Jesus I’m a Want You….

Remember Bread?

For those of you under 30 or 40, who are thinking, “Remember bread?  Of course I remember bread – I just had a sandwich at lunch that was made with bread,”  Bread was a soft rock group from the 70′s who were fairly popular.  They had several hits in their day and teenagers everywhere made out in the back seat to the sound of Bread playing on the 8 track.

The other morning I woke up with a Bread song playing in my head.  Don’t ask me how it got there because I haven’t heard a Bread song since I wore patches on my jeans and embroidered peasant blouses.  Yes, I was a teenager in the seventies.

 Anyway, I woke up with the song, “Baby I’m a Want You” rolling around in my head and I couldn’t get it out.  Bread was never a particular favorite of mine – I didn’t hate them, but I didn’t love them either.  They were just a group on the radio.  The song, Baby I’m a Want You was NOT one of my favorites of theirs either.  So the song is playing in my brain and I’m trying to have my morning talk with God.  I do that early in the morning.  It starts my day and I hate to be distracted.  This song is song is distracting me;

“Good morning, God.  Thank you for this morn….Baby I’m a want you….” 

Start over, Paula;

“Praise you, Lord.  I’m so grateful for….Baby I’m a need you….”

Ugh.  Get your head together!

“Lord, thank you for your forgiv….Your the only one I care enough to hurt about…”

Here, I just gave in and let the song play out in my head and I couldn’t believe I remembered the lyrics.  “Lately I’m a praying, that you’ll always be a stayin’ beside me…”  I kind of chuckled and thought, “This song could be a prayer.”  So I switched, “Baby” for “Jesus.”  And in the corniest of ways, it worked. 

Look at the lyrics and replace the word, “baby” with “Jesus”

Baby I’m-a want you
Baby I’m-a need you
You’re the only one I care enough to hurt about
Maybe I’m-a crazy
But I just can’t live without
Your lovin’ and affection
Givin’ me direction
Like a guiding light to help me through my darkest hour
Lately I’m-a prayin’
That you’ll always be a-stayin’
Beside me.

Used to be my life was just emotions passing by
Feeling all the while and never really knowing why

Lately I’m-a prayin’
That you’ll always be a-stayin’
Beside me.

Used to be my life was just emotions passing by
Then you came along and made me laugh and made me cry
You taught me why

Baby I’m-a want you
Baby I’m-a need you
Oh it took so long to find you baby
Baby I’m-a want you
Baby I’m-a need you.

(c) Copyright 1971 by Screen-Gems – Columbia Music, Inc.

Hahahahaha See what I mean??  Can’t you just hear this playing at your worship and praise at church on Sunday morning?? Do you think Jesus would like it? 

I think He might smile at it.

One Giant Leap

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged…” Matthew 7:1

Ohhh, this is such a tough one, especially for me.  How do I know when I’m judging?  God is teaching me, but it’s going slowly and it’s HARD. 

How do I know if I’m judging or if I’m just having an opinion?  Can they be one and the same?

For instance, say I’ve just read something about Britney.  You know the one.  Say she’s just come out of another strip club, drunk, without her underwear…again.  I think, “Sheesh, that girl is nuts, she needs some serious help! I think to myself, that, with everything else I’ve read about her,  she shouldn’t have custody of her kids, that someone has to help her. 

Have I judged her?  Or is that my opinion?  Is it both?

I don’t want to judge.  So how do you read stuff like that and not judge?  What is my reaction supposed to be?  I know this; when I have thoughts like that, and I have to question if I’m judging or not, then I probably am.  Yeah.  I probably am.

So, what do you do?  What do I do?  Well, first of all I tell myself that I shouldn’t be reading junk like that about other people.  It’s like peeking in their windows.  But, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me feel a little…superior.  Thinking how I’d never behave like that and for a fleeting moment I think that God must be more approving of me than He is of someone like her.

Immediately, He whispers in my ear and tells me that’s not true; that He feels the same amount of love and compassion for me as He does for her – that she’s lost and by His grace, I’m just not as lost as she is.  That knocks me down a peg.

So, what then?  I ask forgiveness.  Yeah, I ask forgiveness for reading that kind of junk, for thinking those kinds of things.  Then, and I can’t believe I’m even saying this, then, I say a little prayer for Britney.  Just a quick one that God won’t let her fall too much farther and really hurt herself or her kids, that she’ll find the peace that I’ve found knowing Him.

There was a time when I’d read about someone like Britney and feel nothing but contempt and never even wonder if I were judging.  It didn’t matter to me.  People like that were bad and I was good.  I would just spout off what I thought and feel so righteous and justified.  Plus, I’d never meet them or come in contact with them, so what did it matter?  Imagine?  Who the heck was I to think like that?

Don’t get me wrong, I have my moments when my old self surfaces for an instant.  But now I recognize that old self, and I don’t want to be her anymore.  I am truly what you’d call a work in progress, but I am in progress.

Yes.  I am learning.  I am changing.  Shoot, I’m praying for Britney!