I can play “peek-a-boo” on an airplane for hours. I was once an exhausted young mother trying to soothe two toddlers on long flights, and I cherished that tired businessman who sat behind us and peek-a-booed my daughters into happy giggles. Now it is my turn, and I have mad skills in catching that baby’s eye and playing until they drop exhausted into Mamma’s arms. I hide behind my hands, the safety demo card, the seats, and then pop up like a deranged jack-in-the-box. You didn’t see THAT one coming, did ya, little one? Like I said, mad skills.

Did you ever think that life is one long peek-a-boo game with God? We look around, searching for meaning, comfort, and help, and God is there already, looking right at us and saying, “I see you!”

The story of Zacchaeus is one long play of peek-a-boo. That wee little man was hoping to see Jesus one day as the Savior was passing down the street of his town. Being vertically challenged, he climbed up in a tree to get a better view. Images of kids being held on a parent’s shoulders to watch the fireworks at Disney World come flooding into my mind when I read this. Why do I always manage to stand behind the 6’3″ dad hoisting his five year old up? Suddenly, I’M Zacchaeus. Peek-a-boohoo, I don’t see nuthin’. Oh, well, better for the child to see than me.

I digress.

So Zacchaeus, going out on a limb as it were, is watching the Jesus parade when the unthinkable happens: Jesus sees him. Peek-a-BAM! Can you even imagine? And immediately, Jesus, being Jesus, invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house for lunch. (That would have flown me into a deep panic. Is the house vacuumed? Do I have anything in the fridge to eat? What exactly do you serve the Savior of the World for lunch?? Definitely not ham.)

Luke 19:1 Jesus was going through Jericho, 2 where a man named Zacchaeus lived. He was in charge of collecting taxes and was very rich. 3-4 Jesus was heading his way, and Zacchaeus wanted to see what he was like. But Zacchaeus was a short man and could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree.

5 When Jesus got there, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down! I want to stay with you today.” 6 Zacchaeus hurried down and gladly welcomed Jesus.

7 Everyone who saw this started grumbling, “This man Zacchaeus is a sinner! And Jesus is going home to eat with him.”

8 Later that day Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “I will give half of my property to the poor. And I will now pay back four times as much to everyone I have ever cheated.”

9 Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today you and your family have been saved, because you are a true son of Abraham. 10 The Son of Man came to look for and to save all people who are lost.”

How does it feel to know that you are SEEN? Sometimes in counseling, the best thing you can tell someone is, “I see your pain.” That acknowledgment of their reality often brings forth a flood of deeply hidden emotions, enabling the healing to begin.

Jesus sees you in all of your Zacchaeus-like “short” comings. He sees your current situation and he is waiting for you to look up and see him. Jesus was never afraid to get down and dirty with sinners, even though he was staunchly criticized for it. He had a very clear vision of his own mission: to come to LOOK for and to SAVE all who are lost.

This is the mission of his followers as well. We have no greater calling than to LOOK for and SAVE all who are lost.

About 20 years ago a man came to me after the 11:00 Sunday worship service, and he was hotter than a Georgia hornet in July. He demanded very loudly that I immediately “cancel his church membership”…like we were the Y or something. I calmly asked him why, and he explained very angrily that he noticed in the bulletin that the couple who had joined that hour had the same address, yet they were unmarried.

I told him that the Methodist church had no prohibition against unmarried co-habitors joining the church. He fumed that we were CONDONING SIN by ALLOWING THEM TO JOIN, and he would have no part in it. I quietly asked him, if we didn’t allow sinners to join the church, what was the point? I pointed out that if being sin-free was a requirement, all the pastoral staff would have to resign. The next Sunday he joined the a small, independent church down the street and is probably still happily there today.

Listen, if you attend a church that excludes any sinner from Jesus’ mission to look for and save all who are lost, find a better church. EVERYONE is lost, everyone has fallen short and everyone deserves to be seen, heard, loved, cared for, served, included, and saved.

