"They sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim their words like deadly arrows.
They shoot from ambush at the innocent man;
they shoot at him without fear.
...But God will shoot them with arrows;
suddenly they will be struck down.
He will turn their own tongues against them
and bring them to ruin;
all who see them will shake their heads in scorn."
--Psalm 64:3-4; 7-8
A few things stood out to me in this passage. Number one: the element of ambush. The whole point of an ambush is that it is unexpected, that others have been preparing for a period of time while you have been completely in the dark. We are like that. The enemy lies in wait to ambush us. He prepares, he schemes, and during that time we are unaware. But hopefully we are not unprepared. We are given the tools to withstand the attack, even though it is painful, and unexpected.
Number two: They shoot without fear. Since we are unprepared, we should fall quickly. There is no reason why we should be able to withstand their ambush.
Number Three: "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me." I know that's a lie. You know that's a lie. We all know how much of a lie that adage is. Words can hurt more than sticks and stones combined, and those are the wounds that last the longest. "They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows." That sounds like aggravated assault if ever I heard it. These words, they are aimed to kill. They are aimed to tear us away from our wonderful Creator, they are aimed to make us doubt, to hurt us deeply in ways they hope will never heal.
The conclusion: Yes, there are ambushes lying in wait for us. Yes, they have been preparing, and yes ,those ambushes will hurt. If they didn't we'd brush them off and there would be no problem, rendering this passage pretty pointless. But the truth is they do hurt and they do catch us by surprise. But the awesome thing is that we have a God who is our source of strength, who will cover us and aid us beyond anything we can do. God is a source of amazing healing for those times when we are ambushed, when we are cut down and left reeling from the sudden attack. And when you focus on God, when you place your heart on his desires, on his words, there can be no room for the enemy to tear you from his wonderful love. Later in the passage it mentions that they pretty much get a taste of their own medicine. It gets a little intense...or a little old testament I guess you could say.
But there is also a flip side to it...our flip side. "The tongue" is mentioned so much in scripture. James spends an entire chapter on it. It's mentioned consistently in the new testament an a lot in the old as well. I think that probably is saying to us that it's a problem we should be really aware of, and constantly vigilant of. Ever had a time where your tongue seems to run away with you? Ever reaped the "benefits" of that action? It usually isn't very pretty at all. Lives can be made or destroyed with the movement of one of the smallest muscles in our body. And yet...for how small it is, did you know it is one of the strongest? That in itself is a statement. So yes, we are covered by God's grace, he is a source of strength when "they" tear us down with their sword like tongues, but we have to be conscious about our words and statements as well. Because, if we say negative things, not only will it destroy the lives of others, but it ultimately brings self destruction as well.
See no evil, SPEAK no evil, hear no evil.
Words are so powerful. They can utterly destroy, or they can build and encourage. So which one will you choose to do today?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Anger (or, the Book of Jonah) Part Four
'But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, "O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.'
But the Lord replied, 'Have you any right to be angry?'
Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.
But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, 'It would be better for me to die than to live.'
But God said to Jonah, 'Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?'
'I do,' he said. 'I am angry enough to die.'
But the Lord said, 'You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?'"
Jonah 4
Jonah is torqued. And from a human perspective, I can totally see why. Not only has he had the worst time of his life getting to Ninevah (conveniently forgetting that he was the reason it was so difficult), but now God has forgiven Ninevah with seeming ease. Jonah must be thinking, "What?! No fire!? No brimstone!? Not even a measly rain or slow drought to show them they had a close call??? I was swallowed by a freaking FISH for crying out loud! Where is their mighty lesson? This was pointless. This whole trip was stupid." He even goes one step further beyond being "displeased" and "angry." He questions God and, in typical human fashion, flips the whole situation, justifying his previous actions. "Is this not what I said when I was still home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish."
Before I continue further, I'll state a pretty obvious fact: Jonah is having trouble with the whole, "love your enemies" concept. Granted, the Assyrians couldn't have been the most lovable people around (go look them up, they were brutal...actually, brutal is a tame term for them), but as God's prophet, he should have been overjoyed at the Ninevites quick turn around. I'm actually glad that Jonah has struggled this entire book, and that this is the final icing on the cake. And I'll tell you why. I love that the Bible isn't filled with "holier-than-thou-art" people who always do the right thing, who always are perfect. You know why? Because it's unrealistic, and because there is so much more to be learned from a flawed perspective. Also, it is such powerful testimony to the fact that God uses those who think they are the least qualified to accomplish something beyond their wildest dreams. Jonah has just saved an entire city (120,000 people, as the passage later says), and yet he is angry?
I love God's response to Jonah. It's short, simple, powerful. "Have you any right to be angry?"
Hold up Jonah, think about that for a second. Do you have a right to be angry? Why are you aching for personal revenge to have the city suffer for your own sufferings? But Jonah doesn't even reply! In fact, if you read the passage, it doesn't even seem like he acknowledges what God has said. And what does he do next? Like a small child he runs away to pout. In the desert. Once again making life way harder than it needs to be for himself. And, gathering from the passage, attempting to test God---but the wrong way with the wrong motivations. While Jonah waits "to see what would happen to the city," the Ninevites are celebrating their new lease on life. While Jonah is pouting, God's compassion and mercy is obvious to all who are willing to see it. And Jonah obviously isn't willing to see it, so how can he experience it? How often do I sulk and refuses to see something that God has placed right in front of me?
Then God decides to show Jonah his final lesson for the book. He makes a vine grow and then takes it away from Jonah. When He asks Jonah about it, Jonah still is adamant that he has a right to be angry. And then God completely pwns Jonah (in a good way, I promise). It reminds me of the passage in Psalms that talks about how not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without the Lord's notice, how he can number the hairs on our head. And if God is concerned such a problem as my hair and the tiny sparrow which nests outside my window, than how could he ignore a huge city of people? He can't. It's not within His nature. Jonah is missing another crucial facet of God's being. Our God is one of deep compassion and mercy. He does not delight in pain. And his aim is never to condemn without warning or an opportunity to claim His grace. I think that is one of the overwhelming themes of this book. God has COMPASSION. He has incredible MERCY. It is only up to the individual to seek our God's love, for that love is already ready and waiting to be claimed.
So, what right do we have to be angry? None. Am I willing to see God's compassion and mercy and grace, and to share it with others, or do I get upset at the inconvenience it causes me? Am I going to be like Jonah, who fights against God and denies His very nature, or am I going to have an attitude like that of the Ninevites, repentant, pensive, overjoyed at the grace available? I love the flip. The rebellious "man of God" and the "wicked" future repentant people. It's almost a paradox. It makes you think, and, like most things lately for me, it is a conviction.
So, Jonah, why are you angry? And do you have any right to be?
But the Lord replied, 'Have you any right to be angry?'
Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.
But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, 'It would be better for me to die than to live.'
But God said to Jonah, 'Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?'
'I do,' he said. 'I am angry enough to die.'
But the Lord said, 'You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?'"
Jonah 4
Jonah is torqued. And from a human perspective, I can totally see why. Not only has he had the worst time of his life getting to Ninevah (conveniently forgetting that he was the reason it was so difficult), but now God has forgiven Ninevah with seeming ease. Jonah must be thinking, "What?! No fire!? No brimstone!? Not even a measly rain or slow drought to show them they had a close call??? I was swallowed by a freaking FISH for crying out loud! Where is their mighty lesson? This was pointless. This whole trip was stupid." He even goes one step further beyond being "displeased" and "angry." He questions God and, in typical human fashion, flips the whole situation, justifying his previous actions. "Is this not what I said when I was still home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish."
Before I continue further, I'll state a pretty obvious fact: Jonah is having trouble with the whole, "love your enemies" concept. Granted, the Assyrians couldn't have been the most lovable people around (go look them up, they were brutal...actually, brutal is a tame term for them), but as God's prophet, he should have been overjoyed at the Ninevites quick turn around. I'm actually glad that Jonah has struggled this entire book, and that this is the final icing on the cake. And I'll tell you why. I love that the Bible isn't filled with "holier-than-thou-art" people who always do the right thing, who always are perfect. You know why? Because it's unrealistic, and because there is so much more to be learned from a flawed perspective. Also, it is such powerful testimony to the fact that God uses those who think they are the least qualified to accomplish something beyond their wildest dreams. Jonah has just saved an entire city (120,000 people, as the passage later says), and yet he is angry?
I love God's response to Jonah. It's short, simple, powerful. "Have you any right to be angry?"
Hold up Jonah, think about that for a second. Do you have a right to be angry? Why are you aching for personal revenge to have the city suffer for your own sufferings? But Jonah doesn't even reply! In fact, if you read the passage, it doesn't even seem like he acknowledges what God has said. And what does he do next? Like a small child he runs away to pout. In the desert. Once again making life way harder than it needs to be for himself. And, gathering from the passage, attempting to test God---but the wrong way with the wrong motivations. While Jonah waits "to see what would happen to the city," the Ninevites are celebrating their new lease on life. While Jonah is pouting, God's compassion and mercy is obvious to all who are willing to see it. And Jonah obviously isn't willing to see it, so how can he experience it? How often do I sulk and refuses to see something that God has placed right in front of me?
Then God decides to show Jonah his final lesson for the book. He makes a vine grow and then takes it away from Jonah. When He asks Jonah about it, Jonah still is adamant that he has a right to be angry. And then God completely pwns Jonah (in a good way, I promise). It reminds me of the passage in Psalms that talks about how not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without the Lord's notice, how he can number the hairs on our head. And if God is concerned such a problem as my hair and the tiny sparrow which nests outside my window, than how could he ignore a huge city of people? He can't. It's not within His nature. Jonah is missing another crucial facet of God's being. Our God is one of deep compassion and mercy. He does not delight in pain. And his aim is never to condemn without warning or an opportunity to claim His grace. I think that is one of the overwhelming themes of this book. God has COMPASSION. He has incredible MERCY. It is only up to the individual to seek our God's love, for that love is already ready and waiting to be claimed.
So, what right do we have to be angry? None. Am I willing to see God's compassion and mercy and grace, and to share it with others, or do I get upset at the inconvenience it causes me? Am I going to be like Jonah, who fights against God and denies His very nature, or am I going to have an attitude like that of the Ninevites, repentant, pensive, overjoyed at the grace available? I love the flip. The rebellious "man of God" and the "wicked" future repentant people. It's almost a paradox. It makes you think, and, like most things lately for me, it is a conviction.
So, Jonah, why are you angry? And do you have any right to be?
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Compassion (or, The Book of Jonah) Part Three
"Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time; 'Go to the great city of Ninevah and proclaim to it the message that I give you.' Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Ninevah. Now Ninevah was a very important city--a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: 'Forty more days and Ninevah wil be overturned.' The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least put on a sack cloth.
When the news reached the king of Ninevah, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with a sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Ninevah:
'By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.'
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened."
--Jonah 3
Funny thing, how God works. When I first read through this chapter, I thought, "Man, I don't think I'm getting anything out of this. Maybe I should just combine three and four..." and then wham! there was suddenly a ton of stuff for me to focus on. Thanks, God. Guess I'm not going to bed early after all. lol. I'll take time with Him over sleep though. (You should realize that means He's of humungo importance. Nothing wins over sleep. NOTHING. haha). Anyways...
