Monday Morning Music Ministry

1-27-20

Two events were marked this week, by me, significant and related. January 21st was the seventh “anniversary” of my wife’s passing, after many years of many medical problems. Heart and kidney transplants were supposed to give her another three to five years… but she lived 16 more years, mostly healthy till the very end. She inspired people and devoted herself to a ministry serving transplant recipients, donors, and those on life’s edge, including families.

This week, also, was Sanctity of Life week. For 47 years, multiple thousands gather on the Mall in Washington, speaking and praying; and then “march” to the Supreme Court, where they pray and speak. President Trump addressed the pro-life crowd in person… the only president to do so, even including Ronald Reagan. The president, like many of us, once was pro-abortion, or at least neutral. But we have seen the light about this moral crisis, and by some polls, now a majority of the public has too.

Fifteen years ago I edited a terrific magazine, Rare Jewel. We published a Sanctity of Life theme issue, and I asked Nancy to write about her experience and perspective. Edited to make sense, after the passage of time, I offer it here:

I was diagnosed with heart disease in November, 1994, two months after my 41st birthday. My three children were 15, 14 and 11 at the time.

I also learned that I had had a silent heart attack sometime the previous summer, and that I had coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure (CHF), meaning that the arteries supplying blood to my heart were narrowed. There was no blockage that surgery could correct by bypass.

In the first diagnoses, the doctors thought that with medicines my heart disease could be kept under control and in 10 years or so I would have to consider the prospect of a heart transplant.

But after two more heart attacks in 10 months—and not so “silent” these times—the doctors told me that I would not survive a fourth heart attack. This news came on my 42nd birthday. Within the month I was transferred from our local hospital to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and put on the transplant list for a heart and kidney.

Events moved quickly, and I really didn’t have much time to think about what was ahead. As a diabetic, I had assumed that at some time I might need a kidney transplant—I had never thought about needing a new heart! I also assumed that the whole process was like changing a battery: take out the old and put in the new. Not quite. Because my doctors could not guarantee my survival at home for longer than two weeks, I had to stay in the hospital, with heart monitors attached to my chest, and an IV tube also in my chest, continuously feeding me medicines that kept my heart working at its maximum possible efficiency.

In the beginning of this process, I think most patients in my “group” of potential organ recipients were, like me, a bit naive. We didn’t know about some of the complications associated with the surgery; strokes, blood clots causing the loss of limbs, and blindness were just some of the problems. Our group of approximately 16 patients was relatively healthy or at least stable, but every now and then reality would strike. Without warning, people would “code” (the heart would stop); sometimes they could not be revived. Other times those who had received transplanted organs would return to the hospital with rejection (the body trying to destroy the new organ).

We all know there are no guarantees in life, but no matter how young or old, we tend to take some things for granted. However, when hospitalized in a heart failure unit, never knowing what the next minutes might bring, I developed a deeper sense of what was important to me. I prayed for more time—time to be a mother to my children, for us to be together as a family. I cried out to God, How much longer? He answered in the words of I Peter 5:6,7: Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.

And I learned to trust Him. Just as He was taking care of me, He would take care of my family. And each time I asked “How much longer?” He would remind me of a promise I made to Him that I would stay for as long as He wanted me to. And God gave me His total peace.

In all ways my hospital stay—18 weeks before organs became available; then three weeks after the operation, until I could go home—was a good experience. I came to know God in a more intimate way, to learn to trust Him and His ways, and to appreciate all that He has given me. I began praying for the other patients on the floor; first for those on their way to the ER, then weekly Bible studies, then prayer support groups.

During my waiting period, I prayed for the heart God wanted me to have, and that He would prepare the donor’s family.

I haven’t accomplished any huge earth-shaking things since I have been transplanted, but I have seen all three of my children graduate from high school. Heather is a youth minister in Michigan; Ted is a television news producer [now in Washington DC] and Emily moved to Ireland after doing missions work [and has started her own business of American-style foods]. I have seen them grow into adults with career dreams and goals. And I am very proud of them. At one time I did not have real hope, leaning on my own view of life.

But My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life (Psalm 119:50).

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Click: I’ll Have a New Life / Everybody Will Be Happy Over There

1-20-20

Regrets, I’ve had a few. Yes, something in common with Frank Sinatra. But those of us without regrets simply have not lived long, or even well. It’s part of life.

We seldom regret things that have happened to us, but rather things we did or didn’t do; opportunities we could have seized; what ifs; personal woulda-coulda-shouldas; errors of omission, commission, even remission.

Theodore Roosevelt, in a philosophical moment, once wrote: It is not being in the Dark House, but having left it, that counts. What we do with regrets can determine what kind of life we lead – I refer to our emotional equilibrium. And, of course, our spiritual serenity.

I have chosen, for the video clip below, a performance of the old “plantation spiritual” first printed in a hymnal in 1899: “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” The haunting lament of the Black church asks a rhetorical question. Yes… you were there. We all were there, because our sins sent Jesus to the cross.

He went there willingly, yes; but it was to suffer punishment we deserve. Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. You? Our sin-consciousness should make us tremble… and be filled with profound regrets!

However, a message of the cross is that we should come away from our culpability in the Passion of Jesus trembling for joy, ultimately. That plantation song is an Easter tradition, but it is a shame if we do not meditate on it all year long. It’s not just for Easter. On the contrary.

After Jesus died, Judas was so filled with regrets that he hanged himself. After denying Jesus, Peter instead was transformed by the Resurrection, and led a reformed, joyful, powerful life.

We have those choices to make, about everything that causes regret in our lives. I confess that I am very jealous of one of God’s attributes – that He is able to take our sins, or anything else, and throw them as into a “sea of forgetfulness.” Can God Almighty not do something??? Yes, when He chooses, He can forget things, in the process of forgiving us!

Good trick, Heavenly Father. Beyond our abilities, of course: we are not God. So it remains for us, rather, to deal with our regrets. Not to be warped… not let them haunt us.

My friend Kent Kraning is a pastor at Friends Church in Yorba Linda CA, and he recently wrote a book about parenting – more, about father-son relationships; but even more, fairly overflowing with wisdom about family life overall – and he asked me to lend an editorial eye to it. It is called Dirt Bombs, from one of the book’s anecdotes of many stories that resonate. Stay alert on Amazon for it.

Anyway, Kent wrote a casual line in the book that had great impact when I read it. I would nominate it for plaques on family room walls, bumper strips, or Bible bookmarks. It is a better single sentence than my whole essay here, I think:

Swim toward tomorrow, or you will drown in yesterday.

Have you made mistakes? Learn from them. Do you have regrets? Don’t repeat those things you regret. Is there something you think God can’t forgive in your life? News bulletin: You’re wrong. He aches for the chance to forgive.

You might come face to face with Jesus, and have feelings that you are unworthy, and regrets that you might have failed Him. For a moment you may tremble, tremble, tremble. But then, as He will tell you if you will only listen, you can rejoice for the forgiveness and new life He offers. You will tremble, tremble, tremble in joy.

And – even if the current seems strongly against you at times – swim toward tomorrow!

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Click: Were You There?

1-13-20

Religion is one of the poisons in contemporary life.

Sometimes – a lot of times – we have trouble because we really don’t care to avoid trouble. Counter-intuitive? It is a human tendency, emotional inertia; unreasonable fear of change. When it comes to matters of the spirit, too many Christians get stuck in Neutral.

Yet life goes on. Every Sunday – or every Christmas and Easter – there will be church, and we will see the same old friends. It is easy for weeks to turn into months and months turn into years this way. A sort of spiritual comfort zone, without getting serious about faith.

We know, or ought to know or remember, that God hates this condition. When we sense that we have needs, maybe even empty holes in our spiritual hearts, how often do we turn to God? To ask Him to open our eyes, to shake some sense in to us? Or how often do we complain, or sigh and move on, or moan about bad luck, or “suffer in silence”?

