Help To Let Go

I was thinking about all the changes that have occurred in my life over the last decade.  There have been a lot of "letting go" of people and possessions and places where I have fit in.  Most of the "letting go" has not been of my own choice, but have occured as a result of the death of loved ones or my need to down-size to a smaller house and yard because of aging.  My life circumstances had changed, and I had to adapt. 

One way that I choose to "let go" is pictured above.   Ten years ago, the family business had come to an end and it was my responsibility to dispose of everything.  One thing I had to do was figure out what to do with the sign that sat next to the busy highway advertizing our hobby shop.  The sign was composed of two 15 foot tall rockets which I had fabricated from old porch pillars, 4 X 4's, aluminum flashing and plywood, and had painted with our business name. It wasn't easy to know what to do with the rockets; they symbolized 20 years of my husband's Army career and 17 years of our family's life, business, and reputation in our small hometown.  At last, however, I chose to let the rockets go and I consigned them to a bonfire.

It is not easy to "let go"...  However, sometimes it's necessary.  At this time of the year when most of us reflect on the past year and think about the new year to come, we often formulate our plans to change- to live better lives.  Sometimes in the process of "letting go", we may be at a crossroads, and the choices we make of what we keep in our life, what we "let go" of, and what we add may influence our lives and the lives of our loved ones for years to come and into eternity.

It's good to seek God's counsel about how to make good choices for the future when we realize we need to "let go" of things from the past.  In the Bible, Peter gives us very sobering advice concerning this.  He tells us what kind of people we should be as we realize that God is soon coming to judge the world.  "What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the elements will melt as they burn!  But according to his (God's) promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."  2 Peter 3:11-13  

How are we to live in holiness and godliness as we wait for God to fulfil His promises to us?  The Bible tells us to "let go" of stuff that hinders our walk with Jesus and to draw closer to Him.  "But one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 3:13,14

I don't know about others, but I plan of using the next few days before the new year to ask God to show me if there are things that I need to be willing to "let go" of which are hindering the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Maybe there are others who are considering the same thing.  I'm sure it pleases our Lord when we ask for His help in "letting go".

The Tale Of Two Pianos

"On a whim, I thought I'd go back to my old piano and play a song," the pianist said.  "Oh my!  I couldn't believe it.  It sounded so pathetic!  When that was all I had, I was content.  I didn't know any better.  But now that I have a new piano, a grand piano, I know the difference."

The old piano?   Her parents gave the pianist the best they could afford.  It cost $50.  It was a cast-off piano that had been used in a USO recreational lounge on a military base overseas.  In addition, it had been moved from home to home in military housing as the 'first' piano for beginning piano students.  Someone had started to refinish it; half of it was covered with dirty, cream-colored paint and half of it was stripped down to bare wood.  Deep cigarette burns marked up the flat surfaces.  The pianist's mom finished stripping the paint off the piano and refinished it, masking the cigarette burns by painting over them the look of wood grain. The bench was a kitchen bench salvaged from alongside the curb on trash day and refinished to match the piano.

The piano was shipped back to the states with the rest of the family's goods.  Five more times it was moved.  It was heavier than most pianos, but even so, twice it was moved to the pianist's second floor bedroom!  Having it tuned became more and more of a problem because the action inside the frame was German and parts weren't available in the US.  A resourceful piano tuner fabricated replacement parts as best he could. 

The pianist was gifted and despite the quality of the piano she practiced on, music moved her and moved others when they heard her play. 

The pianist married and the piano went with her to her new home.  Her husband vowed that one day he would buy his bride a different piano- a grand piano.  That seemed  to her like a pipe dream- something fun to think about, but something that would never happen.  The pianist still played her old piano and was content. 

The husband loved his wife.  His vow about a grand piano wasn't just idle words.  It always came back to his mind when his wife played.  When the pianist and her husband moved to a farm, the husband made sure the central, light, airy room of the farmhouse was left empty.  He called it the 'piano room'.  He said that one day that was where the grand piano would go and he would install a chandelier above it.

The day came.  The pianist came home in the evening from work and gracing the 'piano room' was a brand new grand piano!  Her beaming husband sat next to it.  It was his gift of love to his bride.  Even to this day, the pianist can barely believe it.  Music has never sounded so wonderful to her! 

And so it came as an utter surprise to the pianist when she recently went back to play a song on the old piano and discovered how pathetic it sounded.  It wasn't that the piano was so much out of tune, but that after a note was played, there was always a discordant twang that lingered.  Additionally, the old felts on the hammers, despite being filed to size, continued to sporaticially hit adjacent notes.  However, most disconcerting to the pianist was the sluggish, unresponsive touch of the keys.  She said it felt like hitting a pillow when she played; there was no instantaneous response of the keys to her fingers tips. She couldn't create the music her soul longed to express.

The difference between the old piano and the new piano reminded me of what the Bible explains about mankind's two natures.  From our parents we inherited the best they had; they gave us our innate human nature.  It was adequate for us to learn how to function (for better or worse) in this world.  However, as we all know, human nature is flawed.  It is not what God had intended from the beginning.  Mankind is unresponsive to the touch of God, just as the old piano is unresponsive to the touch of the pianist's fingers.

However, when we are joined to Jesus Christ, we become new people.  We are literally given a new nature that can indeed be responsive to the touch of God, just as the new piano is sensitive and fully responsive to the pianist's fingers.  This new nature comes to us because we belong to someone new; we are the bride of  Christ and no longer children of the world, just as the new piano came to the pianist from her husband and not from her poverty-stricken parents.  The new nature comes as a gift.  Just as the pianist's husband vowed to provide a grand piano for his bride, the One who died for our sins promises us this new life that is sensitive to God's will.

