Hands Have Fingers

I've been working on a few blog post to continue on in how we begin to encounter God in ways that sustain a journey toward Christ-likeness and awaken us to a whole new way of life-giving friendship with Him?  This afternoon My daughter and I were in a conversation and it rings true to some of what is needed on this journey so I thought I'd share it with you.  Sometimes a child's perspective is all it takes....

REBEKAH: "Mom, when it comes to prayer we have a reverse peep-hole."

ME: "What do you mean?"

REBEKAH: "It's like we are looking through a peep-hole from wrong side and we assume that what we are seeing is all there is to see."

ME: "What do you mean?"
...
REBEKAH: "Like the time when Savvy and I were goofing around and I was looking through the peep-hole from the outside. She asked me how many fingers she was holding up and I said none but she was actually holding up six."

ME: I'm not sure I'm following you.

REBEKAH: "Think about it...If all I knew was what I saw, I would think that hands are not meant to have fingers because I never saw the fingers."

ME: "I think I'm tracking."

REBEKAH: "Looking through the peep-hole I saw only part of what was happening and the part I even saw was distorted."

ME: "Ok so how is this connected with prayer?"

REBEKAH: "When we pray we assume we have the big picture about ourselves, inside and out, and we "let God in" to our world assuming we know all about it. The truth is He's the one looking through from the right direction and seeing from the right perspective. So when we say, "Oh let's pray about this." we really need to think about what we pray. I can't just tell God, "Hand's don't have fingers!" and demand that everybody's hands be blobs. I have to actually consider the fact that God sees better than me and hand's might actually work better with fingers, even if I've never seen fingers on a hand."

ME: "So what you are saying is that sometimes we pray from a very limited, broken perspective and we'd be better off....(Beks interrupts)"

REBEKAH: "We'd be better off just opening up to God's idea and going with it, even when it might not make sense...Hand's have fingers!"

 

Rise and Vine

Today is they day!  New life begins today!  I find myself really pondering what it took to get to a place that can now be called resurrected life.

Difficulty...unjust circumstances, misunderstandings, harsh labeling and condemnation
A long walk down a dusty road. Loves choice makes death eminent and life is laid to rest
A wait...where all is dark and silent, not yet finished.
When Love's work is done the stone gives way and life emerges.  Life that no longer bends to death and hatred's blow.
Life that offers inheritance to the King's treasury...Love's redemptive work!
Abundant and forever, mercy, justice and love...Heaven's resources now ours. If we so choose

Jesus has over come 
The grave is overwhelmed
Victory is won 
He has risen from the dead!
And I will rise when he calls my name 
Before my God fall on my knees ...and rise!

So what do we do?

Jesus offers this in John 15

 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;apart from me you can do nothing.....
.... 9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

In returning to the wine theme used earlier this fall in several posts, I am struck by the invitation to "vine" with Christ.  Our only real hope for life begins with the simple, choice to unite ourselves with him and abide.

We take up our cross...
Willingly take in the difficulty that arises (whatever it is), walk the dusty road and lay to rest anything that postures itself against Christs' life in us.  We wait, mourn and grieve, letting silence and Saturday take it's course, while our heart of stone gives way to new life - life with abundant resources for love, ready for God's goodness to manifest, stubbornly resilient to death or hatred's blow.  It has found a great force, LOVE.

So my friends,  RISE and VINE - The King has come and He is awaiting our arrival.

Holy Saturday

Well, today is Saturday.  Not just any Saturday.  It is Holy Saturday, the day that stands patiently between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday...Since this blog is named after this particular day it seemed only fitting to post...well...something today!  I've been thinking about a few things over the weekend....

I wonder what the disciples thought on that very first Saturday following the death of their friend and promised deliverer. They had sold out to this guy!  Left their families, lost their friends, to follow in the dust of this so-called rabbi only to find him hanging on the same oppressive wood lorded over them for centuries. All that remained was the stench of blood and an angry crowd.  Hope seemed lost.

