March 27, 2008

I was sitting in my home this afternoon and I was startled by something so deafening it jolted me. It wasn’t an actual sound; it was the absence of it entirely! Our three children are now gone more than they are home. Two are grown and a third is in High School. This afternoon I was saddened by the loss of something I used to think would be the demise of my hearing. The house was quiet, too quiet. I suddenly missed the piercing decibel of tones that was once our home. The loud, overbearing sound of our children living out loud.

This time of year in Tennessee is especially endearing with the entrance of Spring. Spring brings gorgeous days that start with a jacket to block the nippy mornings, but is soon replaced by the sheer joy of the warmth the sun brings by noon. As I was thinking about the silence, I was also wondering if the kids had their coats. They would be needing their coats as the sun goes down again. That is when I realized, we have been putting coats on them for the past twenty years and it is no longer our responsibility. Our children must now choose their own coats. My question for you today is this, “Whose coat are you wearing, and what does it represent?”

So often in our lives we are forced to wear the garments that others put on us for their own comfort. Sounds strange doesn’t it? We wear attitudes, beliefs and convictions so others can be comfortable around us. What boundaries have you been forced to live in?

There is a blind man’s story told in the Gospel of Mark. His name was Bartemaeus. He was sitting by the roadside begging for any token of survival someone else would bestow upon him. How long do you intend to stay quietly on the side of life’s highway, letting everything pass you by because society has limits for you? Bart begins to cry out when he hears Jesus is near. Jesus is the only hope he has to be viewed outside of the station life has sequestered him in. Today, Jesus is the only hope you have for freedom from the chains everyone else has become accustomed to seeing you bound with! Watch the crowd hold their finger to their lips and “shshsh” the blind man! Bart’s response was to scream louder! At some point in your desperation you will lose your fear of people and do whatever you have to in an all out effort to be set free.

Lay aside the weight that you bear for others. Do what Bart did in Mark 10: 50, “And he (Blind Bartemaeus), casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.” It may have looked as if he just dropped his coat, but if you have ever had to wear the weight of something you could not change you completely understand why he “cast it off.” When you have had enough you will cast off the beggars coat. Bart tears the beggars coat off because he knows deep within he will never need to beg again after he gets to Jesus. A blind becomes a whole man and walks away, leaving a coat he was never meant to wear lying in the dust. It brings me to what I wanted to ask you, “May I take your coat please?”

Let it go! Isaiah 61:3 promises you that God has sent Jesus, “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.” God has a coat of worship and praise to replace your garment of heaviness. Even Jesus gave up his coat in John 19:23, “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.”

You have no idea how free you will be until you take the leap of faith to cry out to Jesus, leave your beggar’s coat lying in the dust of yesterday, and walk away with a vision you have never known. I am praying for you to have that kind of courage today.