The Ticker Tape

The Ticker Tape

"Then the Lord replied: 'Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.'" - Habakkuk 2:2

The Waiting Season

The Ticker Tape was a specific moment when God communicated directly with me. It was in the same Assembly of God church where I was baptized and failed to speak in tongues, but passed the "God Test" by standing firm on "truth." That is, I didn't pretend to receive something that I did not receive. I didn't believe I received the "fire" or the gift of speaking in tongues. But I did receive the gift of peace in my relationship with Christ.

And if you ask me how much time elapsed between that Sunday service and The Ticker Tape, it felt like much longer than it was—perhaps two months. About eight Sundays, the second hand seemed to move backward, and the sand in God's hourglass was filled with marbles instead of grains of sand.

I had settled into a routine of showing up in body, but my mind was on the abnormal human behavior that I was observing. I continued to seek God outside the church and was becoming bolder to invite Him into my university classroom. I was able to talk about God (not Jesus) because He could be discussed as we studied the theories of Carl Jung and Viktor Frankl. And we even saw glimpses of Him when we talked about the nature of reality and consciousness studies. I could talk about God, but He had to remain in disguise.

Frankly, I was getting tired of feeling alone in a church full of "family" and frustrated that I couldn't be as authentic as I wanted with Christ in my classroom. But standing tall in a church service was one thing; standing tall when it might cost my job was another. I decided it was acceptable to remain lukewarm in church and ride the pine as a benchwarmer on God's team. Besides, I hadn't read what God says about being spit out for being lukewarm. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, but it wasn't part of God's plan for my life.

The Divine Message

That day, I sat in my usual spot near the back. My attention was drifting from a Frankl quote in "Man's Search for Meaning," to who was playing football on TV that afternoon, and something about an upcoming mission trip to Ecuador—or it could have been Ethiopia. And then the Ticker Tape appeared.

If you have ever seen a scrolling ticker tape, you know that it displays a continuous loop of text. As I sat in my chair, unfocused on my surroundings, a flash of scrolling text drifted across my mind's eye. But it was more than an imagined image; it was like a hallucination in which the image was both inside my head and outside in the space between me and the pastor at the pulpit. The ticker tape message simply read, "Write about Me and for Me, Your Lord."

As soon as one pass of the message was complete, the same one looped back around with the same recurring message. It was simple. It was memorable. And it was real. While I wondered for a moment if I was having a psychotic break—a mental meltdown that might have me in the sequel to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," I quickly realized that this was no hallucination. This was God, and He had a message that would get me off the bench, out of my spiritual fog, and active in His Kingdom on earth.

I had a new appreciation for my church family who "believed" they communicated with God through this new language. I saw with my own eyes that He does communicate with us, and with me, it had to be in plain English with very few words.

Called to the Game

While I could now better empathize with my brothers and sisters, I was on fire because God had called my number! He was calling me into His game. But again, I found myself far outside my comfort zone. The adrenaline was in full flow—the passion absolute—but I soon realized that I had never been to seminary, Bible college, or even taken a correspondence course on the Bible. Heck, I hadn't even read all of the Bible, so how was I supposed to "Write about and for the Lord?"

I felt like a freshman called to start on the varsity football team who wasn't sure how to put on his shoulder pads correctly. And yet, here was the Coach of coaches, the King of kings, telling me to do something I was unqualified to do! But here is where belief trumps rational thought: I believed that God was giving me an opportunity, and I didn't want to disappoint the Coach. If He didn't believe I could do it, He wouldn't call me to do it. And if He ordered it, He would see it through. How, I had no earthly idea.

The Divine Wind of Guidance

Once I knew I was on The Team, I had to prepare quickly. I sensed that God wasn't asking me to write scholarly, peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Biblical Literature or New Testament Studies. He wasn't asking me to write from my head, but from my heart. Wait a minute! I don't know how to write that way! The last letter I wrote was to my mother years ago when I was wandering around Mexico trying to find the mind I lost in the military.

And then the Divine Wind blew a comforting breeze in my direction. I relaxed and thought about what I was once told as a graduate student. It was like the Holy Spirit was replaying that memory tape in my mind. Here it was. Maybe you've had a similar situation you could draw on when God calls you out of your comfort zone.

