Help! I Need Somebody.

Do you recognize those words? Help, I need somebody. Help, not just anybody. Help, you know I need someone. Help! In 1965 those lyrics gave The Beatles yet another #1 hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. They were written by John Lennon at a time when he was struggling to deal with the rapid rise of success. "I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for 'Help'," Lennon later told a magazine. Those words were the "first crack in the protective shell" that Lennon had built around himself, wrote Ian MacDonald.

Recently I've been reading and teaching from the book Life's Healing Choices by John Baker. Interestingly Baker points out that those very words are the doorway to a life-changing journey toward healing and wholeness. In fact they are absolute requirements to experiencing freedom from what Rick Warren calls the "hurts, hang-ups, and habits" that keep us stressed out, drained, depressed, and hopeless.

For all of us, that act of saying "Help! I need somebody" is an acknowledgement that we're not really super heroes and that we don't have all the answers. They bring to light what we work hard to keep hidden - that we're really broken, inside at least, and that we can't fix ourselves. They declare what God and everyone else around us already know - that we're really not God.

I'm learning that this idea of playing God is as old as the Garden of Eden. In the beginning God said to man about Eden (I'm paraphrasing here of course) 'All of this is for you. Enjoy. Have at it. Just one thing I ask. So that I know and you know you're choosing to love and obey me, stay away from this one tree. Just the one! Don't eat its fruit. But all the rest is yours.' Then the enemy, Satan, appeared and said - 'It's ok. Take a bit. It's good. And if you eat it you'll be like God.' So they ate it. And we've been trying to be God ever since.

"Help! I Need Somebody" is a great declaration that we finally realize we're not God and that we really do need Him to guide our lives. It is the starting line for every kind of healing and recovery journey. Of course it's one thing to acknowledge our need. It's another thing entirely to be willing to receive help. The world is filled with people who know they are hurting and empty but just aren't ready to receive the hope they need.

But just uttering those words can convey a willingness to change direction. When spoken with broken awareness of our desperate need they act as an invitation to change us, to make us different, to make us whole.

When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in anyway. But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured, Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors.

And that, of course, is the point of the help and the hope that God offers. It sets us on a new path, in a new direction, with new life in Him. Jesus repeatedly said "cast your cares on me," follow my ways and learn of me," "I've come to give you new life."

Help! I Need Somebody are the words that help us begin to change course, to stop pretending, to stop hiding, and to stop the hurting. They are words of pause and of openness. They are words of surrender. But they are also words of acceptance, of attention, of willingness to take one step and then another and another in a new direction. They are words that open up closed doors and allow the healing grace of God to penetrate deep into our pain, our sorrows, our emptiness, our soul. That's why Lennon's words really are a loud message of hope whether he knew it or not.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down. And I do appreciate you being 'round. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won't you please, please help me? Help me. Help me.

Sounds like a great pray to me. One that we all need. One that I've prayed... again... today!

In God We Trust

Like everyone else I've been paying attention to the financial world these days. What a mess! The Dow is dropping like a rock, the President is on T.V. talking crisis, banks are failing, and Congress is spending hundreds of billions (that's with a B) on a big chunk of our private financial sector - which doesn't seem like a good thing in a free-market economy.

So how am I supposed to be feeling right now? Should I be worried? Scared? Depressed? Angry? Should I take action? And if so, do what? Or should I sit tight - and what exactly does that mean?

I was thinking about all this the other day when I took a dollar bill out of my pocket to pay for something and noticed the backside. It had four words printed on it that I had almost forgotten were there... IN GOD WE TRUST. And in that moment I got some sense of clarity about all this.

In the Bible in Acts 27 the apostle Paul and others are sailing along when suddenly they are caught in a major hurricane that threatened their life. Now that sounds like a great metaphor for what we're experiencing in the markets. When I read that story again I realized that their experience provides some insight for us as we navigate through this storm. In fact, that story addresses the most basic questions I have right now: How did we get here? What should I NOT do? And What SHOULD I do?

First, HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Just flip on the news. A lot of folks have opinions about that and probably few of them are completely correct. It does seem complicated. But Paul's story about his storm isn't so much. It tells us (vs 9-11) that for starters, they had LISTENED TO THE WRONG COUNSELORS. "... Paul warned them... But they followed the advice of (others)..."

Does that sound familiar? The Bible is full of teachings about carefully handling money, being responsible and accountable, not over-extending, meeting our needs but also being generous in helping others and advancing Kingdom causes. But often times haven't we tended to listen more to other voices? The ones that say, "Buy now & pay later," "You deserve this," "It's only fair," "Everyone else has one" and "You can be generous when you have more."

