This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 4.7.23 

1. I remember a Good Friday from a few years ago. I was living in and raising a family in Evanston, IL.  In the late morning I rode my bike to the chapel at Loyola University in Chicago. It’s  beautiful. Nestled steps away from Lake Michigan. 

There I opened my Bible, read the Passion accounts, journaled, and prayed. In mid-afternoon I went to see Schindler’s List (a must see movie). The remembrance of Nazi cruelty and one  man’s redemptive response to evil was sobering especially after having just immersed myself in the reality of Christ’s passion and death. 

Good Friday always reminds me of my ‘stuff’. I never doubt my need for a Savior. Ever. And for Jesus I am grateful beyond measure. And as I look at our world in pain,  I pray that the Jesus who lives in me will embolden me and you to become like Schindler who became the answer to a whole lot of people’s prayers.

I’m reminding myself not to rush to the Resurrection this year. It’s quite OK to sit with the sorrows, the hopes and the uncertainty of Holy Week . ‘Tis good to wrestle with the harder things of life. It makes the coming of Sunday all the sweeter.

2. The Women’s Final 4 was very, very  interesting 

-I thought the coaching was really good across the board. 

-Loved Iowa’s read and react offense which gave South Carolina’s defense fits. What a season the Lady Gamecocks had. Dawn Staley is a real deal coach. As is Iowa’s Lisa Bruder.

-Caitlin Clark plays the same way Pete Maravich played and she said some people call her Ponytail Pete. She is a generational talent. 

-LSU faced a good Virginia Tech team in the first game and then came in with a good game plan and executed it in the Final. They deserved the win. Referees were more than a bit iffy and got in the way of the game but the better team on Sunday won.  Coach Mulkey is a warrior. And Angel Reese is really good. 

-Four quarters is far better than two halves.

-Not  a fan of the trash talking/gesturing. 

 -I’ve said for a long time that if you want to teach young people the essentials of basketball, take them to see the  women play. They play below the rim. That’s good for kids to see. I’ve watched too many kids try to emulate slam and jam when what they need to see is pass, screen, block out, rebound, defend, and cut. The women’s game is filled with players who do these things well. 

3. “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.” ~ Proverbs  21:15 

The furor over the indictment of you know who is a bit over the top don’t you think? What are they afraid of? Is it because their guy finally has to face the consequences of his actions? They better get used to it. There are three more indictments right around the corner. An indictment means there’s strong evidence that laws have been broken. 

No one is above the law. Some people think they are and have the chutzpah and cash to work the legal system but eventually they get caught. As they should. To those crying “this is political” I just want to say that this is what justice, fairly applied to a man with a long history of unscrupulous behavior, looks like. This is a morally corrupt man who hangs out with morally corrupt people who do morally corrupt things. These indictments are not political. They are about justice. 

P.S. I know this is hard to believe but they will be trying him as an adult. I know. I was shocked too. 

4. “When I went back to church, I was so hungover that I couldn’t stand up for the songs…. The last song was so deep and raw and pure that I could not escape. It was as if the people were singing in between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time, and I felt like their voices or something was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to that feeling—and it washed over me.  

I began to cry and left before the benediction, and I raced home and … walked down the dock past dozens of potted flowers, under a sky as blue as one of God’s own dreams, and I opened the door to my houseboat, and I stood there a minute, and then I hung my head and said, “[Forget] it: I quit.” I took a long deep breath and said out loud, “All right. You can come in.”  

So this was my beautiful moment of conversion.” ~ Anne LaMott 

Amazing grace. That’s what she experienced. What a beautiful testimony.

5.  Discernment is an inner listening and responding to that place within us where our deepest desires align with God’s desire.” ~ Robert Jonas

Discernment needs to be looked at as a holy discipline which aligns us and our desires with God’s purposes and intentions. Thus, we must know ourselves and be acquainted with the God who loves us. 

Therein lies the rub.

Do we know ourselves? 

Are we acquainted with God?

Do we really want to be aligned with God’s purposes and intentions? 

6.  “No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent, 

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

As well as if a promontory were:

As well as if a manor of thy friend’s

Or of thine own were.

Any man’s death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” ~ John Donne 

“I am because you are” is the definition of the Swahili word Ubuntu. The understanding is that when we see each person as having deep value and together we contribute towards the common good and the welfare of others, everyone wins. 

Jesus gathered the twelve. Together, they ministered. Each brought something different to the table. It reminds me that when my giftedness links with yours, we are the better for it. 

Ubuntu. 

We are not islands. 

We are not meant to be rugged individualists, bereft of community. We need each other.

7. “It wasn’t the water he came for. It was me. ~ woman at the well.”

I don’t know who wrote this but it’s spot on. It stopped me in my tracks. 

8. Finland, the newest member of the United Nations, has been ranked the happiest country on earth for six straight years. An article in the New York Times by Penelope Colton helps shed light on Finland’s way of being. She writes: 

“It turns out even the happiest people in the world aren’t that happy. But they are something more like content. Finns derive satisfaction from leading simple  lives and perceive financial success as being able to identify and meet basic needs.

 Arto O. Salonen, a professor at the University of Eastern Finland who has researched well-being in Finnish society, explained. “In other words,” he wrote in an email, “when you know what is enough, you are happy.”

Maybe this is part of our problem. We’re never satisfied with ‘enough’. We want more. And when we get it, we still want more. 

9. Jesus’s very presence disrupted the status quo. Follow this Jesus. But watch out. When you do, the ‘status quo’ will react. It goes with the territory. 

10. You might not have a relationship with God but be assured that God has a relationship with you. He knows who you are. He’s known you for a long, long time.