By now many of you have probably read about or watched Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent. If you haven't, you can watch it below
I don't normally like that sort of show but when I came across this this morning I was completely blown away. Here is someone who spent her entire life being despised and rejected. She got up in front of the crowd and was mocked by 3,000 people. Then, over the course of a three minute song all that got turned on its head. Just as He promised He would, God used the foolish things of this world to shame the wise.
The whole time I was watching it God kept raising in my heart Romans 8:19, "For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are."
Christianity offers is a return to the glory we were always meant to have. It's a restoration process that will ultimately one day culminate in God revealing our restored and glorious hearts to the world.
It's so easy to forget that. In our day to day lives a casual agnosticism sets in. We forget that God is fighting for us, is restoring us, is transforming us. We don't worship a distant God. We worship a God who wants to be active in every part of our lives so He can spread His glory in us.
That's why stories like Susan Boyle's, not to mention all the other stories, true and fiction, that stir your heart, are so important. They point us to the larger truth of what God is up to. We might be despised, hated and mocked but in the end He'll reveal the glory, the good work as Paul says, that He's been building in our hearts since we came to Christ.
Susan Boyle's performance is one of the most powerful examples of this I've ever seen. But it's nothing compared to what's coming, the day when God reveals His true children and the glory He's created in them.
Showing posts with label transformation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transformation. Show all posts
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Hands of the King
There's a great moment towards the middle of The Return of the King (the book, not the movie) where Aragorn has finally returned to his throne at Gondor. He's just finished defending his city in The Battle of Pelennor Fields and though he's escaped unharmed, there are countless others who have not.
After the battle, he comes to the houses of healing where the wounded are. He doesn't come just to visit or boost morale but to heal them. Aragorn may primarily be a leader and warrior but as Tolkien explains in one of the most memorable lines from the trilogy, "The hands of a king are the hands of a healer."
The same is true in our lives. You don't get through this life unwounded. It's a 100% guarantee that you will be hurt and that the pain will often be deep enough to leave permanent wounds. Even Jesus experienced this. All through the Gospels He is constantly being missed and misunderstood by those who should have loved Him the most. Isaiah calls the Messiah "a man of sorrows."
The difference is that Jesus understood who His Father was. He understood that the hands of His King were the hands of a healer. And so well we constantly see Jesus hurt and wounded we also see Him constantly turning to His Father for healing.
Healing like this can only be found in intimacy with God, be letting Him speak into our lives and guide us through our wounds. It's something we've largely lost and forgotten as a church but it's something God always intended to be a normal and available part of the Christian walk.
Most of our problems with sin come because we don't understand this about God. If you don't turn to Him for healing you will turn to something else. And so healing becomes another way for God to rescue us from our sin and restore us to who we were always meant to be.
Rescue and restoration. That's what God is wanting to do in each of our lives. But we won't be able to receive the fullness of all He has for us until we begin to understand what J.R.R. Tolkien knew: the hands of a king, of our King, are the hands of a healer.
After the battle, he comes to the houses of healing where the wounded are. He doesn't come just to visit or boost morale but to heal them. Aragorn may primarily be a leader and warrior but as Tolkien explains in one of the most memorable lines from the trilogy, "The hands of a king are the hands of a healer."
The same is true in our lives. You don't get through this life unwounded. It's a 100% guarantee that you will be hurt and that the pain will often be deep enough to leave permanent wounds. Even Jesus experienced this. All through the Gospels He is constantly being missed and misunderstood by those who should have loved Him the most. Isaiah calls the Messiah "a man of sorrows."
The difference is that Jesus understood who His Father was. He understood that the hands of His King were the hands of a healer. And so well we constantly see Jesus hurt and wounded we also see Him constantly turning to His Father for healing.
Healing like this can only be found in intimacy with God, be letting Him speak into our lives and guide us through our wounds. It's something we've largely lost and forgotten as a church but it's something God always intended to be a normal and available part of the Christian walk.
Most of our problems with sin come because we don't understand this about God. If you don't turn to Him for healing you will turn to something else. And so healing becomes another way for God to rescue us from our sin and restore us to who we were always meant to be.
Rescue and restoration. That's what God is wanting to do in each of our lives. But we won't be able to receive the fullness of all He has for us until we begin to understand what J.R.R. Tolkien knew: the hands of a king, of our King, are the hands of a healer.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
New Year's Resolutions
Here we are once again at the end of one year and the start of another. Over the past couple of days I've been reflecting on New Year's resolutions. You know the drill, you sit down and write out some personal goals you'd like to see happen over the next year.
The idea of spending some time reflecting on your life and thinking towards the future is good and important. But if you take an honest look at the results of annual resolutions in your life and the lives of those around you it's obvious there's a problem. For starters, most of us hardly make it to the end of the month, let alone the year, before we've given up on or forgotten what we wrote down New Year's Eve.
I was looking online today at some of the most common resolutions people make. It was about what you'd expect: work out more, achieve some life milestone, quit smoking, and the ever popular lose weight. Now those are all fine goals but I think they're also very revealing as to why it's so tough to get the results we hope for when we start the new year.
Most of our resolutions are external. Important and good, sure, but still external. What if instead of starting from the outside, we start with the heart, what the Bible in Proverbs describes as the "wellspring of life"?
God's desire is that we live from the heart and we can't afford to abandon that when it comes to something as important as life goals. Jesus's constant conflicts with the Pharisees are so revealing here. They knew the letter of the law very well. They knew all the external stuff but somehow they missed the spirit of the law. They missed the heart
In Matthew 23:25-26 Jesus says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean."
It's not that Jesus doesn't care about the external. He does. But He also knows that if we start there we'll more than likely end there and what God is really after is our hearts. If He can get a hold of our hearts, transform us at the core of our beings, then all that good and important external stuff will follow. That's the promise of the Gospel.
With that in mind I'd like to offer a few ideas when it comes to making resolutions. First, ask God what He has for you this year.
I've been thinking a lot lately about Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"
We don't get to know everything God has planned for us but there are things He does want to reveal to us. If we don't ask, we'll miss out on that part of our relationship with Him. He knows us better than we know ourselves and His plans for us our good. Don't miss out on that.
Second, search our own heart and God given desires and bring what you find there before God.
This is the other half of step one. Just as God wants us to ask Him what He has, He also wants us to look at the desires He's laid on our hearts and then include Him in them.
Third, ask God how these goals and desires will be attacked then be vigilant to fight for your heart.
I can't tell you how important this is. Your heart, your God given desires, will be opposed. I 100% guarantee it. You'll have to fight and fight hard for the life God is trying to give you. But it's worth it. It's incredibly worth it.
Finally, be willing to do this more than just once a year
It's great to have New Year's as an annual milestone and reminder to have this conversation with God but over the course of a year of walking with God your faith will grow and you will find more life. When that happens new desires will be revealed to you. Don't let this conversation end on New Year's. God is constantly pouring out life and we can have it if only we're willing to constantly receive it.
The idea of spending some time reflecting on your life and thinking towards the future is good and important. But if you take an honest look at the results of annual resolutions in your life and the lives of those around you it's obvious there's a problem. For starters, most of us hardly make it to the end of the month, let alone the year, before we've given up on or forgotten what we wrote down New Year's Eve.
I was looking online today at some of the most common resolutions people make. It was about what you'd expect: work out more, achieve some life milestone, quit smoking, and the ever popular lose weight. Now those are all fine goals but I think they're also very revealing as to why it's so tough to get the results we hope for when we start the new year.
Most of our resolutions are external. Important and good, sure, but still external. What if instead of starting from the outside, we start with the heart, what the Bible in Proverbs describes as the "wellspring of life"?
God's desire is that we live from the heart and we can't afford to abandon that when it comes to something as important as life goals. Jesus's constant conflicts with the Pharisees are so revealing here. They knew the letter of the law very well. They knew all the external stuff but somehow they missed the spirit of the law. They missed the heart
In Matthew 23:25-26 Jesus says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean."
It's not that Jesus doesn't care about the external. He does. But He also knows that if we start there we'll more than likely end there and what God is really after is our hearts. If He can get a hold of our hearts, transform us at the core of our beings, then all that good and important external stuff will follow. That's the promise of the Gospel.
With that in mind I'd like to offer a few ideas when it comes to making resolutions. First, ask God what He has for you this year.
I've been thinking a lot lately about Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"
We don't get to know everything God has planned for us but there are things He does want to reveal to us. If we don't ask, we'll miss out on that part of our relationship with Him. He knows us better than we know ourselves and His plans for us our good. Don't miss out on that.
Second, search our own heart and God given desires and bring what you find there before God.
This is the other half of step one. Just as God wants us to ask Him what He has, He also wants us to look at the desires He's laid on our hearts and then include Him in them.
Third, ask God how these goals and desires will be attacked then be vigilant to fight for your heart.
I can't tell you how important this is. Your heart, your God given desires, will be opposed. I 100% guarantee it. You'll have to fight and fight hard for the life God is trying to give you. But it's worth it. It's incredibly worth it.
Finally, be willing to do this more than just once a year
It's great to have New Year's as an annual milestone and reminder to have this conversation with God but over the course of a year of walking with God your faith will grow and you will find more life. When that happens new desires will be revealed to you. Don't let this conversation end on New Year's. God is constantly pouring out life and we can have it if only we're willing to constantly receive it.
Monday, December 1, 2008
True Repentance, Relentless Grace
About a week ago I came across the true and truly awesome story of Stojan Adasevic. He was the top abortion doctor in Communist Yugoslavia during the 80's, performing 48,000 abortions over the course of his career.
Then, one night, something changed. He started to have dreams where he saw children laughing and playing but when he came near, they'd run away from him and become afraid. In the dream, St. Thomas Aquinas came to him and explained that these were the children he'd killed through abortion.
Stojan Adasevic is no longer an abortionist. He is the foremost champion of the pro-life movement in Serbia and has dedicated his life to championing the cause of the unborn.
This story brings tears to my eyes. There's so much about it that's just amazing. So often we catch ourselves offering up half hearted confessions to God and even if we do manage to avoid that same sin again we're doing it because we feel we should not because there's been any real change of heart. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly better to avoid sin half heartedly than to continue doing what we know is wrong. But what God is really after isn't a resigned sense of duty but a complete, miraculous turn around. He's after the type of repentance Stojan Adasevic found and has lived out ever since.
It reminds of the scene in Braveheart where Robert The Bruce has just been manipulated by his father into betraying William Wallace and the cause of Scottish freedom. Standing in the battlefield, surrounded by the bodies of those killed by his betrayl he realizes what he's done. In the next scene he goes to his father and says with all his heart, "I will never be on the wrong side again." That's what God is after.
But to me there's an even more amazing part of Adasevic's story and that's the relentless tenderness of God. If you look in the Bible, it doesn't take long to figure out that God takes the lives of innocents and children very seriously. And here is a man who has single handedly killed 48,000 children. That number is horrifying and heartbreaking.
But God did not give up on him.
That's the type of God we serve. He'll keep pursuing us, doing whatever it takes to get ahold of our hearts. If there was ever a man who it would have made sense to write off as a lost cause it was this man. 48,000 dead and God didn't give up on Him. That's incredible. That type of grace isn't just amazing, it's relentless, it's awesome and it's available.
Then, one night, something changed. He started to have dreams where he saw children laughing and playing but when he came near, they'd run away from him and become afraid. In the dream, St. Thomas Aquinas came to him and explained that these were the children he'd killed through abortion.
Stojan Adasevic is no longer an abortionist. He is the foremost champion of the pro-life movement in Serbia and has dedicated his life to championing the cause of the unborn.
This story brings tears to my eyes. There's so much about it that's just amazing. So often we catch ourselves offering up half hearted confessions to God and even if we do manage to avoid that same sin again we're doing it because we feel we should not because there's been any real change of heart. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly better to avoid sin half heartedly than to continue doing what we know is wrong. But what God is really after isn't a resigned sense of duty but a complete, miraculous turn around. He's after the type of repentance Stojan Adasevic found and has lived out ever since.
It reminds of the scene in Braveheart where Robert The Bruce has just been manipulated by his father into betraying William Wallace and the cause of Scottish freedom. Standing in the battlefield, surrounded by the bodies of those killed by his betrayl he realizes what he's done. In the next scene he goes to his father and says with all his heart, "I will never be on the wrong side again." That's what God is after.
But to me there's an even more amazing part of Adasevic's story and that's the relentless tenderness of God. If you look in the Bible, it doesn't take long to figure out that God takes the lives of innocents and children very seriously. And here is a man who has single handedly killed 48,000 children. That number is horrifying and heartbreaking.
But God did not give up on him.
That's the type of God we serve. He'll keep pursuing us, doing whatever it takes to get ahold of our hearts. If there was ever a man who it would have made sense to write off as a lost cause it was this man. 48,000 dead and God didn't give up on Him. That's incredible. That type of grace isn't just amazing, it's relentless, it's awesome and it's available.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
"He Made Virture Accessible"
For the past few weeks I've been reading Les Miserables (a fantastic book, by the way. If you're not up for the entire 1,500 page tome at least see the Liam Neeson adaptation). One of the parts that's stuck in my mind is from the beginning of the novel where Victor Hugo is describing the Bishop of Digne. He's talking about the Bishop's relationship with his people, his generosity and how he inspires others around him to good works. Hugo writes that the Bishop made "virtue accessible" to those around him.
That's exactly what Christ wants to do for us. A while back I wrote about holiness and how mistaken views of holiness lead us to lean either towards legalism or moral relativism. I think that we're in danger of both of those tendencies when we miss what God is doing here. When we see holiness as something far away and inaccessible we'll either tend towards legalism, believing holiness is attainable only for those with an extreme sense of discipline, or towards relativism, beliving holiness is so far away that it would be impossible to ever acheive and a waste of time to try.
