I am reaching back into the archives today. In this frenzied world in which we live, where stuff comes at us from all angles and at breakneck speed, where what was yesterday no longer is today, where there is just no time to quiet our souls, it seems appropriate to re-post this earlier writing.  

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Do you have too much to do and not enough time or energy to get it all done? Most of us, maybe all of us if we are honest, would answer yes to that question. We work ourselves to the bone, often neglecting proper diet, exercise, rest, and sleep, soon finding ourselves worn out and unproductive. I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to have much needed quietness and rest. And even when I am seemingly quiet or at rest, I am not truly quiet or at rest. Does any of that sound familiar to you?

Not only do we need down time to refresh and recharge our body and mind, our soul need rest as well. Our culture regularly tells us, sometimes subliminally and other times in not so subtle ways, that we need to be busy all the time, that idleness is laziness, that idleness is weakness. However, Scripture tells us there is great benefit in times of quietness and rest. In Isaiah 30:15 we read these words – “In quietness and trust is your strength.”

The classic novel Moby Dick written by Herman Melville gives us a wonderful example of the importance of being productive when we need to be productive and being idle when we need to be idle. If you are not familiar with the story, let me quickly summarize the storyline of the book. It revolves around a wandering sailor named Ishmael and his voyage on the whaling ship “Pequod,” commanded by Captain Ahab. On a previous sailing voyage, an elusive and ferocious white whale named Moby Dick destroyed Ahab’s boat and bit off his leg. The story is narrated by Ishmael and tells us of Ahab’s pursuit for vengeance against Moby Dick.

In the chapter titled “The Dart,” the Pequod is in hot pursuit of the whale. This chapter gives us insight into the activity that is taking place on the deck as the captain and his crew rapidly sail out into the raging sea to kill the whale. The entire crew is focused on the task at hand, tensions are high, and by all indications, there is a lot of energy being used, even being wasted.

One member of the crew is charged with killing the whale. That person is the harpooner, and Melville tells us that even when the harpooner is exhausted, he is still expected to “drop and secure his oar, turn around on his center halfway, seize his harpoon from the crotch, and with what little strength may remain, he essays to pitch it somehow into the whale.” Melville goes on to say this, “No wonder, taking the whole fleet of whalemen in a body, that out of fifty fair chances for a dart, not five are successful.” And finally, Melville gives us his reason for such a low success rate, “If you take the breath out of his (harpooner) body how can you expect to find it there when needed most!”

On most whaleboats, the harpooner is actively helping the other crew members, but on Ahab’s boat, the harpooner is relaxed and quietly waiting. The chapter ends with these words; words that speak loudly to us (or at least to me) in this go-go-go culture – “To ensure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet from out of idleness, and not from out of toil.”

So, make it a priority to balance the rhythms of work, play, and rest in your life. Doing so is not only wise, but also healthy, and it will help “ensure the greatest efficiency” in carrying out your God-given purpose for being on this earth.

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To me, sailing conjures up an image of peacefulness as the boat smoothly sails through the water. The sun would be shining, the seas calm, albatrosses gracefully soaring overhead, and the winds just enough to blow gently against the sails. In sailing, depending upon the direction of the wind and which direction you want to go, and whether you are sailing upwind (windward) or downwind (leeward), the boat’s sails take on the characteristics of either an airplane wing or a parachute.

In a perfect world, life would also be smooth sailing. But life is not perfect, and it certainly is not smooth sailing. “Out of the blue” sometimes happens, threatening to capsize your boat, messing up your well laid out plans, tossing you and your possessions into the raging seas, and leaving you feeling helpless in the grip of the storm. The origin of out of the blue has evolved over time as a shortened version of an old idiom, a bolt out of the blue, referencing lightning that suddenly appears in the blue sky.  

Not only does the unexpected happen, but life also gets twisted, it gets made crooked. I have a t-shirt that sums up the story of my life, and I suspect it sums up yours as well. It shows two graphs; What I planned and What happened.

Our efforts to try and figure out that twistedness, to straighten things out, to supply what is lacking, often leaves us exhausted and confused. We just do not always have answers. In the book of Ecclesiastes, we find that very thing – “What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted” (1:15).

