Bits for Sunday, April 6, 2008

This week I had one of those moments that not so long ago would have really annoyed me…but this time I took great pleasure in it. In a meeting, someone questioned my age and seemed surprised to know I had worked at my job for as many years as I have. When I first started working, I was frequently (and skeptically, I might add) questioned about my age and it irritated me to the point of purchasing fake glasses…a move which did result in greater respect, interestingly enough. But the onset of prematurely graying hair has obliterated my need for fake glasses and has also hushed all questions of age. Until this week. The hair dye must be working. I wanted to skip as I left the meeting – excited to once again be mistaken for someone fresh out of college.

I say that because what I’m about to say borders on sounding old and sentimental, and I wanted to remind us all that while I am sentimental before my time, I am not old.

This morning in our Sunday School class (I’m retaking junior high, in case you forgot or didn’t know) – we read Philippians. The entire book, which in all fairness, is only four chapters. I found my study-loving self wanting to stop in between verses to talk about all the rich words…but we foraged ahead. At the end of class, Pastor Brian told the teens that there were so many things we could have gone back to look at more in-depth, but he wanted to just familiarize them with that book…and for the next few weeks, we’d work our way through some of the other letters and accounts of Paul.

As we read and familiarized…I found myself remembering times when the words of this tiny book had first come to mean something so important to me. Some of those times occurred when I was not much older than the teens in our class. By the time Sunday School ended, my mind had wandered down multiple paths of those days when Philippians came to the rescue. So I came home, pulled the study Bibles off the shelf (I switch Bibles every so often to get a fresh perspective) and looked back at the notes I’d made along the way.

1:6 – “…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” That reminded me of years ago, during the phase when I escaped into the world of headphones and music in the car rather than paying any attention to the conversations of Mom and Dad…and I learned this verse through a duet sung by Steve Green and Kelly Willard. I still remember that little chorus. And below this verse in one Bible, I’ve written a quote by Oswald Chambers – “Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a hurry!” And He still isn’t.

1:9-11 – “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus – to the glory and praise of God.” According to the margin, these verses were my theme verses for 1998 – when I would have been a sophomore transitioning into a junior in college. I found the verses after reading a book by Joshua Harris and being challenged to work harder at my faith.

2:14 – “Do everything without complaining or arguing” – This verse is highlighted in bright blue in another Bible, and I wrote in the margin, “Everything is all-inclusive. This is a virtue to strive for. It builds and reflects character.” Sigh. And I still have more character to build in this area.

3:12-14 – “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Verses given to me on scraps of paper in high school study hall from a sweet friend named Emily. I miss her. She was a friend who always brought her Bible to study hall and on the off-study moments, she’d write encouragement notes to her friends, and I often received them…shoved across the aisle when the teacher wasn’t looking.

4:12 – “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” This verse struck me today when we read it, because it made me think of my sister and brother-in-law and niece and all they’ve been through in the past year since the tornado. They can say these verses in a very different and much more complete way than I can…and I can learn so much from that.

There were more notes and highlights in the Bibles, but I chose those to show that in these past 15 or so years since I began really reading and studying, God has brought different verses at different times to show me His power and presence in my life. Sometimes through songs, sometimes through sermons, sometimes through the forbidden notes in study hall. And I love this heritage of scribbles and underlining and highlighting that reminds me of the paths I’ve walked.

It makes me excited to see the day when the teens in that Sunday School class discover that kind of excitement for preserving their own journey of faith…a journey that took a big step for most of them this morning when they were baptized. And I hope in 15 or so years, they can look back over Philippians and see a verse or two that they remember from a Sunday morning when they read through the book in a day…and God planted a seed.