I’ve been teaching Psalm 138:8 for over three decades and telling the story of how that wonderful sentence, “The Lord will accomplish what concerns me,” became our life verse. It was a dramatic moment in 1978 when a young Lieutenant Ed Underwood thought he was saying goodbye to his bride and his little family.

We thought I was marching to war from Ansbach, Germany and leaving them behind to take care of themselves as the fury of the Soviet Empire rained down on them.

We didn’t go to war, but that was the night Psalm 138:8 became our life verse.

Every time I preach that sermon, people ask me to help them find their life verse. My answer is always the same, “You don’t find your life verse; your life verse finds you.”

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Sitting at my feet is a 25-pound companion who never thinks of herself. She was made by God to assist men and women in the acquisition of food, specifically cuisine that takes wing. Her ancestors flushed the partridges and pheasants of a field so that the hawks and falcons of the landed gentry could strike them from the air. When they fell to the ground dazed and confused, these little wonders with God-given ability to smell beyond the wildest imaginations of mere humans would dutifully scoop up the prey into soft mouths. Never thinking of these delicacies for personal consumption, they happily bounced back to the gamekeeper to deposit the prized fowl seeking only a pat on the head and the “good girl” or “good boy” they live for.

My current edition of the descendants of these companions of nobles and kings is a black and white English lady named Annie. Packed into her little frame is a big-dog heart ready to scour field or pond for the wonder of a bird or duck with an enthusiasm and reckless abandon that never quits, never doubts, and risks life and limb to find, flush, and fetch the feathered prize for the true object of her unbounded devotion and love…me.

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“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

Really?

Then why did one of the most successful and spiritual men I have ever known repeat these words every time he tripped, dropped an item, or bumped into something when he was in his seventies—“My dad always told me I was a klutz”?

And why have Judy and I found it impossible to reprogram the thinking of some of the most attractive and accomplished women who explain the logic of their low self esteem with sentences like these—“My father said that my sister got all the beauty and brains in our family” or “My husband constantly tells me that he wishes I would be as in shape, as articulate, as fashionable, or as sexy as his friends’ wives”?

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Out of Control?

Ever had one of those days that you suddenly lost control of?

If your days are like Judy’s, and mine, it doesn’t take much to send them into a tailspin. Like you, we get up every morning with a lot more on our schedule than we could possibly accomplish—even if everything went just right, just as we planned it. Our days are so packed there isn’t much margin for error. And then…

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An early lesson God taught me through teaching the Bible to His people was how uncomfortable we are with unresolved tension. He taught me the difference between our minds and His. It was, and still is difficult, because it requires an admission that I can’t explain Him—the same admission I seek from those who wish I would “clarify something” following most of my Sunday sermons.

I had just finished preaching on Jesus’ healing of the demonized boy in Mark 9:14-29. One sentence in bold summarized my thoughts: If you want to follow Jesus, you must learn to fast and pray. An earnest gentleman approached me wearing one of those “I disapprove greatly” faces every pastor knows too well. Before I could greet him, he reminded me of about fourteen other passages, verses, and theological truths that just didn’t seem to fit with what I had just said.

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Prof!

Recently I spent an hour with one of the most important men in my life—Professor Howard Hendricks. I was in Dallas for a few days and scheduled some time in his office at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Prof has had a lot of health problems over the last few decades. On the outside he’s obviously not the dynamo I remember quickstepping across campus from one classroom to another where he kept us spellbound with the most effective teaching I ever sat under.

Back then, his energy seemed limitless, his strength seemed unrestricted, and his mind undiminishable.

It was obvious to me that my beloved mentor’s steps have slowed a little and his thoughts take a little longer to connect now days.

But I’ll tell you what has not changed: His passion for the Lord Jesus and his plans to serve Him.

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Innocent Trust

Our first worship service was just about to begin when I noticed someone running toward my usual “preacher front-row seat.”

My sweet seven-year old granddaughter, Mary with her long brown curls and bright blue eyes ran into my arms in all of her Sunday morning best, hugged my neck and said, “Good morning, Papa!”

It wasn’t “grown-up” behavior. It was wonderfully childlike.

An adult would never do what she did. Grown-ups don’t think and act that way. Grown-up thoughts would have considered the crowd, wondered what they thought, calculated that this might be an embarrassment to them and a distraction to others and decide not to run to someone they love, hug their neck, and tell them good morning. No matter how much a grown-up might love that person, they would never express it with such innocent exuberance.

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So Many Obstacles!

Have you ever moved forward in faith, sure that you knew what God wanted you to do, only to encounter trial after trial, roadblock after roadblock?

In January of 2005 we celebrated our 90th Anniversary by raising over $600,000 to begin transforming our campus. We knew God wanted us to build on this beautiful piece of property. A new worship center seemed like the logical choice. So we initiated a capital campaign, and started planning our construction.

Every month we poured ourselves into the project. We estimated the scope and cost, and announced it to the congregation. And then, something would happen and we would have to rethink and re-plan, and re-report the revised plans and figures to our people.

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Cancer Hospital Waiting Room

We’re gathered together in a room nobody wants to sit in—the waiting room of the USC Norris Cancer Center’s Outpatient Clinic. What we have in common is our deadly diagnosis, and our bandaged arms from the blood test our oncologist will read.

I remember well the first time I took my seat in this very room eight years ago. So weak I could barely walk and so embarrassed by my grotesque appearance, the emotions of actually being a cancer patient overwhelmed me. Judy had to support me—both physically and emotionally—when I tried to cross the street from the “regular” hospital to the cancer hospital.

Surveying the room this morning, I can see the despair in the eyes of the first-timers. They’re still either reeling from or resisting the idea that they belong here with people like me—people with cancer or lymphoma. They never imagined life could be so hard, so hurtful, so hopeless.

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I’m fascinated by God’s timing; always have been. A friend of mine use to say that it’s His signature on events. He sure signed off on the last two days of my life to teach me an important lesson.

Last Sunday our study of Mark brought us to chapter 9:30-37, a fascinating conversation between Jesus and His disciples concerning greatness. As they passed through Galilee, Jesus taught them again concerning His impending death and resurrection. This time He added the discouraging news that all of this will happen because someone will betray Him. They didn’t understand; it was just too much for them, and they were afraid to ask Him to explain further.

What they did understand were the prophecies that someday Messiah would rule and reign over His Kingdom on earth. Still clinging to their insistence that Jesus should be that Messiah—the ruling and reigning one, rather than the Messiah He was telling them He was—the One who would first suffer, die, and then rise from the dead, they did what everyone does when they are around someone they think has power and status: They postured for position in His Kingdom. They were about to learn Jesus’ definition of greatness—His radical, counterculture, counter-flesh, measure of greatness in His Kingdom: If you follow Jesus, He will ask you to serve everyone—especially the weak.

It’s an upside-down measure of greatness for most people. It’s not the number of people who serve you that matters to Jesus; it’s the number of people you serve.

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