A few years ago, we experienced one of those out of the blue, life getting twisted up moments. I suffered a stroke. Prior to the stroke, there were no warning signs. Thankfully, my wife got me to the hospital quickly, affording me the ability to receive the clot-busting drug, which breaks up the clot causing the blockage and helps restore blood flow to the brain, lessening damage to the brain.

While life is different these days than it would have been without the stroke, and while I do have a few cognitive and neurological deficits, we do press on, looking for, and continually learning, new ways to thrive with a brain that functions differently than it once did.    

Staying in Ecclesiastes, we are told that some things are just not in our control, and we are to accept both prosperity and adversity, knowing God is sovereign over both, without being able to explain just how it all will be worked out. Here is what we read – “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him” (7:13-14). Those two verses do not say that God initiated my stroke, but what I do believe they do say is that He can use the out of the blue, the unexpected crookedness, to test my faith and grow my faith.

Do I sometimes have moments of frustration and sadness? Do I sometimes wish things could be different? Yes, I do. But it is because of God’s unwavering faithfulness to me, even as my ever-growing faith sometimes wavers, that I can live out these words – “He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD” (Psalm 112:7). And these – “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).

So, today, and every day, amid the out of the blue and crookedness of life, when what is differs from what you planned, will you rejoice, pray, be thankful, trusting that God knows what He is doing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)? For me, some days that is easier than others, but I am committed to unfailingly trusting God and giving Him thanks, even when it is hard to do so.

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What do you get when mixing the colors blue and red? You think know the answer? If you said purple, you would not be correct. Purple is not an actual color found in the color spectrum. Mixing blue and red creates violet. Sir Isaac Newton’s Theory of Light proved that the color spectrum consists of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. I memorized these colors in science class under the acronym ROY G BIV. Maybe you did as well.

Whereas violet is a spectral color (single shade), purple is any of a variety of combinations of blue and red (multiple shades). Violet is a “real” color, purple is only “perceived.” Unlike the seven spectral colors, which are single wavelength colors (monochromatic), there is no single wavelength that will make you see purple. To make violet, neither blue nor red have to give up their unique attributes, but rather, it is those attributes that make violet, violet.

We live in a country in which approximately an equal percent of people lean “blue” as do “red.” Earlier this year, Pew Research Center reported that about two-thirds of registered voters identified as partisan, roughly split between blue Democrat (33%) and red Republican (32%). The remaining 35% identify as independent or something else. However, of that number, only 4% say they do not lean either blue or red, with the majority leaning almost equally toward either color.  

We don’t seem to agree on anything, in fact, we don’t even agree to disagree any longer. Instead, we live in a world of “I am right, and if you disagree with me, then frankly, you are wrong.” We seem to never see violet.

What if, in this volatile election year, each of us, regardless of whether we are blue or red, or any other color of the spectrum, made it our goal to be (or become) someone who instead of simply seeing blue and red, instead sees what those two colors, when mixed, create – violet. What if the goal of every interaction, every dialogue, was to have a relationship with the other person, rather than prove a point, or to simply be right? What if we focused not on how someone voted, but on how we treat those who voted differently than we did? What if we learned to create violet? Seeing violet does not mean giving up your blue or your red. What is does mean is knowing that both colors add a vibrancy that can only be found when mixing the colors.  

In this very divided world in which we find ourselves, where every color seems to think it is the only color in the spectrum, this mixing of diverse and sometimes very different colors might best be summed up as “artistic” peacemaking.

And if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, being a peacemaker comes as part of the deal; it isn’t an optional add-on. In His most famous teaching, the Beatitudes, one of the things Jesus said was – “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). The apostle Paul says this, found in Romans 14:19 – “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” There is a real connection that occurs between people when peace is pursued. The psalmist writes this – “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10).

While blue and red are beautiful colors in and of themselves, what if instead of seeing violet as losing both blue and red, we see it as a mixing of those two distinct colors to create something of greater beauty! And it is important to remember that both colors are needed to make violet.

So, my challenge to all of us – in this polarized country we live in, what can you and I do to not just be blue or red, but rather, the mixing of blue and red into violet?