A few things that stuck out to me in this passage...
I like that God repeated His message to Jonah. I think if I had been Jonah, I probably would have remembered the whole reason I was sitting on the beach covered in fish vomit, but hey, maybe Jonah had something else on his mind that day. At any rate, God repeated His message to Jonah. "Hey! This is what I've been trying to tell you all along! You made this way harder on yourself than it needed to be." I think we do that a lot. We fight God, we run away, or we just plain ignore Him. And next thing we know, He's repeating a message to us that He's been whispering all along. And even though we're sure it does in fact sound familiar, all of a sudden it's crystal clear. It 's like fixing your antenna on your TV (oh yes, old school. I went there) to get better reception for the picture. When we tune in to God and adjust where our "rabbit ears" are pointing, the message is going to be that much clearer. All of a sudden you aren't getting the fuzzy Spanish channel with the sketchy talk show and mariachi music, you're getting the perfectly clear version of Friends. When we change the way we think, the way we tune in, we are going to be flooded with messages, with the good picture. Trevor compared it to checking your inbox after ignoring it for a long time. I like that. I think it's a very true description as well.
The second thing that stood out: Jonah went out, he preached and then came the powerful words of: The Ninevites believed GOD. They believed GOD, NOT JONAH. I think those might be four of the most important words in the entire book. The people didn't believe the man standing before them and preaching hell fire and damnation (we all know from experience that doesn't go over so well. People generally HATE being preached to like that. Something touched them deep within their hearts, their souls, to speak to them on a different level, a God level, and not the level of man. That's powerful. They felt something in their hearts and souls, and immediately they changed their ways. More conviction for me. A whole city changed it's "wicked" ways, sitting in despair in the dust and wearing only a sackcloth and fasting....but what do I, a semi-"godly" person do when I realize that I have sinned? Do I lament, bury myself in the dust, fast and beg for compassion? No, not even close. Yes, I have been forgiven, I have new life in Christ, and I no longer have to live in the pain of the past, but I should never take that for granted. Yet, I do. Almost every time I do. So why is a nation of sinners totally showing me up? No, it isn't a contest, but I feel like I should be feeling something other than bland knowledge that my sins have been forgiven. With new life in Christ I am released from having to feel guilt, having to feel shame when I know that I have been forgiven, that forgiveness is readily available, but I should never let that knowledge blunt the true cost behind the reason for it. Every time I realize that I am forgiven, I should treat it like a celebration, a new lease on life, but instead I do nothing? Something is off in my own spiritual walk.
Ninevah repented. They "turned from their evil ways." They turned with no guarantee that they would be saved, no promise that the Lord would take compassion. The king even treats it like a gamble. "Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn away his fierce anger so that we will not perish." And I wonder, what would we do if the same situation happened to our society today? And in my mind I see more of a Dorian Gray moment occurring, and not a Ninevah one. If you knew that in forty days you were to be destroyed, how would you react? Would you "waste" time by being pensive, repentant, grave, forgoing food and all forms of comfort, or would you be out in Vegas, living it up, partaking in any and every sin you could possibly find since you were past the point of no return? Hm...
An interesting thought came to me as I was reading the third chapter. It's not quite a parallel to this, because a parallel is two similar things on different planes. This is more of a...perpendicular thing. I know, I'm busting out geometry terms, but that's just the image I got when this occurred to me. Two very similar things that took a complete turn from each other. I am thinking about the story of the cities of of Sodom and Gomorrah. The story starts out really similar. God gives Abraham a similar opportunity to go and find any righteous people among the two cities so that they will not be destroyed. First of all, Abraham bargains with God to get the number of righteous people he finds down to the lowest acceptable number possible (kind of an amusing passage. My favorite is after Abraham and God have basically shaken hands on the deal, Abraham pipes up again, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more..." Gen. 18:32a) Bold move, Abraham. You did realize you were bargaining with God, right? Man, is that human nature for you. Even facing God, Abraham is still trying to get a good deal. I'm getting distracted. The thing that totally just hit me was how similar the stories were, yet how completely different they ended. We all know that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with "burning sulfur" (true story, historically it checks out as well as biblically. Archeologists have found both of those cities, both of whom were destroyed with burning sulfur...from a volcano? Interesting. Gotta love how archeologists actually use the Scriptures to find and cross check information and locations), but Ninevah changed. Not just one or two people saved the city, the entire population changed. They sought after compassion, they sought any favor possible to be had in the Lord's eyes.
Which brings me to my final point: We have an amazing God of compassion and love. Despite everything that had happened, He was willing to have compassion on a people who had been engaging the worst of the worst. He never wanted to destroy Ninevah. He doesn't delight in the destruction of people. In fact, it pains Him. He doesn't force us to follow Him out of a sadistic power struggle. He wants our fellowship, our time, our love in return. He has bountiful compassion and love. All we have to do is claim it. We have to believe GOD, not the mere men of this earth, who, although play an important part in our lives, cannot compare to what God is and was and will forever be, to what He has in store for our lives. And I, for one, am glad my future lies in His omniscient, omnipresent hands, and not in the hands of a flawed man, in my own very broken, very flawed plans.
So, God is good, He is compassionate, and He definitely sees us and hears our cries. Amazing love. =)
When the news reached the king of Ninevah, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with a sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Ninevah:
'By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.'
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened."
--Jonah 3
Funny thing, how God works. When I first read through this chapter, I thought, "Man, I don't think I'm getting anything out of this. Maybe I should just combine three and four..." and then wham! there was suddenly a ton of stuff for me to focus on. Thanks, God. Guess I'm not going to bed early after all. lol. I'll take time with Him over sleep though. (You should realize that means He's of humungo importance. Nothing wins over sleep. NOTHING. haha). Anyways...
A few things that stuck out to me in this passage...
I like that God repeated His message to Jonah. I think if I had been Jonah, I probably would have remembered the whole reason I was sitting on the beach covered in fish vomit, but hey, maybe Jonah had something else on his mind that day. At any rate, God repeated His message to Jonah. "Hey! This is what I've been trying to tell you all along! You made this way harder on yourself than it needed to be." I think we do that a lot. We fight God, we run away, or we just plain ignore Him. And next thing we know, He's repeating a message to us that He's been whispering all along. And even though we're sure it does in fact sound familiar, all of a sudden it's crystal clear. It 's like fixing your antenna on your TV (oh yes, old school. I went there) to get better reception for the picture. When we tune in to God and adjust where our "rabbit ears" are pointing, the message is going to be that much clearer. All of a sudden you aren't getting the fuzzy Spanish channel with the sketchy talk show and mariachi music, you're getting the perfectly clear version of Friends. When we change the way we think, the way we tune in, we are going to be flooded with messages, with the good picture. Trevor compared it to checking your inbox after ignoring it for a long time. I like that. I think it's a very true description as well.
The second thing that stood out: Jonah went out, he preached and then came the powerful words of: The Ninevites believed GOD. They believed GOD, NOT JONAH. I think those might be four of the most important words in the entire book. The people didn't believe the man standing before them and preaching hell fire and damnation (we all know from experience that doesn't go over so well. People generally HATE being preached to like that. Something touched them deep within their hearts, their souls, to speak to them on a different level, a God level, and not the level of man. That's powerful. They felt something in their hearts and souls, and immediately they changed their ways. More conviction for me. A whole city changed it's "wicked" ways, sitting in despair in the dust and wearing only a sackcloth and fasting....but what do I, a semi-"godly" person do when I realize that I have sinned? Do I lament, bury myself in the dust, fast and beg for compassion? No, not even close. Yes, I have been forgiven, I have new life in Christ, and I no longer have to live in the pain of the past, but I should never take that for granted. Yet, I do. Almost every time I do. So why is a nation of sinners totally showing me up? No, it isn't a contest, but I feel like I should be feeling something other than bland knowledge that my sins have been forgiven. With new life in Christ I am released from having to feel guilt, having to feel shame when I know that I have been forgiven, that forgiveness is readily available, but I should never let that knowledge blunt the true cost behind the reason for it. Every time I realize that I am forgiven, I should treat it like a celebration, a new lease on life, but instead I do nothing? Something is off in my own spiritual walk.
Ninevah repented. They "turned from their evil ways." They turned with no guarantee that they would be saved, no promise that the Lord would take compassion. The king even treats it like a gamble. "Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn away his fierce anger so that we will not perish." And I wonder, what would we do if the same situation happened to our society today? And in my mind I see more of a Dorian Gray moment occurring, and not a Ninevah one. If you knew that in forty days you were to be destroyed, how would you react? Would you "waste" time by being pensive, repentant, grave, forgoing food and all forms of comfort, or would you be out in Vegas, living it up, partaking in any and every sin you could possibly find since you were past the point of no return? Hm...
An interesting thought came to me as I was reading the third chapter. It's not quite a parallel to this, because a parallel is two similar things on different planes. This is more of a...perpendicular thing. I know, I'm busting out geometry terms, but that's just the image I got when this occurred to me. Two very similar things that took a complete turn from each other. I am thinking about the story of the cities of of Sodom and Gomorrah. The story starts out really similar. God gives Abraham a similar opportunity to go and find any righteous people among the two cities so that they will not be destroyed. First of all, Abraham bargains with God to get the number of righteous people he finds down to the lowest acceptable number possible (kind of an amusing passage. My favorite is after Abraham and God have basically shaken hands on the deal, Abraham pipes up again, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more..." Gen. 18:32a) Bold move, Abraham. You did realize you were bargaining with God, right? Man, is that human nature for you. Even facing God, Abraham is still trying to get a good deal. I'm getting distracted. The thing that totally just hit me was how similar the stories were, yet how completely different they ended. We all know that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with "burning sulfur" (true story, historically it checks out as well as biblically. Archeologists have found both of those cities, both of whom were destroyed with burning sulfur...from a volcano? Interesting. Gotta love how archeologists actually use the Scriptures to find and cross check information and locations), but Ninevah changed. Not just one or two people saved the city, the entire population changed. They sought after compassion, they sought any favor possible to be had in the Lord's eyes.
Which brings me to my final point: We have an amazing God of compassion and love. Despite everything that had happened, He was willing to have compassion on a people who had been engaging the worst of the worst. He never wanted to destroy Ninevah. He doesn't delight in the destruction of people. In fact, it pains Him. He doesn't force us to follow Him out of a sadistic power struggle. He wants our fellowship, our time, our love in return. He has bountiful compassion and love. All we have to do is claim it. We have to believe GOD, not the mere men of this earth, who, although play an important part in our lives, cannot compare to what God is and was and will forever be, to what He has in store for our lives. And I, for one, am glad my future lies in His omniscient, omnipresent hands, and not in the hands of a flawed man, in my own very broken, very flawed plans.
So, God is good, He is compassionate, and He definitely sees us and hears our cries. Amazing love. =)
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Salvation and Humor (or, The Book of Jonah) Part Two
"From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said:
'In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled around me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, 'I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.'
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you brought my life up from the pit,
O Lord my God.
When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
Salvation comes from the Lord.
And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land."
--Jonah 2
This undoubtedly had to be the lowest point in Jonah's life. Several things are going on here:
1) Jonah has run away from the Lord, and action he already knows was wrong, as evidenced by him hiding below deck
2) A huge storm comes up (coincidence, I think not!) Conditions below deck had to be sickening (literally)
3)He was found out and has been tossed over board
4) He gets tossed around in the waves, coughing and drowning
5) He gets swallowed by a giant fish
Seriously, you have to wonder what went through his mind during those initial moments. The passage above had to have come later, upon a little reflection of his situation. Really, what was he thinking as the fish swam towards him? In my wonderful world of sarcasm, my thoughts probably would have been somewhere along the lines of, "Really, now? Drowning wasn't enough? A fish gets to swallow me too?! Awesome!" But that isn't what the passage focuses on (although I'm sure that probably would have been an amusing chapter). We get to hear Jonah work it all out while he is trapped in an inescapable situation. I think I'll break it down from here by each section of the passage.
First of all, he is at the lowest of the low points he will probably ever have in his life, but does he curse God, swear at Him, forsake Him as it seems He has forsaken Jonah? No. Jonah states that in his weakest, most pitiful moment he has called to the Lord, and more importantly, "HE HAS ANSWERED." Even though Jonah has sunk lower than ever before, even though he has essentially attempted to abandon the Lord by running away from Him, Jonah makes it very clear that the Lord has heard his cries.
Jonah mentions being swept into the sea, and according to his nature he must be thinking "I can never go back, I can never be in the presence of God again," but in that darkest moment of his life, he still continues to "look again towards [the] holy temple." Talk about perseverance! In the lowest of the low moments in my life, am I looking to God, for the opportunity to be in fellowship with Him, or am I relying solely on my own strength and intelligence? Think about the panic Jonah must have been feeling as he sank into the ocean, seaweed tangled about his head, drowning him, suffocating him. Imagine how you feel when seaweed wraps around only your legs. That's bad enough, but your head? Pulling you down, seemingly engulfing you? Horrible. In this I see a sort of metaphor for how trapped Jonah must have been feeling, how it must have seemed to him like he was spiritually drowning as well. And also, maybe a connection/metaphor to how he was feeling about himself, knowing full well that he had gotten himself into this mess. I think of the slimy feeling of seaweed, wrapped around my face and I shudder. Think about that metaphorically. It isn't good.
But the next part of the passage is a statement of incredible hope: "But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple." Clearly, God heard Jonah. And, in turn, He provided a way for Jonah to survive, to internalize and process everything that had happened to him. Jonah's perseverance in seeking the Lord forged the way into a reconnection with God.
And the next line strikes me hard:
"Those who cling to worthless idol forfeit the grace that could be theirs."
Woah. Think about that for a second. Think about our consumer driven, materialistic society. Think about the number of people you know who have been buried with something physical that they held of worth in their lives. I remember my friend's grandfather was buried with his entire set of golf clubs. But for what? You can't take it with you? There's no hole in one going on six feet under. It is meaningless. It is an idol. I'm not saying that having something of sentimental value is wrong. That's part of our nature. Valuing something isn't wrong. But it becomes wrong when we value something more than we value God. When we focus on "idols," whether it be a person, a place, or an object, we are forfeiting the grace that is fully and readily available to us. This isn't just about "ignore God and he'll ignore you in retaliation." God isn't passive aggressive. It's about focusing so fully on something else that you completely MISS OUT on the incredible grace that God has for us, the incredible love that He craves to show us. I don't want to forfeit something so amazing, especially when I can't even take it (the idol) with me. Fifty years? Seventy years? Eighty? That's all I have (and that's pushing it) with these tangible objects of the here and now, but we know that the grace of God is something eternal, something intangible that will last far beyond when the things of this earth decay. Everything of this world is transient. I want to focus on something I can count on, something that will not take my heart and soul in vain.
The final part of Jonah's prayer is powerful as well. Not only does he give thanks to the Lord (the testing of our faith develops perseverance--James 1), but he makes a promise to the Lord, one that he is assuring will be completed upon the first available opportunity. And I love the line he throws in at the end: "Salvation comes from the Lord." How simply beautiful. How true. And then, in the next line (and I seriously believe this is more evidence of God's humor), the fish vomits Jonah onto land. I find that hilarious, "Salvation is in the Lord!" Jonah cries and BLEH! right away the fish vomits him up. I'm sure that's probably not what Jonah was thinking when he said that, but the Lord just showed him one more facet of His personality. I could go on about God and humor, and how He created us to laugh (not solely, of course), but that's a topic for later on.
To summarize, what stood out to me in this chapter were a few things.
1) That Jonah persevered in seeking the Lord
2) The the Lord HEARD and ANSWERED his pleas
3) That our joy must be found in the Lord, not in idols which cause us to forfeit His grace
4) Praising the Lord throughout the hardships we face
5) God has a sense of humor
I am going to give thanksgiving to the Lord, I am going to fulfill my promises to Him as He fulfills His to me. I am going to seek Him out and place His of highest value in my life, over all potential idols, so that I may not unwittingly forfeit his amazing grace. I will continue to seek him and persevere even throughout hardships, no matter what stage of my life I am in, I will seek His face, and I will that he will always hear me, no matter where I am. I KNOW that my Salvation is in the Lord. This is my prayer.
Amen.
'In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled around me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, 'I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.'
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you brought my life up from the pit,
O Lord my God.
When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
Salvation comes from the Lord.
And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land."
--Jonah 2
This undoubtedly had to be the lowest point in Jonah's life. Several things are going on here:
1) Jonah has run away from the Lord, and action he already knows was wrong, as evidenced by him hiding below deck
2) A huge storm comes up (coincidence, I think not!) Conditions below deck had to be sickening (literally)
3)He was found out and has been tossed over board
4) He gets tossed around in the waves, coughing and drowning
5) He gets swallowed by a giant fish
Seriously, you have to wonder what went through his mind during those initial moments. The passage above had to have come later, upon a little reflection of his situation. Really, what was he thinking as the fish swam towards him? In my wonderful world of sarcasm, my thoughts probably would have been somewhere along the lines of, "Really, now? Drowning wasn't enough? A fish gets to swallow me too?! Awesome!" But that isn't what the passage focuses on (although I'm sure that probably would have been an amusing chapter). We get to hear Jonah work it all out while he is trapped in an inescapable situation. I think I'll break it down from here by each section of the passage.
First of all, he is at the lowest of the low points he will probably ever have in his life, but does he curse God, swear at Him, forsake Him as it seems He has forsaken Jonah? No. Jonah states that in his weakest, most pitiful moment he has called to the Lord, and more importantly, "HE HAS ANSWERED." Even though Jonah has sunk lower than ever before, even though he has essentially attempted to abandon the Lord by running away from Him, Jonah makes it very clear that the Lord has heard his cries.
Jonah mentions being swept into the sea, and according to his nature he must be thinking "I can never go back, I can never be in the presence of God again," but in that darkest moment of his life, he still continues to "look again towards [the] holy temple." Talk about perseverance! In the lowest of the low moments in my life, am I looking to God, for the opportunity to be in fellowship with Him, or am I relying solely on my own strength and intelligence? Think about the panic Jonah must have been feeling as he sank into the ocean, seaweed tangled about his head, drowning him, suffocating him. Imagine how you feel when seaweed wraps around only your legs. That's bad enough, but your head? Pulling you down, seemingly engulfing you? Horrible. In this I see a sort of metaphor for how trapped Jonah must have been feeling, how it must have seemed to him like he was spiritually drowning as well. And also, maybe a connection/metaphor to how he was feeling about himself, knowing full well that he had gotten himself into this mess. I think of the slimy feeling of seaweed, wrapped around my face and I shudder. Think about that metaphorically. It isn't good.
But the next part of the passage is a statement of incredible hope: "But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple." Clearly, God heard Jonah. And, in turn, He provided a way for Jonah to survive, to internalize and process everything that had happened to him. Jonah's perseverance in seeking the Lord forged the way into a reconnection with God.
And the next line strikes me hard:
"Those who cling to worthless idol forfeit the grace that could be theirs."
Woah. Think about that for a second. Think about our consumer driven, materialistic society. Think about the number of people you know who have been buried with something physical that they held of worth in their lives. I remember my friend's grandfather was buried with his entire set of golf clubs. But for what? You can't take it with you? There's no hole in one going on six feet under. It is meaningless. It is an idol. I'm not saying that having something of sentimental value is wrong. That's part of our nature. Valuing something isn't wrong. But it becomes wrong when we value something more than we value God. When we focus on "idols," whether it be a person, a place, or an object, we are forfeiting the grace that is fully and readily available to us. This isn't just about "ignore God and he'll ignore you in retaliation." God isn't passive aggressive. It's about focusing so fully on something else that you completely MISS OUT on the incredible grace that God has for us, the incredible love that He craves to show us. I don't want to forfeit something so amazing, especially when I can't even take it (the idol) with me. Fifty years? Seventy years? Eighty? That's all I have (and that's pushing it) with these tangible objects of the here and now, but we know that the grace of God is something eternal, something intangible that will last far beyond when the things of this earth decay. Everything of this world is transient. I want to focus on something I can count on, something that will not take my heart and soul in vain.
The final part of Jonah's prayer is powerful as well. Not only does he give thanks to the Lord (the testing of our faith develops perseverance--James 1), but he makes a promise to the Lord, one that he is assuring will be completed upon the first available opportunity. And I love the line he throws in at the end: "Salvation comes from the Lord." How simply beautiful. How true. And then, in the next line (and I seriously believe this is more evidence of God's humor), the fish vomits Jonah onto land. I find that hilarious, "Salvation is in the Lord!" Jonah cries and BLEH! right away the fish vomits him up. I'm sure that's probably not what Jonah was thinking when he said that, but the Lord just showed him one more facet of His personality. I could go on about God and humor, and how He created us to laugh (not solely, of course), but that's a topic for later on.
To summarize, what stood out to me in this chapter were a few things.
1) That Jonah persevered in seeking the Lord
2) The the Lord HEARD and ANSWERED his pleas
3) That our joy must be found in the Lord, not in idols which cause us to forfeit His grace
4) Praising the Lord throughout the hardships we face
5) God has a sense of humor
I am going to give thanksgiving to the Lord, I am going to fulfill my promises to Him as He fulfills His to me. I am going to seek Him out and place His of highest value in my life, over all potential idols, so that I may not unwittingly forfeit his amazing grace. I will continue to seek him and persevere even throughout hardships, no matter what stage of my life I am in, I will seek His face, and I will that he will always hear me, no matter where I am. I KNOW that my Salvation is in the Lord. This is my prayer.
Amen.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Fear (or, The Book of Jonah) Part One
"The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.'
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish."
--Jonah 1:1-3a
There is a myth about Christianity. This myth has been around for centuries and is completely untrue. The myth is this: That being a Christian and following Christ makes your life easier. It really isn't so. Following Christ makes your life more difficult, because not only are you suddenly and acutely aware of what you are up against (and how you truly can't win it on your own), but those forces will attempt to tear you away from the great love God has for us, and to tear our desire to follow God's heart.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
--Romans 8:38-39
So excellent, we know that nothing can separate us from God's love, but what of our own fear? What of those times when we hear something, we feel something, but we turn away from it? Jonah heard something very clearly that most people don't get to. He was told, explicitly, to go to Ninevah. But did he go? No, he fled. HE RAN AWAY. Foolishly (truly, I kind of wonder what synagogue he was raised in. It seems like they missed out on a crucial concept in his theological education. Maybe he was ill that day), Jonah believes that he can outrun God, that he can travel hidden in the bowels of a ship and escape the calling that has been sent to him. How often do we do that? How often do I ignore a conviction that has been laid on my heart because I don't feel up to it, because I am afraid? Too often, I fear (no pun intended). I, like Jonah, bury myself in a ship of my own making and pretend like I didn't hear what I thought I did. Like an ostrich, I bury my head in the sand.
