,

Jesus is wrecking everything

,

Ozzie Chambers writes, "Have you ever heard the Master say a  hard word?  If you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything." I am reminded today of how destructive and abrasive the words of Jesus should be to our lives.  Most of Jesus' words and commands should be wrecking our lives.  We are to obey a drastic call to be counter-cultural.

We in America are rich young rulers (Luke 18), and we are being called to many things that are going to be very hard for us to obey.  They are difficult because these are not things we are used to and comfortable with.  Many of the pursuits...MOST of the pursuits of our culture are not as Jesus has called us to live.  Jesus intends to wreck our lives...as they are.

Most of the time, I am a rich young ruler, and I walk away sorrowful because I cannot bring myself to fully follow Jesus.  Jesus never comes running after me begging and pleading.  Another day my desire will bring me back to Jesus; he will challenge me to something that will require a sacrifice on my part, and I will be faced with a difficult decision as to whether or not to do it.

Some days I follow Jesus; other days I walk away from Him and His command on my life with my head hung low because, once again, I am unable (unwilling) to fully obey and follow.

Jesus has not quite wrecked my life, but He's always trying.

What Tylenol has to do with compassion

Dr. Paul Brand wrote a book called The Gift of Pain.  He has had exposure to great pain and has learned a great deal about it.  He has seen several different cultures and their response to pain and how that affects those within the culture.  I found his perception of American culture and its response to pain very interesting. “...a society that seeks to avoid pain at all costs.  Patients lived at a greater comfort level than any I had previously treated, BUT THEY SEEMED FAR LESS EQUIPPED TO HANDLE SUFFERING AND FAR MORE TRAUMATIZED BY IT.” (EMPHASIS mine)

We are one of the only cultures in the world, which avoids pain at all cost.  The pain relief industry in America is a more than $63 billion A YEAR industry.  What has been the result of that avoidance?

Because of our exceptional avoidance of pain, we have continually made ourselves more and more unable to handle suffering.

What I have challenged myself with as a Christian is to try and understand what compassionate love is going to look like with this information.

The Latin break down of “compassion” is “com” + “patti”, which ends up meaning “to suffer with”.

As a Christian, I have been called to compassion toward those around me.  I have been called to SUFFER WITH those around me.

Now as an American Christian, this is going to be a greater challenge.  For me to be compassionate I will need to suffer with others; but in order to suffer with others, I will need to give up trying so hard to avoid pain.

It is no wonder being compassionate is so difficult!

--------------------

“I learned that pain sends a signal not only to the patient but to the surrounding community as well.  Just as individual pain sensors announce to other cells in the body, ‘Attend to me! I need help!” so do suffering human beings cry out to the community at large.” – Dr. Paul Brand

Somehow

If I am honest, I seldom feel the presence of God in prayer or elsewhere.  If I am genuine, I often come to prayer to the absence of a sense that God met me tenderly in return.  If I am sincere, I frequently come to  meet with God in a hidden place. Yet here is the crazy part!  My heart is continually drawn to that hidden place.  I constantly desire to meet with God in prayer.  Though I rarely feel the presence of God like I do a hug from my wife or the voice of a friend, my heart...SOMETHING within me yearns for prayer.  Though I cannot point to a particular sensible feeling of God's consistent presence, I know, SOMEHOW, that when I come to God and expose my senses, my thoughts, feelings, and circumstances without any cosmetic, God smiles.

I cannot pinpoint it, but somewhere and somehow I know that my Father loves me.  I realize that God is beyond my senses. He is beyond my mind.  But when my heart yearns for and desires to keep coming back to that hidden and shrouded place, I realize SOMETHING is happening that is so deep and far enough beyond me that my prayers are always being heard whether or not I FEEL Abba's embrace.

It is never enough

What if I was never hungry again; I was always full?  I imagine the joy of a great meal would be lost.  I imagine I would grow lazy and have nothing to desire. Though God is the only one capable of thoroughly fulfilling my deepest hunger, thirst, and desire, i am convinced he never will.  It does not matter how much I pray and ask for that fulfillment, it will never come.  For to fulfill my deepest desire would break down the pursuit.  God will have me pursue him as long as I live on this earth because I will always desire more.  I will always thirst for more.  I always desire to be closer and closer to my Abba.

My Abba would never fulfill the desire that keeps me coming to him.

The greatest temptation

What temptation is Satan's most powerful and prevalent?  I'd say its the same one he tempted Adam and Eve with.  I'd say its the same one he tempted JESUS with.  What was the first temptation he offered Jesus?  "You will be like God."  Satan is continually tempting us to step out of our humanity to be like God. We have been given humanity.  We have bodies, we ache, and we cry real tears.  We labor to live.  We are human beings with the tangibility of humanity to live with for now.  Oh, but Satan is crafty.  His strongest and most prevalent temptation is for us to attempt an escape from these realities.

