Traveling Light

I think it was Woodie Guthrie who strummed these words several years back:

I’ve been walking that Lincoln Highway
I thought you knowed,
I’ve been hitting that 66,
Way down the road,
Got a heavy load, I got a worried mind,
I’m looking for a woman that’s hard to find,
And I’ve been doing some hard traveling, Lord.

Some songs are more than “tunes”. The lyrics come from the forge of somebody’s life. I guess that's why some songs attach to our minds so strongly. They tell "our story" too.

Ever read Psalm 42? The writer (probably David) has a heavy heart. He throws open the curtains and lets us peer into his pain. He compares his life to that of a deer that has reached the point of exhaustion. He is faint and desperately in need of cool water. As you read the psalm it is clear that he describing more than the proverbially “bad day”. He is in a phase, a funk, a long stretch of road that has disrupted his life in some pretty major ways. His worship is off center. But he wants to stay true to want he knows about God. He isn’t ready to abandon ship. In fact he wills his mind to reach out for the knowledge of God’s power and majesty that has, over time and because of hardship, moved to the recesses of thought. And yet, it is these great thoughts that keep the thread of meaning sewn into the broken pieces of his spirit. He eventually steals away by himself and sits in nature and just listens. Deep calls to deep, he says. It’s more than soft breezes, the sound of water falls, squirrels chirping and clouds floating along. He hears the voice of God in the created order. The beauty and majesty of it all anchors his restless heart to the bedrock of faith. Although enemies hound him and people capitalize on his vulnerability, he continues to reach out for God. On the other end of what had to be a much longer experience than the length of the psalm indicates, he says:
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
And why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
My salvation and my God.
Some time ago I sat and reflected on things I have heard people say over the past year.
I just want to feel something good. I haven’t felt anything good in months.
I wish I had something to look forward to.
I am so bored right now.
Bitterness has become a way of life for me.
I hate my life.
All I do these days is worry.
I can’t remember the last time I smiled because I felt like it.
My involvement in church – if you can call it that – has been basically just showing up.
I crawl to church.
I feel like I’m invisible. I feel like I’m at the bottom of a old water well. I scream for help but
no one can hear me.
The best part of my life is when I go to sleep.
The smallest thing can trigger my anger. My anger takes me out to the darkest places of thought – to places that I used to never think about. I live with a quiet rage.
There’s a lot of heaviness in our world. Like Guthrie says, we do some hard traveling. That’s why I like Psalm 42. It’s so real. It’s us. It’s life in 3D. We know what it’s like to feel the tension between what we know about God and what is happening to us in real time. We, too, pant for flowing streams and want to know…God! You still there? And yet, this psalm annoys us because it doesn’t say “add water and stir”. Holding it together “in faith” is hard work. We pant, cry, wait, agonize, and quite frankly sometimes wonder if our lives are about to fall apart. Worship gets stale. And, the heaviness we feel is beyond “take two aspirin and call me in the morning.”

Is your heart embattled right now? Is your spirit heavy? I like verse 4: These things I remember as I pour out my soul... I am thankful for the psalmist’s transparency. I continue to be refreshed by his authenticity and his willingness to pour it all out before the Lord. The old tongue and cheek "rub some dirt on it...pull yourself up by your boot straps" doesn't work so great when we find ourselves on one of those rocky stretches of road. It is in those moments that it's great to know songs like Psalm 42. It can soothe and minister to our restless hearts because we know we’re reading words that were forged in somebody’s life who finished the journey.

Gracious Father, you are the only one who can refresh our hearts. Lift the heaviness from our lives and refresh our spirits with the assurance of your presence and care for us. When we feel the weight of life pressing the joy and strength of faith from our lives, help us to know the journey that is Psalm 42. Help us to know its winding road and the good place that it can take us. We ask this through the One who has walked the road ahead of us…Amen.

Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas

Love is Patient and Longsuffering

I really enjoy listening to an audio reading of 1 Corinthians 13. It is such a soothing passage about how people should act toward others.  We hear it read at many weddings, even royal weddings.  I hope Prince William and Kate, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will take the scripture reading from their fairy tale

wedding, and put it into action. The “Love” chapter should not be reserved only for weddings.  It is wonderful guide for all of us.

One of the characteristics of love is patience, also called longsuffering.  There are a few people we know who are patient (it is a virtue, you know), and there are all of the others of us.  It is difficult to be patient, to wait. Patience is a foundation for other moral qualities and it leads to genuine happiness. Love and patience are both fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5; they are linked.

Two friends come to my mind who have been especially patient during their lives, in both cases there were extreme tests of their love and their character. The trials these two individuals endured involved people they loved; one a very self-willed child, the other an alcoholic husband. From the outside looking in, one would think the patient persons have certainly endured more than their shares of difficulties and tribulation.  These were cases that tested Jesus’ directive to forgive your brother not just seven times, but seventy times seven. There are not happy endings for my two friends, but they have both influenced me, encouraged me, were examples to me! If my friends do not have happiness here on earth, they certainly will enjoy the rest provided for them in Heaven. Patience is really a virtue to be desired.

Dear Lord, Help me to be patient, and to encourage others to follow your ways.

Sherilyn Svien

Stephenville, TX

His Love is Greater Than You Can Imagine

 I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever;
With my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever.  Psalm 89:1-2

I want to live out this scripture by sharing with you a time when I heard God speak in a gentle whisper, but with power unlike anything I have ever witnessed or experienced.  One day while I was ironing clothes every scripture that I have ever read from God’s word about His love washed over my mind.  The scriptures were whole and complete as if I had my Bible open and was reading them. They washed over me one after another with such power.  I stood there overcome with emotion for what I was feeling.

There is nothing special about me to be chosen for this experience.  I know that I love God and His Son and I chose to serve Him as I wait for His return. However, I had told God many times that I could not comprehend His love for me. Now I know!

The scriptures affirmed to me in a deep and personal way how deep God’s love is for all of us. As a nurse, I find it interesting to read stories of those whose heart had stopped beating and they passed over to the other side and then are brought back through resuscitation.  I have always found it comforting that some of these people may have not seen anything, but they felt a love that was overwhelming and deeper than anything they have previously experienced. I don’t know if they experienced God, but I know I have. God has placed a desire in my heart to share this with everyone. He wants every single person to know without a doubt that He loves them so very much! He wants us to look forward to being in His presence and experiencing His love.

The song Faithful Love (words and music by Ken Young, Hallal Music, 1993) takes me back to the day I experienced God’s love. The refrain goes like this, “Faithful love from above, came to earth to show the Father’s love.  And I’ll never be the same, for I’ve seen faithful love face to face, and Jesus is His name.”

Prayer: Oh Jesus, you demonstrated your faithful love, flowing down from the thorn covered crown. We praise you for your sacrifice that washes our soul and makes us white as snow. We love you and thank you so much for coming and showing us your love. Tears flow from our eyes when we consider your great love for us. Please hold our hand through this life until we can be with you. In Your Holy name Jesus, Amen.

Terry Smith
Stephenville, Texas