sober-minded

Today I went to a funeral–a memorial service, to be more exact–for a young man. He was my daughter’s friend, and he was only 20 years old. Here are some impressions from it I’d like to share.

WHAT I SAW:

I saw hundreds of young people (many more than were evidently expected) of all types and stripes, but the majority of them skater types. I saw a lot of tattoos, piercings, and black garb. I saw fields white for the harvest, though it looked like a sea of black. I saw tears of anguish. I saw pictures of this beautiful young man with people he loved and who loved him; I saw his artwork, some of it very good, sitting around everywhere. I saw his mom, sitting at the front. I saw my daughter, standing along the wall with a lot of other young people who couldn’t find a seat. I saw 10 or 12 young guys walk in procession to the front with skateboards when the service started. I saw a few of them take to the pavement outside later on, and knew they skated in memory of their friend.

WHAT I HEARD:

I heard people crying. I heard music, some from a cd and one song played live and played very well, and all of it was very sad. I heard one young man, though I didn’t hear him very well because he laid aside the microphone they handed him, talk from the heart about his friend; it was short and sweet and I hope I can find out from my daughter what all he said. I heard the young man’s aunt talk about her favorite nephew, and read a little essay she had written a couple of nights ago about him; it was very lovely and touching and genuine. I heard laughter at a few things that were said about that young man, and I knew it felt good to them to laugh a little.

WHAT THE YOUTH PASTOR SAID:

The youth pastor said that God created us to find out who we are and then to go for it. The youth pastor said that he hopes that when he dies, people will say about him that he really knew how to be himself. The youth pastor said that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our “stuff.” (Then the youth pastor said “baggage” to clarify what he meant by “stuff.”) The youth pastor said that faith, in this life, is a guess; we jump in and do the best we can, but that for now we just don’t know.

WHAT THE YOUTH PASTOR SAID, AND WHAT THESE YOUNG PEOPLE AND THIS FAMILY HEARD, THAT WAS LIFE-SAVINGLY TRUE ABOUT GOD, ABOUT US, ABOUT LIFE, AND DEATH, AND ETERNITY, AND HEAVEN, AND HELL:

From the Desiring God Blog today:

At Bethlehem Baptist Church and at Desiring God we use the term “God-centered” a lot. Here is one simple way to tell what we mean and test yourself to see if you are God-centered.

The psalmist describes the motivation of God in saving sinners like this:

Both we and our fathers have sinned… Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power. (Psalms 106:6, 8)

God was motivated to rescue them and us from our sin and its penalty “for his name’s sake.” What does “for his name’s sake” mean? It means “that he might make known his mighty power.”

What we mean when we say God is “God-centered” is that he acts like that. He saves for the sake of his name. He saves to make known his own power.

And what we mean when we say we are God-centered (or desire to be) is that we like to have it that way. It satisfies us to have God save us for God’s sake. We are happy that this is the way it is. We get pleasure in seeing it and savoring it.

We like to talk about God doing it that way.

Amy knows how to say it.

Sunday was beautiful. Storms raged into the wee hours, then the day broke cool and clear and lovely. The creek was full.

And it was loud. But some brave souls bravely braved the rushing waters in their large black galoshes.

And received, upon their safe return, a hero’s welcome, braces glinting in the afternoon sun. It was a good day.

Sometimes God answers prayer in surprising ways. One way it can be a surprise to us is when we realize that a difficult circumstance we have found ourselves in for some time, is the very means He’s been using to work a long-sought change in our heart and behavior.

A rocky time in marriage can be the means of God’s working that change; or difficult people or situations at church, or a number of other things. It is a beautiful thing when an awareness begins to dawn: “I have been changed. I see more fruits of sanctification, of holiness in my life. I feel more love in my heart for people, more thankfulness to God. There is a greater faithfulness evident. And it is directly due to this hard place I have been in.”

I would have expected God to bring about good changes in another way. Through some sort of transformational power encounter during a particularly great song sung at church or a conference, perhaps. Or maybe in my prayer closet, He would completely overwhelm me with a sense of His presence and I would descend, like Moses, face shining and clutching a Bible, from that mountain top back down to the family room, forever altered.

But no. He used, it turned out, the completely mundane and frustrating details of an everyday life, lived out faithfully, to bring about a greater dependence on Him, a greater trust, a greater suspicion of my own strength and thoughts and abilities. He grew bigger, I grew smaller.

This is a surprise. It is ever His way. He seems to take our preconceived notions and turn them topsy-turvey all the time. Now that I sort of get the hang of it, I like it. He is great, and I am not. This is ever the surprising truth about God.