Songs and a poem

The more I think about relationships I've had in the past, both with men and women, I can see where some of them were unbalanced, meaning I had more affection for the person than they had for me. They simply meant more to me than I meant to them.

When I first started listening to music, one of the artists I found myself gravitate to was Cat Stevens. A hit I really liked was "On the Road To Find Out."

The lyrics:

But sometimes you have to moan
When nothing seems to suit ya
But nevertheless you know
You're locked towards the future, oh-oh-oh, whoa-whoa

So on and on you go
The seconds tick the time-out
There's so much left to know
And I'm on the road to find out, oh-oh-oh, whoa-whoa

Then I found my head one day
When I wasn't even trying

And here I have to say
'Cause there is no use in lying, lying

Yes, the answer lies within
So why not take a look now?
Kick out the Devil's sin
Pick up, pick up the Good Book now, oh-oh-oh, whoa-whoa

Upon moving to the little village of Loudonville, OH in 1975, I wrote a letter to my one friend from a year of living at my grandmother's in Akron, OH. She lived near me and I would go over to her house to play sometimes in addition to seeing her in my fourth-grade classes.

I told this friend in my letter that Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"  song was how I was feeling. Part of the song goes:

Don't let the sun go down on me
Although I search myself, it's always someone else I see, yeah
I'd just allow a fragment of your life, to wander free, yeah oh
'Cause losing everything, is like the sun going down on me

No wonder this friend never wrote me back! Of course, I didn't know what the song was about or anything. I just was feeling down after moving to a totally foreign town full of strangers and Elton's new hit was being played on the radio a lot.

I was already down before we moved from my grandmother's. One of my biggest memories from that time, in fact, was when I snuck a pack of cigarettes from my dad's glove compartment and then a book of matches from atop my grandmother's gas oven.

I went to a stream only blocks from her house and then down a secluded embankment to the water's edge. I remember sitting on a rock being really sad and telling God that I didn't like Him anymore. I tried and tried to get the match to light against the flimsy paper matchbook (from a restaurant) but couldn't make it happen, so I finally gave up and went home, sneaking both the cigarettes and matches back to their original spot.

*****

To completely change subjects, I saw through a YouTube post on WW III a really wild snippet of a message given at a recent U.N. meeting (in fact, it may very well have been the one that just happened) by a man with the country of Nicaragua on a name placard from where he addressed the crowd. In his comments, which were translated into English by a translator at the meeting, he said he was keeping "our great Ruben Dario in mind," which I learned from a quick search was a Nicaraguan poet (1867-1916).

Here's the clip that was shown:

"A great flight of crows stains the celestial blue.
A thousand-year-old breath brings threats of plague. In the Far East men are being murdered. Has the apocalyptic Antichrist been born? Omens have been witnessed and wonders seen. The return of Christ seems imminent.

"The earth is pregnant with pain. This is the beginning, the dawning of a new world which IS being born, rising from the ashes of anguish and pain. Brothers and sisters, humankind is at a critical time. We are giving birth to a NEW history. To a new global order that is more fair, more collective."

*****

“There is a peculiar condition that reveals how the love of God dwelleth in our hearts," writes a female Christian author from the early 1900s. "When our love is burning strong and bright, and our hunger for our Beloved is deepening, we are more concerned to have Him work IN us and make us to His glory, than we are to work FOR Him . . . "

A hymn from 1864, written by Susan B. Warner, goes:

Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light,

1. Like a little candle burning in the night;
   In this world of darkness, we must shine,
   You in your small corner, and I in mine.
2. Jesus bids us shine, then, for all around
3. Many kinds of darkness in this world abound:
   Sin, and want, and sorrow—we must shine,
   You in your small corner, and I in mine.
4. Jesus bids us shine, as we work for Him,
   Bringing those that wander from the paths of sin;
   He will ever help us, if we shine,
   You in your small corner, and I in mine.
5. *****

People mistake charity for love in Paul’s epistles, but it’s actually "love in action," explains Richard Jordan. Charity is the motivation of the love of Christ and not all these other kinds of things constraining us in our Christian life.

In Colossians 3, Paul says charity is the "bond of perfectness." It’s the thing that binds maturity together. When you have perfected saints, what binds them is the fact that they instinctively look out for the benefit of the other, not for themselves.

To walk charitably with a saint means to put his needs, his concerns above your own. Now, where does the motivation for that come from? The motivation is an understanding of God’s charity to us. Charity has to do with the motivation behind your good works.

Charity isn’t a braggard, it’s not proud, it’s not covetous, doth not behave itself unseemly. It’s patient and suffereth long.

Boy, you read those things and you think, "Wow! That’s quite a mental attitude to have!"

Paul says "charity never faileth." So what charity is is a complete lifestyle that puts the interests of the other ahead of your own.

*****

I Timothy 1:5 says, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."

The heart is the mentality of your soul. It’s single-minded; it’s a heart that just goes on sound doctrine. It’s not living on emotions; it’s living on the application of the truth of God’s Word rightly divided.

We’re to have a system of norms and standards that reflects God’s thinking. You’re able to walk by faith and not by sight. That verse is a beautiful description of a mature Christian walk. And not just an individual walking that way, but a group of people gathered together and working together in the work of the ministry.

Paul told the Corinthians, "As unknown and yet well known." I love that verse because that’s exactly what you’re . . . your spiritual power and influence far outweighs your appearance.

*****

When Paul talks about "in spirit," that’s the idea of your disposition; your attitude that you do something by.

In Ephesians 1:17, for example, he writes, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."

He’s not talking about the Holy Spirit. That’s not the initial giving; it’s not a later "re-giving."

He talks about the spirit in the sense of the "spirit of slumber," or the "spirit of bondage." When you have the spirit of slumber, you have this disposition of being asleep at the switch. Bondage is the disposition of being controlled.

Paul’s saying, "I want you to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation God has given you right here in this text. You get it in the Book."

The attitude with which you do things affects an awful lot. He’s saying, "I want you to walk around with this attitude and disposition that’s produced by understanding this great cosmic plan God has in His Son."