But, with God that just doesn't fly. Jonah found that out pretty quick. A huge storm comes and rocks the boat, and in a panic, the sailors come to Jonah, asking him to pray to his own God for protection (which is kind of funny to me. I mean, isn't the purpose of choosing a religion kind of exclusive? I feel like that's pretty much admitting your religion is false if you start to turn elsewhere for salvation). And then, in the great ironic humor that God has, they cast lots to see whose fault the storm is, and bam! the lot falls to Jonah, the strange man with the strange and foreign God. And the next few verses caught me by surprise...
"So they asked him, 'Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? '
He answered, 'I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.'
This terrified them and they asked, 'What have you done? (They knew he was running away fro the Lord, because he had already told them so.)"
--Jonah 1:8-10
What a testament to how powerful and acknowledged God is! They obviously knew who Jonah was talking about the second the words left his mouth, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord..." It says, "They were terrified." They knew something was going on, and they had a pretty good idea of what was going on since Jonah, later to be swallowed by the big "fish", apparently had a big mouth as well. But the part that just keeps coming back to me is that they knew who God was. And apparently the Hebrew God (our God) was recognized as having more power than other believed deities. Or at least that's what I gather since A) They asked Jonah to pray to his God in hopes something would change, and B) They were absolutely terrified when they heard that the Hebrew God was torqued at Jonah.
So, what did they do? The most logical thing. They threw Jonah overboard (but they said a prayer before asking for mercy, so that makes it all good, right?)
And then what happened? The sea grew calm and they were amazed. They even made sacrifices and vows to God. If that doesn't prove the power of God, I don't know what does.
Getting back to the point I was pondering earlier...although I'm certainly not done, not tonight. I have three more chapters to go....Fear. Fear gets in the way of the convictions and words that God places on our hearts. And we can run, and we can try to hide, but that is futile, for wherever we are, there God dwells also. And the more we ignore it, the stronger he has to send his message. For Jonah, it meant he let it get to the point where he was thrown overboard and swallowed by a sea creature before he was willing to soften his heart and will to God. For more of us, it isn't that drastic, but can you think of one time where something seemingly horrible happened before you realized God was only trying to get you to pay attention for once? I can definitely think of a time when I ignored God so much that I finally ended up in the hospital. And once I took the time to actually listen to him, it was almost like I felt this huge sigh from him, "Why was that so difficult? I've been trying to tell you these things for so long!" I'm not necessarily saying that God puts us in the hospital, or does other horrible things solely to get our attention, but I do believe that our own actions to ignore God lead to those consequences. In some ways, my stint in the hospital was about a spiritual sickness I had been enduring for a very long time: The belief that I could do it all on my own, that I didn't need to rely on anyone else, not even God. And I only began to get better, physically and spiritually, when I was willing to give up my very fierce independence and reliance to God. Talk about a wake up call for me.
So if that was my wake-up call? God only knows how Jonah was feeling once he started to get the message.
Our lives will be filled with hardships; it's part of the nature of who we have chosen to become, but we cannot let fear hold us back. We cannot chose to hide in a ship, or with our heads buried in the sand. We cannot ignore the wonderful Creator who we know works for our good. ("And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28). That's a promise. God isn't gambling with our lives. He has a direct purpose for us and He is filled with love for us. He does not seek to harm. We cannot fear. We cannot be separated from His love. We cannot be separated from His love. I say it again, We cannot be separated from His love. That statement alone puts most of my fear to rest.
I am loved. And I will strive to be unafraid. I may not always succeed, but I will strive for this, and I will rest assured that God works for the good of those who love Him. There will be many big things in my life that seem impossible, many things with the potential to strike full blown terror into my heart, but I will not waver, because I cannot be separated from His love, and He works for the good of those who love him.
Gotta love promises you can actually count on. =)
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish."
--Jonah 1:1-3a
There is a myth about Christianity. This myth has been around for centuries and is completely untrue. The myth is this: That being a Christian and following Christ makes your life easier. It really isn't so. Following Christ makes your life more difficult, because not only are you suddenly and acutely aware of what you are up against (and how you truly can't win it on your own), but those forces will attempt to tear you away from the great love God has for us, and to tear our desire to follow God's heart.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
--Romans 8:38-39
So excellent, we know that nothing can separate us from God's love, but what of our own fear? What of those times when we hear something, we feel something, but we turn away from it? Jonah heard something very clearly that most people don't get to. He was told, explicitly, to go to Ninevah. But did he go? No, he fled. HE RAN AWAY. Foolishly (truly, I kind of wonder what synagogue he was raised in. It seems like they missed out on a crucial concept in his theological education. Maybe he was ill that day), Jonah believes that he can outrun God, that he can travel hidden in the bowels of a ship and escape the calling that has been sent to him. How often do we do that? How often do I ignore a conviction that has been laid on my heart because I don't feel up to it, because I am afraid? Too often, I fear (no pun intended). I, like Jonah, bury myself in a ship of my own making and pretend like I didn't hear what I thought I did. Like an ostrich, I bury my head in the sand.
But, with God that just doesn't fly. Jonah found that out pretty quick. A huge storm comes and rocks the boat, and in a panic, the sailors come to Jonah, asking him to pray to his own God for protection (which is kind of funny to me. I mean, isn't the purpose of choosing a religion kind of exclusive? I feel like that's pretty much admitting your religion is false if you start to turn elsewhere for salvation). And then, in the great ironic humor that God has, they cast lots to see whose fault the storm is, and bam! the lot falls to Jonah, the strange man with the strange and foreign God. And the next few verses caught me by surprise...
"So they asked him, 'Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? '
He answered, 'I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.'
This terrified them and they asked, 'What have you done? (They knew he was running away fro the Lord, because he had already told them so.)"
--Jonah 1:8-10
What a testament to how powerful and acknowledged God is! They obviously knew who Jonah was talking about the second the words left his mouth, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord..." It says, "They were terrified." They knew something was going on, and they had a pretty good idea of what was going on since Jonah, later to be swallowed by the big "fish", apparently had a big mouth as well. But the part that just keeps coming back to me is that they knew who God was. And apparently the Hebrew God (our God) was recognized as having more power than other believed deities. Or at least that's what I gather since A) They asked Jonah to pray to his God in hopes something would change, and B) They were absolutely terrified when they heard that the Hebrew God was torqued at Jonah.
So, what did they do? The most logical thing. They threw Jonah overboard (but they said a prayer before asking for mercy, so that makes it all good, right?)
And then what happened? The sea grew calm and they were amazed. They even made sacrifices and vows to God. If that doesn't prove the power of God, I don't know what does.
Getting back to the point I was pondering earlier...although I'm certainly not done, not tonight. I have three more chapters to go....Fear. Fear gets in the way of the convictions and words that God places on our hearts. And we can run, and we can try to hide, but that is futile, for wherever we are, there God dwells also. And the more we ignore it, the stronger he has to send his message. For Jonah, it meant he let it get to the point where he was thrown overboard and swallowed by a sea creature before he was willing to soften his heart and will to God. For more of us, it isn't that drastic, but can you think of one time where something seemingly horrible happened before you realized God was only trying to get you to pay attention for once? I can definitely think of a time when I ignored God so much that I finally ended up in the hospital. And once I took the time to actually listen to him, it was almost like I felt this huge sigh from him, "Why was that so difficult? I've been trying to tell you these things for so long!" I'm not necessarily saying that God puts us in the hospital, or does other horrible things solely to get our attention, but I do believe that our own actions to ignore God lead to those consequences. In some ways, my stint in the hospital was about a spiritual sickness I had been enduring for a very long time: The belief that I could do it all on my own, that I didn't need to rely on anyone else, not even God. And I only began to get better, physically and spiritually, when I was willing to give up my very fierce independence and reliance to God. Talk about a wake up call for me.
So if that was my wake-up call? God only knows how Jonah was feeling once he started to get the message.
Our lives will be filled with hardships; it's part of the nature of who we have chosen to become, but we cannot let fear hold us back. We cannot chose to hide in a ship, or with our heads buried in the sand. We cannot ignore the wonderful Creator who we know works for our good. ("And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28). That's a promise. God isn't gambling with our lives. He has a direct purpose for us and He is filled with love for us. He does not seek to harm. We cannot fear. We cannot be separated from His love. We cannot be separated from His love. I say it again, We cannot be separated from His love. That statement alone puts most of my fear to rest.
I am loved. And I will strive to be unafraid. I may not always succeed, but I will strive for this, and I will rest assured that God works for the good of those who love Him. There will be many big things in my life that seem impossible, many things with the potential to strike full blown terror into my heart, but I will not waver, because I cannot be separated from His love, and He works for the good of those who love him.
Gotta love promises you can actually count on. =)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Conviction
"A fool gives vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control."
--Proverbs 29:11
Sometimes I think that the book of Proverbs should be renamed "The Book of Convictions." Every time I think I have a good handle on things, I flip through Proverbs, and something pops out at me. Proverbs is filled with so many beautiful verses; I could go on and on about those, because they are simply amazing, but when I find one that convicts me, I tend to cringe and forge on instead of really facing the thing that I am inwardly embarrassed about. It's like subconsciously I am going, "oookay...if I ignore this, God won't see it. And if I am in denial and if God doesn't see it, than He's not going to ask me to change it." Flawed logic? Oh yes. It's very much a child-like response to things, and evidence that I'm not yet as spiritually mature as I'd like to think I am. I am no better than an infant who thinks that out of sight means the disappearance of an object, an issue, a person. Out of sight, out of mind.
Funny though, how God doesn't work that way.
And so, at one in the morning I stare at this verse--one of many, I am sure--that convicts me, stares me in the face and says, "Try to get out of this one."
"A fool gives vent to his anger..." I've just been called a fool. I don't think anyone really enjoys that title. I know I don't. It bristles a lot, actually. "I'm not a fool," I think, "I am perfectly capable of being wise." But, according to this verse, I am a fool. I get frustrated very easily sometimes, over the stupidest things. You don't even want to be in the car with me on a stressful Tuesday/Thursday morning at Citrus in the parking lot at the beginning of the semester. I become a regular demon, hair wild, white knuckle grip on the steering wheel, yelling loudly at the car that dared steal the spot I had been waiting for for over half an hour. And that, my friends, is not Christ-like behavior. And part of me knows it, and cringes for it, but the much more emotionally volatile (and much louder and pushy) voice says, "You're justified in this! How dare that idiot take your space! Blinker goes first! He didn't even have his blinker on! I can't believe it! I wish I could get away with hitting him!" Oh yes, it is irrational, and it seems to take off without any effort at all from the rational, logical part of my brain.
