Response

People today don't (maybe never did) like to receive pointed personal convictions. When we're told what to do or not to do, our natural (fallen) reaction is defiance. This holds true for the people in the church at large, for people in our church, and for me specifically.

For some of us (myself especially), it goes deeper than that. We like our consciences to be "pricked" - even need them to be in a "good sermon" - but follow up with nothing but intellectual assent and good intentions. Books like Radical, by David Platt are great reading for those like us - until we get to chapter 9, that is. It leaves us with the question, "What are we actually going to do about it?" If we've been intellectually assenting throughout the book, the appropriate response is unfortunately all too clear.

If we believe what we've read, if we believe what God reveals in his Word, we will respond - either by action or inaction. The cycle of revelation and response is all  throughout the scripture. It is the story of God working in the lives of his people. It is how God wants to work in us, in me. But in order for him to be able to work in us, to transform us into Christ-like-ness, we must respond. In action.

So what will our response be? What will my response be?

Who Do I Think I Am?

To be honest, I'm not at all comfortable with the idea that a person who does not trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord ends up in hell, regardless of whether they heard about him or not. But that's what he said. I say I believe in him. Do I really believe him? When he says things that make me uncomfortable?

Maybe the real problem is what leaves me comfortable. I'm pretty comfortable living as if those around me, even those I care for, don't really need to hear or be enlightened and transformed by this Truth called Jesus... like I do. I'm comfortable living as if they don't really need to be guided through life's questions, pitfalls, and quagmires by this Way called Jesus... like I do. I'm comfortable living as if they don't really need to be reborn, restored, and renewed into this Life called Jesus... like I do. Who do I think I am?

Lord, You have blessed me beyond my comprehension: you forgave me, you redeemed me, you healed me, you restored me, you gave me hope of new and eternal life. And I am blessed to be a blessing. Lord, please change my heart to love more like yours, my arms to reach out more like yours, and my feet to follow after yours.

Power

I don't know about you, but I don't want to come to the end of myself. The idea flies in the face of all conventional wisdom, and against every fiber of my self-protecting and loved-one-protecting nature. Yet, as David Platt puts it: "This is how God works. He puts his people in positions where they are desperate for his power, and then he shows his provision in says that display his greatness." He used God's defeat of Jericho through Joshua as a reference, and he didn't even mention the top-notch military training program God used a preparation: circumcision. Yeah, that sounds like great preparation for an attack on the enemy. God's ways are certainly not our ways - his power loves those who hate and dies to live.

Which leads me to question: Do I really want more of God's power in my life?

Or do I just want God to give me more power?

Grandma Psalm

A phone call can change everything...

Tears jump to my eyes as I hear a dear one share news that my last living grandmother suffered a major stroke this morning during her Bible Study group.

I don't even know why I'm upset; I've never lived with her, never shared more than occasional visits with her. My parents moved away before I was born and my life is separate from hers. And Yet...

She is part of me. She is one of the reasons I am here at all.
She was faithful to her Father God when most of her loved ones turned away. She persevered.
She pressed on, passed on her faith. Her daughter continued on that journey with her. And Then...

Her daughter birthed a daughter, far away from the house she grew up in, far away from the heat and the familiarity of Home...and made a New Home with the same center: Jesus.

I know the gift of this Faith Legacy. I know how important it is to watch others work out their salvation; it builds a strong foundation unawares until it's rocked by unexpected storms and holds fast.

I know this Life is fleeting. I know she is drawing nearer to her Father each day. And it still hits hard...

I know she will soon be Free, but waves of shock and sadness wash over because she was not made to go through this Death. She was made to soar - and she will soon enough.

Again, I see the threads of God's handiwork. Before I knew this news, I read Psalm 90 this morning.

 ¹ Lord, you have been our dwelling place
   throughout all generations.
² Before the mountains were born
   or you brought forth the whole world,
   from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

 ³ You turn people back to dust,
   saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
⁴ A thousand years in your sight
   are like a day that has just gone by,
   or like a watch in the night.
⁵ Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
   they are like the new grass of the morning:
⁶ In the morning it springs up new,
   but by evening it is dry and withered. ...

⁹ All our days pass away under your wrath;
   we finish our years with a moan.
¹⁰ Our days may come to seventy years,
   or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
   for they quickly pass, and we fly away. ...

