Woo Hoo!

Yesterday we attended the annual marching festival in which my daughter's high school band participates.

We got to the event just in time to see the Cougar Marching Band perform the numbers they have been working on since school started this Fall.  It was an amazing performance...from the music, to the flag team, to the twirlers, to the drum majors, to the band members themselves.  The band directors should be proud of the final product of all of their hard work. 

After our band finished, we relaxed and enjoyed some of the other performances.  Wow!  The talent on display gave me goosebumps.  One of the bands I was looking forward to seeing performed within a couple hours.  We waited to watch them before taking the younger kids out to dinner.

As they took the field, it became obvious that several of their supporters were sitting directly behind us.  The Woo Hoo-ing started.

I saw this band perform last year so I knew that had a solid program and would put on a entertaining show.  But I simply couldn't get past the constant hollers of Woo Hoo coming from the women behind me.  It was obnoxious.  It was prideful.  It was annoying.

In fact, I found myself actually disliking the band and looking for problems in their performance.  And that's when it hit me.

This was a good band.  These kids had worked very hard to learn their music, learn their choreography, and perform at a high level of skill.  They deserved to have the respect of the audience and their peers.  They had earned the right to be seen as a good example.  Rather than looking for fault with them, I should've been simply enjoying their performance. 

But those darn Woo Hoos!

How many people do not explore the Christian faith simply because they are irritated with all of the Woo Hoo coming from Christians?  Is our display of faith sometimes obnoxious?  Are we prideful rather than humble?  Do others find us annoying?

Do these things lead others to look for things to dislike about Christianity?  Do they delight when there is a problem within our faith?  (Think of the gloating that takes place when a respected leader of a church commits a sin that becomes public.)

Christ was perfect--fully man and fully God. He worked hard while on this earth to teach the Word of God through miracles and preaching.  He deserved the respect of all of us and His contemporaries.  He earned the right to be seen as a perfect example.  He gave it everything He had...including His life.

Maybe it's time we, the followers of Christ, stop with the Woo Hoo. 

I'm not saying that we shouldn't share our faith.  We have a responsibility to share the Good News of Jesus.  But we need to make sure that this doesn't get obnoxious.  Christians should be humble about their salvation--after all we didn't earn it and honestly don't deserve it.  It's also important that we be respectful of others and their beliefs rather than being confrontational, defensive, or downright annoying.

Remember, we can't change someone.  Only the Holy Spirit can do that.  Plant the seed and let God do His work.  The Bible provides us with everything we need to know, but God reveals it to his people in the time and manner He determines.  If He needs you to teach someone, He will provide that opportunity when the time is right.  We cannot shove it down someone's throat.

Provide an introduction to God, watch the Holy Spirit do His work, provide support in helping others walk with Christ, then humbly praise Him for all of it.

And before you screw up someone's opinion of Christ, bite your Woo Hoo-ing tongue and let His performance speak for itself.

Prayer...it's a conversation

When I have to listen through a long prayer that includes quotes from Scripture and sounds like the person is trying to win an Oscar for the best dramatic performance in church, I want to scream.  Especially when I look at them and see that they are actually reading a script!

What are we teaching our children with these kinds of prayers?  I worry that we are teaching them that praying is a complicated task reserved for those who have memorized the Bible and either got an "A" in Speech class or went to state in Forensics...or both.  This is NOT how Jesus taught us to pray.  In fact, the Bible often says that Jesus prayed alone where nobody could hear.  On the occasions when Jesus did pray publicly, he prayed humbly—asking for the ability to accept God’s will, thanking Him for food and blessings, and asking for strength and faith for His followers.

Jesus provided us with an example to show us how repentant believers should pray.

Matthew 6:5-14

First, He gives us some instructions.

• Do not be like the hypocrites who love to pray in churches and on the street so people will see them.
• Go into your room, close the door, and pray to Your Father, who is unseen. 
• Do not keep “babbling like pagans”.  They think they will be heard because of their many words.  God knows what you need before you even ask him. 

This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Pray to God the Father.

Hallowed be your name,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Praise God...He is holy.

Your kingdom come,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Acknowledge that the current struggles in our time on earth will be dwarfed by an eternity in which God reigns in His kingdom. 

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What is Jesus telling us?  Understand that things happen according to God’s will.

Give us today our daily bread.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Ask that our needs be met.

Forgive us our debts,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Ask that our sins be forgiven.

