Singing While You Pslog

Singing is natural to the human spirit, and singing is an essential expression of the Church's faith.

The United Methodist Hymnal begins with "Directions for Singing," taken from John Wesley's Selected Hymns, 1761.

Among the directions are these:

• "Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you;"
• "Sing lustily;"
• "Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard;"
• "Sing modestly;"
• "Do not bawl."

In Psalm 57:7, the psalmist proclaims, "I will sing and make music."

I certainly don't carry the most audibly pleasing bucket of tunes, but I played in the band and my spirit is stirred by music.

I was curious, though, to find a United Methodist hymnal on the toilet tank in the men's room at my office yesterday.

Pslogging Through Mud

I'm the bench coach for my son's baseball team. I think it's the hardest job on the coaching staff. It's the ultimate in workflow management.

One kid out of the dugout at a time. Make sure the kid has a helmet and a bat (can't leave anything to assumption in 7-&-under coach-pitch baseball). Help the next kids in the batting order get ready to bat ("put your glove down, put a helmet on, get a bat, don't hit your teammates with the bat..."). Help the kid who will play catcher next inning put on the shin guards and chest protector. Keep the other kids on the team - the ones who aren't batting, getting ready to bat or getting ready to catch - from injuring one another with bats and balls because of boredom or short attention spans. And I keep the scorebook, too.

I love doing it. Really, I do.

A few weeks ago, we had a couple of heavy rain showers during the week. I fully expected that our games that weekend would be cancelled. My son's soccer game was rained out that day, but his baseball game was not.

The field drained well, considering all of the rain we had that week. There was one exception, though. The dirt area right in front of the dugout was a mud pit too tempting even for the cleanest of children to avoid.

The pregame lecture delivered by the head coach went unheeded. Every single boy put at least one cleat in the mud on his way to bat, after he ran the bases, on his way onto the field and on his way back into the dugout. I finally surrendered my vain attempts at protecting the mud after two innings of futility.

I noticed that walking through the mud causes three problems. First, it's messy. This is the one that most of the team mom's expressed. Second, the traction is poor. One kid in the next game slipped and fell on his bottom as he ran through the noted mud. It wasn't pretty. Third, it's hard to run with mud in your cleats. It makes your shoes heavy, and it slows you down.

Psalm 40:2-3 says this,

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

Okay, I'll admit it. I've been a seven year-old boy who couldn't resist the temptation to step through the mud. It brings a moment of pleasure and elation, but the consequences are predictable.

Walk through the mud, and you get messy. Sometimes the mess is easily cleaned, and sometimes it leaves a stain.

Walk through the mud, and your footing gets treacherous. Run through the mud enough times with enough abandon, and eventually you'll slip and fall and find yourself in a bigger mess.

Walk through the mud even just a little, and the walk gets harder. It can become an outright slog. You carry extra weight. It makes you less agile. You tire more quickly.

Life doesn't have to be a slog, though. God lifts us out of the mud. God cleans us off when we've made a mess out of ourselves. Then God gives us a firm place to stand.

Why are we afraid sometimes to admit that we've stepped in the mud? It doesn't matter if you put your foot in the edge, or if you dance in the middle. You've still stepped in the mud. And the stains are hard to hide. Come on, admit it. There's a mud pit somewhere that you've stepped in, isn't there?

When God lifts you out of the mud, God puts a new song in your mouth. It doesn't matter if you sing well or not. Others will see what's happened and take notice. Maybe they'll realize they can trust God to lift them out of the mud they're in, too.

Pslogging in the Dark

My son is scared of the dark. He's seven, and he periodically has night terrors.

When the night terrors started a few years ago, he said he had a bad dream. When asked about the bad dream, he said he saw E.T. in his room.

Imagine my surprise. Yes, we had recently watched E.T. with the kids, but I always remembered E.T. as the cuddly creature hiding amid the stuffed animals in the closet. It stumbled over stuff in the garage (who of us hasn't), spewed beer in the kitchen and did some cool bicycle tricks, but nothing that caused me to sit up in bed trembling in the middle of the night.

Nonetheless, my son's fears are real. Believe me, when he screams in the middle of the night, it gets everyone's attention. When this happens, he wants me to lay down next to him. Can't move until he goes back to sleep. Once he gets still, he wraps his arms around my neck and holds on for everything he has. Maybe it's when he wraps his arms around my neck that he finally gets still.

Being alone in the dark can be scary. And there's a lot of darkness in the world, isn't there.

I'm aware that a lot of friends are slogging along with some pretty heavy stuff. Two friends in my Sunday school class whose mothers are undergoing treatment for cancer. A friend whose father just succumbed to cancer. A neighbor who just moved her grandmother with Alzheimers into an assisted living facility. Another neighbor whose father is recovering from major surgery. One of my kid's teachers - herself a mother of three - who's been hospitalized for a week with major scary circulatory issues. Close friends who are getting buried under ever-increasing mounds of debt and the despair and stress that goes along with it. People I love who daily battle - some more successfully than others - the demon of addiction. Some of my kids' classmates who are robbed of the innocence of their childhood.

Psalm 23:4 (New International Reader's Version) says this,

Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid.
You are with me.
Your shepherd's rod and staff
comfort me.

When you find yourself in the dark, what do you hold onto?

The Psalms are full of beautifully expressed experiences of God being with someone when the going gets tough - in the darkness, in the pit, you name it. This is a basic affirmation of our faith, isn't it - that God is with us through the slog, every step of the way.

Wrap your arms around God and hold on for everything you have. When you don't have anything left, keep holding on. You realize you aren't alone. You have all you need. Suddenly light begins to emerge, and the darkness fades. It doesn't go away entirely, but the fear subsides. You discover a moment of peace.

As you make your way through the slog, you'll have some dark days and face some scary stuff along the way. You aren't alone, though. God's slogging right there with you, every step of the way.

Introducing "The Pslog"

So what's a pslog?

It's my venture into the world of blogging. It's part psalm and part blog. Psalm...blog...pslog. Get it?

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now. Lots of excuses as to why I haven't. What do I call it? What do I write about? Don't have the discipline. Don't have enough to say to sustain it. Nothing unique to say that will distinguish my blog from the voices already drowning each other out in the blogosphere. Lack of confidence in what I have to say. Other things to do. Afraid to put myself out there. Who cares anyway?

Look up "slog" online and you get several definitions -

1. "to walk slowly with great effort;"
2. "to work at something for a long time with little progress;"
3. "to make your way through something with great difficulty."

I've been reading some of the Psalms lately. Few people have probably felt the earth shake, but this is significant for me in several respects. Not the least of which is my general lack of discipline when it comes to reading. As I think about it, that may be why I majored in Accounting - it was the degree plan with the least amount of reading.

The Psalms are rich texts of scripture which give expression to a vast array of human experience. Let's admit it, life can feel like a slog. Sometimes it takes great effort. Sometimes I work at something for a long time and make dreadfully little progress. Sometimes there's no way around something and the only course is one of great difficulty.

Maybe this is one message of the Psalms. Life can be difficult. It usually is. Keep working at it. Make the effort. Along the way and in the end, God is faithful to those who walk with Him.

Psalm 56:13 says,

You have delivered me from death
and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God
in the light of life.

The idea for my pslog is this. Each post will contain a verse or two from the Psalms and some reflections of one who seeks to walk with God as he slogs through life. Life as a son, a husband, a father, a pastor, a neighbor, a sinner, a child of God.

Come on. Let's go for a stroll. Let's pslog.