Jesus’ call to the sinner Zacchaeus had a great sense of urgency: “Zacchaeus, hurry down! I want to stay with you today.” It is a reminder that we should not delay. The time is now to bring the presence of Jesus into your present reality, and let him inspire you to make real, significant change like Zacchaeus did.

So wherever you are today, whether you are mired in sin or sitting high on a lofty tree limb of your own self-righteousness, get off it. Jesus sees you and is calling, ready to come to you. Salvation is at hand. Peek-a-boo!

The tree at the end of my street. Photo by Teresa Holloway.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

This beautiful prayer is a hallmark of 12 Step groups such as AA. The origin of it is somewhat disputed, but look at this longer prayer written by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.

Trusting that You will make all things right, if I surrender to Your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

The pursuit of serenity and peace is something that consumes many of us, with little to no results. The reason may be that we are using the wrong things to find it. Hoping to find serenity in alcohol, drugs, food, “retail therapy”, inappropriate relationships, overworking, over exercising, attempting to control everything around us….even the list itself is exhausting.

I know someone who religiously gets up every morning to pour over every single page of a national newspaper, thinking that intellectual pursuit of answers to her anxiety about the current state of affairs will bring her peace. It does not. I know someone else who is up at the crack of dawn to exercise, followed by more cardio work and group classes throughout the day, in hopes that physical exhaustion will settle her mind down. It does not. Neither will the every afternoon Happy Hour routine, the weed smoked before class, the sexting, the pornography, the overspending, the undereating…..nothing we can produce or manufacture will bring us true peace. It is all lies, smoke, and mirrors fueled by industries who are just trying to produce more consumption of useless things.

Niebuhr was right. Accepting hardship, rather than denying it, is the pathway to peace. Living one day at a time, rather than spinning with worry about tomorrow, will lead us to serenity. Enjoying one moment at a time, rather than comparing that moment to the fun everyone on Fakebook seems to be having, will lead to acceptance of the world as it is. And the key? “Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will.”

Take a look at verses 3 and 4 of this passage from Isaiah. Note that the voice changes in this passage; verse 1 and 2 describes what is happening, verse 3 addresses God, and verse 4 addresses us.

Isaiah 26

1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

    he sets up salvation

    as walls and bulwarks.

2 Open the gates,

    that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.”

3 You keep him in perfect peace

    whose mind is stayed on You,

    because he trusts in You.

4 Trust in the Lord forever,

    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

To be kept in this perfect peace, our minds must be “stayed” on God. The Hebrew word “sawmak” comes from the root “to prop,” and is translated as “to lean upon or take hold of; to bear up, establish, uphold, lay, lean, lie hard, put, rest self, set self, stand fast, stay, sustain.” (Strong’s Dictionary)

So, what sustains your mind? What do you lay your mind upon? What does your mind stand fast upon? What is your mind leaning on? To have perfect peace, your mind can’t just occasionally visit the Lord; it has to be STAYED on him. Keeping your mind, heart, soul and activity wholly centered on God is the way to peace.

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.Photo by Michelle Robertson.

Saturdays in the summer on the Outer Banks are known as “change-over day.” This is the day when the vast majority of our beach rentals change renters. Ten o’clock AM is check out time, and the cleaners, inspectors and rental agents work like mad to get the cottages ready for the next wave of guests. Three o’clock PM is check in time, when thousands of visitors descend upon our islands like a happy plague of burnt out locusts who have waited all year long for this one week of paradise.

Because of the relatively short time between check out and check in, the folks who live and work here become trapped in the frenetic energy of the migration of people in and out. The traffic rivals New York City on a good day, the bridges are stop and go, and the bypass becomes its own circle of hell. And I mean that in a purely Dante-esk, theological way. See, if you’re a pastor and you mention hell, it ain’t cussin’. It’s theology.

We are extremely grateful for this chaos, as it means prosperity for our locals. Tourism is our strongest economy, with construction a distant second. We depend on our visitors, cherish the choice they make to come to the Outer Banks, and rely on the influx of income. Still, having said that, change-over day is a significant challenge.

Did you know that with Jesus, every day is change-over day?

