"One thing is needed..."

…said Jesus in Luke 10:42. Yes, I know, another familiar record; but are you really that familiar with it? Am I? By virtue of observing our culture, I think deep down none of us are really familiar with that record. We are willingly surrounded by noise, whether it’s TV, texting, social media, or plain old scattered thinking—it’s the white noise of our souls.  We always have it with us like theme music in the background of our lives.  Only this theme music isn’t heroic or inspiring; instead, it’s distracting and even debilitating. Let me explain.

 

Martha invited Jesus into her home that she shared with her sister Mary. The two sisters had very different reactions to Jesus; Mary sat at His feet and heard His word while Martha was distracted with being a fastidious hostess.

 

Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

 

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)

 

While I realize this is a record of an actual event that occurred in the past, I remain convinced that all of Jesus’ teachings have applicability to any age or era.  This record is no different.   The risk in this record is like the over-arching risk of all history, we read it but don’t learn from it; therefore, it is more apt to be repeated rather than actually influencing a change in behavior.  Our charge is to instead internalize Jesus’ words and then apply the lessons Jesus is teaching.

 

What’s the Lesson

Here the lesson is really an illustration of a battle between doing vs. being; or noise vs. silence. In one corner we have doing, fussing around out of a sense of obligation. In the other corner, we have being with Jesus out of the sense of love and desire to learn.  Or for football fans, one sideline has noise, always needing to be seen doing something, because stillness to them means laziness. They are hard to coach because they don’t sit still long enough to listen and learn from the Master. Perhaps they are afraid to be still and listen for fear of hearing something they don’t want to hear or being forced to face a deeply entrenched fear. Sometimes, we keep ourselves busy as a strategy of avoidance: avoiding confronting the pain.

 

On the other side of the field is silence. While they do have times where they’re busy, they also know when it is time to be quiet, to sit at the feet of the Master and soak in His presence. They’re easy to coach because they’re always ready to listen and learn. To listen requires that they quiet their mind, that they sit still and know that God is God and will bathe them in His presence via the indwelling Holy Spirit.  They are unafraid of the silence and are willing to face with courage the truth the Master imparts to them.

 

Now back to Luke 10. Mary is silent. How do I know? Because she is sitting at Jesus’ feet. In the Bible days, this was a sign of great respect and was also the posture of the student soaking in the wisdom of the teacher.  What’s more, she “heard His word”; it is very hard to hear another person if your mouth is running or your mind is wandering far from the subject at hand.  Therefore, Mary is silent.

 

Practical Application

Our application of Mary’s example is to take time and just be with Jesus in prayer. How do we do this? Well, unfortunately, Americanized Christianity has an awful tendency of filling our prayer time with laundry lists of requests and things we want God to do. Our internal voice is continually chuntering on about inane stuff, so much so, that our internal noise completely drowns out anything God might be trying to say to us. We’ve lost what the ancients called contemplative prayer by sitting quietly; meaning we still our mind of all incoming distractions, and simply focus on what God may or may not be saying to us via His Holy Spirit. This is difficult to do, just try it!

 

A good beginning point is to focus on our breath going in and out. As we focus on our breathing, then the other distractions of the day will melt into vapor and we can then start listening to the “still small voice” within the depths of our soul. We need to be careful, however, not to confuse the nudging of the Holy Spirit with our own internal voice.

 

Why is this important? Well, since we can no longer physically sit at the feet of Jesus, we need to employ the next best method, and following Mary’s example, that would be sitting quietly and listening to the internal nudging of the Holy Spirit.

 

We can also employ this discipline by reading Scripture and letting it soak into the deep fibers of our soul. Rather than treating our reading as nothing more than a check box on a to-do list, why not instead read with the intention of letting God speak to us via the truths we are reading.

 

It Takes Discipline

Granted, these sound like trite techniques, and they can indeed become that. But to really begin grasping the deeper things of God, these can instead become disciplines; disciplines of silence, contemplation and Scripture reading. As we practice such disciplines with serious intention we will draw more deeply from the endless waters of God.
  

Let...

