Facing our Pride (Prayer Devotional for the week of July 29, 2012)

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There are plenty of age milestones that we look forward to in life. New parents often chart their infants’ ages by weeks and months. As kids, we celebrate half-birthdays. We look forward to becoming teenagers, then turning 16, 18, 21 … even the sometimes-dreaded 30 (and every decade after that). One age I really looked forward to was 35, because then I could run for President.

I read a story in the Old Testament this week about a man named Uzziah who became king of Judah at the ripe old age of 16, and he held that post for 52 years. (Fun fact: That would make Uzziah about the same age finishing his reign as Ronald Reagan was when he was elected President.) Under the tutelage of the prophet Zechariah, Uzziah was very successful and sought to please God as king (2 Chronicles 26). He amassed a strong army and had a victorious war record. He was famous among other cultures as a formidable foe, and he protected Jerusalem’s walls with advanced weaponry and defense mechanisms like catapults.

Uzziah let his success go to his head, however. One day, he decided to just stroll right into the temple to burn incense on the altar. Well, everyone who was anyone knew that from the earliest days of Moses & Aaron, only priests were allowed into that part of the temple. Uzziah was way out of line, and 2 Chronicles 26:17-18 (NIV) tells us that the chief priest “with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in” to confront him and tell him to leave.

Uzziah became angry that they would have the gall to defy him and stormed into a rage (v. 19). God intervened and caused leprosy to break out on Uzziah’s forehead. At that point, he was all the more willing to leave the temple, because he realized what God had done to him.

Uzziah’s leprosy caused him to be banished from the temple for the rest of his life; his son had to take over his ruling duties and eventually succeeded him as king when Uzziah died. (Something else interesting happened the year that king Uzziah died, which we’ll talk about next week.) But, for now, let’s reflect on the courageous priests who stood up to a powerful king in order to fulfill their mission from God. They knew that God would not be pleased by Uzziah’s actions in the temple, and yet, they could have faced serious repercussions for trying to stop him. God honored their bravery and made Uzziah face his mistake. The priests may not have considered themselves heroes, but what they did was pretty heroic, in my book.

The cotton ball concert

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I won tickets from the local rock station to the Trespass America Festival concert last night. (<< In case that comes as a surprise to you, I have eclectic tastes; what can I say?)

I got a pair of tickets, so I took my 17yo godson with me. He’s much cooler than me, as you can well imagine, 😉  and although he sat with me for a little while, he pretty much stayed down on the floor with the rambunctious crowd while the old lady sat in a real seat with discretely-placed cotton balls in her ears. (The cotton balls were perfect, because I was still able to enjoy the music without suffering ill effects later.)

The opening band took the stage at 5pm, and the headline band didn’t wrap up till about 11pm. (It was a 45-min drive home, so I needed a cup of coffee this morning!) All in all, seven bands performed. It was loud and raucous and awesome. My knee was bothering me off & on, so it was nice that I had a place to sit. (LOL – I really do sound like an old lady!)

I know a heavy metal concert isn’t normally the venue you might think of for melancholy introspection, but I missed my brother so much last night. He would have loved the concert, and I would have loved being there with him. I wore one of his t-shirts, though, so it was kinda like he was there. Ok, not really, but it seemed like the thing to do.

I didn’t think to take pics of every band, but here are several:

Five Finger Death Punch drummer, Jeremy Spencer, won Metal Hammer’s drummer award, so he showed off a bit, and it was awesome. I also really liked that they did a military tribute and ran a slideshow of their concert tour with the deployed armed forces overseas.

 

Killswitch Engage was my godson’s fave band, but I had a difficult time watching the performance b/c the strobes hurt my eyes. (Yeah, yeah – I’m an old lady. I think we’ve established that fact. 😉 ) Funny thing was that @kseofficial retweeted my snarky comment about the strobe lights. Heehee

By the time Trivium took the stage, the floor was really filling up.

One of my fave bands (Pop Evil) of the concert, because they actually sang, not just screamed.

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the God Forbid guitarist (Doc Coyle, if I’m not mistaken), has very nice arms. Just sayin’.