LOVE TEACHES

2 Chronicles 33:14-34:33; Romans 16:10-27; Psalm 26:1-12; Proverbs 20:19

“When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes…. ‘Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.’”

“And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.”

“Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart.”

From now through Easter, my current plan (subject to wherever the Spirit leads) is to do a mini-series on love. Specifically, I will look at love through the microscope of Christ’s Passion to try to decipher all the things Jesus did in the name of love that fateful week, and in the days leading up to it. I’m betting the Scriptures we are scheduled to read may just give us a little additional context for our journey from Bethany to the Cross and beyond. But if not, well then, most of Chronicles is a repeat of Kings anyway, right? So, onward.

One of the most often overlooked and underappreciated things love does begins our trip. Love teaches. In fact, love itself must be taught. It is not a spontaneous reaction, nor is it our natural response to much of anything. Think back to infancy. A child knows nothing of love at first. He or she is all basic needs and desires. A more self-centered time would be hard to imagine. A baby does not worry about being disruptive or inconvenient or even downright annoying. They will do what they can to get what they want when they want it. That’s pretty much all they know. They are impressed from the beginning with a “me first” mentality.

However, if they are fortunate, our little ones begin to understand there is something more than duty that spurs the actions of a parent. Two AM is actually a quite wonderful hour to spend quality time with a baby after their needs have been fulfilled. Not capable of true gratitude, yet, they nonetheless respond to kindness and the sense of safety provision brings. We begin to learn even at that ungodly hour that being with another person is a very good place to be. At the same time, parents begin to see sacrifice in an entirely different light. The child cannot yet express gratitude, but in the solitude of the wee hours, the perceptive mother or father learns again that the point of sacrifice is not to inflate our own egos, but to protect and build up others. Love reminds us that overt rewards and recognition are not necessary; the gift of closeness to another human being is worth our sacrifice. Even as it simply lays in our arms sleeping, a baby gives far more than it takes. Love rewards both parent and child with a personal significance and importance they could never achieve otherwise.

Of course, love teaches us in many other ways as well.  Love teaches right from wrong. Josiah learned a better way to lead his people when the scroll of the Law was found. Again, the way of the Lord obviously is not a course people follow instinctively. The Old Testament is all about the Hebrews learning to come near to God, only to fall away. The fact they did not learn did not mean they were not taught repeatedly. The Spirit and its prophets showed them continually that right is not just right as a moral absolute; right is right because it actually works best for us. Still, we insist on experimenting with our lives, seeking alternatives that we think give us better personal returns, whatever the cost to others. We have to be taught not to be so self-centered.

In a similar vein, as Paul writes, love also teaches us who to befriend, as well as how. We all know people who suck the life out of every relationship they have. There are stark examples of others who just “fell in with the wrong crowd” and came to ruin as a result. Love teaches us a better way to live. Live with those who understand love. Stay away from those who deceive, who teach things other than the lessons of love. They serve no one but themselves. They drain and do not fill. This is not to say we should not love them. Christ’s sacrifice was for all people, particularly those who have forgotten how to love. But Scripture is equally clear that Jesus only called those friends who did as He taught. Love teaches the right kind of friendship. In fact, it’s a prerequisite to all that is good about friendship.

Finally, love teaches us the necessity of self-examination. More specifically, it teaches us to look at our lives the way God does, to submit ourselves to the judgments of the Holy Spirit and accept His prescription for our salvation. In a word, love teaches us to lead our hearts, because even our hearts can be deceived. Love ultimately teaches us it is more a decision that a feeling, more a commitment than an emotion. Surely, those who live on the periphery of love may mistake lesser things for it. But true love, as we experience it, teaches there is no substitute worthy of the name.

As we embark on our journey toward Passion Week, let us each take stock of our lives. Where are we frustrated; where does life just not seem to be working for us like it should? What is preventing us from learning the lessons of love? Christ doubtless has much to teach us in the next ten days or so, and beyond, but He will graciously wait until we are willing to begin our studies. We should start with an honest assessment of ourselves and our behavior. To the extent that what we do does not reflect love and is not motivated by love, we still have much to learn.

PREPARING FOR WAR

2 Chronicles 32:1-33:13; Romans 15:23-16:9; Psalm 25:16-22; Proverbs 20:16-18

“They organized a huge work crew to stop the flow of the springs, cutting off the brook that ran through the fields. For they said, ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come here and find plenty of water?’ Then Hezekiah worked hard at repairing all the broken sections of the wall, erecting towers, and constructing a second wall outside the first. He also reinforced the supporting terraces in the City of David and manufactured large numbers of weapons and shields.”

“For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.”

“May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.”

“Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice.”

Easter is coming. First, though, there is a war to be fought. The battle is not for land or political control; it is for eternal life and personal control. Nonetheless, it is a fight to the finish. There can only be one survivor. Life or death. Salvation or damnation. Saint or sinner. Christ or Satan. I’m no authority, but it’s a safe bet that few, if any, of us take the spiritual conflict that is Passion Week seriously enough. Oh, sure, some of us give up things we can afford to be without during Lent. We go to church a couple of extra times and think we have experienced the sacrifice and joy of Easter. Pity us. That’s just the way Satan wants it. If we don’t make Passion Week real, if we do not pause to appreciate the deep realities of what happened those 2000+ years ago and the impact those things have had on all the years since, Christ’s sacrifice will have no more significance that a nursery rhyme or bedtime tale. The sheer repetition of the story has numbed us to the radical reversal of fortune Christ’s sacrifice and Resurrection began in the hearts, souls and lives of all those who call Him Savior. May that not be the case this year. Let us begin to fully and completely engage today in all the emotions and pain and joy that the Easter Season raises. But initially, let us prepare ourselves – and allow the Lord to prepare us as well – for the spiritual war to come.

Hezekiah’s preparation for his upcoming war with Sennacherib of Assyria was more than prudent. It was sheer genius. He began by looking for the good things that could be used against him in the wrong hands. He took the steps needed to insure they did not become weapons in Sennacherib’s control. He cut off the water to his own fields.