Ephesians 4:22-24 The Message (MSG)

20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

This scripture accurately describes change as a process of being renewed from the inside, which then works its way outside in your conduct. God is the agent of change, and your metamorphosis is one where his character is being reproduced in you.

Scary, huh?

To realize that to submit to God’s molding and making of you will result in his character being reproduced in you is daunting. After all, God is the author of unconditional love, generous giving, whole-life sacrifice, and peace making. That’s a lot of character change for most of us.

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be immediate. It won’t be overwhelming. Discipleship is a life long marathon of getting up every morning and putting your Jesus shoes on, one foot at a time. There is no sprint involved here, but a patient, every day kind of progression where each day you look a little more like Jesus and a little less like you.

This is why I believe that daily devotionals are so important. We need to fuel ourselves for this journey by feasting on God’s Daily Bread every day.

We locals like to complain a lot about change-over day, and we love to share stories (“It took me five hours to get to the Publix, and it’s only 3 miles from my house!! And when I got there, the aisles were all blocked by families of nine who were arguing over what cereal and brand of mayonnaise to buy!”) Yeah, we get it.

But in the end, visitors finally reach their beautiful destinations, locals make it back home, and eventually we all get where we are going.

Where are you going? How is your discipleship journey coming along? Stuck on a bridge somewhere? Don’t give up. You see, the one thing about this change that you are being called to make is that Christ is on the bypass with you. And the good news about Jesus is that he promised to be with you always, and he NEVER changes.

Photo by Tammy Ball-Olving.

In the category of Stranger Things, I have a weird confession. When I took my first Bible survey course in seminary, I developed little memory tricks for remembering the themes of each of the New Testament books. For example, for Hebrews, I remembered “HE (is) B(ett)ER (than the)RESt, which roughly spells out HEBREWS, if you misspell it. Hebrews is based on the superiority of Christ over angels, Old Testament prophets, etc. So, he is better than the rest!

For Galatians, I tapped into my love of science fiction and especially Battlestar Galactica. What was their mission? To free humanity from the evil robot Cylons; thus Galatians is about freedom. Laugh if you will, but I got an A!

Let us see what Galatians has to say about freedom, as we celebrate freedom today:

Galatians 5:16-18 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. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. (The Message)

There is so much meat on this bone, we may need to come back to it another day. But for now, look again at first three verses.

The writer of Hebrews is contrasting freedom with self-interest. “There is a root of self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit.” That is pure genius. Think of all the places in life where people imprison themselves; the genesis of those places is likely to be rooted in some selfish, self absorbed, self-interested behavior. Addictions begin when we indulge in a dangerous behavior. Adultery starts with that need for the adrenaline rush of someone’s flattering interest. Family disputes happen when one family member feels entitled to what the all the rest should receive. Arguments ensue when we think our opinion is more valuable, right and superior to someone else’s opinion. Betrayals happen when self-absorbed desires assert themselves over the common good. Basically, nothing good comes from selfishness.

In contrast, Christ offers a life of freedom. He came to set us free from sin, from death and mostly from ourselves. We are encouraged to pursue a life lived fully in the Spirit, which offers affection for others, exuberance for life, and SERENITY.

So before the parade-watching, flag-waving, fireworks extravaganza begins, ask yourself this: where am I lacking freedom in my life? I bet that if you trace that back, there will be selfishness at the root; either your own, or somebody else’s.

The cross is as much a symbol as the flag. As we lift one high today, let us lift higher the other.

Photo by Michelle Robertson.

According to the Urban Dictionary, “Adulting” is defined as;

Adulting (v): to carry out one or more of the duties and responsibilities expected of fully developed individuals (paying off that credit card debt, settling beef without blasting social media, etc). Exclusively used by those who adult less than 50% of the time.

So first of all, that definition is hilarious. They had me at “settling beef without blasting on social media.” Urban Dictionary, I’m all in.

