Flags Flying

Washington D.C. smoldered. Dr. William Beanes was captured. The British moved on to Baltimore. But Francis Scott Key did not give up.

Together with Col. John S. Skinner, he sailed after the British fleet. If they could get there on time – if they could negotiate the prisoner’s release – Don’t let the good doctor hang!

The men accomplished their mission, but the British would not let them go until after the Battle of Baltimore. They peered through the darkness. Bombs blasted. Rockets whizzed through the air. Fort McHenry had not surrendered.

But then silence. Was this defeat? The sun’s rays peeked over the horizon. A flag flapped in the wind. Its stars and stripes spoke triumph to the weary men.

We, too, are in a battle. Satan and his minions attack everyday. Many are watching. Will we stand? Will we fall? How will they know?

An old Sunday School song says it all: “Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart when the King is in residence there.” God promises us a joy that the world cannot understand. In the midst of trials and tribulations, the joy in our eyes says, “Satan has not won. God is on the throne.”

May I ever fly that flag!

Hunting for Ordinary Jellybeans

I went to Wal-Mart yesterday on a jellybean hunt. Do you know how hard it is to find ordinary jellybeans, basic fruit flavors with a few black ones mixed in? I hunted through the Easter candy. I found gourmet jellybeans, Lifesaver jellybeans, Starburst jellybeans, Jolly Rancher jellybeans, various assortments of Jelly Bellies, but no ordinary bags. And no blacks.

I know I sound fussy, but I needed certain colors for an object lesson at church this morning. I needed black for sin, red for the blood of Jesus Christ who died for us, white for a clean heart when we believe in Christ, and yellow for our home in heaven. Is it too much to ask for black, red, white and yellow jellybeans?

I hunted through the Easter candy. I hunted through the grocery section. I went back to the Easter candy aisles. Finally, I found one-dollar bags of Brach's spice jellybeans on the bottom shelf. Yes, they had black! I grabbed two bags. But, woe! These bags didn't have yellow. Hm...Lifesaver jellybeans have yellow. I grabbed a bag of them.

In the same trip, my mom and I also purchased groceries, medication, socks and stickers. All in half-an-hour. The experience reminded me of a paragraph by Michael Dobbs in Down with Big Brother:

A turning point in Yeltsin’s intellectual development occurred during his first visit to the United States in September 1989, more specifically his first visit to an American supermarket, in Houston, Texas. The sight of aisle after aisle of shelves neatly stacked with every conceivable type of foodstuff and household item, each in a dozen varieties, both amazed and depressed him. For Yeltsin, like many other first-time Russian visitors to America, this was infinitely more impressive than tourist attractions like the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial. It was impressive precisely because of its ordinariness. A cornucopia of consumer goods beyond the imagination of most Soviets was within the reach of ordinary citizens without standing in line for hours. And it was all so attractively displayed. For someone brought up in the drab conditions of communism, even a member of the relatively privileged elite, a visit to a Western supermarket involved a full-scale assault on the senses.

We tend to forget how amazing our blessings are. Okay, I didn't find an ordinary bag of jellybeans; but I had a grand selection from which to choose. I was able to buy three bags for a total of four dollars. I had the exact colors I wanted. I could take them to church the next morning, the church of my choosing. I could use them to teach the children about God, and I had no fear of government intrusion.

So the next time you eat jellybeans, remember all these blessings. Be thankful. And if you don't like the black ones, save them for me.

“You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by the way he eats jelly beans" ~ Ronald Reagan

Super Bowl Success

"The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced what you thought would deliver the ultimate—and it has let you down." says Ravi Zacharias.

I'm cheering for the Green Bay Packers today, but I'm praying for both teams. Imagine being one of those players. Football is their career. It is their life. Today they will battle for the ultimate prize. One team will win. The other will lose. But who will struggle most at the end of the day? The Losers or the winners? The ones who achieve their greatest dream and realize that it didn't bring fulfillment?

May we remember that there is a prize to be won that is much greater than a Super Bowl ring, a prize that will fill our hearts (Philippians 3:14).

