God is Life...

God is Life.

This could be the reason many have lost interest in God or should I say we have gained interest in so many things this life has to offer us. When life seems scarce and it does for many now—but always has for many more (i.e. the things we want are not readily available or to be had at all) a strange nervousness begins to pulse within and we begin frantically looking for some-thing to convince us we are alive. For the affluent among us (which I am too), this most often sets in as boredom and how many of us are bored right now in the midst of this pandemic, which has erased many of our life-defining activities (travel, entertainment, things, food, etc.). That these are problems not associated with the Gospel will be left to another who is more committed to Christ than I to explore.

In these times of lack it is easy to seek the things that have constituted our daily lives in new ways. We look for more ways to entertain ourselves. I do too. We look for other things to give us a clear sense of meaning in life. I do too. We look for opportunities to serve others for a deeper sense of significance. Anything will do that helps us to feel alive, to feel life within.

The trouble is in such moments of frantically searching for life all around us we miss the Unconditional Life within and that is unconditionally derived from God alone who is Life and that nothing—NOTHING—in the world can give to us. St. Augustine said it well in his Confessions:

“Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And see, you were within, and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you they had no existence at all.”

How often is this the case for most of us? We spend most of our lives, living for so many things, thinking therein that we will know some significance, some meaning, a sense of life and the problem may just be that we find just enough significance, meaning and life that we miss The Life God is in, with and through us with others. But, lest we be discouraged, the things of this life as with all things will run out for they are all—including us—temporal. And, it is precisely in the God who is Life—Eternally—that in his persistence, we can be as assured as a prodigal, that when we come to the end of things, and hopefully ourselves, God will continue to call…shout…flash…shine…until we know his very presence breathing in us. Consider the closing part of St. Augustine’s quote above. He finishes by re-minding us of this eternally persistent God…

You called, and shouted and, burst my deafness. You flashed, shone, and scattered my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I burned for Your Peace” (Confessions: Book X, Chapter XXVII, 38)

All God has to offer us is Life because that’s who God is. In this season of Lent, may we know God’s calling to us, shining all around us, literally breathing within us as we yet pant after the things of this life. And, then let us take that big deep breath—that God The Holy Spirit is—within and know ourselves alive—maybe for the firs time—maybe again—and worship the one true God and Jesus whom He has sent (c.f. John 17:3), who said, “I am The Way, The Truth and The Life.” (c.f. John 14:6).

May the song below help bring this blog to life, in your life, by worshipping The One who is Life…enjoy…

Advent-urous Re-Thinking

The meaning of our lives is the shore eroding under the relentless waves of our technological and marketing preoccupations. The traumatic nature of this unnatural disaster is that our capacity to see what is happening is being decreased and the sand on which we stand continues to erode beneath our feet. In the midst of this creation we say we enjoy The Creator still speaks build your life on rock so that when your winds and waves come you might stand (c.f. Matt ???)

Now, less you think this is some melodramatic and existentially indulged blog post let us consider the season we are fast approaching in December. These days (increasingly no different than the rest of the year) are inundated with information at a pace that is not only overwhelming but increasingly decreasing our ability to reflect on life and our living. There’s a shear and relentless restlessness among us. It comes from the information supplied by the marketeers among us who prod us to pay attention to that which is inherently ephemeral. This only increases in a season that is ironically about eternal things—The Eternal One. Anything to distract us from that which can save us will do. The irony is we have sold our God given capacity to reflect on our lives and to discover the meaning inherently within (i.g. Imago Dei) to those who would sell another meaning back to us in appliances, gadgets, and other things that will be sold at a fraction of the cost 8 years from now. At Christmas, the marketeers yet again have convinced us to trade our savings for His Salvation.

The sand beneath our feet is washing away and yet we stand with a smile on our face.

Advent, ironically, a season of such happiness, cards, gifts, togetherness and festivities is a penitential season in the life of the church.

Today, I hear an invitation for us to allow fro some Advent-urous Re-Thinking in our lives. Instead of allowing this years holidays, Christmas, or whatever we call it to come and go and to come out with nothing but the glazed over look of an experience that was self-indulgent might we close our eyes, withdraw from the frenzy and ask for The Gift of The Christ to be born within—again? That we might see the life we’ve been given and live?

There’s much more that could be said, and someone much smarter than I could wax eloquent on it, but the rest of this post can only be written in the intimacy of your own quiet time with God. My hope for us all this season is that God will help us to do some Advent-urous Re-Thinking—to know the meaning He has given us in the image we are made in and The Image that is born among us this Christmas, which will save us and restore to us the joy of His salvation.

