Bottom-Shelf Truths
After OSU, I worked as a college intern at NWHills Church in Corvallis for three years. Commuting to Portland for seminary part time, holding down a job in a steak house and doing ministry at the church made for a full life. But being young and full of fuel we ran with our hair on fire and thought nothing of it.
Three years later, Claudia and I were engaged and were set to take a red-eye flight to MN for me to meet her parents for the first time. That day I also had been let go from my role at the church. Soon to be unemployed, not finished with grad school, unsure of our future, feeling like a loser and not sure where to turn…my mind flopped like a fish on the beach.
After the meeting where I was cut loose and staggering back to the little yellow house in the church parking lot where I lived, a song came to my tilting mind.
Because he lives I can face tomorrow.
I have never been much of a Gaither fan and this song seemed like so much pablum, but there in my hurt and confusion, their lyrics came to mind and I found myself croaking out the simplest of messages.
Think about how many times the most simple truths brought you back around to a better place. When doubt or fear or setback or tragedy darkened your path, a lower-case plain understanding of God and his world can shine enough light for the next steps.
Karl Barth, a 20th century Swiss theologian and a card-carrying member of the big brain club, while on a 1962 lecture tour in the USA, was asked if he could sum up all of his work in a sentence. Without hesitation the scholar responded that he could and that he learned it at his mother’s knee:
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
How often we complicate what really is quite simple. A good portion of the gospel weaves these lyrics from two simple songs together into a commanding ovation. Stop for a moment and allow these truths to wrap you in love.
First, consider the amazing assertion that Jesus loves me. Here is the perfect Son of God and then here is you and me. The truth we carry is that Jesus is part of the Triune God, along with the Father and Spirit. The Son created all we see and beyond, from the edges of the universe to the whatever is smaller than the parts of atoms. He created you with all your quirks and his assessment is that his work is very good.
Now, take all that he is and try to wrap your brain around the idea he not only is aware of you in the midst of all the rest, but that he chooses to love you, and all the testimony of scripture bears this out. You.
You, with all of your failings and holes.
You, regardless of how many times your back has been turned away.
You he loves with a faithful, unchanging, overflowing, loyal, new-every-morning kind of love.
But Jesus (and Father and Spirit) didn’t just sit outside of humanity hoping it will get better, he became one of us and lived the life we could not live and died the death we could not die. Then, by the power of God himself, he was raised to life, defeating sin, death, and the grave. And through life in him, we live, as well. That is the love of Jesus. That is the love of Jesus for you, and we know it.
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Second, weave that thought together with the line from the Gaither song, Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Your life can take on at any moment, or season, the flavor of whatever life serves up. Some of what we encounter is from our own hands while much of life is beyond our control. As a Jesus-follower, we can stride into each day with calm confidence, because he lives and loves us.
Resist the undertow of the demand for answers to every part of faith in life. While it’s important to keep on learning and investigating God stuff, when you bonk a grad test and lose your job and have to meet the parents and don’t know what’s next, loop back to the basics…
Jesus loves me this I know, and because he lives I can face tomorrow.
Listen to Jesus describe this in Matthew 11.
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
This puts the cookies on the bottom shelf where anyone can reach them.
That afternoon for me, as I slowly walked across the gravel parking lot to the little yellow house, taught me a bit more how to trust a God I could not see for a way forward I did not plan. Like you have experienced following Jesus, it worked out for us: Her folks liked me, we moved to finish school, got jobs, and launched a life together. One blind step at a time.
Whatever you face today, let the simple truths arranged like cookies on the bottom shelf encourage your heart. Grab onto one and go forward.
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Funnies for Life
The morning of the big parade, a man and a little boy entered a barber shop together.
"Give me the full treatment," the man said. "I want to look good in the parade!"
After the man received a shave, manicure, and haircut, he placed the boy in the chair. "I'm going to buy a new tie to wear for the parade," he said. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
When the boy's haircut was done and the man still hadn't returned, the barber said, "It looks like your daddy forgot all about you."
"That wasn't my daddy," said the boy. "He just walked up, took me by the hand and said, 'Come on, son, we're gonna get a free haircut!'"
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The teacher noticed that Ralph had been daydreaming for a long time. She decided to get his attention.
"Ralph," she said, "If the world is 25,000 miles around and eggs are sixty cents a dozen, how old am I?
"Thirty-four," the boy answered unhesitatingly.
The teacher replied "Well, that's exactly my actual age. Tell me...how did you guess?"
"Oh, there's nothing to it," Ralph said. "My big sister is seventeen and she's only half-crazy."