“But
above all, in order to be, never try to seem.” Albert Camus
Was one of the songs you had as part of
your wedding, The Wedding Song by
Captain and Tennille? Certain love songs are trendy. For a brief period while
they’re popular, it seems like they’re part of nearly every wedding.
That was certainly the case with The Wedding Song for those from that
era. Some of the biggest love songs of the early 1970’s were popularized by
Captain and Tennille. This famous duo had five albums certified gold or
platinum and scored numerous hits on the US singles charts. Some of the most
enduring included Love Will Keep Us
Together, Lonely Night (Angel Face) and
Muskrat Love. From 1976-1977 they even hosted their own television show
where they sang their repertoire of songs.
Captain and Tennille were married for nearly
forty years. They wrote songs about love, talked about love, sang about love,
acted as if they were madly in love – they were only missing one thing – LOVE,
authentic love.
That came out in her recent book, Toni Tennille: A Memoir, the female half
of the famed duo. Toni spills sad secrets from her career and marriage in this
new self-titled memoir. In her autobiography, Toni Tenille now seventy-five covers
everything from her childhood in the South to her often-troubled marriage to
Daryl Dragon, “Captain.” She shares she wrote some of her most popular love
songs out of unrequited yearning for her husband. Describing her husband of 39
years as emotionally distant, she says she often tried to reach him through the
lyrics to her love songs she wrote. “I felt that he just didn't know what love
was,” she says of Captain, from whom she split in 2014. “I thought if I showed
him what it was, if I were able to give it to him, that he would open up like a
flower. It never happened.”
How sad! To talk, even sing so much about
love but know so little about it. Captain and Tennille were part of my teen
years. It saddened to me to learn it was all little more than a façade. Stuff
for the stage yet missing from life, inauthentic. It was verbiage without
reality.
As I read this, it struck me that sadly their
“love life” is a parallel experience for many Christians. Many Christians know
“Christianese,” yet know so little about Jesus Christ. They talk, even sing
“church talk,” yet like Captain and Tennille, there’s more talk than a deep
relationship with Jesus. Sadly, like Captain and Tennille, the price is very
high.
Instead of a fulfilled authentic Christian life
overflowing with what Jesus died to give us – a relationship with love, peace
and joy – there’s lots of talk. When the heat of life happens, as it always
does, who we are quickly bubbles to the surface – anxiety, anger, insecurity,
fear, discontent – to name a few.
Why is that? Why is an authentic Christian so
unusual? Why are there so few Christians, when you really get to know them, their
life varies little from even an atheist? Why are there so few Christians who
are winsome? Who others long to be around, to have what they have, to be like
them? Where their life makes others thirsty for the Water of Life?
There are many reasons. Yet, I think the most
common, the #1 reason so few Christians are like Jesus is simply that they
spend so little time with Jesus. There’s an insightful verse in Acts 4:13 which
ought to be true of every believer: “And
they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
Christian friend, do you want fulfillment? Do
you want what Jesus longs to give you? Do you want what Jesus died and saved
you for? Then, you must spend time with Jesus! Obviously, unlike Peter and
John, we can’t spend physical time with Jesus. We have something much better,
we possess Jesus’ Word, the Bible. Jesus is the Living Word; The Bible is God’s
Living Word. Even Peter and John couldn’t be with Jesus, 24/7, yet we have
God’s Word 24/7, every moment of every day.
Why aren’t we more like Jesus? Why don’t we spend
enough time with Him? There is one primary reason – We’re too hurried. We
spend time on good things, yet neglect the best. When we make that choice, even
the good things aren’t that good. If you asked the typical Christian why they
don’t read their Bible and pray, most would respond, “I don’t have time…I’m just too busy”
We have foolishly underestimated the
immeasurable value of spending time with Jesus. And then we wonder why our
spouse so easily irritates us, why our children so quickly get on our nerves,
why do we have to work with so many idiots, why are there so many stupid drivers,
why are there so many who can’t think and even post such ludicrous things on
Facebook? Why we’re never satisfied? Why did does a dream vacation end up
feeling more like a nightmare? Why doesn’t a new car, new furniture, remodeling
project, new house, new toy, new job, even a new relationship…why do they
ultimately fail to bring true and lasting satisfaction?
Because only Jesus can do that. All the stuff
of this world is like cotton candy, sweet at first yet over the long haul, it will
never satisfy. Jesus is truly the sweetest Name I know. He’s the only One who
can fill your soul. For us to have the fulfilled life He desires and designed us
to have, we must regularly spend time with Him. Instead, too many Christians
talk about Jesus, yet rarely spend time with Him.
But we all have the same amount of time. Be
honest. Think about all the time you waste on TV, your phone or the Internet. But
you don’t have time to spend with Jesus, the One who loves you and died for
you? Really?!?
I’m not talking about spiritual Olympics
where you spend hours reading your Bible or praying. Do you truly though not have
half an hour or an hour each day? Spending time with Jesus will change your
life, more than anything else you do.
Perhaps make it a breakfast appointment.
Don’t let anything but an emergency keep you from meeting with your best
Friend. Close your ears to Satan’s lie that “you’re too busy…you just have too
much to do.”
In fact, if you spend time with Him, you’ll
be amazed how much He will bless the rest of your day, even make you wiser with
you time and more efficient. It’s a lack of faith that we believe what we do is
so essential we won’t make time with Him a critical part of our life. Nothing else
will so radically change your whole life as spending time with the Lord. Perhaps
ask a Christian friend to be an accountability partner to encourage you to
faithfully meet with the Savior, at least until it becomes part of your life.
Let’s not just talk about Jesus, instead may
we because we spend our best moments with Him, truly know Him. Then, others will
see Jesus in us! A plastic world is starving for authenticity. May we truly be
Jesus to them!
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