Hearing God with Muppets

We finally watched The Muppets: Most Wanted! with all the kids the other day.  It was awesome.  I
grew up on the Muppets and so I love seeing them kept alive for our kids too!

Plus, and most importantly, they did several albums with John Denver.  That raises anyone to awesome status.

In the movie Kermit is imprisoned and replaced by a Russian imposter known as Constantine.  All the other muppets think it is Kermit with a cold.  I kept thinking, "How can they miss the fact that he has an "out-of-nowhere" Russian accent?! 

Ok, it's a Muppet movie, right?  So, you have to suspend some reality.

But here's where it was even more nonsensical: The imposter Kermit not only didn't sound like Kermit, but he didn't act like him either.  He kept saying "Vatever you want!" and "I can give you vhat you vant!"  He was rude, mean, and snarky.  If the Muppets didn't catch the accent, how did they miss how oddly Kermit was acting?

This is what it's like when trying to hear God.  When you know him, it's not so hard to recognize what he's like when he's interacting with you. 

So, when you're trying to determine if God is telling you something, ask yourself, "Is this how my Father would act toward me?" 

For example, if I have an impression that I should do something, but it makes me feel frightened or threatened if I don't, then I know it's not my Father.  He knows how to motivate me and those are not ways that work.  Instead, when it's him I find I am excited to a degree, even if it's something that seems intimidating.  Somehow I feel courage that I didn't expect.

I also know my Father isn't pushy.  Like the father in the prodigal son is patient, so is my Dad.  If I'm unsure about something he might be asking me to do, I know that if I put it off, I can trust that he'll keep nudging me gently, if it's what he wants.

So, keep getting to know your Shepherd.  As you learn his heart and how he works with you, you can begin to find out how to hear his voice more clearly.

It's Good to be Wrong

Man, I hate the feeling of being wrong.  You know when you say the wrong thing to a girl, or you’re so sure that something happened and then found out it didn’t.  Or how about the feeling you get when you receive a test or quiz back and you see all the things that are marked wrong.  It sort of sinks in your gut a bit.  

We tend to laugh at people who got things wrong as well.  Think about how scientific people talk about those in the past who believed the earth was flat or that the sun revolved around the earth.  They’re such dopes, right?! 

I don’t think so.  I’m glad Galileo came around and helped us realize that the earth revolves around the sun.  However, it was smart of people, before that, to make theories like thinking the sun revolved around the earth or that the earth was flat, even though they were wrong.  They took data as they knew it and put ideas together.  Their risk was worth it because it helped us progress in our understanding of the world and, eventually, enabled others (like Galileo) to figure out a better understanding. 

I’m starting to feel this way about God.  I have spent so much time in the past afraid to make choices because I wanted to make sure it was the right thing.  What did God want?  What was the best decision?  How can I keep God from being mad at me?

In college I liked this girl in one of my classes and I went back and forth in prayer for long periods of time about whether it was God’s will for us to date.  

I recall talking to a friend and sharing my dilemma.  His deep, spiritual response was: “Just ask her out, Kurt!”  So, I did.  Guess what?  She had a boyfriend I didn’t know about.  It was a little awkward, but it was fine and now I could move on. 

Our Dad in heaven wants us to be wise, of course, but many times I think He would just say, “Son, go for it” or “Daughter, just do something.  Yeah, you might be wrong in the end, but make your best guess with a heart that trusts Me and make a choice.” 

Many of the most significant things I’ve learned about life, relationships, and God have come from making mistakes.  Had I not made them I might have lived a safer life…but a much less rich one.

Why You Should Dance

Dancing.  Some people love it.  Some people hate it.

Some people seem to have no rhythm.  Some people just seem good at it.

Remember that movie Hitch?  Will Smith’s character is trying to help this uncoordinated guy get a girl, so what does he do?  He tries to teach him to dance.

I’m convinced that people that are just good at dancing got it from their family or culture.  Ever notice that Hispanic people seem to all be able to dance?  It’s a part of their culture.  Early on, they are around dancing.

Next, take the average white male.  Dancing is absolutely unusual!  The first time most of us were in a setting to cut a rug was at some awkward middle school dance.

Still, even those of us who find dancing to feel like visiting the dentist, we are all awed when we watch someone do it well.  It is both powerful and gentle, sensual and graceful, provocative and touching.  How awesome it is to watch two people hit all the right moves at all the right times.  It’s

no wonder that a style, like ballroom dancing, which most people once considered an ‘old folks’ thing’, became such a huge hit on TV with Dancing with the Stars.

How the heck do you get good at it then?

Practice…Try and fail and try again…Learn from others.

I actually dance.  Yet, I used to hate doing it.  Trouble is this: I married a white girl with a Hispanic heart.  Beth lived in Venezuela for a year after high school and caught the Latino bug.  I’m a white German who grew up headbanging to AC/DC.  I had to do some learning.

We’ve taken ballroom, salsa, and merengue classes.  We dance in our kitchen, we dance at weddings.  I can’t say I’m awesome at it, but I’m finding that it’s kinda fun.

I practiced, tried and failed and tried again, and learned from others.

To me, this is what life is like: we all want to be the one who can hit all the right moves at all the right times.
This is true, especially of our relationships, including the one we have with God.

 

How do you connect with God?  You practice.  What works for you?  Is it praying in the morning, at night, on the car on the way to school?  Is praying going through a list, or just chatting, or both?  Does reading the Bible help or is it confusing?  Would listening to music or drawing connect you closer to God?  Practice.  Try things out.  Ask others what works for them.  Learn from others.

The same is true of relationships with others.  Everybody wants to figure out the dating thing right away.  Guess what?  You have to dance.  You’ll have to practice, try and fail, and learn from others.  How do you get close to someone?  How do you deal with hurt feelings?  How can you show affection without going further than you want to?  What do you do when you start feeling different about someone? 

Dance, dance, dance. 

Practice, Try and fail and try again, learn from others.

Here are the lyrics to a song by one of my favorite artists, Pierce Pettis.  It’s called “To Dance.”

 

 

To dance
A prospective of bones
Musical bath
It's clearing a path of one's own

Blue jeans and muscle
Or crinoline rustle
You learn it in class or alone
To dance

To dance
It's a gravity thing
Shoes to the earth
Pulling toward a verse that is beckoning

Oh, the dizzy affect
Of rhythm and sweat
Flying like a kid in a swing
To dance

Arms in a moment
Some worried connection
Telling of hearts
Where they don't need protection

A journey in place
A private affection to share
To dance

Is swimming in time
Where passion, and public, and prudence can somehow align

Moving like lovers on top of the covers
Everyone knows it's alright
To dance

Touch without touching
Love without breathing
Hold on and let go without anyone leaving

All of part of the beat you're receiving
And sending back out through your feet

In itself it's complete
God it is sweet
To dance

To dance
The movement confines limbs in a language
That is spoken in three quarter time

And is suddenly gone at the end of the song
And you knew you were safe all along
To dance

 

Jesus didn't like prayer

When I first learned to pray as a kid they were things that you recited. 

They rhymed, aka “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let thy gifts to us be blessed.”

They used fancy terms: Who says the word “bounty” anymore?  Or what’s up with “thy”?  (my apologies to Shakespeare)

So, naturally, when I prayed on my own before I went to bed (because that’s when God listens best), I created a format to use.  I would ask for certain things, pray for a prescribed list of people and at the end, no kidding, I asked if I could talk with my favorite deceased relative.  I would love to know what I said to those relatives now. 

This is all very innocent, but it seeped into my subconscious that praying requires some mix of formula and a splash of fancy.

Even when my relationship with God truly become mine when I was in high school, I still felt the need to say majestic or ‘spiritual’ terms.  Yet, here’s something funny about Jesus:

Jesus didn’t like prayer…when it was formulaic or fancy.

One time when he was hanging out with his buds, Jesus told them, “When you pray, don’t do it in a really fancy, public way.  And don’t be like the people who babble on and on, because they think they’re heard because of their fancy words.”  (My paraphrase of Matthew 6)

Mrs. Courtney hit it on the head in chapel today.  I love how she said to just be yourself.  Talk to God like your close friend.  He loves to hear you, just like Mrs. Courtney loves to hear her little son. 

And the really crazy news?  Your Friend is a really powerful dude!