Let's start by listening to a happy little song that makes me think of a nice cool glass of lemonade on a warm summer day. It’s a good thing for me to reflect on whenever God goes in a direction that I don’t like because alas, His ways are not my ways for sure.
Listen to song:
Delivered - Casting Crowns
Play video:
Read scripture:
John 12:20-26
I got really into Bob Dylan the summer after my first year of college. It’s a time in my life I think of often especially if my wife and ever have a kerfuffle. Kristelle and I got married at the beginning of that summer and we moved into this small apartment where something was always broken and the property maintanence was slow. For example, I had rigged the toilet to work through a series of shoe strings and wire hangers. And it took a while for us to find out that the outlets for the washing machine wouldn’t turn on unless one of the stove burners was on. I was working at Wal-Mart and Kristelle at Chipotle. It was the one time in my life where I felt completely satisfied with everything. Even when things broke down, I was still elated the whole summer. Since then, things have gotten more complicated. It feels as though everything is a struggle, even dinner. A battle rages everyday between my son and my interest in getting him to eat a vegetable. I go into everything with an agenda, a mission much like the Greeks in the Bible passage. And as it goes, Jesus stops everything without warning to say that it is time for the Lord to be glorified.
Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 for this song. The video said it was a folk ballad because it told a story. But the story made little sense. It was two short snippets of scenes with no helpful information of what is happening. I like that the video says the lyrics go into a loop. Much like when my plans fall through, I end up back at square one having to start all over. The best laid plans of mice and men, right?
My message today boils down to whether you love God or you love your property, including your intellectual property. An issue I have with the church is that when people get saved they tend to change their lifestyles without necessarily changing their insides. They change radio stations, fashion choices and even the words they use without changing their heart. The word change is a big one for me, like instead of saying Karma, say God’s will or instead of I hope you feel better you say I’ll pray for you.
For people like this discovering God is like discovering you’re in a cave, a philosophical cave and when you accept God, you come out of the cave, but then you join this Christian community which is just another cave and you lose out on God’s plans. And after a while you come across a new philosophy and realize that you are in a cave again and because you confused following Jesus with Christian lifestyle, you disregard both because the lifestyle didn’t help you very much and you missed the whole point. Or you stay in the cave remembering that you did, for a second, actually leave the cave. And that small second gives you enough hope to stay in this second cave. This reminds me of a Relient K song which goes like this….
And this is how I choose to live
As if I'm jumping off a cliff
knowing that you'll save me [2x]
and after all the stupid things I did
there's nothing left that you'd forgive
because you already forgave me
yeah you already forgave me
Similar to Bob Dylan this goes through a cycle. You find yourself on top of a cliff and jump off to test Jesus, and when he catches you, he puts you back up there. Is that what you think Christianity is? A constant back and forth of you sinning and asking for forgiveness and sinning and asking for forgiveness?
The thing that made me love Bob Dylan is his music, because a lot of times it was hard to even understand his lyrics. So I’m glad that video brought up the music and it’s consistency. This is how I think we should live. The lyrics don’t matter just like our lifestyles and intellectual property don’t matter. Our consistency in the tune is what matters. Whenever you go to a funeral you never hear, this great man accomplished every little goal he wanted to, his email inbox was empty. No, it’s more basic, he was a nice man, he loved his family, he was never too busy to talk to a friend, his life beheld the way of the Lord to many he met.
Psalms 91:2 This I Declare about the Lord, He alone is my refuge, my place of safety, He is my God, and I trust Him.