I believe this is one of the reasons Jesus didn't discriminate over who He spent time with. He hung out with the rich and the poor. He gave some of His most profound teaching to a socially lofty man in Nicodemus and He chose lowly fishermen to be among His closest friends. He made His virtue accessible to anyone and everyone who was willing to receive it and called all of them into a richer and deeper life than they had ever imagined.
Jesus was able to do this because He saw who these people truly are. Beneath all of their sin and pain and woundedness He saw their true selves, their hearts, the people God had in mind before the foundations of the world. He saw it and He called it out. Virtue to Jesus was not something distant and inaccessible. It was and is Him calling His people back to Eden. It's His forgiveness and grace for sin. It's His healing and restoration for our wounds. It's His life that He always meant for us to live.
When we strip away the idea of God being an annoyed father who cannot stand to look at us until we shape up (legalism) or an easy going, distracted father who doesn't care what we do one way or the other (relativism) it's amazing what He can begin to accomplish in our lives. What takes those mistaken views of God is loving, available, passionate Father who is intimately involved in our restoring our lives to what they were always meant to be. God has made virture accessible to us. Now He is waiting for us to make ourselves accessible to Him.
That's exactly what Christ wants to do for us. A while back I wrote about holiness and how mistaken views of holiness lead us to lean either towards legalism or moral relativism. I think that we're in danger of both of those tendencies when we miss what God is doing here. When we see holiness as something far away and inaccessible we'll either tend towards legalism, believing holiness is attainable only for those with an extreme sense of discipline, or towards relativism, beliving holiness is so far away that it would be impossible to ever acheive and a waste of time to try.
I believe this is one of the reasons Jesus didn't discriminate over who He spent time with. He hung out with the rich and the poor. He gave some of His most profound teaching to a socially lofty man in Nicodemus and He chose lowly fishermen to be among His closest friends. He made His virtue accessible to anyone and everyone who was willing to receive it and called all of them into a richer and deeper life than they had ever imagined.
Jesus was able to do this because He saw who these people truly are. Beneath all of their sin and pain and woundedness He saw their true selves, their hearts, the people God had in mind before the foundations of the world. He saw it and He called it out. Virtue to Jesus was not something distant and inaccessible. It was and is Him calling His people back to Eden. It's His forgiveness and grace for sin. It's His healing and restoration for our wounds. It's His life that He always meant for us to live.
When we strip away the idea of God being an annoyed father who cannot stand to look at us until we shape up (legalism) or an easy going, distracted father who doesn't care what we do one way or the other (relativism) it's amazing what He can begin to accomplish in our lives. What takes those mistaken views of God is loving, available, passionate Father who is intimately involved in our restoring our lives to what they were always meant to be. God has made virture accessible to us. Now He is waiting for us to make ourselves accessible to Him.
Monday, September 15, 2008
What's Your Glory?
A while back I posted about purpose and what it looks like to begin to find God's plan for our lives. It's a subject that's stuck with me through the last couple months and one that God has continued to speak to me about. As I've been thinking, I'm beginning to wonder if we're not asking the wrong question. Whenever we begin to look at this topic we usually ask questions like what does God want me to do? What work has He prepared for me? What am I supposed to be doing with my time here on Earth? Those are all valid and worthwhile questions that God does want us to find answers to. But in order to find those answers, I believe we need to ask another question. A question that's at the heart of all our other questions about purpose. We need to ask God what our glory is.
We tend to shy away from this side of purpose because it sounds a bit self centered. Most of us when we think of purpose rightfully believe that that purpose is going to be first and foremost about serving God and others. That's true. We are part of a whole, the body of Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven. Christianity is not a giant ego trip, it's an invitation to step into something much larger than yourself. So yes, it's absolutely true that our purpose, the work God has for us, is going to be for the benefit of others and His kingdom.
But it's not the whole truth.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know by now that I passionately believe God cares about our hearts and that the heart is central to the Gospel. He cares who He made us to be and restoring us to that person. He cares about healing our hearts and bringing us life. God is passionate about us as individuals. With that conviction in mind, I also believe that God made us individually in such a way so that we will come alive, step into our glory, by doing the work He has for us. In other words, when we talk about the work God has for we're actually talking about the very things that make us come alive.
As I'm beginning to discover more about my glory and purpose one thing I have tried to do is pay attention to what my heart is doing in any given situation. What sort of situations, stories, conversations, etc. make my heart feel alive? Then I go deeper into those things and start to explore what specifically about that situation, story or conversation made my heart alive. What is God saying to me through my heart's reaction?
One example for me has been playing the piano. Ever since I started playing a year ago I've known that I love it and that it's a huge source of joy in my life. But lately I've been asking myself what about it makes me love it. As I've paid attention I've realized that there's something in my heart that loves to play something beautiful and complex and especially to share it with others. My heart had the same reaction when Annie told me she wanted me to put together my puzzle of Monet's Starry Night so I could hang it in the bedroom. I was being invited to create something complex, beautiful and then to share it with my wife. It's not my main purpose or glory but it's certainly a part of it that God is inviting me to live out.
What makes you come alive? How does God want you to live it out in the work He has for? Those two questions are the key to finding your glory and ultimately your purpose. Invite God to show you your glory, to make you come alive. He will and as He does you'll begin to find your purpose and your place in the larger story.
We tend to shy away from this side of purpose because it sounds a bit self centered. Most of us when we think of purpose rightfully believe that that purpose is going to be first and foremost about serving God and others. That's true. We are part of a whole, the body of Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven. Christianity is not a giant ego trip, it's an invitation to step into something much larger than yourself. So yes, it's absolutely true that our purpose, the work God has for us, is going to be for the benefit of others and His kingdom.
But it's not the whole truth.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know by now that I passionately believe God cares about our hearts and that the heart is central to the Gospel. He cares who He made us to be and restoring us to that person. He cares about healing our hearts and bringing us life. God is passionate about us as individuals. With that conviction in mind, I also believe that God made us individually in such a way so that we will come alive, step into our glory, by doing the work He has for us. In other words, when we talk about the work God has for we're actually talking about the very things that make us come alive.
As I'm beginning to discover more about my glory and purpose one thing I have tried to do is pay attention to what my heart is doing in any given situation. What sort of situations, stories, conversations, etc. make my heart feel alive? Then I go deeper into those things and start to explore what specifically about that situation, story or conversation made my heart alive. What is God saying to me through my heart's reaction?
One example for me has been playing the piano. Ever since I started playing a year ago I've known that I love it and that it's a huge source of joy in my life. But lately I've been asking myself what about it makes me love it. As I've paid attention I've realized that there's something in my heart that loves to play something beautiful and complex and especially to share it with others. My heart had the same reaction when Annie told me she wanted me to put together my puzzle of Monet's Starry Night so I could hang it in the bedroom. I was being invited to create something complex, beautiful and then to share it with my wife. It's not my main purpose or glory but it's certainly a part of it that God is inviting me to live out.
What makes you come alive? How does God want you to live it out in the work He has for? Those two questions are the key to finding your glory and ultimately your purpose. Invite God to show you your glory, to make you come alive. He will and as He does you'll begin to find your purpose and your place in the larger story.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
More Than Forgiveness
1 Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The Accuser, Satan, was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.”3 Jeshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. 4 So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”
5 Then I said, “They should also place a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the Lord stood by.
Zachariah 3:1-5
One of the things I try and pray on a daily basis is to renew my commitment in Christ to put off my old, sinful nature. I do this both because it's a much needed reminder of where Christ has brought me from and because not a day goes by where some part of me doesn't return to that sinful nature.
Lately as I've been thinking about this I've realized that while it is helpful and needed to pray this daily, and while I do genuinely believe it, I have a hard time living it. As I've been talking to God about why that is, He's been reminding me that while forgiveness, stepping out of our sin and having our slate wiped clean are all wonderful and beautiful promises God has made to us they're not the whole story.
I love the imagery in the passage above. It's exactly what's going on in our lives. The enemy has done his best to take us out and he's got a list a mile long of reasons why God should reject us but instead God rejects him. The picture of a stick snatched from the fire is a beautiful image of Christ's redemption. Just when everything seems hopeless, He comes and rescues from our sin.
But I also love that it doesn't end there. There's a promise in the last two verses that God isn't about just rescuing us and then leaving us to fend for ourselves. What He's up to is restoration, healing, growth and adoption.
There's a beautiful picture of this in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Early on in the story, Fantine, a single mother, is forced to leave her infant daughter, Cosette, in the care of the Thenardiers. She is to pay them a monthly rate and in return they will care for Cosette as one of their own. Eight years later the Thenardiers have long since broken their part of the bargain. Instead of treating her like a daughter, they've made Cosette a slave and are constantly demanding more money each month. Fantine is unable to go to Cosette herself but Jean Valjean promises Fantine that he is going to rescue her daughter.
When Jean Valjean arrives at the Thenardier's inn, Cosette is, in between beatings, being forced to knit new stockings for the Thenardier's daughters, even though she is denied any stockings for herself, new or old, and goes the whole winter in bare feet. Jean Valjean buys the unfinished stockings from the Thenardiers and in doing so he buys the time Cosette would have spent knitting them. He tells her that she is to use that time to stop working and play, something she's never been allowed to do.
It's wonderful. He comes into her life and gives her a freedom from her slavery she had never imagined possible. But there's one problem. Cosette has never been allowed a single doll her entire life. She has nothing to play with. She has her freedom but something's missing.
Jean Valjean goes out of the inn and comes back with the nicest, most expensive doll in the village. Cosette has seen it before but always believed that only a princess would be able to own such a doll. In a few moments, Jean Valjean's love has transformed her from a slave to royalty. He goes on to take her far from the cruelty of the Thenardier's and adopts her as his own.
That is exactly what God promises to do for us.
The reason I struggle (and I suspect I'm not alone) with putting off my sinful nature is because I forget that that's not the end of God is up to in my life on any given day. The freedom from sin He offers is wonderful but we must realize that we need more. We must not be content with just forgiveness when what God is really offering, what He truly desires and longs for, is to make us sons and daughters. Put off your sinful nature and do it daily. But remember too to step into your new nature and the life God is offering.
Monday, August 25, 2008
The Constant Need
In my last post I talked about the challenge of living in the world even as Jesus calls us to be apart from it. There is a disconnect resulting from the rich joy Christ is filling me with and the deep desires He is awakening that feel so impossible to satisfy in this world. As I've been living with the disconnect, the paradox, over the last week I've discovered inside me a constant need for communion with God. It is something I cannot go without. I am entirely addicted and wholly dependent.
I've experienced something similar to this in my walk for a long time. For the past year I've made a point of beginning my mornings with prayer and for a long time before that I'd made an effort to read my Bible on a daily basis. Even then I noticed a difference in my life when I missed those daily times with God. Taking time each morning became an essential part of my day.
What I'm experiencing now is like that but about a hundred times more intense. It's not enough to offer up a brief prayer or two at the beginning of the day, I now need to prey with an intense passion to start my mornings. I need to read the Word because without it I feel lost. And it cannot be once a day anymore. It must be constantly throughout the day.
It takes all different forms. Sometimes it's earnest prayer that God will center me on Him again as I begin to feel the erosion of The Matrix. Sometimes it's a more specific request that God has laid it on my heart to fight for. Other times it's my heart crying out with whatever emotion is raging inside of it. Often I find myself just sitting outside and staring at the world God's created.
I suspect I'm beginning to understand what Paul meant when he talked about praying at all times in the spirit. I can only imagine how much more desperate the need must have been for someone like Paul. For him, no doubt, once a day, once an hour, even once a minute was not enough. For him the constant need was exactly that: constant. And when he said "all times" he meant it quite literally.
Praying for me is not a duty or a discipline, it is a breath of air. It is a need to unplug from The Matrix and remember that there is another reality. It is a desire to share my heart with The One who rescued it.
Not only is prayer not duty or discipline, it cannot be, it must not be. The constant need is only grown by Christ awakening our hearts and calling us further up and further in. No amount of striving or effort on our part will get us there. It is a path of grace and transformation. The only way to find that path is to begin to believe in just how good Jesus is, how much life He has for us right now and how much He desires to restore us to who we were meant to be.
My constant need, my deep desire for prayer and union with God, has been awakened by where God is leading me and where God is leading me I never could have found on my own. It's only by His grace and His love. It's always only by His grace and His love.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Back In The Matrix (but not of it)
It's been tough coming home. I suspect it always is in some ways after a "mountain top" experience but this is different. Boot Camp wasn't just an emotional and passionate high it was a time of real breakthrough and healing. It's hard to come home from that.
I don't mean that my home life is hard. Just the opposite in fact. I left camp fired up about my relationship with Annie and I can already see that what God did in my life last weekend is now taking our relationship to new heights and depths. It's wonderful. The same is true with my relationship with God. Boot Camp wasn't the high for my spiritual life, it was a starting point, a trailhead, letting my faith take off into new heights. What God did last weekend was wonderful. Watching Him continue it through this week is a deep answer to prayer.
But yet something in me is still struggling with being home. I feel a little bit like Neo in that scene in The Matrix when he's plugged back into the true Matrix for the first time driving to see the Oracle. He sits in the car staring out the window watching the scenes of his old life fly by. And there's a disconnect for him, not because his old life was terrible but because he's experienced something deeper, something truer, than that old reality ever was.
A few posts back I quoted C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory saying, "Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
I've found this week that this quote has become even more meaningful to me. God used Boot Camp to take me away from making mud pies and let me glimpse the holiday at the sea. This, I believe, is one of the true challenges of going further up and further in. It is hard to desire more. It is hard to no longer be satisfied by The Matrix.
I don't mean to make it sound like I'm depressed. In fact, I don't believe I've been less depressed my entire life. My heart is overwhelmed with joy at what God is doing in me and where He's taking me. I am learning to be content with where I'm at but at the same time I've never been less satisfied. Everything I said in my post on contentment and satisfaction has stopped being just words and theory. It has become a stark reality of every moment of my life. It's a strange disconnect but through it I think I'm beginning to understand how Jesus could be full of the joy of the Lord and still be called a man of sorrows.
