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“You intend to harm me, but God intended it for good . . .”  – Genesis 50:20 

Those of us who remember the late Dizzy Gillespie, one of the greatest jazz musicians and trumpeters of the twentieth century, will probably associate him with his two distinctive trademarks, one being the way his cheeks puffed out like two balloons when he was playing his horn.  The other, and my favorite, was his oddly shaped trumpet with its 45-degree up-tilted bell.  It was not until I once read an article about him that I learned the origin of his bent trumpet.  “A bandmate fell on his horn, bending it” according to the article, “and Gillespie found that he liked the sound projection.  From then on, each of his trumpets was custom-made with an up-tilted bell.”

Now when I read about that, the first thing to cross my mind was that had it been me I would have been furious with the clumsy musician for damaging the instrument of my livelihood, accident or not.  Apparently not so with Dizzy Gillespie, who instead discovered a whole new unique sound from the bent trumpet, which eventually became his trademark.  But then it occurred to me, isn’t that the nature of jazz as a musical artform?  For unlike rote musical scores intended to be performed exactly as written, jazz is improvisational, being modified, or even made up as it is played.  So, where a wrong note or missed beat in a written score would be considered a blunder, for a jazz musician it may actually be transformational into a whole new sound – exactly like Dizzy Gillespie’s bent trumpet.

And that got me thinking about God, and how He must be the consummate jazz musician, improvising as we humans clumsily blunder through life, bending creation and one another into all sorts of misshapen forms, sometimes accidentally and other times intentionally.  Yet, regardless how bad we bend things out of shape, God finds ways to improvise and redeem our blunders, to transform wrong notes and missed beats into new sounds, damaged instruments into distinctive trademarks.  Look, for example, at the redemptive work of Alcoholics Anonymous, based on the concept of one addict helping another addict find sobriety.  Such are the “grace notes” God includes in the music of life.

“But I tell you the truth:  It is for your own good that I am going away.”  – John 16:7 

“You’re on your own.”  Have you ever heard those words?  Of course, we all have.  I’m reminded of Sammy, the crusty old foreman in the metal shop where I worked during college.   My first day on the job Sammy took me around to the various machines and taught me how to operate each one.  Only, he didn’t exactly teach, he simply demonstrated the procedure – once! – then sort of muttered as he walked away, “you’re on your own.”  After several blunders I finally figured it out, but it surely would have been easier if Sammy had hung around a little longer before leaving me on my own.

One of the great “you’re on your own” stories involved the prophet Elijah who had taken on Elisha as his apprentice.  “When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind,” scripture says, “Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.  Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel.’  But Elisha said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.’  So they went down to Bethel.”  Elijah tried the same trick to leave Elisha “on his own” two other times – once in Jericho and another at the river Jordan – but Elisha cleverly clung to his mentor as long as he could until being promised a double portion of Elijah’s spirit; whereupon a chariot of fire separated them and Elijah was swept away to heaven in a whirlwind.  After that, Elisha was left “on his own” for sure.  (Source:  2 Kings 2)

It’s the story of all our lives where our various teachers and mentors – parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, pastors, bosses – for whom we served as apprentices go away, leaving us on our own.  Yet, as Elisha did with Elijah we try to cling to them as long as we can, not wanting to give up the comfort and safety of their wisdom.

It is only natural that we cling to our teachers and mentors as long as we can, but the time will inevitably come when they are no longer available to lead, guide and advise us.  “But I tell you the truth:  It is for your own good that I am going away,” Jesus said to his disciples as he prepared them to be on their own.  In the same way, Sammy prepared me to operate those machines on my own.  So, we must in turn teach and mentor the next generations in the proper ways – until that moment arrives when we must say to them, just as old Sammy did with me, “you’re on your own.”

“Watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.”  – Deuteronomy 4:9 

Breakfast is quite a ritual at our house.  It hasn’t always been that way, like when we were raising kids trying to get them off to school, with me running out the door before sunrise headed to the office.  Breakfast back then was chaos at best, a catch-as-catch-can affair.  No longer!  In these later years Tee and I have fallen into a routine with breakfast, a ritual, a leisurely time with newspapers (the old-fashioned paper version) spread out on the table, mugs of fresh coffee sitting in front of us, and a healthy menu that never varies consisting of fresh cup-up fruit, yogurt, an orange, oatmeal or cream-of-wheat for me, and granola for Tee.  Same ritual every day.

