept people exactly as they are and be content and happy to be with them. To join them on their journeys. To check back and encourage them when they run into the unexpected. To offer words that just say you are not alone.

I pray that in this new year God brings into your life those kinds of friends.

Paddling Alone

Ecclesiastes 4:10 “If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.”

On a recent kayak outing I found myself paddling alone. I had started out the day paddling along with two friends but after about three hours of paddling I was now alone. We had paddled the length of Park point to the Wisconsin Point light house. On our return trip we met with a sudden downpour and 25 mph headwinds. The storm lasted only about twenty minutes and the sun returned and the lake was again calm. Somewhere in that down poor I had put much distance between myself and my friends. I kept thinking I should slow down and wait but I just kept paddling. With about ten minutes left before our landing spot, I did stop and I waited to finish the day paddling along side of Willie and James.

When we had finished loading up our gear James said to me, “I found something out about Dave today, you either had someplace else you really wanted to be or else when you want to be done you just buckle down and say, I want to get this over with.” I have been pondering James words since that day thinking, “Ok God, what do you want me to learn from this?” I saw a movie this weekend titled “Hope Springs” that gave me my answer.

The movie is about a couple who have been married for thirty-one years. Their marriage started out much like our kayak trip, with the husband and wife paddling along side of each other, enjoying the journey together.  They faced what life threw at them together.

Thirty-one years of marriage, storms came and they started to drift apart. One day they found themselves paddling alone. Each of them consumed with their own agenda’s.  Each of them feeling hurt and alone. The wife decides she wants her marriage back, and she signs them up for a week long marriage counseling retreat. The husband is less than thrilled, but he gives in and joins her on the retreat. The counselor is very bold and has them work through some tough and very real issues. He has them look back and see when and where they started to drift apart and paddle alone. He has them look back and remember the love that brought them together.  At one point the counselor says, “Some people should never have gotten married, you two are not those people.”

The movie was hard to watch first for it’s boldness and second for it being so real, so honest. Do I recommend the movie? With a strong word of caution (very frank sexual issues are discussed) I would say, yes. I recommend it for couples who want to take an honest look at their marriage and ask themselves, “Are we paddling together or are we paddling alone?”