Just Start…

This blog entry was started in the mid 80’s… 86 or 87, somewhere around there… in a meeting room of the Forum (the student union building) at Grinnell College… I don’t remember the guy’s name, he was the friend of a friend who had come to our guys Bible study that day, but he was in a world of hurt over a girl he loved but had lost due to some bad choices on his part. He made a point of telling us that he wasn’t normally ‘religious’ but in his anguish he had pulled out his Bible and come across one of the episodes in Elijah’s life… 19th chapter of 1 Kings… Elijah is on the run from Jezebel, who has vowed to kill him, and he is finally worn out and drops in the desert and cries out to die.. God sends an angel to his side and… this is the part that had lit this guy’s eyes up… the angel said only “Get up and eat.” (1 Kings 19:5) I remember thinking that this was pretty mundane as far as pronouncements from angels go but this guy was fired up about it. Apparently, he had been pretty much lying in the dark for a couple of days, just hoping to fade away, when these angel’s words spoke to him… get up… eat something… life goes on, continue living, get up, eat something, just start…

How many times have I had a dream or a plan or a New Years Resolution or a goal but decided that I could never achieve it, so I quit before I really even started? From the starting line, the finish looks so far away… and for some reason, I always feel that I must start the race by finishing it, does that make sense? But you can’t finish the race without taking those first steps… you can’t finish until you start…

If I am daunted by the economy and how the income looks, I can be overwhelmed with the need to book 120 gigs for the coming year. But to book 120, I start at 1. I can be daunted when I am considering a new CD project, the songs needed, the budget required, etc… but a finished CD starts with me picking up a guitar tonight. My sons can be freaked out when facing the looming years of Jr Hi, Sr Hi, College and possibly grad school beyond that… but that all starts with school on Monday. A long lasting marriage is a huge goal, but it starts with a kind word and servant’s heart towards my wife today. A life lived in the shadow of Christ isn’t necessarily attainable by lunch time, but it starts with a choice to act like Jesus now. Just start…

Regardless of what the car commercials say about 0 to 60, people can’t live that way. We don’t go from start to finish that fast. Whatever the trials you face, whatever the goals you are looking at, whatever the road you are walking… you don’t begin at the finish line. Maybe you are in the middle of the darkness, you have lost a loved one, or given something up that you never should have treated carelessly, maybe like Elijah you are at the end of your rope… remember the words of the angel “Get up and eat”… To finish the race, the first thing you must do is just start…

Out-of-Touch or Old Code?

I often have the following conversation:

Them: What do you do?
Me: I’m a musician.
Them: Oh! That’s cool! What kind of music do you play?
Me: Christian rock…
Them: oh… that’s… interesting. Hm.

Often, at this point, the person gets a somewhat glassy-eyed look and tries to figure out a way to disentangle themselves from the conversation.

On occasion I have even been told outright that as a Christian I am just simply out of touch with reality, with the real world, with our very modern and enlightened world. And truth be told, there are probably many more who think it but are too polite to voice it. Out of touch… Hmm… I wonder…

Anyone remember the movie ‘Dragonheart’? I loved that movie, the fantasy of it, the adventure, the voice of Sean Connery as Draco the dragon… there is a moment in the movie when Dennis Quaid, as the hero Bowen, tells the young prince Einon that they are knights of the Old Code and strives to impress upon the boy those ideals. As the movie progresses we discover that Einon is not interested in the Old Code at all and they have, in essence, the conversation I started this post with. Bowen is old fashioned, Bowen is foolish, Bowen is naive and simple minded, that both Bowen and the Old Code are out of touch… the conclusion of the movie, in part, centers on Bowen’s personal struggle to answer this accusation.

I am also reminded of the fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia, “The Silver Chair”, by CS Lewis. Again we have a young prince, this time taken prisoner by an evil sorceress who hopes to use him to ensnare the land of Narnia. Puddleglum, a marshwiggle, acts as a guide and protector for the two English children that Aslan has called to rescue the prince. At a crucial point, the heroes are facing down the villains in their underground kingdom, with the fate of the Prince and Narnia in the balance, and the sorceress tells them that all of their talk of Narnia and Aslan are just fanciful dreams that children create based on the ‘real world’ around them… for example, their comments about a ’sun’ in the sky are just dreams that are based on the light in the corner of the room… the sun is fantasy while the light in the corner is the reality… Puddleglum, when faced with this accusation tells the sorceress,

“One word, Ma’am, one word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

Reminds me of three Hebrews about to be thrown into a furnace by a king who tried to get them to deny their God… they said “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)

Out of touch… babies playing games… unable to function in a modern, enlightened society…  no, I reject those characterizations outright. As a Christ follower I am a believer in a very old Code. And if faith, love, kindness, purity, integrity, self sacrifice, and Christ on the Cross are just the musings of the weak and foolish then I, along with Bowen, Puddleglum, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and 2,000 years worth of believers who loved their lives less than their Lord say proudly, “I’m on Jesus’ side even if there isn’t any Jesus to lead it. I’m going to live as like a citizen of Heaven as I can even if there isn’t any Heaven.”

Out of touch? No way, I’m Old Code.