Imagine Me 2

I went through a short period of Kirk Franklin love last week. :)

Ain't he cute? But he's married, girls, so stop that thinking. I don't know much about the guy or his life, but I like the fantasy I'm creating. LOL. I watched his video, Lean on Me, at Yahoo videos. Very cool. I highly recommend you look at it. It is moving. Young girl in the ghetto with a baby has a fight with her boyfriend and gets kicked out. She sits on the steps, watching the guys around her play basketball, whatever. And someone comes up and puts an arm around her. Sits on the steps with her, holds the baby, literally holding her burden for her. This is something I think white Christian America is missing. We have so much and we can't comprehend what it's like to have so little. Sure, when Katrina hits we rush to take in a "victim" and salve our consciences, but we keep our distance. The black church and the white church stay separate (especially here in SC). The black church, with so little, gives its "widow's mite" to those with even less while the white churches build huge monuments to its success, installs stained-glass windows, employs Mexican gardners to manicure the church grounds. How will we face God when we die and explain how we spent one dollar on bricks while His people starved around us?

"Lean On Me"

This is for that little child with no father
For that man that doesn't have a place to stay
For that little boy living with AIDS

There's a man
Standing on the corner
He has no home
He has no food
And his blue skies are gone
Can't you hear him cryin' out

And there's a girl
Searching for a father and a friend
Praying that the storm someday will end
But instead of walking away
Open up your heart and say

I am here
You don't have to worry
I can see your tears
I'll be there in a hurry when you call
Friends are there to catch you when you fall
Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me

Oh, there's a child
Who is sick and begging to be free
But there is no cure for his disease
He looks up to his mother and
As she holds his hand
Prayin' that someday
The sun will shine again
And the pain will end

I am here
You don't have to worry
I can see your tears
I'll be there in a hurry when you call
Friends are there to catch you when you fall
Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me


Tell me, how can I, how can I love Jesus
When I've never seen His face
Yeah, I see you dying
And I turn and walk away

So hold my hand
Let me take you to a friend of mine
He's waiting just to ease your troubled mind
He loves you more than you'll ever know
'Stead of walking away
Open up your heart and say

I am here
You don't have to worry
I can see your tears
I'll be there in a hurry when you call
Friends are there to catch you when you fall
Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me
You're my friend but you're also my brother
Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me

Quote of the Moment

One of my favorite mailings is from Voice of the Martyrs, started by Richard Wurmbrand who spent 14 years in Romanian prisons. I recently ran across a scrap of paper I had saved from one of their magazines . My green pen had drawn a square around a couple of paragraphs that must have meant a lot to me a few months ago when I read it. It's something that only a "square peg" would have written:

"No, I will not deny Him. My mind does not know who He is or where He is. When I was strung up by my arms with my toes barely reaching the floor . . ., I had no evidence that He exists. I was inclined to accuse Him as St. Theresa before me dared to accuse Him, 'O Lord, no wonder You have so few friends when You treat them so hard.' But I believe in the incomprehensible and terrible One. I believe that He is love, although at this moment I feel nothing of His love. I have to believe in its expression in a sacrifice 2000 years ago. I will not leave Him, nor deny Him, even if [it seems] He leaves me."

Some people are able to go through hardships gracefully. It never occurs to them to utter the words of St. Theresa -- but I'm not one of them. I have often, often said these same words to God: Why do you treat us so hard? The answer to that question could fill several books on theology and I'm not going to get into it now. Yet, I wonder what it is in us, at least some of us like Wurmbrand, Theresa and me, that goes on believing even when we feel that God is NOT sustaining us, and in fact, He might be the one inflicting the pain on us (which is not true, but the way we feel sometimes). I suspect it is God's Spirit living in us Who keeps that hope up. Without that, where would we be?

The good news is that even if we do deny Him, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)