ONE MORE WALK Greatness

Some people shape and form who you will be, what you will be like, and how you show up in the world. Their gifts of love and care are so unassuming they have no idea of what they’ve done. They don’t even know that they have made everything possible for another human being. Or if they do, they’re sure keeping it to themselves. 

The thing is, there comes a day when you look at yourself and say, “Look what I did there. That’s not me. That’s ‘So And So’ in me! There comes a day when you realize you know what generosity, sacrifice, hard work, loyalty, devotion, commitment, joy, adventure, love, and faith all look like because you have learned these things from someone who has poured their life into you. You realize you love animals, good stories, getting lost on your way to new places, engineering and technology, a chocolate Frosty, time spent in the company of good friends, a good puzzle, going to church, the beauty of nature, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” the wonder of children, and helping others, because someone made you love these things by all the ways they shared them so graciously with you.

And when this someone is your Dad, well...your life is pretty much shaped by greatness. Not greatness wielding power, notoriety, or position, but greatness that comes from living a life of humility, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love. Charles Henry Lyndon was this kind of someone for us and many others. His being our Father and Grandfather is a grace we will never fully comprehend but a gift we will spend the rest of our lives giving God thanks for by all the ways we hope and seek to follow his lead. Thank you, God, for the life of

Charles Henry Lyndon. Thank you. We love you Dad, Leslee, Heather, and Family

Our family is also giving God thanks for all those who have poured themselves into each of you. May their great love continue to guide and encourage you. May it be an eternal source of comfort, hope and blessing. And by its wondrous grace may it be the gift that empowers you to share your great love with others.

Blessings Friends,

Leslee

ONE MORE WALK "Faith In the Fire"

"The Smell of Smoke" by The Martins

Woah-woah-woah, woah-woah

Woah-woah-woah

Woah-woah-woah, woah-woah

Woah-woah-woah

[Verse 1]

They wouldn't bow to an idol

They wouldn't bend a knee (No)And in the desert, Nebuchadnezzar sent us to Hebrew 3

And fore the stand they were taken

They'd face the furnace fire

Seven times hotter than it had been

Yeah, the soldiers threw them in but

[Chorus]There was a fourth man in the flame

Everybody watchin', they were amazed

When Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego

They came out of the fire

Didn't even smell of smoke

[Interlude]Woah-woah-woah, woah-woah

[Verse 2]

There will be days when we're tested

Tempted to compromise

But just remember that [?]

The Lord is with you just like when...

[Chorus]There was a fourth man in the flame

Everybody watchin', they were amazed

When Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego

They came out of the fire

Didn't even smell of smoke[Interlude]

Woah-woah-woah[

Bridge

]They didn't bend

They didn't bow

But someway, somehow[

Chorus 2]

There was a fourth man in the flame

When Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego

They came out of the fire

Didn't even smell of smoke.

There was a fourth man in the flame

Everybody watchin', they were amazed

When Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego

They came out of the fire

Didn't even smell of smoke

Reading the lyrics of a great song can never, in my opinion, give you the essence of why it's a "great song," but they can, perhaps entice you to go find the song to listen to. Which I hope you will do in this case. You won't be sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty177ZshlJI

“The Smell of Smoke,” by The Martins has become a recent favorite. I love it for a couple of reasons. One, it makes me wonder what if things had turned out differently for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. What if in place of being delivered from the furnace that day, they perished?  Would their witness of faith be any less?  Would their story be any less worth telling?  I don’t think so. Their unwavering faith in God marked and shaped every aspect of who they were and how they lived. Their faith wasn’t great because they survived the threat of death. Their faith was great because they believed in God.

This is why, for me, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego will always serve as the “poster children” of those who refuse to define their lives by the circumstances surrounding them. Theirs is not a conditional, bargaining kind of faith, but rather one that says, “We entered into a covenant and a promise with God and we choose to see it through. In place of our present circumstances dictating our choices, we choose our relationship with God to be our most faithful guide. More than this, we choose to believe God will always have our backs...whether we can see God’s presence or not. Regardless if our prayers are answered the way we hope and pray, WE STILL CHOOSE GOD.” Pretty amazing, isn't it?"

So what circumstances are trying hard to define your life just now?

What flames are licking at your heels, tempting you to make choices out of fear, distrust, and blame?

What's happening in the world around you that has you so discouraged and dismayed, it's hard to sense God's presence close by?

May Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego’s powerful witness encourage our own faith to trust, that no matter how hot or dire the fire may get or be, there is ALWAYS the loving presence of God in Christ bearing the flames with us.  

The second reason this song tops my playlist is for all the ways it inspires me to have some ATTITUDE about my faith....”Shadrack, Meshack, Abednego....they came out of the fire and they didn’t even smell of smoke. Whoa Whoa." NOW THAT'S ATTITUDE!!”

It’s a song that reminds me we’re in relationship with the greatest POWER and LOVE there is. It really is as the Apostle Paul says...

“ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.”                      2 Corinthians 4:8-10 

And if this is the case, I think we should have some ATTITUDE about it... not one of arrogance, self-righteousness, or suggests we have all of the answers, but a faithful ATTITUDE that says,

“I’m going to pull out all of the stops on the way I show up in the world and offer love to those around me. I’m going to let my faith burn bright like there’s no tomorrow. I’m going to show up with gumption, love and joy because I am loved and held by the ONE who does have all of the answers and whose love will never let me go.!!”

I know this doesn’t come easy, especially when the needs of our communities and the world are great. I know it’s not easy when there’s so much we’re holding in our hearts for those we love and care for and for all we hope for ourselves and the world. But perhaps we can bring some of our faithful ATTITUDE into our prayer life and pray for each other’s faithful ATTITUDES. Perhaps we can pray for each other to show up in the world like Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego... refusing to define our lives and choices by the hard circumstances before us and lean in to God's undying, steadfast, relentless, and faithful presence with us, instead.

As we think about the remaining Lenten days before us and beyond how might you pray for those you most love and care for with some faithful ATTITUDE ? How might we all pray for those in our neighborhoods, community and for those whose stories we can't imagine or conceive? How are we praying for our churches, governments, leaders, and those in positions of power and resource? How are we even finding the words to pray for the world's overwhelming, great need? How are we praying for those we don't like, can't begin to understand, and whose criminal actions make us believe they don't deserve a place in the world? How are we praying for those who are so lost and broken it's hard to keep holding out hope that transformation will come? And how are we praying for ourselves, knowing full well that what we struggle with so much in others is often lurking in our own hearts and lives? I don't know how we begin to offer any of these prayers without a little faithful ATTITUDE.

So, what if we mark today as the day we unleash this very thing... faithful ATTITUDES  ready to follow Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego's lead? What if... regardless if our prayers are answered or not.... WE STILL CHOOSE GOD?” Will it be easy? No. Especially when the needs of our communities and the world are great and when there is so much we're holding in our hearts for those we love and care for and for all we hope for ourselves and the world. But if we can keep helping each other cling to the truth that we’re in relationship with the greatest POWER and LOVE there is, I believe we'll find we can step into whatever fire is before us and come out not even smelling the smoke.

May God's faithful Power and Love be the undying presence that holds us and keeps us all, now and always. Lenten Blessings, Leslee

ONE MORE WALK "Outrageous Grace"

If you're tired of Law and Order and want some crime and passion to curl your toes, try the book of Genesis. There you will find any number of thieves, cheats, and killers worming their way into God's story which is also our story, which may be why all of these less than virtuous souls get the press they do.

Take Genesis 28 for example. There you will find a scoundrel by the name of Jacob supplanting and cheating his way through anything he can get his hands on. Having stolen his brother’s birthright, lying to his father, and blaspheming against God, we find him running away from home with his brother, Esau’s promise, to murder him, still ringing in his ears. More than this, he’s not only running away from home but from the Promised Land destined for his family and their descendants. He is going in the wrong direction back to Haran, the home of his grandfather Abraham. Which is another indication that Jacob is in a mess of trouble. And if this isn’t enough, as night falls, he curls up in the middle of nowhere with a stone for a pillow. Jacob is definitely stuck and submersed in a pool of quick sand made of his own brokenness and sin. He can’t even catch a break by falling asleep. For no sooner is he asleep than he encounters God in a dream.

He dreams of a stairway to heaven with ascending and descending angels which, in and of itself is amazing. What’s more amazing however, is how we experience God in Jacob’s dream. Jacob does not get what he deserves. In place of chastisement and punishment, He is greeted by the God of mercy and grace who has nothing but one gift after another for him. In place of judgment or a good talking to for his many infractions and sins. Jacob receives gifts.