¹² Teach us to number our days,
   that we may gain a heart of wisdom. ...

¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
   that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. ...

I haven't taken the time to say, Thank You, Grandma; but, I am so grateful for You.

Untether her, Lord, from bondage to a broken, deteriorating body. Fly away, Beloved Dorothy.
I look toward the day when I will sing praises to Our Lord with you.

Bryce's Faith Story

I'm finally ready to share the story of my faith as it has wound through my life. I'm going to warn you all up front: it's not pretty. If you don't want to hear me talk about ugliness that most everyone experiences in life, and my struggles with it, then you may not want to click through to the story. I assure you that I'm not sharing anything here that I'm unwilling to discuss with anyone in person.

So without further ado, my story:

First Response

A group I'm in is struggling through a book, Amish Peace, by Suzanne Woods Fisher. Although there are some 'simple wisdom[s] for a complicated world,' my critical-thinking group has tired of its oversimplification.  However, today, starting the section on Forgiveness, I stumbled on some meat.

The first few chapters tell stories of unfortunate and, some, avoidable tragedies: the West Nickel Mines School shooting in October 2006 and various car v. buggy crashes. The Amish response to these tragedies was opening their arms, accepting all of those who were touched by it, not retreating into themselves or their community. How challenging.

My first response to hurt is to withdraw because of the pain, which may hold the one who hurt me hostage – especially if I never explicitly forgive her. Perhaps the Amish community-oriented lifestyle allows them to reach out because they live in a supported/secure environment. They never doubt the existence of a loving God (p. 153). [That's different.]

Talking with a friend yesterday, I reasserted my belief that we must allow the emotions of Grief to flow out – or else they will stay wedged in our hearts for too long, becoming toxic. Anger, frustration, and sadness can plant seeds of Doubt in the heart. Doubt in the existence of a loving God, doubt in His Truth and provision, doubt in our acceptance/adoption/inheritance as His beloved children.

All that I staunchly believe. But, I know that everyone grieves differently. I know that we are not trained in how to grieve. Our society does not want to acknowledge Grief as a part of Life, and so it ignores it as long, and as much, as it can. So, we must learn how to grieve while we are in grief, which extends the process.

“We just have to keep going on with life” (p. 154). True. Reality will not change, no matter how much we wish it would. Moving on is necessary. But I think moving on in a healthy way requires letting go of those emotions, which means working through them.

The Expectations I put on life are some of the toughest things to let go. I want to believe that I won't experience tragedy. [The reality is that I will.] I want to believe that my needs will be met. [The reality is that I am already Needy.] I want to believe that life will be smooth-sailing. [The reality is that rough seas are ahead.] I must hold to God as my Rock in the calm and in the storm. The whole Testament pounds the reality of His Faithful Pursuit into my heart. Every time Israel failed, God took them back. Every time I fail, He is waiting. Taking all my emotions to my Father helps me struggle through what I feel, what I don't understand, what I don't like.

Do I hold onto the belief that out of tragedy will come blessing? (p. 157).

[Do I Trust Him that much?]

Food from the Earth

Perhaps this seems a few months late - in fact I did write this piece in the Spring. However it applies today because I'm preparing my garden beds for my Autumn Cover crop...

and God's promises are valid every day.

Ps. 104: 14 "He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate - bringing forth food from the earth."

Looking at the ground, it doesn't look like much - rocks, brown dirt, worms. It lays there, so passive, so still and calm. It receives the sunshine and the rain, knows the touch of frost and wind. Constantly shifting from Brown to Brown.

But Dirt has a secret life. Seeds are covered with Earth and the miracle of Green appears, neck first (revealing how risky Life is), then unbending its head to shake off the, now unnecessary, seed shell.

A vibrant seedling erupts from what looked like a Barren spot. As if that contrasting Green wasn't miracle enough, this sprout holds the promise of sustenance - it is Edible. When it grows large, it will sustain my body, bringing nutrients from the indigestible Earth into a form my body can use and a taste my tongue can enjoy.