It’s funny how life and death situations have a way of clarifying our priorities. Cutting off the water was a death knell for the Hebrew fields and crops for the year. It was a sacrifice that would set the people back for months, if not years, even if they were fortunate enough to survive the coming crisis. But Hezekiah was honest enough with himself, his people and his God to recognize and own the fact that abundant crops would mean little to anyone but the victor. Further, he honestly admitted there could be no victory for the Jews as long as their agricultural bounty and water could be conscripted for the enemy’s use. This makes me wonder what good things I am holding onto that my Enemy might use to enslave me. The list, I fear, is daunting. Job; finances; family obligations; charitable work; recreational time; boy toys; and even religious activities all can be taken advantage of and become potent weapons of Satan when not restricted to the appropriate priority in our lives. Yes, even religious activities can become our adversaries when they get out of balance or become more a panacea than a living enactment of faith. All of us know at least one someone who literally hides behind the appearance of religiosity. They can do “pious” with the best of us. But when the chips are down, their so-called “faith” is revealed as little more than an ineffective, toy shield which was never constructed or reinforced to withstand the stress of actual battle.

This year is as good as any and better than most to take stock of all we have and all we can do without. Especially, we are wise to take a hard look at anything we are clinging to as if our life depended on it that is not Christ. Even good things become bad when we want them too much or begin to think we cannot live without them. A good, basic rule for this Easter season might be that if something doesn’t help us float or fly, jettisoning it could be the best option.

Which gets us to the next point. By shutting off the water to his fields, Hezekiah also did another brilliant thing strategically: he reduced the area he had to defend. There is a lot in each of our lives we think we have to fight for. Passion Week is a time for us to think again. There is no benefit to fighting battles we cannot win, or to contesting ownership of things we cannot and should not control. Children, for example, are only ours for a season, no matter how much we would will it differently. Nothing is more pathetic than the clingy or possessive parent who tries to hang onto his/her child well past adulthood. We may want to fight to protect our kids, but there comes a time when every man and woman must fight for themselves. We cannot fight everyone’s battles. Our best option is to try to ally as many as possible with Christ, so He can fight with and for them. Alienating others by trying to protect them from every challenge or adversity is lousy strategy in any context.

Finally, Hezekiah fortified what he had to protect in anticipation of the coming onslaught. The best time to enrich our marriages is not necessarily in the middle of an attack.  Marriages that last are those prepared for the hard times by thoughtful consideration and nurturing before the stressors come. A consistent savings and investment plan is the best hedge against a recession. The next couple of days is a great time to take a look around and identify and strengthen the weaknesses closest to our hearts and homes. Maybe we are not as committed to our spouses as we said we’d be. Perhaps that little white lie is now bearing the wrong kind of fruit and needs to be pruned clean off our lives. Or maybe, we’ve just gotten lazy and taken things for granted that actually needed our attention. Whatever the weaknesses of our lives may be, as in the walls of Jerusalem, we can be sure some vulnerabilities exist. We do well to fix and fortify them now, before the storm.

There is certainly a time for feeling all the emotions and passions of Passion Week. Before then, however, there is a time to prepare ourselves to more fully experience and appreciate them. Some think this is done best by simple reading and contemplation. I say that is just another form of retreat from the reality of the lashings and the injustice. We are sinners about to see the very real effects our sins can have on other people, especially those who love and care for us the most. It is no answer to our regret and pain to reduce them to a cliché. Christ died a real and painful death as the price and consequence of our real and painful sins. Until we accept the fact that our hands also had hold of the hammer that drove the nails through His Body and into the Cross, we will never fully appreciate Easter. That is a revelation requiring some advance preparation. Let us all gird our loins for the coming battle with ourselves, as well as with the Evil One. 

GOOD NEWS!

2 Chronicles 30:1-31:21; Romans 15:1-22; Psalm 25:1-15; Proverbs 20:13-15

“In all that he did in the service of the Temple of God and in his efforts to follow God’s laws and commands, Hezekiah sought his God wholeheartedly. As a result, he was very successful.”

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them.”

“Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.”

“Wise words are more valuable than much gold and many rubies.”

Today is a day for good news. But then, so is every day. There is just no reason to buy into gloom and doom or the idea that our best days are behind us. We have a much more positive story than that to share with the world. We have a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe, and He cares for us and about us. We are freed from guilt, since the penalty for our sins has been paid in full by Jesus. We are never alone, because the Holy Spirit lives within us. We are promised what we need and given the power to be overcomers of the world. So, why do we still allow ourselves to feel blue? My bet is it’s because we forget who and Whose we are in the daily grind of life. We get to thinking that our happiness depends solely on us, and that alone is enough to put many of us into a real funk. We are only human, after all. No one can live in euphoria all the time. It’s only natural that some days be better than others. But what Christ calls us to is a life where we can never fall so far that we fall out of His ability and willingness to reach us and to share His joy with us.

Hezekiah was a success for several reasons. Initially, he lived to serve the Lord. What he did, he did for God, first, last and in the middle. He not only followed the Lord’s laws and commands but looked for opportunities to seek Him out in the ordinariness of everyday life. In other words, Hezekiah was creative as well as obedient. He sought God wholeheartedly, not just when it was convenient or expected, but all the time! As a result, both he and his people were happier and more prosperous than they had been in a long time. The bottom line is that he shared his joy with others.

Paul lived to put others first. His first thoughts were always centered on his brothers and sisters in the faith. The blessings he desired he first prayed for others. Confident hope comes through the power of the Holy Spirit, and Paul was determined to introduce as many as possible to that saving relationship. Like Hezekiah, Paul was all about sharing joy.

We ought to adopt that same mission. No one can always be happy, because happiness depends too much on external circumstances. But joy is another thing entirely. Joy does not depend on circumstances but on our relationship with, and our reliance on, the Holy Spirit. When we feel down or upset, it usually is a pretty safe bet that we are looking at the wrong thing. When we feel lost, we are not likely to be following the right guide. There’s no reason we cannot be filled with joy in spite of our circumstances. We just have to keep letting the Spirit work on us, in us and through us. Joy simply requires focus on One greater, stronger and holier than we are. Christ came to earth to reach out to us because we could not reach high enough to grasp Him on our own. Because He did so, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Rejoice! Give thanks! Share the Good News! Abundant life is not something we have to wait for. Joy is possible in any circumstance. Our opportunity to experience it is right in front of us, and in us, already.

