Tag Archives: devotional

Regarding Windshields, Bugs and the Cross

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

My office has a seasonal issue with stink bugs. The thing that stinks the most about stink bugs is not that they stink. They are aggressive little suckers.

Tonight I was sitting in my office minding my own business writing a blog when suddenly I was under attack. I ducked his first dive bomb attack but the menacing little drone was on a mission. He just kept coming. Suddenly I was out of my chair swatting at the thing with a packet full of prayer requests.

Mr. Stink bug was undeterred by my warning salvo. He circled around at the entrance to my office door and made a stink-bug -line for my face. I held up my prayer shield and swatted. Prayer requests flew willy-nilly out of the packet as the bug connected with my weapon of mass destruction. When all the prayer requests had settled to the office floor like autumn leaves I found my tiny enemy wounded and trying to limp as fast as he could out of my sites.

“Oh no you don’t!” I cried and with three swift swats I dispatched the little terrorist to whatever hell bugs go to.

Satisfied I shut out the lights to my office and headed home.

On the ride home Holy Spirit began to talk to me, “You shouldn’t have killed the bug.”

“Oh come on Lord. It was a bug!” Was my swift retort.

“This isn’t about the bug. It is about your attitude.” He said.

The Mary Chapin Carpenter song started playing in my head almost instantly.

Then God said, “You always want to be the windshield. You want to be the Louisville Slugger. You always want to come out on top. How does that fit with my words ‘in humility esteem others greater than yourself.’ or ‘If a man strikes you on one cheek turn to him the other also’ ?”

As I have been meditating on that tonight the question comes to mind, “What if Jesus had insisted on being the windshield? What if he had called 10,000 angels to His side instead of going to the cross? Where would we bugs be then?”

Of course Jesus didn’t do that. He gave up his windshield moment to become the bug. He bore his cross. He calls us to bear ours.

I hope you understand this post isn’t really about bugs. It’s about those moments in life when we have the power to win but using the power is simply the wrong thing to do. It’s about those moments when we have the opportunity to be the windshield but God calls us to be the bug instead.

Jesus’ cross looked like a loss.

Your cross will look the same.

Jesus could have done something to get rid of His cross.

Chances are God is going to give you the same opportunity to get rid of yours.

In that moment as you consider your cross just remember, sometimes we need to lose a little to gain a lot. Sometimes we have to be the bug.

The In-Betweeney Spaces

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

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Most mornings this month I have been driving to work in a car covered with a thick fall dew that seems to have the ability to permeate glass! The gentle night-rain from Heaven has become a bothersome oily layer that smears when I use the wipers and wraps itself into the interior cabin as soon as I open the door to get in the van. It would be a problem easily addressed if I could just crank up the defrost or simply open the window. Here’s the thing, the season is such that it is too hot to turn the defrost up to full power and too cold to keep the windows down. We are in one of the in-betweeney spaces, one of those places where no solution easily addresses the issue at hand.

Life is full of in -betweeney spaces: Times when it’s too dark for us to go without a light but to light for a lamp to effectively shine in the gloaming;  Situations where people have done us wrong but nothing so bad that anyone else thinks our anger is justified; Times when we are sick and feel generally crumby but we are not sick enough that the doctor takes us seriously. We all hate the in-betweeneys, the almost-not-quite circumstances

 Jesus said, “This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning[e] of God’s new creation:

15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” Rev. 3:14-16 NLT

The human heart can easily become an in-betweeney space. If we are not careful, we can put our own hearts in positions where no solution God brings can easily address our issues. A person who has become an “in-betweeney space” is enough in love with the world that any genuine call of the Spirit will seem like an undue call to sacrifice; But he or she is also enough in love with God to create a Christianity which judges others while giving themself a pass for bad behavior. It puts God in a position where He can neither convict us effectively nor manifest in us sufficiently to change anything in us or the world. He is left with no choice but to spit us out of His mouth.

We must come to hate the in-betweeney spaces in our own hearts as much as we hate them when we confront them in life’s experience.

SO…

What do you do to keep your own heart from becoming luke-warm ?