Poverty of the Mind

There's something I've been thinking about lately and it has caused me to reconsider my perspective on the way in which I approach how I live my life day to day.  To explain what I mean I need to give a little background. 


While taking a trip recently to an area of the world where poverty runs rampant and there has been extensive efforts towards relief and development, I was struck but a conversation my husband shared with one of the development workers.  She mentioned that even though many of the people she works with now have jobs and could readily leave the slum life, many  have remained there and seem to instinctively choose to live in cardboard houses, sleep on dirt floors alongside steams of sewage, and rarely set foot outside the despairing reality in which they live – many don’t seem to fully understand what is available to them. They’ve been given the resources and now come home at the end of the day having earned wages tucked neatly in their back pocket, but they do not know how to make use of it. 

 

I found myself asking, "Then what's the point of it?" She then made a distinction between economic poverty and emotional poverty.  What they were learning is that it is much easier to transition them out of economic poverty because it involves dealing with issues that are more concrete, like skill building and the marketing of goods and trades. These are things they can engage and grow in.  However, helping them shift their thinking from one of scarcity to one of resource or abundance is much more difficult and will take longer.   

On top of that, even though many had the resources to leave the slum and find a different kind of life, most not only didn’t do it, but also took to guarding the slum’s boundaries so that even those who wanted to help could not get in.  They were held captive by the poverty of their mind because they did not have a vision for anything different.

Now here's where some ponderings come in to play.  I wonder if we do not have a similar perspective to those in the slums.  Figuratively speaking we have built our spiritual internal home in ways that can reflect an internal slum and we find ourselves impoverished.  At some point we have been introduced to God and have taken on some of the “skills” by way of Bible study, church attendance, etc…these are the concrete ideas that were easy for us to embrace early on and they are indeed the necessary place to begin and thereby grow – as was skill building and job acquiring for those in the slum.  But I wonder if we have stopped there? 

 

It seems we have resources but don’t really know how to use them and so we return to a "slum-way" of living.  For example, we have learned from studying our Bible that in our anger we ought not sin, and yet we may be accustom to “heart-sewage” in the form of yelling to get our point across.  We have had plenty of devotionals or heard motivational Christian speakers talk about the pain of slander yet we can often turn to gossiping to sooth our insecurity.  We know that we are uniquely created in God's image, chosen and dearly loved, but we may find ourselves accepting on-going mistreatment from someone and we allow that mistreatment to define us.  We have heard from the very beginning that there is a "God-shaped hole in our heart that only he can fill"  yet we set aside our self-worth in order to be “loved” by someone else and it never satisfies….The list is can go on - right?   The truth of it is, we want to move forward but sometimes we can't, and instead we return to the slums and find ourselves caught in a cycle of sin from which we cannot break free.  On top of that, we often guard the door of our internal soul-slum space while our own fear and pride/shame keep others at arms length and prevent anyone from really getting in and bringing help - including God. 


Sometimes (Now don't shoot me here) we are held captive by the poverty of our mind and we simply lack the vision for anything different.  Just like there was a good life just across town, outside the slums for so many in those impoverished areas; there is a rich, abundant, beautiful life in our midst as well.  Living in the ongoing presence of God's love and participating in HIs Kingdom as a child of the King is what we are made for.  It is life outside of the slums and it begins now...right here...


....But how do we get there? 



This is part one of a two -part post...tune in next time for thoughts on how we can begin to grow a vision for living outside the slum.

 

Sticks In the Ground

(This post is a continuation to the post from January 1, 2014) 
...When a rose bush has been pruned it is not much prettier than before the pruning began.  The stems are appropriately trimmed or removed, but it still looks like a bunch of dead branches set in the ground.  Nutrients have been worked into the soil for good systemic growth but blooms and foliage have yet to appear.  Pruning is something a gardener does for a future bloom – a future beauty and harvest.

I noticed as I read through the previous blog that after pruning I skipped straight to the beauty that’s found in the bloom.  Isn't that what we often want to do - skip past what is difficult or unlovely?  However, as I walked back outside and noticed the roses along our front walk, I could not deny the fact that they were still just a few sticks popping up from the ground with no real apparent beauty. They were still dormant and without the welcome of soft blooms, they could still prick an unsuspecting-someone as they walked by.

That is the picture of a pruned heart.  There’s no visible evidence of the work that has been done except for the thorny sticks in the ground.  It’s quiet and unadorned.  At times when others come close our thorny places still impose unexpected pain because we are not yet ready to extend a soft welcome and let them in.  We wait, like the rose…

...Under the ground, where no one can see, there is work being done.  There is a private fellowship with the Trinity where systemically, God is pouring nutrients into the soil of our heart as we let ourselves stay “dormant” and close to Him.  It happens as we place ourself before his word and hold it as a light unto our feet.  It comes alive as we sit silently before him inviting his presence to come near.  It becomes active when we discipline our steps toward his love in and through us.  And it comes tangibly as we let others share the winter with us among the thorns. 

The sight of the sticks in the ground outside of my front door is a visual reminder that just sticks in the ground are OK for a while.  I needn’t hurry the blooms…


How are you, like me, tempted to hurry the blooms?

Where are the thorny places in you that may bring accidental pain?

How are you engaging God's word in the process?

What feels vulnerable as you consider letting others and God in?

How are you letting God and other's in, even when it means being a bit "thorny"?

"Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain.  Leave to thy God to order and provide: In every change, He faithful will remain.  Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy Heavenly friend...
...Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end."

Vessels & Treasures

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. - 2 Cor 4:6-7

 

As I looked at the Christmas tree this year I noticed the lights strung neatly on the branches, the little ornaments that adorned the tree, some holding messages of hope, joy, peace, and love.  And I noticed the presents wrapped under the tree, each a temporary container treated carefully because it would be the little vessel by which a treasure would be revealed on Christmas morning.  My son was especially excited about unwrapping a set of old steel strings because it conveyed the promise of a 5-string acoustic bass hidden in the other room.  After gifts are unwrapped in my husband's family the kids head outside and form a bonfire out of all the wrappings...in a weird way, it has become a family tradition.  I mean really, keeping the wrappings would seem silly, right?  After all, they've served their purpose of conveying a treasure to someone.

 

A treasure and it's vessel....hmm... I'm challenged as I considered what I hold
sacred? Things are sacred because something special has come from them.  Like a present wrapped under the tree, "sacred" things are the little vessels by which we encounter certain treasures.  So I may hold a date night with my husband “sacred” because it allows me to spend meaningful time with him.  The same would be true with regard to my kids.  When they were young, tucking them into bed felt sacred because it brought the treasure of being with them during that time.  My kids are much older now and tucking them in at bedtime would just be strange!  To encounter the treasure of time spent with them now, has required the vessel to change.

The same can hold true for our spiritual life.  Vessels are good because they lead us to the treasure, which is a living encounter with Christ.  However, vessels are not the treasure themselves.  They are only as good as their ability to lead us TO the treasure. 
 

I find it easy to invert these two things.  I’ve done it plenty of times and I bet you have too.  It may be a particular style of music in church, a certain family/faith tradition, or even a church program.  All of which are meant to lead us to the treasure of personally encountering God and they do!  For the Israelites it was the tabernacle, for Moses it was a burning bush, a pillar of fire and a hovering cloud, for Paul it was a walk to Damascus, during the 1960’s and 70’s in the United States it was The Jesus Movement, for me it was summer camp, and a particular song. All have been vessels by which someone has encountered the living God.  In the right season these things seem sacred because of the treasure they carry.   But vessels change as God brings a new treasure of himself into our midst and if I am not open to the new ways in which I may encounter Him, I will miss Him altogether.  when I hold the vessel too tightly I will end up majoring on minors and minoring on the major because I’m compelled to preserve the wrong thing – the vessel.  Without the treasure the vessel is useless and empty.

When we major on the minors we do things like get angry, even mean, as we try to protect something we've grown attached to.  We may become demanding, insisting things happen a certain way – a way that puts our vessel front and center.  The problem is that when our sacred vessel is front and center, Christ is not.  Vessels and our responses to them, can become great distractions from the real thing.  Perhaps there is a certain Sunday School program through which many came to find Christ and thinking back on that season seems like the "glory days" of church to you.   What was sacred was the Christ encounter, but it would be easy to make the Sunday school program "sacred" and want to keep it preserved just the way it was; when in reality it was merely the vessel God chose at the time to bring His presence.

Vessels play a vital role in in our ongoing relationship with God, but those vessels may change over time. If we hold them too tightly we will lose the treasure of being with God.  That treasure will evade us because our ability to find Him becomes limited to the deteriorating walls of an old vessel.

For those of us who are methodical plodders, we may keep dusting off the same vessel, time after time, and wonder why God is being so distant or why our experience of him has become so blah and dry.  Perhaps the vessel we are using has run its course and it’s time for something new.  This by no means negates the old.  It was good and wonderful because for a time it helped us orient around the One True Treasure - Christ...

"Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."...Jesus' words in Matt 9

Christ was preparing the people to encounter Him and His kingdom in a new way.

How have you encountered Christ in the past?  What made it meaningful? 

Are there vessels you've held onto that are no longer serving their purpose?

How have you worked to maintain or protect them (perhaps holding on too tight :))?

How is God inviting you to a new "wineskin" vessel so He can pour His new wine presence in you?