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The current culture in which we live is a steady stream of negativity. Politics. War. Weather. Sickness. Societal divide. Rising prices. And just a few days ago, an assassination attempt on the life of a former President, who is also a candidate for that same office again. Do I need to keep going?

From morning until night, we are bombarded with news and information that tends to suck the life right out of us. The half hour news program my wife and I regularly watch is most often twenty-nine minutes of “bad” followed by one minute of “good.” This barrage of bad news, our own or someone else’s, close to home or far away, takes a toll on our heart, mind, and soul? It dries us out. Do you sometimes wonder if God is taking a siesta? Or maybe, has He forgotten us?

Does your soul feel dry? Do you feel like tumbleweed, driven by the wind, rolling across the dry desert? If you are like me, when I find myself parched, it is sometimes hard to experience the closeness of God. Are you having a hard time feeling the presence of God? Has it been weeks, months, maybe even years, since you experienced God’s sweet intimacy?

Psalm 13 is a short six verse lament in which the psalmist (David) feels forgotten. David is crying out, probably yelling out, “where are you God?” He is sick and tired of waiting and he’s begging for an answer. But, amid his existential crisis, David does not wave the flag of surrender, giving up on God. Instead, the psalm’s trajectory turns as David makes a choice to keep trusting in his God’s unfailing love. This trust is not based upon feelings or circumstances, but rather solely upon God’s character. Life is not always good, but God is always good. That is the anchor that secures our trust.    

v.1 – How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

2 – How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 – Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,

4 – and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 – But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 – I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.

The first two verses reveal what David sees as the problem. Do you see the depth of David’s despair? Four times in these two verses he cries out “How long?” Maybe right now you find yourself crying out, “How long God must this go on!”

In v.3, David petitions God. Look what he says – “Look on me and answer” and “give light to my eyes.” Can you hear the urgency in David’s voice? Quite possibly, you have that same urgency today.

David is praying for victory in v.4. If losing wasn’t bad enough, the sting of hearing the victor boast after the victory was almost too much to bear. One of the hallmarks of David’s psalms is his awareness of both God and the enemy.

We see in v.5, despite his agony, David declares God’s mercy. Even if he can rejoice in nothing else, here we see David rejoicing in God’s salvation, just possibly in that moment the only solid ground David is standing on. What are you rejoicing in today?

David began this psalm by pleading but in v.6 we see a huge transition. David’s pleading changes to praise! Even as he cries out “how long” to God, David’s eyes are enlightened, just as he asked them to be, and he moved from a place of woe is me to a place of praise, from a place of despair to a place of declaration!

So, today, whatever it is that you are facing, or how dry you feel, maybe even as you cry out “how long?,” will you allow yourself to sing Yahweh’s praise simply because He is good? Don’t let the trees or the morning mist lessen the beauty of the sun that is awaking from its night slumber.

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We all have hurts and hang-ups that we carry through life. Sometimes those wounds are only superficial, and they heal quickly. Other times, those wounds penetrate our souls, and we carry them with us for many years. It is often very painful to deal with those issues, but the damage done if we ignore those issues is usually even greater. That pain festers under the surface like a sore that never quite heals correctly.

Here is one story of not dealing with the pain of a hurtful past. It is a true story. I know it to be true because it is my story. This writing is longer than my typical ones, but I trust its message will speak to someone. Someone just like me. So, here goes…     

My high school years were filled with much pain and isolation. I felt trapped. In hindsight, often self-inflicted. I have a speech impediment and during those years my speech was in my eyes what defined me. I struggled to feel accepted. I was relentless on the grass football field and on the cinder track to be the best, as if somehow that would help me gain acceptance. Again, in hindsight, very misguided, but at the time, I thought it was my best shot at gaining acceptance. In the yearbook, I even said that I disliked cheerleaders. I didn’t really dislike cheerleaders. I disliked that they had the popularity that I longed for.  

I was from time to time on the receiving end of harsh comments regarding my speech. I carried a lot of pain and hurt away from those years. After high school graduation I distanced myself from my classmates. I would bump into them from time to time, but the pain of those high school years was too great for me to deal with. So, I ignored it, I suppressed it, and it festered, for years.