“Adulting” is a phrase we use now to describe doing the mundane tasks that responsible people get done. When we choose to stay in one night to write bills rather than go to the bars with friends, we are adulting. It is heavily used by people transitioning from living at home under their parents’ care to independent living, with all of its layers of responsibility. Older people just call this “priorities”, but adulting is a fun, new, and fresh way to describe basically just doing what’s right. So adulting can/should happen at any age. And yes, adulting is hard.

Did you know that adulting is addressed in the Bible? Check it out:

2 Peter 1:3-11 The Message (MSG)

Don’t Put It Off

3-4 Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.

5-9 So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.

10-11 So, friends, confirm God’s invitation to you, his choice of you. Don’t put it off; do it now. Do this, and you’ll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Christian adulting includes good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love. What a marvelous list of adult qualities we are all called to embrace!

Alert discipline is that thing that moves you to pay off your credit card rather than charge the cute boots you can’t afford. Passionate patience allows you to be in a relationship with someone and negotiate your differences. Warm friendliness will woo others to you and to the Lord of your life. Good character will keep you out of jail. Spiritual understanding will help you withstand the storms and trials of your life. Reverent wonder will enable you to see God in the stars and the sunsets. But generous love? Generous love rules over all, and when we take that on, we are Jesus to the world.

Where do you see yourself on that list? What aspects of your faith journey need more work? We are all a work in progress. The good news is, Jesus is the Master, with every tool we need to do this maturing in faith thing. Let him work on you, building on what you’ve been given. Jesus’ invitation is clear: grow up!

The reverent wonder of a sunset over the sound. Photo by Michelle Robertson.

Once upon a time in the Land of Haas, there lived a small junkyard dog named Annie. Annie had been abandoned at a Methodist church camp, and was being cared for by the camp ranger. The ranger’s wife named her Little Orphan Annie, but did not want to keep her for long since they already owned a dog. A hound dog. Named Elvis. Ain’t nothin’ like a hound dog.

Along came a pastor and her daughters, who immediately fell in love with Annie, and the love was mutual. Poor Daddy had no choice but to agree to Annie coming home to the Land of Haas, especially after he got out of the car to meet her for the first time and she ran straight to him and sat on his foot, looking up with pleading eyes. From that time on, Annie was ours. I mean his.

Annie was a wild thing. Her months roaming the camp had turned her into a dog who passionately loved her family and passionately hated all things not-family. She was of the dogschool of thought that it was better to be all bark and perhaps bite. This was sharply evident when Annie competed in the Third Grade Dog Show at school. Her antisocial side came out in full force, and her misbehavior around the better behaved dogs caused Daddy to have to practically sit on her on the far side of the field, as far away from the other dogs as they could get.

She still won a participation ribbon. Sometimes just showing up is enough.

In my early morning meditation, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the the Apostle Paul actually wrote about Annie. For real! Who knew? Her own greatness surpasses itself:

Phillipians 3:2-6 “Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.

7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.” The Message

Dog dung! Paul said dog dung! (OK, Eugene Peterson said dog dung, but it fits!) His beef was with the Jewish authorities, and the new Christian community that was trying to impose the old structure of law and ritual (claiming that non-Jewish believers had to be circumcised before they could be part of the new church that was forming) on this newfound freedom they were offered in Christ. Everything he had once thought was important, he was now throwing away. His old life did not work anymore. Jesus said, “Behold, I make all things new,” and Paul was a living, breathing example of that. Old Saul used the law to persecute others. New Paul threw all that away to know Christ personally and to experience his resurrection power.

What aspects of your old life are you still clinging to? Does a spirit of judgement, superiority, know-it-all-ness, entitlement, or prejudice keep you from full participation in Christ’s kingdom? Is there some hypocrisy in your witness that needs to be addressed? What needs to be thrown in the trash so that you can completely and fully embrace Christ, and be embraced by him? I think Paul’s story teaches us that you can teach an old dog new tricks. It never worked for Annie, but it will for you.

