Night Songs

Dad!

The cry came in the middle of the night from the next room. Stumbling into the dark, I made my way into the hall and into her room. I find her eyes wide open in fear. Some anxiety had wrestled her awake. She needed comfort, soothing. I needed sleep.

So, what’s a dad to do? This one tried singing! “In God’s green pastures feeding, by His cool waters lie, soft in the evening walked my Lord and I. All the sheep of His pastures fair so wonderfully fine…His sheep am I. Waters cool, in the valley, rough the way, on the mountain…” I warbled on. OK…warble is a gross exaggeration. Maybe croaked is a bit closer to the truth. Let’s just say my tune bucket had a hole in it. I am part of a musical family…the part that appreciates!

So, I’m croaking away, trying to comfort my frightened child when in mid verse a little voice says, “That’s OK, Dad. You can go back to bed now!" Evidently the anxiety was preferable to my tuneful torture…or else I was just waking her up rather than soothing her back to sleep.

I’m often awake in the middle of the night—processing yesterday’s problems or planning tomorrow’s adventures—when I really need to sleep. That’s when the Heavenly Father sings the words to me from Psalm 23. I don’t tell Him to stop. I just drift off in the confidence that He will perfect that which concerns me (Ps. 138:8 KJV). After all, like with our daughter, it’s His presence, not the song that comforts me in my night.

PS 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

Dadeee

I’m working away. In the background are sounds: “Dadeeee,” sirens, freeway flowing in the distance, train whistles, birds singing, even the buzz of a bee (or is it a mosquito?) on a spring day, or is it a summer evening.

I’m not even thinking about the sounds, but then I hear one again, “Dadeeeee” echoing down the ravine. I still don’t think about the sound, but I do think about another place and another time and another little voice calling “Dadeeeee.”

I’m not sure if it is a call that says, “Dadeeee, help!” or, “Dadeeee, wait up!” or “Dadeeee, I want you to come to me and look at this!” or “Dadeee, I want you here right now!” I just remember the little voice echoing through the trees that surrounded our house.

That “Dadeee” fills me with warm memories of a little girl who wanted her Dad for something, a little girl full of affection and life. That “Dadeeee” carried me back to a time I’ll never have again, a time when the children were dependent on me, needed me, and were close to me. Times have changed. Our children are no longer dependent on me. They are not as close geographically. And, they need me in a different way. And, they no longer call “Dadeeee”. Now it is Dad.

“Dadeee” music to some dad’s ear. “Dadeee” still music to my ears, if only in my memories.

How it must make God feel good for His children to call on Him from the midst of their lives…to help, to look at what they’ve done, to just be close.

12 Then you will call upon me…and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13-13)

Staying Positive About Those On The Other Side of the Aisle

My friend turned and made a sour face at the very mention of a Christian leader with whom he disagreed. I was saddened. While I understand some of the weaknesses of the leader in attitude and action, I still sensed that God was using that leader powerfully in many lives. It seemed like my friend was “putting down” the leader, diminishing him in the eyes of those around by his non-verbal communication.

As I thought of how sad it made me, I heard a whisper in my heart, “Don’t you do the same thing toward those with whom you don’t agree?”

Flashing across my mind were my comments and thoughts about political figures, religious leaders, and others who don’t do things my way. It’s easy in this world of political satire and cartoons to classify a person by their actions or beliefs, characterize them by the parts with which we disagree, and then caricature them in that partial view. By highlighting the parts we disagree with, we negate any good that God has placed within them. We actually stop seeing them as a whole person, one of God’s instruments, and see them only by their faults.

The truth is: none of us are without fault. None of us have it all together. By caricaturing other leaders by their negatives, we actually join them in negativity. We slip close to slander…for, while what we criticize might be true, it is not the whole story. And by leaving out the positives in the person, we paint them differently than God is painting them.

Responding to this tendency to speak evil of others, Jude says, even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand;

And, Paul, in Galatians 5 highlights that this kind of attitude drifts from the love the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us… GAL 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
So, I am asking for God’s grace to see the positives in presidents, senators, televangelists, and those who don’t walk on my side of the street. And, I’m asking for God’s grace to speak about the positives and refuse the temptation to camp out on the negatives. After all, while Jesus could speak directly to people about their failures in a very graphic way (see Matthew 23), about the most inflammatory thing Jesus said about others was calling Herod a fox.