Thoughts on a Friday Night

Just some thoughts on a Friday night. Stream of consciousness stuff, so don’t read too deep, or look at how it all connects. Or do so. Up to you really. It’s just me thinking out loud, and perhaps God pushing the envelope on some of my thinking, and asking questions of this life and the next. If I speak too raw, bluntly, or honest for some of my readership, then please do not read. Here you will find my Friday night thoughts.

Clear the static in the brain. Take me away from the chain links and concrete. Take away the glitz and glamor. Take away the florescent lights, and take away the street lights. Give eyes to see, and hearts to ear. Let mouths be mute as we stand baffled by your mysteries.

Take away the entertainment. Take away the T.V. remote. Take away the clutter. Take away the distractions too numerous to count. Take away the Friday night high school football lights. Take away the insanity that an entertainment crazed culture craves. Have we absolutely lost our minds? I think so. I think yes. And was this the question that almost made Your prophets lose their own minds?

Lock us in a jail cell like Paul and teach us to understand joy. Let prison guards dance as we sing them your gospel. Give us a new understanding of prison ministry.

Take away emotions that cloud the image of God because we long for recognition and approval. Take away the make up that hides the imperfections of our wary faces.

Take away this nonsense, and take away our lies. Take away the sin, and remove the stain with Your Son’s blood. Take away the hurt, and take away the pain. Take away the loneliness. Take away the make up that we use to cover our fractured lives.

Take away the self-centeredness, and take away the pride. Put to death the old self and help us to see the hallow inside.

Take us to the high places. Take us to the low places. Lead us wherever you see fit. Put the prophet in the wilderness and give him strength to glorify you. Put your Elijah on the mountaintop to mock and indict the world if You see fit. Mock? Yes, I think I read that somewhere.

And remind me again, why did nice, kind, loving, accepting, tolerant John the Baptist get beheaded again? Wait a second…Oh, am I confusing love and acceptance and tolerance and rolling them all into one? Hmmm, John the Baptist. When John the Baptist followed God something had to give. Either heads turn in repentance, or the people hear and hate his message, meaning it’s John the Baptist’s head that rolls on the ground.

Take away our clothes, and make our bones shiver. Teach us dependency. Strip away self-sufficiency. Humilitate us and strip us naked if You must. We might be too stubborn and not listen to anything less then this.

Make cold hearts ablaze with fire. Call out to Lazarus! But take your time and delay Your coming to the tomb for a few days. Yes, do this in Your timing, and do more. Make dry bones walk? Yes, and make dry bones weep too.

Take away big empty words when I’m ever too eager to fill the silence.

Take away that nasty Pharisee’s prayer from my lips! Look, I too recite that by heart! I too have practiced self-righteousness for many years! It’s like cling wrap, I can’t seem to shake how puffed up I’ve become.

If Isaiah said, “Woe is me, I am undone!” Then what of me? How could the Pharisee’s prayer form on Isaiah’s lips? That would be so absurd! Then, oh how absurd I too talk! How absurd is my irreverence when I approach His most high throne.

How could such a self-righteous prayer stand before the throne of our Lord? How could I survive such terrible holiness? How could my chest rise for breath with the weight of holiness crushing down on me? How could these eyes not be destroyed? How could these ears drums not burst? The cries of the heavenly beings shouting holy holy holy, would be 7 x 70 times as much as I could bear. How could this darkened heart remain? Finite words fail me so miserably now. What a scandal we have made of the Lord’s holiness!

So frail, yet so arrogant in our frailty. And so blind in our self-righteous disposition. As if we can breathe on our own! As if the Lord does not provide even the worst of sinners His every breath. The Lord give sinners breath, and He is perfectly right in doing so. And when the Lord stopped the breath of John the Baptist, the Lord was also perfectly right in doing so.

Have Christians exchanged the truth for other gods? Have the prophets sold out for social security and a stable paycheck?

Would Paul have scoffed of the idea of retirement? How about 80 and collecting seashells for a living? Would Paul say that Christians are offending God by ending their life in this manner? Can we not see the passion of John Piper? Can we not see the angst of Matt Chandler? Can we not see the joy of Francis Chan?

Can no one see like Caleb? And are their still wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing? Do the pastors tell lies, and do the people like it like that?