God calls us to forgo the petty, inferior brand of righteousness that the Sunday-only pew-sitters have, and go ALL IN for a seven-day-a-week practice of loving, serving, giving, growing and living-out-scripture kind of life. Don’t be an Annie. God has so much more to offer than a participation trophy. Be a Paul, and press on toward the higher goal of knowing Christ, and being fully known by him.

Proverbs 17:1 “Better a bite of dry bread eaten in peace than a family feast filled with strife.”

A Guide to Forced Family Fun!

This week is a time for many folks to travel to their family for a 4th of July mini-reunion. According to Group Travel.org, Independence Day is a top weekend for these gatherings, as the summer weather is nice, children are out of school, and travel is easier and cheaper. Only Thanksgiving out-ranks the 4th for family reunions, or as my daughter called it one time she didn’t want to go, “Forced Family Fun”. The upside is getting to eat wonderful family dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation, seeing the kids growing up right before your eyes, and spending time with your loved ones. The down side is eating too much of the wonderful family dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation, watching the kids not get along right before your eyes, and spending time with your loved ones.

Let’s face it: family gatherings can bring a certain kind of stress along with the joy of being together. And because the writer of Proverbs seems to be speaking right into this situation this morning, let’s set some ground rules for our time together with our families. I can’t prove it, but I bet any money he wrote it one Passover weekend sitting on the clay tile roof of his family homestead in Jerusalem with the heel of a day old loaf of bread in one hand and his quill in the other, thanking the Lord for the momentary quiet of having escaped the bickering going on in the house below him. Just sayin’.

So here are some ground rules:

1. Stop toxic complaining. Complaining about one family member to neutral parties only spreads the toxin. Pretty soon that neutral party is angry, too, and without direct cause. Toxic complaining gets you nowhere and pulls others in the family down. In Matthew, Jesus tells us to get up and go deal with it:

Matthew 5:23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

Notice he doesn’t say to pull everyone else into it. Just get up, ask for a quiet conversation, and reconcile your issue.

2. Choose your battles.

2.A. Not everything is a battle.

2.B. In fact for 48-72 hours, NOTHING has to be a battle. Gatherings are not the time to even the score, get one-up on someone who put you down at last year’s picnic, or settle old grievances. Families are by very nature dysfunctional. When something irritates you, position yourself in a safe neutral zone, which is probably in the kitchen doing cleanup or taking out the trash. Just walk away.

3. Respect the no-fly zone. Every family has subjects that should be off limits. The crazy cousin’s drinking, the polar opposite politics (Lord, have mercy!), tattoos, religion, the argument at Thanksgiving ten years ago, everybody’s Ex, etc. Just don’t fly there, or someone is sure to get shot down. Sometimes it’s helpful to even name these subjects at the beginning and declare them off limits for the weekend. That can serve as a line in the sand that everyone recognizes and agrees not to cross. There are so many positive things to talk about! Focus there.

4. Nobody will have changed much since last time. The sister who doesn’t lift a finger to help, the brother who never picks up the check, the aunt who tells the same story over and over and over in exacting detail, the cringe worthy bickering of the husband and wife that spills out into the open, etc. It will all be there. You can’t change those family dynamics, but what you can control is your reaction to it. So be kind. Be generous. Be humble. Be thankful. Be willing to share the unconditional love of God with everyone. Be attentive to the fact that people’s negative traits might be hiding a great deal of pain. Be humorous! Be Jesus. Be blessed.

Stars and Stripes over Colington.

The main ingredient of these devotionals is scripture, but my favorite part of this morning devotional-writing routine is making that first cup of coffee and sitting down in my chair by the corner windows that overlook the harbor. With a steaming cup of joe in one hand, I begin to pray-write, and look to see where God is taking us each day. I know that many of you read these writings first thing in the morning, and I imagine you in a comfortable spot with your own cup of “cawfee regulah,” as they say in New York. BTW, “coffee regular” is caffeinated coffee with two sugars and two creams. That’s what it takes to wake up in New York.