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

─Philippians 2:5

Only 12 words in that verse, but they pack quite a wallop.  The Apostle Paul is writing to the Philippians and encouraging them to think of others more highly than themselves and also about the humility of Christ. He is eloquently explaining that while Jesus was in fact God in the flesh, He laid all this aside so as to secure our freedom from sin and death. But smack in the middle of these two major concepts is that 12-word verse. From what I can figure out from the Greek, a literal translation of this verse could also read:

For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

The key word in this verse is froneisqw (phroneistho). It is where we get the words “let this mind be”. The Greek word, hence, the phrase, is in the imperative mood which means it’s a command. This is important to know because, “[T]here is no more forceful way in the Greek language to tell someone to do something than a simple imperative” (William D. Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, Zondervan, 2003, p.310).  Another key component to this is it's third person, singular; which means it could also be rendered something like:  “Let him think for himself the same things Christ thought.” (Greek fans can double-check this by looking at the Imperative Paradigm on p.313 of the above referenced book.)

What's the Point

While all this may seem rather thick and clunky, there is a very important point here. Followers of Christ are to intentionally think the things of Christ. The simple three-letter word, let, indicates that we, the ones doing the “letting” are to purposely direct our thinking toward the things of Christ (see also Philippians 4:8 and Colossians 3:2). We need to give ourselves permission to think like Christ.

The logical question is how do we know what He thought?  The logical answer is, of course, Scripture.  The Gospels obviously chronicle the life of Christ while on earth. But other areas of Scripture shed a great deal of light on the mind of Christ as well.

For instance, how many Old Testament passages does Christ quote?  A lot, He was very familiar and comfortable with the Old Testament and pondered its depth on many occasions. And right here in the text we’re exploring now are great insights into the mind of Christ. Let’s look at verses 6-9:

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.

Humility and obedience are prominent themes in these verses. Another prominent feature in the life of Christ was prayer. He spent hours communing with the Father. In fact, He intentionally set His schedule to have time with just He and the Father. You’ll discover this as you become more aware of the many times that Jesus arose early or steeled away from a crowd to seek His Father.

It is Attainable

So while the mind of Christ may seem so elusive, it really isn’t. While we’d be foolish to think we can unravel all the mysteries of the universe, we are equally foolish if we think it is impossible to live according to Philippians 2:5. We also need to remember that we have a helper, a counselor, in this journey of being a Christ follower:

“When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into the all truth.”

─Jesus, John 16:13

This promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost after Christ’s ascension (see Acts 2:1-4). Now, because of this outpouring of Holy Spirit upon those who place their faith in Christ, we can pray for the wisdom we need to live the life of a genuine Christ-follower:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach.

─James 1:5

A Starting Point

The easiest place to start for “letting”, or allowing, the mind of Christ to come into our thinking is to first become more familiar with and comfortable with…Jesus.  Begin recognizing that Jesus is more approachable than your best friend, for He can become your best friend. He is more compassionate than any world charity, and more loving than the most loving parent. So run into His arms, sit on His lap, and get to know the Heart that can change yours. You’ll find this wonderful Heart in the Gospels.

Endurance and the Waves

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering…

─Galatians 5:22a (NKJV)

Have you ever had waves of trials slamming into you seemingly simultaneously? Sometimes it’s like waves are hitting me from all four sides and from the top and bottom all at the same time. I cry out to the Lord for relief but they don’t cease, they just keep slamming into the shores of my soul.

This is counterintuitive to me. Let me explain in a formula:

The more trials + the longer they last = heightened weakening, enhancing the potential for failure. Bad.

The solution, humanly speaking at least, would be:

Reducing the number of trials + shortening their length of time = greater strength, enhancing the potential for lengthened success. Good.

But have you noticed; God doesn’t behave the way WE would. He doesn’t comply with our limited-view expectations. We see time in hours, days, weeks, etc. He sees time immemorial. Therefore, God’s equation would seem to be something like this:

Be strong in the Lord through trials (Ephesians 6:10ff, 1 Peter 1:3-12) + obedience (1 John 5:1-3) = deliverance (eventually, Deuteronomy 8:1-10).  Faith.

Without God, our ability to endure multiple trials is seriously compromised if not completely paralyzed. The world just does not have solutions that sink into the soul without first corrupting the soul. However, God provides the antidote to this worldly pollution; the indwelling Holy Spirit. That is why the Galatians verse above is so important to grasp.  Fruit is something that grows outwardly based upon what is already inside. An apple tree produces apples, not oranges. Why? Well, because it has apple characteristics (genes) all the way to its core (pardon the pun). So if we are saturated to our core in the Holy Spirit, then we’ll produce Spirit-sparked fruit. One of these fruit is longsuffering.

Longsuffering is from a Greek word that is also translated as ‘patience’ or, more aptly to my point of view, ‘endurance’.  Endurance, according to the Encarta Dictionary, means “the ability or power to bear prolonged exertion, pain or hardship.” That sounds an awful lot like longsuffering to me. 

Thus, back to my equation example. If trials were simple and/or short in duration, then our ability to endure through them would be just that—our own ability. But as trials mount to the point of fainting, God, by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit infuses us with the ability to persevere, to endure. And if we’re not careful, we may even have joy through the endurance because joy is another Spirit-sparked fruit. 

When the trials finally cease, whether in days, weeks or even years, there will be no doubt that it was God that brought us through the trials. Hmm, reminds me of a couple of other Scriptures:

And He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

─2 Corinthians 12:9

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trails, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

─James 1:2-3

And, finally, as we endure through the trials, we need to realize that we’re not alone:

“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

─Jesus, Matthew 28:20

So hang in there, a better day is coming.

Totally Surrendered or Resignation

                                   “I surrender all…”

The above line is from a popular contemporary Christian worship song.  Every time I hear that line or even sing it, I think to myself, “Really?”

Have I surrendered it all? Has the writer of that song surrendered it all?  If so, then why aren’t there lyrics teaching us how to surrender it all? 

I’ve blogged about surrender before, but I’m still not satisfied with my understanding, or lack thereof, about being totally surrendered to God. I’m also unsure what the difference is between being totally surrendered to God and just plain old resignation, giving up or caving in. 

How does total surrender avoid becoming fatalism? For instance, is the phrase “It must be God’s will” really code for saying, “I can’t do anything about it, so I give up.” Or perhaps we think that “it’s predestined this happens, so I’m helpless. Now where’s that remote.” 

How do we tell the difference between circumstances that truly are unchangeable, where God’s grace is sufficient for us; versus understanding that God is calling us to do something in the circumstances to change them? Am I really destined to have health conditions all my life, or is God expecting me to do something to mitigate the health conditions? Are the hungry destined to be hungry so I might as well drive by the guy with the sign asking for food?  Or is this cowardice and avoidance of the human condition when I could easily hand him a granola bar and an apple? 

In other words, when does total surrender also involve taking action, taking personal responsibility? 

I return to the health condition example. While medical interventions are necessary and helpful at times; I can take daily responsibility over my own behavior that will produce greater and more positive results immediately. I can easily choose to eat healthy and get regular exercise. Or, I could shrug my shoulders, mope that I have health conditions, and slowly morph into Jabba the Hut. 

Surrender then seems to be a combination of accepting the health conditions while equally accepting that God expects and enables me to not let the conditions control my life and overrun my soul. So to in other areas of life, such as sharing our faith, helping to feed the hungry, or helping friends or family in need. But sadly I sense that many people view total surrender as equating to total inaction.  I’m inert, therefore I’m totally surrendered.  Somehow, I think not. Jesus was totally surrendered, and He was also a man of action—lot’s of action. 

He [Jesus] was moved with compassion for them, and he healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:14-16)

This record astounds me, especially since it goes on to say that the disciples were beside themselves about how they were going to feed ten to fifteen thousand people (the text says 5,000 men, the men likely had wives, children and/or others with them; so the number could easily have been up to 15,000!). Jesus didn’t panic, though. A little boy brought Him what was basically a sack lunch with five loaves and two fish. Jesus took these ingredients, thanked His Father for the sustenance and then commenced feeding an impossible amount of people in an impossible way.

Jesus, totally surrendered to His Father, was obviously a man of action. Just in this record alone, we see Him take action by healing the sick and feeding thousands of people. And inserted between these two events was His command to His disciples: “You give them something to eat.”

So as I struggle to figure out what being totally surrendered means, I can be assured that it isn’t fatalism or nihilistic disregard for life.  But it does have high doses of prayer, compassion, and action.   

Obedience--Pursuing God, Part 2

Obedience.  Oh, how we seem to hate this word. For some reason, we have fallen into the trap of thinking that obedience somehow means we lose our identity; that we somehow become less of an individual, and thereby lose our significance.  Hogwash!

 

Consider this:

 

‘Yet He (Jesus) learned obedience by the things which He suffered’ (Hebrews 5:8, NKJV).

‘He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:8).

 

Jesus, the great I AM, embraced obedience to a degree you and I never will. So if the Savior of all mankind was obedient, then we ought to follow His example and rid our thinking of all the nonsense that obedience is bad. And while last week we explored two key elements in pursuing God—prayer and Scripture—this is the third key to pursuing God—obedience. 

 

‘Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome’ (1 John 5:1-3).

Interestingly, the above reference calls us to obedience while also stating that being obedient is not burdensome. In other words, God’s commandments are not heavy or weighty. This truth is much to the contrary of what the enemy wants us to think.  So much of faithless religion is based solely on works; the more we work then the more favor we have with God. Yet here God is saying that His commandments are not burdensome; man’s commandments may be, but God’s commandments are not. 

But is this true? Let’s look at a couple of examples.

 

Let’s begin with Jesus Himself by looking at the Mark 12, where a scribe poses a question to Jesus:

 

“Which is the first commandment of all?”

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28b-31).

Hmm. I can just imagine this exchange. The Scribe, probably in some sort of robe, wanted to trap Jesus by asking Him a question that seemed impossible to answer (see also Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28). But Jesus, leveling His gaze in a way that looked right through the man, had no hesitation in His answer. Not only that, Jesus gave two commandments back at the man, not just one (you can’t put Jesus in a box).  He didn’t throw out a bunch of rules and regulations; instead, he spoke of love.

 

The Apostle Paul spoke to this as well by way of an admonition.

 

“We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the conning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Again, the exercise of obedience from 1 John 5 as further defined in Ephesians is speaking the truth; but it isn’t speaking it hatefully or as a verbal weapon. Instead, truth is to be spoken in love.

 

So a third key in pursuing God is obedience. Obedience to God is not burdensome because it is to be bathed in and motivated by love.  So as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our souls by intentionally pursuing God in prayer and Scripture with the desire to be obedient, He will empower us to also love with the love by which He first loved us (see Galatians 5:22 and 1 John 4:19).  

Jesus, the Centurion, and Cultural Engagement

I’m watching traffic on River Road flow by while sitting in an overly air conditioned Starbucks.

Would Jesus hang out at Starbucks? A stupid question, I know; but recently I’ve been studying selective Gospel readings (as suggested by Chris Webb in The Fire of the Word) and am being moved at how Jesus approached humanity with dignity, respect, and love.

Take for instance the encounter between Jesus and the Roman Centurion (see Matthew 8:5-13).  Jesus has travelled down a mountain, healed a leper, and is now entering Capernaum, a city on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. He’s tired, has grit in His mouth and is thirsty. Before He can find comfort, probably before He can even find shade, the Roman Centurion approaches Him. Now watch this exchange carefully.

“Lord,” says the Roman. “My servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” Worry is etched into every line on the Roman’s sun-baked face while hope pools behind his dark brown eyes.

Jesus locks eyes with the Roman, and laying a hand on his shoulder he says, “I will come and heal him.”  Jesus’ tone is confident and unflustered.

I’m astounded by this exchange. Typically Romans are merely tolerant of Israel’s faith at best. They never seek any sort of guidance or help from the faith of the Jews. In fact, they dismiss their faith as archaic, preferring instead to place their faith in the ingenuity of humanity—mainly via engineering and government (eerily similar to our culture). Israel also has no love-fest for the Romans. To them, the Romans are a hedonistic culture of depravity that needs to be expelled from their land.

So the Roman Centurion has three strikes against him; he’s a Gentile, a Roman, and a high-ranking officer of the Roman army. If anyone exemplifies the Jews’ hatred toward the Roman occupation it would be this Centurion. To the Romans, Jesus has gone from being another self-proclaimed but harmless Holy man to someone who actually performs miracles while amassing a large following.  Therefore, He’s now on their “watch list” for His potential to stir civic unrest.

So back to our scene. Jesus enters the militarily strategic city of Capernaum and is immediately approached by this high-ranking Roman officer. It looks to be the development of a somewhat hostile encounter. The crowd gasps and stops in their tracks as the two men near each other, is this going to be high noon at the OK Corral?

