Doing The Heavy Lifting

From big Bobby Tilton to Watchman Nee,
I’ve stumbled around quite faithlessly;
For faith on the water is not my shtick,
Three waves from the boat and I feel quite sick.

Sometimes I just wonder if magic is
Description of walking in faith that’s his;
He is of First Nations – I recognize
An aspect of living – he can’t disguise.

It’s tied to the method he gets his way
From God – “Push the levers, His mind you’ll sway;
The recipe’s written in His Good Book,
If you’ll take the time for a closer look.”

I think that’s reverse of God’s ways in heaven;
And that is the point of that Hebrew leaven,
Apostles brought into my culture’s soup –
An insight that frees from an endless loop:

It’s God pushing levers and all the rest,
In hopes that His people will rise from rest,
And join with the others, their giftings pool,
And stop thrashing around like a single fools.

But God gave us freedom to live our lives
In whatever way here beneath the skies;
But He didn’t say there would be no pain,
Our ways are not His – ours are somewhat lame.

He uses persuasion, and lets us fall;
He patiently told how He planned it all;
It’s not we don’t know, it’s more attitude,
“I’ll do it myself” is our platitude.

He says, “Okay, fine, how’s that working out?”
“Perhaps try more gas as you go about”;
“Are you having fun like I meant for you?”
“That bridge is washed out”; “Take a larger view.”

So autodidactic’s the way to live;
Solution’s collective – we take and give;
The Jews made their jottings on scrolls and sheets,
Of learnings so errors they’d not repeat.

For two thousand years we have had that text,
Since Jesus’ Apostles, at his behest,
Climbed over the wall of their cultured life,
And shared their solutions to ease our strife.

Each culture has problems, some here – some there;
In Scripture, solutions to make repairs,
With change to our thinking, so we can see
Our way out of trouble, what e’er that be.

It’s not pushing buttons so God will act;
It’s growth and maturing with faith in fact –
All faith is too mushy; all fact is to firm;
But mix them together, God’s ways we learn:

From Bobby I learned how a crop I’d see:
“Plant seeds in the springtime if crop there’ll be;
In life there’s a River – unblock the flow,
So crops in the Valley can start to grow.”

From Watchman I’m learning one other part:
(Four decades he’s trained me, since at the start),
“With change in our living comes address change,
Our view is from heaven – thoughts re-arranged.”

“If we do our living with earthly view
Of God’s good suggestions, good luck to you;
For God’s Word’s from heaven, expressed our way,
Seems heavy and deadly, quite unlike play.

“A change of perspective is all it takes,
Re-framing our lives – like releasing brakes;
For He raised us up there, quite different view;
In Him all our actions are fun to do.”

It’s not that Bob Tilton had missed the mark,
It’s more Watchman Nee showed the place to start;
I seem to go backwards like draining ponds –
Start digging the ditch when dry land you’re on.

If you start your work at the swampy part,
You’ll wallow in muck as your digging starts;
But start where it’s dry and work back to lake,
And work will go well – you’ll soon celebrate.

But even in that I soon lost my way,
God’s wisdom and guidance helped day to day;
But I heard His message from down below,
My part in big picture I did not know.

A waste of resources, of time, and cash;
Inferior forces (relied on dash);
But aging confronts us with downward slide,
Of strength and resources – it’s hard to hide.

“Too soon we get old; too late get Smart”,
A placard at grandpa’s back at the start;
If we don’t get wisdom from living life,
Our way will get rougher, and passage tight.

So, thank you, O Lord, for this Watchman Nee,
Who held up a Scripture so I could see,
A change of perspective Christ gave to me;
It’s there for my using to set me free.

The good stuff from Tilton is also true,
It’s just my perspective gives different view;
Released from the burden of surplus stuff,
I am freed up for living – I’ve quite enough.

For me, dissipation has plagued my life;
Responding (from gifting) is far from nice
If we cannot stop, it becomes a plague;
Slap-dash is the best that we’ve ever made.

But now there is focus – “Do this for Me –
Or that”, some small part, now I edges see;
“And do it with others – they’ll help you out,
By doing the parts which they know about.

“My yoke it is easy, my burden light,
If you’ll sit with Me, get perspective right;
That way you won’t do stuff not on your list,
Freed up – on the best you can now insist.

“Resources for doing My task through you,
I give, like the rains for the farmers, too;
So try it, kick back, let the rest all go,
My ways of resourcing you then will know.

“One thing I should say now before you start –
Although you’re together to do your part,
It’s still just the small stuff you do for Me
For all heavy lifting I do – you’ll see.”

navigation