As we also have forgiven our debtors.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Forgive people who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Ask for help in avoiding tempting situations.

But deliver us from the evil.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Ask to be given the strength to resist the temptations that we must face.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and glory forever.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Acknowledge that God is in charge…always has been and always will be.

Amen.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Translated as—so be it.  Accept that God’s will is not always in alignment with ours…but He knows best and you should trust Him.
           

God is your Father.  He wants you to have a relationship with Him.  He wants you to talk to Him.  Nothing you say is going to surprise Him.  There is not a trick to it.  No secret strategies exist.  You don’t have to kneel, bow your head, close your eyes, or fold your hands.  And for goodness sake…you don’t need to quote His own words to Him.

Learn.  Believe.  Repent.  Pray.  Repeat.

It’s just a conversation.

Just a small miracle...

According to Wikipedia, a miracle is an unexpected event attributed to divine intervention.

Many would suggest that miracles don't happen.  They would argue that there are coincidences, oddities, and illusions that simple-minded people can't explain so they attribute them to God.  I, however, would argue that there are events that NO man can explain or perform, thus making them divine.

For example, I quit chewing my fingernails.

Don't laugh.  Give me a chance here.  Do any of you chew your fingernails?  If you are a nail-biter and have been since being a toddler you can at least empathize with me on the initial problem.

I do not remember a time that I did not have my fingers in my mouth.  From birth I was always either sucking my thumb or chewing my nails.  Now, I WAS able to break the thumb-sucking habit.  However, even as an adult when I suffer through a particularly traumatic event, I will still sometimes wake up with my thumb in my mouth.

Nail-biting is different.  It isn't comforting, but rather a nervous habit.  I don't know how many times in my life I've tried to stop.  Even when I was able to really focus and pull this off for a month or two, the nails were thin and flimsy.  I couldn't leave them alone!  My constant picking at them took its toll and one would get a tear in it.  And that was all she wrote.  It gave me permission to chew it off...then one nail led to another.

As an adult, I spent a couple of years paying for acrylic nails.  It was the only time in my life they looked decent.  This, however, was not a long-term solution.  And even when they were on, I picked at them and often chewed them until they came off or looked awful.

The worst chewing time came when I would drive.  Honestly, I didn't even realize I was doing it.  Driving time is one of the few times I can just focus on my thoughts with no distractions.  It's almost like meditation.  When I would "come to" on the road, my fingers were almost always in my mouth.  I know, it's gross.  I don't get it.  It was totally unconscious. 

Then...a couple of months ago I realized that I haven't been chewing my nails.  As time has kept going by, they have gotten long enough that I often need to file them down.  They aren't thin and flimsy; on the contrary, they are hard and strong.  Amazingly they are quite pretty...even though I don't polish them and I type all day long just about every day.

So what happened?  Why don't I catch myself chewing on them as I drive for hours from this meeting to that meeting?  How am I able to keep myself from bending them and picking at them?  When, how, and why would an ingrained habitual behavior that I've had for 40 years suddenly change without any effort from me?

The answer is simple...it wouldn't.  It's a miracle.

Over the last couple of years, my life has changed dramatically.  Some of the changes have been external, some have been mild, but many have been internal and huge.  Could I have made these changes by myself?  No.  I've tried.  For years.  Through depression.  With poor results.

Once I got far enough in my journey of faith to truly accept God's Truth of the Bible and the grace that is given through the gift of Jesus, I began to realize the power of the Holy Spirit.  Wow.  The gifts that I've experienced growing within me are truly GIFTS.  (Galatians 5:22-23)

When changes take place within you without your effort, you are experiencing a miracle.

There is no greater proof of God than his miracles.  They aren't always public spectacles like the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38-43), the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:15-18), the conversion of water into wine (John 2:1-11), or the resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son (Luke 24).  But when your complete outlook on the world changes so that you find yourself physically mourning your family, friends, and even strangers who have not allowed God into their lives...that is a miracle.  I think I understand now why Jesus was described by Isaiah as a "Man of sorrows" 800 years before He was even born.  (Isaiah 53:3-4)

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  Oh, the Spirit has lots of work left to do within me.  The death of the nail-biting habit is just one little outcome under the self-control objective on a huge laundry list of goals in God's project called "Gina Tyler". 

Yes, miracles happen.  Daily.  I pray that they are happening in you.