This is no mystery or great revelation. In the book of James we are told, plainly, that we “have not because we ask not.” God’s plan… sitting there, gathering dust in our lives?

You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (James 4:2-3).

Are we surprised that God has figured us out? Why do we act surprised that He has given us many solutions, many answers… when and if we realize that He does?

Am I making an argument for religion – that we are not religious enough? No, my opening line here, and the lines since, identify religion as a problem. Let us understand that religion – any and all religions – are human constructs. As inventions of humankind, religions are systems. Religions are what we invent and even innovate or evolve, for various reasons.

At the best, religions are attempts to worship and systematize beliefs and behaviors. At the other end – there always is the other extreme – religions are man-made counterfeits, salves for the conscience, efforts to be exclusive and exclusionary.

To address the criticisms of the professional skeptics through the centuries, religions have committed many sins and even atrocities. In the case of those who follow Christ, it is religion – which Christianity is not – that has offended, not Christ nor His teachings.

People have corrupted Christianity, and still do. But Christ never preached hate nor prejudice nor offense. Those who do malign things in His name are the transgressors.

To reduce to bumper-strip dimensions: Christianity is not about religion, but a relationship.

Added to the acknowledgment that Christ is the sole means to eternal life; the only One who offers salvation; belief in Whom dispels other systems of faith and effective works, we have the Son of the Living God who died and rose again, as no other “god” has claimed.

It is the Person of Jesus, not the rites and rituals and customs and rules and saints and holidays and popes and evangelists and rabbis and priests and relics and temples and cathedrals that get you one inch closer to God. Those are things of religion.

Do I say we should quit our local churches or family traditions? No, but work to see they are pure… and that your faith is pure, and focused.

I leave you with one more thought: Who sent Jesus to the cross, who demanded of Pilate that He be put to death? Not cheats, thieves, whores, and adulterers to whom He ministered.

It was the religious people.

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Click: The Church’s One Foundation

1-6-20

We are deep into the new decade… Well, hardly. Anyway, far enough into the first month of the new year… actually, not so. Um, would you believe almost through the first week?

My question, disregarding the calendar page, becomes easier: how is it going with those New Year’s resolutions?

Let’s have a show of hands: How many of us resolved to give up climbing the Alps in sandals? To cut out all luxuries like miniature pineapples and baby coconuts? To economize by deciding not to purchase luxury boxes for the World Series games?

Easier: How many of us gave up chocolate… or maybe things like broccoli or squid or things we never liked in the first place?

Then we might ask how many of us – being more serious about the “root” of this tradition – how many of us resolved to do positive things, instead of avoiding negative things?

How many of us resolved to pray more, every day? Or to do something “extra” like charity work or sharing foods, intentionally serving our neighbors? To show love… to be love, in the coming year?

All of which makes us think (or should!) about resolutions – things we resolve to do – that we tend to think they should be things we subtract from our lives, when we should rather resolve to add to our lives.

For God’s sake.

And if we become intentional about such things, we can come closer to realizing that God has made resolutions, too. About us. After all, the best promise He made was to send His Son to take the punishment for our sins away… while we were yet sinners.

An amazing promise, that. And from the Giver of Resolutions whose Nature is such that He cannot break His promises.

The questions I asked above have similar answers. Whether we make promises impossible to keep; or about silly ones whose fidelity mean nothing; or even well-intentioned positive resolutions; most of us, being human, have already surrendered. Well, there is always next year.

For our God, however, for Whom a spark is like a thousand years, “next year” is like… eternity. And God’s promises are as from Alpha to Omega. His resolutions cannot be broken. He does not want to: it is not what God does.

On the heavenly scales, our uncountable broken resolutions and promises to God are outweighed by His one resolution: He will remember us.

Happy New Year!

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Click: He Will Remember Me