Monday Morning Music Ministry

11-3-25

We have all been there. Every member of the human race is different in some way or other. But one aspect we all share is that we occasionally feel alone, neglected, unloved. It might be for a short day, praise God if only that; but for some people it haunts and re-visits; for a few, God forbid, it is part of daily life.

Does anybody care? is indeed a common question. A plea from hearts and souls.

Hallmarks of these feelings include isolation and loneliness. We have arrived at the “communication culture,” with all sorts of ways to speak and share and interact… yet everyone around us seems buried in their cell phones. They text people who are across the room. Ear buds feed them something-or-other while shutting out the rest of the world. In some ways we choose to be alone, and then lament our loneliness.

And, ironically, many of us ask Does anybody care?

In ancient days, even the Psalmist cried out: Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life (Psalm 142:4). Have you been there?

Of course, people scarcely ever actually are without caring folks around them. Perhaps we might not always be aware of them, but, famously, there are puppy dogs and mothers and grandmothers. “A friend in need is a friend indeed,” and they might be nearby too. I am intentionally veering in to clichés, for clichés become clichés because they are true.

Fear not: I will remind us that Jesus cares; He is that Best Friend. His promises are true to Everlasting; He is a Brother who sticks to us closer than a shadow does; His mission on earth was to save our souls by embracing His sacrifice.

But I want us to think about the conditions that are real, before any remediation by spiritual life-preservers. The heart’s cry Does anybody care? is a growing, not a receding, neurosis in society. The World (secularism, pop culture, government) has myriad solutions. It prescribes drugs. It advocates mindless distractions. It encourages variations of authentic human relationships.

Perhaps worst, the contemporary world actually dismisses serious responses to emotional ills. It says to us that spiritual crises cannot be answered by spiritual solutions. Not for the first time, the World System’s advice falls somewhere between foolish and suicidal.

In this drama, the major villain to me is Government – specifically the Socialist templates upon which most countries these days run their affairs. Don’t be fooled: that includes the United States to a major degree. The latest government shutdown revealed in its coverage how many welfare, redundant, and useless programs there are, massively funded by Washingt… er, you and me.

When first ran for president, Franklin Roosevelt was the anti-Big Government candidate, believe it or not. He said: “The present [Hoover] administration… has piled Bureau on Bureau, Commission on Commission. Bureaus and Bureaucrats have been retained at the expense of the taxpayers.” Yet within 15 months, FDR created 92 new government agencies, and he didn’t stop there.

FDR’s disciple Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty in 1964; and after many trillions of dollars were allocated in that war, the poverty rate in America has increased exponentially. And so on. Ronald Reagan once said the nine scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Yet despite him and recent reformers… government programs grow and grow, as the society sinks and sinks.

St Augustine, around 300 A.D., looked back on Jesus’s words The poor ye shall always have with you, and ahead to the failure of Socialism as he addressed that reality. In his view, Jesus was not being pessimistic nor fatalistic; rather he reminds us that there will always be those who are worse off than we are. God wants us to discover, nurture, and exercise a charitable impulse. To care.

If governments usurp the role of charity – picking our pockets in order to bestow gifts elsewhere – then we no longer need to care. We surrender our rights to choose, indeed our consciences, because government agencies pick and choose for us. We stop caring… we cease looking to churches and private charities to channel our caring… and when we stop caring for others – which is the natural consequence – we eventually feel that no one cares for us, either.

And, “not so quick,” Capitalism comes in for blame, also. It is less coercive than governments, generally, and Socialism especially. However the profit motive is a two-edged sword, and greed has been cloaked by uncaring attitudes all too often. Free enterprise employs freedom, but Capitalism, in whatever varieties called “Finance” or “Crony…” is pernicious.

So, Does anybody care? Yes, Jesus does. An extreme cynic might respond, “OK… what is ‘caring’ when you are hungry or sick or friendless?”

That’s easy. Just ask anybody – ask me – anybody who has been hungry, sick, or friendless. The ray of hope… the shoulder to cry on… the word of encouragement, can mean all the world. Especially when they are brought to by the Savior of humankind, the Lover of your soul.

Who cares? The One who changes you from feeling like nobody cares… to knowing that Somebody cares, One Who cared enough to die for your sins, Who feels your hurts, and will fill those voids.

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Click: Does Jesus Care?

9-5-22

An emotional week around here, capped by a funeral this morning. “We’ve gotta stop meeting like this” – I have attended too many lately, and occasionally I have been inspired to share thoughts, with your indulgence. They all are not “funereal” these days, as services do not have to be maudlin. When my family conducted a hospital ministry, we were introduced to joyous “home-going” services in Black churches; and they altered our various perspectives.

But today’s instance was about the hardest of all challenges to a family and friends, because 17-year-old Aaron – not his name, but it will be here – decided himself that it was time for his home-going. Permit me the euphemisms.