The one thing I can say about this little daily ritual is that it has done wonders for our short-term memories.  No, I don’t mean to imply that a diet of fruit, yogurt, and oatmeal is some sort of magic formula for preventing dementia; rather, what I mean is that because of the importance of breakfast as a ritual, whenever we go to the store we seldom forget to buy bananas.  But that is what rituals, routines, and other good habits are supposed to do, isn’t it?  They help us remember.  We celebrate birthdays to remind us of the importance of that person’s life.  We celebrate July 4^th to remind us of our nation’s independence and the freedoms we have.  We celebrate Memorial Day to remember those who sacrificed their lives to maintain that freedom and independence.

Moses wanted to make sure the Israelites did not forget all God had done in leading them out of Egyptian bondage.  “Watch yourselves closely,” he instructed, “so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.”  The Passover has been celebrated every year since Moses led his people out of Egypt so that no one would ever forget, and so their children would also learn and never forget, about God’s great miracles – an annual ritual.

“There are two ways of remembering,” says Frederick Buechner.  “One is to make an excursion from the living present back into the dead past. . . The other way is to summon the dead past into the living present.”  And it is the latter form of remembering for which we create rituals, so that we may never let those memories slip from our hearts.

“Other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”  – Matthew 13:8 

While cleaning out my parents’ house many years ago after they had passed away we came across a copy of a letter my dad had written to a judge on behalf of a young man convicted of drug possession.  The young man had once worked for my dad and had been a decent, dependable, hard-working employee.  The obvious intention of the letter was to urge leniency from the judge as my dad believed the boy to be deep down a good person.  “I think he just got mixed up with the wrong crowd,” my dad stated in his plea.

Who among us would not agree that we are all products of the people we hang out with – good or bad?  It is why parents encourage their children to participate in things like Scouts (boys and girls), team sports, music programs, church youth groups, and other positive activities, so they will be exposed to good influences.  After all, if we hang out with smart people we become smarter, with good athletes we become better athletes, with good musicians we sing or play better, or with generally good people we are more inclined to live like they live.  Likewise, hanging out with the wrong crowd will most certainly influence us in negative ways.

For many years now I’ve been meeting with a group of men on Tuesday mornings for the sole purpose of influencing each other in positive ways.  We use our time together to pray, share something about our relationship with God, what we are reading or studying to help us grow in knowledge and spirit, and things we are doing to serve God and mankind.  Thankfully, over time I have become a product of these fine men I hang out with on Tuesday mornings, helping to distance me from the wrong crowds.

Aren’t we all sort of like seeds in a way, in that how well we grow and what and how much we produce depends on the soil in which we are sown?  If the soil is shallow and rocky the roots will not grow, or if the seeds are sown among weeds the plants will get choked out.  Contrast that to the seeds Jesus describes that “fell on good soil where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”  That young man, unfortunately, had gotten sown in some bad soil.  But my dad believed that if he were transplanted into good soil that he too would produce a good crop – and I pray he did.

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  – Mark 2:27 

Back in the 1950’s and ‘60’s in the small town where I grew up one could hardly buy a loaf of bread or bottle of milk on Sunday, mostly due to “blue laws” that existed back then which prohibited the sale of most consumer goods on Sundays.  But it also seems there were more people back then who actually observed the fourth Commandment by honoring the Sabbath.  Regardless, the town was essentially closed for business that one day a week and people took the day off.

It has been said that no one on his or her death bed ever confessed, “I wish I had spent more time at the office.”  When I hear that I cannot help but think of my former colleague and dear friend Diane, an extraordinarily smart, talented, and ambitious woman who achieved tremendous success, and seemed to have bright future. She was a tireless worker who put in long hours seven days a week.  It always puzzled me, though, that she worked so much, for I held a similar position in the company, achieved comparable success, and also had a promising future, yet I admit I never put in the hours she did.  She and I had many conversations about this, but I remained unsuccessful in convincing her there were more efficient ways to get things done.  Unfortunately, it finally took its toll on her when she suddenly became ill and died shortly thereafter, at way too young an age.  I still grieve when I think of her, feeling somewhat guilty that I was unable to encourage her to cut back her hours and take a break, and teaching her the importance of sabbath time.  Had I done so, I wonder, would she still be among us, and more importantly with her family?  I wish I had convinced her to spend less time at the office.

That fourth Commandment has always been a tricky one, especially in our work ethic western culture, where we mistakenly perceive that God included it in the Ten so that we might take one day off to pay attention to Him.  Partly true I suppose, but mostly God created Sabbath for our benefit, not his.  Jesus finally had to explain it to us plain and simple, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  When I think back about my small hometown from many years ago, no one seemed to miss buying milk and bread on Sunday – or anything else.  Everyone simply worked six days, then took the seventh day off to rest, relax, and take a deep breath, not to mention those who paused to worship and give thanks to God.  And life went on without missing a beat.