In peace I will lie down

Dear Lord; Good morning Father.  First off Lord, let me apologize in advance.  Last night was rough, and I’m not terribly “with it” today I’m afraid.  As You well know, I’ve suffered with insomnia on and off since I was 12 years old.  Well, last night it came back in all fervor and I ended up only getting a few hours respite before having to start my day.

This was an odd bout of sleeplessness Father.  Usually, it simply manifests itself as my mind going a mile-a-minute and not being able to shut down.  Last night however, I also had physical symptoms as well; My heart was racing, my chest was tight and I felt overwhelmingly anxious.  I have no clue what brought it on, but it lasted for a good bit of the night.  I tried praying in the darkness, slow breathing techniques, and finally resorted to a sleeping pill but nothing seemed to calm my restless spirit.  Finally, plain old exhaustion took over and I passed out for a while.

It’s been ages since this has happened Lord, and I’d forgotten how unsettling it is.

This morning, I headed for Your “Instruction Manual” to see what wisdom I could glean about this recent development, and of course came away with some things to think about.

“In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.” – Psalm 127:2

Ok, I get it… Sleep is one of Your Gifts to us as well, and I need to remember that and Accept it from You (there’s that word of mine again…).

“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” – Psalm 4:8

I obviously need to focus on this as well Lord.  With the turmoil in our lives today, we sometimes allow our worldly anxieties to overwhelm us, and I’m sure that contributed to the tumultuous night I had.  I need to let go of the day’s struggles, and dwell in Your Peace when I lay down.

Heavenly Father, please help my mind be in steadfast focus on Your Everlasting Peace.  May we all learn to leave our burdens at Your Feet, and Accept Your Calming Comfort in our lives.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Sons are a heritage from the LORD

Dear Lord; Good morning Father!  On the heels of our discussion yesterday Lord, I’d like to follow up by talking with You about one of the most personal and effective ways You’ve brought Your Teachings and Guidance to me; through my children.  I know we’ve covered things they’ve said and done more than once, but there were a couple glimmers of Your Light in them the last few days that I’d like to share.  I still find it fascinating that even though You’ve put them in Shannon’s and my care to raise, I learn at least as much about You from them as they do from me.

To begin with, Friday night Jonathan was reading our discussions from the prior few days and informed me I had missed something.  In the post “Better Than a Hallelujah”, I neglected to include his favorite song in the list.  It’s from the Newsboys, and entitled “He Reigns” :

I have to agree with him, it’s a wonderful song.  The lyrics that really get my attention are :

“And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they’ve just heard
‘Cause all the powers of darkness
Can’t drown out a single word”

Amen!  If we fill the world with our praises of Your Glory, no dark force stands a chance.  Nice choice Jonathan.  🙂

He and I also had a reasonably deep conversation about You that evening Lord, during which he made a statement out of the blue that just made my heart jump.  He looked up at me and said : “Dad… I crave God.” Wow… I’ve never heard him use the word “crave” before, but from the lips of my 11 year old it was an amazingly powerful statement.  Once again Father, you’ve used him to make me see Your Light.  Thank You so much for this.

Not to leave Aidan out of the “influence loop” Lord, he gave me a good smile last night as well while he was reading his Action Bible and telling me all about it.  He recanted the story described in Judges 6-8 in which Gideon’s army was reduced from 32,000 to a force of 300 men, and then by Your Power he prevailed against the Midianites much larger force.  Aidan was completely captivated by this, and when we started discussing it he informed me that You were better than all the superheroes put together.  Seeing him absorbing Your Word just brings joy to my heart Father.  🙂

I love my children to no end Lord, and seeing Your Light in them affects me more than almost anything else.  Thank You so much for bringing them to my life, and staying by their sides each day.  I pray that I can honor Your Gifts to us as they deserve, and that they never lose that craving for Your Love.

“Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.” – Psalm 127:3

Amen.

~Phather Phil

Better Than a Hallelujah

Dear Lord; Happy Friday Father!  As I was driving in to work this morning Lord, the song “Better Than a Hallelujah” by Amy Grant came on the radio.  While the inspiration of those wonderful lyrics settled over me, it started me thinking about some the other fantastic messages I’ve received through Christian Music as of late.  As yesterday’s discussion we had was about the disturbing direction some media has taken, I thought today we could focus on the positive message that these songs bring to us instead.

Let’s start with the chorus from “Better Than a Hallelujah” :

“We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah”

What a wonderful way to say that You love us for who we are, and when we honestly seek You that our plea comes through loud and clear.  It’s a beautiful song, and always warms my heart when I hear it.

Another one I’ve become extremely fond of, and actually posted the video of as a dedication to my wife on Facebook the other day, is “Dancing in the Minefields” sung by Andrew Peterson.  Towards the end of the song, the lyrics contain the following verse :

“Cause we bear the light of the son of man
So there’s nothing left to fear
So I’ll walk with you in the shadow lands
Till the shadows disappear
Cause he promised not to leave us
And his promises are true
So in the face of all this chaos baby
I can dance with you”

I love this!  What an amazingly powerful metaphor connecting marriage and the way that You love us.  It just makes me want to hold Shannon tightly when I hear it… What a wonderful message.

One more for the day Lord, and it comes from the song “Lead Me” as performed by Sanctus Real :

“To lead them with strong hands
To stand up when they can’t
Don’t want to leave them hungry for love,
Chasing things that I could give up

Father, lead me, ’cause I can’t do this alone”

We’ve talked about this song before Father, but this truly represents my hopes and prayers as a father and Your Child so well that it can’t be repeated enough.  I see this song as a prayer from my heart, and strive daily to be the man this verse describes.

There are many more examples as well Lord, but these are a few that touch me the most.  It’s comforting to know that while Your Word may not be on millions of TV screens this Sunday, the airwaves do still carry Your Message of Love to us each day.  Thank You for reminding us of Your Love and Aspirations for us through these talented artists.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Integrity in Broadcasting

Dear Lord; Good afternoon Father.  As You’re aware Lord, I’ve had something on my mind the last few days that’s been bothering me.  The funny thing is, my aggravations are regarding an event I’ve never really had much interest in; the Super Bowl.

I’ve never been a big football fan.  In fact, other than a couple of games I went to when I was in college, I’ve never even attended a live game… It just never really caught my interest.  This year really wasn’t much different, until I read a news story about a commercial that had been rejected by Fox Broadcasting Company for “delivering a religious message”.  As I’ve seen some pretty racy and scary Super Bowl commercials over the years, I went and sought out the “offending” segment :

Really??  This was deemed to contain too much religious doctrine??  Wow… I am so terribly sorry Father.  We’ve truly fallen from You as a society.  From a country that has “In God We Trust” on our currency, this truly makes no sense to me.  Fox certainly isn’t worried about offending viewers with the content on shows like “Family Guy” or Fox Sports’ Internet show “Cubed”, but they’re concerned that someone might take a reference to a Bible verse as an affront?

Fox issued a statement last week that stated :

“As a matter of company policy, Fox Broadcasting Company does not accept advertising from religious organizations for the purpose of advancing particular beliefs or practices. The Fixed Point Foundation was provided with our guidelines prior to their submission of storyboards for our review. Upon examination, the advertising submitted clearly delivers a religious message and as a result has been rejected.”

Ok, so the reason they’re airing commercials for the new movie “The Rite” is because it’s not from a religious organization?  Wow…  I’m completely at a loss on this one.

I realize that as a private company Fox has the right to choose what they do and don’t air on their network within FCC guidelines, but if a little of that “concern” about offending viewers were redirected to examining some of the programming and advertisements they do broadcast, I have a feeling the lineup would be far different than it is now.

Heavenly Father, thank You for letting me rant on about this today.  As always, You’re a wonderful listener.  Please fill our hearts and minds with Your Presence and Understanding, so that everyone can experience that Hope :

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

Amen.

~Phather Phil

He will not grow tired or weary…

Dear Lord; Happy Friday Father!  Well Lord, it’s seemed like a terribly long week here for some reason.  I’m very much looking forward to the respite of some down-time with my family and friends over the next couple of days, and to some Stillness for You and I to spend some “quality time” together as well.

To finish up the week Father, I’d like to share a couple of things that have been on my heart the last several days.  To start with, I’ve had a song running through my head very consistently all week.  It’s a wonderfully heartfelt tune written and performed by JJ Heller called “What Love Really Means” :

This is a powerful song Lord, with an amazing message of Hope and Faith that touches me each time I hear it.  It’s always wonderful to hear Your Voice through music.  🙂

Secondly, as I mentioned before Father, I’ve felt very drained this week.  Searching for encouragement and focus this morning, I came across a passage from Isaiah which spoke to me :

“Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.” – Isaiah 40:28-31

Heavenly Father, You are our Hope, and our Strength.  In Your Powerful Hands I lay my Trust, my Love and my Burdens.  You are indeed a Wondrous God.  Amen.

~Phather Phil