So, it follows that I am a fool, because I vent my anger, I do not keep myself under control. But there is more to this than just keeping a pretty, nice face to the world. Stating the obvious (again), we know that anger can be very irrational. When I rant and rave, and throw my hands around in a way that is complete evidence of my Italian heritage, I am not thinking logically. I am not dealing with the actual problem at hand. I'm only working myself up into a higher state of rage and absolutely nothing is getting accomplished. Not only does it prevent me from thinking logically, but it hinders relationships as well. You can't build community when your ears are steaming with the proverbial cartoon anger. It just can't happen. And you are definitely not in a state to love when your anger is peaked and your temper is short. But keep yourself under control, and you are in a much better position in life. You can love, you can handle the situation diplomatically, you will forge on ahead in success. Logical, common sense things.
So if I know this, than why is it so hard for me to do?
We renounce a sinful nature, we know that our heart and soul are living for a greater purpose, but that still doesn't mean the rest of our body is no longer worldly. It's why you can know what is right but still be pulled in the other direction, enticed. I can't find it right now but I know there is a verse that talks about that in the New Testament. And if we rely on the rest of our "flesh" to get us out of the rut we already are in, than nothing will be accomplished. We can do nothing through our own power; it is only through the Spirit that we are able to overcome and conquer.
And so, as I sit here, calm (for there is no reason for me to be angry) I am logical. But what of tomorrow, when I drive to school and someone steals my space? How will I react then? I so desperately want to be the person who "is wise [and] keeps himself under control." I crave it, but I can't accomplish it on my own. But, the joyous thing is that, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)." That doesn't mean it will be perfect the first try, or even the fiftieth, but it means that I have the strength to push on, that the love to support me when I do inevitably fly into that rage. I can do this. I can overcome venting my anger. Overcoming the fool part might take a little longer, but I am on the road. So tonight, as I stare at the verse, as I am convicted, I will decide to work on this problem, because no one likes a fool, and because I want to pursue a life that will continuously bring me closer to God, and a life that will enrich the lives of others, will bring love to others. Conviction...it's never enjoyable and it can be a long and painful process...but it really is good for the soul.
--Proverbs 29:11
Sometimes I think that the book of Proverbs should be renamed "The Book of Convictions." Every time I think I have a good handle on things, I flip through Proverbs, and something pops out at me. Proverbs is filled with so many beautiful verses; I could go on and on about those, because they are simply amazing, but when I find one that convicts me, I tend to cringe and forge on instead of really facing the thing that I am inwardly embarrassed about. It's like subconsciously I am going, "oookay...if I ignore this, God won't see it. And if I am in denial and if God doesn't see it, than He's not going to ask me to change it." Flawed logic? Oh yes. It's very much a child-like response to things, and evidence that I'm not yet as spiritually mature as I'd like to think I am. I am no better than an infant who thinks that out of sight means the disappearance of an object, an issue, a person. Out of sight, out of mind.
Funny though, how God doesn't work that way.
And so, at one in the morning I stare at this verse--one of many, I am sure--that convicts me, stares me in the face and says, "Try to get out of this one."
"A fool gives vent to his anger..." I've just been called a fool. I don't think anyone really enjoys that title. I know I don't. It bristles a lot, actually. "I'm not a fool," I think, "I am perfectly capable of being wise." But, according to this verse, I am a fool. I get frustrated very easily sometimes, over the stupidest things. You don't even want to be in the car with me on a stressful Tuesday/Thursday morning at Citrus in the parking lot at the beginning of the semester. I become a regular demon, hair wild, white knuckle grip on the steering wheel, yelling loudly at the car that dared steal the spot I had been waiting for for over half an hour. And that, my friends, is not Christ-like behavior. And part of me knows it, and cringes for it, but the much more emotionally volatile (and much louder and pushy) voice says, "You're justified in this! How dare that idiot take your space! Blinker goes first! He didn't even have his blinker on! I can't believe it! I wish I could get away with hitting him!" Oh yes, it is irrational, and it seems to take off without any effort at all from the rational, logical part of my brain.
So, it follows that I am a fool, because I vent my anger, I do not keep myself under control. But there is more to this than just keeping a pretty, nice face to the world. Stating the obvious (again), we know that anger can be very irrational. When I rant and rave, and throw my hands around in a way that is complete evidence of my Italian heritage, I am not thinking logically. I am not dealing with the actual problem at hand. I'm only working myself up into a higher state of rage and absolutely nothing is getting accomplished. Not only does it prevent me from thinking logically, but it hinders relationships as well. You can't build community when your ears are steaming with the proverbial cartoon anger. It just can't happen. And you are definitely not in a state to love when your anger is peaked and your temper is short. But keep yourself under control, and you are in a much better position in life. You can love, you can handle the situation diplomatically, you will forge on ahead in success. Logical, common sense things.
So if I know this, than why is it so hard for me to do?
We renounce a sinful nature, we know that our heart and soul are living for a greater purpose, but that still doesn't mean the rest of our body is no longer worldly. It's why you can know what is right but still be pulled in the other direction, enticed. I can't find it right now but I know there is a verse that talks about that in the New Testament. And if we rely on the rest of our "flesh" to get us out of the rut we already are in, than nothing will be accomplished. We can do nothing through our own power; it is only through the Spirit that we are able to overcome and conquer.
And so, as I sit here, calm (for there is no reason for me to be angry) I am logical. But what of tomorrow, when I drive to school and someone steals my space? How will I react then? I so desperately want to be the person who "is wise [and] keeps himself under control." I crave it, but I can't accomplish it on my own. But, the joyous thing is that, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)." That doesn't mean it will be perfect the first try, or even the fiftieth, but it means that I have the strength to push on, that the love to support me when I do inevitably fly into that rage. I can do this. I can overcome venting my anger. Overcoming the fool part might take a little longer, but I am on the road. So tonight, as I stare at the verse, as I am convicted, I will decide to work on this problem, because no one likes a fool, and because I want to pursue a life that will continuously bring me closer to God, and a life that will enrich the lives of others, will bring love to others. Conviction...it's never enjoyable and it can be a long and painful process...but it really is good for the soul.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Credit
It is midnight and I have just finished my bullet points for our group project. The topic: Credit. How to Build, Maintain and Repair Credit, with emphasis on the college student and FICO. There's so much to research about it, it seems impossible at first. And then, once you get the hang of it, it seems simple. Deceptively simple. And as I research, I find that it can take 7-15 years to erase bad credit off of your report. Fifteen years! That's an eternity where your finances are concerned. How many opportunities will you miss out in fifteen years, how many times will you be unable to do something because you have bad credit? You won't be able to buy that house. You won't be able to get a loan, and you may not even be able to get a job. That's pretty intense, if you ask me.
Then it got me to thinking about God. Our lives on credit where the heavenly kingdom is concerned, so to speak. I remember being little, and even though my head knew that this wasn't how God worked, the rest of me was convinced that every sin I did was part of a huge long list of things I did wrong-- bad credit-- and that there was nothing that could really get me out of that mess. Oh sure, I had Jesus, but how could even he do anything to make a dent in that huge long "naughty" list that put even Santa Clause's to shame? I had bad credit. Truthfully, I still do. If you want to keep track of my sins and apply them to my credit record, I don't think there's enough time in hundreds of years to return my credit score to something even close to acceptable. And that is the simple truth of it: I will never be able to fix my credit score on my own.
Pretty depressing thought, isn't it? My credit is in the tank, and there is nothing I can do about it. I will never be able to enter the heavenly kingdom, because not only is it something you can't charge to your account, but my credit prevents me from even considering such an outrageous deal.
But it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, it no longer is that way because my credit score no longer matters. I no longer have to cringe at the list of offenses because I am no longer living on a credit system. I have ditched that. I am now part of the grace system. The second I was willing to trust Jesus with everything I was, everything I am, and everything I will be, the second I committed my life to following Him, my bad credit ceased to matter. In His eyes (the only eyes that matter) it was wiped clean. It was perfect. You can't say that about anything else, because according to human standards, it just doesn't make any logical sense. You never hear stories about the IRS saying to someone with thirty years of fraud, "You know what, we can see your heart, we know you're contrite, don't worry about this anymore. It's all going to go away." It just would never happen. But God, in his infinite wisdom and love gave us a way to escape our bad credit, to leave it behind and to once again have fellowship with us, a relationship that could not exist with our bad credit in the way. We were made righteous in His name, through His name. I love the verse in Romans that talks about this:
"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."
--Romans 3:21-26
To the "law," a grace filled relationship doesn't make sense. Black and white. You sin you're out, bad credit, you're done. Come back later when you're "clean." But we have grace through Christ, we are given righteousness and are sanctified in His name.
"There is no difference, for ALL have sinned." According to the latter part of the verse, no one ever stood a chance. We were cursed with bad credit from the beginning. It was only through faith that our bad credit was justified, that we were absolved, vindicated. I think it is important that we pay close attention to the fact that Paul mentions (multiple times) that God is JUST. And, since he is just, he could not simply cancel our debts and stay true to his nature. His very nature is one of justice. So, Jesus took the fall for us, a fall that we would have had to take if He had refused. He didn't have to endure the pain, He didn't have to take all of our sins upon himself and suffer so we could be saved from the ramifications of our bad credit, but he did. I stand by my earlier blog entry: Crazy Love. Truly, it is crazy love.
And now, I am so grateful, I am so blessed that I no longer have to watch my credit score with despair, because it no longer matters. In His eyes, my score is perfect, in His eyes, I am beautiful. I am justified in faith, I am vindicated from the bad credit that would have weighed me down, that ultimately meant my death. So I am going to tear up my credit report and throw it to the wind, because I am loved by a just and powerful God, one who would give his only Son as an atonement for all the things in my past, present and future that would have affected my score. We have all sinned, we cannot escape that fact, but we are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ." How amazing is that? How amazing is our God?
Then it got me to thinking about God. Our lives on credit where the heavenly kingdom is concerned, so to speak. I remember being little, and even though my head knew that this wasn't how God worked, the rest of me was convinced that every sin I did was part of a huge long list of things I did wrong-- bad credit-- and that there was nothing that could really get me out of that mess. Oh sure, I had Jesus, but how could even he do anything to make a dent in that huge long "naughty" list that put even Santa Clause's to shame? I had bad credit. Truthfully, I still do. If you want to keep track of my sins and apply them to my credit record, I don't think there's enough time in hundreds of years to return my credit score to something even close to acceptable. And that is the simple truth of it: I will never be able to fix my credit score on my own.
Pretty depressing thought, isn't it? My credit is in the tank, and there is nothing I can do about it. I will never be able to enter the heavenly kingdom, because not only is it something you can't charge to your account, but my credit prevents me from even considering such an outrageous deal.
But it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, it no longer is that way because my credit score no longer matters. I no longer have to cringe at the list of offenses because I am no longer living on a credit system. I have ditched that. I am now part of the grace system. The second I was willing to trust Jesus with everything I was, everything I am, and everything I will be, the second I committed my life to following Him, my bad credit ceased to matter. In His eyes (the only eyes that matter) it was wiped clean. It was perfect. You can't say that about anything else, because according to human standards, it just doesn't make any logical sense. You never hear stories about the IRS saying to someone with thirty years of fraud, "You know what, we can see your heart, we know you're contrite, don't worry about this anymore. It's all going to go away." It just would never happen. But God, in his infinite wisdom and love gave us a way to escape our bad credit, to leave it behind and to once again have fellowship with us, a relationship that could not exist with our bad credit in the way. We were made righteous in His name, through His name. I love the verse in Romans that talks about this:
"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."
