JANUARY 10 AT NIGHT

“Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.” (Psalm 150:6)

I don’t regularly read most newspaper comic strips, but I almost always make sure I check out Bil Keane’s “The Family Circus”. In today’s, Dolly is sitting with an open book and puzzling what to write on its pages. She asks her mother, “I’m behind in my diary- what have I been doing since January 1?”

I started the blog (originally on the old AOL Journals) in February of 2006 and purposed to write in it three times each week, and for the most part, I did that. I realize that here it is, the evening of January 10 and I haven’t posted anything yet in 2011. Maybe part of it is that I’m now on Facebook, and although I’m trying to NOT let that take up TOO much time, I suppose it has cut into the blogging a bit. I’m also working more hours at the answering service, which is good, and I’ve got all sorts of “life responsibilities” I’m trying to attend to.

SO, like Dolly- what have I been doing since January 1?

There’s so much I could write about tonight that I just can’t decide, so I’m rambling at the keyboard and believe it or not, on the computer I’m listening to Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden”. I guess some people would be quite shocked at my eclectic taste in music, books and film. It’s frankly all over the place! Tonight, I’m in a mellow mood, and this music kind of fits.

Everybody’s talking about the shooting in Arizona. I don’t know what the answer is. Well, actually I DO. As the bumper stickers from the 1970s proclaimed, “CHRIST IS THE ANSWER”. And Christ IS the answer to the problems of life. But I remember my father telling me, a very idealistic and enthusiastic born-again Christian in his 20s back in the late 1970s that “not everybody is interested in religion!” and “you can’t make everybody be religious”. I wouldn’t phrase it QUITE that way, but I do get his point. In those days, I thought all you had to do was pray and pull out a Billy Graham salvation sermon and people would fall on their faces and get saved. Well, some WILL! Thank God! But Jesus Himself said “narrow is the way” and “few there be that find it”. Jesus actually agreed with my Dad! And at fifty-six, I do, too. Don’t get me wrong. We need to pray for America. We need to pray for revival. We need to pray for miracles. But some folks just have a deliberate bent toward hate and violence, and God isn’t going to FORCE them to follow Him. Was this shooting the fault of Sarah Palin and the far right? I don’t know. Some who knew the shooter said he admired Adolph Hitler and read “Mein Kampf”. It’s very sad. I know some will say, “take all the guns away”...and frankly, then all the killers will just use knives or something else. My heart goes out to the victims and their families and friends. They need our prayers.

I had a lot of fun yesterday. I preached at Framingham’s Grace Church UCC. It’s a theologically liberal church. I remember Grace Church’s pastor from when I first came to Framingham. The church was much bigger in those days...in a big stone building downtown. Back in 1987 and 1988, I frankly don’t think I’d have preached at a liberal church under any circumstances. Listen, I know that when it comes to a lot of the deeper areas of theology and philosophy, there is a lot of difference between me and Grace Church and its pastor, Brad Watters. But I can also tell you Brad Watters is one of the nicest and finest people you ‘d ever want to meet. Grace Church now meets in a converted house on Salem End Road. It was a Communion service and I preached on Communion -specifically “The Three Graces of Communion”. Honestly, it was a very nice communion service and I had a great time. A good friend of mine visited the service and later commented that to him the church came across as much more “orthodox Christian” than he had expected and that he’d thoroughly enjoyed the service, too. I have a friend who used to limit God to certain sort of fundamentalist characteristics and ways. I often told him, “you can’t put God in a box!” My friend learned that over the years, and so have I. It’s so easy to say God can’t be moving in a Reform Jewish synagogue or God can’t be moving in a liberal Congregational church or God can’t be moving in a Catholic church and it goes on and on and on. There are extreme “fundamental Baptists” (who make up only a small fraction of all Baptists) who would say God couldn’t possibly be moving in an Assemblies of God church and that anybody who speaks in tongues is going to Hell (that would include me, incidentally). No, thank God, we can’t put God in a box. He is full of surprises, and yet He is always faithful to His Holy Word.