As Merton’s title and my lack of footnotes (as if someone else could claim the right to some originality—there’s nothing new under the sun) suggest these thoughts in this post are Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.

Stillness: A Practical Spirituality for the Beleaguered

Right now, in life, we are beleaguered. Riots, protests, a pandemic, doing more with less people at work (i.e. the sickness of production and consumption), information overload, political in-fighting (I say in-fighting because we are all made in the image of God, right?), wild weather (fires, hurricanes, tornadoes…oh my). We are surrounded—on every side, and internally (if we are honest) by things that constantly compete for our attention and under the guise of being alarming (breaking news, this just in, happening now, live, and more). Right now, in life, we are beleaguered.

We do not know what to do and have become terrified and wearied that if we do not listen to these urgencies (and likely horrendous, horrific, or absurdly humorous) headlines at hand we’ll miss something informing how we should live—yet inwardly we are wasting away under the onslaught. The Apostle Paul says the opposite is true for the people of God, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day…” (2 Cor. 4:16). Our increasing incapacity to slow down by increasingly allowing our pace of life to be determined by things around us (external locus of control as psychologists say) is shriveling any sense of this one life we’ve been given to live. Stop. Think about it. Your life is being stolen from you as you watch for the messages meant to tell you how to live or what to be concerned about in this life.

In this lifestyle of frenzied urgency, this wavy Sea of Galilee, that’s becoming the norm we live in—The Normal One—Jesus of Nazareth—God in Our Flesh—steps and with each step stills the wavy seas of our lives. Have we ever invited God to step all over us…? Who’d even think such a thing? Be a doormat? No, surrender the centrality of our life to God. Those who want to know the God whose peace passes all understanding will invite God to dance on their lives like he did on the Sea of Galilee.

You may have never heard the name Jehoshaphat, hereafter, J. It is a strange name. He was one of the king’s over the southern portion of the kingdom of God’s people (i.e. Judah). I’ll recap a story that seems particularly relevant given the beleaguered place we find ourselves in at this time of life. King J was up against an army of a great multitude. He was afraid. He and the people of Judah turned to the Lord in prayer. They got a strange answer, but J had a strange name so makes sense, right? Anyway, King J said, “O our God, will you not execute judgment upon them? For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” Did you catch that? O our God—a personal sense of relationship with God. Will you not—this personal relationship presumes God will act on their behalf. We are powerless—an admission of their own human limitations before God. We do not know what to do—an admission of being at their wits end. But our eyes are on you—they turn to God as a beleaguered people.

God responds through the Prophet Jahaziel, I’ll paraphrase, listen, all of you—of social rank and no rank. Tomorrow go out and stand before this multitude that is ready to overwhelm you. This battle is not for you to fight; stand your ground—STAND STILL—and see God fight for you.

The story goes on to say the three people groups basically turn on each other and the people of Judah and King J watch—while what they thought would be their demise becomes the evidence of God’s protection before their eyes. They took a chance on God. Maybe, God deserves our being afraid if it means taking a chance on him again?

It’s counterintuitive.

We see life getting crazy, overwhelming, and more than we can handle and we buckle up trying to handle things on our own or just weathering the storm until it passes. We say things that aren’t true like, God won’t put more on you than you can bear. Do we know a God who overwhelms us or overshadows us? And, since when has life ever been what we could handle even on our best days? We are limited human beings who hopefully face our limits at some point. We want to believe we can do this. This only appeals to our self-referential ways of living. How we like to be seen by others. Deep down, our disordered desire to be invulnerable—to live without God in the world (c.f. Eph. 2:12).

Reconsider the story. What was the turning point? Was it God? No. It was Jehoshaphat’s awareness (and this only by God’s presence) that he was afraid (2 Chron. 20:3). Emotions are being welcomed by more of us but there is still much fear about our inner life or emotions not to mention the even deeper reality of The Spirit. This is more true for some than others, yet in my experience, the deeper we go within, the more frightening it can be for all of us. King J’s fear, or limits, precipitated his turning toward the Lord. I don’t buy people’s calling Christianity a crutch. I think they just haven't sufficiently allowed themselves to experience their own brokenness (before trying to fix it or muscle through it themselves) and need for a crutch or they have another crutch they won’t admit. I won’t digress or chase that anti-faith rabbit trail anymore. Contrary, to a self-driven and triumphalistic approach to life, the Bible, offers us to experience our lives, as they are, with God. This changes everything, most importantly us and our interactions with others.

And, the word from the prophet (c.f. 2 Chronicles 20: 15-17) was go out there, face that fear in the presence of the fear personified, in these three groups of people, that are after you and kick their #$@…NO…be still…be in your shear raw experience of life as it is—with me, God. So, is this a one off situation in the Bible? Is this just King J’s experience? Or, is this the status quo for the people of God—this being still before the shear reality of life as it is? Consider the following passages of Scripture:

How about Pharaoh and all of Egypt weighing down on the Israelites? Even more overwhelming than what King J faced? Here, God says to Moses, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (c.f. Exo. 14:14)

The Book of Psalms, which contains every emotional dilemma under the sun and specializes in people who are overwhelmed and bealaugred by life says, “Be still, and know that I am God…” (c.f. Psa. 46:10)

And, in the Gospel of John, Jesus to a group of dear friends, his disciples, whom he is getting ready to leave says, “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” The word for remain, literally can mean stay. Here are a group of disciples getting ready to be diagnosed as those who have separation anxiety and instead of being told to manage the edgy symptoms of it, King Jesus says to J, his disciples, you and me—step into your fear with God or invite God to step into your fear.

Ours is only to be still. Some will call it lazy and irresponsible. Maybe, our inordinate emotions that drive so many of us come from our individualistic oriented lives (i.e. self-driven or fallout from The Fall in our lives). Maybe…just maybe…they prefer to be afraid and so obsessively rush to their own limited resources and connections and ideas, which turns them more toward themselves instead of, as King J did, toward God. Let us not be this people. Let us be God’s people—those who turn more fully toward God in this life no matter what we face. Contrary to being weakness, it’s humility and humility always gets God’s action in our lives.

Be still—right now—and watch—for God to come to life in your life…

Another prophet, Isaiah, once said, “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” Let us turn toward the God who saves us from the things that seem to be the end of us for The God we see in Jesus the Christ—meets us at the end of ourselves…and restores us to life…always.

Here are a couple of songs to help with the work God is getting ready to do in your life…today.

Reflect on this sung prayer, I Don’t Have The Power, by Jason Upton or Surrounded (Fight My Battles) by Kari Jobe

Prayer a Close Encounter

Prayer is a face to face encounter. I wonder if this is why prayer is becoming increasingly uncommon and even unpopular in our time?

Is that a presumption on my part? Even judgmental some might say? There is something special about being face to face with another. Lovers look in the eyes of each other. But, at the other end of the relational spectrum when we are afraid we do not want to look in each other’s faces. And, in those moments of hatred and anger—all too common these days— we say things like, I want to look them in the eyes and see them suffer. This is when the face to face encounter intended to give us an experience of God through one another is taken in vain—for our own purposes—and possibly borders on the human equivalent of being blasphemouse and we desecrate the common image of God that is uniquely reflected through each one of us. This saddens me greatly these days.

This is why I believe prayer is more important than ever. Prayer is a face to face close encounter with God, ourselves and all of humanity. Prayer is the place where we draw close to one another in Love. This always changes the way we see each other and always increases the respect (to look twice) we have for each other as a human being made in the image of God.

In the Book of Exodus, we hear, “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. (Exodus 33:11). The context for this comment was the Tent of Meeting. This is where Moses discovered the inspiration that comes with a face to face encounter. Sometimes this phrase is translated as tent, but can also be dwelling place, tabernacle, and even sanctuary. There is something inherently sacred—or supposed to be—about our face to face encounters. From the negative, consider the moments when you feel the most saddened or angry with others. We say things like, they acted like I wasn’t even in the room thus implying you did not feel valued or seen. Prayer is a face to face encounter with God that has an implication, according to Exodus 34:29, “Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.”

In the Gospel of John we are told God became flesh and dwelt among us (c.f. 1:14). If we are going to have a face to face encounter with God where we come away with our faces shining it will most likely be through one another. Paul, a missionary, of the early church continues along the themes of these phrases (tent, tabernacle, sanctuary) saying, we are a temple of the Holy Spirit (c.f. 1 Cor. 6:19). Friends, we were made to know (experience in a bodily way with one another) a face to face encounter with God that makes all our relationships to shine with his glorious loving presence. This is where the healing, the deliverance, fresh courage is imparted to us and so much more when we can see the presence of God in our lives.

You can see now in the light of God’s presence why the dark ways we are relating to each other these days are heartbreaking and could easily make us want to turn our face away (stop praying and meeting each other face to face vulnerably). But, God does not turn his face away on the cross when our treatment of Him was unsightly. Therefore, let us ask God for a renewed passion to pray as a face to face encounter with Him and then trust our face will shine like the sun (as Moses) in the places we walk each day—inspiring others to pursue the God who longs to show us His face and the loving possibilities that remain for our face to face encounters with others.

Check out this song and ask God for the same passion to know a prayerful relationship with him as an everyday face to face close encounter: