Rhythm: Part II - Drum Line

So last time we looked at Mary's heartbeat.  Today we're examining a drumline.  And no, I'm not talking about The Little Drummer Boy.

Now, I'm no music theorist or even someone who can tell you if someone sung a wrong note.  My ears and mind don't work that way.  But there is something in the idea of a drumline that we as disciples can relate to.

Mary's heartbeat was just that.  Mary's.  God gave her her own song to sing, her own path to follow.  That is between her and God.  Just like each of us.  We all have our own beat to listen to.  But the drumline represents many of us.  Many heartbeats, together for Jesus.

Kinda like the shepherds in Luke 2.

These fellows did two things that I think we can all ponder in our hearts like Mary did.

These guys were living out in the fields.  With their sheep.  It's just the way things were.  These guys were probably a good bit rougher around the edges than the disciples.  Real 'salt of the earth' if you will.  And these were the first people that God revealed his son to.

Look at most of the stories in the Bible involving angles or messengers of God.  They are usually meeting with leaders, or important folk.  The whole story of Jesus, from beginning to end turns things that are 'normal' or traditional on their prim and fluffy heads.  Other than Mary and Joseph, who gets to be the first to know that the Savior is born, and given directions on where to find him?

The dirty, smelly, salty, fringe of society shepherds.  Most readers out there wouldn't want these guys in your house let alone around your literally new born child.  Let me tell you this, Mary didn't have a bottle of Purell in her robes.

Back to the shepherds themselves.  Here is the scene:

It's night.  Probably pretty dark by now.  You and your shepherding pals are maybe around a fire, one of you is keeping watch out past the flock who are all huddled together.  A wild dog barks in the distance.  A normal night.  Stars in the sky shinning down like always.  When suddenly, you're all surrounded by light and there is a strange figure among you.  He starts talking.  You're freaking out and miss what he is saying,

"...good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

You start to wrap your mind around this, when even more alarmingly there is a whole 'great company' of messengers poof into view with the angel and declare praises to God,

"Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Then they vanish and go back to heaven.

I imagine the shepherds siting there blinking at each other wondering who was going to ask if the others saw what they just saw and risk being thought of as the next "Crazy Willie," of the herding community.  Then after a few moments of deafening silence, they all start to talk at once.  "We have to go!  Let us see what the Lord has done!"

And off they go.  Maybe Crazy Willie was left to watch the sheep.  Maybe they left the sheep there alone.  Or, maybe the sheep went right along with them.  Who knows.  But the shepherds booked it into town.  Their feet running or rambling along the paths.

That is the drumline.

The feet of the hungry running toward what God has done.  When was the last time you ran to meet God?  Or are you more accustomed to that slow, somber walk down to an alter?  Maybe into a confessional.  Or just meeting up with a mentor to talk over coffee.  Run to him.  Let you heart race as your feet pound the earth to see what he is doing.  Be excited about God!

I know it's been a while for me.  And that's no one's fault but my own.  But I'm getting back on my feet and starting to run now.  Cause God is working.  He is always working and moving, and doing and surprising us.  We just forget to be amazed by it.

What are you hungry for?  Will you run to him?  Will you let you feet beat out a drumline as you flock to what he is doing?

I hope so.  I'll see you there.


grace, peace + hope-Jesse

Rhythm: Part 1 - Heartbeat

There is a lot of discord in the world today.  Just look at the news.  If you're like me you don't even have to look that far.  You can just look at your own life.  I know mine is full of ups and downs that are primarily of my own making.

Mainly because I loose my rhythm.

Not that I am a musical person at all.  It takes all my effort to keep clapping at the right time.  But I'm talking about internally.  The thing that moves me as a person and as a disciple of Jesus.

My heartbeat.

Rather, the heartbeat of Jesus.  Does my heart beat for the same things as his?  Sometimes.  Hence, discord.  That can apply individually, and to the church at large.  Sometimes we focus on the wrong things.  How big or small something is.  How things or people are dressed.  The things that don't matter.  Before we get into all that, let's look at some heart facts:

-The heart is a muscle, a pump.  It moves blood throughout your body to give oxygen and nutrients to the millions of cells that make us...us.

-The heart never rests.  From the moment it starts beating until the moment you die, it never stops.

-Did you know that a heart "at rest" works twice as hard as leg muscles in someone who is sprinting.

-The average Human heart beat is 70 bpm and weights a little less than a pound

-A dog: 60-160 bpm

-A cat: 110-240 bpm

-A mouse: 500-600bpm

-An elephant: 30bpm weighs about 40-60 lbs

-A blue whale: 9 bpm and weighs half a ton, 1,000 lbs

Okay, what does that have to do with anything?  Well, I'm getting there.  Take a moment and feel your heart beat.  Put your hand on your chest and feel that muscle work.  Heartbeat.  It's the sound that lets us know we're still alive.  It slows down when we're calm, and races when we are afraid or excited.  But there is a different kind of heartbeat.  Not the actual muscle heartbeat, but the heartbeat of our spirit.  The driving force to how we act and respond to things.

Go read the account of Mary being told she will become the mother of Jesus.  Here's a link: Luke 1:26-38.

The thing I love about all this is Mary's response.  "May it be to me as you have said."  She believed.  She took the messenger of the Lord at his word and believed.  And she obeyed.  Then she goes to her cousins house.  And do you know what happened next?

She worships.  She sings this song glorifying God.  It gets pretty intense too.  It's not just this sweet little happy song.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

What does your heartbeat sing?  Take some time over the next few days and be still.  Put your hand on your heart and listen.  Listen to what your soul wants to sing about God, about Jesus.  What he has done.  Let that heartbeat set a rhythm in your spirit.

        Love God.
                Love neighbors.
                        Act justly.
                                Love mercy.

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

In the Meantime

"Christmas Time" is funny.  Funny in the way you have to laugh to keep from crying or punching a wall.  I can not speak for other countries, but here in good ol' America, it's consumerism at it's best.  Best of course meaning worst.

But this is not about that.

It's not even about how December 25th really isn't the calendar day Jesus was born.  (Many scholars believe it to be some time in the spring.)  It's not about Christmas Trees having nothing to do with Jesus.  If anything they are related (by way of stage plays) to Adam and Eve.

It's about your heart, my heart, and the heart of God.

We see slogans all over the place from well meaning Christians: "Keep Christ in Christmas," or "Jesus, the Reason for the Season."  I see many people get bent out of shape because someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

Where is your heart this season?

Is it caught up in buying the perfect gift?  Are you worried about what you'll get this year?  That one more thing will finally make you happy?  Today, in concept, is not about what is under the tree for you, or what you put there for someone else.  But what about better to give than receive?  Yeah that is good, so long as you're not giving to make yourself better.  (Besides, Paul uses that concept in Acts to show we need to help the weak.)

Is your heart torn to pieces by where you are in life right now?  Is it angry?  Hurt?  Lost?  It would be shallow and mean spirited of me to say, "get over it."  But I will say do not wallow in that pain.  There is Hope.

What today, "Christmas," represents is the physical collision of the Spirit of God with humankind. 

For God so loved the world that he sent his only son,  so whoever believes in him will not perish, but have life eternal.  He did not send his son to condemn the world, but that through him the world could be saved.  (John 3:16-17)

This is God showing us his intentions toward us.  He's saying, "Hey you, World.  I love you.  I want to be with you.  So here I am.  For you."  It's the greatest love story ever.  Nickolas Sparks, Stephenie Meyer, and Shakespeare can't hold a candle to the Author of Creation.

Jesus grew into a man.  He performed miracles.  He called his disciples.  He taught.  He healed.  He turned the tables.  He told stories.  He died.

He lived.

For you.  For me.  For that lady we cut in front of at the store this week.  For the guy we cussed out from the safety of our car for not giving us the right of way.  For the parent who just doesn't understand.  For the friend who doesn't want anything to do with God.  For the young family around the corner that is not married.  For God so loved the World.

That is what has been given to us.  We accept it or we don't.  If you accept it, the story doesn't end there.  In fact it's only the beginning.  If you call yourself a Christian, follower of Christ, or whatever the label du jour is, you do get a happily ever after...at the end. 

In the meantime, there is work needs doing.


Jesus gave us a lot to do.  In a few seemingly simple sentences he gave his disciples a monumental task.  The greatest commandment is to Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.  Then, love your neighbor as yourself.  He later said to go into all the world making disciples and baptizing.   Also to teach them everything he commanded.

Simple yet massive.  Christmas is about remembering what Jesus came to do.  His birth and life are not just to be celebrated one day of the year.  As followers of Jesus, it should be our daily directive.  Celebrate him by living out what he asked us to do.  By loving him, our neighbors...and yes, yourself.  Not in a self serving way.  But see yourself as the fearfully and wonderfully made creation he intended you to be.

Christmas isn't a holiday.  It's a way of living everyday.  Let us get to work doing our father's business.  Cause the happily ever after will come, but in the meantime...

Happy Christmas!
-Bear