The enemy is right there trying to use this disconnect, this dissatisfaction, to steal, kill and destroy what happened last weekend. He's whispering to me that Hobbes was right in Leviathan when he said life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." But it's not. Life is abundant and joyful. Life is passionate and heroic. Life is victorious and beautiful. Most of all life is available. Jesus is better than we think He is and there is far more life prepared for us in this life than we are ready to believe.
God is so gracious in this. No one understood living in the world, The Matrix, but not being of it better than Jesus did. He understood the paradox of feeling abundant joy mingled with the ache of our fallen world. We have not been left as orphans. He understands and He is with us.
Jesus has promised that He will make all things new. The whole of creation will one day be restored to what it was meant to be. But we don't have to wait until the second coming and the end of the world. The process can begin today. There is a cost to desiring more. It's difficult to abandon our mud pies not because we miss them but because we've glimpsed the sea and we know we're not there yet. But God has prepared even for that. He has not made us wait until we reach the sea to begin receiving our abundant life. He is offering it now. And even now as I struggle to plug back into The Matrix I can tell you it's worth it. It is worth it.
I don't mean that my home life is hard. Just the opposite in fact. I left camp fired up about my relationship with Annie and I can already see that what God did in my life last weekend is now taking our relationship to new heights and depths. It's wonderful. The same is true with my relationship with God. Boot Camp wasn't the high for my spiritual life, it was a starting point, a trailhead, letting my faith take off into new heights. What God did last weekend was wonderful. Watching Him continue it through this week is a deep answer to prayer.
But yet something in me is still struggling with being home. I feel a little bit like Neo in that scene in The Matrix when he's plugged back into the true Matrix for the first time driving to see the Oracle. He sits in the car staring out the window watching the scenes of his old life fly by. And there's a disconnect for him, not because his old life was terrible but because he's experienced something deeper, something truer, than that old reality ever was.
A few posts back I quoted C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory saying, "Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
I've found this week that this quote has become even more meaningful to me. God used Boot Camp to take me away from making mud pies and let me glimpse the holiday at the sea. This, I believe, is one of the true challenges of going further up and further in. It is hard to desire more. It is hard to no longer be satisfied by The Matrix.
I don't mean to make it sound like I'm depressed. In fact, I don't believe I've been less depressed my entire life. My heart is overwhelmed with joy at what God is doing in me and where He's taking me. I am learning to be content with where I'm at but at the same time I've never been less satisfied. Everything I said in my post on contentment and satisfaction has stopped being just words and theory. It has become a stark reality of every moment of my life. It's a strange disconnect but through it I think I'm beginning to understand how Jesus could be full of the joy of the Lord and still be called a man of sorrows.
The enemy is right there trying to use this disconnect, this dissatisfaction, to steal, kill and destroy what happened last weekend. He's whispering to me that Hobbes was right in Leviathan when he said life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." But it's not. Life is abundant and joyful. Life is passionate and heroic. Life is victorious and beautiful. Most of all life is available. Jesus is better than we think He is and there is far more life prepared for us in this life than we are ready to believe.
God is so gracious in this. No one understood living in the world, The Matrix, but not being of it better than Jesus did. He understood the paradox of feeling abundant joy mingled with the ache of our fallen world. We have not been left as orphans. He understands and He is with us.
Jesus has promised that He will make all things new. The whole of creation will one day be restored to what it was meant to be. But we don't have to wait until the second coming and the end of the world. The process can begin today. There is a cost to desiring more. It's difficult to abandon our mud pies not because we miss them but because we've glimpsed the sea and we know we're not there yet. But God has prepared even for that. He has not made us wait until we reach the sea to begin receiving our abundant life. He is offering it now. And even now as I struggle to plug back into The Matrix I can tell you it's worth it. It is worth it.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Wild at Heart Boot Camp Review
I've been home for almost two days now and I find that I'm still struggling with how to write about what happened this last weekend. How do you describe something that can really only be experienced? How do you speak publicly about that which is deeply personal? I don't have good answers to those questions but I know that I want to, need to, tell you at least some about what happened in Colorado this last weekend.
First off, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who prayed. This weekend was deeply opposed at every level. Our prayers were needed and they were effective. Sadly, I can also say that not everyone had the same kind of prayer coverage I did. There were guys who clearly got taken out for all or part of the weekend. I didn't and for that I thank you so much.
During the weekend, John Eldredge said a couple times, "Jesus is better than you think He is." If I was summing up what God had me realize this weekend in one sentence, that would be it. Jesus showed up in ways that I wouldn't have imagined. Before I left, God told me this weekend was about both Him caring for my heart and drawing me further up and further in. I didn't realize at the time just how closely connected those two things were. The second would not have happened without the first. God fiercely loved me this weekend. He drew out my true self in a way that I'd never experienced before. And it was good. It was very good.
I don't think we fully appreciate just how much life is available to us in this life. Yes, we're a work in process that, as Paul reminds us, won't be completed until the day of Christ. Yes, there are wounds that will not be healed until we see Heaven. Yes, the battle will continue to rage and evil will often seem dominant on the Earth. But there is an abundance that God has for us here and now and it would be an absolute tragedy if we missed that. Just how much is available? More than we think. A lot more. I tasted it this weekend. It was amazing but it was still only a taste of the riches God has for us here and now.
It was also a weekend of initiation and adventure. During the Friday morning session, John was talking about how when men speak of the best times of their lives the stories will often be stories of adventure. As he was speaking I found myself thinking that I have a few of those sort of stories but not a ton and it would sure be nice if God would provide opportunities for more. That afternoon, a group of guys and I went horseback riding. We were less than two minutes out on the trail when it started to hail. At first it was just a little and then it unleashed. The horses went nuts, running around in circles and getting ready to buck. Meanwhile, the coral had been left open slightly and a bunch of horses got out and started charging down the trail at us. The ranch hands came running down the trail screaming at us to get off the horses. Having not ridden more than a time or two I had no idea how to dismount. But I managed to half jump, half fall off the horse and get to shelter where I watched it hail so much it looked like it had snowed. Once it cleared up the ride was beautiful but my favorite part was the beginning. It was wild, it was scary and it was an absolute blast.
Another highlight from the weekend was the fellowship. You'll remember from my prayer requests that I mentioned that I was most nervous about going alone to a camp of 400 guys I didn't know. It was a complete non issue. I had so many wonderful conversations and made a lot of good friends over the weekend. One example that stands out was when I was going hiking Saturday and as I started out on one of the trails I ran into a guy I hadn't talked to before and didn't talk to after. He said hi and we proceeded to talk for the next 45 minutes about what God was doing in our lives through the weekend. It was awesome and such a gift from God.
There is so much more I could say, so many stories, so many ways God showed up in my life but there's very little that I could truly give justice to with my words. Something like this needs to be experienced and for the men reading this, I hope you do. This is not just another men's retreat or a Christian event that fades into memory as soon as it's over. What goes on at these retreats is deep restoration and healing. I watched men in their sixties and seventies find healing for wounds they have lived with their entire lives. That kind of healing, and the life God promises, is available and a Wild at Heart Boot Camp is a great place to start finding it. For the women, Ransomed Heart also does Captivating retreats a couple times a year that offer the same healing and life to the femine heart.
Remember, Jesus is better than you think He is. It's true and He is desperately waiting to prove it to you.
First off, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who prayed. This weekend was deeply opposed at every level. Our prayers were needed and they were effective. Sadly, I can also say that not everyone had the same kind of prayer coverage I did. There were guys who clearly got taken out for all or part of the weekend. I didn't and for that I thank you so much.
During the weekend, John Eldredge said a couple times, "Jesus is better than you think He is." If I was summing up what God had me realize this weekend in one sentence, that would be it. Jesus showed up in ways that I wouldn't have imagined. Before I left, God told me this weekend was about both Him caring for my heart and drawing me further up and further in. I didn't realize at the time just how closely connected those two things were. The second would not have happened without the first. God fiercely loved me this weekend. He drew out my true self in a way that I'd never experienced before. And it was good. It was very good.
I don't think we fully appreciate just how much life is available to us in this life. Yes, we're a work in process that, as Paul reminds us, won't be completed until the day of Christ. Yes, there are wounds that will not be healed until we see Heaven. Yes, the battle will continue to rage and evil will often seem dominant on the Earth. But there is an abundance that God has for us here and now and it would be an absolute tragedy if we missed that. Just how much is available? More than we think. A lot more. I tasted it this weekend. It was amazing but it was still only a taste of the riches God has for us here and now.
It was also a weekend of initiation and adventure. During the Friday morning session, John was talking about how when men speak of the best times of their lives the stories will often be stories of adventure. As he was speaking I found myself thinking that I have a few of those sort of stories but not a ton and it would sure be nice if God would provide opportunities for more. That afternoon, a group of guys and I went horseback riding. We were less than two minutes out on the trail when it started to hail. At first it was just a little and then it unleashed. The horses went nuts, running around in circles and getting ready to buck. Meanwhile, the coral had been left open slightly and a bunch of horses got out and started charging down the trail at us. The ranch hands came running down the trail screaming at us to get off the horses. Having not ridden more than a time or two I had no idea how to dismount. But I managed to half jump, half fall off the horse and get to shelter where I watched it hail so much it looked like it had snowed. Once it cleared up the ride was beautiful but my favorite part was the beginning. It was wild, it was scary and it was an absolute blast.
Another highlight from the weekend was the fellowship. You'll remember from my prayer requests that I mentioned that I was most nervous about going alone to a camp of 400 guys I didn't know. It was a complete non issue. I had so many wonderful conversations and made a lot of good friends over the weekend. One example that stands out was when I was going hiking Saturday and as I started out on one of the trails I ran into a guy I hadn't talked to before and didn't talk to after. He said hi and we proceeded to talk for the next 45 minutes about what God was doing in our lives through the weekend. It was awesome and such a gift from God.
There is so much more I could say, so many stories, so many ways God showed up in my life but there's very little that I could truly give justice to with my words. Something like this needs to be experienced and for the men reading this, I hope you do. This is not just another men's retreat or a Christian event that fades into memory as soon as it's over. What goes on at these retreats is deep restoration and healing. I watched men in their sixties and seventies find healing for wounds they have lived with their entire lives. That kind of healing, and the life God promises, is available and a Wild at Heart Boot Camp is a great place to start finding it. For the women, Ransomed Heart also does Captivating retreats a couple times a year that offer the same healing and life to the femine heart.
Remember, Jesus is better than you think He is. It's true and He is desperately waiting to prove it to you.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Is There Joy In Holiness?
Of all the issues where the enemy has invested his efforts in attacking believers and The Church, the issue of personal holiness is one that has received his utmost attention and, unfortunately, one where his attacks have been very successful. That success is evidenced by the disconnect many believers feel when it comes to looking at holiness as a source of joy and life. Intellectually, it seems right. We know that God is good and therefore holiness must be a good thing. But living out the pursuit of holiness is a whole other story. So often it seems it's not life we find there, but guilt and shame and striving.
Attempting to experience holiness from a place of guilt and shame tends to force us towards one of two extremes. Some of us descend into legalism, becoming Pharisees determined to beat our sinful selves into submission. We soon discover that beating ourselves silly with God's laws isn't accomplishing what we want and so we add on new laws of our own. In Jesus' day, the Pharisees twisted and added to the laws of the Sabbath so much that the end result was to actually prevent good! Legalism can control our behavior enough to masquerade as holiness but look at the result. Is it anywhere near the life Jesus had? Is the place it leads us to even remotely desirable?
The other extreme is moral relativism. Frustrated and discouraged, we decide that a loving God couldn't possibly really expect this level of morality from us and so we twist His laws in the other direction in an attempt to make them easier. We water everything down until eventually what we're left believing is so vague it becomes meaningless. Somewhere down the road we're left with a faith that is so empty we might as well give in and become agnostics.
Most of us land somewhere in between these two extremes. Or maybe we settle on a mixture of the two. We beat the crap out of ourselves on some issues and choose to quietly ignore others. We do this because we see the extremes and imagine that true holiness lies in a happy medium. We think we should be a little legalistic and a little relativistic but not too much in either direction. If we aim for the center we're sure to get it right. Right? Unfortunately this doesn't do it either. We're left trying to balance two sinful extremes in search of hitting a mark that doesn't really exist.
But here's the good news. Real holiness is not legalism. It is not moral relativism. It is not a happy medium nor anywhere else on that infernal spectrum. It's something else entirely.
When I first began to realize this, it was difficult to believe. But when I actually read the Bible and saw what it said about holiness I found that the evidence was there. If there's nothing else but the spectrum, what are we to do with David in Psalm 119 declaring his delight and love for the law? There's no delight or love to be found in holiness while we live on the spectrum. What about connecting Jeremiah 31:33 where God promises to write His law on our hearts with Provererbs 4:23 where the heart is declared the wellspring of life? If the law is directly tied to life how do we explain that both relativism and legalism are entirely devoid of life?
Speaking of Jeremiah, that was a book I used to really struggle with. God seemed so angry throughout it. Surely this book at least must be evidence in favor of the beat yourself into submission approach to holiness. But when I read the whole book and saw God's plan for how to deal with the sin of His people I found Him declaring His unending love and promising complete and total deliverance from sin not through legalism or by denying their sin but by transforming them and restoring them. I found a God not furious with unending anger but one passionate about destroying sin completely and redeeming His people.
But even with that evidence something inside of me still hesitated. David may be able to find delight in the law but David was a remarkable guy, a man after God's own heart. Then I began to see that same view of holiness reflected outside the Bible stories. I began reading the work of men like George MacDonald and G.K. Chesterton. They delighted in their personal holiness and the process of transformation. One of my favorite songs has become Purified by Michael W. Smith. It's all about the journey towards holiness but in it there is no element of either legalism or moral relativism. There's only delight and joy at the thought of being searched and cleansed by God.
So what's the alternative? How do we move away from the spectrum and to the place where David found he could delight in the law? One of the resources that has been really helpful to me is a lecture series from John Eldredge called The Utter Relief of Holiness. Of the major themes he focuses on is moving from a behavior only approach to holiness to an inside out approach.
Now behavior certainly matters and matters a great deal. But if you listen to the way Jesus teaches, He focuses a great deal on the motives behind our behavior. The Pharisees kept the sabbath but their motivation in doing so was utterly wicked. Eldredge encourages us to begin examining motivations. Doing so is a humbling experience to be sure, but it's also an experience that's 100% covered in grace through the blood of Christ. The next step is to start realizing what wounds and sins cause us to choose those motives and then to let Christ begin to heal them.
The result is true transformation from the inside out. If we're only concerned about behavior, then beating ourselves into submission can look like the best possible option. But if we're concerned about being redeemed and made holy at the level of the heart, the only way to get there is through real transformation through Christ. The result is freedom. Suddenly what before brought shame, guilt and striving now brings delight, life and joy.
I speak as someone still very much in the middle of the journey from the spectrum to real holiness and freedom. I'm not at the level of Chesterton or MacDonald and certainly no where near where David was. But I have experienced enough of this process to testify to the power of this type of transformation. It is available. God is desperate to lead us away from the bondage of legalism and relativism and to a place of freedom and life.
Attempting to experience holiness from a place of guilt and shame tends to force us towards one of two extremes. Some of us descend into legalism, becoming Pharisees determined to beat our sinful selves into submission. We soon discover that beating ourselves silly with God's laws isn't accomplishing what we want and so we add on new laws of our own. In Jesus' day, the Pharisees twisted and added to the laws of the Sabbath so much that the end result was to actually prevent good! Legalism can control our behavior enough to masquerade as holiness but look at the result. Is it anywhere near the life Jesus had? Is the place it leads us to even remotely desirable?
The other extreme is moral relativism. Frustrated and discouraged, we decide that a loving God couldn't possibly really expect this level of morality from us and so we twist His laws in the other direction in an attempt to make them easier. We water everything down until eventually what we're left believing is so vague it becomes meaningless. Somewhere down the road we're left with a faith that is so empty we might as well give in and become agnostics.
Most of us land somewhere in between these two extremes. Or maybe we settle on a mixture of the two. We beat the crap out of ourselves on some issues and choose to quietly ignore others. We do this because we see the extremes and imagine that true holiness lies in a happy medium. We think we should be a little legalistic and a little relativistic but not too much in either direction. If we aim for the center we're sure to get it right. Right? Unfortunately this doesn't do it either. We're left trying to balance two sinful extremes in search of hitting a mark that doesn't really exist.
But here's the good news. Real holiness is not legalism. It is not moral relativism. It is not a happy medium nor anywhere else on that infernal spectrum. It's something else entirely.
When I first began to realize this, it was difficult to believe. But when I actually read the Bible and saw what it said about holiness I found that the evidence was there. If there's nothing else but the spectrum, what are we to do with David in Psalm 119 declaring his delight and love for the law? There's no delight or love to be found in holiness while we live on the spectrum. What about connecting Jeremiah 31:33 where God promises to write His law on our hearts with Provererbs 4:23 where the heart is declared the wellspring of life? If the law is directly tied to life how do we explain that both relativism and legalism are entirely devoid of life?
Speaking of Jeremiah, that was a book I used to really struggle with. God seemed so angry throughout it. Surely this book at least must be evidence in favor of the beat yourself into submission approach to holiness. But when I read the whole book and saw God's plan for how to deal with the sin of His people I found Him declaring His unending love and promising complete and total deliverance from sin not through legalism or by denying their sin but by transforming them and restoring them. I found a God not furious with unending anger but one passionate about destroying sin completely and redeeming His people.
But even with that evidence something inside of me still hesitated. David may be able to find delight in the law but David was a remarkable guy, a man after God's own heart. Then I began to see that same view of holiness reflected outside the Bible stories. I began reading the work of men like George MacDonald and G.K. Chesterton. They delighted in their personal holiness and the process of transformation. One of my favorite songs has become Purified by Michael W. Smith. It's all about the journey towards holiness but in it there is no element of either legalism or moral relativism. There's only delight and joy at the thought of being searched and cleansed by God.
So what's the alternative? How do we move away from the spectrum and to the place where David found he could delight in the law? One of the resources that has been really helpful to me is a lecture series from John Eldredge called The Utter Relief of Holiness. Of the major themes he focuses on is moving from a behavior only approach to holiness to an inside out approach.
Now behavior certainly matters and matters a great deal. But if you listen to the way Jesus teaches, He focuses a great deal on the motives behind our behavior. The Pharisees kept the sabbath but their motivation in doing so was utterly wicked. Eldredge encourages us to begin examining motivations. Doing so is a humbling experience to be sure, but it's also an experience that's 100% covered in grace through the blood of Christ. The next step is to start realizing what wounds and sins cause us to choose those motives and then to let Christ begin to heal them.
The result is true transformation from the inside out. If we're only concerned about behavior, then beating ourselves into submission can look like the best possible option. But if we're concerned about being redeemed and made holy at the level of the heart, the only way to get there is through real transformation through Christ. The result is freedom. Suddenly what before brought shame, guilt and striving now brings delight, life and joy.
I speak as someone still very much in the middle of the journey from the spectrum to real holiness and freedom. I'm not at the level of Chesterton or MacDonald and certainly no where near where David was. But I have experienced enough of this process to testify to the power of this type of transformation. It is available. God is desperate to lead us away from the bondage of legalism and relativism and to a place of freedom and life.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Does God Really Care About Our Hearts?
Does God really care about our hearts? I find myself needing to return to that question over and over again. I know what my head says. I can rattle off the verses and even give personal examples of ways in which I've seen God care for me. But to actually put it into practice is something else entirely.
In my previous post, I mentioned this quote from Ruthless Trust: "You will trust [God] to the degree that you know you are loved by Him."
As I've been playing that thought over in my head and praying through it, I've come to realize that it cuts to the heart of this issue. There are areas where I can trust God easily, where I truly believe that He does care about my heart and then there are areas that I struggle even to pray about. I want to seize control and leave God out. The difference is my view of God's love. When I look at the areas where trust comes easy, I can clearly see His love. I don't doubt it for a second. And when I look at the areas where I struggle for control I find that something inside of me isn't at all certain of God's love. Thus the way this question plays out in my life is, "Does God care about all of my heart or just the parts I feel measure up?"
It's important to remember the role of the heart in Christianity and to do that we need to revisit the history of our race. Adam and Eve were not created as fallen creatures. They were whole and perfect until they chose sin over God. Now we are all fallen but that was not what we were meant to be. There is a core to who we are that God is desperate to restore to it's unfallen state. The core is our hearts. It is God's craftsmanship and He loves it passionately.
With all that in mind, I still find I struggle with knowing God's love. He may love that core of me but I'm a long way from being restored to what I should have been. And so the question becomes, does God love our hearts even in their fallen state? I believe He does. It is here we see the power of the cross. The moment we accept the free gift of salvation we are committed to our restoration through the blood of Christ. He has now begun the good work and He will be faithful to complete it. Sin was not the beginning of the story and, thank God, it does not have to be the end.