But studying the men’s faces perplexes the crowd. The Roman’s face is pleading and not fierce; his eyebrows are moving toward his scalp rather than pinching down on his eyes. His jaw is loose and not clinched in gritted teeth and a sneer. Jesus’ face is relaxed as His nose bridge begins to wrinkle with concern. His eyes are looking straight into the Roman’s; there is no fear, only concern.

The crowd normally expects the Roman’s first words to be ones of challenge or threat; this time, however, they are stunned as the Roman addresses Jesus as “Lord.” Few Jews had even addressed Jesus as Lord, much less a Roman officer. In this one word the Roman is publicly proclaiming his faith in Jesus as the Messiah. But we will see later, that this is just the tip of this man’s faith.

Jesus’ first response is equally surprising; He proclaims that He will go the sick servant immediately. Jesus could have easily and justifiably told this Gentile-Roman-Officer to take a hike. But notice that Jesus cared for the man’s heart and did not judge him or react to him based on his culturally imposed labels.

As I begin to close this first of two installments about this record, I want to leave you with a quick comparison. Our culture has become more polarized than at any other time in my life (I’m 50, so I’ve been around a while). In today’s parlance, the two main characters could be a liberal and a conservative; or gay and straight; or rich and homeless; or a Yankee fan and a Red Sox fan. The point is that both of these men shed their cultural labels and biases toward the other to instead approach each other with respect and dignity.  Jesus Himself modeled this approach to humanity throughout His ministry. He still wants to model this approach to humanity by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit in each of our lives. Are we willing to cooperate with Jesus rather than succumbing to cultural labels and expectations?

The next installment, for the two of you that actually read my blog, will explore the startling conclusion of this amazing record.

Danger of Reductionism

 

Satan would love nothing more than for the child of God to reduce the freely given gift of Salvation to nothing more than a trump card played upon death. He works hard to get us to quench the working of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives and to minimize the power and freedom available to us through the accomplished work of Christ on the Cross.  Once successful of this, Satan has rendered the child of God ineffective, useless for the Kingdom of God. Even worse, once a child of God wanders far enough away from God, he may begin exhibiting a lifestyle contrary to biblical ethics, thus dishonoring the very God that saved him from Hell.  This plays right into Satan’s hands.

To combat this God calls us to a life of transformation: 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  (Roman 12:1-2, ESV.)

Eugene Peterson has this to say:

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. (Romans 12:2a, MSG.)

While it’s true that Christianity is being attacked more aggressively in this culture than ever before, may it that not freak us out or cause us to fear expressing the truth of Jesus Christ.  I once heard a speaker say that we try to destroy that which we most fear; I find that quite interesting, as it sure seems that Satan is working harder to destroy Christianity more than anything else in this country.  That alone speaks loudly to the truth of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, as we allow God to transform our lives not only will we thwart Satan’s desires, but we’ll also shine as the light God is calling us to be (see Matthew 5:14).  

Mercy (a poem)

Here I am yet again,
To begin anew…again.

God of patience, God of kindness

Do not rebuke me from Your sight.

For though I stumble, and yes I fall,

By Your grace I'm rescued from my plight.

To me this burden is very heavy,

I cannot carry such a load.

But You won’t leave me because 

You’ve already walked this lonely road.

So it's to You I run, collapsing

exhausted at Your feet.

And laying there in this state,

It’s with Your touch I feel complete.
 
So in Your strength I persevere
Moment-by-moment and day-by-day.
 
And in Your love I will not fear
As I stand again and begin to pray.

Author note: yeah, I know it ain't Yeats, but what can I say, it came from the heart.  What's really interesting, is I wrote this in my Journal on September 24, seven days before I was knocked out and carted off in an ambulance.  I guess it was the beginning of entering into a new season of life for learning how much God's really in control in spite of my own human efforts.   

God in Adversity, Part 2

View from Room 7001

The Sunday before my Friday surgery I had the opportunity to be anointed with oil and prayed over by our pastors and other leaders and friends. Entering into this time I felt free to share the details of the surgery along with my fears. I had a single fusion over ten years ago but this upcoming double-fusion surgery was to be more than twice my previous surgery. This meant the pain I had experienced before would not only be present this time, but would be even more. Now I fully realize countless people, some of my friends and family included, have been through significantly tougher circumstances than mine, it’s just this, so far anyway, is my toughest medical challenge—so the fear of the pain, the length of recovery, and the loss of mobility were very consuming fears.  Not to mention the procedure itself—someone digging around inside my neck and spinal cord—was also quite disconcerting. 

After the anointing and prayer, I didn’t really feel any different. In fact, my body didn’t shudder and I wasn’t knocked off my feet (which would have been disastrous in my condition!).  But as the day wore on and I had quiet moments with nothing but my own thoughts and prayers, I sensed something profound deep in my soul—peace.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7, NKJV.)

I actually didn’t feel anxious or worried at all. In fact, I found myself looking forward to a further vision of being healed and feeling better than I’ve felt in probably a year. Yes, I knew there would be pain; yes, I knew there would be a relatively long recovery time; but I knew that by Summer I should be in full health and as soon as the surgery ended, I’d be out of danger of paralysis.  I also had a deepening sense of confidence in my surgeon, I knew God would be involved somehow and I also knew she was well-experienced and quite concerned about me. She would be bringing her “A-game” to the OR.

The day of the surgery Janey and I prayed before heading to the hospital; we both prayed that God would somehow be glorified through this and I specifically prayed for joy; yeah, crazy, huh? I prayed for joy. 

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23.)

A typical definition of joy is “a feeling of great pleasure or happiness” (New Oxford American Dictionary, 2^nd Edition eBook, 2008).  This definition is more of a worldly definition and very circumstance oriented; being happy is usually because some exterior circumstance is happy to you.  But surgery, for me anyway, is not a happy thing.

However, the Greek word for ‘joy’ in this passage is χαρα (chara), and according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1990), it means ‘cheerfulness, calm, or gladness.’  Wow!  What a definition.  This is what I had in my soul, of all places and of all circumstances; I was cheerful, calm, and even glad. My blood pressure wasn’t elevated and my breathing was steady and normal.  No way would this be my natural state given the circumstances, it was a supernatural outpouring of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  And people gravitate to cheerfulness and God knows this. Was Jesus grumpy and morose?  Of course not.  In fact, He was a healer and he even prayed for the forgiveness of those nailing Him to the cross. That is certainly not the picture of a sourpuss Savior.   

Does this sound like a grumpy Jesus to you:

“I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd.” (Jesus, John 10:10b-11a.)  

Or how about this one:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  (Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30.)

There are several other examples of course, but the point is that along with my IV I was also receiving an infusion of Holy Spirit that spilled out in χαρα, joy.  Even after my surgery recovering in my room cheerfulness was just my norm.  When Ray, the czar of the bladder machine woke me up 3:30 AM, I was still cheerful. I was able to get know all the nursing staff, found out about their families, their lives, their dreams—it was awesome—and it wasn’t my natural man.

At one point, the cleaning lady popped into my room as I was playing worship music on my iPod and that got us talking about Jesus.  In fact, I was able to have spiritual conversations with at least half the staff.  Again, that’s just not my old-man nature, that was the Holy Spirit at work. God was showing me that yes, indeed; He shows up even while you’re lying in the hospital bed and having to use a walker to get to the bathroom! But His concern was beyond me, He also wanted to touch the hard-working nursing staff through His work in me. Whether they recognized it or not, God was blessing them for their commitment to caring for humanity created in His image. 

And when I would wake up in the wee hours because of the pain, I’d look out my 7^th floor window and see the lighted Capital Building.  That brought happy memories and reminded to just pray in the Spirit to again be awash in the warmth of His love for me.

Plus God kept me energized by all the visitors coming by.  Close to 30 people stopped in to say ‘hi’ and see how I was doing.  What’s more, I can’t describe it well, but I could sense that so many people were praying for me. More than once I was brought to tears of joy in that hospital bed because of God’s work in the situation and all the people showing love and concern for me.  Tears are welling up in my eyes right now as I write this.  God, the Author of the universe, cares that much about a single life. And He cares that much for you:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned.”  (Jesus, John 3:16-18a, emphasis mine.)

This is my testimony of this experience. God moved mightily to touch my life and many other lives as well. And He continues moving in the situation even now.  Yes, pain is a reality and recovery time is lengthy, but God transcends this with His washing of Holy Spirit infusion.  But this isn’t unique to me:

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:3-5, ESV.)

