CHRIS BROWN'S SAGE ADVICE

“And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people:  and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” (Exodus 24:7)

I guess first I’d better tell you who Chris Brown is.  Chris Brown is a woman in my age group who attended our church (First Assembly of God of Framingham) along with her husband Gary and her three sons, for many years.  Currently Chris and Gary Brown attend Metro Church in Marlboro.

Chris Brown has a very nice singing voice.   She was a song leader and worship leader at our church, and usually did a very good job.  Chris also worked tirelessly for many years as our church Treasurer.  I believe she loves God very much.  Chris Brown is a schoolteacher.  Like me, her primary ethnic ancestry is French.  Also like me, she tends to be kind of a perfectionist and tends to be quite opinionated.  Depending on the issue and situation, Chris Brown and I either really got along well and worked well together or we didn’t.  There was no in-between.  I once told Gary Brown that Chris is very much like me.  He didn’t agree, but I stand by that statement.  

Chris and Gary left our church over five years ago, and I don’t see a lot of them, but there’s an impact Chris has made on my life.  I don’t know if she even remembers this, but one day Chris Brown said, “If every Christian would just seek the Lord and find out what he wants them to do and then DO it, most of the problems would be solved.”  Whether she meant most of the problems in the church, or in the world, or in life, or whatever, Chris Brown made a true statement that day!  I have  quoted Chris Brown’s statement about a thousand times over the past several years.

All of us, including me, get in trouble when WE want to be our own bosses...when WE just get out there and do what WE want to do.  I suppose SOMETIMES that works, but I want to tell you, most of the time it causes a lot of pain and heartache and confusion and stress and leads to all kinds of other junk.

One person, a 60ish woman, challenged me on Chris Brown’s sage advice.  That woman said, “But THAT’S not REALISTIC!”  Ironically, the woman who said, “But THAT’S not REALISTIC!”  believes just about anything many TV preachers say.  Go figure!  Maybe it’s NOT realistic, but I’m gonna keep proclaiming it and trying by the grace of God to live it.

Recently, two women from our church congregation challenged me on Chris Brown’s sage advice.  Their beef was that I keep quoting a woman who left our church...who in doing so hurt me and hurt a  number of people at the church.  My response to that is twofold.  First, that all happened over five years ago, we ALL make mistakes and we need to leave that “at Calvary” as we born-again Christians say.  Secondly, whatever Chris may have done in leaving our church, her statement is a TRUE statement and a good statement.  I happen to be a guy who is full of flaws and failures.  I’d hate to have someone reject a powerful and true sermon of mine just because I said they wore a dumb looking tee-shirt or I accidentally scraped their car on my way out of the church parking lot or something!

What Chris Brown said is SO simple it could easily be marginalized or forgotten, but I pray it WON’T be.  Like the movie, “Pay it Forward”, if everyone reading this piece put Chris Brown’s sage advice into practice, our whole society would be revolutionized and changed for the better!

Again,  “If every Christian would just seek the Lord and find out what he wants them to do and then DO it, most of the problems would be solved.”  I know some of you are thinking, “But I’m not a born-again Christian.”  Well then, that’s step one, and then make following Chris Brown’s statement step two.

I’m serious.