November 4, 2009

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

I turned back the hands of my wristwatch to comply with DST before hitting the sack on Saturday.

I noticed my $19.95 special's stem was missing on Monday.

Whichever comes first, time will run out for my watch when the battery expires or DST returns.

@#$%

Speaking of things that expire, I forgot all about the GOP until last night.

Acting like Cubs fans every March 15, Republicans are rollin' and spittin' in the aisles like renewed Pentecostals over big governorship wins in New Jersey and Virginia.

They lost the race in New York's 23rd Congressional District - which I think is somewhere near Montreal or Beloit or Nanticoke - but that wasn't surprising after the very hot Sarah who had her 15 minutes a year ago endorsed the guy who talked like purple Barney on hash and Newt who is not hot anymore endorsed the babe who dropped out so her true heart's desire could win which he did.

I looked at the hole where my watch's stem used to be.

I thought of the GOP.

@#$%

Kairos moment.

It's a spiritual reality fixed in time.

It refers to a special opportunity in time that comes from God.

It's the proverbial window of opportunity opened by God and shut by God if not...

It doesn't last forever.

For example, our family of faith has had several peace/unity/purity services over the past year including all of the musical gifts entrusted to us. This is a departure from our usual-normal-traditional-rote-my-way-or-the-highway three services that cater to the, uh, whatevers of folks who, obviously, forget He is the, uh, Source/Creator of organs, drums, guitars, horns, and all of the rest. In other words, including or excluding musical gifts and other liturgical graces says a lot about who is really running a local church.

Ouch.

Anyway, whenever we have one of those combined services, the sanctuary is packed and people are psyched.

Then we go back to...

Have you ever heard of the definition of insanity?

If you want to have some fun, ask someone who knows something about Greek to tell you about the synonym for laos.

Ouch.

When we grow up...

It's right there in 1 Corinthians 13.

@#$%

There's only so much time.

Yeah, I know all about the eternity deal.

But there's only so much time to love Jesus by loving like Jesus in time to prove we love Jesus for...uh...ever.

For example, I've had to fence some folks from leadership in churches because they thought loving Jesus entitled them to be mean and nasty to everybody else; and, recently, I was asked why I had enabled some guy to leave the church a few years ago.

I said, "Loving like Jesus to love Jesus is hardly expressed by being a prick."

Crude.

But the point was made.

@#$%

While studying in Rome so long ago, a priest gave a prayer-poem by another priest named Michel Quoist to me:

I went out, Lord.
Men were coming and going,
Walking and running.

Everything was rushing: cars, trucks, the street, the whole town,
Men were rushing not to waste time.

They were rushing after time,
To catch up with time,
To gain time.

Good-bye, Sir, excuse me, I haven't time.
I'll come back, I can't wait, I haven't time.
I must end this letter - I haven't time.
I'd love to help you, but I haven't time.
I can't accept, having no time.
I can't think, I can't read, I'm swamped, I haven't time.
I'd like to pray, but I haven't time.

You understand, Lord, they simply haven't the time.
The child is playing, he hasn't time right now...Later on...
The student has his courses, and so much work...Later on...
The young man is at his sports, he hasn't time...Later on...
The young married man has his new house; he has to fix it up.
He hasn't time...Later on...
The grandparents have their grandchildren. They haven't
time...Later on...
They are ill, they have their treatments, they haven't time...
Later on...
They are dying, they have no...
Too late!...They have no more time!

And so all men run after time, Lord.
They pass through life running - hurried, jostled, overburdened,
frantic, and they never get there. They haven't time.
In spite of all their efforts, they're still short of time,
Of a great deal of time.

Lord, You must have made a mistake in Your calculations.
There is a big mistake somewhere.
The hours are too short,
The days are too short,
Our lives are too short..

You who are beyond time, Lord, You smile to see us fighting it.
And You know what you are doing.
You make no mistakes in Your distribution of time to men.
You give each one time to do what You want him to do.
But we must not lose time
waste time,
kill time,
For time is a gift that You give us,
But a perishable gift,
A gift that does not keep.

Lord, I have time,
I have plenty of time,
All the time that You give me,
The years of my life,
The days of my years,
The hours of my days,
They are all mine.
Mine to fill, quietly, calmly,
But to fill completely, up to the brim,
To offer them to You, that of their insipid water
You may make a rich wine such as You made
once in Cana of Galilee.

I am not asking You tonight, Lord, for time to do
this and then that,
But Your grace to do conscientiously, in the time
that You give me, what You want me to do.

Sigh.

Selah.

@#$%

Remember Harold?

He was one of the two or three best associate pastors to serve avec moi over 30+ years; and when accused of preaching a sermon aimed at one particular prick in the church, he said without blinking to the, uh, irascible, irregular, and irreconcilable, uh, prick, "If the shoe fits..."

I'll never forget when he asked me about people who look kinda nice on the outside but are always raising everything but heaven as a hint that something's radically wrong on the inside.

You know.

The sneaky ones - wolves in...

They're kinda like those terrorist sleeper cells that slither into a church for a decade or two and then, when we least expect it, start raising hell and spiritualizing their personal prejudices paraded as prophecies.

Be that as it always is which is why Jesus gave that counsel in Matthew 10:16, I looked at my watch and then said to Harold, "If you have a problem with your watch, don't look at the hands. Look deeper!"

Saul looked pretty.

David did not.

Samuel said, "God likes people with good hearts."

The latest translation of that text which will appear in non-Christian bookstores later than sooner reads: "God likes people who act pretty rather than look pretty while acting like pricks."

Seriously.

@#$%

Time is running out for the Phillies.

How about you?

If He has shown you what He has just opened up for you...?

Whether it's His intentions for worship or fixing a relationship that you broke because of navel-gazing rationale or breaking those chains to whatever bondages have kept you from His freedoms or, uh, whatever, what are you waiting for?

It's time to stop living your life like a clause that ends in a preposition.

It's time to...

Well, that's for you to decide in concert with Him.

I know I'm never going to find my watch's stem.

Good.

@#$%



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