--Romans 3:21-26
To the "law," a grace filled relationship doesn't make sense. Black and white. You sin you're out, bad credit, you're done. Come back later when you're "clean." But we have grace through Christ, we are given righteousness and are sanctified in His name.
"There is no difference, for ALL have sinned." According to the latter part of the verse, no one ever stood a chance. We were cursed with bad credit from the beginning. It was only through faith that our bad credit was justified, that we were absolved, vindicated. I think it is important that we pay close attention to the fact that Paul mentions (multiple times) that God is JUST. And, since he is just, he could not simply cancel our debts and stay true to his nature. His very nature is one of justice. So, Jesus took the fall for us, a fall that we would have had to take if He had refused. He didn't have to endure the pain, He didn't have to take all of our sins upon himself and suffer so we could be saved from the ramifications of our bad credit, but he did. I stand by my earlier blog entry: Crazy Love. Truly, it is crazy love.
And now, I am so grateful, I am so blessed that I no longer have to watch my credit score with despair, because it no longer matters. In His eyes, my score is perfect, in His eyes, I am beautiful. I am justified in faith, I am vindicated from the bad credit that would have weighed me down, that ultimately meant my death. So I am going to tear up my credit report and throw it to the wind, because I am loved by a just and powerful God, one who would give his only Son as an atonement for all the things in my past, present and future that would have affected my score. We have all sinned, we cannot escape that fact, but we are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ." How amazing is that? How amazing is our God?
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Be Bold, For the Lord Our God is With You
Jesus Walks on Water
"Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.' Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves [the five loaves of bread that in the previous chapter had fed the five thousand]; their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went--into villages, towns or countryside--they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed."
--Mark 6:45-56
We take this scene for granted. Truly, we do. We read it, we go, huh, they overreacted. And Peter (see Matt. 14:22-32) should have had more faith anyways. But humor me for a moment. Pause and completely clear your mind. I need you to use your imagination on this one. You are a simple Jewish fisherman. All you have ever known is a small community, you have little education, you follow the Jewish faith, but you are also full of the superstitions that follow your profession, and your culture. You are in a boat, a boat built by hand, a boat not meant to contain twelve men and weather a storm well. And so, when the wind picks up and you begin to feel the boat be tossed, insignificant like a leaf in a flowing stream, you are afraid, you are sick because the boat is tossing your stomach around just as much as the waves are tossing it. You know that one thing only needs to go wrong, and you will all be lost. And then, something you have never seen because appears in the distance and begins to move over the water, the figure of a man, an apparition, his robes blowing in the howling wind, eerie, otherworldly, supernatural. The myths and superstitions of your childhood, of your occupation spring up and your level of terror has reached a new pitch. What are you supposed to think? How are you supposed to feel? All that you have ever known in life has not really prepared you for this, and all you are left with to rely on is superstitions, old wives tales, legends of old.
And then the apparition, the spirit that surely is unnatural, harmful, speaks out to you: Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.
What are you thinking at that moment?
Last night, I was reminded of a song we sang to our campers as they left camp. "Be bold!" We cried, "Be strong! For the Lord our God is with you!" We fear the unknown. As humans, we shy away from anything that we don't know the outcome of. It's why we will order our favorite dish again and again at restaurants, why we are far more likely to re-elect the incumbent in the presidential office. Dealing with something bad that we know has to be better than someone, something we don't know, right? But the truth is, we will always be facing the unknown in life, we will always be walking towards something we don't know the outcome of, and we will always in some way or another be tossed around by the storms of life.
"Take courage!" Jesus says, "It is I. Don't be afraid." It is I...we aren't alone. We aren't facing the unknown alone, with no direction. We are facing the unknown with our God, our Savior by our side, and He is urging us to remember that He is with us. He is challenging us to take courage. Be bold! Be strong! For the Lord our God is with you.
The second thing that stuck out to me in the passage was the small phrase: They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
Now, I don't know about you, but I think I might get a clue if there were five loaves of bread and two fish and miraculously five thousand people were fed. Adequately fed. In Matthew 14:20 it says they were satisfied. Satisfied. Do you even know how much twenty people eat? Logistically planning a party and cooking for twenty people single handedly is a nightmare. So what about five thousand? Five thousand fed? From five loaves and two fish? And this wasn't enough of a sign for the disciples? You kind of just want to go back and look at them and go, "Come on guys, get a clue!" But no, it says that their hearts were hardened. And I think to myself, okay...so what was the purpose of that? What was the purpose of hardening their hearts to something that was so obviously beyond a miracle it was ridiculous? Apparently, the answer lies in the following passage.
Disciples alone while Jesus prays. Storm. Fear. Ghost? Intense fear. What, Jesus, on the lake? Understanding and amazement. A lesson learned.
But what lesson?
Unless... think about a time your "heart has been hardened..." Or, if you want to rephrase it, think about a time something just totally clicked for you, something that you had been struggling to understand forever, and the knowledge of it made you want to smack yourself upside the head. I bet you never forgot that epiphany though. For me, one of my moments was math. I HATED math. I struggled for years. I cried, I was in anguish over it, I hated myself for how dumb I was when it came to the much loathed subject. I tried and tried and had tutoring and nothing worked. And then, one day, BAM, I understood it. And I couldn't believe how easy it was. I was seriously blessed with an amazing teacher who explained it in a way that for some reason, made more sense than all the years of pain and tutoring that I had had. But after that, I was just blown away by the understanding that was granted to me, and I had (and still do have) so much sympathy and empathy for those who still struggle with math, who don't quite get it yet. And that, I think is a definite purpose of having a hardened heart for awhile. When you get it, man, you really GET it. And then you are equipped with understanding from both sides, your eyes are not only opened to the sudden epiphany, but you look at it from a standpoint of "hardness." If I had understood math from day one of my education (like most math teachers), I wouldn't have sympathy, or empathy, or the patience to help tutor when needed. That's actually why a lot of math teachers are so impatient and unsympathetic. They just don't get why you don't understand the simple concept. It's why having a teacher who has actually struggled with the subject in the past is actually better than one who has always understood it. "Getting it" can be a really long road, and one filled with mistakes, with the hardening of your heart, with disbelief. But whew, when you get it, it's going to be a lesson that you never forget. And I'm not saying that you should purposefully harden your heart either, because we should always seek out his will and His desires, we should always crave and seek to know God, but there are times when, seemingly beyond our control, it is going to happen. And to a certain extent, I do believe that God allows our hearts to harden so that He can show us just how awesome and mighty He is, and so He hammer home a point to us that He has been trying to communicate for ages. It's usually something we'll never forget.
But, to summarize...
Be bold. Take courage and strength in the Lord, for we don't have to face the unknown alone. We have faith in Christ, faith that we don't have to walk this lonely path alone, for He is with us, and He is telling us to take courage, take heart, for He is with us and we no longer have to fear. How awesome is that?
Our hearts may be hardened, and that is unfortunate, but God will use that hardening of our hearts to teach us things we were blind to before. There are powerful lessons, there are powerful words that He has in store for us. And think about the impact that awaits us in them. Wow.
That is all for tonight. I think I strayed from the topic I originally wanted to talk about/thought about, but all is well.
BE BOLD! BE STRONG! FOR THE LORD OUR GOD IS WITH YOU.
"Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.' Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves [the five loaves of bread that in the previous chapter had fed the five thousand]; their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went--into villages, towns or countryside--they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed."
--Mark 6:45-56
We take this scene for granted. Truly, we do. We read it, we go, huh, they overreacted. And Peter (see Matt. 14:22-32) should have had more faith anyways. But humor me for a moment. Pause and completely clear your mind. I need you to use your imagination on this one. You are a simple Jewish fisherman. All you have ever known is a small community, you have little education, you follow the Jewish faith, but you are also full of the superstitions that follow your profession, and your culture. You are in a boat, a boat built by hand, a boat not meant to contain twelve men and weather a storm well. And so, when the wind picks up and you begin to feel the boat be tossed, insignificant like a leaf in a flowing stream, you are afraid, you are sick because the boat is tossing your stomach around just as much as the waves are tossing it. You know that one thing only needs to go wrong, and you will all be lost. And then, something you have never seen because appears in the distance and begins to move over the water, the figure of a man, an apparition, his robes blowing in the howling wind, eerie, otherworldly, supernatural. The myths and superstitions of your childhood, of your occupation spring up and your level of terror has reached a new pitch. What are you supposed to think? How are you supposed to feel? All that you have ever known in life has not really prepared you for this, and all you are left with to rely on is superstitions, old wives tales, legends of old.
And then the apparition, the spirit that surely is unnatural, harmful, speaks out to you: Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.
What are you thinking at that moment?
Last night, I was reminded of a song we sang to our campers as they left camp. "Be bold!" We cried, "Be strong! For the Lord our God is with you!" We fear the unknown. As humans, we shy away from anything that we don't know the outcome of. It's why we will order our favorite dish again and again at restaurants, why we are far more likely to re-elect the incumbent in the presidential office. Dealing with something bad that we know has to be better than someone, something we don't know, right? But the truth is, we will always be facing the unknown in life, we will always be walking towards something we don't know the outcome of, and we will always in some way or another be tossed around by the storms of life.
"Take courage!" Jesus says, "It is I. Don't be afraid." It is I...we aren't alone. We aren't facing the unknown alone, with no direction. We are facing the unknown with our God, our Savior by our side, and He is urging us to remember that He is with us. He is challenging us to take courage. Be bold! Be strong! For the Lord our God is with you.
The second thing that stuck out to me in the passage was the small phrase: They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
Now, I don't know about you, but I think I might get a clue if there were five loaves of bread and two fish and miraculously five thousand people were fed. Adequately fed. In Matthew 14:20 it says they were satisfied. Satisfied. Do you even know how much twenty people eat? Logistically planning a party and cooking for twenty people single handedly is a nightmare. So what about five thousand? Five thousand fed? From five loaves and two fish? And this wasn't enough of a sign for the disciples? You kind of just want to go back and look at them and go, "Come on guys, get a clue!" But no, it says that their hearts were hardened. And I think to myself, okay...so what was the purpose of that? What was the purpose of hardening their hearts to something that was so obviously beyond a miracle it was ridiculous? Apparently, the answer lies in the following passage.
Disciples alone while Jesus prays. Storm. Fear. Ghost? Intense fear. What, Jesus, on the lake? Understanding and amazement. A lesson learned.
But what lesson?
Unless... think about a time your "heart has been hardened..." Or, if you want to rephrase it, think about a time something just totally clicked for you, something that you had been struggling to understand forever, and the knowledge of it made you want to smack yourself upside the head. I bet you never forgot that epiphany though. For me, one of my moments was math. I HATED math. I struggled for years. I cried, I was in anguish over it, I hated myself for how dumb I was when it came to the much loathed subject. I tried and tried and had tutoring and nothing worked. And then, one day, BAM, I understood it. And I couldn't believe how easy it was. I was seriously blessed with an amazing teacher who explained it in a way that for some reason, made more sense than all the years of pain and tutoring that I had had. But after that, I was just blown away by the understanding that was granted to me, and I had (and still do have) so much sympathy and empathy for those who still struggle with math, who don't quite get it yet. And that, I think is a definite purpose of having a hardened heart for awhile. When you get it, man, you really GET it. And then you are equipped with understanding from both sides, your eyes are not only opened to the sudden epiphany, but you look at it from a standpoint of "hardness." If I had understood math from day one of my education (like most math teachers), I wouldn't have sympathy, or empathy, or the patience to help tutor when needed. That's actually why a lot of math teachers are so impatient and unsympathetic. They just don't get why you don't understand the simple concept. It's why having a teacher who has actually struggled with the subject in the past is actually better than one who has always understood it. "Getting it" can be a really long road, and one filled with mistakes, with the hardening of your heart, with disbelief. But whew, when you get it, it's going to be a lesson that you never forget. And I'm not saying that you should purposefully harden your heart either, because we should always seek out his will and His desires, we should always crave and seek to know God, but there are times when, seemingly beyond our control, it is going to happen. And to a certain extent, I do believe that God allows our hearts to harden so that He can show us just how awesome and mighty He is, and so He hammer home a point to us that He has been trying to communicate for ages. It's usually something we'll never forget.
But, to summarize...
Be bold. Take courage and strength in the Lord, for we don't have to face the unknown alone. We have faith in Christ, faith that we don't have to walk this lonely path alone, for He is with us, and He is telling us to take courage, take heart, for He is with us and we no longer have to fear. How awesome is that?
Our hearts may be hardened, and that is unfortunate, but God will use that hardening of our hearts to teach us things we were blind to before. There are powerful lessons, there are powerful words that He has in store for us. And think about the impact that awaits us in them. Wow.
That is all for tonight. I think I strayed from the topic I originally wanted to talk about/thought about, but all is well.
BE BOLD! BE STRONG! FOR THE LORD OUR GOD IS WITH YOU.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fellowship
Today...I want to talk about Fellowship instead of doing my usual devo. I was at Through the Roof (my Bible study) tonight when it just hit me of what a gift our fellowship with each other truly is. There is something freeing being called out on something, more so when that something is positive, but also when you are held accountable as well. There is something so beautiful about being encouraged, affirmed, and encouraging and affirming others. As humans, we are highly sociable creatures. And so, it would follow that as Christians we should maintain a highly sociable relationship with each other as well. The other day I read somewhere (or heard, I can't remember which) the debate that being religious "hermit" actually breaks down your relationship with God, and prevents full maturity. And I agree with that statement. Oh, sure, if I was marooned in a self sustaining cave all by myself I'm sure my relationship with God with grow tremendously (or I would go crazy, one of those), but I also know that the fullness of Christianity comes into being when we have fellowship. We need a relationship with others so that we can live out the meaning of having the "Christian life."
Right now I'm talking about fellowship with other Christians, those who will be able to stretch you, to make you grow, to push you. (Fellowship with non-Christians is another topic that I can touch on later). I know a lot of Christians who don't go to church because they don't like it, or have had bad experiences with members in the past. "I read my Bible at home sometimes. I'm pretty spiritual. I don't need church. All the people I go to church with are hypocritical anyways." This saddens me for three reasons. One, they are missing out on incredible opportunities to meet others with common goals who can mentor them, help them grow, hold them accountable and build deep trusting relationships with. Two, church has a reason, and it's not just to hear the pastor speak for forty-five minutes, sing a little, eat a little, and then go home. If that is how you view church, then you are missing so much. Church is about fellowship, it is about growing in your faith alone, and with each other. It's also about keeping you on track, helping you see the goal to the prize. Over the years I've seen a lot of Christians who refuse to go to church get misled. They either quickly fall away from God, and from His desires, or they begin to twist meanings of passages in the Bible. Oh, yes, you should read your Bible, you should meditate on the word, but if you start to get off track, fellowship with other members reminds you what you should be setting your eyes on. Shying away from church altogether because of a painful experience is detrimental to your own relationship with God.
Three: I am so pained by the fact that as a church, as a fellowship and as a community, we are giving the world a face of hypocrisy. Has it really come down to people shying away from the church because they know they should be experiencing one thing, but instead are met with cliques, backstabbing and the complete opposite of everything you would call love and fellowship? We, the church, exist to show community to the world. Church was never meant to be painful, it was meant to be a haven away from the pain of the world, a congregation of believers with the same goal, the same beliefs. We are supposed to find fellowship with one another, to build each other up. That's the beauty of church. Not to be preached at. Not to sing. Not to eat a little wafer and drink a little juice. Those are all important components of church, each very important in their own way (I'm not trying to diminish a pastor's teaching, worship or communion in any way), but what it boils down to is fellowship, companionship, community. Those are the things which make "church" worthwhile. What are we doing to be hypocritical and how do we fix it? How do we show the world that there is nothing better than to enter into a place where you won't be judged, where you will be loved, truly loved for who you are, a place where you will be encouraged, affirmed, and yes, held accountable. As a church, we are meant to be one, "in unity," as "shinning stars." So, are we showing that to the world? Or are we presenting a very different and much darker picture? Fellowship with each other, community with each other, is one of God's greatest gifts to us, I think. He gives Himself to us, fully, unequivocally, completely, so that we will never be without a source of strength, so that we can rest in His grace, but He also has provided a community for us to rely on, to physically build us up, challenge us. We will grow in our own faith when we have a good base of fellowship with each other. It is a beautiful thing, and it is one of the ways that Christ shows Himself to us.
So tonight, I am thinking of fellowship, of community, and I am overjoyed at how blessed I am. Fellowship with one another is so incredible, and I am so glad that God created us as social creatures who desperately need contact with one another, because I think that being able to make it completely on your own, to be completely self-sufficient physically, emotionally and mentally, would be a very lonely life indeed.
"Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; on God and Father of all, who is over all and through all in all."
--Ephesians 4:2-6
"You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 'In your anger, do not sin.' Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
--Ephesians 4:20-5:2
Right now I'm talking about fellowship with other Christians, those who will be able to stretch you, to make you grow, to push you. (Fellowship with non-Christians is another topic that I can touch on later). I know a lot of Christians who don't go to church because they don't like it, or have had bad experiences with members in the past. "I read my Bible at home sometimes. I'm pretty spiritual. I don't need church. All the people I go to church with are hypocritical anyways." This saddens me for three reasons. One, they are missing out on incredible opportunities to meet others with common goals who can mentor them, help them grow, hold them accountable and build deep trusting relationships with. Two, church has a reason, and it's not just to hear the pastor speak for forty-five minutes, sing a little, eat a little, and then go home. If that is how you view church, then you are missing so much. Church is about fellowship, it is about growing in your faith alone, and with each other. It's also about keeping you on track, helping you see the goal to the prize. Over the years I've seen a lot of Christians who refuse to go to church get misled. They either quickly fall away from God, and from His desires, or they begin to twist meanings of passages in the Bible. Oh, yes, you should read your Bible, you should meditate on the word, but if you start to get off track, fellowship with other members reminds you what you should be setting your eyes on. Shying away from church altogether because of a painful experience is detrimental to your own relationship with God.
Three: I am so pained by the fact that as a church, as a fellowship and as a community, we are giving the world a face of hypocrisy. Has it really come down to people shying away from the church because they know they should be experiencing one thing, but instead are met with cliques, backstabbing and the complete opposite of everything you would call love and fellowship? We, the church, exist to show community to the world. Church was never meant to be painful, it was meant to be a haven away from the pain of the world, a congregation of believers with the same goal, the same beliefs. We are supposed to find fellowship with one another, to build each other up. That's the beauty of church. Not to be preached at. Not to sing. Not to eat a little wafer and drink a little juice. Those are all important components of church, each very important in their own way (I'm not trying to diminish a pastor's teaching, worship or communion in any way), but what it boils down to is fellowship, companionship, community. Those are the things which make "church" worthwhile. What are we doing to be hypocritical and how do we fix it? How do we show the world that there is nothing better than to enter into a place where you won't be judged, where you will be loved, truly loved for who you are, a place where you will be encouraged, affirmed, and yes, held accountable. As a church, we are meant to be one, "in unity," as "shinning stars." So, are we showing that to the world? Or are we presenting a very different and much darker picture? Fellowship with each other, community with each other, is one of God's greatest gifts to us, I think. He gives Himself to us, fully, unequivocally, completely, so that we will never be without a source of strength, so that we can rest in His grace, but He also has provided a community for us to rely on, to physically build us up, challenge us. We will grow in our own faith when we have a good base of fellowship with each other. It is a beautiful thing, and it is one of the ways that Christ shows Himself to us.
So tonight, I am thinking of fellowship, of community, and I am overjoyed at how blessed I am. Fellowship with one another is so incredible, and I am so glad that God created us as social creatures who desperately need contact with one another, because I think that being able to make it completely on your own, to be completely self-sufficient physically, emotionally and mentally, would be a very lonely life indeed.
"Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; on God and Father of all, who is over all and through all in all."
--Ephesians 4:2-6
"You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 'In your anger, do not sin.' Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
--Ephesians 4:20-5:2
Friday, March 19, 2010
Prayers
"Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish.
Look upon my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.
See how my enemies have increased
and how fiercely they hate me!
Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you."
I think that tonight will be much shorter than usual. I didn't realize it had gotten so late.
I think we've all had that moment of "oh crap, nothing is going to fix this." It's one of the worst feelings, when you are just certain that there is no other place for you to go than to sink further into a pit of your own making. And then not only have you sunk into something that single-handedly you could not escape, but the snowball effect proceeds, and before you know it, you are drowning in the proverbial sea of misery, of problems. David addresses this in the Psalm."The troubles of my heart have multiplied, free me from anguish. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away my sins." Essentially, this last portion of the psalm is a plea, a prayer to the Lord. But even in the plea, in the mention of loneliness, anguish and affliction, you can see the trust, the love and the hope that is evident and available. Though we are struck by all sides with powerful forces, we take our refuge in the Lord. Though the storm comes, we will trust Him in this. We are protected by His very loving nature. It isn't a promise that "nothing bad will ever happen to us," because that's just the way life is world that is filled with sin, a sin that is the direct cause of the separation from God. The passage probes much deeper than that. We have a gracious God, one who we will always be able to take refuge in from the storm, "even when our heart is torn." Especially when they are torn. Especially when they break. When we are lonely and afflicted, where will we turn? Where do you turn?
for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish.
Look upon my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.
See how my enemies have increased
and how fiercely they hate me!
Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you."
I think that tonight will be much shorter than usual. I didn't realize it had gotten so late.