Christ wants to lead us not only to Him, but to the eternal joy the Holy Spirit is just waiting to share with us. All we have to do is be obedient to His plan for our lives and stop working so hard to make our own way in the world. God knows the best way for us, and He created us to uniquely fit His plan for our lives. Let’s quit swimming against the current of His love and just decide to be who He created us to be. We need be no more. Besides, we can never be fulfilled if we try to do anything else.  

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

2 Chronicles 29:1-36; Romans 14:1-23; Psalm 24:1-10; Proverbs 20:12

“In the very first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them.”

“For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

“Ears to hear and eyes to see--both are gifts from the Lord.”

“Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter.”

A week ago, I was skiing in the mountains of New Hampshire with my two sons. During that mini-vacation, I was determined to continue posting daily entries into this blog. There was just one problem: the Internet connection in the place we were staying was very much hit and miss. I could be seen at various times carrying my computer all over our complex, trying to capture a viable signal. For those who are interested, I finally found one about 5 in the morning in our bathroom. No, it was not available at other, more reasonable times; I tried. And I am not going to tell you how I discovered its availability in the first place. Suffice it to say I spent the early morning hours hunkered over my computer on the bathroom floor, pounding out my usual hunt-and-peck style typing, continually feeling there had to be a better way to communicate.

Come to think of it, my circumstances in New Hampshire mirrored a situation I all too often also experience at home and wherever else I may be. I try to pray, try to effectively communicate with God, but keep experiencing technical difficulties. It’s just not the right time. I’m not “feeling” it. There are things I’d prefer to keep to myself and not share with anyone, let alone Jesus. I just don’t have the words. The hurt is too great. There are as many reasons not to come before the Throne as there are human beings to conjure them up.  But at the end of the day, any such technical difficulties have the same effect they do in any other application: we miss the opportunity if we allow them to stop us.

 Today’s Scriptures from 2 Chronicles and Psalms share a common theme. Each addresses technical difficulties, and the opening of the Temple doors which were required to overcome them. Hezekiah came to power on the heels of one of the most corrupt Kings Judah ever knew. His father, Ahaz, had shut the doors of the Lord’s Temple so that no one could worship there, in order to force the people to worship pagan gods. David prayed for the King of Glory to once more occupy the Tabernacle. We pray that the doors of our hearts will be opened to the love and grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In every case, the world tries to make an actual relationship with the Holy Spirit difficult. Christians, though, have a sure-fire way to overcome the technical difficulties that come between us and our Creator.

Honor the Lord, first and foremost. So often, our spiritual communication is limited to the ritual of ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication) or a literal to-do list for God to bless and assist that we forget to give Him at least equal time to speak to us. We need to remember that prayer and spiritual communion, like any good relationship, require time for mutual expression and response. Some technical difficulties are not difficulties at all, only reminders to put God and His Will first. Since we cannot truly honor anything to which we will not devote sufficient time, we need to stop rushing our relationship with the Spirit. We also should not forget that the Lord also probably has His list of things to address with us as well. Any good relationship takes time. We cannot claim to have a connection with our heavenly Father if we will not make time to talk with Him, rather than just to or at Him.

Second, we have to be willing to accept the answers we are given. Just because Yahweh chooses not to answer our prayers in a positive way does not mean our prayers have no force or audience. It just means “no” means “no.” If we are going to communicate effectively with God, we have to be willing to reconcile ourselves to the “nos” in our lives. They are not necessarily malfunctions in the prayer process.

Third, we have to make a commitment to be quiet. One of my favorite verses, from Isaiah, is “in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Yet so often, we mistake volume and busyness for power and significance that we forget altogether that salvation can never be earned, only accepted. We give up most of our strength when we allow ourselves to become over busy or too loud. We must not get so caught up in accomplishment that we ignore the nourishment our souls require. For any achievement to have meaning beyond the moment, it needs to be shared. If we would share our efforts with our Father, we must do so in stillness and give Him a chance to get His Word in edgewise, too.

Finally, when attempting to overcome the “technical difficulties” which would separate us from the Source of Life, we must remember we are captives in a world not our own. Understand Satan will throw as much interference at us as we allow him to muster. The Prince of this world does not take kindly to those who would bypass him on the way to meet their Creator. He loves nothing better than the well-timed detour or the well-placed roadblock. He will do whatever he can to separate us from the love of God. If we allow it, then shame on us. We are overcomers, made in the image of the Lord Himself! As such, we have the right and ability to tell ol’ Slewfoot to take a hike. But we have to mean it, and we may also need to repeat it until we believe it ourselves. Satan does not given in easily, but he will surrender if we fight him clothed in the full armor of God.

A thoughtful prayer life may sound like an ideal from an earlier generation that has little or no relevance to people today, but nothing could be farther from the Truth. God very much wants to go one-on-one with each of us, and nothing makes Him happier than when, in His power, we say no to the Devil and His distractions. We were not created to be wimps, and it is time for us to quit acting otherwise. Be bold! Approach the Throne of Glory with expectation and exuberance.  There is nothing that cannot be overcome, and nothing that Christ will not overcome on our behalf if we give Him the chance. Technical difficulties only cause problems if we let them. Instead, let’s let the Holy Spirit transcend and overcome them, so that we might know and love the Father even as the Father has known and loved us from the beginning. He will graciously give us ears to hear Him and eyes to see Him; they are ours for the asking and guaranteed for eternity!

PLAYING OUR POSITION

2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27; Romans 13:1-14; Psalm 23:1-6; Proverbs 20:11

“But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall. He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the sanctuary of the Lord’s Temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar….Azariah the high priest went in after him with eighty other priests of the Lord, all brave men. …‘It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord…. The Lord God will not honor you for this!’ Uzziah, who was holding an incense burner, became furious. But as he was standing there raging at the priests before the incense altar in the Lord’s Temple, leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead. … So King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died.”

“Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.”

“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.”

“Even children are known by the way they act, whether their conduct is pure, and whether it is right.”

Truly, a haughty spirit goes before a fall. From monarch to pauper, no one is immune from the pitfalls of pride. It is a contagion. Let us begin feeling good about ourselves, and suddenly, we want more of everything. Particularly bad cases of conceit even invade the provinces of others. When we begin doing things for which we have no qualifications whatsoever, it’s almost a sure bet we are riding a wave of arrogance. Blinded by egotism, we see nothing clearly, least of all ourselves. Uzziah lost himself just like any person can do in the midst of great accomplishment and blessing. He quickly learned political achievement does not necessarily translate into spiritual authority. Uzziah had to learn, or relearn, to take orders from a higher authority. The most interesting thing, though, is how angry Uzziah got when told that incense burning was not part of his job description. Instead of being content with the authority and responsibility he did have, Uzziah became infuriated when he could not “have it all.”

Since the dawn of mankind, people have lusted after forbidden fruit. It matters not that we have access to all the other produce in the garden. Let us know that any one thing is off limits, and we suddenly want no other.  We do not like being denied anything, and when it happens, we become slaves to our frustration and greed.

The Holy Spirit gives us good counsel in today’s Scripture. Via the 23^rd Psalm, the Bible makes clear our lust for things we do not and cannot have is a completely useless emotion. Older translations admonish us, telling us that we “shall not want.” Of course, that’s a little like being told not to think of a blue horse. Over the years, our consistent inability to refrain from covetousness apparently led translators to a slightly different translation today, “I have everything I need.” The point is the same: don’t covet or lust after what we don’t have. However, the new translation gives us clear justification for the command. We already are complete in Jesus.

That bears repetition: we have Christ. Consequently, we have all we need. Whatever else we may work for or earn, the one thing we most desperately require has already been freely and completely given. All we have to do is accept it. There’s no need to chase after every recognition or accomplishment available, because we already know where we will stand on Judgment Day.

God created each of us with a uniquely individual purpose. Attempting things for which we are not equipped or called by God is just plain counterproductive. In fact, when we do attempt to “play out of position,” we are getting in the way of those who are qualified to do the job, and we rob them of the blessing of carrying it out. More personally, we can get distracted from our own mission when we try to do too much.

We need to resist the temptation to compete with our Christian brothers and sisters. Clothed with Christ, there’s nothing else we need. In fact, there’s just no reason to even indulge our fantasies of fame. What is human notoriety when the Creator of the Universe has already granted us a private audience and written a part for which we are uniquely suited? There’s just no reason to try to be something we aren’t. What we are is sufficient, for we are backed by the full faith and credit of the Holy Spirit.

TRANSFORMED - FOR BETTER OR WORSE

2 Chronicles 24:1-25:28; Romans 12:1-12; Psalm 22:19-31; Proverbs 20:8-10

“But after Jehoiada’s death, the leaders of Judah came and bowed before King Joash and persuaded him to listen to their advice. They decided to abandon the Temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and they worshiped Asherah poles and idols instead! Because of this sin, divine anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem.”

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

“The poor will eat and be satisfied. All who seek the Lord will praise him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.”

“Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart; I am pure and free from sin’?”

Transformation takes place in a lot of different ways at a lot of different times. We go from child to teen to young adult.  We get married, go to work, or both. We become parents or begin taking care of our own parents. We have kids, or ulcers, or some of each, perhaps even one because of the other. We get sick, and we die. Each part of life is a transforming process. None of it leaves us unaffected or unchanged. We need to be careful, though, of how life would change us, and of the creatures into which we allow ourselves to be transformed. We are never left without a choice as to how life’s circumstances affect us. The problem arises when, in the middle of a transforming event, we forget to exercise our choice. When we do not actively work with the Spirit to help assure an outcome and transformation pleasing to our Savior, we allow circumstances more control over our lives than Christ, which is a very bad place to be.

This is exactly what happened to Joash. He began as a King who did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight. He was surrounded by good, supportive people, none a better friend than Jehoiada, his priest and mentor. But then Jehoiada died, and a transformation took place in Joash which turned him from disciple to heathen and murderer overnight. It would be no stretch to speculate that the death of Jehoiada so grieved Joash that he came to feel he could no longer trust God. In any event, no longer was God first in Joash’s life. Joash thus was seduced by those who advised abandonment of the Temple in favor of idol worship. In short, Joash did not effectively manage the transformation of grief and so became vulnerable to bad advice and worse temptations.

Years ago, I had a dear friend who lost a baby in childbirth. Previously a very spiritual man, this loss flummoxed him. He and his wife wrestled their despair for over a decade but never were able to reconcile their child’s death with the idea of a loving God. Their grief transformed them both into much more fragile, brittle and superficial individuals. Eventually, each became dissatisfied with the other’s ability to meet their needs, undoubtedly in large measure because neither could assuage the other’s sorrow. Both allowed misery to fester until it completely eroded their marriage. Adultery was the predictable result, and finally divorce. This sad – and completely understandable – story makes a critical point. Grief, stress and anxiety can all transform our personalities and desires as effectively as faith, love and mercy. It falls to us to decide how we will be transformed, and by what.

Change is inevitable. We grow or we die. How we do so has a lot more to do with the way we allow ourselves to be transformed than we may think. My friends did not choose to be changed as they were, to have their marriage and, to a large extent, their lives destroyed by the unspeakable tragedy of their lost child. But then, Satan rarely asks permission to take over our lives. He does not have to. He simply has to wait until we tire of seeking the Holy Spirit’s power and will for our lives and start trying to gut things out on our own. We weaken; Beelzebub cuts us from the herd of Christian fellowship; and we become victims of his nefarious plots to destroy us. It is that simple, and that deadly.

Paul doubtless also experienced the temptation to give up on Christ, to give in to the transformation of the Evil One. Persecuted, stoned, afflicted without relief, and rejected by those he most yearned to share the Gospel with, Paul could have become bitter and vengeful. We know he had it in him; he had Saul in Him. But Saul had been completely transformed by the work of Christ, and Paul had no intention of going back to that life. His salvation, therefore, was not a one-time thing. It was, in part, learned behavior. In the midst of every crisis, Paul was always quick to remind himself that the love and grace of Christ had saved him numerous times before and would continue to save him from the demons of personality he most rightly feared. Paul claimed his very body as the holy ground of God Almighty, the very dwelling place of the Living Christ. Together, he and Jesus made sure there was just no room left for Satan or Saul in Paul’s soul.

If we take Paul’s admonition seriously that our bodies literally are Temples of the Holy Spirit, it makes it a lot more difficult to give ourselves over to Satan and his influences. We can never be empty if we are filled with and by God. May we never forget that, for those who know Christ as Savior, this fullness is now our natural state of being. We are never alone, and never without HIS power to say no to the grief, stress and anxiety life throws at us, as long as we stay busy claiming the strength of our Lord. Only He can clean our hearts. Only He can keep our souls pure and free from sin. Only we can be certain He has the opportunity. 

THE WELL-LIVED, BLESSED LIFE

2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21; Romans 11:13-36; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 20:7

““Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. No one was sorry when he died. They buried him in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery."

"Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.”

“’Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him! If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him!’ Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb and led me to trust you at my mother’s breast. 
I was thrust into your arms at my birth. You have been my God from the moment I was born.”

One of my hidden and most concerning paranoias is that I will die and no one will come to the funeral. How desolate a thought that is! I remember my Grandma’s funeral. She was a saint. Everyone who knew her loved her, although she, like all of us, had her moments. But mainly, Grandma just had the misfortune to out live her peers. When the last of her bridge group passed, it was pretty clear she would soon follow. Bless her heart, she was ready. But that did not make the funeral any easier. Too small to even merit a funeral chapel service, we had her memorial in one of the conference rooms at the nursing home. It was almost embarrassing. But as I sang The Lord’s Prayer for the staff and family who had come to pay respects, I felt a strange peace and power, as well as a welcoming that was all for Grandma. I got it then. The well-lived, blessed life does not require either an audience or acknowledgement. Its rewards lie elsewhere. Grandma understood that, I am sure. But her grandson needed a bit of educating. And as all good education does, this lead to another question.

What does a well-lived, blessed life look like? The more I observe, the more I become convinced most of us don’t really understand the concept at all. We struggle until we stress over the idea of fulfillment, of personal realization. But insecure creatures that we are, we can be looking right at the life God intended for us and not even recognize it. Worse, of course, we refuse to accept it when we see it in front of us. If we aren’t careful, we waste a lot of time, energy and regret thinking about – and maybe even longing for – the life we never had. Usually, it’s a life that was never intended for us.

Frequently, such thoughts arise in the context of marriage. More than one soul has spent more counterproductive time thinking about the person they could have/should have married than the one they swore to love and cherish for life. Jesus was right: that kind of thinking is adultery. But perhaps even more significantly, it ruins the life we have based on an idyllic fantasy that never existed. The same thing can happen when we regret our jobs or our families or focus on pretty much anything that distracts us from the life we have now. I’ve been blessed. There has never been a single day in the last almost thirty years when I have questioned or regretted my choice of mate or the three wonderful kids we have been allowed to share with God over the years. But the job thing… now that’s another question entirely. Theater, psychiatry or theology, I couldn’t make up my mind. So I put them together, shook them up in a proverbial bag and “lawyer” came out. A strange combination it has been at times, too. Nor was it ever a secret that it was a compromise between the three things I really wanted to do, but for a variety of reasons, did not commit myself to accomplish. Almost since deciding on a legal career, I have wondered what God will say at the pearly gates. Will He welcome me as the fulfillment of the life He planned, or just graciously share His joy while He shakes His mighty head in some disappointment that I did not choose His path?

Considering this today (possibly, for the first time clearly), I realize what a stupid thing it is to think about at all. No wonder Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt for being unable to move forward without looking back! We worship a Master who “makes ALL things work to good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” The inescapable conclusion is that the particulars of our lives’ choices (the do/do nots) are of much less import than the purpose for which we pursue and carry them out. I do not know why it has taken 52 years to figure this out. Maybe it has something to do with maturity, with having passed through more than a few of life’s fires and come out the other side different but intact. Maybe I’m just tired of thinking so hard. Whatever the cause, I have finally realized I am right where I am supposed to be – in the love and grace of the Father. Whether I have made the “right” or “wrong” choices, He has made them work. The litigation I do has elements of all three of my original choices in it. Jury presentations, depositions and defense strategies, even in the civil context, all have major theatrical and personal counseling components, and I’ll freely admit to having worked Christ into more than one client conversation. More than that, though, as I have purposed my life in an attempt to match my Creator’s purpose for me, opportunities to do theater, counseling and especially teach and share the Gospel have eclipsed even what I dreamed at the start.

Grandma understood. The well-lived life is nothing more than allowing Christ to have His way with us. If we let Him, He will have it and carry it out in us almost in spite of our choices. We need not worry about being unfulfilled or missing our calling if we are truly focused on His purpose. He knows the plans He has for us. He knows the paths we will choose. Wonderfully, miraculously, He has the vision, grace and power to bring them together for those who love Him above all. What, me worry? Not about career choices, anyway; at least, not any more. The Spirit put me right where He wants me, in spite of myself. 

DISCIPLES OF OPTIMISM

2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37; Romans 10:14-11:12; Psalm 21:1-13; Proverbs 20:4-61

“Always think carefully before pronouncing judgment. Remember that you do not judge to please people but to please the Lord…. Listen to me, all you people…! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm. Believe in his prophets, and you will succeed.”

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!’”

“Rise up, O Lord, in all your power. With music and singing we celebrate your mighty act!”

“Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?”

There is a great deal I remember from my forgettable athletic career, but no memory is as ironic as that of my sophomore year in high school. Beyond my batting .333 (pretty good, until one understands it represented only 1 hit out of a total of 3 at bats), the greatest irony concerned one of the most admirable seniors on the team who had battled for a starting position all year. He finally got his chance about mid-season. Starting in right field, he played fine but was not tested until the bottom of the ninth. Facing two outs and two runs down, John stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and took the first pitch to deep left center, off the fence. By the time the center fielder corralled the ball and got it to the infield, John was on third, the bases were otherwise cleared, and victory was ours. Then, for the rest of the season, John rode the bench. He never played another out, never saw another pitch. Some reward. While John maintained the stiff upper lip and great sportsmanship for which the entire team had come to respect him, I came to really disrespect our coach. Not only was what he had done completely unfair to John; he had taken away whatever hope the rest of us benchers had of ever getting into a game. It would have been nearly impossible not to judge him. This story does not have a happy ending, either. Coach never explained himself. We did not make the playoffs. John’s heroics were wasted. BLAH!

What does a person do with a story like that? There is no way to pretty up the sad truth sometimes. Fairness and justice are in short supply on this earth, and there’s just no getting around that fact. The good guys do not always win; oft as not, in fact, they get the short end of the stick. “Nice” tends to get taken advantage of and left behind. How are we supposed to be able to avoid judging others in the face of clear wrongdoing or injustice? In God’s eyes, the answer is fairly simple: quit placing so much faith in people in the first place. This does not mean to quit trusting altogether, nor does it encourage cold-hearted cynicism. The Holy Spirit, if we allow it, will simply lead us to the inevitable conclusion that our whole faith and trust needs a more worthy repository than another human being. Faith should not rest solely in other individuals. It should rest in Christ. Only Christ has the power to elevate humiliation into true victory. Only Jesus could turn a lost battle into a won war.

The work of the Cross and the Resurrection give Christians their hope. Earthly accomplishments – or the lack of them – mean little when those who follow Christ will survive even death! What are a few innings on the bench of life compared to that? Not much…, unless we have never heard and accepted the Good News of Christ. Absent the Gospel, every setback becomes potentially catastrophic. If we have no hope of eternal life, then death really is the end, and our chances for redemption actually come few and far between.

This is why discipleship and evangelism are so important: people without hope generally are unaware there is an alternative. Maybe they’ve forgotten in the emotion of the moment that the Son is longing to lift them up and turn their shortcomings into opportunities for ministry. Maybe they never knew they have a Savior who is fully capable of overcoming even their specific world. Or maybe optimism just seemed like too much work, being so illogical in a world where pessimism and the powers of darkness rule. In any event, Christians are called out by their God to go and make disciples of everyone, especially those who have no hope, whatever the reason for their shortsightedness.

As we face the opportunities of discipleship, let’s keep one idea uppermost in our minds. There is no excuse for a pessimistic Christian! Several weeks ago, I caught myself totally focused on the loss and pain in the world. Disappointment in our leaders and those who took such blatant advantage of a mismanaged system to put the entire world in peril really dragged down my spiritual health. My whole outlook began to dry out. I lost sight of hope and found myself becoming cactus-like, hoarding what little positive I could find within myself and becoming all prickly, spiny and untouchable on the outside. But then, Christ spoke and challenged me once more to trust Him. (In my wallowing, I had totally neglected to do that – my bad!) Suddenly, the world did not look quite so dark. Hope remained. Power was available to over come the world. I just had to refocus.

The results have been nothing short of astonishing. The future looks much brighter. Anxiety, which had once more begun to raise its ugly head, was calmed and crawled back into its hole. Opportunities to build up others became more obvious, and my willingness to give of myself to make positive things happen came much more easily. I became convicted, big time. In the final analysis, there are only two ways to live life: hopeful, and hopeless. I want to be hopeful.

Even while he was sitting on the bench an ignored victim of injustice, John presented a positive witness to the rest of us benchers. He showed us that life, personal worth and self-image do not begin or end with baseball. We have the right and ability to choose our God. We need to put our faith in Jesus above all others. And we need to share His Good News with the world. Christ, after all, is the only hope of resurrection, recreation, forgiveness and redemption any of us have. It would be a shame if anyone lost hope just because we had not shared our Hope with them. We are called to be friends of the world by bringing the world the Light of Christ. We never need to feel sorry for ourselves, and we should not allow ourselves to do so. If Christ has entrusted His Good News to us, we have both a purpose and a reward to look forward to that makes all of this other stuff in the interim look pretty darn insignificant by comparison.

THE GRAND CONTRADICTION

2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34; Romans 9:25-10:13; Psalm 20:1-9; Proverbs 20:2-3

“Then Micaiah told him, ‘In a vision I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd.’ And the Lord said, ‘Their master has been killed. Send them home in peace.’”

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.’”

“May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory and raise a victory banner in the name of our God. May the Lord answer all your prayers.”

“Their master has been killed. Send them home in peace.” What sense does that make? We all know what happens when visionaries die: countries destabilize; unity is lost; direction becomes confused; and people lose faith. Not infrequently, the death of a leader actually leads to war, not peace. Cut off the head and the body usually follows. How is anyone supposed to be at peace after the death of their master?

God has never looked at life or this world anything like the way we do. For the Holy Spirit, setbacks become victories. When we run out of gas, His power comes into play. We sin, He saves. We die, yet we live in Him. It almost seems as though the Creator’s real purpose in interacting with our world is simply to show us how very limited, and limiting, our own “rational” thinking is. Until we learn to see the world from Yahweh’s point of view, we will never experience lasting peace. We can’t, because we are living with a material viewpoint that conflicts with Christ’s. We will never see the possibilities and potential of the spiritual reality until we are willing to give up our stubborn addiction to all things tangible.

Just because we cannot see, feel or hear something does not mean it does not exist. It usually just means we are insensitive. In other words, we have to have hope when all we can see is defeat. We need to believe when all we feel is disillusionment. We need to trust when what we want to do is run and hide. If our lives are not living contradictions of what the world thinks and believes, we probably aren’t living out, or living in, faith at all. That’s a pretty sobering thought, particularly for anyone who battles insecurity.