This tale of two pianos explains for me what the Bible talks about in Romans 4- 8 and is alluded to in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and in Ezekiel 36:25-28.  What a gift!  To be responsive to the heart and soul and touch of God!  I like the knowledge of that!

Frozen Stiff

Years ago, on wintery days like the picture above, my mother wasn't able to hang the family wash outside to dry.  Instead, after running our bedding and clothing through the wringer washer and wash tubs every Monday morning, she hung the wet clothes on lines my dad had strung up in the woodshed.  Since there was no heat in that building, Monday evening my mom brought the laundry back into the house to finish drying it over a rack of wooden bars in the dining room.  What I remember best was my mom's attempt to bring my dad's long johns back into the house.  They were frozen stiff!   My mom tried as best as she could to manuver the freezing-cold, flat garments with stiff outstretched arms and legs through the doorway, but it was wasn't easy.

I thought of those frozen long johns the other day when I read a selection from one of J. I. Packer's books called Knowing God.  Packer writes  "Constantly we find ourselves slipping into bitterness and apathy and gloom as we reflect on past disappointments and present heartbreaks, which we frequently do.  The attitude we show to the world is a sort of dried-up stoicism, miles removed from the 'joy unspeakable and full of glory' (1 Peter 1:8) that Peter took for granted his readers were displaying."  Since it was on a nasty, freezing, and snowy day that I read this selection from J. I. Packer, I imagined that "dried-up stoicism" was about the same as "frozen, stiff long johns".

I don't know about others, but I find that I slip into bitterness and apathy and gloom at times.  I wouldn't be surprised that during this Christmas season, there are many others who, when reflecting on past disappointments and present heartbreaks, also slip into bitterness and apathy and gloom.  Somehow we manage to function outwardly when we are around others celebrating the season's festivities, but inwardly our emotions and spirits are stiff and cold, and we know it!  We can fool others, but we can't fool ourselves or God. 

There is a request made of God in Psalm 51 that seems appropriate for me and other Christian's to pray when they feel overwhelmed and emotionally frozen at this time of the year.  In Psalm 51 David, the Psalmist, confesses his sin and asks God to have mercy upon him according to His steadfast love.  David also makes this request of God: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:12).

That sounds like a good prayer for this harried, frantic time of year.  What do you think?

Leonard The Lamb

My mind runs through memories of the holiday season.  My husband's favorite Christmas movie was  What A Wonderful Life, the heartwarming story of a man discovering the importance of his well-lived, generous life.  On the other hand, my favorite movie is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the story of the renegade Herdman children bringing wild adventure to a usually calm Christmas program.  It reminds me of a event I want to share here.  I've already included it in my annual Christmas letter.

It happened during the children's annual Christmas pageant at the Free Methodist Church in Huntsville, Alabama in 1975.   A soft murmer rippled through the congregation after the shepherds arrived at the manger, because, in the subdued lighting while a teenager sang O Holy Night, it appeared that one of the shepherds held a real live lamb.  The shepherd held the lamb tightly in his arms while the lamb gazed around at everything and then finally snuggled closer to the shepherd in loving confidence.  However, it wasn't a real live lamb; it was a puppet.  Our family still has this puppet; we call him Leonard the Lamb.  How he came to be is an amazing story!

That was the year I volunteered to do the costumes for the Christmas program.  I made the three wise men's crowns by gluing gaudy costume jewelry onto strips of indoor/outdoor carpet with liquid nails.  Then I recycled used bathrobes, coat linings, and bed covers into robes for Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men.  At one point, I turned the fleece-lined hood of an old jacket inside out.  When I threw the hood on the floor with scraps of cloth as useless, it landed in such a way that it reminded me of the shape of a lamb's head.  Picking the hood back up, I began envisioning it as a puppet for my ten-year-old son Mark to carry as a shepherd.  I knew I could teach him how to make the puppet move realistically.

And so, I fashioned Leonard the Lamb out of the fleece of the jacket hood, adding glossy black buttons as eyes and gluing on a yarn black nose.  I put a Styrofoam ball inside the head for shape and fashioned a bent coat hanger to make the ears stick out and be moveable.  But then I was stymied because I didn't have any more fabric with which to make ears.  In desperation, I cut a 2" by 2" square out of one side of the puppet's neck and used it to make the ears.  I told my son he'd have to be careful to only let one side of the lamb's neck show since the other side had a big square hole in it. 

A few days later, in the mail came samples of sewing materials, fabrics, that I could order from a certain company.  I had never ever heard of the company, nor had I ever bought fabric from anyone through the mail.  I had never had such an offer before, nor have I ever had such an offer since.  There were a few swatches of dark polyester trouser material in the envelope, and there was also a 2" by 2" square of fleece that was nearly an identical color and texture as Leonard the Lamb.  At once I sewed the square into the puppet's neck.  It fit the hole exactly!  And it was barely noticeable!  If you look closely at the picture above, you might be able to see the square of slightly different fleece in the middle and the bottom of Leonard's neck.

The arrival of that swatch of matching material wasn't just a coincidence.  It was an example of God's watch care and grace.  As I recall that event of thirty-four years ago, I continue to be amazed that God cared about Leonard the Lamb who was merely a puppet.  I learned an unforgetable lesson from that event-- If God cared for that inanimate puppet to be made whole, surely He cares that much for me.

That's the message of Christmas itself.  God loved us so much that He sent Jesus, His Son, to earth as a human being, so that one day on the cross Jesus would be the sacrificial lamb to take away our sins.  Truly, to be whole, we need God's healing of our past and the wrongs done to us.  That is what Jesus was born to accomplish. 

Perhaps that is why a movie about a Christmas pageant is my favorite Christmas movie-- it reminds me of this lesson I learned long ago.