My Friends Just Don’t Get It

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Robert Franklin

Have you done something so crazy that your friends told you it was so? Did you unsuccessfully try to explain? I remember when Michelle and I decided that God’s desire was for me to quit my job, completely forfeiting a hefty retirement plan I was nearly fully vested in, and move to Kentucky. Advice came pouring in and I did try to follow wise counsel. In the end, however, the move came with no safety net and we were soon penniless, jobless, without the comfort of any close friends or family and living in a cockroach infested apartment.

I had heard stories about people being in such desperate situations that they had to pray and ask God for the next meal. I always thought such situations were regulated to the nineteenth century or to people who lived in remote lands. I found myself at my bedside kneeling next to my lovely wife asking God to somehow provide enough to put together a meal, any kind of meal. My friends would call and lovingly encourage us; sometimes I could hear them shake their heads in disbelief. Only a few dared to say what many were thinking, “What in the world are you doing?”

What would it be like if my life’s purpose was to die on behalf of someone else? What if there was another man awaiting execution for a crime of which he was guilty and I knew I was to volunteer to be executed in his place? What would my friends think then? Would I still receive encouraging phone calls and cards? Would they try to have me committed to a mental institution? What if I was wildly successful and powerfully influential and yet believed beyond shadow of doubt that voluntary substitution was supposed to be my end? Would my friends get it?

I think not.

Jesus’ friends didn’t get it either. They could see the sick healed, the deformed restored, the possessed freed, the multitude fed. They couldn’t see the end of it all; they did not want to see the end of it all.

“Listen to me and remember what I say. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.”But they didn’t know what he meant. Its significance was hidden from them, so they couldn’t understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.” (Luke 9:44–45, NLT)

My friends at Main Street are going to try to “get it” this Sunday coming.

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Convinced

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Robert Franklin

I cannot count the number of times I have insisted on something that turned out to be wrong (I wish I could). How embarrassing!! Yes, one of the most frustrating events in life is being convinced in error. I did some research and found that I am not the only one to be sure of his sometime delusions. One story I found came from the scientific community of the early 1900s. 300 published articles claimed a newly discovered radioactive wavelength, the “N-ray.” Some scientists were having trouble replicating the experiments so a group met at the lab of the first publishing scientist. A skeptic in attendance basically unplugged the machine while no one was paying attention and yet at experiment’s end several of the learned community still claimed to have observed the mysterious new N-rays.

I am so glad I wasn’t self-deluded when I let go of the metal surrounding a fuselage door of an airplane. 13,500 altitude feet of air separated me from the relative safety of the plane and the inevitable consequence of gravitational force. After a heart pounding 8,000 foot “free fall” I pulled the rip cord and a few pounds of nylon and string slowed my descent to an easy and enjoyable pace. I even landed on my feet without even a minor jolt.

During Jesus’ day many thought him self-delusional. His family, his followers, the religious elite all let Jesus know under no uncertain terms that they thought him crazy. Jesus was not dissuaded. He knew his purpose and the cost of his obedience. Although he confessed his humanity in his recorded prayers, the end was always the will, glory and lordship of Father God.

“…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. “
(Hebrews 12:2–3, ESV)

My friends at Main Street are going to consider how we can follow in Jesus’ footsteps. By month’s end, it is my prayer we are all equally convinced…

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Space Stations for Tacos

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Robert Franklin

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=promises&iid=1212033″ src=”d/5/4/3/Taco_Bell_Floats_175e.jpg?adImageId=10693265&imageId=1212033″ width=”380″ height=”248″ /]Do you remember the “promise” of a free taco for everyone if Mir fell from the sky and landed on the ‘Bell’s sea-based target? I do, and I actually know people who “had their hopes up.” It was, of course, foolishness. In all honesty, that is how much of the world understands the Christian expectation of God’s tangible work in life.

One of the great struggles of our existence is negotiating the tension between God’s statements and our perceived reality. There are currents in American religious life attempting to destroy this tension by declaring humans capable of speaking into existence their own reality (by faith or other means) which, in the end, leads to disappointment for all but a few. Most Christians simply accept whatever they see presently, unaware of the grand prize waiting and within their grasp.  They talk a good taco, but live in the “real world.”
 

When God commissioned Joshua to complete the task originally given to Moses, the divide between what God declared and Joshua’s present reality seemed to be wider than even the Red Sea.