Planting seeds and raising crops is often used as a metaphor for Faith, a lesson to Slow Down - return to humanity's Roots - the miracle of life. But even as a budding farmer (Agronomist, perhaps), this verse reminds me to meditate on Creator God, who established these systems that I take for granted. He is All Sustaining; by His will we live; for His pleasure. He gives Good Gifts to His children (Mt. 7:11) - all of us benefit from His Goodness whether we live by Faith or not, for He desires that none should be lost (2 Peter 3:9). He is So Good.

a lot to learn

Madeline L'Engle is one of my favorite authors. She is challenging and approachable, easy-to-understand and deep. One thing she taught me was that any and all persons can teach me something. I put myself at a disadvantage by prejudging them based on religion, socioeconomic level, lifestyle, political beliefs, sexual preference, characteristics, or life experience.

The faithful of any religion can teach me because they are still created in God's image. I need to remember I can learn from anyone. Each person has unique gifts and experiences that I don't have. Their perspectives of life can teach me deep and universal truths that break down walls/barriers between us. The focus then switches to what we have in common instead of our differences. Then we really start doing the work of the Kingdom.

Although I am most comfortable with people who are similar to myself, it is not in their company where I grow the most. I need to regularly encounter others who think/act/believe differently than I do - to grown and learn from them. If I surround myself only with people like me, I will be in danger of thinking I'm correct all the time because I don't hear any dissension from my opinions.

In Habitat World Magazine, Sept. 2010, Eboo Patel, founder of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core underscores Habitat for Humanity's ability to engage people of many faiths around the positive outcomes of affordable housing for our shared society. "[By partnering together], these interfaith [groups] increase civic participation through service; they build better relations between diverse religious and secular communities; and they address an important social need."

Although it is more challenging, more exhausting, more difficult, I pray for the openness to receive all who cross my path - and to ask God to give me His eyes to see them with.

Thoughts on "Going Back To Our Christian Roots"

There is an unwavering assertion coming from the Christian Right, arguing that the U.S. should "go back to its Christian roots." A YouTube video came by my inbox today that depicts a Christian tour guide enumerating various religious acts performed by early U.S. presidents. I can't debate the historical veracity of the claims in the video, but I think they completely miss the point.

Many of the actions cited by the tour guide in fact do appear to be clear violations of the First Amendment. To pick one example, a president held church services in the Capitol rotunda, using the Marine Corps Band as worship leaders. Just because it's the president's executive order, and not a law passed by Congress, does that make it legal? A president violated the Constitution (admittedly in a way that didn't seem offend anybody at the time), and just because he was Christian, we Christians are supposed to aspire to that "ideal"?

I think not. Like it or not, the U.S. is not, and never was, a Christian nation. Yes, the vast majority of the founding fathers were Christian. I buy that - though they still held some shockingly different beliefs than their Christian Right boosters of today. Yes, Christian morality and ideals are pervasive in our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. I buy that - though they are by no means completely reflected (never forget the need for the 13th amendment, fixing a gross violation of the ideal that "all men are created equal").

But thank God that the founding fathers also saw the need for religious pluralism, even in a day when the competing religions in America were all basically Christian. They had much clearer memories of the many gross acts of violence that Christians had done to each other when the government did establish Christianity as its religion. (Note that the last of those links describes persecution performed against other Christians by those favorite American Christian ancestors of ours, the Puritans.)

So it is that arguments by folks in the Christian Right that our government should return to its glorious Christian roots always smell to me like "historical snobbery" (one of my favorite C.S. Lewis-isms). History has shown Christian after Christian in power committing acts similarly heinous to those committed by those of any other religious leaning. Who do these people in the Religious Right think they are that they're better Christians than those that have gone down that road before?

Does this mean that Christians shouldn't be in government? Certainly not. But it does mean that we'd be foolish to expect Christians in positions of political power (Bush and Obama) to be any more perfect than anyone else. Does this mean that Christians shouldn't vote as their faith convicts them? Certainly not. But I strongly believe that it does mean that Christians should never seek the establishment of their religion in any government in this fallen world.

God's approved governmental structure is clearly theocracy. He demands unwavering devotion from (and lavishes scandalous grace on) those who choose to be his disciples. And yet he doesn't force himself on us. He woos us, by his truth and goodness that is so fundamental to this world around us. He draws us by the shocking goodness of his own sacrificial exposé of the vulgar baseness of our own human religiosity (yes, we need to identify ourselves with the religious establishment of Jesus' time). Shouldn't we worry more about loving God above all else (including our money, our entertainment, our jobs, and "our America") and loving our neighbor (including the ones on the opposite site of the globe)? Those are the roots that Jesus told us to get back to. I've a lot of work to do myself.