Last night we participated in a Tenebrae, or Good Friday, service.  It included scripture, drama, and time for reflection as we traced the events leading up to Christ's death.  I've gone several years to this service and while it is not flashy it never fails to lead me to a place of reorienting my easily disoriented heart.

What struck me this time was the audience response.  The couple behind us throughout the evening critiqued the parts that were perhaps uncomfortable or boring....like someone in the crowd in Jesus's day, I would imagine. Discomfort voiced itself willingly,  "Good grief!  This is gruesome!  These guys are masochists!" (I doubt they meant "masochist" but...?)  Near the end of the evening, as Christ is hanging on the cross, again I heard from behind me, "And you wanted to come to this?"  To which her companion just sighed and shrugged.  Still others, clearly uncomfortable, waived their hands in front of them as the aired filled with a small amount of mist/fog.

Then this morning I found myself waiting in line at the store getting similarly impatient as I stood in line to purchase a shirt that would color coordinate with my outfit.  I waited for what seemed an eternity ...it was actually less than 5 minutes.  Still, I stood there thinking to myself, "Did they not KNOW it was Easter weekend?  Did they not CONSIDER additional staffing for a day like today?"

Isn't it strange how the slightest bit of discomfort can cause such an indignant response?

I wonder if we really WANT the crucified Christ?  More often it seems easier to gaze into an Easter story that includes special baskets and colored eggs and a good resurrection song at the end.  We want Sunday but (dare I say) maybe not Friday.  And without Friday I guess there is no "In-between-Saturday"...Just Sunday.  Hmmm...how can any resurrection happen without something first being dead?  The very notion defies logic, right? What is a story without a beginning, middle, and end? And how does change find it's way onto the pages without the "middle"...the Saturday?

So Jesus told the disciples to "take up their cross and follow [him]"...Before he hung on one himself, by the way...

Take up my cross?  Will that tarnish my outfit? And exactly how long are we talking?...More than five minutes?  Often we DON'T want to come to the "cross" because it is far too inwardly disruptive.

I guess what I am thinking is this:  Yes it was gruesome when the Lamb of God took on the sins of the world.  It was ugly (and not because his sandals did not coordinate with his robe), redemption was horrific and painstakingly accomplished.  But the nails that pierced Christ's hand have forever opened the door to HOPE. A sword pierced the heart of God so that love could pierce the heart of me.

So this is Holy Saturday.  The big fat, gruesomely long, "wait-day".  I am discovering the understated holiness of Saturday - that sacred "middle"- as it moves me from death to life... This is the day we are invited to sit still at know that HE indeed is God...even when it is uncomfortable and inconvenient, even when it is gruesomely painful; trusting that in the pause, in the burial of all we hold dear, the seed bed is laid for his life to spring forth.

 Maybe you are reading this, and you are less concerned with things like your outfit tomorrow because life isn't that easy. So you think, BLAHHH!  Maybe your own story of loss is far too great.  Or maybe, like the disciples, in your own way you've "sold out" to Him only to find a sense of disappointment and abandonment in return and hope seems lost.  But it's SATURDAY, so wait.  Let the cross lift your head to see redemption's story written in the pain. Hold on for Sunday's dawn....I'm not gonna lie your Sunday may not dawn tomorrow. ...But it WILL DAWN!  Let Saturday finish it's work...every hour of it.  Dawn breaks upon night's darkest hour.

This Cross Is For You

Since it is Good Friday,  It seems fitting to reflect upon the path Christ took to offer to us new, changed resurrected life.

This Cross is for you
Stubborn hope bears Calvary's pain
This Cross is for you
My friend who knows not what he gains

This Cross is for you
Your story has been told
This Cross is for you.
A new story yet to unfold

This Cross is for you.
Life-drops offered make freckled soil
This Cross is for you
Where love's choice shows no recoil

This Cross is for you
This Kingdom crown born apart from shame
This Cross is for you
Where Royal Calling is your name

This Cross is for you
He drinks not for Calvary's relief
This Cross is for you
Follow it's shadow in sterling belief

This Cross is for you
Hold tight for Sunday's dawn
This Cross is for you
To cast your life upon

This Cross is for you
Varnish not it's story
This Cross is for you
In raw, redemptive glory

This Cross is for you
Welcome it's Gethsemane road
This Cross is for you
Resurrection's story in you now told

What Was I Thinking?!!

  #thoughtsandfeelingsareabigdeal

Just before Lent began our family spent some time around the dinner table talking through how we would be observing the season.  We had some good laughs because it is ALWAYS easy to notice someone else's issues more than our own.  So there were a few, umm, shall we say..."creative" ideas for each other.  None the less, we forged on in the conversation and shared what our personal plan was for Lent.  At first I took the easy route and said I would be fasting from carbohydrates and I felt pretty good about it.  That is until my daughter jokingly suggested, "I think you should fast from your favorite TV show, mom!" We all had a good laugh as I squirmed though the moment with a defensive justification by saying, "Hey!  Cut me some slack!  I could be a compulsive shopper, drug user, or worse!  I have no shame in watching a detective show once a week...(or maybe re-watching it)"  

#castleismydrugofchoice

The fact is she was right!  What I needed to do was fast from what had the potential to distract me from holy devotion to a God who is unswervingly wholly devoted to me.  But it was not the TV show I needed to fast from.  It was my thoughts.  Not every thought, mind you, but the thoughts that consistently pulled me out of reality and away from abiding with God.  As I considered doing that, I began to notice how often my little thoughts of an ideal life, whether it be how my husband and I interacted, how my house looked, how my kids behaved, or my own vision for personal success, were driving me.  The fact is, my thoughts around each were creating a growing sense of discontent.  When my vision for such an ideal life was thwarted, as it often is, those innocent desires turned quickly to demands. 

To avoid throwing my family under the proverbial bus, here is a fictitious scenario.

Desire (attached to a thought): "I would like a tidy home, please pick up your socks."

Demand: (again attached to a thought that is now fueled by socks not being picked up) "Come ON!  Is this really too much to ask??!  Pick. Up. Your. STINKY. Socks!!!" 

Then when my charitable invitation towards responsible living is again disregarded, I internally judge.  "You ALWAYS leave your socks on the floor!!"  

Which promptly affords the opportunity to punish the offending party. "I don't want to sit by you.  Your socks stink because your FEET stink! ...maybe...YOU are stinky too!"  

At which point we may "justifiably" hop onto Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook to bombard ourselves with 648 of our closest friends who seemingly live an over-the-top happy, successful life free of stinky socks; complete with on-going cancer donations, honor student children (who needs a bumper stick when you have social media?) and family vacations in Tahiti !  I dare anyone to post the argument that likely occurred on the plane to Tahiti....but i have digressed.

Suffice it to say, thoughts hold images in our mind and they ALWAYS incite an emotion within us and that feeling can be good or bad.   We unknowingly commit ourselves to our feelings to avoid the bad and encounter the good...or at least our version of good.  Feelings can be stubborn little buggers because they literally have a mind of their own! It is impossible to control our feelings.  We may THINK we control them but often all we really do is suppress them, they do not go away on command.  Suppressing them only puts them in the closet for a while until another opportunity arises for them join...or crash, the party.  

How could I go from zero to sixty on the "Anger-O-Meter" over dirty socks so quickly?  Because my thoughts were already setting the trajectory and I had "closeted" my discontentment for easy reach and convenient access.  (by the way, when we notice that our response is out of proportion to the situation, its a good indication that feelings are hidden in the closet and have just been let out) The instant my ideal vision was interrupted, those feelings burst open the door of the closet and entered the room like a birthday party at a Mexican restaurant!

