Chasing Chariots
With a new year comes new opportunities as well as challenges. While there is so much to look forward to, there are also a host of things to overcome: fear, limited resources, and lack of strength and courage—just to name a few.
With this I’m reminded of what Moses said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8:2, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands” (NIV).
After nearly thirty nine years as a Christ-follower, I’m closing in on the forty year mark —the amount of time the Israelites accumulated in the wilderness—plenty of time (one would think) for any level-headed person to trust that God would come through in challenges, difficulties and set-backs. But why does God allow problems to seemingly block progress in my spiritual journey, and why do I fail to trust that He will be there for me?
Later in the Deuteronomy 8 passage, Moses says: “[God] gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today” (verses 16-17, NIV).
Even before the forty-year wilderness jaunt, Israel was witness to God’s rescue as He led them out of Egypt toward the Promised Land. There they seemed to be stuck without hope, wedged between an impassable body of water and an eminent massacre by a fast approaching Egyptian armada.
When faced with challenges my first tendency is to panic. I see things like most of the Israelites probably did on their way out of Dodge: I measure my resources and my own abilities and immediately gulp with the realization that I will surely fail on my own!
To surrender is exactly what God wants me to do!
In Exodus 14 we see the narrative of God’s miraculous rescue of Israel from the Egyptian army: “Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still'” (verses 13-14, NIV).
“Be still,” God says, but I am inclined to run out and chase those chariots, thinking that I can fend off the threat of my adversaries. I’m seriously mistaken and terribly defeated when I do.
I’m embarrassed to say that I have chased chariots many times in the past thirty nine years of my God-walk. Lord, please forgive me. Help me to remember that, at the end of my strength, Your mighty hand is ready to intervene—You’re excited to show power and victory in my life.
Vinyl Records Rule
I’m writing this on the day after Christmas. More that a few times over the course of the day I’ve seen pictures of new vinyl record turntables up on Facebook that friends have posted, obviously a cool Baby-Boomer gift this season.
I’ve reconnected with that old turntable/vinyl record love affair recently—a flame that faded years ago after the CD player and digital music made their debut in the late-80s. Like many, I fell for what the experts told us was a better, sexier audio format. I’ve never quite forgiven myself for parting with many of the vinyl records I’d accumulated over the years—plastic treasures wrought with gift money and hard-earned scratch from my after-school job. I spent most of my paycheck on gas for my ’65 Dodge Polara and at a record shop near where I grew up in Fullerton, California.
We called them “records” back then (I still do). Vinyl had limited space, so you were forced to pause and turn the record over after side-one was finished. You’d always be careful to hold the record by its edge to avoid leaving fingerprints and scratches on the shiny surfaces. After carefully lowering the needle, the invisible dust particles would make popping-sounds while finding the groove, then you’d settle in for side-two.
The record jackets were usually filled with plenty of reading material, a hypnotic widow into the fantasy world of the musician’s lives. Over the years, I began to recognize the names of the musicians who played on my favorite records, and soon learned to anticipate those players on other records with other artists. I connected the dots between record companies, song writers, artists, producers, players, engineers and recording studios.
Those on-the-floor, between-the-speakers listening sessions were magical, and I still seek the “wonder” those times would bring. Even though most of my favorite records were made in recording studios less than an hour from my home in Orange County, L.A. seemed like a million miles away. Many of the artists I admired lived minutes from the Sunset Strip, and played in places like the Troubadour, the Whisky A Go Go and The Roxy.
For over thirty years I’ve made my career in music. And although I started out in the mid- to late-70s with analog tape, I have mostly recorded in a pristine, digital world. It’s impossible to innocently sit and listen to music like I used to—especially many of the records I grew up with from the 60s and 70s. It’s hard to listen without picking everything apart; I’d hear the out-of-tune vocals and the shifting tempos—it’s driven me a little crazy sometimes.
But recently, after my buddy Kevin Shaw hooked me up with an old-school turntable, receiver and a couple of speakers, I coaxed what was left of my vinyl record collection out of retirement. Placing the needle on one of those discs, it all came back to me: the wonder, the pops, the warmth, the imperfections, the simplicity of a stereo image on two full-range speakers, and the beauty of analog. I’ve rediscovered that vinyl records rule!
Justin Timberlake—Teacher and Guide
I was talking to an old friend today who was a student at my first Worship Foundry school. He’s now a grown man with a college degree and a new bride, but fondly remembers those two semesters he spent learning about the guitar in a context of worship. He said he’d love to start a Worship Foundry in his current church, where he says there’s interest but no opportunity there for future generations of worship leaders to begin their journey as a worship musician—the kind of opportunity he had more than a decade earlier. I loved being a mentor to those students, many of whom are still playing in worship bands all over the country.
While clicking through the cyber edition of our local paper, The Tennessean, I discovered an article featuring Justin Timberlake and his budding ambition as a teacher and a mentor—at the ripe old age of 32. No one is too young to be a mentor, especially if you’re Justin Timberlake and have millions of fans. (After seeing his amazing laser-light-laden performance on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, it’s not hard for even an old fogey to realize his immense talent).
In the Tennessean article by Cindy Watts, Timberlake said:
“There might be another calling for me out there,” he said. “And it might be being a part of music in this way as a communicator and a teacher and a guide.”
Might Taylor Swift be a potential student? He questioned what the multi-platinum-selling singer’s career will be “when she crosses over the threshold of adulthood.”
“She’ll get her day in the sun when she’s ready to move the needle,” he said. “That was something I was very conscious of. I was in a group that was bigger than bubble gum (*NSYNC). Talk about stadiums. We played every stadium in the world, it feels like. It’s almost like, with anything, when you do settle into adulthood is when when people respect you in a different way. But there’s no question in my mind that that’s where she’s going, if she so chooses. For me I am sort of the oracle of the idea, and I’m also the communicator of it.”
He also wants to break down genre barriers in songwriting.
“When are we just all going to sit in the same room and go, ‘You know what? The clash of cultures is what it’s about,’ ” he said. “And to be honest, I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, about how I’d like to be a part of it. That’s what I’m looking forward to in the next 10 or 15 years, helping these young kids who are songwriters make a career out of it.”
I am still passionate about being a mentor—so much so that I dedicated a chapter about it in my new book, Worship Foundry. I hope you pick up a copy so that you, too, can learn to create a worship school for your own church. I promise that it will be a blessing for your students, the church, the Kingdom, and incredibly fulfilling for you as a teacher and leader.
Merry Christmas!
The Dash Between the Dates
Having several songs published in hymn books over the years, I’m used to seeing next to my name, in many an author index: Jamie Harvill (1960- ). It’s comforting to know that the blank space remains; it lets me know that I have a future!
Author Kevin Welsh wrote: “There’ll be two dates on your tombstone and all your friends will read them. But all that is going to matter is that little dash between them.” That dash represents our legacy. Maya Angelou has said: “…Your legacy is what you do everyday; it’s every life you’ve touched; it’s every person whose life was either moved or not; it’s every person you harmed or helped—that’s your legacy!’ What does that “dash” say of my life, even now, before my earthly journey is completed?
The older I get as a Christ-follower, the more clear it becomes that during much of that “dash” God is helping me to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. It represents surrender—an ongoing opportunity to be made better as a human and as a child of God. Paul, in Romans 5:4-5, says: “…we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (NIV).
Sometimes life is filled with extreme difficulty, but it can also be filled with great joy. And in the span of our lives, the thing that really matters is that we love God and love people.
Walking past a cemetery, it’s obvious that none of those interred there are ambitious, hungry, chasing after riches, or trying to “one-up” the neighbors. None of that matters to them—they’ve come to the end of their journey. As Christ-followers, God’s been trying to get us to die to ourselves, forsaking the temporal for a greater reward in heaven, where we’ll hunger, thirst, worry and feel pain no more. While still living within the dash, we can rise to meet God’s purpose for us, as the writer David Roper says: “To make us great.”
This goal is not a part of the American Dream that we’ve been taught since infancy. Many continue to define the “Dream” as: owning a home and having a happy family, with some success often referred to as physical comfort and financial security.
In the T.S. Eliot poem, “Ash Wednesday,” Dante’s concept of the “low and high dream” is referenced: The “low dream” is to live for oneself, but the “high dream” is to live for the will of God.
Let’s forsake the American Dream, with its “low dream” aspirations of seeking comfort, for a life filled with opportunities to grow as Christ-followers, and to prepare for the glorious presence of God we will experience into eternity—while we still have “dash” left between the dates.
3 Ways to Measure Spiritual Success
2013 is almost gone. Now is the time when most people look back and take stock of how their year went—good or bad. I saw a Tweet written around Thanksgiving from Beth Moore that came from her own tear-filled recap of 2013. She wrote, “…sometimes what you’re thankful for is that your family survived a hard year.”
It has been a tough year for many, myself included.
What we sign up for as Christians is to be used by God. What often takes us by surprise, however, are the difficult periods of refinement we must go through in the process. Sometimes after an especially tough journey, it feels like I’ve crawled out of an industrial clothes dryer that was set on high! After my own challenges this year, with several trials—one after the other—I’m thankful to have survived. But what I need at year’s end is a standard by which I can measure what God considers true success. Here are three important considerations:
1. Success begins with an offering to God (Worship)
The Bible is filled with stories of regular, everyday people—folks who gave what little they had to God:
—Moses held up a staff: God told him to throw it down. Moses picked it up and afterward performed miracles with it and helped deliver a nation out of slavery (Exodus 4:1-5)
—David held up five smooth stones: God used David and those stones in a slingshot to slay a giant (1 Samuel 17:40-48)
—A widow held up empty containers: God filled them with oil; she went on to sell the oil to make good on her debts, and lived, both she and her sons, on what was left (2 Kings 4:7)
—The disciples held up 5 loaves and 2 fish: Jesus blessed the meal and fed over 5,000 people (Matthew 14:13-21)
2. Success is loving God’s people and doing His will (Service)
Our success as Christ-followers is not measured by the stuff we have, but by loving people, following Him in faith, and trusting in His Word. In John 6:38 Jesus said: “I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me” (MSG). If we have followed after God in 2013—in big and small ways—we have succeeded!
3. Success is being conformed to the image of God’s Son (Spiritual Formation)
Living a life of faith is impossible for any man or woman to do; we cannot live the Christian life on our own. Thankfully, Christ redeems and indwells us, and lives the Christ-life through us. This journey may take us through some “lion, tiger and bear” moments in life, where it can be easy to give in to fear rather than trust God and walk in faith. I was reminded this year that God desperately desires that I be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).
By using this method of measurement, I can celebrate many successes in the past year. God took what little I had and turned it into much more than I could have ever imagined. I pray that your personal recap of 2013 brings shouts of praise!
Copyright © 2002- Jamie Harvill. All Rights Reserved. Website By Josh Harvill.