January 12 will mark the 51st anniversary of my maternal grandfather’s death. I wrote about that on the blog last year. I vividly remember the night that phone call came to our home in Canton. It just plain stuns me that I’m now a somewhat gray haired 56-year-old who will become a grandfather in April. Living far away from my grandson will be difficult for me, but I hope to somehow have some kind of influence and legacy on his life. I think about that.

Control is a difficult area for me. I’ve often been criticized for being a “control freak” and for wanting to control everything. For me the past twelve months or so have felt very out of control, and that’s very scary. Listen, it’s NOT that I’m some sort of dictator or that I want to rule the world or something... anything but that. I’m actually happiest when I’m by myself, and for a pastor, that’s a trait I’ve greatly struggled with. God has gifted me as an outstanding public speaker and storyteller. When I speak in public, it’s absolutely energizing and invigorating; and when I know it’s blessed and helped people, it makes me very happy. And, I do have a crazy sense of humor. But I really value solitude. And quiet. The whole “be still and know that I am God” thing. The house I grew up in was always cluttered with all kinds of “stuff”. By the time my parents died, in some of the rooms were boxes and piles from floor to ceiling and you could barely enter them. I actually have an aversion to “stuff”. I’m one of those who is very quick to throw things away...and I’ve had to learn to be careful, because SOME things are quite valuable. The automotive collectibles my father left, for instance, have brought me some needed income at times. I used to not understand why anyone would want to go to Haiti...in the remote areas....where it’s hot and where there’s no electricity...no telephones...no flush toilets...no computers...

I’ve been there twice, and I do understand why people like to go there. There was a freedom there...with all that “stuff” gone...and just the most simple conditions. I’m not saying I’d want to live there all the time. Here I am writing at a computer, using electricity...but I do like that simple life. I think people who DON’T have a lot of “stuff” are probably better off.

My cousin Peter wrote a piece on his blog about George Bailey and being starry-eyed and idealistic. Peter strikes me as pretty much liberal and Democrat and I’m Republican and much more conservative. But I’m also starry-eyed and idealistic like George Bailey. Listen, don’t think Pat Buchanan and Bill O’Reilley would admire Mr. Potter...they’d aspire to be like George Bailey! It’s kind of like the conversation I had one day at the Stop & Shop checkout line. The guy behind me said he absolutely refuses to use the automatic “express check out” because that facilitates people losing their jobs. He was a union member, labor activist, and liberal. I told him I also absolutely refuse to use those lines for the same reason, but that I’m a fairly conservative Republican who thinks we ought to be making opportunities for people to work and not taking them away. We came to the same conclusion for totally different political reasons!

A few days ago, I almost wrote a whole blog piece explaining the difference between the words “you’re” and “your”. For some reason, that’s a big pet peeve with me! One of my supervisors at work wrote me, “your doing a good job”. I was really glad for the compliment, but I had to restrain myself from telling her it’s “you’re” and not “your”. And, it drives me crazy when people write, “your welcome” when it’s “you’re welcome” so I got that off my chest.

One of the passages I preached from yesterday was I Corinthians 12. That talks about how God made people in the Body of Christ DIFFERENT and yet He makes it that they all work together in harmony. Back to the control thing...I wish I could make people be a little more sensitive to others....a little more forgiving.... a lot less materialistic ...a lot less arrogant .... a lot more interested in spiritual things but a lot less legalistic and judgmental ... a lot quicker to listen and a lot slower to speak.

I know that sometimes I fail miserably in these areas, but they are a lot of what I aspire to. So I guess they’re resolutions for me. Seriously, a big New Year’s Resolution for me for 2011 is to honor the Lord’s Day, which really is from sundown Saturday evening to sundown Sunday evening. That doesn’t mean I can’t work at my job if necessary, for because we answer for medical practices and hospitals that’s truly “work of necessity”. But I want to treat that time as much more sacred than I have. Hey, I’ll still watch a Patriots game and have fun... I’m not a Pharisee! But I want to somehow make it a sacred and distinct time...more than I have in the past.

Well, what have I been doing since January 1? Laundry, and taking out the trash, and trying to keep up with phone messages and mail, and working, and trying to keep God at the center of my life, and struggling with how to do a lot better in my relationships.

Sorry for all the hodgepodge, but that’s where I am on this January 10 at night.