Mick's Minute

My grandfather was a peanut farmer in Oklahoma. So when I was growing up it was not unusual for us to have a large burlap sack full of peanuts hanging around the house somewhere. 

Peanuts grow off the bottom of a peanut plant, and they actually grow down into the ground. Because of this, peanuts grow inside of a protective shell. If there was no shell, there would be no peanut. But the good stuff of a peanut is not the shell, it's the stuff on the inside. The point of the shell is to protect the good stuff inside.

So those sacks full of harvested and dried peanuts that we used to have around the house when I was a kid weren’t really full of peanuts like you might buy in a jar at the store. They were full of whole peanuts, shells and all. And every kid in Oklahoma learned from a young age that you didn’t just pick up an unshelled peanut and eat it because that was not a pleasant experience. Shells are hard and tough and taste like dirt. Before you can enjoy a peanut, first you have to get it out of its shell.

I take you on that bizarre little trip down memory lane for a reason that has nothing to do with peanuts, but might have everything to do with you. 

Sometimes people live lives that are pretty much great. They are well-loved and well-cared about, and they love well and care well about the people in their lives. And those people often times have very thin shells, because they don’t need them. And as a result, they are pretty great to be around because they live their lives with open hearts.

But that is not everybody. In fact, that's hardly anybody. 

Most people, to some degree or other, grow up in the dirt. Most people have been let down and pushed down and beat down in ways that are hurtful and leave some lasting scars. And down there, in the dirt of life, if a person is going to make it they are going to need a pretty tough shell. 

And so, we grow them. For the same reason that peanuts have shells. To protect the good stuff on the inside from all the dirt.

And it kind of works, I think. Sort of. But it also kind of doesn’t.

One problem is that our shells don’t protect us from the dirt nearly so well as we think they do. Even with the thickest of shells we still get pretty roughed up. Another problem is that we’re really good at growing shells, but really bad at breaking out of them. We get stuck inside of them and they do us far more harm than good.

For the people around us, our shells are really unpleasant, because like all shells, they taste like dirt. And for us, our shells become our prisons. We built them to protect ourselves, but we forgot to build a door, so now life is happening all around us, but we can’t get out there to happen with it.

What we need is a better protector. Maybe even a healer. Something that can do for us the thing that these shells failed to do, and something that can break us out of these shells now that we’ve got them.

It just so happens that I know where we can find that.

In Psalm 18 in the Bible we read:

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

As it turns out, everything we need, God is. Let's get out of these crusty worthless shells of ours, and get into Him. The door is open. Let's walk through it.

A while back there was a total solar eclipse, and I got to see it. I confess that, in the beginning, I wasn’t really all that impressed. Everything looked exactly the same, except when I looked directly at the sun through special glasses. That was interesting and all, but then something started to happen. The shadows all started to get a little strange. Then even though it was almost noon, the world began to darken. 

The air cooled. Locusts started to sing in the trees as if it was evening. Cloud banks to the north and the south were lit up bright as day, but where I was, daylight was waning. And all of the sudden, I did not need special glasses to look at the sun anymore. I looked up and the moon was visibly blocking almost all of the sun. 

And then things moved to a whole new level. 

For about a minute and 45 seconds I stood in what is called the totality of the eclipse. That means that if you could draw a straight line through 93 million miles of space, that line would go directly through the sun, through the moon, and through me. 

As the moon perfectly blocked the sun for those precious seconds, I stood in the twilight staring at the noonday sun. 

What I saw was the silhouette of the moon, with the sun raging at its fringes. It was like nothing I have ever seen before, and I would travel far to see it again.

But as I think back on that rare and magnificent moment, I am reminded of something that is common and tragic.

I am reminded that when it comes to God, we all live in the twilight. And rather than that twilight being rare and difficult to find, it is as common as breathing and seemingly impossible to escape.

Just like the moon comes between us and the Sun from time to time, there is something that looms like a giant brick wall between us and God all of the time. The Bible calls that thing sin, and one of the effects of sin in our lives is that it creates a wall of separation between us and God.

So throughout history, people have looked for ways to make that wall go away. People have created religions, tried to impress God by being good people, and in some cases rejected any belief in God at all. All as a way to escape the twilight, this ever-present grey veil that overshadows our whole lives. 

And none of it works. 

The thing we have learned—if we choose to learn anything at all—is that we can’t escape from the twilight because that looming wall of sin is not something that can be moved from our side. 

And yet, maybe just maybe, we are not condemned to this darkness. 

Once upon a time on this darkened earth there was a man named John—and God talked to him. He told him that He was about to send into the world the only One who could take away the darkness. So John went around telling everybody to pay attention because God was about to send somebody to take away the darkness. And then one day, the One finally came. And when John the prophet saw him, he pointed and he yelled out and said, “Behold! the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John said that because he knew that sin was the thing that blocks all of us from the light of God. He said that because he knew that only God could remove that sin. And he said that because he knew that he was looking at the One that God had sent to set all people free from sin. He said that because he was looking at Jesus.

Who are you looking to today?

If you are tired of the murkiness of life, maybe it is time to look to Jesus to set you free.

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Once upon a time in what seems like a lifetime ago, I spent four years at a school called Denver Seminary getting my Master’s degree.

Denver Seminary has a big library. In the back of the library there was a small office, and inside of the small office there was a small old man. His name was the Reverend Doctor Vernon Grounds. While that name may not mean much to you today, on the campus of Denver Seminary and in many other places, Dr. Grounds is famous. He was a pastor and an evangelist and a theologian and a writer and a professor. The entire back portion of the Denver Seminary library consisted of books that he personally owned. He was for years the president of Denver Seminary. He was, in short, a living legend.

And during the time that I was at Denver Seminary, he was basically retired. He would speak occasionally at events and do some other things, but the reason why he kept a little office at the back of the library was just to meet with people.

In spite of his imposing credentials, Dr. Grounds was a kind and gentle man who loved God and loved people, and no matter who you were or what you wanted to talk about, you could make an appointment and go and talk with Dr. Grounds. 

Needless to say, he was a popular guy. Lots of people spent lots of time talking with him about God and life, and everything in between because, why wouldn’t you?

But you know what? In the four long years that I spent at Denver Seminary, I never went and talked to Dr. Grounds. Not even one time. I spent I don't know how many hours in the back of that library studying and researching, I read several of Dr. Grounds’ books in that library, but never one time did I meet with the man.

To the contrary, I avoided him. Whenever he was out and about around the seminary, people would gather to say hi and chat for a few minutes. But not me. I would slowly walk away, carefully avoiding eye contact.

There is a reason I did that.  I did that because the Reverend Doctor Vernon Grounds was a great man. And I did not know what to say.

When Jesus was on earth, there were a bunch of people who just followed Him around to see what He was going to say and what He was going to do. Anybody could follow Jesus. He never turned anybody away.

But most people did not follow Jesus. And I wonder sometimes--if I would have been there when Jesus was walking and talking and doing miracles and showing everybody who would come and see who He really was, I wonder, would I have been in that crowd, or would I have avoided Jesus like the plague?

I mean, if I don't even know what to say to Vernon Grounds, what would I possibly say to Jesus??

I think a lot of us even today avoid following Jesus for exactly that reason. Because we're pretty sure that Jesus is amazing, and we're pretty sure that we aren't, so we just stay away because we couldn't possibly impress him.

It’s kind of sad, isn't it? We avoid Jesus precisely because we need Him.

The good news is that I've figured out something wonderful since I left Denver Seminary. I've figured out that me avoiding Dr. Grounds and so many of us ultimately avoiding Jesus basically because we feel inadequate makes no sense. Not because we aren't inadequate--we are. But because that’s not how following works.

From the time that Jesus walked the dirt roads of ancient Israel up to this very moment, nobody has ever followed Jesus because of who they were and what they had to say. People have always followed Jesus because of who He is and what He had to say.

That is how following works.

You don't follow Jesus because you are somehow qualified to impress Him. You follow Him because you aren't. 

Likewise, waiting to follow Jesus until you feel qualified is like waiting to take chemotherapy until you feel like you don't have cancer. That is not how following works.

Dr. Grounds is gone now. He passed away a few years ago. So I guess my chat with him is going to have to wait until Heaven.

But Jesus? Jesus is available. And not just available in general. Jesus is available to us. Available to me. Available to you.

Maybe it's time to sit down with him and have a chat.

Do that.

If you have ever run on a treadmill then you know that a treadmill is a great thing, depending on what your goals are.

Here’s what I mean by that. If your goal is to get in shape without ever having to leave your house, then a treadmill is a great thing and you should get one. You can run for miles, in any kind of weather, and be in exactly the same place when you’re done that you were when you started.

But let’s say your goal is not just to get in shape. Let’s say your goal is to experience nature and see the country around you. In that case, a treadmill is a terrible thing because you can run for miles, in any kind of weather, and be in exactly the same place when you’re done that you were when you started.

That means that if you want to know if a treadmill is a good thing for you, then you need to know what your goals are. You need to know what you want. Because depending on what you want, a treadmill could be either a great ally or your worst enemy.

I think that our lives are kind of like that. 

In order to know if something is a great thing for us, we have to know what we want. Otherwise, we might end up miserable, like a person who longs to be a great explorer but who is doomed to walk forever on a treadmill.

If you feel like your life has started to become more prison than paradise lately, I would suggest that you do something today that you probably don’t do very often. 

Stop what you’re doing and ask why you do it. 

If you’re like many people, you will discover that you do a lot of things you don’t like because you think you have to. And then you deal with that by spending much of the rest of your time trying to disconnect from your life by doing things that ultimately might cause you trouble or just waste your life. 

For those of you who are keeping score at home, that means that you may be doing things you don’t like because you think you have to, and then doing things that are bad for you to escape the things you don’t like.

That's not a treadmill that I, for one, would want to be stuck on. But sometimes, that is where we’re at.

Good news, though. God built you. He knows exactly the life that is great for you. And His plan is actually to give you that life. That doesn’t mean things will never be hard, but it does mean that even the hard things will be valuable and important.

I don't know if you should get a treadmill or not. But I am certain that God wants to give you a life that matters.

A strange thing happened to me the other day. I stepped out of my car and I got cold. 

I’m one of those people who loves the heat of summer. And that brief burst of chill reminded me of something that I’m not particularly excited about: things are changing. The weather is changing, as it does every year, but even more than that, we are changing. 

Our lives are constantly changing and so are we. Summer will come again. But the summer that just ended will never come again. The sun will rise again. But this morning’s sunrise will never be repeated. Knowing that raises two questions in my mind. The first is about where we’re going and the second is about where we are.

Regarding where we’re going: All of us (if we’re being honest) have to admit that we don’t know what the remainder of fall will bring. We don’t know with certainty what joys and tragedies will come into our lives even tomorrow, let alone months and years from now. We face a future in which much is unknown, and that can be hard to deal with.

But for me, my experience with the future does not exist independently of the present. To the contrary, my experience and expectation of the future is inherently tied up in the second question, the question about where we are today. Knowing that today will never repeated and that tomorrow is unknown reminds me that there is a lot riding on today. We don’t get a do-over, and how we live today will play a large part in shaping our tomorrows. 

So here is the choice that I make that brings me peace for today and for the future: I choose to live my life eternally. 

In my better moments at least, I choose to remember that I am small and my days are numbered, and that God is big and He is forever. It may seem odd, but that gives me great hope. I trust God to give me a glorious life forever through Jesus, and to give me a life that matters every day as I serve Him. 

I’m still not looking forward to winter, and a few other things, but I am confident that in all things God has good plans for me if I’ll just trust Him and hang on.

So how about you? As your life marches steadily forward into the unknown, who or what are you going to trust in and hang on to? 

Everybody is trusting in something. Some people trust in something that seems big and uncontrollable, like the economy or the weather. Other people prefer to trust in something that seems just the right size and very controllable, like themselves. But whatever you choose to trust in today, I can promise you this:

If it's not God, it’s going to let you down.

So let's skip that step, shall we? 

Join me in trusting in Jesus. He is the biggest thing ever, and you can't control Him, but He controls everything. Trust Him for today. Trust Him for tomorrow. Trust Him when things change and trust Him when they don't.

Once upon a time, we had a very friendly cat named Samson. He was fluffy and white with blue eyes and a top speed of about one mile an hour, and people loved him. Anytime he moseyed into a room people would scoop him up and say things like, “What a beautiful cat!” And they were right.

For several years, anyway. 

But as Samson got older, all that white fluffy hair started to get less and less fluffy. Poor Samson's slow mosey started to turn more into a mope, and even though we still loved him, he became quite a bit less of a crowd pleaser. In phase one of Samon's life, people said, "What a beautiful cat." But in phase two, that changed. 

In phase two, people would see Samson mope into the room and they would say, "What’s wrong with your cat?"

And then came phase three. In the last few years of Samson's life, he was kind of a wreck. Most of his fluffy white hair fell out completely and his mope turned into more of a stagger. When that poor, bald, scrawny, crooked-tailed cat would stagger into the room, people would look at him, then look at me and say, "Is that a cat?"

But through it all, from fluffy mosey to bald stagger, that old cat seemed to have stumbled onto a secret of happiness that most people never find. As near as I can tell, in all his life, Samson did not care what people thought about him. He just lived his life. And if ever somebody wanted to pet him while he was doing it, that was great.

But people? We, for the most part, are not like Samson. 