While we cannot control our feelings we CAN control our thoughts.  We can choose what we think about.  That's why Paul says to "Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ."  Holiness begins in our thoughts.  When we take our thoughts captive we keep our feelings in the room and capture the thoughts behind them.  We take over their "mind" by re-informing it with God's truth.  

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2

 Over this Lent season I am working to re-inform my thoughts, and as I do, my emotions are changing.  For example, changing my thought from, "I am successful if my house looks like it belongs in a magazine."(Oh who am I kidding?...Success would look like finished laundry and dishes being done!) to "I matter to God andso does my family.  His vision is not thwarted by dirty dishes or laundry",  allows me to take out the urgent worry or fear that's driving the situation and respond more reasonably.  I mean, seriously?  Dirty, stinky socks DO NOT have that much power people!!   ....But our thoughts sure do!

How does this relate to the previous post?  Because change comes when we begin to think differently.  Thoughts can literally change how we feel and when we feel different, we act different.   It's time to take our thoughts out of the "slum" and set them on a trajectory toward the true heart of God.



More on this next time....

Why is Growing Up Like Having a Root Canal?

OK so maybe growing up isn't exactly like having a root canal...but...Over the past  few posts I have found myself thinking about ways in which I can actually GROW UP! Does the process have to be as dreaded as, say, a root canal?? AND Can it actually happen?  Don't you ever wonder if the life you really want, out side of the "slums" (referred to in the last few posts)…you know, practically speaking...can it really happen?  

I've never met anyone who wants to remain in a place of "stunted-ness", or bad habits, or just plain "badness", but to change requires action on our part that leads to growth.  And truthfully when I think of growing I think of pain, I think of grit, or I think of struggle. Which sounds nothing like the life I want and more like the life I try to avoid...like going to the gym, or worse, ...like a sudden torrent of surmounting devastation that seeks to steal any sense of well-being I may be enjoying at the present. (which in my world can be similar to going to the gym, ...just sayin’)  Rarely, if ever, do I Iook at opportunities for growth and say to myself, “YES! This is so entirely fantastic!!  I was hoping for this!  I can’t believe how lucky I am to have this remarkably stellar opportunity for such a glorious journey of growth to occur in my life!"  Nope…definitely not what I say.  But everything I wrote in the past three posts suggests that's exactly what I should be saying...(well perhaps with fewer embellishments...maybe.) 

If Christ's way is easy and not burdensome, if that kind of life leads to more and not less, then I should be glad or at the very least generously willing to embrace struggle for the sake of personal growth.  So what’s the deal with my inwardly resistant response? And if you tell me that you don’t feel this way sometimes, then I want to know what drug you are taking or what Pollyanna Planet you are from ‘cause if I actually believed you, I just might want to join you!

Perhaps the reason the idea of growing spiritually sounds more like a "torrent of surmounting devastation", than it does a "stellar opportunity for a glorious journey" is because I forget who my companion is and I need to find ways to encounter HIM more.  Bigger than the king of England, smarter than Einstein or Bill Gates, more commanding than any president we have ever known, and more genuinely loving and tender than any lover for which we could ever pine after, is the One who seeks to be our friend.
After all, that is the hope of Christ, right? Jesus came as Emmanuel, God is now with us, coming near, having laid down his life for us. And as we offer ourselves to Him, we receive His inheritance, His resources are now ours!   I don’t know about you, but that sure sounds like  "more" ...and...It sounds like a rich intimate friendship to me. It sounds like something that can lead me out of the "bad" and toward the "good".  So, the million dollar question is, How?.  How can a person stop the crazed hunt for the Novocain and begin to encounter God in ways that sustain a journey toward Christ-likeness and awaken us to a whole new way of life-giving friendship with Him?

Well, I believe it’s possible.  Really!  I do!  And the next several posts are going to be dedicated to just that.  I hope you join me on the journey and share your thoughts as we move along. 

Don’t worry the "sudden torrent" won’t steal your life away....

... but I'm not gonna lie to ya... avoiding it might!