God told Joshua that every place he walked belonged to him, but Joshua had yet to enter the land of promise.  Enemies bordered every side of the land Joshua currently held. God told Joshua the limits of his (and Israel’s) inheritance were already established far beyond what his eye could see or his mind comprehend. Joshua didn’t even have a permanent place to rest his head that night. God told Joshua that no human opposition would prevail against him even as Joshua dealt with the reality that it was human opposition that cost him forty years of living in the wilderness of unfulfilled promises.

Joshua perched on life’s edge, but did not despair. A generation before, God told Joshua he would enter the land of promise. God stayed with Joshua, preserving his life and vigor. God never failed him in time of need nor abandoned him in time of struggle. The truth of God’s past revealed character, infused Joshua’s present.

And so it is to this day.  What prize awaits you, faithful friend?

 “I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you—from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.’No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.” (Joshua 1:3–5, NLT)

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Singing to a Rock

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Robert Franklin

I have suffered a myriad of strange urges in my life, singing to a rock has not been one of them.  Why would someone serenade a mineral or be joyful over a stone?  I suppose I have seen the light of happiness in a woman’s eyes as she shows her girlfriends a pebble on her finger…

Our world spins so furiously it is somewhat of an amazement that we have lost appreciation for the staid security of rocks.  Perhaps the allure of the rock succumbed to our propensity to dissect everything.  A rock is no longer a symbol of security, of stability; it is a compression of elements or a repository of evolutionary history.  How long has it been since a commercial advertising the “Strength of the Rock” flickered across your television screen?

The Psalmist lived in a land of rocks, rocks were then and are to this day easily stumbled upon.  Familiarity did not breed contempt, however, and when it came time to laud the character of his God the rocks cried out.  The Psalmist expressed the depth of his conviction regarding the stability and sureness of salvation in God as the congregation is enjoined to sing and shout to the Rock of Ages. 

A song to the Rock anyone?

“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” (Psalm 95:1, ESV)

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A Touch When a Word Would Do

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Robert Franklin

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=touch&iid=4915429″ src=”3/e/f/e/Amazing_Me_0ce5.jpg?adImageId=10615743&imageId=4915429″ width=”234″ height=”185″ /]Has someone ever comforted you by standing next to you putting their arm around your shoulder while saying nothing?  Ever been nearly knocked down by a friend who playfully bumped into you?  Ever had someone place a cool washcloth and your fevered forehead? Ever had someone wipe a teardrop off your cheek? Ever received an unexpected, but not unwanted, hug?

In the past century academia produced nearly innumerable studies venerating the value of human touch.  Even though the summary of this information is readily available our culture is growing more and more touch adverse.  From my point of view, it seems that touch is regulated to sexual suggestiveness or to sexual predators. What happened to unsullied, supportive touch?  Can the Christian rightly follow this tide out to the sea of separation?

I think not.

The Word become flesh, when confronted by a culturally and physically “untouchable” did not rely on his authority to speak disease away.

Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out HIs hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” (Mark 1.41, NASB)

My friends at Main Street will be celebrating being Cherished in this manner this upcoming weekend.

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Smashing Doors

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Robert Franklin

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=smashing+doors&iid=6779440″ src=”2/0/c/b/Smiling_Through_be16.jpg?adImageId=10413064&imageId=6779440″ width=”380″ height=”570″ /]Last night I was working really late.  I was alone and the lights in the office were off.  I had to leave my desk to retrieve something and I ran shoulder-square into a door that was open but left slightly ajar.  I think I bent my body frame. I had not been hit that hard since high school football. 

This morning’s rising reminded me of last night’s unexpected collision.  I pondered why my left side hurt worse when the right side bore the direct impact.  I suppose the truth of “when one member suffers all suffer” is real, at least as it is applied to my own body.

This week I listened as a friend poured out the details of a hopelessly broken relationship.  I could hear desperation and hurt in every syllable of every word.  My friend is not alone, I could fill up paragraph after paragraph chronicling the artesian hurts shared with me just this past week.  To my fellow Elders, I have described the past year as a tsunami of pain.

For my part, I know for a fact the hurts are not new and that the recession is not the cause.  Access to easy money served as an analgesic; when the pills were taken away the veiled pain became clear.

So what are we to do? 

I suggest we make the long walk back to connectedness.  We must stop hiding behind the closed doors of our homes, the pretend niceties of our daily communication and begin to develop honest, sacrificial, and significant relationships.  Only then will we be able to agree with Paul,

…And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.  Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12.26-27, NASB

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