Turn it around, turn it around...

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:1-6 ESV)

A tune on a tv commercial (can't recall the product) caught my ear the other day-- I searched the lyrics and found it on iTunes. The song is Turn It Around by a band named Lucius (odd name, odd band, bizarre video, catchy chorus...). It got me thinking this morning on the way into work that "turn it around" is a great tagline for getting a grip, refocusing, and starting anew!

There are so many broken souls in this world. I look around and I see people succumbing to lure of the seemingly infinite number of little gods, doing their bidding to fill the emptiness, blind to the consequences of living solely (soul-ly?) to be validated through social media or status symbols, oblivious to the cure in Christ that has been there all along...

We have a God in Christ who understands suffering, temptation, and loneliness. We have a God in Christ who is, therefore, not only sympathetic, but empathetic. We have a God in Christ who can help us to "turn it around" when we are, as the song says, "looking through the wrong end of the telescope" at what seems so far away and out of reach-- a rebuilt relationship, an end to an addiction, forgiveness for past mistakes, hope for the future.

Faith, an amazing thing in and of itself, can create amazing things, as it has in my life. I am humbled at the power of prayer, I am grateful to a God I know has never abandoned me or my family (when the reverse has not been true), and I am certain that my life has meaning... I so badly want to help another to "turn it around, turn it around."

Today my father would have turned 78 (he passed in 2008) and 35 years have passed since he dropped me off at the Navy recruiter's office at oh-dark-thirty for my journey to boot camp (then, he told me later, went around to the back of the building and cried). I think about both parts of my life every year on this day, my father and the Navy (as well as the incredibly intricate and colorful tapestry God has weaved, so far, over these last 53 years).

The last words that I said to both my father and my uncle (who passed just over a week ago, in case you're just tuning in) before their time on Earth were "I love you," the same words God said to them before their time began, repeatedly during the ups and downs of their lives, and at the very moment they left this world.

I think of the power of God's love and I think of the many who suffer at the hands of a sinful world and I think of how much hearing (and feeling) an "I love you" from God could turn it around!