I was completing my doctoral program and was preparing to present a paper at an international conference. I was justifiably nervous because there would be notable "experts" in attendance. But one of my advisors took me aside and said these words, "Relax. Just talk about what you know." There it was. Speech over. Wisdom dispensed with love in seven words. You don't know how comforting those words were then and since. Only God knows how many of my graduate students I shared those exact seven words with. It's as if the Holy Spirit was reinforcing that lesson decades ago. Relax. Just "write" about what you know. Since I didn't "know" much about the Bible but loved to hack around the golf course like a "Blind Squirrel" with Randy B, I decided this would be a good place to start writing for God.

The Bible and a Bag of Golf Clubs

The title of that first "letter" was "The Bible and a Bag of Golf Clubs." I've been told that developing a relationship with God is a lot like taking up the game of golf. That is, in order to get anything out of it, you must be committed to it for life. So I decided to apply what little I know about golf to a "Book" I know even less about—The Holy Bible—in order to develop a fuller appreciation and relationship with God.

As a biblical "hacker," I had decided to get serious with my Bible study. My mission was to get a "grasp" on the Bible, to get the "feel" of the books and the spiritual sensation of hitting the "sweet spot." But I was finding scripture to be as easy as driving a stationary golf ball off a tee with a 450cc Titanium 10.0 driver. This was tough. It looked easy, but it wasn't! I could see Jesus in my mind's eye, leaning against a 1 iron from the 1940s, outfitted in flat cap and knickers, serving as my golf instructor saying, "Just relax... you are trying too hard... just take it nice and easy." Okay, Lord, I trust you.

As a way of putting those words of wisdom in practice, I decided to relax and get a different perspective. You know, approach the Word from a different angle—this time from Joel Osteen's angle.

Rose and I had been enjoying Osteen's "Daily Readings from Your Best Life Now: 90 Devotions for Living at Your Full Potential," but I found myself being the team member holding up the game. When it was my turn to read the associated scripture for the day's devotion, it took me five minutes to find Revelation 22:21 because, of course, I had to begin at the front cover and work my way through the book. And while the look on Rose's face was amusing, it did little for my already divot-marked ego. It was like having a caddy (possibly your wife) who doesn't know the difference between a putter and a sand wedge pull the club for you. It takes time and holds up the flow. So, as noted in Daniel 11:32, "...the people who know their God will display strength and take action." I would take action and memorize the books of the Bible. A man's gotta start somewhere.

I figured since the New Testament only has 27 books (a mere one more than the English alphabet), I'd start there for simplicity's sake. Matthew, okay... Mark, okay... Luke, okay, and John, fine. I'm on a roll. I quickly discovered, however, that I had never heard of some of the books! Take for example, Philemon. What is this? I had to associate the word with my grandson's "Pokemon" to remember. The point is that never, in any sermon or any religiously-oriented print material, had I heard of Philemon.

The Old Testament only became more foreign. I swear, if someone were to have given me a multiple-choice test and expected me to identify Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, I would have wildly guessed them to be newly named comets. Who ever talks about them? It's like carrying around the 4, 5, and 6 irons in your golf bag. Some professionals might use them, but they don't hit very well for the hackers. Consequently, they just get lugged around the course in the hopes that some other hacker will think you might actually know how to hit the damned things. Are there actually books in the Bible that are the golf club equivalent of the 4, 5, and 6 irons? Or have they been used as frequently as the Big Bertha at the tee box and I've just been too blind to see their reference? Joel will come to the rescue! I'm certain he'll bring the "Perfect Club."

The Obsessive-Compulsive Bible Study

At 0600 hours the next morning I was on the course (actually my dining room table). The fact that it was dark outside only added to my sense of really taking action and getting serious with my study. This morning I was determined to scan, page by page, Joel's 308 page book and find every scriptural reference. Surely I would discover Joel using every club in the bag so I could see how each was applied on the course of life. I kept a frequency count of each scriptural reference (plus or minus a couple) and discovered something fascinating—First, I had developed an Obsessive-Compulsive disorder that would probably require psychiatric attention, and second, I discovered that Joel doesn't use all of the clubs either! Brilliant! Just so we don't let the numbers go to waste here's a few of the statistics for the score card:

Of the 39 books in the Old Testament, 24 are cited. Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah were among those that stayed in the bag…never saw a glimpse of them. Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 18 are cited. No reference to Philemon or Pokeman either. Of the 261 total references to scripture:

• 33 were from Psalms (Here's Joel's Perfect Club)

• 19 were from Genesis (The Driver)

• 18 were from Matthew (the Putter)

• 17 were from Isaiah (the Sand Wedge)

Honorable mentions included:

• 13 references from John

• 12 ref's from Romans

• 12 from Philippians

• 12 from Second Corinthians

• 11 from Ephesians

Perhaps Joel would like to take a Mulligan for each of the books he missed. If so, I think we should cut him some slack and let him swing away.

Finally, thanks to God, I had found all of this to be wildly interesting. It WAS like hitting the "sweet spot" on the club, feeling the resonance and harmony of mind, body, and spirit, yet not exactly knowing how you did it. The one-shot learning, minus the muscle memory, is all it takes to keep you wanting to go back for another round…of golf or of Bible study. So the final question is this—are the books mentioned previously really as under-quoted as they seem to be, or are they generally quoted and I've just missed them? While I await your response I'll be taking aim on Philemon and see if he has any advice for a nasty slice. God's Word covers all possible challenges. Amen.

Play It Where It Lies

The follow-up piece was titled "Play it Where it Lies." Those of us who subscribe to the Holy Bible and Golf Digest take on faith that God created all things. He got busy in those first six days and created, well, everything, including Adam, the first perfect man (and "potentially" perfect golfer).

We are told that God took a break on the seventh day and rested from His work (see Genesis Chapter 1). What we aren't told, I believe, is that while God was kicking-back in His heavenly hammock, He decided to have a little fun with His creation. He knew that Adam was about to take a wrong dogleg turn toward the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and thereby forfeits his perfect scorecard with God. His caddy, Eve, should have talked him out of that play, but we'll let them sort out their mistakes.

So, God decided to create golf as a means of reminding man that he is not perfect; that man will always fall short of perfection; and that in spite of the frustration man will experience on the course, NEVER should he use God's name in vain. This is a serious challenge and any man or woman who has ever swung a golf club knows exactly what I mean. In short, God created golf to teach us humility. Or, as stated in Deuteronomy 8:2 (NIV), "Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands." I'm certain that the "desert" was used as a metaphor for the golf course. Who among us golfers would not see this obvious parallel? Of course I could be wrong. Fortunately, God accepts our golfing imperfections and loves us unconditionally whether we are in the center of the fairway of life or out in the rough. Our challenge is to always "play it where it lies."

Rose presented me a little golfer's gift a few years ago…a rock with a golf ball wedged, super glued, duck taped, handcuffed (you get the picture) in the crack of the rock. The inscription reads, "Play It Where It Lies." I tell you the truth, not even Tiger Woods could get this ball back in play. But isn't it possible that God allows us to get stuck, in an absolutely impossible situation, precisely because we need to experience adversity? I had to look up in the concordance where God talks about adversity and I was led to Isaiah 30:20 (NIV) which reads, "Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them."

No matter how deeply embedded in a solid object (bread or a rock) you find your golf ball, or how long and wide the water hazard, God will open your eyes to His perfect teaching. He will make the impossible possible…even that 200 yard shot back over the small mountain you just sliced over off the tee. In fact, He says in Matthew 18:20 (NIV), "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Now that is encouraging! While some would argue that Jesus is using hyperbole…not only that, but He's using exaggeration for effect and not meant to be taken literally…what if He wasn't? I'm no genius but that last "nothing will be impossible for you" seems pretty clear.

Now, I am not suggesting that we actually move the mountain or water hazard from the golf course. Golf would no longer be the four-letter word we have come to love. But, isn't it comforting to know that we have the potential to move the mountains of damaged relationships; to clear the debris that clutters our fairways; to purify the waters around us so they are no longer hazards, but simply one more gift from God to be valued and appreciated? May God continue to bless you in your own golf game and may He offer gentle suggestions for perfecting your swing.

Remember…He says that "nothing will be impossible for you" and His Word (and golf swing) has always been, and will always be, perfect.

The Floodgates Open

As with golf, it only takes hitting the "sweet spot" once to have you hooked. Such was my experience with this new form of writing for and about our Lord. The flow of what to write about wasn't the problem. "Writers block" was nonexistent. The problem was keeping up with the flow of ideas that flooded my spirit. After "Play it Where it Lies," I was like Forrest Gump who started running and he came to the edge of his county, he kept going. That's how it was for me. I wrote countless posts and newsletter articles from 2006 through 2016, ten years before the next major marker presented itself. And, as I now consider Forrest Gump out in the middle of nowhere saying to his followers, "I'm a little tired...I think I'll go home right now." Perhaps it was God who was a little tired of me, because I was setting myself up for The Fall. I'll tell you about that next.