Hard enough, of course, but the act was more jarring because only hours earlier he was out with friends, laughing in diners, taking selfies. Only weeks before he decided to be baptized, and even presented his testimony of renewed faith in Christ and the joy it brings. Only months before he had “graduated” from a program that works with youth who experience episodes of depression, sometimes having attempted extreme measures to escape the anxieties they felt.

Yes, Aaron had for several years been in and out of ugly depression and occasional feelings of rejection, self-loathing, irrationality. The world saw the happy kid – intelligent, handsome, popular, and always (counter-intuitively?) faithful to Jesus. A daily Bible reader. Keeper of theologically introspective journals.

Questions. Of course there are questions.

Despite what our contemporary world insists we blithely believe, that “nothing matters anyway”… we need to ask questions, but there are no answers. Certainly not to everything; no Googling, no experts, not even – horrors, can I say it? – not even in the Bible. Listen: if we knew everything, we would be God. The Bible has answers for all that we need, but not every thing we want, or wonder about. And as soul-searing as some things are, even “sanctified” curiosity will remain mysteries until we gain Eternity.

That’s hard, but it’s true.

We ask, WHY?

And the world mockingly answers, Why not?

I think God answers, The important question is not Why, but What – in this instance, What did Aaron make of his life? What did he do in his life? What are the ways he touched people? What difference did he make?

The “why” questions involve a sort of permissible selfishness, as I recently discussed in this space. Of course we feel horrible for the soul who has “passed,” but the largest ingredient of Mourning is… mourning for ourselves. How we will miss our child, sibling, or friend. Mourning for the sudden hole in our lives. And that is OK.

But I had the thought during the service that every life means something. Every. Life. Modest people might think that’s true for others but not for them. No. That’s not life’s way. It’s not God’s way.

We all have meaning, we have effects. We can see this… or not. We can plan it… or not. It can be acknowledged… or not. Effects can live after us… No: they do live after us. Our lives matter; what we do matters. All of us, in little ways or big, actually want to make a difference.

So in that way, whether you live 17 years or 117 years, what you do matters. It matters to other people. It matters to God.

In that perspective, our friend Aaron packed a lot of “meaning” into 17 years. Impressing uncountable people with his good nature, adventurous spirit, and Christian activities. In a bizarre and seemingly cruel circumstance, it was precisely a year ago that his cousin and best friend, almost the same age to the day, was laid to rest after suddenly dying of a brain aneurysm; he also had packed an A+ personality and smarts and Bible study and social activity into a “brief” life.

I know it’s not a Bible verse, but we think of the phrase “Quality, not quantity” in the cases of young men like them.

In my own family’s hospital ministry mentioned above, the toughest questions we were asked by transplant-listed patients, families, or survivors was Why? Why me? Why my brother, why my son? I finally felt liberated – able better to minister in some small way – when one morning I answered, “I don’t know!!!”

The important and essential follow-up is, “Let’s pray about it. Let’s seek God.” Maybe we can cope a little bit better; maybe we can find peace; maybe there is healing indeed under the shadow of God’s wings (Psalm 36:7).

And maybe we can discern, and celebrate, and savor, the meaning of that person’s life… and as tough as it seems, choosing instead to look beyond only the length of his days.

If we can receive those blessings, we can start to make sense of things. And that’s a good road to travel when other paths lead to bitter tears and confusion and anger and resentment.

Life can be mean… but we must seek out the meaning. The seeking, itself, is a balm. And then we realize, as I asked above, that death can be a detail, but life is a fact.

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Video Click: Does Jesus Care?

8-15-22

A friend and neighbor of mine, Gary Mueller, died this week. He was in his 80s – a sweet, enthusiastic, generous white-haired gentleman of my church who became a buddy when I was a newcomer. We shared a hundred coffees in McDonald’s; we shuffled around farmer’s markets together; we talked religion and politics (agreeing, happily); I have laughed endlessly with his wife Edith; and I met his grandson Matt from Texas. We worked grills at many VBS days.

But mostly (in my memory, now) Gary loved Jesus. And it showed: he “reflected” the Savior. Gerhard was born in Jaegerndorf in central Europe; his German family had been separated and passed through West German towns, escaping Communism, working as they could; then to the United States. He met Edith, who had a similar life-path, and they were grateful to God and to America for the freedoms wherewith they were blessed.

Gary was always hale and healthy, on his jobs and especially, after retirement, in our church – anything that needed doing, it seemed that Gary was there before pros were called. But he got sick recently, and had a cancerous kidney removed. My late wife had a kidney transplant, so my prayers were focused (not that God requires the use of medical terms and medicines). As I understand it, he returned home somewhat uncomfortable and requested a follow-up. Cancerous tumors were found elsewhere through his body. All so quickly, Gary died.

It might seem odd that my grieving over Gary’s death brought me to think about selfishness, but please stick with me – and be merciful to me, as I have asked of God. I honor Gary; I grieve for Edith; I am grateful for our friendship. In fact, a week ago I wanted to hand-write a letter to Gary telling him (reminding him) of how I loved him, and what he has meant to me as a friend. But I never got around to writing that, much less mailing it (e-mails pretend to be personal, but never will be).

I have book deadlines. I had meetings. Yada yada, I had “things to do.” Hours turn into days; days turn into weeks; weeks…

When you are too busy to write a friend, or call; when you are too busy to connect with a friend, or to re-connect with an old friend; when you are too busy to “just say Hi”; when you are too busy to say you appreciate someone, or share a Jesus-moment, or ask “How are you?” and really mean it…

… you are TOO busy.

But this is not about scolding myself or anyone. Gary is gone, and maybe he never would have seen that note anyway. I was not trying to impress Edi. No, I found myself consumed about MY thoughts, MY regrets, MY tardiness. And eventually, MY grief, MY loss that I will feel. I realized I was being selfish. “Why are MY feelings so important?”

As I prayed for wisdom, I realized how strange grief and mourning are – when our loved ones are in the arms of Jesus, healed and glorified. Isn’t our grief, somehow, actually a bit of mourning for ourselves? How we will miss the husband, the grandfather, the friend?

And if so… is that bad?

Self. This life is not a dichotomy of self versus the rest of humanity. Not “either/or.” Not us and everyone else. God wants His children to be thinking of us AND everyone else. When Jesus went to the cross it was for all of humanity; all of the sins of “whosoever.” He looked into your eyes and mine. We as individuals were as important to Him as… all the other individuals! We should not feel guilty about our feelings, hurts, regrets in that view, because Jesus did not lay that on us. We must bear each other’s burdens, as He bore ours.

I am not talking about sins of omission. I am talking about a proper discernment of what God would have us do. That is, to DO — not obsess over what was missed. “Look out for Number One”? If we are effective ambassadors of Christ, we cannot drag baggage around on our missions.

We can be faithful stewards if we serve God by serving others. And rely on the Bible, not Rules of Etiquette. I am talking about being bold for Christ who lives within you.

Think ahead and imagine the end of your life, without being morbid of course. I mean – do not let yourself be in a position where you had been too busy to to write a friend, or call; or you were too busy to connect with a friend, or re-connect with an old friend; or when you were too busy to “just say Hi”; when you were too busy to have said that you appreciate someone, or shared a Jesus-moment, or had asked “How are you?” and really meant it…

Jesus cares for you, not only “humanity.” Take heart, and take action.

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Please watch and be blessed —

Video Click: Does Jesus Care

2-25-19

When Obama ran for president the first time, one of his campaign slogans was “Yes, We Can!” Remember?

I wondered at the time – and still do – why the mesmerized people did not pause to ask, “Yes, we can WHAT?”

Ever the cranky grammarian, it bothered me less as a political postulation than as a sentence with a noun and verb lacking an object. Can What? I wondered why people bought into – or did not question – the lack of a literal object; vision; goal.

We have become a people supposedly more literate than those of past generations… but surely less literal. When our language is imprecise, I think it reflects the lower standards of our beliefs. We are less assured about past assurances. Our values have lost their value.

“Caring” is another word that has been cheapened by over-use and under-appreciation.

Also rising from the political swamps, memes like “I care…” and “They don’t care…” have become weapons, mostly offensive in both senses of that word.

OK, so we should think of “caring” as transitive – that is, caring about something; caring for someone. Not an expressed emotion, merely, but a quality that will have a result. That result can be “successful” or “futile”… but the cause or especially the person being cared for knows whether a cliché or something heartfelt, earnest, sincere is at work.

Obviously – once we start this sort of deconstruction – we think of people like Mother Teresa, who cared and acted. Of Albert Schweitzer, who cared and served. Of Billy Graham, who cared and shared. Of Cardinal Mindszenty, who cared and sacrificed.

“Caring” as an action verb.

Taking nothing from saints and sages and relatives and neighbors, honestly, we can be touched by them, savor their work, honor them, esteem them as role models… but (again, no offense meant) their caring can only extend so far.

They were humans. Humans are fallible; or, put another way, their ability to “care” is finite, and usually defined by their ability to act and affect your life, or the problem they address.

You know what’s coming: There is only One – and only one, throughout all of history – who Cares with infinite care. Whose caring can profoundly change the cause of our hurts or problems or grief or sorrow. As He brings peace that passeth understanding, He cares in ways that touch our souls.

Jesus is the only One whose job description is Caring. And to know – to feel – that perfect care can change your circumstances, your day… your life.

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Click: Does Jesus Care?