The Bible is also pretty clear about chosing our decision makers wisely. But once again we have tended to select those in authority over us, not on the basis of biblical principles or evidence of Godly character and integrity and values. But instead, based on what they promise us, how they make us feel, or which party they're in. So now many of our most prominent national leaders navigating us through this storm are the same bunch that led us here in the first place by not paying attention to God's ways. Yep - it seems that, like Paul's story, we've probably listened to the wrong voices.

Paul's story also says that they got caught in the storm because they just FOLLOWED THE CROWD (vs 12)! That sounds about right. Everyone is living this way, buying houses and stuff we can't really afford, spending those credit cards that come in the mail everyday. Credit's easy and every one's doing it. It's the American way, right? Forgetting, of course, that the crowd is rarely right and that God's ways are different from man's ways. That we're to be responsible for our own actions. That Christ-followers are to be salt and light in the world, to set the example, to be different - even peculiar.

So how did we get here? How did our nation's ecomony get in such a mess? Corporate greed? Sure - partly. But that alone comes up a bit short don't you think? After all, greed is not a new sin. It's been around a while. Corrupt officials? Absolutely - some of it. There is plenty of evidence that many in congress have been protecting and collecting from Fannie, Freddie, and others they were "overseeing" and whose collapse seems to have triggered this mess. And we'll probably put some of them in charge again.

But maybe, just maybe, a big part of the problem is us - citizens of America. Even more specifically - Christian citizens. Oh, it's not that we shouldn't buy houses or cars or take vacations. But maybe we have become so comfortable with living in this land of affluence, and so confident in our human financial systems, that we forgotten where our abundance came from in the first place. Maybe we've become so self-sufficient that the foundational truth that our founders boldly stamped on our currency really no longer applies.

Maybe, then, to learn fully who is responsible we need to also take a peak in the mirror. And while doing so, to humbly tell God, as individuals and on behalf of our nation, that we're sorry. Maybe the way back starts by owning some responsibility for taking God's blessings for granted and moving away from dependance on Him. Then, of course, we should probably set out to choose and behave differently.

Now the doing differently part - that's going to take some work. But to start with I've taken one of those dollar bills and placed it face down on my desk. Every day now that eagle and that weird looking eye stare at me, as if to see if I'm still paying attention to their most important message - That it's not In our money we trust, In Wall Street we trust, In our 401k we trust, or even In government we trust. It is, it always has been, IN GOD WE TRUST.

Is this an Election Season?

Wow - can you say POLITICAL CAMPAIGN! Between the ads, pundits, campaign calls, and polling surveys it's starting to feel like we've been in this election season for... oh about 3 years now. BUT HANG IN THERE! Don't get too tired and turn off completely. Voting is way too important in a free democratic society like ours. I know you’ve heard it before but it’s true – voting is a great privilege! So tough it out, get informed, and plan to vote wisely. Ok, that's my mini-sermon for today.

Seriously, as you know there are some very important positions to be elected this year. So in case you're still trying to figure it all out here are some tools to help you.

1. If you're not yet registered - then GET REGISTERED RIGHT AWAY! The deadline is October 8. Here is a link to the Secretary of State's office where you can print out a registration form and mail it in. Also, here's a link to CitizenLink.com, a profamily organization run by Focus on the family. There you can register right on line and hit send.

2. If you're confused about the Presidential candidates here are a couple of resources. About six weeks ago both candidates participated in a Civil Forum at Saddleback Church in California. They each answered the same questions posed by Pastor Rick Warren. Here is a link to watch the entire hour and a half Saddleback Civil Forum. It's very informative about the key policy positions and personal values of both candidates. Plus here is a link to watch small sections of the forum broken down by individual questions.

3. At the CitizenLink.com site you can also find out information about state & federal legislators and candidates for state offices.

4. On Sunday, November 2, I'll be sharing a message titled "The Kind of Leadership America Needs." It's based on a message given by Rick Warren to his church following their Civil Forum. Don't worry - I'm not going to be telling folks how to vote. (They wouldn't listen even if I did!) But I will help us examine what the Bible teaches about how to choose leaders. We'll close the service by spending time praying for our nation and for the election.

So I encourage you to get registered (if you're not already), get informed, pray, and be a part of the process. God blessed us so much by choosing that we would live in this nation - at this time in history! Don’t blow it by not helping to select our leaders.