Oh, man – waking up with a song running through your head is, well, interesting.
A lot depends on the song and what are the lyrics. So as not to keep you in suspenders, here’s what woke me up this morning . . .
“Mighty To Save”
Everyone needs compassion / A love that’s never failing / Let mercy fall on me / Everyone needs forgiveness / The kindness of a Saviour / The hope of nations
[Chorus:] Savior – He can move the mountains / My God is mighty to save / He is mighty to save / Forever author of salvation / He rose and conquered the grave / Jesus conquered the grave
So take me as you find me / All my fears and failures / Fill my life again / I give my life to follow / Everything I believe in / Now I surrender
[Chorus 2x] Shine your light and let the whole world see / We’re singing for the glory of the risen king Jesus [repeat 2x]
You who know it are singing along.
“Well, I can’t help it–after all, I know this one, and–“
I know, right? It gets real with where I am; I’m guessing it does with you, too. That “Everyone” includes me, includes everything I need:
- compassion
- unfailing, unconditional love
- mercy instead of justice
- forgiveness
It also includes everything He seeks in return:
- I come to Him just the way I am – warts, attitudes, the whole enchilada . . .
- My entire history, my whole back trail
- He refills me with Himself and His ways, because . . .
- I freely give the remainder of my life to Him, including
- Everything I’ve been believing in, letting Him sort that all out, and THEN
- Giving me, and all of that, to HIM to use and work through as He knows is best.
“Cool. Nice little package. Great deal. But, um . . .”
Yes?
“Well, first, seems to me some people don’t deserve mercy. Not after repeatedly doing the same things over and over again.”
When it gets down to where the rubber meeting the road erases your bottom line and you’re not entirely sure just where you are, none of us deserve anything but swift, certain judgment. You, me. None. Lock in on this: if we deserved it, it wouldn’t be mercy.
“Um, okay . . . Well, you and your words. What’s with the ‘fungible’ bit?”
They’re not mine; I simply enjoy using them. However, I take your point. To be fungible means to be interchangeable. We’ve been visiting about Solomon’s strong advice to seek wisdom, right?
I know you’ve had to deal with people so oily, so imprecise you can’t pin them down to anything. Getting a straight answer or opinion out of them is like trying to corner a peeled, wet boiled egg on your glass plate. At first it’s amusing, like watching Conway do a short comedy clip. Doesn’t take long, though, for the novelty to wear off.
Does it?
A-a-and the point is–believe or not. Decide. No one trusts a car dealer whose word is fungible. A boss whose assurances are fungible. A coworker whose ethics are fungible. A minister whose gospel is fungible. A professing Christian whose personal faith resembles looking into a turning kaleidoscope.
So why would we expect God – or other people – to think we’re okay when our personal faith is fungible? Interchangeable? Little of this, little of that – aw, nah, don’t much like that. Let’s go wi-t-t-th . . . yeah. Let’s try this.
Does that inspire you? It might be fun, even fashionable. But when life gets real fungible faith can’t hold you.
Putting your faith and trust in God through who Jesus is and what He’s done – and continues to do – can hold you.
Hang around somebody who’s seen and felt Jesus right there when life itself was hanging by the proverbial thread.
Don’t just listen. What they tell you will sound fantastic enough you’ll toss it off with, “Ahhh, talk is cheap.”
a ) No, it’s not cheap. And it’s not boasting. It’s telling the story of what happens when you get to the end of the pavement, the dirt road runs out, and you have NO place left to go – and then Jesus steps up.
b ) Pay attention to what that experience has done in and through them. Watch. Just shut up and watch.
They’re different. Fungible, interchangeable faith doesn’t – can’t – do that. Buffet Beauties’ faith won’t survive life-threatening and -altering adventures.
And that, boys and girls, is why people like me wake up singing songs like MIGHTY TO SAVE.
You see, I’m one of those. And when I could do nothing, Jesus stepped in and did the rest. He still is. And that, friend, is why I write encouragement into your life every time I can. It’s why I recommend Jesus to anyone who’s tired of playing in the Fungible Follies.
© D. Dean Boone, August 2014.