And since we’re learning about all things coffee this morning, the phrase “cup of joe” comes from the morphing of “java” and “jamoke,” according to Snopes:

“Of the two best theories, jamoke morphing into joe is the strongest contender thanks to this find by linguist Michael Quinion: “It is significant that an early example appears in 1931 in the Reserve Officer’s Manual by a man named Erdman: ‘Jamoke, Java, Joe. Coffee. Derived from the words Java and Mocha, where originally the best coffee came from.’”

We only do serious research here at At Water’s Edge, people.

Coffee is an amazing industry now. Back in the ancient of days, during a period of history before Starbucks (known as B.S.), folks usually made a cup of something called “Chock Full of Nuts” or “Maxwell House” at home and then got on with their day. Now we have Starbucks beckoning us from every corner, and the Starbucks culture has become prevalent everywhere. Children now learn to say Caramel Macchiato and Grande, Iced, Sugar-Free Vanilla Latte With Soy Milk before they say dog and cow. Next time you are in a public setting, take note of how many people are carrying the famous Starbucks cup with their names misspelled on the side. Starbucks reported 4.52 billion dollars in sales last year. We prize our caffeine, depend on our caffeine, need our caffeine, and kinda worship our caffeine. And coffee shops everywhere are at our service.

Apparently there was no coffee in Biblical times, which may explain all of the fighting that went on in the Old Testament. The writers of the Psalms, however, were very in touch with their need for a morning cup of God:

Psalm 143

A psalm of David.

1 Lord, hear my prayer,

    listen to my cry for mercy;

in your faithfulness and righteousness

    come to my relief.

2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,

    for no one living is righteous before you.

3 The enemy pursues me,

    he crushes me to the ground;

he makes me dwell in the darkness

    like those long dead.

4 So my spirit grows faint within me;

    my heart within me is dismayed.

5 I remember the days of long ago;

    I meditate on all your works

    and consider what your hands have done.

6 I spread out my hands to you;

    I thirst for you like a parched land.

7 Answer me quickly, Lord;

    my spirit fails.

Do not hide your face from me

    or I will be like those who go down to the pit.

8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,

    for I have put my trust in you.

Show me the way I should go,

    for to you I entrust my life.

9 Rescue me from my enemies, Lord,

    for I hide myself in you.

10 Teach me to do your will,

    for you are my God;

may your good Spirit

    lead me on level ground.

11 For your name’s sake, Lord, preserve my life;

    in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.

12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;

    destroy all my foes,

    for I am your servant.

Out of everything that is beautiful in this passage, this verse absolutely sings:

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my faith in you.

What might your day look like if you made that your prayer? Think about all the routine tasks you have to do today: work, relationships, chores, child-rearing, etc. How might all of these things be if you woke up every day and asked God to teach you his will, and to use his good spirit to lead you on level ground? What if you poured a hot, steaming cup of asking God to show you the way to go every morning with the same faithfulness and regularity you apply to drinking coffee?

Prevenient grace assures us that God is already present in your day, waking you up and wooing you to his side. So take a sip, savor the flavor, and settle into his promises. In God, we find our hiding place, our life preserver, the silencer of our enemies, the one who brings relief, and the one who hears our cries for mercy. And that, my friend, is better than caffeine.

My mother-in-law gave me this favorite mug. She carried it back from Harrod’s in London.

I remember a time when the temperature and the humidity were reported separately, and you had to do a mental calculation about how it would feel outside. Then a meteorologist developed something called the “Real Feel,” which is a combination of both numbers into one. Also known as the heat index, the “humiture,”and the “assessment of sultriness” (no, that is not a ratings system for Netflix Originals), the Real Feel is an indication of how quickly your mascara will melt in high temperatures/high humidity situations. This is not helping. Yesterday in Orlando, the Real Feel was 105. I didn’t need to know that. In fact, the minute I became aware, I fled to the air conditioning.

There is something about the reality of my circumstance vs. how I thought things were going that was immediately unpleasant. I didn’t feel nearly as hot before I read the Real Feel as I did the instant that number came up on Accuweather. 105!!! I’m turning into ash!

