Something I would write

Here is a story I would write if I had time. I'll speak to you now as if I read it and am giving you a brief synopsis of it.

I read a story recently and I want to share a little bit about it with you. It was the kind of story that has a bit of a wild awakening for a person who thought she was living real life.  She was from a people who were only allowed to know certain things about their own existence. The system of government they were subjected to was one that appealed to their desires and because their knowledge of things, outside their little world was withheld from them, they had no desire for anything but the very simple things they could see.  The story is written so that the reader also only knows and sees the simplicity of the place and time he is introduced to in the beginning.  It's a peaceful world, with no complex problems to solve. No one hurts anyone and everyone coexists without display of extreme emotion in any direction.  Only after reading for a while, does the outside observer begin to become very disheartened. I couldn't put my finger on why I started to feel discontent with the story. Something sinister was emerging from the lines on the page, though no antagonist was introduced. I realized, no one certain character stood out.  No conflict was developed and there was no climax to the story, but it kept going. I can't call it enjoyment, that kept me reading, but it was a kind of familiar recurring hum of life, a predictability mistaken for comfort.

I began to hate the story. I hated the people I met. The characterless descriptions of their amorphous faces annoyed me. How they disinterested me.  I hated that they loved their lives and were satisfied with what was in front of them.  I think I was disgusted that I had slowly been enticed into appreciation for the mundane. The story appealed to my fleshly affection for complacency and satisfaction with nothing of value. I was lured into accepting something worthless, and as a result, a sense of guilt for being fine with it, followed. I was actually hating my own thoughts.

Just at the right time, the author came through for me. What had been assaulting my consciousness with a contentment in emptiness, was vindicated.  An adventuresome boy came through a hole in the wall, that surrounded this small community, and spoke to a girl there. He took her by the hand and led her to the place where he was from.

His home was a frame of white and shadowing mountains, presenting soft and rolling foothills, tumbling out oranges and their blossoms on their grassy decent toward a blue ocean and oceans until her eyes could see no further.  Until that moment, distance wasn't even a word she knew. Her view had been the four walls around her town, never painted, always confining not just her, but anything she would have called an imagination.

Now, she held the human hand of a playful friend.  Her feet felt what distance makes a person feel, the urge to run, and she ran for the first time.  A million questions came tumbling from something called curiosity.  Is the sky open?   Can we touch the wall beyond that sea?  She wanted a way to process limitlessness. But the confines of her previous existence kept throwing square and grey definitions and expectations on everything.

There will be no final discovery in this place, only the apprehension of every new morning's first disclosure, over and over and over. It will be a Hide and Seek of conception and realization. You won't chart a graph of it. You will fatigue before you tire of it. No one can touch the wall on the other side of an endless sea! And yes, the sky is open.

There is nothing to do, but to wake up again tomorrow and discover, forever.

This is what the Kingdom of God is becoming for me.  If I could write it, I would.

Psalm 145:13

What Before is For

I,
forever
unsatisfied,
try and try to
Count em up,
the years of what
my life
amounts to.
Insurmountable
plows pull
all the grass
and dirt through,
years of vanity
waking, fretting
working sweating,
wishing, wanting
and never resting.
Every day's a brand
new questing for
the next floor
just one more,
higher
greater
straighter
finer
better than
what's behind me.
What's past can't
confine me,
but at last,
please remind me,
what's before, really
for?
Yesterday
didn't treat me
all that great,
fill me,
or make
me appreciate,
that I am dying,
a mortal crying,
and all my daily,
aching, pining,
was just me
striving, reaching,
hungering, thriving
for a new place;
a permanent arriving!
What's left here
of this dying grass;
and earth and earthworms
all amassed,
is purposed for that place
where days erase the
long dark nights
of wasted grace,
chasing me,
hastening me
to the grave.
Terrestrial song
sung no more
the slamming of
an opening door,
of light
and full enthronement
of sight and faith
united,
I was invited
I belong and longing
now requited.
Satisfied,
forever,
I.

A word of advice

This week and last, have provided many opportunities for getting advice.  We need advice. I heard advice from nine women at a small retreat in California. Nine different perspectives over four days proved very encouraging and sharpening to my solitary way of seeing life and ministry. I got advice from the couple that drove me to the airport.  So riveting was the conversation that we circled the airport and missed it twice. From them, I learned that true and strong ministries are built on our knees and sincere personal pursuit of Christ, not by being really good at something.  This got me thinking about self-reliance and how abortive it is to genuine acts of the Spirit of God. Faithfulness, Humility and Prayer allow God to accomplish it.

I came home and sought the advice of someone in Nashville, Napa and Hemet.  All three had a good word for me and some of what one person said differed very greatly from that of the others.

From all this, I have a word of advice for you: Accept all advice, not from fools, but from those who own true biblical insight. And do not be quick to call him a fool who disagrees with you.  If someone is disagreeing with you, that is the time to listen.  I find that God disagrees with me quite often, because I'm wrong a lot.  I'm blind a lot.  I'm proud.  I'm so good at giving advice to everyone but me.  So, it stands to reason that God, in his mercy, would send me people to shine the light for me. The burn that sudden light causes in a dark room is temporary.

When you get a piece of advice you can't use, don't crumple it up and throw it in the garbage can.  You will need it later.  Listen to it. Say thank you.  If it serves only to nick your pride, in the accepting of it without argument, you're the winner.  That loss of pride will help you see clearer to do the right thing.

I ask God for wisdom. I ask people for wisdom. I need to expect that the wisdom God brings through others is what I can use, even if it burns my eyes for a little while.  I wish I learned this earlier. I really do.

The Photo Award goes to....

Save the dirt

I love good preaching, don't you?  I love it when a man digs down deep in the dirt and brings up a diamond and gives it to the congregation (thank you Spencer's preaching professor at TMS for this analogy).

Truly gifted teachers, lead us through lists of names, historical annals, narratives, poetry and commands, to the pleading heart of God.  All their digging is done ahead of time and they are presenting something shiny that attracts our attention and makes us want to buy it at any cost.  This is an art.

The Professor said, "Don't give me the dirt, give me the diamond!"

We know the diamond is Christ, His glory, God's unsearchable wisdom revealed in words for us.  But what is the dirt?  For this Professor, I believe the dirt was all the boring part of the study that it took to get to the real jewel of the text.  To me, that is the dirt too. Ugh! Boring sermons! No thanks.
But there is a different kind of dirt I find very distracting.

A preacher who puts his personality first.  Arrogance. Multiple comments or jokes that make us see the man and not his Savior.  It's the carnality of bravado, the crowing of the insecure that make a sermon earthy and powerless.  In a word: Grass.

“ All flesh is like grass,

And all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

And the flower falls off,

But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

There is nothing more powerful and enjoyable than sitting in church or taking a walk, with ear buds in, and hearing the authoritative voice of a man, preaching with passion, standing so far behind God that you can hardly see him.  I just love that, don't you?

1 Peter 1:24,25

The right thing doesn't work

Don't do the right thing because it works. Many times it doesn't. Do the right thing because God works. He is always working.

Sometimes the right thing does work.  But we can't do it for that reason. We know that there are clear consequences to things we decide to do. I know that if I wash the dog, I will get wet.  That's why I don't wash him very often.  We know that telling a Toddler no, will get a response from him. We then have to deal with the response and then deal with the response to dealing with the response. It's hard work.

I learned something a few weeks ago from Paul Tripp that is rather obvious, but often overlooked.  He walked by his daughter's room and heard her crying in bed.  He came in and asked her to tell him what was wrong.  She told him that life was too hard with her parents, and she couldn't live up to their standards.  Paul told her, most sincerely, "neither can I, that's why I need Jesus."

This is true. Our loving heavenly Father is not about to lower his standard for us.  His law is Law.  And we cannot meet that standard for all our trying.  That's why we need Jesus.

It's good to be reminded that the answer is still, do what God says.  Do what is right. Don't lower the standard in your life for anything, not for dating, not for more pay, not for higher praise for yourself, not for friends, not for peace, not for comfort, not for happiness, not in raising your kids, not to get your way, and not because a high standard isn't "working"...not for anything!  But keep needing Jesus, to do the work. That's all.

Do the right thing because it is the right thing, and let God do the work.

Meditation really helps

1 Peter 1:3-9 and

how I read it last week.

Praise God! As much as he has given you mercy, praise him that much!
We get to start over.  He gave us another try at life.  With our new start, we have been given a hope that is alive -- we know because it comes from Someone who came back from the dead.

We've been given an inheritance that won't expire, can't be stolen, or ever completely spent.  It's waiting for you in heaven.  For You.  By the way, when I say "you" I mean the one who is being watched over and guarded through faith.  A greater, fuller salvation is coming!  (Oh yeah, your faith is even by God's power)

Rejoice - Rejoice! You know it's all true.  So this helps you, since for a little while (and sometimes it takes longer than we like, out of necessity to accomplish God's work) trials make you sad.  But this is rad.  You get to see how real and genuine your faith is, through these tests.  No gold or earthly treasure compares to that feeling!

So, welcome the fire, because when you see Jesus on that day -- When he shows his face to you, it will all be worth it to have magnified him now.  You don't see him yet -- but I know you love him.  You don't see him yet -- But You believe.

And you rejoice with great rejoice-y-ness (so much that your joy has joy) you can't even express it without making up words.  You are filled with glory, because you get to be saved from hell! That's what you get in exchange for your faith.