Pretty Bubbles in the Air
There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches.
Prov. 13:7 (NKJV)
Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Tim. 6:6 (NKJV)
Yesterday, an old tune my Dad used to sing came to mind. It is a lovely tune, one I thoroughly enjoyed hearing him sing when I was a small boy. But then one day I really heard the words for the first time…and they were fraught with discouragement and disillusion. So, I wondered if Dad just liked the tune or if he somehow felt the impact of the lyrics.
The song goes like this…
I’m forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air
They fly so high, they reach the sky
Just like my dreams, they fade and die
Fortune’s always hiding,
I look everywhere
I’m forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air
Honestly, most of us have felt that way at one time or another, like all our efforts, schemes, and dreams were so many pretty bubbles, enjoyed for a few minutes, ascending higher and higher, only to burst into nothingness.
Solomon surely went through a period of such despondency. Having searched out all that the world had to offer and finding that it left him cold and empty inside, he penned observations that became the most downbeat book in the Bible…Ecclesiastes. The catch phrase and theme of the whole book is, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” Solomon compared chasing riches and pleasure and all that the world can offer to chasing the wind. You cannot catch it…and even if you do, what have you got?
But Solomon was living life, as he put it, “under the sun.”
God intends for you and me to live on a higher plain. He urges us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, trusting Him that all these other things will be ours as well. Paul found that gain without godliness was fleeting and troublesome, but godliness coupled with contentment was real wealth.
I don’t want to burst any bubbles today, but acquisitions, accolades and accomplishments don’t last. Nor do they bring real satisfaction.
Jesus does.
A Prayer for Today: “Lord Jesus, I do not wish to spend my time here on earth chasing pretty bubbles. Help me, Lord, to live my life on a higher plain. Help me to order my priorities so that the things that thrill me are the things of eternal value. And may I be content with such as I have, trusting You to meet my needs and take me still to higher ground! Amen.”
Sweet Escape
(Reprinted from 2003)
Do you remember the Chevrolet Tahoe commercials from a few years ago, the ones featuring a poem read by James Garner? The first time I heard the poem, I was smitten. I had to find out who wrote it, where it came from. I kind of thought it might be a Dr. Seuss offering I had missed along the way. It just smacked of his unusual poetic style. Turns out it is ad copy written by the heretofore unknown Patrick O’Leary. I wonder if he even knew the depths he had mined with such powerful simplicity.
The poem, entitled “Nobody Knows It But Me,” goes like this:
There’s a place that I travel,
When I want to roam
And nobody knows it but me.The roads don’t go there,
And the signs stay home
And nobody knows it but me.It’s far, far away and way, way afar,
It’s over the moon and the sea,
And wherever you are going,
That’s wherever you are
And nobody knows it but me.
I am sure these words stir about as many feelings in those who read them as there are life experiences. They carry in them a haunting sense of escapism.
Most people, I think, in the recesses of the mind, have some place to which they escape. It may be through something as purposeful as meditation or as incidental as day-dreaming. Since my earliest days, I have enjoyed a vivid imagination. I have lived parallel lives: the one in the “real” world of everyday experiences and the one in the world I have contrived. In that other world, the contrived world, I have been a lonesome cowboy on a dusty cattle drive, a dashing prince rescuing some distressed damsel, a heroic athlete winning it all, a bold general preserving a way of life, even a great evangelist, preaching to tens of thousands of hungry souls.
And until now, almost nobody knew it but me.
But the chord these words strike in my heart today is echoed in one of my favorite Psalms:
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. -Psalm 91:1
I read about that place where the roads don’t go and the signs stay home, that place that is out there beyond the everyday experiences of mundane life, and I think of that holy escape into the presence of God – an escape I have taken almost daily for over thirty years. It is a haven, a refuge.
Sometimes I have been driven there by maddening pain. A few times by devastating loss. Confusion has pushed me there. So has disappointment. But then there are those times when it is unmitigated, unspeakable joy that drives me to the secret place of the Most High. There are those simple moments of praise. Those peaceful moments of grace. Those times when my heart just wants to sing.
I have been there, alone with Him, at the sun’s rising, when the world is glistening in the morning dew and awakening to another day of grace . I have been there at sunset, the sky ablaze with His glory. I have stolen peaceful moments from hectic days. I have been there during a long drive across a vast Arizona desert, and on a leisurely walk around a small east Texas pond. I have lain in grassy meadows, squinting against the summer sun, and gone there. I have stood alone in a graveyard, a winter wind biting at my face, and drifted into the warmth of His presence.
I have even been there tonight, from this very chair, in this very office.
This great hymn captures the essence of what I am feebly trying to express here:
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! That calls me from a world of care, And bids me at my Father’s throne Make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, My soul has often found relief And oft escaped the tempter’s snare By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!
Do you have such an escape? I hope you do.
A Prayer for Today: “Father, thank You for being my holy Haven, my escape, my Comforter, my Roadmap, my Guide, my constant Companion. How I relish the time spent in holy communion with You! I need it, I want it, I promise not to forsake it. Amen.”
Something to Believe
The faces all around me they don’t smile they just crack
Waiting for our ship to come but our ship’s not coming back
We do have time like pennies in a jar
What are we saving forSo give me something to believe
Cause I am living just to breathe
And I need something more
To keep on breathing for
So give me something to believe
My personal journey into the dark regions of doubt revealed to me how utterly hopeless and void a faithless existence can be.
I learned that even the doubters have to believe in something…even if it is just believing in their doubt. We call people agnostics who find solace in uncertainty.
The word agnostic, while it is often professed by well educated people, is not a flattering term at all. It literally means, “Know nothing.” The consolation the agnostic finds is in his belief that if he doesn’t know, neither do you…no one knows. He is just intelligent or educated or brave enough to admit it.
Still, agnosticism is itself a belief system.
So is Atheism.
An Atheist has a belief system. He believes in chance and circumstance. He believes in the absence of deity and essentially asserts himself as his own “god.” He may not believe in God…but he believes in something.
I first came across the lyrics of the song with which I opened this entry while playing Madden on XBox. I don’t recall if it was ’08 or ’09 or…
I was struck by the gripping earnestness of the band (a group called Bravery, about which I know nothing) as they sang the song. There was such an urgency, such a need in the lyrics. How hopeless it all sounded. How maddeningly frustrating the songwriter’s and the singers’ pursuit of “truth” or meaning…
I am hiding from some beast
But the beast was always here
Watching without eyes
Because the beast is just my fear
That I am just nothing
Now its just what I’ve become
What am I waiting for
Its already done
I am so glad that the God I love and serve, even when I was trying every way in the world to distance myself from Him, gave me something to believe. He gave me something real, something tangible, something supported by too much evidence to dismiss.
He gave me Himself. Through all the deep valleys and dark twists and turns of my journey, He was there.
And He will be. I believe that…with all my heart.
You looking for something to believe? Looking for something real to sink your teeth into? Looking for terra firma upon which to plant your feet of faith?
I give you Jesus!
Look into Him. He is more than willing to be scrutinized, analyzed, examined, investigated. He can stand it. Look into the Scriptures. Consider the weight and the worth of the beautiful words of the Bible.
How sweet it is to say with the great Apostle Paul…
“I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” ~2 Timothy 1:12
And what exactly have I committed to him?
Everything!
He is my “something to believe.”
Outside the Camp with Christ
For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
Hebrews 13:11-13
Jesus suffered “outside the camp.” What a stark picture of loneliness and solitude. He suffered while hundreds, perhaps thousands, passed by. Yet, He suffered alone.
He was not in the camp. He was not in the mainstream. He was not among those who followed the popular school of thought in His day. He offered a radically different message: one of righteousness and mercy, judgment and forgiveness.
He loved the unlovely. He exposed hypocrisy. He told the truth.
Now, the writer of Hebrews stirs us to action. He rallies the Christian troops with the words, “Let US go to him, OUTSIDE the camp, BEARING his reproach.” Let us be less concerned about how we “look” to others, or that we might “appear” fanatical, or that we might not find ourselves in the “mainstream,” and more concerned with having a real, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
No one can have both.
You cannot walk with the “world” and Christ. He is always going to be outside the camp.
So, choose, my friend. Will it be Christ or the crowd? Are you willing to bear the abuse that accompanies surrender to His will and Word? Which do you desire more – a place in the camp today, or that city to come?
A Prayer For Today: Lord Jesus, I choose You. I will come to You and follow You regardless of the cost. No earthly acclaim or acknowledgement can take Your place in my life. And no human reproach can compare to the joy You give to me. Give me strength and grace, Lord. Amen.”
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The JourneyMan by D. Gene Strother is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at genestrother.com.
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