Tag: jesus

PLAYING IT SAFE

Granny Hat’s favorite childhood story is The Emporer’s New Clothes. She thinks Hans Christian Anderson  thoroughly exposed the stark, naked truth about peer pressure and pandering. Granny has worried for years about the brave little boy at the royal parade who spoke the bare facts loud and proud.

What ever happened to that forthright, winsome lad? Did he grow up to be an elephant hunter in the rooms of the palace? Or perhaps a kingdom whistleblower? Was he rewarded for telling the truth or was he conveniently silenced? Granny can picture the royal media streaking in to suppress his freedom of speech. It is often best to preserve crowd control at the expense of transparency. After all, truth can be dangerous, a bright light in a dim room; truth can shatter the pageantry, stripping everyone down to their own foolishness. Best for the peasants to play it safe and resign themselves to be dumb and happy.

Granny Hat is often tempted to play it safe. She has noticed that sometimes the only way to KEEP friends is to STOP influencing people. Many people have decided to believe whatever lines their pockets and brings them joy. If they are happily living their truth why should anyone enlighten them?  If they want to express themselves by stripping down and parading naked down the street with their emporer, why would anyone stop them? Will it be any use to even try?
To quote a resigned Willy Wonka, ” Stop. Don’t. Come back.”

Don’t worry readers, Granny Hat is only playing devil’s advocate and the Old Scratch scarcely needs her help.
Of course, she has to stand against the lie, because of God’s mercy. For the sake of the truth, she doesn’t get to play it safe and just wave merrily at the procession of the unclothed. Before the parade passes by, she had better speak up. Sigh.

Granny takes some comfort in the cloud of witnesses surrounding us. She remembers that we are preceded in life’s parade by plenty of saints who refused to play it safe. Often they risked it all and gave their lives. One would think that witnesses in the wings would run for the hills, shrink into the darkness. But no, such risky behavior often accentuates the truth, resulting in an uptick in courage and conviction.

When Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego stood up to King Nebuchadnezzar, refusing to worship the royal idol, God rescued them from the flames of the fiery furnace in epic fashion. Then the King was hit with some holy fear and declared Daniel’s God to be the only God. He even commanded the entire nation to worship Jehovah or else.

In the book of Acts, Peter stood up to the Jewish leaders and defended the believers who had received the Holy Spirit, speaking with conviction about the gospel. Three thousand new believers were added that day. This was Peter, the fisherman, who once tried to play it safe but had learned how to walk through danger armed with truth.

Saint Stephen gave a stirring and convicting history lesson to the Jewish leaders who responded by stoning him to death.(Acts 7) He is listed as the first Christian martyr. The Jews figured they would silence the movement with one disciplinary death sentence. What followed was persecution of the new christians and they scattered, spreading the gospel across the land and the church grew.

Granny Hat got a little carried away there with her Bible lesson. She is preaching mostly at herself, remembering “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return unto me void but it shall ccomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11
It is a comfort that no one can thwart the Word of God, you can’t stop it.

Granny wants to thank a few people who faithfully spoke the Word of God into her life, who served a loving God of justice, a God who is truth and light.

Granny’s father and mother were first, helping her memorize Bible verses, old hymns of the faith and how to be clothed with God’s righteousness. They taught her about heroes of the faith like David with the sling, Daniel and his friends, and Queen Esther. These mere humans all walked headlong into danger wearing the armor of God: the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Shoes of the Gospel of Peace, the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit (the Word of God).

Granny Hat was also influenced by her Sunday School teachers, her pastor, camp leaders, all unsung heroes.  She is especially fond of Corrie ten Boom, who famously said “Being in the center of His will is our only safety.”  This certainty of safety overcame bitterness and fear, inspiring Miss ten Boom to take her story of God’s deliverance from the Nazi concentration camp all around the world. It even enabled her to forgive her persecutors.

This same conviction gave Elizabeth Elliot courage to take the gospel to the indigenous Auca tribe in the deep jungle of Ecuador, the people who had massacred her husband.

The knowledge of safety in God’s will empowers church leaders to “preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2) This will help them courageously and faithfully stand up for life in the pulpit, to speak truth even when it isn’t popular.. This is the safety that can inspire parents, children, teachers, every believer to speak truth and light into the darkness. No more “playing it safe” by being timid. No more going naked.  Granny wants to be clothed for battle. It will be dangerous, yes. But this is the only way to truly play it safe.

” He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot

Granny Hat and her friends have organized a monthly hymn sing in the Flathead Valley.  It is surprising how fun it is, remembering old favorites, trying out new harmonies, stirring up cherished memories.  

Granny treasures the heritage of hymn singing that her parents passed on to her. They knew so many hymns. It seemed there was an especially appropriate song for every childhood situation:  

Scared of a dark night or an enormous tropical savannah tarantula? Dad would croon Granny to sleep with #12 God Will Take Care of You.   

Got grumpy about cleaning her room?  Mom would roll out a rollicking version of #297 Trust and Obey.  

Feeling guilty about her sins? #249 Redeemed and #254 My Faith Has Found a Resting Place to the rescue! 

Granny grew up in a hymn-singing church. She loved singing the big people songs but some of the lyrics were very confusing.  She once asked her mom what in the world a “pyonder” was.  Mother didn’t know!  She had never heard of a “pyonder”.   

 “You know, Mom, the hymn says ‘when the roll is called a pyonder, when the roll is called a pyonder, when the roll is called a pyonder, when the roll is called a pyonder, I’ll be there'”!

Granny Hat and many of her friends grew up thinking that when Jesus Paid it All, His power could change the leopard’s spots!   It was many years before Granny realized Elvina L. Hall penned “leper’s spots”.  But either way, it’s a miracle, right?  Melt a heart of stone!  Granny thinks that takes even more of God’s power.  She and her siblings loved this hymn, always sung while sipping their Concord juice during Communion to the tune composed by John T. Grape!  You can’t make this stuff up! 

Granny’s children had their own views of hymn origins.  Christopher was positive In My Heart There Rings a Melody was written about his new baby sister.  Granny just couldn’t set him straight; it was so sweet.  Little sister, Melody, in her turn several years later was convinced that Surely Goodness and Mercy was about Shirley Gibbs, the kind, sweet widow at church who always said hello to the little kids and listened to their stories. Granny’s youngest confesses that he still thinks it’s supposed to be “leopard’s spots”, he’s sticking to it. 

One of Granny’s granddaughters loves Amazing Grace and would sing loudly, “through many dangers, toilets and snares…”  Those toilets can be pitfalls, for sure. Gotta watch out for them.  

At one of our recent hymn sings, the beloved Come Thou Fount came under discussion.  One of the verses reads, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’m come; and I hope by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.”  What exactly IS an Ebenezer?  Modern hymnbooks have lost faith in the average congregant’s biblical knowledge and substituted the lyrics with another verse, “hither to Thy love has blest me; Thou hast brought me to this place…”.  Granny thinks if you are going to keep an archaic term like “hither”, why not keep “Ebenezer” and look it up!?  

Not all the hymns of youth are remembered fondly.  Granny moved around a lot when she was young, from Santa Barbara CA to the northern CA coast, to Oregon, to Brazil and then back to California.  She wanted to stay put in one place for a change so whenever the old hymn I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go, Dear Lord was requested, she refused to sing it. Very naughty, indeed. 

Speaking of naughty, kids who grew up in church back in the olden days before children’s church and youth programs have quite a long list of Pew Survival techniques.  Granny Hat’s mother was the original elasti-girl and could poke the fifth child at the end of the row deftly if they were squirming, staring at the lady with the purple hair sitting behind or whispering during the sermon. Note passing was not tolerated nor were frequent trips to the restroom to break the monotony, so the kids got creative.  They learned to communicate without words, making all sorts of grotesque faces and using sign language on occasion.  

Seasonal boredom buster favorites were spying the bottle shaped ornaments on the gigantic Christmas trees flanking the stage, counting the poinsettias or Easter lilies surrounding the pulpit, or changing the lyrics to Christmas songs sotto voce and then giggling over them. “We three kings of orient are, tried to smoke a rubber cigar, one was loaded, it exploded, now they’re on yonder star…..” 

It was fun to count the number of times Mr. Lyons, the missionary speaker from Japan, would raise his bushy eyebrows for emphasis.  Mr. Barnett from the board would solemnly read the treasurer’s report in a monotone, somnambulant drone.  To stay awake, pencils were at the ready to circle any missed or incorrect words on the paper copy that had been passed out.  Un-flattering sketches of special music soloists may or may not have been scribbled on the backs of bulletins.  

Thankfully, a desperate, trapped church child in those days could always grab a hymnal from the back of the pew and read rich, timeless lyrics.  Some of the words would transport the reader right out of the pew: “there is a green hill far away, outside the city wall…”  or “on a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross…” or “one day when heaven was filled with His praises, one day when sin was as black as could be...”   Many of these beloved hymns tell a story, defend the faith, give assurance of God’s love and His plan.  This is why Granny Hat loves them so much.  “I love to tell the story, t’will be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.” (by Kate Hankey, another source of pew giggling – anything can be funny) 

Readers, please respond with either your favorite, long-lost hymn or a funny hymn story you remember from your childhood. 

When the Roll is Called up Yonder by James M. Black 

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more, 
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright, and fair; 
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore, 
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there. 

On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise, 
And the glory of His resurrection share; 
When His chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies, 
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.  

Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun, 
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care; 
Then when all of life is over, and our work on earth is done, 
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.   
When the roll is called up yonder, 
When the roll is called up yonder, 
When the roll is called up yonder, 
When the roll is called up yonder, 
I’ll be there. 

Jesus Paid it All by Edwina Hall and John T. Grape 

 I hear the Savior say, 
“Thy strength indeed is small; 
Child of weakness, watch and pray, 
Find in Me thine all in all.” 
                                                                                                                                                                      Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; 
Sin had left a crimson stain, 
He washed it white as snow. 

 Lord, now indeed I find 
Thy power and Thine alone, 
Can change the leper’s spots 
And melt the heart of stone. 
 
For nothing good have I 
Whereby Thy grace to claim, 
I’ll wash my garments white 
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb. 
  
And when before the throne 
I stand in Him complete, 
“Jesus died my soul to save,” 
My lips shall still repeat. 
 

Surely Goodness and Mercy  John W. Peterson and Alfred B. Smith 

A pilgrim was I and a-wand’ring, 
In the cold night of sin I did roam. 
When Jesus, the kind Shepherd, found me, 
And now I am on my way home. 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 
All the days, all the days of my life. 
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 
All the days, all the days of my life. 

He restoreth my soul when I’m weary; 
He giveth me strength day by day. 
He leads me beside the still waters; 
He guards me each step of the way. 

When I walk through the dark, lonesome valley, 
My Savior will walk with me there; 
And safely His great hand will lead me 
To the mansions He’s gone to prepare. 

And I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever; 
And I’ll feast at the table spread for me. 
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 
All the days, all the days of my life. 
All the days, all the days of my life. 

In My Heart There Rings a Melody by Elton Menno Roth 

I have a song that Jesus gave me,  It was sent from heav’n above;  There never was a sweeter melody,   ’Tis a melody of love. 

I love the Christ who died on Calv’ry,  For He washed my sins away;  He put within my heart a melody,  And I know it’s there to stay. 

’Twill be my endless theme in glory,  With the angels I will sing;   ’Twill be a song with glorious harmony,  When the courts of heaven ring. 

In my heart there rings a melody,  There rings a melody with heaven’s harmony;  In my heart there rings a melody;  There rings a melody of love.