Cash.

I actually finished a book this evening.  A painstaking monthlong journey through the autobiography of Johnny Cash.

I’m not a country music fan, but the richness of the culture behind it, the struggles of the sharecropper in rural Arkansas during and immediately after the depression, have brought me a new appreciation of it. 

More than that, I have a whole new understanding of the man behind the movement.  I not only feel like I know him, but I feel like we’ve been sitting on the porch evening after evening, deep in conversation.  It really was an amazing experience. 

As I continue to reflect on what I have read, what I have “experienced” in Johnny’s own words, it strikes me that Mr. Cash was the quintessential human being.  The embodiment of that daily struggle between good and evil that is the definition of being human.   I have never identified so closely with a person whose life was so fundamentally different from mine.  He was a man at war with himself, as we all are on a daily basis.  And he came out the other end with a grace we should all hope to achieve.  He could have been another Peter, or King David.  Heck, we all could.

I won’t call him my hero, because he would refuse to accept it.  But there is little I wouldn’t give just for one of those porch conversations.  It may sound strange, but I really miss him.

 

this one is about paul the phone salesman

I may be a little late on the bandwagon with this, but in case you haven’t seen it, take a minute to check out the newest vid on my vodpod–Paul sings opera.  It is such an amazing example of power, grace, and beauty that resides in every human being, regardless of how we feel about ourselves or are seen by others.  Tim’s blog, which I suggest you take a moment to read (go to Oct 25th post), puts flawless words to the significance of this performance.  And watch the audience closely… the effect that this man, this awkward seemingly-mediocre phone salesman, has on the people in the room.  Wow.  What a breathtaking materialization of what it means to be made in God’s image.

(by the way, thanks lil bro for sending it to me!)

 

bipolar king david

The more Bible I read, the more I connect with it.

I mean, take away the kings and kingdoms, prophets and princes, donkeys and Pharisees, and there’s me.  My life.  Now.

I first began to notice it when I read Psalms, straight through, for the first time.  Not “sunday school” reading, but real think-about-it-soak-it-in-wrestle-with-it reading.  Suddenly the glorious hero of sunday school days who killed the giant Philistine with a sling shot and a single stone between the eyes is either throwing himself a perpetual pity party in the depths of despair or flying high in a euphoria of triumph and thanksgiving for all God has done for him. It’s almost comical, if it weren’t so typical! Hell-o… that is SO me.  And david was chosen by God.

Then there’s Peter.  Pathetic Peter.  A chosen disciple who managed to screw up just about every chance he got to prove himself.  Couldn’t stay focused long enough to walk on the water with Jesus.  Freaked out under public pressure and betrayed Jesus THREE times, despite his passionate protests some hours earlier that he would never do such a thing.  Lashed out in anger at Jesus’ arrest and was rebuked by Christ himself.  And yet, in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit inhabits him, and Peter preaches a sermon that inspires so many people to follow Christ that Christianity soon becomes a major world religion.  I absolutely LOVE that part of the story, when Peter the screw-up becomes Peter the Rock, upon which Christ will build his church.

Then there is Esther, the righteous queen who risks her life on behalf of her people.  She is the woman I want to be.

There is so much for us in the Bible.  So much to learn.  So many real people to identify with, not just characters in sunday school stories and cartoons.  Archaic though it may seem to others, the stories and the lives in the Bible continue to inspire me toward pursuing a higher purpose.  My mood swings, my screw-ups, my betrayals cannot separate me from it.

 

naked. (same day, different post)

Speaking of Ted Dekker, I spent some time on his website earlier today, which I subsequently added to my blogroll. He’s got some interesting insights and observations about present-day Christian culture (a term with which he takes issue, interestingly enough, insofar as “Christian” is used as a label to differentiate certain aspects of our lives from the “secular”), as well as a follower of Christ’s role in it.

For a taste, check out his blog entry “Get Naked and Save the World.” This guy reads my mind.