When other people tell us that we are beautiful or smart or important, we feel like we’re on top of the world. And when other people tell us that we are ugly or dumb or unimportant, we’re crushed. For some of us, our lives revolve around what other people think about us. And for the rest of us, even if our lives don't revolve around it, it still matters more than a little. And in the long run, that never turns out to be a good thing.

If we aren't careful, instead of being people who can walk boldly into life as the people that God has made us to be, we shrivel up and become the lap dogs of the world. People who spend half of our lives chasing approval and the other half avoiding disapproval.

But, with a little bit of help from a house cat, I have discovered the secret that other people do not get to say who I am. 

I love to be loved and accepted, just like anybody. But I am learning now something that I wish I would have known in other times of my life when I worked so hard to gain other people’s approval. 

I am learning that because Jesus is Jesus, I am loved no matter what. And, because I have put my faith in Jesus, I am accepted forever. And no matter what other people are saying or not saying about me at any given moment, knowing that I am always loved and accepted by God gives me peace.

So if you’re feeling today like my old cat used to look, I want you to know that you are loved. And Jesus came and died for you so you could be accepted. Turn to Him, and experience the peace that comes with knowing that He will never let you go.

The next time you go to the store, I want you to notice something for me. When you go to check out, it is very likely that you will find yourself standing beside a rack of magazines. Several of those magazines are devoted to one purpose, and that is sharing with you the misery that is taking place in the lives of rich and famous people.  

And if you are paying attention, believe it or not, those pitiful magazines can teach you a lesson that can change your life forever.

Let me back up for a minute to make some sense of what I'm about to say.  

In our lives, most of us hold on to a very simple but important belief: “If I just had everything I want, then everything would be great.”

When we’re broke, we say, “If I just had a bunch of money, then everything would be great.” When we’re lonely, we say, “If I just had a more loving husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend or just a bunch of great friends in general, then everything would be great.” Whatever the problem, our ideal solution tends to be the same: “If I just had whatever I want, then everything would be great.”

OK, now back to the magazine rack. The people on the front covers of those gossip magazines tend to be some of the most rich and famous people in the world. They have more money and more people who think they are great than most of us could ever hope to have.

But here's the problem. If our view of life is true, then those people on those magazines should be the happiest and most satisfied people in the world. If it is true that if we just had whatever we want, then everything would be great, then those people’s lives should be great! 

But as near as I can tell, their lives aren’t great at all.

So hang on to your hats, Ladies and Gentlemen, because if we are paying attention, those silly, gossipy magazines are about to teach us a life-changing truth.  

Those magazines teach us that getting everything you want does not make life great.  To the contrary, we have example after example after example of people who have gotten everything they ever wanted, and then piece by piece destroyed their entire lives.

FACT: Getting everything that you want can never make your life great.

And that leaves some of us at a bit of a loss, because everybody wants a great life. So if getting everything you want is not the path to a great life... what is?

In the Bible, there is an old song called Psalm 119, and one of its verses sheds some light on this question of how to make your life great.  Psalm 119, Verse 32 says:

  “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”

If you want a great life today, the truth unexpectedly printed on the front of every gossip magazine in America is that you will never find it by chasing after the things that you hope will make you happy. Even if you get everything you want, that stuff will never make your life great, and it may very well destroy you.

If you want a great life today, then what you need to do is seek the freedom that comes within the life that God has planned for you. Jesus died for your sins to set you free to live a glorious life with Him and for Him. And I hope that today is the day that you get started.

Things are changing. Drastically, in fact. There was a time when it would take centuries for a culture to undergo significant change. But now, major change can happen in months, or even days. Because of that we live in a very exciting time. It could be the case that today is the day that somebody somewhere cures cancer, or finds a way to drastically reduce poverty in the world, or invents a cheap flying car.

That’s exciting stuff.

But in the midst of all that excitement, the rapid pace of change in our lives has also created a lot of instability. Many of our jobs could disappear overnight. Many of our values seem to have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Many of our relationships are falling apart because we don’t know how to talk to each other anymore, or even what we would talk about. In the midst of the constant changes around us, we often don’t know how to keep up.

And that’s kind of scary.

But if you are feeling strung out and out of touch today, I’ve got good news for you.

You don’t have to keep up.

Contrary to popular opinion, life is not best lived on the cutting edge of the latest trend. You can try to live life out there (and maybe you do) but sooner or later you will discover that you are exhausted and empty, and that the foundations of your life are always crumbling underneath you.