Most of us spend too much time living out of our own individual strength. That is not the way we were designed to function. We were created to operate on Spirit power. We were meant to be so intimately intertwined with the Author of life that anxiety and insecurity would simply be incomprehensible, and pragmatically impossible. Who would even dare imagine such a lifestyle? Yet it is, in sum, the promise Christ gave us when He commanded us not to worry. He did not suggest or request. He ordered us to live anxiety-free. His underlying promise was that a life without worry was and remains possible, even today. And not just possible, either; a life free of angst is the very life we were intended to have. We messed it up when we decided to turn away from our Master. So, He died to turn us around so that we might again find peace. Our problem is that we refuse to repent or change. We are reluctant to live in faith. It sounds so intangible, so indefinite.  We find it hard to abandon our absolute dependence on the things of this world even when they don’t “work.”

We cannot know we are right with God, or honestly confess our salvation verbally, until we literally invite and allow Jesus to resurrect us from the ashes of our own failed attempts to live in peace without anxiety. Christ promises to make us new men and women – in fact, to make all things new – but we have a hard time buying into the idea until we have no other choice. Therein lies the grand contradiction of the spiritual life. We are never more alive than when we die to self. We are never closer to hope than when we give up our puny faith in the things of this world. We are never closer to (w)holiness than when we are completely empty. Granted, there’s not much that sounds logical about this particular line of thinking. But there’s nothing especially logical about a Savior who loved His wounded and flawed Creation enough to give up His own life, comfort and spiritual wholeness to save it, either.

OUR PIECE OF THE PUZZLE

2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14; Romans 9:1-24; Psalm 19:1-14; Proverbs 20:1

“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

“Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?”

How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

I love the idea that God is actually out in the world seeking people to strengthen. A whole lot of folks need his power right now. We are foundering, frightened and lost, though, so many of us don’t even know where to look. Those who have given up hope may not know to look at all. Thus, it’s a great comfort to understand the Lord of the universe is searching for us, to empower us with His unmatched strength. Good Shepherd that He is, He is more than willing to leave His flock and venture onto our home court. Assuming we allow Him to come near at all, we still have another hurdle to clear before any relationship with our Creator can really begin. We have to be willing to accept His strength and grace as He would give it, not just as we would like it to be.

I’m convinced this is the very heart of burnout. We reject or fail to accept the role Christ has planned for us, so we prevent ourselves from claiming the power He would provide to accomplish it. Instead, we maintain our own course in our own strength until we eventually realize we have no strength left. We fancy ourselves becoming the square peg that will fit – or be made to fit - the round hole, never appreciating that God made us as He did for a very specific reason.

No plan of the Holy Spirit’s comes off an assembly line, and the parts He uses are all custom made. Therefore, when we do not follow the path He has chosen for us, we are not well-equipped to do anything else. Our lives become conflicted and dissonant. Nothing works smoothly or well. Frustration can build until we give up on Yahweh altogether. We rarely stop to consider the problem may be our refusal to accept the roles for which we were created. We want to be successful. Christ desires that we be eternal. We want to be secure. The Holy Spirit designed us to be reliant. We want good physical health; God wants us holy. We strive for perfection. Jesus offers grace. In short, we can become so overwhelmed trying to act like what we want to be that we forget we were actually created for a uniquely different purpose altogether.

Inevitably, we blame God when things don’t work out. We question why He did not move adversity out of our way. We challenge His authority over our lives. We resent Him not creating us more athletic, handsome, intelligent or witty. We pout when we don’t get the one break separating us from our heart’s desire. Overall, it should be no surprise when we live unfulfilled and underutilized lives if we are filling our days with such anger or mere busyness which was never intended for us. Our personal significance does not come from the amount of time we spend in activities, be they work, recreation or even service. Our personal significance comes from the amount of time we allow the Holy Spirit to spend acting through us.

I have a suspicion that, if we will reconcile ourselves to the persons we were created to be, we will be able to relax a lot more and enjoy - instead of struggle through – our existence. I know that, for me, life is too often a challenge match offering a prize I shouldn’t want and a penalty for losing that wounds my soul. There is just no profit in trying to be anybody else or in taking on roles for which we really aren’t equipped. I don’t think God necessarily wants to make things easy on us, per se, but I do believe He wants us to fill the roles and opportunities He designed us to fit. The Lord made us the way He did for a reason. No one is better qualified or more gifted to do the job Jesus has for us here on earth. It only makes sense, then, for us to stop trying to do everybody else’s job and quit attempting to fix the world. Our time is far better spent learning and using the gifts we were given, rather than trying to develop talents our earthly bodies simply weren’t built or meant to house. Life’s a lot easier when we fit into it rather than fight it.

ALL IN

2 Chronicles 11:1-13:22; Romans 8:26-39; Psalm 18:37-50; Proverbs 19:27-29

“But he was an evil king, for he did not seek the Lord with all his heart.”

“No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you will turn your back on knowledge.”

Boy, it sure seems that Scripture has a different definition of “evil” than mine! “That which is morally bad or wrong, or that which causes harm, pain, or misery” always seemed like a perfectly good description of the problem. However, a careful look at Scripture compels me to admit looking at the concept all wrong. Certainly, there is such a thing as affirmative evil, just as there is affirmative good. But the resemblance and any balance between the two ends there, because in addition to being assertive, Scripture also teaches that evil is a default position. Evil is what we choose when we do not actively and aggressively choose good. Evil is what we do when we do not actively do good. Yikes! But there’s no arguing with the Bible. Rehoboam “was an evil king, for he did not seek the Lord with all his heart.”

We need to be very clear on this, I think. It may be a matter of life or death. Evil is the result of spiritual inertia. There is no middle ground with the Holy Spirit, no gray area. Something is either positively good or it isn’t. If it’s not good, it’s evil, period. “Evil,” as the Lord defines it, is just the absence of wholehearted good. Apathy or abstention are not options when one deals with Christ. We are in the family, or out. And being out is an evil place to be, by definition.

