This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10
Baby it's you! You're the one I love.
You're the one I need. You're the only one I see.
Come on baby it's you!
You're the one that gives your all.
You're the one I can always call.
When I need you make everything stop.
Finally, you put my love on top.
They say troubles come in multiples. For me, three is the magic number. That’s when I call it. See, the first incident could be merely coincidence. The second occurrence may be just plain bad luck, By the third event, I know that I am the recipient of a full-fledged, out and out attack that is supernatural. It’s usually at that point the devil is identified and he runs screaming like the little punk he is. (Yes, he is – we don’t owe him any reverence.) Picture him as the wicked witch of the Wizard of Oz after having a bucket of water thrown on her by Dorothy. “You’ve destroyed all of my beautiful wickedness,” the witch cries as she melts into nothing. It’s a comical scene when you think about it, but in reality, it’s not amusing. He doesn’t like to be called out. He wants us to think it is people who hate us, events are conspiring against us, or even that God doesn’t want us to be happy. That they are the enemy when all the time it is he, the evil one, who is at work. He is the spiritual wickedness that influences those who sit in high places.
The Bible promises us that the troubles we encounter are only those common to man. In other words, they happen to everyone at some time or another. We shouldn’t think it strange or unusual that it would eventually come for us in some shape, form or fashion. We may feel our troubles are unique. However, heartbreak is not. It is our common denominator, no matter our station in life. But with every trial, there is a way of escape given to us; the means to not necessarily undo what has happened but to transcend your circumstances, to rise above that situation. It is then that we can see that there may be a higher purpose for our trouble, a lesson to be learned. His ultimate goal is even sometimes revealed during our tribulation. So the way out is to change our focus, to see the One who is in control and to trust His plan.
So I’ve had my three recently – troubles that is – and I recognized the devil behind the curtain, manipulating events to discourage me. Then one day as I was driving Love on Top played on my car radio. That song had me grinning, singing along and bouncing in my seat. (It’s so much fun to sing along – not to mention the dance moves in the video were borrowed from New Edition’s If It Isn’t Love, another fave.) It has become my personal anthem, a love song from me to God. I riffed along with Beyoncé: “Baby it’s YOU!” I realized that in the midst of whatever is troubling me, my constant is God. My love for Him, supersedes everything because it helps me to endure and overcome anything. One of the most wretched feelings in the world is to feel like the object of your desire doesn’t return the sentiment. But I am sure of His steadfast love for me. Nothing can separate us. No-thing. I hear myself saying to Him as Bella said of Edward (of Twilight fame) – It’s Edward! It’s always been Edward! Poor Jacob never had a chance (LOL) because she had met THE love of her life. And so it is with me, no other god – be it money, worry (or worries about money), jealousies, envy, pride, job (or the loss thereof) – no other god can stand before my God. As was said of TheHighlander: There can be only one! (I know that’s two movie references but I couldn’t resist! BTW – did you catch the shout out to Schoolhouse Rock?)
Which brings me to Good Friday, the day leading up to Resurrection Sunday – the holy day formerly known as Easter (nod to Prince). We honor the sacrifice of the one who loved us enough to die in our place so that we could have a chance at restoration. The One who put our love on top and made our salvation a priority. He is the only one who could have done it. I’ve heard folks mention other deities that have similar lore of a virgin birth and a god who died. But Jesus is the One who, as my sister loves to say, “loved us so much, he put his life on it!” He didn’t just die, he did it with purpose, executing a plan to save us which was set in motion from the foundation of the world. He put us first. God’s thoughts are always towards us, his creation. I know this. I see it in nature and how he carefully cultivated our living environment, anticipating our every need before he even created man, his crowning achievement, to oversee the world. We remain, to this day the apple (or center) of His eye.
I’m sure of some things in life. Troubles come and go. Everybody gets a turn. “But I know! (in ma Beyoncé voice)!” Jesus is the One I love. He’s the only One I know I need for certain. I see Him in everything, even a secular song, and gladly receive the confirmation of our love. I know He is working it out for my good. He gives me more than I asked for, more than I could ever imagine or conceive. I call on Him during times of distress, habitually. And He has answered my prayers repeatedly. It’s no wonder I can say with such joy, “Jesus it’s YOU!”
“Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” Ephesians 6:16
I didn’t bother posting on Resurrection Sunday because I felt there was nothing I could say to top that feat, truly! He’s alive! He rose from the grave! He conquered death by His sacrifice! It’s all been said before. But God is revealing more and more to me about what happened AFTER the resurrection and what it means for us in this present age. We know that Jesus died for us, to save us from our sins and to pay the price so that we could be restored to our original state. He redeemed us by His own blood, to be in communion and fellowship with God as the first man and woman were in the beginning. He is the second Adam – because he lives, we can live again. But there is more. His life and death, burial and resurrection accomplished something for us in this physical realm that prevails to this day.
Ah, travails. In this life we will have them – many times. Troubles come and go for all of us and no matter your station in life, you are sure to have them. I am currently in the midst of a trial but instead of continually being oppressed by my circumstances, I now cling to hope. My hope comes from, among other things, a song that our choir sang on Easter Sunday, The Credo.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord
Who was conceived, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost
Born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate
Crucified, died and was buried; He descended into Hell
This first part is delivered softly, beautifully in operatic voices. Then, the song picks up and gets punchy. It has a gospel rock/disco vibe going, reminiscent of Whoopi Goldberg and the nuns singing Ball of Confusion in Sister Act 2:
On the third day, He arose. On the third day, He Arose. On the third day HE AROSE!
Each stanza crescendos, increasing in drama as it modulates up to the next key. All the time the piano is pounding away and it’s such a fun song that you can’t help but enjoy it. You’re swaying and clapping your hands as you’re caught up in the rhythm. Now, here’s the part that God used to minister to me in my current circumstance. I awakened in the middle of the night, as I do sometimes, tossing and turning and trying to find a way to get comfortable so I could go back to sleep. It’s during these pockets of wakefulness that the devil insinuates his agenda into my fuzzy consciousness and says things that bring me to full alertness. He reminds me that I have concerns, worries and fears. He buzzes in my ears with things that I didn’t or couldn’t address during my waking hours. He makes me feel like I shouldn’t be sleep – I have plenty of things that should keep me awake! And before you know it, my sleep is completely disrupted. Only last night, when he attempted this trick, a line from The Credo drowned him out:
I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe
I believe in God and the Holy Ghost
I believe, I believe in God!
And I thought to myself, and suddenly it seemed quite reasonable – HOW DARE YOU NOT BELIEVE that God wouldn’t deliver you from your personal hell? He raised Jesus – if He raised Him, raising you should be a cinch! How dare you believe in Jesus’ birth through the Virgin Mary and not believe that God can supernaturally deliver you from your problems? WHAT? Does that even make sense? These are the cornerstones of our faith. How dare you believe that Jesus endured his affliction and drank from His cup, but YOU cannot? The same God that imbued His earthly incarnation with power to endure hardship has also empowered you, in this fleshly body, to do the same. Because He did, you can. That has become my motto and my credo. With these thoughts in mind, I went back to sleep.
Someone said once, regarding the devil, that he is God’s devil. Meaning, God created him, as He did all of us, to serve a purpose. He can only do what God allows, as we find in the example of Job. The question becomes then, why? Why allow this evil being to torture your creation? My own answer comes from my life. The evil one is never satisfied with a take down, but wants complete annihilation. He will repeatedly kick you while you’re down. And that is always his fatal flaw. He’s just greedy. See, he overplays his hand. In going in for the kill, he pushes me so far that instead of retreating and fleeing in fear, I actually stand my ground and call his bluff. I drop to my knees and call on God for HE alone can save me. All drama ceases to be important and no longer appears threatening to my future. I know that I will survive. Attacks from the devil cause me to turn to God, to seek Him, to run into His arms for shelter and to get closer to Him. That makes the trouble I go through almost worth it as it causes a deepening of my relationship with and a dependence on God my Father. For me, it always comes down to this. All roads lead back to Him.
But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’?”Matthew 21:15-16
Last week, many churches celebrated Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The events leading up to his crucifixion led me to this scripture and caused me to ruminate. My mind flashed back to the Schoolhouse Rock segment, “Elementary, my dear!” which recounted the story of Noah and the Ark and used the collection of the animals to illustrate the principle of multiplying by two. It also brought to mind Robert Fulghum’s book, All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten, that featured a list of lessons learned on how to treat others and take care of yourself in this wide world. Both brought home to me something I had to have known since my childhood, but only became aware of at that moment. And I knew a peace from my present day catastrophe which seemingly loomed on my horizon. AGAIN. There’s always one there, you know. In her Saturday Night Live skit, Gilda Radner (ala Rosanna Rosannadana) used to say, “It just goes to show ya – if it ain’t one thing, it’s another!” So there’s ALWAYS another something, just waiting in the shadows, looking for the opportune moment to pounce. It tends to catch you when your guard is down; an unlooked for event and a scheme of the enemy to take your eyes off God and cast them toward your concerns regarding your future. It is true, the lion never sleeps.
But looking back, I realized everything I ever needed to know about God and how to survive these trying times came from my earliest remembrances of Him – in songs learned in Sunday school and verses memorized for church at Easter. “I don’t know why Jesus loves me,” taught me that He does love me and I don’t have to be worthy. (Thank God, because I could never earn His love. I’ve given up on perfection and have decided to be merely human.) And in “Jesus loves the little children,” I learned that He treasures “All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in His sight!” That song showed me that I had a special place in His eyes, regardless to how society viewed me. But the one that brought true deliverance was found in the simple lyrics of “Yes, Jesus loves me!’
This song blessed me so much the other day. Coming off of my latest meltdown (see article, The Greatest) I realized that I had fallen for the greatest trick of the enemy – to believe in one’s own strength and power to deliver. You may ask how I could forget such a lesson, for control is only an illusion. All power belongs to God. He alone is in control of my life. I do some of my best work, lol, and He is able to accomplish much through me, when I am a yielded vessel. I become His arms and legs and mouth to do whatever and to go wherever and to bless others. But at times, sigh, I fall prey to this mentality, this thinking that I have to save my world yet again – likely because I’ve watched TOO MANY Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes (she saved the world, A LOT)! I began to feel that it was all up to me, that the burden of my own personal universe was on my shoulders. I’d somehow allowed the thought to bleed into my conscious that I’m doing this alone.
Meltdowns, in my experience, happen because you look at your own resources and realize you have fallen short of what is needed to accomplish your goals. You feel overwhelmed, like whatever you’re trying to do or get is not gonna happen EVER. You get discouraged and want to give up because, instead of looking at what God is able to accomplish (with/without you or your resources and whether or not you deserve it), you look at yourself and your puny mortal limitations. I was reminded recently that God is ABLE to do what He said he would do and to do the unthinkable. He can bless in ways that we cannot fathom.
So I want to leave you today with the words that encouraged me, brought me out of my funk and gave me hope:
Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones (that’s US, y’all!) to Him belong
THEY ARE WEAK BUT HE IS STRONG!
Yes, it is because He is strong that I can afford the luxury of being “weak.” Sometimes, I feel like I always have to appear hard and strong, like I can handle whatever obstacle comes my way because I come from a long line of women who were made of stern stuff! Whew! And that pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality seemed to serve me well in the past. But I am learning, or rather re-learning, as this lesson has been with me since my childhood, to lean on Him and to let God bear these heavy loads that weigh me down. With every burden I cast off I am returning to my former self and becoming more carefree, for I have given my cares to Him. I am feeling more like me. So much so, that today I visualized myself yelling at my latest obstacle (in my Gerard Butler/Leonidas of 300 voice), “I. AM. LORIAAAAA!” ROAR! That thought makes me smile because I am back. And I am becoming a better me, but not due to being indomitable or indestructible. It is because He has shown me, once again, the beauty of giving it all over to Him. I can rest easier knowing that He is, as my brother once put it, the One who holds all of my tomorrows.
