A Pleasant Mistake

I made a pleasant mistake.

My mistakes are usually not pleasant and are too frequent, but this one turned out well.

It was a typo.

I was typing the phrase, "I trust in you," to God in a journal I keep. I usually hand-write journal entries but since I spend so much time on my laptop I type some there.

I write ‘I trust in you’ in it a lot. But this time, instead of ‘I trust in you’ I accidentally typed ‘I tryst in you.’

I rushed to delete it and go on. But then I paused. I liked it.

I looked up “tryst” to make sure it meant what I thought it meant. I didn’t want to pull an evil, “You keep using that word—I do not think it means what you think it means.”

But no—it means what I think it means: a private, planned romantic rendezvous between lovers. An appointment to meet at a certain time and place, made especially by lovers.

It’s time together, delightfully so.

And tryst is related to the word engagement—like when you plan a time to meet or, as we all know, you set a time to marry.

That was my happy mistake. Divine serendipity made it more clear to me that to trust in God, my father, and to have faith in Jesus, my savior, we have to have our frequent trysts.

So Lord, I tryst in you. Help me tryst faithfully and with true delight.

And maybe, some-how-or-another, that says something about Christmas. I make mistakes, but God planned the way we can have our tryst.

Thank You, Jesus

Is it just me, or is the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seeming way shorter this year?
The race between the two is making me all-the-more aware of being thankful for Jesus. Here are some reasons. Not the Top Theological 10, just a few that crossed my mind.
1. I’m thankful Jesus was willing to not just humble himself by leaving heaven to become a man but that he was willing to be humiliated. He was called guilty and hung on a cross. I hate not explaining myself when people think I’m wrong. Don't you? I hate being still when people think I’m awful since I know I’m terrific. Well, sort of terrific. Occasionally terrific.
I’m thankful Jesus just let accusations go. He hung on the cross, was slandered and wrongly humiliated and just let it go.
2. OK—kind'a the same thing again, but I’m thankful that when it was time to be weak, Jesus was OK being weak. He could command the greatest strength-force-ability-power known to infinity and beyond but when people mockingly challenged him to a very small thing to prove his power—come down off the cross—he didn’t. He hung there in pain. I don’t—let me be clear: I do not have that kind of self-control.
Again, I’m thankful he just let it go. Surely, he was tempted to lash out but didn’t. His dad could beat up their dad easy-peasy but he just let it go. I’m thankful.
3. I’m thankful he wrote in the dirt. Calm. Collected. Thoughtful. Annoying to his questioners. He just wrote in the dirt when tricksters tried to get him to cast stones at a sinful woman. No sweat. No braggart’s rhetoric. Just peace. Thoughtfulness. Prayerfulness. Then bazinga! The perfect answer showing perfect love.
I’m thankful Jesus wasn’t pressured into making rash statements or stupid decisions. He waited, heard from his father, and then action. Yesterday, today and forever that’s what you can expect from him.
4. I’ll end with how thankful I am about something I think about a lot: He proved himself overwhelmingly unselfish. Proved it! He wasn’t self-seeking. Not sneaky. Was well-tempered. Perfect, but gracious about it. Strong. Kind. Not in it for his own way. Always concerned for others. Willing to sacrifice, be defamed and defaced for other’s good. The list goes on.
Thing is, I’m thankful—so thankful—that one day this earth, this universe, all things, will be literally and visibly ruled by him. By someone like him, not someone like me. Or you. Or any candidate waltzing around. Or a Nimrod. Or a Hitler. Or a wimp. One day he’s set to come back with brass-knuckles on and take over. But he’ll be the same guy. The same guy who is God, too. He’s worthy. He’s proven it. I’m most thankful for that.

I’m Sorry Mr. Gaither

I’m so sorry Mr. Gaither.
If I ever get a chance to talk to Bill Gaither in the future, I may tell him that.
I may tell him I really, really wanted to see him in concert and slip backstage and say hi.
I was planning to, but my plans were interrupted.
In fact, he helped interrupt them.
Here’s the thing: for one of my writing gigs I interviewed Bill Gaither over the phone. It was great. He is cool. He’s coming to town for a concert.
Gaither’s background is traditional gospel music. I can’t say that’s my very favorite style but I can say I’ve long admired Gaither. He’s a tremendously talented songwriter and fabulously gifted entrepreneur.
Along with his wife Gloria, he’s written and performed songs like “He Touched Me,” “There’s Something About That Name,” “Let’s Just Praise The Lord,” and “Because He Lives.”
The couple have musical chops, that’s for sure. Busy musical chops. There’s a chance I may have started to write 700 songs in my life, but the Gaithers have written 700 songs. Real songs. Songs that are out there that people actually like. Wow.
And come on, if you ever liked Elvis there’s got to be a spot in your heart where you can dig a little gospel music and if you ever swooned over The Beatles you’ve got to love guys singing tricky harmony and there’s nobody singing tricky harmony better than The Gaither Vocal Band.
So there I was, talking with ASCAP’s Christian Songwriter of the Century—yeah, he and his wife have that title: Century—and I was thinking, “Heck yeah, I’m going to his concert and I’m going to drop back stage and say hi like he asked me to do and rub shoulders a second with Bill Gaither.”
Because he’s cool.
Well partly because he’s cool. Mainly for the music and more mainly because talking with him convinced me he's the real deal: an honest-to-God, Jesus-loving Christ-follower who aims at doing what Jesus says as well as writing clever, heartfelt Jesus music for the biz.
But something changed my mind.
Something he talked about.
You see, there’s a church small group get-together at the same time as the concert. I started feeling I should go there instead.
I started feeling I should go there mainly because of stuff Gaither said on the phone about genuine Christianity and being connected to others. Real people you see all the time.
“Well big deal,” you may be thinking. “You can get together anytime.”
Thing is, maybe not.
I’ve been on the edge of this group that meets Sunday mornings for about a year. I’ve made some meetings, missed a lot of meetings. My bad.
Now my church is changing the way it does Sunday mornings and this group is going away.
I do believe in the sort of things Gaither talked about and that genuine relationships are a big deal to God. I have that with a couple of folks—but does God want to widen the circle? Is it something I need more of at this point in my life?
I could easily blow all that off and go to the concert because, you know, Gaither’s cool. And going to the get-together is a risk. I may just go and feel my usual awkward-social-self and leave bummed and lonely—through no fault of the good folks I’ll be with.
But I’m thinking God wants me there, risky or not. Maybe connect while we're still "a group" and enjoy it.
So, even though you can bet Gaither likes for people to come to his concerts, maybe he’d back my decision. Because he's cool.