I’m not sure I ever truly understood this spiritual truth until I started playing with fire one day. Literally. Well, with a candle, anyway. I noticed it was a whole lot easier to see the light of a single flame from far away than I expected. That glow allowed me to navigate around barriers I never would have seen, as long as I was patient enough to allow my eyes to adjust to it before moving. But the converse was also true: the absence of light was an evil thing indeed. Try as I might, there was just no way to see where I was going or to avoid stumbling. So I learned two things. First, it doesn’t take a whole lot of light to dispel the darkness. Second, though, if the light goes out, we are quickly overwhelmed and lost. In the same way darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good. Without some source of external power or combustion that makes us good, our lives can never be lights, and the night will eventually triumph.

But wait! No less than the Lord of heaven itself has called us the light of the world. How can that be? None of us is smart enough, spiritual enough or wise enough to ever be affirmatively good all the time (at least, not in this life). Even trying to be is fraught with danger, as any honest person will admit they are not always anything like good. We know we can never work our way into heaven. So how does Jesus get away with calling us the light of the world? Again, the lesson lies in the candle. The candle itself is not the source of the light; it is fuel for the light. In fact, left to burn long enough, little will remain of the candle but some residual goo and char. The candle itself is used and consumed by a force – heat – much greater than itself, but only in combination with the candle does the heat radiate light.

No wonder the Holy Spirit works on us by working through us. Like heat to a candle, it is His interaction with His people that brings light to the world. I suspect, though, an even deeper truth. In His infinite love and grace, while using us to bring His Light to a dark and broken world, Christ also consumes anything in us that is not worthy of His Light. That could be a scary thought, until we remember there is no fear in love, and that in Christ, all things are made new to live forever.

In poker, there’s a term that signifies ultimate resolution, “All in!” The player puts all he has into the pot, betting on one last shot at fortune or failure. Lose, and nothing’s left. Win, though, and a proverbial new life is the reward. No doubt there will be those put off by any gambling metaphor. But those who know the game understand “all in” for what it is: the last gasp of a player out of options. It is exactly the bet Christ asks us to make on Him. He invites us to put our faith completely and totally in Him. There can be nothing half-hearted about an all-in commitment to Christ. Only such a radically sold-out position allows the Holy Spirit complete and unfettered access to use us as we were created to be used. Some may fear the purification of the Flame. But for those who feel that way, Paul has an answer:

… I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have nothing to fear from the flame. But we will lose much in the darkness. 

NOT YET THERE

2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19; Romans 8:9-25; Psalm 18:16-36; Proverbs 19:26

“And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you…. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children…. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved.”

“The Lord reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters.”

“We’re not there yet.” Ever since I was a little kid, that phrase has both dogged and delighted me. Like probably every child who ever lived, I ritually pestered my folks on the way to Grandma’s or some special event with the ritual question about destination. I remember eagerly anticipating our goal and the joy and fun times that awaited. Actually experiencing them when we finally did get there made subsequent journeys back all the more deliciously frustrating.

Past history can give the future even greater promise. As I grew up and became a contributing member of the family, I looked forward to sitting at the “big peoples’ table.” It was a special thrill the first time I was allowed into that mysterious society at Thanksgiving dinner. (A distant aunt and uncle had to cancel, leaving a chair or two open for my brother and me.) My parents made the mistake of telling us their plans to move us into the “big leagues” before we’d even begun the trip to Grandma’s, and it no doubt was the longest journey of their lives. My childlike enthusiasm was insufferable, I’m sure.

Finally, though, the big day arrived. The family gathered; the meal was served; and I ascended to my designated throne, feeling like the master of all I surveyed. Once I had tucked in well to the meal, I recall sitting back to catch my breath and actually listening to the conversations that surrounded me. My family may as well have been speaking Greek! The discussions were so far over my head there was no way to meaningfully interject. Their joys, issues and concerns were simply outside my ability to comprehend. I wasn’t just uncomfortable; I was downright embarrassed. I had reached my destination but was totally unprepared for it. Feeling foolish and ignored, I did what most kids do in that situation: I tried to speak of adult matters, ended up generating unintended mirth and then threw a tantrum. At least in that selfish moment, I was back in familiar territory. I never really understood why it took another two years for me to get back to the adult table… until today. Funny how perspective impacts understanding, isn’t it?

It’s easy to see I wasn’t ready for my promotion to adult back on that long ago Thanksgiving. I needed to give myself the opportunity to be a child and not ignore the fact that I had not yet gained the maturity or experience necessary to be anything other than a pretender at the adult table. I needed to be patient and simply enjoy the privileges I did have in the family instead of lusting after more.

So I think it is with God’s family. We need to allow ourselves and our Savior the time to turn us into full blown disciples. More than one enthusiastic new convert has joyously thrown himself or herself into Christian service for which they were not prepared only to burn themselves out trying to be something they were never intended to be, or do something they were ill-prepared to do. I personally know several converts who put on a great front and lasted years in the ranks of the godly only to fall away when enthusiasm waned and the spotlight of new spirituality moved onto others. They just didn’t have the depth of relationship necessary to make Christianity a lifestyle instead of an extended fad.

This world is full of deep waters, some of which run fast with hidden currents. Make no mistake: we are called to enter those swells and rescue those who are foundering. But first, we must prepare and be prepared. Otherwise, it is too possible that those we set out to rescue will simply pull us down with them. We may find ourselves confused and lost. There is no disgrace in sitting at the children’s table while we wait for God to grow us in grace. The Holy Spirit is indeed a miracle worker, but we still have to give Christ the time to prepare us instead of charging ahead heedless of the need for spiritual discipline and preparation. Some of us just aren’t there yet. The good news is we do not have to be. Jesus will get us where we need to be when we need to be there. In the interim, it’s still nice to know we are part of a family. We have much to look forward to. Let’s give our enthusiasm and hope the time they need to fully mature into an appreciation of grace and forgiveness that will sustain us for a lifetime. Consider the time spent an investment in ourselves - interest, if you will, on the price Christ already paid to free us from the compulsive need to get ahead of ourselves.