“I will give you and your descendants land…. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth… All peoples on earth will be blessed through you… I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go…. and I will bring you back to this land… I will help you turn around and get going in the right direction… I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

 Lost so completely in his sin, Jacob can't see or trust how God can possibly love him. And yet, what first feels like a stone for his pillow becomes how God reveals an undying love to Jacob. It makes no sense whatsoever and smacks in the face of "all that is fair." Jacob should be tossed and dismissed, with as much flagrant neglect as he has tossed and dismissed others. Instead, God offers "Outrageous Grace" because God can. It's God's choice and.... it seems to bring God pleasure to do so.

Timothy Paul Jone's book, Proof, helps me catch a glimpse of what God is offering Jacob here, and in turn, all of us. It helps me remember what I have going for me when the scoundrel in me rears its ugly head.

“Outrageous grace," he writes, "isn’t a favor you can achieve by being good; it’s the gift you receive by being God’s. Outrageous grace is God’s goodness that comes looking for you when you have nothing but a middle finger flipped in the face of God to offer in return. It’s a farmer paying a full day’s wages to a crew of deadbeat day laborers with only a single hour punched on their time cards (Matthew 20:1 – 16). It’s a man marrying an abandoned woman and then refusing to forsake his covenant with her when she turns out to be a prostitute (Ezekiel 16:8 – 63; Hosea 1:1 — 3:5). It’s the insanity of a shepherd who puts ninety-nine sheep at risk to rescue the single lamb that’s too stupid to stay with the flock (Luke 15:1 – 7). It’s the love of a father who hands over his finest rings and robes to a young man who has squandered his inheritance on drunken binges with his fair-weather friends (Luke 15:11 – 32)…It’s one-way love that calls you into the kingdom not because you’ve been good but because God has chosen you and made you his own. And now he is chasing you to the ends of the earth to keep you as his child, and nothing in heaven or hell can ever stop him…"

Being 62, affords me the wonderful hindsight of seeing and knowing just how much"Outrageous Grace" I've already received in this life. Family, friends, teachers, pastors, mentors, colleagues, strangers, and most certainly God have all, in countless ways, chosen to love and care for me, not as "a favor to me by being good," but because, as crazy as it is, they wanted to. They chose to love me because they wanted to. They chose to care for me because they could and did. Whenever I forget or misplace this, or convince myself that surely such a thing isn't so, I remember one of the best ways "Outrageous Grace" visits me, again and again.

Once or twice a month, sometimes more, one or both of our adult daughters will ask me to go have breakfast with them or call me on the phone, wanting nothing more than to talk. No matter how many times it happens, it still amazes me when it does. "They like me," I will think to myself. "They still want to spend time with me." When I think of all the poor parenting choices I wish I could go back and change, all of the words I wish I could remove from their hearing, and all of the times I wasn't emotionally or physically available to them when they needed me to be, it astounds me that they want to spend anytime with me at all. It seems their love for me is not measured by how good I am, but by their choosing to love me, regardless if I'm scoundrel or not.

Such love can change a person. Just ask Jacob, or for that matter, me. Or maybe you already know exactly what I mean. Perhaps your own life has been shaped, formed, and transformed by countless gifts of "Outrageous Grace." I sure hope so. Oh how I hope so. Maybe in a season where we're invited to do some intentional self reflection, come clean about our missteps, judgments, poor decisions, and well, let's just name it, sin; it may be good to remember that what makes any sincere self reflection possible at all, is the "Outrageous Grace" of a loving God who refuses to toss or dismiss any one of us. Learning that we won't be destroyed or banished by such honest reckoning, is what keeps us coming back for more. "If I can share THIS with God and not be destroyed because of it, maybe I can share THIS as well." "If I can ask God for help with THAT, maybe God can show me the way with THAT OTHER THING as well." God's "Outrageous Grace" is our underpinning. It's what holds us when we can't hold ourselves. It's what sustains us when we don't know where to go or what to do. It's what heals us when we're hurting, lost, and confused. It's what keeps us growing, asking for more. And it's what keeps us keeping on, fighting the good fight for love and Jesus. And the thing is, it's always with us whether we know it or not. It just seems to be how God's "Outrageous Grace" rolls. Not as a "favor to us for our being good" but because it's God's pleasure and choice to do so.

Such love transformed Jacob. It continues to transform me and I'm willing to bet it's still doing a number on you as well. I sure hope so. Oh how I hope God's "Outrageous Grace" is continuing to do a number on us all.

Lenten Blessings, Friends