Clouds

We sang a great new song at church last Sunday. Perhaps you have heard of it. It's called "Blessed Assurance."

Ok. Ok. So maybe it's not THAT new, but it is the song that often comes to mind when I think about old becoming new.

You may ask...why? I'll tell you.

I couldn't begin to guess how many times I had heard or sung this song before I grasped the first verse. I am ashamed to admit that I fell victim to hearing the words as stanzas of the song, and not as actual sentences. Have you ever done that? I hate that.

The verse is sung like so:

Blessed assurance
Jesus is mine
Oh what a foretaste
Of glory divine

The last two lines musically flow so that the sentence works as intended. However, I always considered "Jesus is mine" to be it's own stand alone thought. If you consider the words a sentence instead of song lyrics, the true meaning should speak to you. (Hopefully much sooner than it did to me in my life. Oops.)

Jesus is my blessed assurance.

Wow! What a thought.

Also not exactly what I want to talk about. I want to talk about clouds.

You see, the newness of that old song is found in the version that we played. It's a recent recording by Matthew West. He took some liberties with the old melody, and he also added this tremendous chorus:

My king is coming soon.
He will roll the clouds away.
Light of heaven bursting through.
Oh what a glorious day!

Of course the cloud lyric here refers to when Jesus returns to Earth in his glory and power. That will indeed be a glorious day, but why limit God to that? Why keep him in such a specific box?

It occurs to me that clouds can symbolize many things in our lives. Figurative clouds can envelop us daily in our walks. Examples could be clouds of sadness, clouds of anger, clouds of heaviness, or clouds of fear. The one I feel that I deal with most is the cloud of doubt. What about a state of confusion? We actually refer to it as things being "a little cloudy."

Any of these clouds can come and go on their own, but sometimes they linger. Other times, they grow. They turn into storm clouds and threaten to destroy us. If allowed to, clouds of sadness can turn to depression. Clouds of heaviness can turn to despair. Clouds of fear can ruin us without any transformation at all, let alone after they have intensified into terrible storms around us.

So, how do you and I escape our clouds? How do we defeat them?

We don't.

We don't because we can't. Not by ourselves, and not with our own strength. That is why we need Jesus. That is why we must cry out to him, and we must do so fervently and without ceasing. It doesn't matter what type of storm we are in. It doesn't matter how long we have been there. Call on Jesus. He has the answer. He IS the answer.

Whatever your cloud is, you may have just encountered it, or you may have been dealing with it for a long time. I encourage you to always continue to call out to Jesus. He always hears us when we pray. You may not have seen your answer yet. Just remember one thing.

Your king is coming soon. He will roll the clouds away.




Scripture: "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” - Isaiah 61:3

Quote: "He will come to where you are. You're not too lost. You're not that far. When you're caught in stormy weather, and you're no match for the waves, the water walking God is gonna come and save the day." - Ernie Haase & Signature Sound (on the new album entitled, appropriately enough, Glorious Day)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

"Social" Media

Did you have a MySpace page?

Perhaps I should instead ask...have you ever heard of a MySpace page? What about Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? A blog?

Are you secretly a member of an online role playing realm who goes by the name of Dan the Destroyer?

Nowadays, there are a myriad of online ways for us to keep track of friends, family, and random people who remember you from that time you were stuck in line together for an hour and a half at the Walmart pharmacy. (Side issue: how old do you have to get before you're allowed to use terms like "nowadays"?) In fact, with the popularity explosion of smartphones, one need not even be online any more. There is an app for any of these so called social media available on virtually every cell phone company's plan.

All of this connectivity gives all of us unprecedented ability to stay in touch with the other people in our world. We could, if we wished, communicate with others so much more efficiently right now than at any other time in human history.

Here's the problem: we don't.

I have noticed that most social media users mostly fall into two categories.

The first group is people who desperately crave validation of others and misguidedly but actively seek it online. You know these people. They're the ones begging celebrities to follow or retweet them on twitter. They're the ones with 872 "friends" on Facebook. I'm not positive I've even met 872 people in my entire life.

The second group is people who don't communicate with others as much as communicate AT others. I believe that I belong in this group. Nobody cares. I know nobody cares. I am fully aware that I have less than 150 twitter followers, and I was recently the object of ridicule from some coworkers because I had only 89 Facebook friends. I recently tried to ask some general questions of my Facebook friends. Simple stuff about what kind of TV, movies, or music people were enjoying and would recommend to me. Can you guess the answers that I received? Nothing. Crickets. I didn't get squatch. (Hi little Bro!)

Yet, I continue to post MY opinions, MY photos, quotes or sports stats that aroused MY interest, and observations on MY world.

Seems kind of selfish.

It is kind of selfish.

Ironically, it was a Facebook friend who actually did respond to one of my posts (and my response to him) that keyed me into all of this.

Several months ago, I decided that at work, Friday would be the day every week that was dedicated to jazz music. I play it on my computer all day long and often post a status about a song or artist that really touched me that day. One day, that looked something like this...




Man, I can't draw a straight blackout line to save my life. By the way, that Ward quote is incredible in MY opinion.

Anyway, back to the first post. Two things you should know. First, Josh is a friend, but not an extremely close friend or family member. Actually, he is one of my brother's friends. Since my brother and I are both adults, with our own families and lives, I rarely encounter his friends any more. We may only communicate with each other by methods like Facebook for months or years without seeing one another. Second, that one "like" on Josh's comment was from me.

Several days later, it occurred to me how pathetic I was being. Someone actually read one of my thoughts and took time out of his day to to comment. He shared a relevant observation and suggestion that, based on my current and previous posts, he felt I would appreciate.

How did I respond? I clicked Like and went on about my life.

End of interaction.

Sad.

I had a MySpace page once. I use Facebook. Twitter is great. I obviously love blogging. It scares me to think how many social interactions I've avoided by using, or rather misusing social media.

A "like" (which by the way used to be a verb and not a noun) is great for when a "friend" posts an update, a photo, or link that you...wait for it...like. It's not so great for expressing your true thoughts.

What I should have done was respond. Perhaps something like: Thanks for the tip. That's not one of my favorite songs, but if anyone can do it well, it's the Rat Pack. I will look into it.

So, to Josh, and everybody else with whom I have failed to effectively communicate via social media...I am truly sorry.

Please accept MY sincere apology.

Scripture: “A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy brings healing” - Proverbs 13:17

Quote: "The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate." - Joseph Priestly

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad