The Sounds of Daily Life

It's the sound of Tuesday, the trash men picking up the recyclable trash which means soon I will be hearing the sound of regular trash pick up.  The sounds of Wednesdays and Thursdays is the sounds of lawn maintenance on the green space and also on our own lawn.  Funny how we get used to the sounds of our days.  Today also had the sound of prayer and homework discussion and learning in our leadership time.  The sound of our servant team being that, servants.  Not afraid to get their hands involved in the physical side of ministry.  On Saturday morning for the welcome breakfast, the kitchen was a buzz with activity.  Peggy making pancakes, Dena making coffee and Roy frying bacon.  Someone asked me why I wasn't in the midst of the hub bub.  I told them this is one thing I learned being on a church staff....I cast the vision, a breakfast brunch and then I gave leadership to it by having others use their giftings in preparation.  I was there to answer any questions they might have and look good.  That's how you cast and give leadership.  Stuff like this seems to be more like a Ponzi scheme in the church world.  Cast and give, lead from rest...it's good if you are one of the first to discover this and not so good if you are on the bottom of the heap authority wise.  Sometimes no one cares that you worked really hard and your home life has a million responsibilities and a day of rest might be nice.  Oops, there is the sound of getting off track and distracted.  Did I just see a squirrel? 

Yes, the sounds of daily life.  I am enthralled with these passages from Galatians as paraphrased in The Message:

Galatians 5:16-18

The Message (MSG)

^16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

^19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
^22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
^23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.





Love reading this very familiar passage in The Message.  There is so much that jumps out to me in these scriptures but ugly parodies of community has my attention and legalism is helpless in bringing this about, has my attention as well.  This is out of the devo book Solo, that uses The Message and it goes through the New Testament giving things to pray through and to think about.  We've all seen ugly parodies of community...all the fakeness of community that isn't really getting along, but all parties know how community looks, so it is played out; it is a parody. 

Now I am hearing another sound of life...Buddy is meowing, so she must want a treat.  And really I need to be putting some stuff together for a future get a way.  Kathy in Brandon, MS, will you comment on this post with your email?  I won't publish it but need it to get in touch with you about our plans.