Each time I try to break through these limitations, I am succumbing to this strong temptation.  Think about the majority of our addictions and "struggles" (in case the word 'addictions' is too strong).  Are they not usually attempts to escape the realities of humanity?  Are they not our pale attempts at escaping or at least avoiding our pain, our frustrations, our...feeling....our HUMANITY?

How do we see ourselves?  Are we concerned with seeing ourselves more highly than we ought?  There are times I take myself far too seriously and find that I am not as superior as I want to be.  I am one step closer to trying to be God; trying to be superior as God is superior instead of being holy as God is holy.

, ,

Lost in Translation: my new column

, ,

This last weekend was the pilot release of a quarterly magazine called The Compass. I was asked to contribue an ongoing column in the magazine about faith and culture. After several brainstorms and edits, the column is entitled Lost in Translation. I am excited to present to you the online version of the pilot issue.

Silence without [loneliness] without silence

It is possible to have silence without loneliness.  On the other hand, it also possible to have loneliness without silence.  We should desire the former of the two; silence without loneliness. The truth is we are afraid of silence.  When our minds and hearts are actually silence, something is revealed.  We are afraid of this revelation. What is revealed in silence may sometimes hurt or frighten, but this it is good and it is necessary.

In our silence, we are only accompanied by ourselves, and many of us can think of no worse company.  Why?  Because, in silence, we are not accompanied by the self we let everyone else know and see.  In the silence, we can only find company with our true self.  We are forced to spend that time with our true and whole self, and that self is without spiritual cosmetic.  This is the reason we so noisily avoid silence.

That silence and the revelation we find in that silence is the only way we will find whole peace (shalom), freedom, and life.  That path and its revelation is the only way I will ever know myself as I am.  Knowing myself as I really am is the only way I offer my honest self to anyone in love and integrity. 

How close am I to matching up the person I AM and the person people see and know?  How much of myself do I even know?  I will only find that person in the silence.

Bob Benson writes, "Pray for silence both in mind and spirit."

We often think we have to make ourselves silent so that we can hear from God.  We are taught to be quiet so you can ask things of God and hear from him, but have we ever been taught to ask for silence?  To pray for silence!

Trust'ish

I wonder how much of my trust in God, the Father  of my soul, is theoretical and verbal.  Has my trust in Abba grown strong enough to get rid of fear? Enough to banish my worry and my doubt?  Do I trust God enough to live absent of discouragement?  Have I trusted Abba enough to live more boldly and more daring? Perhaps I have not trusted Abba enough yet?

Will I ever fully trust the Father of my soul THIS much?

Does anyone have that strong of trust and obedience?

I think we are called to this sort of trust, but I fear I have not quite accomplished it.

-------

Father of my soul, I trust you.  Help me where I do not trust.

- St. PC of the Trust'ish

Loving God???

There is a story from the Middle Ages about a woman who had a vision.  In her vision she holds a pitcher of water in one hand and a torch in the other.  With the water she extinguished all the fires of hell.  With the torch she burned away all of the pleasures of heaven that await us.  Because of this, the only remaining factor was God alone. Sometimes it is good to remind myself why I pursue God at all.  Why do I desire God at all?  Are they selfish reasons?  Do I desire God because being closer to God will bring ME blessings?  Because it brings ME eternal life?  Because it will bring ME honor and healing?  Loving God for the sake of the transaction?

Do I begin all of my prayer with my needs, wants, and wishlists?  Is that why I come to God in prayer?

An older rabbi once said, "I don't want your paradise.  I do not want your coming world.  I want you, and you only."

It is important for me to continually challenge myself to determine why I pursue God at all.  Why do I love God at all? 

If I only loved my wife as long as she did everything I wanted her to, people would question whether I loved Tonya at all.  If I only loved her because she does all the right things I need and want, you would rightfully challenge me to be far less selfish in order to actually claim that I LOVE her.

I wonder why that would be ridiculous if I "loved" Tonya like that, but its not so outrageous that I "love" my Abba like that.

,

The unsafe Christian community

,

Bonhoeffer describes our Christian community with a disappointing accuracy. "He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone...The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners.  The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.  So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship.  We dare not be sinners.  Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous."

It is difficult to read on one level, but on a greater level I read that with a sense of relief. What if our churches were communities where it was safe to be imperfect?

One might say, "It must be safe, because none of us is perfect, and the Church still exists."

Just because there are imperfect people in the Church does not mean it is safe to be and present ourselves as imperfect.

Where would this safety come from?  What would it look like?

Psalm 32 is a great presentation of the benefits and joy of confession.

Verses 3-5 read:

"When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, "I confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

Could you imagine a community where we lived like the Lord?  What a freedom and safety!  We are all sapped by our sin and the weight of its guilt, but I long for a community where my honesty and my confession would actually find forgiveness of the guilt; where I would be surrounded and could surround others in unfailing love. (vs 10)