And may the Packers win! ;-)

Throwing My Dream in the River

New Year’s Day is a time for resolutions. We commit to exercise more, eat less, get out of debt, spend more time with family, and the list goes on.

I suspect each of us also has a dream that we cannot do much about – reconciling a relationship, seeing a loved one come to the Lord, getting married, or hearing the “All’s clear” from the doctor.

We reflect on 2010 with a little sorrow. Will God ever answer our prayer? Do we have any hope for 2011?

Then I remember Jeremiah. His people, the Israelites, were captives in Babylon. It looked like there was no hope, but God promised an end. Jeremiah wrote down God’s promise of the destruction of Babylon and gave the scroll to Seraiah.

“And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, ‘When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, then you shall say, ‘O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it...’ Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise…’” Jeremiah 51:61-64 NKJV.

Was it hard for Seraiah to throw God’s promise in the river? I would want to keep it, hold it, read it everyday. But God said to throw it in the river, let go of the dream, and wait for God to fulfill it in His own time.

This New Year’s Day I will throw my dream in the river one more time. I cannot make it come to pass, but God promises He will. I rest in that promise.

Tolstoy and Christmas Carols

Of the 1224 pages in War and Peace, I remember one scene well. That’s not a good percentage, is it? I’m glad I don’t get tested on my bedtime reading material.

What scene was so important that I remember it? Prince Andrei was surveying the troops and battlefield before an engagement with Napoleon’s army. Suddenly, he tuned into the voices of officers in the lean-to nearby.

“I say that if it were possible to know what there will be after death, none of us would be afraid of death.”

“Afraid or not, all the same you can’t avoid it.”

“But you’re still afraid!”

Imagine for a moment preparing for battle, the kind of battle they had 200 years ago. Infantry and cavalry charges. Bayonets. Blood and gore. Imagine being in the front lines with bullets speeding toward you.

“If it were possible to know what there will be after death, none of us would be afraid of death.” If it were possible…

It is possible, but only in Christ.

Good Christian men, rejoice
With heart and soul and voice
Now ye need not fear the grave:
Peace! Peace!
Jesus Christ was born to save
Calls you one and calls you all
To gain His everlasting hall
Christ was born to save
Christ was born to save

A Latin hymn, translated by John Mason Neale

Snowflakes

The following is a take-off on a thought of C.S. Lewis. I have absorbed enough Lewis in the past years that I no longer know where his thoughts end and mine begin.

Have you ever seen a snowflake trying to "find itself"? What a ridiculous idea! I look at the blanket of whiteness on the ground, each snowflake uniquely formed by our Creator. It boggles my mind.

Why do we humans feel the need to find ourselves? We listen to the messages our culture sends. Sometimes we conform. Sometimes we deliberately do the opposite. But we still have this nagging feeling that we're the product of what other people think we should be. Until we come to Christ.

When I surrender everything to God, I finally become the unique individual He created me to be. As Whittaker Chambers said, "In the act of seeking oneness with God, I became one with myself…I became what I was. I ceased to be what I was not."

Life is not a fruitless game of hide and seek. If we want to find ourselves, we first must find God. Then we have found everything.

Tune My Heart

"Come,Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace..."

I cannot help but sing this hymn with my violin brain turned on. I am constantly tuning notes to make a perfect unison or a perfect harmony. A note that is even slightly out-of-tune sounds terrible. The violin gets its bad reputation for a reason.

Do I take just as much care in letting God tune my heart to match His? Do I take quiet time each day, listening to His note, to His voice? Or am I too busy telling Him what I want? Do I make so much of my own noise that I don't hear Him?

Then I think of what happens when my heart is tuned. Ever see one of those silly cartoons in which the lady sings a high note and the window breaks? Yeah, that's sympathetic vibrations. I love physics terms. If I play an A, anything else pitched as an A in the room will vibrate.

We violinists depend on this. We have an open A string. If I play an A in tune anywhere else on my violin, the A string will also ring. That extra ring tells me I'm in tune.

When my heart is tuned to God's heart, anything that moves God's heart should move mine, too. Just keep listening to Him...