None of this is to say that God approves of or turns a blind eye to our sin. How could He? If He did then either it would not be sin or He would not be God. But it is to say that He sees through our sin and to the core of who we are. The goal is not to ignore or deny sin, it is to be pulled out of it and into a place where our sin is a distant and forgotten nightmare, cast as far as the east is from the west.
Holding strong to the belief that God truly cares about our hearts is essential to joy. If you do not believe God loves you then what do you have to be joyful about? The reason we can rejoice in the Lord always is because we know that He is faithful to pull us out of our sinful, fallen state and into Aslan's Country.
Even when it is difficult or even impossible to see it, God is passionately in love with us. He cares for every part of our hearts and because of that He is trustworthy. To know this is to glimpse as much of the love of God as we can in this life. To know this is an essential step to knowing life and joy to the fullest. Walking with God in a way that recognizes these truths is not easy to have or to hold onto but it is available. I'm beginning to find it in my life and I pray you do too.
In my previous post, I mentioned this quote from Ruthless Trust: "You will trust [God] to the degree that you know you are loved by Him."
As I've been playing that thought over in my head and praying through it, I've come to realize that it cuts to the heart of this issue. There are areas where I can trust God easily, where I truly believe that He does care about my heart and then there are areas that I struggle even to pray about. I want to seize control and leave God out. The difference is my view of God's love. When I look at the areas where trust comes easy, I can clearly see His love. I don't doubt it for a second. And when I look at the areas where I struggle for control I find that something inside of me isn't at all certain of God's love. Thus the way this question plays out in my life is, "Does God care about all of my heart or just the parts I feel measure up?"
It's important to remember the role of the heart in Christianity and to do that we need to revisit the history of our race. Adam and Eve were not created as fallen creatures. They were whole and perfect until they chose sin over God. Now we are all fallen but that was not what we were meant to be. There is a core to who we are that God is desperate to restore to it's unfallen state. The core is our hearts. It is God's craftsmanship and He loves it passionately.
With all that in mind, I still find I struggle with knowing God's love. He may love that core of me but I'm a long way from being restored to what I should have been. And so the question becomes, does God love our hearts even in their fallen state? I believe He does. It is here we see the power of the cross. The moment we accept the free gift of salvation we are committed to our restoration through the blood of Christ. He has now begun the good work and He will be faithful to complete it. Sin was not the beginning of the story and, thank God, it does not have to be the end.
None of this is to say that God approves of or turns a blind eye to our sin. How could He? If He did then either it would not be sin or He would not be God. But it is to say that He sees through our sin and to the core of who we are. The goal is not to ignore or deny sin, it is to be pulled out of it and into a place where our sin is a distant and forgotten nightmare, cast as far as the east is from the west.
Holding strong to the belief that God truly cares about our hearts is essential to joy. If you do not believe God loves you then what do you have to be joyful about? The reason we can rejoice in the Lord always is because we know that He is faithful to pull us out of our sinful, fallen state and into Aslan's Country.
Even when it is difficult or even impossible to see it, God is passionately in love with us. He cares for every part of our hearts and because of that He is trustworthy. To know this is to glimpse as much of the love of God as we can in this life. To know this is an essential step to knowing life and joy to the fullest. Walking with God in a way that recognizes these truths is not easy to have or to hold onto but it is available. I'm beginning to find it in my life and I pray you do too.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Transformation Through Fire
Over the past couple days, Annie and I spent some of our drive to North Carolina listening to David McCullough's 1776. The book covers the plights of George Washington and the Continental Army from the siege of Boston through the Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware. Now I know that for some of you the mere mention of history makes your eyes glaze over but bare with me for a few sentences. I promise this post will be about more than (really cool) Revolutionary War history.
What most of us don't know, and what McCullough brilliantly describes, is that George Washington was not always the brilliant commander and leader we remember him as. In fact 1776, his first full year of command, was almost a complete failure. His first major battle, the defense of Long Island, couldn't have gone worse (leading John Adams to summarize "In general, our generals were out generaled"). To make matters worse he followed up Long Island with three more miserable defeats.
Morale was very low and the patriotic fervor that had enveloped the nation following July's signing of the Declaration of Independence was gone. What had begun as whispers of his incompetence had grown into a very loud and open discussion. A good portion of the colonial population (not to mention the British) were convinced that the war was completely lost and that Washington was to blame. He was a failure and he would go down in history as the man who cost America her independence.
But then something happened. Transformation occurred. He began to learn from his mistakes, his indecisiveness started to slip away. He became more comfortable with his command and his daring crossing of the Delaware helped turn the tide of the revolution and save the young country.
None of that transformation would have occurred without the failures.
And that's so much like our lives. So often the only way God can make us grow us by knocking us flat. It's one of the central mysteries of the Christian walk: the only way up is down.
No matter how we look to the outside world, we all go through times where we feel like complete failures. We've let ourselves down, others down and God down. Nothing makes sense. We blew it bad and everything is lost.
I believe that it's at those times God can truly begin to work in us. We cannot be built up sitting in comfort on the sidelines. Washington was commander for over a year before Long Island, before his transformation truly began. It took going through the fire, both literally and politically, for him to become the man he would. It takes going through the failures and disappointments of life for God to make us who He truly would.
This is tough and I don't claim to be any expert in it. But God's grace is always waiting for us to get us through those times and help us to get out of His way so transformation can begin.
What most of us don't know, and what McCullough brilliantly describes, is that George Washington was not always the brilliant commander and leader we remember him as. In fact 1776, his first full year of command, was almost a complete failure. His first major battle, the defense of Long Island, couldn't have gone worse (leading John Adams to summarize "In general, our generals were out generaled"). To make matters worse he followed up Long Island with three more miserable defeats.
Morale was very low and the patriotic fervor that had enveloped the nation following July's signing of the Declaration of Independence was gone. What had begun as whispers of his incompetence had grown into a very loud and open discussion. A good portion of the colonial population (not to mention the British) were convinced that the war was completely lost and that Washington was to blame. He was a failure and he would go down in history as the man who cost America her independence.
But then something happened. Transformation occurred. He began to learn from his mistakes, his indecisiveness started to slip away. He became more comfortable with his command and his daring crossing of the Delaware helped turn the tide of the revolution and save the young country.
None of that transformation would have occurred without the failures.
And that's so much like our lives. So often the only way God can make us grow us by knocking us flat. It's one of the central mysteries of the Christian walk: the only way up is down.
No matter how we look to the outside world, we all go through times where we feel like complete failures. We've let ourselves down, others down and God down. Nothing makes sense. We blew it bad and everything is lost.
I believe that it's at those times God can truly begin to work in us. We cannot be built up sitting in comfort on the sidelines. Washington was commander for over a year before Long Island, before his transformation truly began. It took going through the fire, both literally and politically, for him to become the man he would. It takes going through the failures and disappointments of life for God to make us who He truly would.
This is tough and I don't claim to be any expert in it. But God's grace is always waiting for us to get us through those times and help us to get out of His way so transformation can begin.
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