As for me, I love change. I think it’s fascinating and exciting. But I have found my peace and my joy and my hope in a life that is built around something that NEVER changes.

My God is eternal, and He is always the same. His book the Bible is over 2000 years old now, and it doesn’t change either.

Now I admit that I miss out on a few trends every once in awhile, but I’m OK with that. I have done my time chasing after the latest and greatest thing in search of happiness, and the truth is I was always more empty at the end than I was at the beginning. But I have discovered that the more I chase after this God and the life that He has for me, the more I am full. And it’s good.

How about you?

If you’re tired of the emptiness today, or just want to try something new, might I suggest Jesus.

Fun fact today for all you bug-lovers out there: every single summer about 18 trillion mayflies all hatch at the same time on the upper Mississippi River, and they create a swarm so huge and disgusting that it can appear on weather radars. Just the dead ones can pile up deep enough to shut down bridges and fill up entire parking lots three feet deep.

So, knowing this makes me wonder… if every year brings 18 trillion new mayflies to the river, why does anybody live anywhere near the Mississippi River at all??

The answer, surprisingly, has everything to do with time. The Mississippi River is awesome 365 days a year, but the lifespan of a mayfly can be as short as five minutes. So, if you want to live on the mighty Mississippi, for a day or two every year you have to deal with mayflies. It’s just a small, annoying part of life on the river.

Now most people do not live on the Mississippi River, and most places do not have huge swarms of insects that have to be cleaned off the roads with snow plows. And might I add—Praise the LORD. But I'm telling you this story today because I think there is an important lesson in there for all of us, no matter where we live.

It may be the case that you are experiencing things in your life right now that are, well, horrible.  And if you aren’t, there is a really good chance that, sooner or later, you will. Therefore, you really need to know two facts about horrible things:

First fact: You need to know that horrible things pass. That is the lesson of the mayflies. As bad as horrible events in life are, or will be, life will go on, and so can you. Even those events that are so tragic and awful that things can never be the same again—even those pass, though their effects remain and you do have to face them.

Second fact: You need to know that the horrible things that happen to you or around you do not define you. Those things did not create you, so they do not get to say who you are. Everything there is to say about you, Jesus said it at the cross. It’s already out there. When Jesus died for your sins, among other things, your identity was forever announced.

First off, you are a sinner. There is no getting around that. But that is also not the whole story.  At the cross, we also learn that even at your very worst, when God looks at you, He sees someone worth dying for. And since God did create you, He does get to say who you are.  And that is who you are. A glorious mess, loved by God, worth dying for even at your worst.

So here is how all of that comes together in the real right now.

Don’t get lost in the mayflies this week. They are real. But they don't get to say who you are. God has already done that.

No matter our mayflies, inside and out, the river of life is still beautiful, and God has a beautiful place for you on it. So give yourself to Him and hang on. It’s a wild ride.

It occurs to me that almost everybody I know is busy.

What’s the deal with that? Why do we all stay so busy?

Think of it this way: If someone were to walk up to you right now and ask, “Why do you do the things that you do?”, what would be the true answer to that question?

In answer to that question, I think that some of us would talk about our dreams—the things we want in life; and others of us would talk about our problems—the things we believe are separating us from what we want in life. And some of us wouldn’t talk about anything because we don’t really have an answer to that question.

It seems a sad truth to me that, for as busy as we are, most people are just ... surviving.

We work and work and work just to hang on, and then we spend our free time looking for ways to temporarily escape before it all starts over again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a thought for you to consider today: this is not what we were made for.

If you find yourself stuck in that particular pattern today, man, do I have good news for you. Lift up your head and open your eyes, because you, as you, starting from right where you are, can live. And I mean really live.

We tend to buy into this lie that the circumstances of our lives determine for us who we must be and our only hope for a better life is for things around us to change. But they don’t, so we just give up, check out, and zombie walk our way through life. But that is baloney. 

Or, more accurately, it’s only half of the story. It is true that we are messed-up people in a messed-up world, and it is true that no matter how hard we try, we can't fix that. But the other half of the story is that it’s not supposed to be that way.

God created us for so much more. And then, because we became shriveled, sinful, messed-up people, Jesus came to rescue us and literally set us free. 

He lived and showed us how to live lives of meaning and freedom in all circumstances. 

He died as a sacrifice to set us free from our sins. 

He came back to life to prove that He is the King, even over death. 

And He’s going to come back one day to end this mess once and for all.

All of that can be a little hard to swallow, and I get that. But it is true and it changes everything. If you want real life, Jesus is the only place you are ever gonna find it. 

But it’s glorious, and I hope you do.