The Same Old Thing

Just the other day, I was asked how my day was going. "Oh, same stuff, different day." As soon as the words left my mouth, the Holy Spirit checked me. Where did that come from? Are those the real thoughts about my life? Have I come to a place where everyday is just the same old thing?

We've all been guilty of thinking like this. Life, at least for most of us, goes on with very little day to day change. My goodness, we're practically repeating the ramblings of that old Teacher from Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun, ever."(1:9 NIV, italics mine)

According to Eldredge, losing paradise was not the worst thing to happen to this world. (Desire, p. 9) The fact that we're very much used to it is. We brush our teeth. We go to our jobs. We watch the news. We go to bed fully expecting to get up the next day only to do it all over again. Why? It's the way things are supposed to be, or at least, that is what we tell ourselves.

Just take your life the way it is right now. Someone has just given you the news that from here on out, your life will never change. Your health, your finances, your relationships, all of it will not get any worse, nor will it ever get any better than what it is right now. React to that with as much honesty as you can muster. What conclusions do you come to? My guess is the heart has little patience for "the same old thing".

Shouts of Lament

Grandma's House. If you would have told me when I was a kid that one day I would lose all of that joy and adventure, I wouldn't have believed you. It just didn't seem possible that life as I knew it would change. But change it did, dramatically.

I was in my first year of college away from home when the telephone rang. The memory is so fresh. It was my father on the other end of the phone. Through choked up tears He broke the news. "Grandma is gone."

Grandma was the closest person to me to die. She had lost control of her car down an old country highway not three miles from her home, my personal paradise. The news was devastating.

Looking back now, I realize I lost more than a grandmother that day. I lost access to my boyhood proving grounds. Not long after the funeral, all of her possessions were sorted through and the home was sold. Please understand, that land was more than just a piece of real estate. It was an intricate part of my masculine journey. It was the only place in my little world where I felt most alive. Able to be my truest self there, it was my sanctuary, my holy ground.

Just like that, it was all gone, torn away. Disbelief set in, as for most people when they suffer significant losses and devastating disappointments. Divorcees, amputees, and surviving spouses know what I'm talking about. At the moment, our hearts reject the reality. Again the secret to our hearts rise to the surface. This is not the life we want.

Even more devastating than Grandma's death is the dilemma that I, like so many others, got use to my loss. We come to a point where we embrace the idea that this really is the way things are supposed to be. As a result, we struggle with the truth that we were not made for this.

June/July 2011 Web Update

Just archiving a web update from the previous months. Enjoy!!
June/July 2011

It had been nearly a year since Peter, Edmund, Susan, & Lucy had stepped foot into the Land of Narnia. However, a thousand years had passed since a Narnian had laid eyes on the "kings and queens of old". What they found was a very different place than what they had left.

I'm speaking of the book now made into a movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. In book 2 of the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Aslan, the great lion, with the help of the four children, defeated the White Witch and her army. There they stayed and ruled as kings and queens. As adults they stepped back through the wardrobe only to return to this world the same age as if they had never left.

This time things are different. Narnia has "aged." The great castle, Cair Paravel, lays in ruins. Most of the animals no longer "talk" as they did before. The children are not as familiar with the lay of the land due to a thousand years of change in the terrain. Evil and corrupt men from Telmar are in power. Most of the "Old Narnians" have gone underground struggling to survive. Aslan is nowhere to be found. Narnia has become a very dangerous place.

Hope is found in one young man, Caspian, a telmarine who must take his rightful place as king of Narnia. He must unite the Narnians, dethrone his evil uncle, and bring peace between the Narnians and the Telmarines. 
He will need the help of Aslan and the four children to accomplish this.

As I reflect on this fantastic story by C.S. Lewis, I'm reminded of the perils of letting our kingdoms go. As men and women, we are meant to rule.(Gen. 1:28) It is the inheritance we have in Christ Jesus.(Col. 1:12, 1 Peter 1:3-5)

We rule in a variety of ways. Fathers rule over their families, entrepreneurs over their businesses, pastors over churches, officials over countries, landlords over their properties, children over their rooms, etc.
Ruling requires taking responsibility for those under our care. It means tending to the "things that matter." Prince Caspian is just an example of what a kingdom goes through when it has been abandoned. It is the result of not tending to the "things that matter." This can happen in our homes, families, businesses, churches, and especially and most importantly our own hearts.

Take stock over your life right now. How are things holding up? Take a look under the hood of your heart. What might you find there? Are there some things that need tending? Maybe you're not too sure what are the "things that matter."

At RPM, we want to help you. Take this as our invitation to re-establish your union with the King of kings, and with God's help then reunite with your loved ones, dethrone the evil one, and bring peace to your life.
Andy