I think we've all had that moment of "oh crap, nothing is going to fix this." It's one of the worst feelings, when you are just certain that there is no other place for you to go than to sink further into a pit of your own making. And then not only have you sunk into something that single-handedly you could not escape, but the snowball effect proceeds, and before you know it, you are drowning in the proverbial sea of misery, of problems. David addresses this in the Psalm."The troubles of my heart have multiplied, free me from anguish. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away my sins." Essentially, this last portion of the psalm is a plea, a prayer to the Lord. But even in the plea, in the mention of loneliness, anguish and affliction, you can see the trust, the love and the hope that is evident and available. Though we are struck by all sides with powerful forces, we take our refuge in the Lord. Though the storm comes, we will trust Him in this. We are protected by His very loving nature. It isn't a promise that "nothing bad will ever happen to us," because that's just the way life is world that is filled with sin, a sin that is the direct cause of the separation from God. The passage probes much deeper than that. We have a gracious God, one who we will always be able to take refuge in from the storm, "even when our heart is torn." Especially when they are torn. Especially when they break. When we are lonely and afflicted, where will we turn? Where do you turn?
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Crazy Love
"Remember O Lord, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O Lord.
Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful
for hose who keep the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, O Lord,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
The Lord confides in those who fear him,
he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are ever on the Lord,
for he will release my feet from the snare."
--Psalm 25:6-15
We've all done something stupid in our youth. I'm sure you remember an incident quite clearly when you made a mistake, perhaps knowingly, and the consequences of that action. There's one memory that I can't seem to forget, and I think it's because I was so guilty and ashamed of it. When I was about ten years old, my brother and I were messing around with his skateboard that my mom told us never to play with in the courtyard, and I ended up running it into one of her really expensive planters and completely breaking it. Then, we tried to lie and say we had no idea how it happened, but maybe the dog was trying to dig again? She knew. Of course she knew who it really was. Really, it couldn't have been any more obvious. But surprisingly, we didn't get into nearly as much trouble as we thought we were going to get. There was yelling involved, I'm pretty sure I remember that, but it was more of a sadness than anger. So when this verse pleads with God to, "remember not the sins of my youth," it really strikes me. There are older, more mature examples of course, of what happens when we rebel, but I won't go into those. I'm sure they're clear enough in your mind right now anyways. The psalmist is pleading with the Lord to disregard the sins of youth, but to remember him with love, with his mercy, the great love and mercy that are current, that carry on, that are not left behind in the history books.
The psalmist (David) states many facts about God in this passage as well. He states the fact that "God is good," something I think we need to consciously say out loud more often. He is "good and upright," his "ways are loving and faithful," and it is evident in this passage that he is not only the great Author, the great Creator of life, but He is also the ultimate Instructor. He guides us, He shows us what a life of humility looks like. "Forgive us our iniquity, though it is great." Truthfully, He doesn't even have to do that. There is no reason why He should have to forgive us anything. And yet, He does. And not only does He give us grace on that account, but he furthers it by letting us prosper. Why on earth should He do that? It's completely illogical, really. We have one crazy God of love. Or crazy love, maybe. Either way, it is amazing beyond description. When we fear the Lord, when we view Him with awe, with respect, when we respond to that crazy love with our own, we prosper, we are released from the things which hinder and entangle us, we are able to know His desires, His heart. Our eyes are on Him, we are seeking Him, we are seeking His crazy love. We are released from the entrapment of the world, and as I look around, view the hurt, feel the depth of pain around me, I can't be more grateful that I am released from living a life without hope, without unconditional love. Crazy love. Crazy, beautiful, wonderful love.
for they are from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O Lord.
Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful
for hose who keep the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, O Lord,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
The Lord confides in those who fear him,
he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are ever on the Lord,
for he will release my feet from the snare."
--Psalm 25:6-15
We've all done something stupid in our youth. I'm sure you remember an incident quite clearly when you made a mistake, perhaps knowingly, and the consequences of that action. There's one memory that I can't seem to forget, and I think it's because I was so guilty and ashamed of it. When I was about ten years old, my brother and I were messing around with his skateboard that my mom told us never to play with in the courtyard, and I ended up running it into one of her really expensive planters and completely breaking it. Then, we tried to lie and say we had no idea how it happened, but maybe the dog was trying to dig again? She knew. Of course she knew who it really was. Really, it couldn't have been any more obvious. But surprisingly, we didn't get into nearly as much trouble as we thought we were going to get. There was yelling involved, I'm pretty sure I remember that, but it was more of a sadness than anger. So when this verse pleads with God to, "remember not the sins of my youth," it really strikes me. There are older, more mature examples of course, of what happens when we rebel, but I won't go into those. I'm sure they're clear enough in your mind right now anyways. The psalmist is pleading with the Lord to disregard the sins of youth, but to remember him with love, with his mercy, the great love and mercy that are current, that carry on, that are not left behind in the history books.
The psalmist (David) states many facts about God in this passage as well. He states the fact that "God is good," something I think we need to consciously say out loud more often. He is "good and upright," his "ways are loving and faithful," and it is evident in this passage that he is not only the great Author, the great Creator of life, but He is also the ultimate Instructor. He guides us, He shows us what a life of humility looks like. "Forgive us our iniquity, though it is great." Truthfully, He doesn't even have to do that. There is no reason why He should have to forgive us anything. And yet, He does. And not only does He give us grace on that account, but he furthers it by letting us prosper. Why on earth should He do that? It's completely illogical, really. We have one crazy God of love. Or crazy love, maybe. Either way, it is amazing beyond description. When we fear the Lord, when we view Him with awe, with respect, when we respond to that crazy love with our own, we prosper, we are released from the things which hinder and entangle us, we are able to know His desires, His heart. Our eyes are on Him, we are seeking Him, we are seeking His crazy love. We are released from the entrapment of the world, and as I look around, view the hurt, feel the depth of pain around me, I can't be more grateful that I am released from living a life without hope, without unconditional love. Crazy love. Crazy, beautiful, wonderful love.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Seeking
Breaking down Psalm 25 every two-three stanzas for the next few days. Here's the beginning.
"To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.
Show me your ways, O Lord,
teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior.
and my hope is in you all day long."
Psalm 25:1-5
Everyone is seeking something. Whether they realize it or not, they are seeking for a very specific thing. Some call it happiness. Others call it wealth. Some know that "happiness" and "wealth" are two very relative things, and that simply seeking one will only lead to a life of emptiness. I think it would be true to say that trust is an extremely difficult concept for most of us to entertain. Or maybe I should clarify by saying, FULL trust. COMPLETE and TOTAL trust. Yes? Who do you truly fully trust? Don't lie to yourself, be honest. I'm asking who you trust with your life, who you trust with your heart, your fears, your vulnerabilities, your weaknesses, your strengths. Ah, of course I trust them, you say of a specific person, I would trust them with my life. But do you trust them with your heart? Do you trust them with everything you are, down to the very core, or are there things you keep hidden even from your most trusted, most valued friend and confidant? Something tells me nine out of ten times when you really think about it, you aren't trusting that one person as much as you think you are. And we are asked to give up everything we are to the Lord, we are told to give our very soul into His hands. We balk at giving up a little trust to someone we know and love in the physical person. Trusting in the Lord is really an abstract concept. But as we read the very first line, we see that it isn't even a demand for us to trust, it is a very personal plea from the psalmist to God, telling Him that everything he has is the Lord's. There is a plea for rescue "from shame." For me, I not only see the word "shame" but it is also translated into a multiple depth of concepts. Concepts of being oppressed, persecuted, struck down, destroyed. Paul talks about those concepts much later on, but here they take on an almost raw, emotional quality. And in the same breath, as the psalmist pleads for protection, he speaks of the promise, the hope that exists in the Lord. It's a continuous flow...trust in the Lord, lift up your soul, for you know that when you place your trust and hope in the Lord, we cannot be "put to shame."
The second part is beseeching the Lord to show us His ways, to place our hearts upon His desires. I think that the last few lines (4-5) are so beautiful. "You are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Simply gorgeous. There is so much hope in that statement, and the existence of love is so evident.
I am seeking something, but it isn't monetary wealth (although of course that's always nice), it isn't straight happiness (although that will be a result of what I am seeking), and it isn't outsourced love (again, relationships are wonderful and necessary, but not the main point). I am seeking His face. I am seeking someone to trust infinitesimally with everything I am, have been, and will become. I am seeking a deep connection based on trust, a relationship with the amazing God, the Author of love, of creation. I am seeking His path, for I know my own is so abysmally flawed, full of pot-holes and thorns and horrible dangers. I want to see His ways, I want to see the world as He sees it. I want to wholeheartedly seek Him all day long. We are all seeking something. I don't want to be one of the millions who seek it in the wrong places. I want to be able to love without abandon, live life to the fullest, be pushed beyond my narrow scope of vision to something that is easily in the broad future that He holds in His hands. We are all seeking something. So where do we go to find it?
"To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.
Show me your ways, O Lord,
teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior.
and my hope is in you all day long."
Psalm 25:1-5
Everyone is seeking something. Whether they realize it or not, they are seeking for a very specific thing. Some call it happiness. Others call it wealth. Some know that "happiness" and "wealth" are two very relative things, and that simply seeking one will only lead to a life of emptiness. I think it would be true to say that trust is an extremely difficult concept for most of us to entertain. Or maybe I should clarify by saying, FULL trust. COMPLETE and TOTAL trust. Yes? Who do you truly fully trust? Don't lie to yourself, be honest. I'm asking who you trust with your life, who you trust with your heart, your fears, your vulnerabilities, your weaknesses, your strengths. Ah, of course I trust them, you say of a specific person, I would trust them with my life. But do you trust them with your heart? Do you trust them with everything you are, down to the very core, or are there things you keep hidden even from your most trusted, most valued friend and confidant? Something tells me nine out of ten times when you really think about it, you aren't trusting that one person as much as you think you are. And we are asked to give up everything we are to the Lord, we are told to give our very soul into His hands. We balk at giving up a little trust to someone we know and love in the physical person. Trusting in the Lord is really an abstract concept. But as we read the very first line, we see that it isn't even a demand for us to trust, it is a very personal plea from the psalmist to God, telling Him that everything he has is the Lord's. There is a plea for rescue "from shame." For me, I not only see the word "shame" but it is also translated into a multiple depth of concepts. Concepts of being oppressed, persecuted, struck down, destroyed. Paul talks about those concepts much later on, but here they take on an almost raw, emotional quality. And in the same breath, as the psalmist pleads for protection, he speaks of the promise, the hope that exists in the Lord. It's a continuous flow...trust in the Lord, lift up your soul, for you know that when you place your trust and hope in the Lord, we cannot be "put to shame."
The second part is beseeching the Lord to show us His ways, to place our hearts upon His desires. I think that the last few lines (4-5) are so beautiful. "You are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Simply gorgeous. There is so much hope in that statement, and the existence of love is so evident.
I am seeking something, but it isn't monetary wealth (although of course that's always nice), it isn't straight happiness (although that will be a result of what I am seeking), and it isn't outsourced love (again, relationships are wonderful and necessary, but not the main point). I am seeking His face. I am seeking someone to trust infinitesimally with everything I am, have been, and will become. I am seeking a deep connection based on trust, a relationship with the amazing God, the Author of love, of creation. I am seeking His path, for I know my own is so abysmally flawed, full of pot-holes and thorns and horrible dangers. I want to see His ways, I want to see the world as He sees it. I want to wholeheartedly seek Him all day long. We are all seeking something. I don't want to be one of the millions who seek it in the wrong places. I want to be able to love without abandon, live life to the fullest, be pushed beyond my narrow scope of vision to something that is easily in the broad future that He holds in His hands. We are all seeking something. So where do we go to find it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
