Weekly e-news January 17, 2020
Hey, everyone! Hope you’re having a beautiful day… a day full of praise and thankfulness and joy and… a day full of…let’s see…highs of 50, lows of 37 and 0% rain! (Tho’ partly cloudy.)
Speaking of the weather… I’m glad it’s finally getting down out of the 60’s! I mean, it’s mid-January! When I was a kid, we would’ve already had a couple of really good snows! In those days….
“Ok, boomer.”
What?? Did someone say something?
Anyway, when Tina and I watch the weather on TV, it always seems like they try to predict it to scare you! “30 million are at risk as a line of thunder storms cross the midwest…” “At risk”? It’s just a thunder storm! Back in “the day”…
“Ok, boomer.”
Hey! There it is again! I coulda sworn I heard someone say “Ok, boomer”
It must have been my imagination. I might be a little sensitive because of an article I read about that particular expression. It seems that “Ok, boomer” is a phrase that is popular among younger texters, Gen Z’r’s, bloggers and TikTokers. It’s kind of a dismissive response to thoughts and opinions of “boomers” (those born between 1946 and 1964…i.e., me!) that can at times seem, to younger folks, inflexible, narrow and condescending.
“When I was in college, I didn’t get student loans because I worked my way through!” “Ok, boomer.” Because the boomer forgot to add the fact that in 1974, UT cost a total of $248 per semester (or, more precisely, $124 per quarter!)
And to tell the truth, spiritually, I think Jesus might say they have a point. As long as we stay faithful and true to the “Old, old story of Jesus and His love”… or as Jeremiah said, as long as we “stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it…” Jesus said over and over that it is important to be able to think in ways that are new, creative, and fresh! And flexible!
His ways were soooooo radical! And soooooo unconventional! And sooooooo revolutionary! Only a humbly teachable heart could welcome His thoughts and words! Those who were totally set in their ways had no space for His!
“Take My yoke and LEARN of Me…” (Matthew 11.29)
Or…“You can’t put new wine in old wineskins!”
And you can’t put new thoughts of the radical love of Jesus in inflexible, unstretchable hearts!
Sometimes it seems to me that Peter was one who really struggled to give up old attitudes to make space for Jesus’ way of seeing and doing.
One night, to demonstrate a whole new way to lead, our Savior took off His normal clothes, put on a servant’s towel, and washed their stinky feet like a slave would do. “Not mine, Lord! I would never let You serve me that way! It’s not the way I was raised!”
Another time, in a vision, God encouraged Peter to enjoy some foods he had never tried before. “Not me, Lord! Nothing like that has ever touched my lips and it ain’t about to now!”
Not long after, our Lord encouraged Peter to visit and even enter into the home of a guy seeking God. Only glitch…Cornelius wasn’t one of “his people”. He was an foreigner! And an Italian, at that! Pete had NEVER been in a home or probably even in a lengthy conversation with “those kind”!
But God loves people in ways we’ve never thought of! He cares about all those we may not care for at all! Peter hesitatingly went. And when he was warmly welcomed in, he said to Cornelius and his family… “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean…” As another translation puts it… ““You know, I’m sure that this is highly irregular. Our people just don’t do this—visit and relax with other nationalities of people…”
And you can almost hear angels snicker and say… “Ok, boomer!”