Paul has an interesting discussion with the people at Colossae on how things feel vs. how things really are. The new Christians there were struggling with the overlaying of human traditions, rules, and obstacles onto the reality of their new circumstance. Their reality was that they had all been redeemed by Christ and were living a new, free life in him. These layers of oppressive laws and practices by others only resulted in the heat index rising unnecessarily. The true measure of their situation was a new, cool, unburdened existence as part of the Body of Christ:

6-7 My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

8-10 Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.

11-15 Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

16-17 So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.

I love the instruction to “watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything.” Isn’t that a pretty perfect description of social media?And what passes for the “news”? All this arguing, all this vitriol! Honestly, have you ever changed somebody’s mind (or had yours changed) by exchanging hot words and humid barbs? Yeah, me neither.

So go and do what you’ve been taught! School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it. Some of us think we can’t start our lives of freedom and service until we understand it better; we want one more Bible Study before we sign up for a mission trip, another year of listening to sermons before we share our faith with someone, more time in Sunday School before we offer to teach the kids…..nope. Stop laying on a heaviness of ritual and hoop jumping and start living the life to which you’ve been called. The present reality of our circumstance is Christ crucified. That’s it. And with that, we can weather anything.

Pink sunset over Kitty Hawk Bay. Photo by Michelle Robertson.

A few months ago I was interviewed by a reporter from NPR on the subject of evacuating during a hurricane. Bizarre, right? She contacted the church and said that she would be in our area interviewing “community leaders” on the subject of mandatory vs. voluntary evacuations, and would I agree to be interviewed? I was so thrilled to know that NPR considers local pastors to be community leaders, that of course I said yes. She was interested in my congregation’s response to hurricane warnings and whether we shelter in place or flee.

I told her that I have observed my people “hunkering down” if their families have been here for generations, while folks like me, who moved here from another area, tend to evacuate. My interview won’t air until the next time a hurricane is headed our way, in which case I will probably never hear it, since I will either be 1. gone or 2. without electricity.

We are officially in hurricane season here on the Outer Banks, which will run through November 30th. The beauty of our daily surroundings on this little sand bar will go from unspeakable views to untenable conditions in a matter of hours. Everyone on the island will be faced with two choices. Hunkering down means not leaving your property and risking total destruction, flooding, loss of power for days, downed power lines, and possibly death. Evacuation means abandoning your property, bunking in with your inland relatives or paying for a hotel for an unforeseen number of days or weeks, the inconvenience of not being at home, and the possibility that you won’t be allowed back over the bridge for a very long period of time. That last thing is the most troublesome. Once you leave, the bridges close indefinitely, and you may not be able come home for days or weeks after the storm has passed. Not an easy choice. The stress is immeasurable.

Life often brings other kinds of stressful storms that bring us to the same decision point. Should I stay in this unhappy marriage, or flee? Should I do one more round of debilitating chemo, or stop here? Should I bail my addicted daughter out one more time, or walk away? Do I continue to engage my rebellious son, or stand firm on my house rules?

Hunkering down is a period of waiting something out. It requires patience, courage, a willingness to endure further damage before things are set right, and fortitude. Sometimes the only way something can ever be repaired is by refusing to give up.

Fleeing is a self-protective response to damage that is unstoppable. Fleeing can be the only way out when the winds and rising waters are sure to engulf you, pull you under, and not let go. Fleeing is a pro-active way of taking your life back and moving forward into a future with hope.

In either case, remember this:

Psalm 46: 1-11

1 God is our refuge and strength,

    a very present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,

    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam,

    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

    the holy habitation of the Most High.

5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;

    God will help her when morning dawns.

6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;

    he utters his voice, the earth melts.

7 The Lord of hosts is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,

    how he has brought desolations on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

    he burns the chariots with fire.

10 “Be still, and know that I am God.

    I will be exalted among the nations,

    I will be exalted in the earth!”

11 The Lord of hosts is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

So whether God leads you to hunker down in your storm, or evacuate to safety, do one thing: be still. Be still, and know that God is God. Be still and remember that Jesus once told a storm to stop raging. Be still and find his peace. Just BE STILL.