Bat Cave : 52:10

You often hear people at churches say it's hard for me to memorize scripture. Query. Do you remember lyrics to songs? Interrogative. Do you know off the top of your head lines to your favorite movies? Cue my best Laurence Fishburne impersonation. "What if I told you, you could memorize scripture with a song?" Intrigued? Good, glad you're still paying attention. 52:10 is the tile of a song by Rich Mullins. It is actually the verse found in Isaiah 52:10. The verse says this in the New Living translation. "The Lord has demonstrated his Holy Power before the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth will see the victory of our God." The words to the song are simple. "The Lord has bared his holy arm. The Lord has bared his holy arm. In the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the Lord's salvation. The Lord has bared his holy arm. His holy arm."

At this point some of you may say so what does this verse have to do with me. You need this verse as much as I do perhaps more depending on the reader. Because some of us like me are control freaks. Some of you are already pushing back saying "No, I'm not!" But you see you are because you can't handle me calling you that and you need to be in control of what I just said about you. That's why I have an example of being a control freak and not even knowing about it. This is from one of the best written fictional novels in my opinion called Spider-Man The Darkest Hours. This is a conversation over breakfast with Mary Jane Watson-Parker and Peter Parker.

"You don't like things you can't predict." Mary Jane said. "Things you can't control. You don't know the magical stuff, and it doesn't lend itself to being predicted or controlled--so you don't like it." "So now I'm a control freak?" I asked. She looked at me for a second. Then she said, "Peter, You've spent your entire adult life fighting crime, protecting people from bad guys of every description and otherwise putting yourself in danger for someone else's sake--while wearing brightly colored tights with a big black spider on the chest I think It's safe to say you have issues." "With great power....." I began. She held up a hand and said, "I agree. But an abstract principle isn't why you do it. You do it because of what a robber did to Uncle Ben. You could have controlled that if you were there, but you weren't and you didn't. So now you've got to control every bad guy you possibly can. Be there for everyone you possibly can. That's control freaky. Constructively so."

See being a control freak yes can be good but there's downsides to it. When our lives get askew by minor things we react with anger, tears, meltdowns, frustration. When I start getting angry I have to stop and it's never easy to calm down. But God has bared his holy arm and said He's still in control and we're not. We need this verse to remind us of that. I've been having a very hard time learning this lesson this week. My dad taught me this years ago and maybe you need to hear it too.

3 Fundamental Principles of Life

1. There is a God.

2. You are not Him

3. There is no vacancy.

Rich Mullins - 52 - 10