God is calling us to salvation in Jesus. And lest you wonder how to be saved, how to enter into this incredible relationship with our Heavenly Father, I share the answer of Paul and Silas to the cry of the Roman jailer:

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

And they said, “Believe in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:30-31.)

God awaits.

God in Adversity

A week ago yesterday I had neck surgery.  I had a double fusion and bone spur removal.  My neurosurgeon said that when she opened me up and started to rummage around in my cervical region she discovered I was actually in worse shape than she had originally thought.  After surgery while I was in recovery, she told Janey that she didn’t know how I was able to continue functioning; much less functioning at the level I was at.  Janey knew the answer though, God. 

In fact, God has been present through this whole situation.  You see, I’ve already had one neck fusion way back in 2001, so when my neck started to hurt strangely again in mid-2011 I did not go see a doctor.  Why?  Because I sensed I would wind up in surgery again—I do not like neck surgery. So I figured I would try yoga, or different weight-lifting exercises, plus, I was optimistic that the pain would eventually go away.  It didn’t, it just got worse.

 Anyway, after my collapse at Lowe’s and rush to the emergency room (see my entry What Happened), the ER staff conducted several tests while I was unconscious to figure out what happened.  While they never figured out what caused my collapse, they did have images showing how seriously pinched my spinal cord was. 

Once my regular doctor and a neurosurgeon I’d never met before got a hold of the ER images, they started to pursue me via phone calls to “strongly encourage” me to get one more test because things didn’t look good. I finally relented and got another MRI. Within 24 hours they had the results which, among other things, showed “spinal cord deformity.” When I heard this phrase I started to get concerned myself.  Plus, the doctors’ phone calls started up again; I was being pursued even more intensely than before. 

I was beginning to grasp the seriousness of my condition; this was not a run-of-the-mill disk rupture.  When I finally saw the neurosurgeon, she showed me my MRI images. 

I gasped. 

I’ve had a lot of medical tests over the years (I have more than one genetic defect), and many of the test results have been less than desirable, but this result actually caused me to gasp:  my spinal cord was seriously pinched in two places by bulging disks on one side of my spine and bone spurs on the other side of my spine.  The pinching was so profound that if I had anymore even minor head or neck trauma, I could be paralyzed from my neck down for the rest of my life.

You’d gasp to.

As she went on to explain my options, surgery or increasing pain and increasing risk of paralysis, my soul did not start to spin in a spiral of discouragement like it would have a few years ago.  However, she continued with her explanation by telling me I needed to stop running, not just now, pre-surgery; but most likely for the rest of my life.

 

“But…but, you don’t understand,” I said, voice stammering.  “I love to run.”

“Your spine can’t take the pounding, especially with a triple-fusion,” she responded matter-of-factly.  Doctor’s are so good with that ‘this is no big deal so just suck it up’ tone of voice.

So now, in just 15 minutes I’m seeing the danger I’m in and I’m being told to give up one of my most favorite activities. Not only that, they had begun to set the surgery date for barely a week away.  Seriously?  Just the day before I was happily running on a mulch trail engrossed in prayer. Now I’m being told walking is all I can reasonable do and in a very short time I am going to have a very serious surgery.

All of the sudden I was not having a good day!

Discouragement, and worse, is now beginning to close in.  So I silently prayed for God to stave off the encroaching darkness and to give me the courage to face the reality before me.  Oh, I also needed strong doses of peace as well.   

And God did.  He did in big ways.  Yes, I had the surgery; and yes I may never run again, but the work God is doing in my heart and the way Jesus has showed himself to me through this is mind-blowing.  The Holy Spirit is daily comforting me and I’m excited to share this with you. 

…but that will be my next entry, so please stay tuned, God is being glorified even in what appears to be a deep adversity.  The God of Light is real, so please tune in again for my next entry.

Thanksgiving Re-set

…for I am not always thankful even though I have so much to be thankful for.   How about you?  Does thankfulness just roll out of your pores like sweat at mile 20 of a marathon or do you struggle with it like when your mother made you eat beets? 

Honestly, as silly as it sounds, I sometimes struggle with it.  The big question is why?  The answer, of course, is quite complicated; but simply put, I have been fooled by the lure of the so-called American Dream—more stuff means a better status which means more joy.  Poppycock; what nonsense to think that inanimate stuff (which really means “junk”) will bring true and lasting joy. 

First John 1:3b-4 has this to say about joy: 

And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

True joy, which is a sense of unflappable inner happiness, comes from an honest and vital relationship with God by way of Jesus Christ.  No Christ, no joy. Expressing this relationship to others cements the joy deep in our soul. 

So as Thanksgiving 2011 is now in our rearview mirror, we can still be thankful because of Jesus Christ.  I know a bold statement like this turns a lot of people off, that’s why the message of Christ is so watered down.  But stop and think about it, why are so many people turned off by the things of Christ? People are often turned off to Christ, and thus miss the joy in Christ, because so many Christ-followers do a less than inspiring job of exhibiting Christ.  So much of “Christian engagement” nowadays is really nothing more than stooping to joyless and combative blame-shifting. 

But as we recall the words of Jesus, we begin to realize His message was quite different:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-38).

Pondering these words deeply, I find conviction creeping up over my heart.  I begin realizing that my “love meter” for both God and man registers too often on the “low” side. No wonder I struggle with thanksgiving, I’ve blocked God’s joy in my soul by allowing my ‘love tank’ to run too close to empty.

So where does Thanksgiving really begin?  It begins with love.  And where does love begin?  Love begins with God:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16, emphasis mine).

The Path of Fast

There’s been a lot written about fasting.  The most reliable source, of course, is the Bible.  Jesus even fasted.  In fact, He often sought to be alone in the wilderness to pray and be with His Heavenly Father.  During these times He was often fasting from sleep and sometimes food. We can even fast today. 

Recently, at a leadership conference, God placed on my heart the call to organize a group of men to gather once a quarter on a Saturday to go out into a nearby wilderness to pray and fast for a day.  Nineteen were invited, but only four of us could actually do it.  

So a few Saturdays ago, the last time ESPN College Game Day was in Eugene (guess what I fasted from?), we headed off into a beautiful wilderness area in the Willamette Valley.  Just four guys, none of us with any special accolades or major national awards, just four guys desperate for God, stomping down paths into the wilderness to seek a deeper sense of His presence in our lives. 

Not surprisingly, God showed up.  Each of us had an encounter with Him.  What’s funny is He didn’t call any us to step into some big movement or give us any massive idea for outreach.  Instead, God encouraged each of us to shed the distractions of our lives and culture to more fully pursue Him. I was specifically shown that through these several months of trials, I’d become prone to kind of “checking out.”  Just relaxing a little after dinner was my excuse, but God showed me that I was really sliding into neutral, disengaging from life and family, shutting down my mind and heart.  Perhaps I felt I just couldn’t take any more so my protection was to just withdraw for a while.  Have you ever felt that way?  What do you do?  Do you need to shed a little clutter out of your life too?

God reiterated on my journey down that Path of Fast to keep shedding the distractions of life.  He encouraged me to have the courage to continue the inventory of my life that started in the ER after my accident. Clear out the clutter and lighten the load of the useless stuff and junk in my life was the encapsulation of His message to me. 

Accomplishing this isn’t some mystical ceremony with flickering candles and fog; instead, it’s really a phone call to Comcast to pull the plug.  It’s cleaning out my iTunes of old secular songs that crept back in. It’s ceasing the comparison of my stuff with someone else’s.  It’s cleaning out the cabinets in the house and in my mind.  It’s not caring how big my house is or how cool my car is how exotic my vacation.  Dross was weighing me down and cooling relationships with both Jesus and my family.  And on that forest path at the foot of the Coast Range God showed me now was the time to initiate the clearing out, for if not now—then when?  Without the intention to start, it would never get done.  And for me to truly give my best to God, I had to remove the cultural clutter clouding my spiritual vision. 

So the cleanup has begun.  And, yes, I’ve lost weight, quite a bit, actually.  Oh, not in pounds, but definitely weight off my shoulders and out my life.  I don’t need to compete or compare myself with anyone, I’m here to please Him, God; not my neighbor, not my colleague, not anyone—only God.  Once the clutter is clear, then the Holy Spirit can run freely in my soul, and I will be at my top spiritual condition once the barriers of clutter and of distraction are removed.

So, yes, it’s good to slow down and fast now and then regardless of how vibrant or dormant your walk with the Lord may be.  As we earnestly and intentionally seek God, He will honor that by impressing His presence deeper into our souls.