Now fast forward three decades. My wife and I were just months away from moving from one state to another to plant a church when we attended a wedding, and to my surprise, sitting at our table at the reception was one of my high school cheerleader classmates. She mentioned that we were having another class reunion in a few months. I don’t remember what I said, but the water would have to part for me to even consider attending.

When we got home from the wedding, my wife said to me, “You need to go. Church planting is hard enough and you don’t need to drag unnecessary crap into it.” No way. Well, the water was about to part. Several days after attending that wedding, I was driving to work and began to cry as I thought about high school and the junk I was carrying with me. At that moment I knew I needed to go to the reunion. I had it all planned out. My wife would go with me and be my safety net. But no, she said I needed to go on my own.            

There was one particular classmate who had regularly mocked my speech. In fact, he was a football teammate and when I struggled with my speech while calling plays, he would make comments even then, in the huddle of all places! It never ceases to amaze me as to the lengths God goes to restore us. So, on the night of the reunion, I nervously walked alone into the event and as fate would have it, the very first person I saw was this particular classmate. My first thought, “You have got to be kidding me. I knew this was a bad idea.”

We said a few pleasantries and I quickly moved on. What happened next changed my life. This classmate came back to talk with me and said this, “Dave, I have waited all these years to tell you how badly I feel about the way I acted toward you in high school.” We shared a few more words and went on our way, me with tears streaming down my cheeks. It was at that very moment that my healing and forgiveness began. And until that moment, I never once thought that he carried any pain from those high school days. We’ve not seen each other since, but that is okay.   

I hope what you get out of this story is the importance of dealing with past hurts. Today, no matter how painful it might be, I encourage you to begin to deal with the “junk” in your life that is lurking under the surface. There is tremendous freedom that comes through forgiveness, honest reflection, and dealing with your “stuff.” Jesus came to bring us freedom, not just from eternal separation from God, but also freedom from the bondages that keep us locked up (Psalm, 118:5; Isaiah 61:1).

Right now, ask God to give you the courage and strength to work through those difficult issues that are festering under your skin.

I need to add this add this epilogue. Many of those classmates, including cheerleaders, I pushed away from are friends today. With maturity I now realize the “problem” was more with me than it was with them. I did not accept myself and superimposed that lack of acceptance of me (by me) upon them. I was asking of them something they could never give me – freedom from my internal bondage to such a stupid thing as a speech impediment. It is God who has freed me up to be the person I am today, still with a speech impediment. That encounter (used by God) at a class reunion didn’t hurt either.  

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When was the last time that you were longing for something to eat even though you were not really even hungry? You just felt like eating, so you went to the refrigerator or kitchen pantry and found something, anything. But, even after eating, you still had an “emptiness” somewhere deep inside. Or maybe, it is not food, but instead, career, popularity, relationships, wealth, sculpted body, hobbies, possessions, sex, that you look to, to fill the emptiness.

We all experience some sort of longing, an emptiness. We all feel some void in our soul. And we look to satisfy that longing and fill that void with all sorts of things, some I just mentioned. Be honest, none of the worldly things we seek after completely fill the longing and emptiness. We experience temporary satisfaction, but never lasting. And if a little bit does not help, maybe more and more will. Again, only temporary, never lasting. We try to fill our baskets with all kinds of goodies. Goodies never provide lasting satisfaction to our hungering and thirsting. But God’s goodness does. What is goodness? It is love in action. And through His actions, God shows us goodness. We find these words in Psalm 107:9 – “For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness (NKJV).”

I believe that God made each one of us, wonderfully made I might add (Psalm 139:14), with a hole in our soul that only he can fill. He desperately desires to be in relationship with you and with me. That relationship however is severed by sin and can only be rightly restored through God’s Son, Jesus. Romans 3:23-24 tells us “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

Looking for satisfaction outside of God only leads to dissatisfaction, and ultimately more emptiness. Whereas, filling that empty place in your soul with Jesus always brings the “richest of fares.” Putting your trust in Jesus and spending unhurried time with him will satisfy you like nothing else ever will. Always. Every time. We find these words in Isaiah – “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David” (55:1-3).

Is your basket empty? If you say it is filled, is it full of the right things? Do you fill it with the world’s goodies or with God’s goodness? The former will always leave us eventually feeling empty, whereas the latter, always a lasting “fat and happy” contentment!

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