Obeying the Voice of God
When God prompts me with the right thing that I should be doing at that moment, too often I treat it like any other option that randomly pops into my head. But it's not random, it's purposeful. And it's not just any option, it's (by definition) the best thing, the right thing to do, because it's God's answer.
The counter question is what if it's not from God? What if it is just another option? Well, first, I started this thought on the assumption that you already know it's from God. Second, though, even if you're not sure, remember this: even when He's silent, God is present to everything that's happening within you, more present and more aware of all of it than you yourself are. So He's completely aware of this thought entering your mind. If you're like me, you need to deepen your obedience. So what you need is to practice obedience. As long as it's not clearly destructive, it's better to obey it (and practice in good faith obedience in the assumption that it is from God) than to not, and thereby reinforce autonomy, cynicism, and the like.
See the Better Picture
In the Reading Writers podcast, the April 21, 2017 episode titled “What does it mean for Christians to tell a better story?” They say that we need to paint a better picture, tell a better story. But before we can do that, the foundation for doing that is that we ourselves see the better picture, know and believe the better story.
What You Need for Hope
John 1:6-8, 19-28; Luke 7:2-35
I wish I could tell you that it will be easy. I wish for myself that it was easy. I wish that following Jesus in every moment, seamlessly weaving His glory and wisdom and love into every action and conversation was as natural as breathing. But I know it's not that easy for me, and I'll bet it's not that easy for you. But was it even easy for John the Baptist?
In Luke 7 we see John, trapped in prison, sending his followers to ask Jesus if He was really the Expected One, the Messiah. John! The one who recognized Jesus as “the Lamb of God,” who baptized him! How could he doubt? His followers had just told him about Jesus healing someone from miles away, and Jesus bringing a dead man to life. How could John possibly think that anyone else could be the Messiah? And if John could think that, with all that firsthand and secondhand proof, then how can we ever be confident and secure in our faith?
As an answer, Jesus quotes variations on phrases from Isaiah 35:5-6, all of which were true: people being healed from all sorts of maladies and infirmities. But I have to think Jesus knew that John knew what came right before that passage. In Isaiah 35:3-4 it says “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, 'Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.'”
We don’t know the entire terrain of John’s journey, either geographical or spiritual. We don’t know how deep his doubt was, or how long he held it. And we know that Jesus, presumably somehow for the glory of God, did not act to spring John from prison. But to the one who had so boldly prepared the way for the Awaited One, but had fallen into doubt, Jesus pointed forth to the fulfillment of all things, which we still wait for today.
Waiting is not easy. But God, who knows and loves you infinitely, will not leave you without hope. He knows what you need to build your hope. That doesn’t mean easy answers. But if you want to hope, if you want to find hope in Him, you will be provided what you need to build and cling to His hope, to reach out and cling to Him.
Mimicked Symbols
Does it bring any glory or credit or power to Jesus if someone who's never heard of Him wears a cross, say, as a necklace? If a person owns a T-shirt with a Bible verse printed on it in English, but can't themselves read or understand English, and they wear it among people who also understand no English, does it bring praise or worship to God? Do Bible verses or Christian symbols carry some magic power in and of themselves, or is the power carried by the meaning known to the people who see or read or understand it? If a shaman, completely unfamiliar with the Bible or Christianity, happens to utter one of the many names of the living God in one of his spells, does the spell suddenly carry more power?
Similarly, if a non-Christian religion takes natural objects, objects created by the living God, and modifies and uses those objects in ways that dishonor the Creator and His intent for people and such objects, are those objects or objects like them permanently ruined? Do such objects inherently and unchangeably carry a power that honors the false God? And if the pattern or design of such objects is copied, mimicked by people who don't know the way they were twisted, don't know the meaning that the false religion assigned to the objects or patterns, are those later people inherently and unchangeably honoring the false religion, worshipping the false god?
Emotional Precision
I want to not focus on the latest tragedies, at any given time. I don't want to be manipulated by events and media coming from other places and people. Part off that is probably a resistance to the out-of-control feeling of grieving. Grieving for those we knew, or had some substantive connection to, is legitimate and appropriate. But I have a harder time allowing myself to be drawn into the flood of emotion, the helpless feeling of drowning, swept away and around by the currents of events and of evil, for people I only have a tenuous, distant connection (if any) to.
Instead I make efforts to resist this wearying overwhelming, while not cynically denying the humanity of the grieving, or the legitimacy of their pain. One way I do this is to look for the bigger picture. If someone was killed, and injustice in that instance sprang forth, however painful and real the event was, was it an anomaly or part of a pattern? Is it part of an improving pattern, or are things worsening? Is it possible that this event was bad, but the overall pattern is one of improvement? Can we acknowledge and support the legitimacy of mourning and passion for an event, but see a measure of hope in positive movement in a larger pattern?
What I don't want is for an evil instance to overshadow a better pattern, for the unjust anomaly to become an excuse for politicians to grab power to solve a problem that already is moving in a positive direction. And of course if there really is a pattern of festering, unaddressed injustice, and the nature of the problem is truly responsive to governmental action, then I absolutely would support action to address that.
But in my understanding and observation and experience, the problem most often is not that new principles and laws need to be created and put into practice. Creating effective law is hard, and fraught with the gravity towards unintended consequences. Much more often the requisite principles are already embodied in existing laws and structures; they are just not being implemented in good faith, with a full effort.
Continual Presence
God is shaping you in each mundane moment
In rain and blue sky
He works within and without
Each thought, passing or profane,
Arises in His presence,
His holy, loving presence
Black Boxes of Mystery in Our Heads
We have all put together in our head the way we think the world works. If x goes into process A, then y will come out of it. But if we all have a different understanding of how the black box of mystery that is Process A actually works, we will come to very different conclusions. So if one person's life experiences and the explanation for the world that they received growing up said that guns are powerful but necessary tools that help keep safe the people we love, then it's natural to say that people at a mass shooting would be safer if a few responsible people with guns were there.
But if you were raised only seeing guns in the movies, only as tools of violence and destruction, if you've never seen a need for one in your own direct experience, and no one has explained to you the legitimate uses for guns and how they can be a natural, even reassuring and comforting thing, then the idea that a chaotic scene of carnage would be limited or even stopped by private citizens with guns would seem ludicrous. You're likely instead to think that more guns would have only led to more chaos, more madness and death.
We all have ideas in our heads about how the world really works.
This is a Cup
I remember the old game where people sit in a circle and pass around simple items (like a cup), saying "This is a cup. A what? A cup. A what? A cup. Oh, a cup." And then they would pass the item, receive a different item, and continue the game.
I'm reminded of this game during communion today. Every week we do basically the same things, over and over again. It's similar to this game. "This is a cup." Then the presider often gives a meditation that answers some part of the question "A what?" We go through this weekly, repeatedly, like the game. And we need the repetition. Eventually we hopefully "get it," saying "Oh, a cup."
Weekly communion doesn't at all have to devolve into trite, rote, meaningless repetition. Sometimes the repetition is more like the hammering of a nail. Every hit of the hammer was necessary to get the nail where it was meant to go. We need every iteration of the Table to allow God to work on us.
Can Science Ask Why?
The title question occurred to me when on the show Wild Kratz they asked the question, "Why do monkeys have these particular features etc.?" Upon hearing this, I wondered if "why?" was the right thing for them to be asking. My understanding of the word Why is that deals in meaning. And science, by definition, cannot deal with meaning. It can discuss mechanisms, causes and effects, and consequences, but strictly speaking, it's only talking about what mechanically happens, not why something happens in the first place. Meaning, per se, is outside the legitimate bounds of scientific inquiry.
God Pours
A kind of vision:
God does not just pour into each individual, like one jar, isolated and alone. Instead, He is pouring into everyone, and when we are together, the overflow pools together into an overflowing stream. God's goodness and grace and mercy flows also through Creation. We uniquely bear account of His deeds throughout history. Creation outside of humanity doesn't need that memory. It is our responsibility to remember, but we don't do so to tell the plants and animals about God's amazing goodness and mercy. We need that memory carried forward. Our offspring, the generations to come, need that memory carried forth to them.
All of these accounts and praises merge together to be one spring, one united source.
Fish Teaching Water
Every generation forgets to teach the next the things that seem obvious to it.
Mary the Mother
“The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?"”
Luke 1:30-34 NASB
http://bible.com/100/luk.1.30-34.nasb
Gabriel tells Mary a list of amazing aspects of the announcement. They include divine power, the fulfillment of prophecies centuries in the telling, the amazing intervention of the God of Israel in the affairs of the entire world. And, seemingly not even hearing the rest of the announcement, Mary gets hung up on the very first point. “Did you say, pregnant? Me? How on earth could that happen?“ Her bafflement is understandable. But at the moment it just strikes me as a bit humorous that she doesn’t get stars in her eyes or delusions of grandeur at the idea that she will be the mother of a king on David’s throne, let alone the mother of God. She is completely blown away by the mere thought of her becoming a mother at all in her current situation.
Fully Present
Advice for myself: stop living in yesterday; stop living in tomorrow. Stop having imaginary conversations and debates in your head. Be fully present to this moment, in this place, and pray that the Holy Spirit will speak to and work through you here and now.
Revealing the Roots of Shame
Does knowing the root of your own shame help you overcome the ongoing experience of shame? Is it possible that knowing the root could be actually counterproductive to reducing or eliminating the ongoing shame?
It occurs to me this morning that, perhaps, God will not reveal to me the source and/or the root of my shame, if my intention is in any way to seek vengeance on whomever was responsible for that cause. But maybe, if my goal is solely healing, purely gaining greater health in my heart, mind, and soul, then maybe that increases the odds God will reveal to me the parties responsible for my ongoing shame.
Perhaps the responsible party is myself, in some way that I have not previously discerned.
In any case, I need to keep remembering that God‘s guidance is good. I need to remember that He has my best interest, and the best interest of everyone, in mind as He acts or allows others to act.
Evidence of Mercy
Everything of value in my life is the result of mercy, the evidence of mercy.
Shallow vs. Deep
There's a difference in the depth of our response to a situation between being conditioned by social conventions versus having given serious thought and deep consideration to the pros and cons and nuances of how we respond to that situation. If pressure is applied to a person, convictions shaped by social conventions are more likely to be swept away by circumstances than convictions arrived at by thought and care that anticipates common counterarguments.