Tupid

Lots of ministers visited the home of my parents, when I was growing up.  My dad believed in revivals.  He believed in lots of preaching; the spit and vinegar kind.  He called in help from miles around to create just the right atmosphere for people to fall under conviction.  It was pretty amazing to watch and wonderful and fearful to be a part of.  In the early 60′s, hotels were not plentiful and the visiting ministers usually stayed with us.

On one such occasion, the adults had risen early to fix breakfast and organize the plan of attack for the day.  I was about 5 and, for some odd reason, had chosen to sleep a little later than everyone else.  I got up out of bed and staggered down the hall for my morning hug when I saw a strange man sitting at the kitchen table.  (The visiting minister).  We had not yet been formally introduced.  He took one look at me and said, “Well, good morning little fella’.  And what do they call you?”  To which I replied, “They call me tupid.”  (Stupid, for those of you who do not now remember how to speak “five-year old”.)

Ever felt like that?  Stupid, I mean.  I have.  Lately.  I bought a pair of jeans that were so high-waisted that the belt was almost around my chest.  I didn’t notice when I bought them, for $8, at StufMart.  My girls did.  They didn’t call me tupid but they were thinking it.  I felt stupid when I tried to have a Core Group meeting, last night and almost fell asleep in mid-sentence because I was so exhausted.  They should still call me Tupid.

But I am the kind of person that God wants to use.  The kind that would attack a giant with a slingshot.  The kind that would ambush thousands with hundreds.  The kind that would chase a lion into a pit on a snowy day.  The kind that would climb up the side of a cliff with one other guy to jump a few hundred of the best trained warriors of their day.  That kind.  The stupid kind.  The kind that would get out of a boat in the middle of a hurricane just to see what it was like to walk on water.

But they all lived to tell an incredible tale. 

“The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen!  And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was incredibly, this:  The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.”  I John 1.2 (msg)

Just call me Tupid.

My Nature

It probably seems crazy that I get up soooo early and read and write.  Does 2:30 sound odd to you.  Well, it sounded odd to me as well.  I just pop up, eyes open, heart pumping, mind whirling, and do my reading and start my chores.  It struck me so odd that I called my father to see if he had any wisdom he could impart on this subject.

My dad asked me one question that put everything in perspective.  “Son, do you ever remember getting up before grandma Leonard?”  You see, I would spend a week or two every summer with my father’s parents who lived in Coleman,  AR.  Sometimes I was lucky enough to get to spend a week in the winter and deer hunt.  I loved living on the farm.  Part of what I loved best was to wake up every morning with the smell of bacon and coffee wafting down the drafty halls of that old grey house.  My grandmother would always rise before me and have breakfast ready and a fire in the fireplace.  And she never set an alarm.  How was that possible?  It was her very nature to rise up early.

It is my nature to do the same.  But that is not the only thing it is my nature to do.  Most of the other things I prefer to leave unsaid.  I have a nature that I inherited from a relative much further up the family tree.  He cursed me with innate desires that dog my every waking moment and my every passing thought.  How can I escape what is my very nature to accomplish?

You really need to read Romans 7.15-25 in The Message.  It’s so clear that we do not stand a chance against our nature unless Christ rescues us.  Verse 25 makes it clear; “The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.  He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do  something totally different.”

So, I’m always going to be odd about when I wake up and when I go to bed but I don’t have to be about the way sin influences my life.  Jesus rescued me.  Anybody else smell bacon?