Yes, Jesus Loves Me

♫ Yes, Jesus Loves Me ♫

So many people have sung this simple children's tune countless times, both as children and as adults, and being that it is a children's song it is often easy to forget, or simply not look at, how profound and deep it is. Have you ever taken the time to examine this one, 4-word, phrase? I hadn't really, but it struck me yesterday, as we were singing this line in our Easter service, that is is truly a remarkable phrase. Let me show you.

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die"

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die"

 

It's Mardi Gras, and, if this isn't the theme of today it should be. Today is a day to indulge, to over indulge, to gorge yourself, to "get fat" on all of the "fatty" foods and behaviors that you probably shouldn't be partaking of, but will anyway because tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, you "die" to all of that, and begin a 40 day stretch of fasting from all of the things that you are indulging in today.

It is perhaps one of the most bizarre "religious" holidays/festivals. I put religious in quotes, because a lot of what happens on Mardi Gras today is not what originally happened. It's always been a day of feasting and gorging, but traditionally it was strictly on food, sugary, fatty foods, hence the "Fat" part of Fat Tuesday. Today, feasting and gorging on food is still a huge part, but so is gorging on virtually any and every other behavior you can think of. And then tomorrow, for the religious, you mark your forehead with ash in mourning over your sinful nature...

Happy Independence Day: Rise in Revolution

I recently got Skillet's new album, Rise. I love it, but that's to be expected, I love everything Skillet does. I especially love the title song, Rise, and with the 4th of July yesterday, it has become my new theme song for Independence Day. I also kinda love the video for it.

Rolling in the Dough

Every time the lottery jackpot gets really big, like it did this past weekend, I get a super strong urging to go spend a whole $2 and pick myself up a ticket in the impossible hope that I may get that 1 in 175.2 million chance of winning. I never have, and I don't know if I ever will, but I gotta say it's incredibly tempting. In fact even though there was a winner, and the jackpot has dropped to a measly $40 million, I'm still tempted to go get a ticket...

However, regardless of whether or not I ever buy a ticket, much less win, it's a lot of fun to try and imagine what I would do if I did. It's also pretty difficult. Have you ever really thought about what you would do if you suddenly had hundreds of millions of dollars? I was truly thinking about what I would do, what I would buy, etc... and after everything that I could think of that I would actually do, it still didn't even really scratch that amount of money. It's mind-boggling to think about how much money that is.

When Midas Touches Poop

Last night I was sitting in my backyard thinking, thinking about how amazing and mind-blowingly awesome it is that God loves me because really I truly don't deserve it, am not worthy of it. In fact, none of us are, yet He loves us and is invested in our lives nonetheless. Suddenly I got this thought, and I wouldn't really say it's the deepest theological thought I've ever had, but it seemed pretty significant to me, so I'm sharing it.

I am utterly, completely unworthy and valueless. In fact, the thing that came to mind to compare to was the dog poop in the corner of the yard. Like the dog poop, I am filthy, disgusting, trash that has no value or worth and is good for nothing, but to be thrown away or buried. However, another thought crossed my mind, and that was that somehow, I am no longer that. Somehow, though everything about my inherent nature is valueless and stinks, I am not, no longer, that worthless piece of dog poop. I am indescribably valuable, so valuable, in fact, that while I was not worthy to utter the name of God, He inscribed my name upon His palm! (Isaiah 49:16)