Categories
Faith Life

Sabbath Quiet: Joy Is The Great Surprise

The beating heart of the universe is holy joy. ~Martin Buber

joy

Optimism

To be surprised by joy is something quite different from naive optimism. Optimism is the attitude that makes us believe that things will be better tomorrow.

An optimist says: “The war will be over, your wounds will be healed, the depression will go away, the epidemic will be stopped…all will be better soon.”

The optimist may be right or wrong, but, whether right or wrong, the optimist does not control the circumstances.

Joy

Joy does not come from positive predictions about the state of the world. It does not depend on the ups and downs of the circumstances of our lives.

Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world.

Jesus says it loudly and clearly: “In the world you will have troubles, but rejoice, I have overcome the world.”

Surprise

The surprise is not that, unexpectedly, things turn out better than expected.

No, the real surprise is that God’s light is more real than all the darkness, that God’s truth is more powerful than all human lies, that God’s love is stronger than death.

The world lies in the power of the Evil One. Indeed, the powers of darkness rule the world. We should not be surprised when we see human suffering and pain all around us.

But we should be surprised by joy every time we see that God, not the Evil One, has the last word.

Hope

By entering into the world and confronting the Evil One with the fullness of Divine Goodness, the way was opened for us to live in the world, no longer as victims, but as free men and women, guided, not by optimism, but by hope.

Henri J.M. Nouwen from Here and Now

Photo of Whiskytown Lake, CA

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Faith Life

6 Prayer Habits That Let In The Light

Prayer is nothing else than an intimate friendship, a frequent heart-to-heart conversation with Him by whom we know ourselves to be loved. ~Teresa of Avila

prayer window

Some of our windows always seem to face north, where colors are muted and shadows are long. Light doesn’t flood–it plays in the corner, elusive and longed for and hugged to our hearts.

And though night has been vanquished a thousand times over, hope doesn’t accrue like unused vacation. With every new twilight we learn how to wait. Every new dawn finds us needy for mercy.

Am I describing you? Do you find the light fades quickly in the “room” you inhabit? What do you do to  keep the darkness at bay?

Prayer is often the last thing I think of, yet it never has failed to be just what I need.

Prayer anchors me in the moment and keeps worry in its place. Without that firm tether my mind wanders ahead, my life bleeds into the unknown. And I forget the presence and present moment of God–the here where I’ll find him, how he’s working right now.

Prayer can be more than its conventional posture. Here are some habits that let in the light.

6 Prayer Habits

  1. With each new touch of your hand–a coffee mug, the knob of a door, a small hand, a checkbook, a book or a hammer–whisper a prayer of gratitude and trust.
  2. Pray for the one who is now within eyesight–waiting in line, at the cross walk, one cubicle over. Root your thoughts in the real, in what matters, in the people God loves.
  3. Invite God to sort through the voices you hear. Make separate piles, the kind and the cruel, writing them down. Sift through for the true, send the rest through the shredder–let God’s grace have the last word.
  4. Walk through a day with the theme word of THIS. When anxiety threatens, turn your mind to this moment, this encounter, this person, this decision, this task, whatever grace has been given at this time.
  5. Share your lunchbox with Jesus, let him see what you chew on, that which chews you. Lay your burdens and worries, self-loathing and anger before his wise presence. Write, shout, whimper exactly where you are. Then let him respond.
  6. Sing the truths of God’s word. Pray an old hymn. Listen to lyrics that remind you of light.

What other prayer habits have been helpful to you? I would love to hear your ideas.

Photo, Fountains Abbey, Laura Windes

 

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Culture Faith Life

Jesus And His Unconventional, Inefficient Way

If Jesus had never lived, we would not have been able to invent him. ~Walter Wink

the desert way

I look at the road-end, the empty desert beyond. And a voice from behind says, keep walking forward. But my feet, and my heart, stay rooted in place.

Jesus, your way can’t possibly work. You see the clear signage–beyond here, no one goes.

It’s nice, but impractical to follow your way.

I Make My Case

Nothing will get done with life interrupted. My plans and intentions will die from neglect. I’ll find myself stopping for every touch in the crowd, or sitting to dine with types best avoided. And waste my time praying in the freshly dawned hours, or thumbing through pages, ancient onion-skin wisdom, when truth is as close as Siri’s sweet voice.

And a tweet or a text loving gesture enough.

Jesus, to me, your priorities seem off.

  • You tell me to let go when I want to hang on.
  • You tell me to trust when there’s reason to fear.
  • You tell me to love the very people I loathe.
  • You tell me to lose the same self I’m seeking.
  • You tell me to wait as my world heads for a cliff.

Your way is at odds with what’s obviously true:

  • Blessed are the meek in a world made for the bold?
  • Blessed are the peacemakers in a world filled with sharks?

Oh, I’ve lived long enough to see it may work for a moment. But for every “chicken-soup-for-the-soul” ending, there’s a follow-up report. The glad cheers of yesterday are today’s breaking bad news.

Your way doesn’t work, as the evidence shows. So I’ll stick to the paths, well-worn by long practice. And wonder why the world isn’t what it should be.

His Answer

His answer comes swiftly, scented with promise,

Follow me, in my unconventional, “inefficient” way. Someday you will see it, and dance in my joy. What you think is life wasted is you being made new.

(1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Revelation 21:5)

How is Jesus asking you to be unconventional?

 

Photo credit: Kevin Den
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Faith

Hope: A Sunday Memo To Self

He that lives in hope dances without music. ~George Herbert

Pacific Grove hope

The Hope of Everyone on Earth

You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our savior. You are the hope of everyone on earth, even those who sail on distant seas.

You formed the mountains by your power and armed yourself with mighty strength.

You quieted the raging oceans with their pounding waves and silenced the shouting of the nations.

Those who live at the ends of the earth stand in awe of your wonders. From where the sun rises to where it sets, you inspire shouts of joy.

Psalm 65:5-8

Every Reason To Hope

Our ultimate hope is not to escape a damned world, but that God’s will shall be done in His redeemed world.

We truly hope for the renewal of the earth only if we really wish for it. We actually hope for it only if we can imagine it.

And we will hope for the renewal of our world only if we have reason to believe that God can and will make it happen.

My own reason for believing that it will happen is God Himself, the God who “makes all things new.”

Believers are not optimists, they are people of hope.

Their only reason for so huge a hope is the story of how the Maker of the world once came to His world, died, lived again, and still intends to come back and fix His world once and for all.

Lewis Smedes in, Standing On the Promises

Pacific Grove beauty

Pacific Grove, California

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Culture Faith Life

Violence Saves? What Popeye Didn’t Tell Us

The myth of redemptive violence is the simplest, laziest, most exciting, uncomplicated, irrational and primitive depiction of evil the world has ever known. ~Walter Wink

violence

The lights come back on. We walk with soda-sticky steps toward the exit, wiping popcorn off our fronts. Satisfied for the moment, we return to a world where nothing seems so easy.

In high-definition glory the good guys won. The bad guys were annihilated, the hero sailed into the sunset. And we sigh, “if only…”

From Popeye to Dirty Harry, Star Wars to 007, the same story is told: violence saves. But the plot-line is more ancient than we know.

An Ancient Tale (Enuma Elish c.1250 B.C.E.)

The pistachio-munching Babylonian crowds grip their seats as the climax of the creation story nears.  A bloody battle scene–the armies of chaos locked in mortal combat against the forces of order. Will the hero prevail?

The crowd cheers as the god Marduk delivers the fatal blow. With chaos now subdued he creates the cosmos (the heavens and the earth) out of the battered corpse of his opponent. As the credits roll, Marduk clutches his victory crown; the once minor god is now king over all.

Violence Saves

Though we call it a myth, that story runs in our veins. It’s the way things have always worked. What’s my first response to opposition, to a sucker-punch from life? What’s the easy answer to conflict and unkindness?

  • Retribution is necessary
  • Enemies must be eliminated
  • God is on my side

In my cleaned-up version, no blood is involved. A more subtle approach to getting even, getting rid of, and feeling justified works for me. And what about you?

A Better Story

The biblical writers told a better story.

Genesis begins not with battle, but with chaos that obediently responds to the life-giving word of the Creator. With only a rebuke, a look–by God’s voice alone–light appears, waters flow, the earth trembles, and the future unfolds. Read through the Bible and you learn that:

  • In wisdom, not violence, all was made.
  • Enemies are best eliminated by loving them.
  • God is sovereign and on everyone’s side.

The two ancient stories compete for our allegiance today. Which version is true?

Which do you embrace? 

Next Time: Part 3 of our look at The Powers That Be: Jesus’ brilliant answer to Marduk.

Read Genesis 1-2, Job 38-41, Psalm 104, Isaiah 40-45 for the biblical version of Creation. Also, Psalm 104:24, Matthew 5:44, Psalm 145:9

Image Credit

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Culture Faith Life

The Powers That Be: Learning To See Beyond Bloodied Bricks

I have seen enough of God’s wily ways with the Powers to stake my life on the side of hope.

Unseen powers There’s more to life than meets the eye.

You know this in moments when what looks like a mole-hill packs a mountain-size wallop.

When the tug of a ripple pulls you under, you wonder.

Or when, to your surprise, a life-time of darkness clears because of some small, obvious kindness.

There’s something behind it that cannot be seen–forces bigger and hidden, that your five senses can’t name.

The Bible points to the spiritual in every person, but behind institutions and structures as well–unseen powers that have the capacity to respond to God, or choose their own way.

To ignore this fact is to beat our foreheads bloody on the brick wall of entrenched evil.

It means we will fall prey to a simplistic belief that if only that one person were not in office, if only that one family member would change, if only those kind of people didn’t exist, all would be well. It means we will appoint scapegoats, we will notice evil everywhere but in ourselves.

Let’s be honest: our foreheads take a battering more often than not.

“For our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” the apostle Paul reminds us.

The Powers That Be

I recommend Walter Wink’s book, The Powers That Be to anyone who will listen. One of the 15 Books That Found Me, Wink opened my eyes to “the spiritual reality at the heart of everything.” Human systems, created by God to serve his purposes (Romans 13), can be bent, putting their own interests above God’s (Daniel 10, Revelation 3).

Wink puts it this way:

  • The powers are good
  • The powers are fallen
  • The powers must be redeemed.

Think about the systems to which you belong. Your country, community, workplace, school, family, place of worship. To whom do they ultimately answer (Colossians 1:16-17)? To whom do they presently bow? How will they be redeemed?

Hint: It begins with you.

Have you been tempted to embrace easy answers to the problems of our day? Who are your favorite scapegoats?

Next Time: Part 2: Exposing The Myth

Image Credit
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Faith

Sabbath Quiet: River Flow

A river reaches places which its source never knows. ~Oswald Chambers

River flow

A River of Blessing

A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers.

For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle.

Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever.

Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God?

Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it.

The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles.

Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty.

The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source.

Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ–not emotion nor experience–nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 7:38

Oswald Chambers in My Utmost For His Highest

Photo: Munich, Germany by Laura Windes
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Life

Glory That Far Outweighs Them All

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. ~St. Paul

the glory of the alps My son and I flew into Zürich, a college graduation visit with my brother and his family, and the fulfillment of my lifelong dream to see the Swiss Alps.

Glory Obscured

We landed in an early morning downpour that lasted into the next day. Hoping for a late afternoon break in the weather, we travelled by funicular railroad to the highest point in Bern, with the promise of a 365 degree view of the surrounding area.

By the time we emerged at the top, the mists were closing in, swirling around us like smoke boiling up from hell. I could barely see my hand when I held it to my face.

We walked to the edge of the hill, where empty benches perched. I could just see Anja’s arm, pointed outward, as she declared emphatically, “There! There are the Alps.”

The spiritual metaphor was impossible to miss. We live with limits. Darkness and confusion overwhelm us and we believe, in our sorrow, there is nothing but what we can see.

We need someone to point beyond the mists to Truth that stands just outside of sight. We need another to describe the indescribable when all beauty and glory is obscured.

Glory Uncovered

It rained all that night, and we awoke to skies washed clear. We drove the 45 minutes to Lauterbrunnen, named the most beautiful valley in all of Europe for good reason. Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau lined up as in the photograph above–not a trace of mist to dim their snow-peaked splendor.

The thought occurred to me,  “I was made to live here, in the embrace of these green slopes and icy pinnacles. What wouldn’t I be willing to sacrifice, to endure, if I knew at the end, this valley would be my home?”

I will someday find home. The glory that waits beyond this life-time, the “welcome into the heart of things,” as C. S Lewis describes it, will make Alpine splendor pale.

But now my vision is short-sighted, my dreams are too meager. So I fix my eyes on what I can’t see and wait for the mists to clear.

And you? What Truth is hiding behind the mists? What do you need to remember?

Image Credit
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Faith Life

The Ultimate Identity Theft

We have become increasingly aware that the poor are the hope of humanity, for we will be judged by how we have treated the poor. We will have to face this reality when we are summoned before the throne of God. ~Mother Teresa

where do we find our identity

As many have observed, Mother Teresa was a person widely admired, but seldom imitated.

That the poor are the “hope of humanity” hardly fits with the prevailing view. Most of us spend our efforts trying to distance ourselves from poverty in every way possible.

I think I know why.

In Western culture, identity is closely tied to productivity. What do you do? What grade did you get? Where do you work? How much do you make? How many attend your church? How often is your name google-searched?

The predator of performance haunts at every turn.

Even in our leisure we can’t let down our guard. What was your score? How far did you hike? How much did you buy?

Contempt, or at least discomfort with the very poor, the dependent, or those who by choice or disability are never “employed” grips our collective heart. What exactly do they add to the world, what do they do to create their own worth?

Identity Crisis

I freeze when the inevitable question comes: “Tell me about yourself.” I know my height, age, or where I was born are not enough. My profile must be well crafted to set me apart. Accomplishments, abilities, public recognition–the real question being, “where do you fit on the spectrum of importance?”

Like others with fuzzy credentials my answers seem awkward to my ear. “Mainly what I have done is write and teach Bible Studies.” In reply I get a puzzled look, “Then why haven’t I heard of you?”

Something Worth Pondering

  • The creation stories of Israel’s pagan neighbors depict the gods creating human beings so we will do their work for them.
  • The creation stories in Genesis portray God doing the work and creating human beings to enjoy and find our identity in him.

Maybe this is why we need the poor–to remind us that the production-driven sweat of the brow was not the original intent.

Are you tempted to find your identity, your worth in what you do or what you produce?

photo credit: http://flic.kr/p/58tMF1
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Categories
Faith Life

Sabbath Quiet: Change In The Air

Change always comes bearing gifts. ~Price Pritchett

change is in the air

Change

Change. Transiton. A shift, a bend, a scent on the wind. A twist in the plot, the way-it-has-been makes way for the unknown-that-will-be.

Days feel slippery. A school year begins, a move is made, the pace quickens as the air cools. And often we feel pushed. Christmas supplies crowd  pumpkin decor, while sunscreen and sand-pails pose, self-conscious, on the half-price shelf.

What is this relentless tug that refuses to let us stay in the present, to enjoy where we are?

Change. Is it curse or blessing, enemy or friend?

Susan Reed, a gifted photographer with an eye for nature’s enigma, gave me the photograph above and penciled one word on the back: Change.

A Spiritual Practice: Visio Divina

The image invites us to linger. Long before the printed word, God used the visible to speak, to draw humans to himself. A rainbow, a burning bush, a pillar of cloud and fire, a valley of dry bones. He invites us again today, through the ancient practice of Visio Divina–spiritual seeing.

Spend some quiet moments studying the photograph and ponder these questions:

  • As you look at the picture, what are you reminded of?
  • What feelings does it evoke?
  • What metaphors for your life do you notice?
  • What needs to die in your life so that new life can emerge?
  • What could God do if you were willing stand leaf-less and bare before him?

Feel free to share with us what you discovered in a comment below.

Now hear these words of assurance:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  James 1:17

For daily thoughts, quotes, prayers, be sure to Like my facebook page.

 Image ©2012 Susan Reed
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail