The Simple String

Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. And on a cold night, two under the same blanket can gain warmth from each other. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. (Eccl. 4:9-12)

What ability does the simple string possess? It has so many uses. It can keep items that are destined to fall apart from doing so, at least for a season. It brings two disparate parts together. I have seen it hold a car together. Leave those strings untied, and a frightful stumble is likely to happen as one walks about. 

The ubiquitous string. A jack of all trades, but it can so easily be misapplied. When you think of a string, probably the first thing that comes to mind is your shoe. We are taught from early on that independence resides in our ability to come out of the Velcro-strap shoe and tie our own laces. When we achieve this feat of individualism, we are quite proud. Likely more proud than we would have been if we had learned our alphabet. A singular triumph, the tying of one’s shoes reaches in our minds at least, past that of saying, “Mama” or ‘Papa.” But the above passage implies life is not done alone, but in community.

Genesis 38 talks about a scarlet thread; Rahab used it to show the Israelite spies where she lived, and thus spare her life and that of her family. Sometimes, our lives seem to be tied with a scarlet thread of shame. We seem to be damaged and cannot escape our past. Much like Esau felt I am sure. When he came from the womb, he was tied with a thread to show that he was the firstborn, but in the end, he lost his inheritance and the blessing (Genesis 25:21). Isaac was the child of promise, but when Abraham bundled together the wood for sacrifice, it likely seemed that his future was not assured. What He needed to remember was that God was ultimately holding the strings. No matter who or what appears to pulling the strings in our lives so to speak, God will always have the final say: Not sickness or disease.
 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).

I have a  not-so simple question for you: what string is holding your life together? Is it a solid string, three-cord stranded; how is the knot tied? And frankly, who tied it and to whom is it tied? Are you willing on wealth, 501K, an inheritance, a good education, a well-placed match of a marriage, to get you through life?

Any pioneer worth his salt refused to go on the trail without salt and string. If you are on the trail without either on those two, stop, turn around and start over. Make sure that you have tied yourself securely to the immovable Rock, Christ. Like a hiker scaling mountain, you need a sure hope that when you tumble, the one holding the other end will keep you from falling off the cliff's side. No one but God can make such a promise. He has told us that He will make feet like hind's feet on the mountains that stand before us, and He will.

 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights (Psalm 18:33).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
It is always good to have a traveling companion, but the best and most surest friend, is found in God himself.   The verses above promise that those who choose their companions wisely will find compounded dividends in the areas of security, labor, and companionship. So, again, I ask you, with whom and to what have you lashed your anchor? Will that anchor hold in a storm? Even God worked in team to create Eden; Elohenu Ehad, the Multiple One, always chose a team. Be mindful of who you invite to scale the mountain of life with you and make sure your partner can hold both your weight and his own.

Roped to Christ,
MJ 

A Dream Deferred



Hope deferred makes the heart sick; But desire fulfilled is a tree of life (Proverbs 13:12)

What happens to a dream deferred? These famous lines come from a Langston Hughes poem. However, they have their origin in the Bible. A dream deferred might dry up; it might explode with anger. When I met Vanessa, she was sitting in the gutter waiting for someone to buy her for an hour. In her, I saw a picture of what my might girls might become, if not for intervention. No job; no education; forced to sell themselves simply for something to eat.

But, I am assured that Vanessa did not wake up one morning and decide: I will simply prostitute myself for anything that anyone will give me. I will give up my youthful beauty. I will destroy my health for no better reason than simply I want to do so. No, I believe like every young girl, Vanessa, (and so many of the women in South Africa and most of the world who feel that they have few or any options), had a different dream, a different aspiration, a different hope for their lives. 

But somehow, those dreams got deferred. I believe that God's plan for a hope and future, which He promises all of us in Jeremiah 29:11, is what He fully intends for us to experience. But lack of education, lack of  a good home, lack of parental care, all of things come into destroy the dream that God has.
And so it gets deferred. Poverty defers the dream. A lack of a quality education defers that dream and hope slowly begins to dry up until one is left simply existing, merely taking up space in the universe. Not living out one's God-given potential- not achieving the goals, the end, the future hope that God had originally planned.

So what do we do when we see a dream being deferred? Do we simply shake our heads and say that's rather tragic?  Or do we intervene; do we actually push the pause button on our own dreams, on our own hopes, to help someone get out the gutter and begin to walk into the future and plan God has for them?

Jesus did that for us. He left heaven, its purity, perfection, and glory and came intervened in our hopeless situation. He pushed the pause button for thirty-three years and walked among us. As Emmanuel, He touched our broken places and felt our wounds (Isaiah 9 and 53). In fact, He took our transgressions and infirmities, so that we might have life. He proclaimed in Isaiah 60, that the Spirit of the Sovereign was upon to Him to set at liberty the captives, recover sight to blind, and declare the acceptable year of the Lord. If Jesus pushed the button for more than thirty years, maybe I can push it for a few minutes each day and help a captive walk free.

Pushing the Pause Button,
MJ

Master Repairman

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

God sets out to repair us. He does not merely tinker. I have firsthand knowledge of the work that goes into repairing an instrument. You see my friend of thirty- two years needed a major overhaul.  I could tell that Clarissa wasn’t her normal self; she squeaked and squawked like she had a bad cold.  At first, she had to have her cork refitted, but it soon became apparent that after a more serious investigation, thorough repairs were necessary. So, I decided to have her overhauled when I returned home to the States.

I first tried an Internet company, but when she was returned to me she was worse than before I shipped her. So, I sought a local remedy- a real pro and thus my lesson began. This search led me to the home of a master repairman.

The master repairmen took off the keys and polished them one by one. Cleaned inside the holes. This was done meticulously. He examined each wire and tightened it precisely, and after an hour, played on her perfectly. I was direly afraid she would never sound as she had the first time my eleven-year old fingers caressed her ebony wood, but there it was, as a brilliant as the day the craftsman pieced her together, a clarion crisp sound.

I am a lot like my clarinet. I need a real specialist to examine every nook and cranny, to find out what is out of alignment and fix it completely and properly. Sure, I can go on the Internet, some self-help, or dating game show, but only a master repairman can put things to right. God, our maker, is that master repairman.

It may seem scary and crazy to allow someone to get that close, that all up into your business, looking at the scarred and broken pieces of your life, barely held together by a worn piece of cork, but let the repairman touch and feel those places, play those notes that are brooding in your heart. Otherwise,  you will never be quite right, something will always be off- the lower octave does not sound as resonant as it should, something is not quite right in the upper register. Hum. Best let a pro examine it.

I know; I know; all that poking and prodding is so darn uncomfortable and intrusive, but someone has to get down to the nitty-gritty of our hearts. Why not the one who made it in the first place?

Being Fine-tuned, MJ