The Bungee Cord   8-10-20

Hello,

 

     With the companionship of Covid 19, I have had to readjust my exercise regiment.  Prior to the virus’ visit, I “excercised” by playing 2 hours of pickleball 3 or 4 times a week.  Unfortunately, given the closed in spaces and non-social distancing of pickleball, I had to give that “exercise”  up, even though I really enjoyed playing and the people I played with.  As a replacement “exercise”, I now play golf 3 or 4 times a week, alone.  When I golf, I always walk the 9 holes that I play, and I carry my clubs.  Generally, I go out in the afternoon heat, so when I am done golfing, I am hot and tired….thus counting it as “exercise”.

 

     I just got back from my “exercise”, and am resting my weary bones as I write this Bungee Cord.  While I was on the course….walking and carrying my clubs….a song from my youth started to run through my mind, “Every Breath You Take” by Sting.  As I was feeling the result of walking in the afternoon sun toting the weight of my clubs, I heard the words from the chorus, 

 

“Every breath you take and every move you make
Every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you
Every single day and every word you say
Every game you play, every night you stay, I'll be watching you

Oh, can't you see you belong to me
How my poor heart aches with every step you take”

 

 

“Every step you take…..”, by the time that the song hit my thoughts, I had taken lots of steps, and still many steps to go.

 

    I remember seeing an interview with Sting when this song came out.  Talking with the reporter about his song, he said that he was dumbfounded  to hear how this song was being used.  Apparently, this song was finding its way into weddings (although it has never part of a wedding service that I have conducted….but that’s another story and Bungee Cord”).  He was surprised because he wrote it as an expression of an unbalanced jilted lover. Far from the romantic way that it was being used, Sting’s intent was to verbalize unhealthy compulsive drives.

 

     If you read all the lyrics of the song, you, too would join Sting in amazement that it found its way into weddings.  The watchful vigilance of which it speaks is vindictive, vengeful, and spooky.  So important to listen to the whole song!

 

     It is no wonder to me, then, that when people hear of the watchful vigilance of God, a God who neither slumbers or sleeps, and is so consumed with humans that he knows how many hairs are on each head…..that they hear, as Sting intended in his song, of an obsessive, compulsive God that any sane person would want no part of.

     But once again, the importance of hearing the whole song.  God’s whole song of one who is watching those for whom his love is so great that he would die for them….watching them walk into the valley of the shadow of death….watching them step along a path inhabited by a brood of vipers…..watching them graze as lambs prowled by wolves….watching them stepping into a darkness so dark that they don’t know which way to go.  God knows the dangers that lie ahead, the perils that await, the failures that are bound to happen….and so, God watches vigilantly so that when trouble falls, those whom he loves will not face it on their own…..God will be with them.

 

     Far from vindictive, vengeful and spooky, God’s vigilant watch is caring, courage-building and comforting.  

 

     When I play golf, golf is far more exercise than sport for me.  I often wind up in the woods, in the deep grass, buried in the sand,  and plopping in the water.  Interestingly enough, likewise is the description of my life.  That is why I am glad that I have a God that gracefully, mercifully and powerfully watches “every step that I take” as I exercise….and live.

 

Have a great week.

 

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger