Hey! I am speaking to you out of the COVID fog! If any of you have had COVID-19 you know about the fog, the distracting effects and just the strangeness of symptoms. There is a thing called COVID Brain, and it it real. I have had some comical distractions. Thanks for your prayers and the love you have expressed!
Without being political, it is interesting to look at our history regarding people, issues, events and even movements that have captured people's attention. What I have determined is in our beauty, our capacity for love, our clumsy compassion, our falling to very low levels and then rising above even the heights we have set for ourselves is astounding. The song says, "It is true we are as fallen as an angel ... but you and me we're also holy as a prayer, made in the image of a giver and a lover who left His throne to come down here." Yet, we are easily distracted.
In the 60's there were people called Jesus Freaks. When you hear this term you may be like me ... "I wanna be one of those!" I heard a reference to Jesus Freaks during a Wednesday night message and I remember them ... I was there. I knew some of these people who talked a lot about Jesus, loved songs like "Spirit In The Sky" and "Jesus Is Just All Right By Me." They were a bit strange, very nice and I liked the Jesus Freaks that I associated with. That was the 60's. Fast forward to 2020. Where are these paragons of belief, following and trusting Jesus? 50 years later, what did the faith, influence, sacrifice and evangelism professed by Jesus Freaks actually do? Here's what I think. One of my Seminary professors used a saying ... "that group/movement/event was "a spiritual bubble bath a mile wide and an inch deep."" The movement lacked depth because the people were nice, did a pretty good job of the love/peace thing, sang good songs, had some pretty big gatherings where folks got baptized ... yet, the ripple effect on our nation, our society and our churches has not seemed to make much of a difference. Why?
Just a few points here ... 1) They lacked Biblical foundation of what Jesus said and did ... Jesus was an idea and an image of their own creation. John the Baptist had all of Jerusalem out to hear Him preach, and they went down into the water but came out the same as they went in (Matthew 3); 2) They had passion but the passion was not based on following what Jesus actually said (God says, "This is my son whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!" [Matthew 17:5]). God, in emphasis to Peter's distraction with Moses, Elijah and the hype of the moment, interrupts Peter, saying ... "Hey dude, listen to Jesus!"; 3) They thought they were 'radical' but had no idea of the radical calling of a Jesus who requires us to take up a cross, a yoke, a burden and a Holy calling.
In the end I have found we can learn stuff from cats. My cats are easily distracted. My cats are a bit like this all the time. I got them a flippidy fish. It is a rechargeable fabric fish that flips and flops around. Sundae loves it and even Simone will play with it at times. Whatever Sundae is doing, she will stop and go to the flippidy fish. I think this is so like us. We read a Facebook post that stirs us and we go "yea!" and repost (before we think). We hear a message that inspires us and makes us feel good, powerful, mad, incited, and we begin to equate that false-passion with truth. 50 years pass and we learn, to our horror, that Jesus is real, active, still alive, and that His commands (which we didn't know because we had made our Jesus in our image) were still and always true. We look down at the flippidy fish that has run out of juice and ask, "Wow, where was I for the past 50 years?"
Let's let Jesus be who He is. Let's learn and know Jesus' commands. Let's put away the flippidy fish. Let's follow, worship, love, learn, grow, serve, forgive and be a different kind of radical ... the kind of radical led by Jesus "The author and perfecter of our faith." Randy
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