Hey everybody,
Just a reminder that we won’t be gathering together this coming Sunday. And though we won’t be coming together, we can still be the church, worshiping Him by collectively taking the time to listen to and obey Him.
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!
Do we live in such a way that reflects that the Lord’s opinion of us is all that matters? Will it be enough to here those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share your master’s happiness”? Or do we want more than that? Do we also need the approval of others as well? Or will we play only to the audience of One?
Personally, I’ve found the the most accurate test for this, to see if we play only to the audience of One, is when we’re falsely accused. I’ve been going to church long enough to know that in difficult times, I’m supposed to pray. And most often I do. I’ll usually switch between praying the abject “why is this happening to me?” prayer and the “protect me, save me” prayer.
But my action rarely stops there. I don’t just take it up to God in prayer. I take it up to other people too. I want God and a bunch of someone elses to understand. And so, I try to get other people on my side. I scramble around, trying to get anybody to listen to my side of the story. Often I’ll paint a picture where my accusers look like the bad guys with the hope that I’d look like the good guy.
Now, contrast that with what David did in our reading last week when he was also falsely accused in 1 Samuel 24:1-9. David falls from favor because Saul sees him as a threat to his throne. In response, Saul chases after David with several thousand men. All the while, Saul’s told that David is “bent on harming” him. An outright lie. David then has the opportunity to kill Saul in a cave. But he only cuts a piece of Saul’s robe and spares Saul’s life.
If we simply look at the story in 1 Samuel we’d know the facts, the events in history that occurred but we wouldn’t know what David was thinking, what he was feeling at the time. And that’s where the Psalms come in. It’s believed that David wrote songs, Psalms during this time. I’ll highlight a couple.
In Psalm 140, up to the first three Selahs from verse 1 to 8, it sounds familiar to us. They’re “protect me, save me” prayers. But starting from verse 9, the tone shifts significantly. Suddenly, David wields prayer less like a shield and more like a sword. He goes on the offensive in his prayer. And while this doesn’t sound all that great character-wise, let me put this in perspective. When I go on the offensive, I try to right the wrongs done to me myself. I go around trying to set the record straight. I make the rounds bad mouthing my accusers. When David goes on the offensive, he goes to the Lord to right the wrongs on his behalf. It’s not that time healed all wounds for David. It’s not that David came to the place where we didn’t care if Saul got his in the end. It’s that David trusted that the Lord would act as the judge and dole out the consequences for the wrong done.
And that goes into the other Psalm, Psalm 56. We see a lot of the same themes that we saw in Psalm 140, but what we see even more clearly in Psalm 56 is that theme of trusting in the Lord. In this particular Psalm we see that the opinion that the Lord has of David is sufficient for him. David lives for the audience of only One. While word spreads that David is guilty of treason, seeking after the king’s life, David doesn’t feel the compulsion to go around the country on a campaign setting the record straight. “In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” David only has eyes for the Lord. David came to the place where all that mattered was what the Lord thought of him and he carried that with him for the rest of his life.
Is what He thinks of you all that matters? Because it’s true, He is more than enough. As David later wrote, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” and “Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”
About a month ago, Alinn@ had an interesting conversation with another Christian person about the Kingdom and personal finances. After the conversation, Alinn@ had a lot of food for thought and of course, asked me what I thought about it.
The other person’s stance was this: The way that Americans (both Christian and not I’m assuming) spend their money is evil.
Not just misguided but evil. And I think I mostly agree… at least so far.
Here’s why. I think most Christians would say that human slavery is evil. Yet we spend our money on things that further promote human slavery. Most of us don’t buy slaves, but we do buy things that are reliant upon slaves. It’s a few steps removed, but we often spend money in ways that support the slavery industry. We buy clothes most probably made in sweatshops, jewelry coming from regions of conflict, and food from regions and farmers who aren’t given a fair wage. Just the other day, I was browsing the baby section of Target and I saw a onesie that had the triangular recycle emblem and the words “Green Baby” on it front and center. I looked at the tag and it was selling for $1.50. Here’s the irony, it said it was “Made in Bangladesh”.
Since that discussion, Alinn@ and I are starting to make some changes. With regard to clothes, we’re trying to exclusively buy things that are “Made in the USA” (not foolproof from a human slavery standpoint, but safer) or buy/borrow used clothing from friends/Craigslist/eBay (to not further feed the slavery machine with our money).
For jewelry, well, with Alinn@’s engagement ring it’s too late, but we decided that we would probably offer to pass it down to our kids when it’s their time. For what it’s worth, I have a Christian friend who consciously did not buy a diamond engagement ring because of the social ramifications. Instead, he bought a ring with a semi-precious stone that was certified to have come from a non-conflict area. Need I say that I felt extremely guilty after watching the movie “Blood Diamond” with Leonardo DiCaprio?
And for food, I think Alinn@’s food politics are pretty widely known now. We buy most of our groceries at the farmer’s market where we give money directly to local farmers. We also buy our year’s supply of beef from a local rancher on a single day in June. S@m’s milk comes from a local dairy farm. My coffee is fair trade.
Thoughts? Comments? Corrections?
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