rest

Jesus wants to give us rest. The world wants us to work harder. Who will we listen to?

This past week I was at a "learning community" for pastors who want to learn a new way to pastor. After hearing a local pastor speak about how he has learned to lead by practicing listening to God in all of his meetings, we were given 20 minutes of solitude to reflect on what had been shared. This was a very different learning community. It had started with a time of worship that included silence. And now instead of a time of Q&A or discussion, we were to find a place to sit with God and let him speak to us about what we had heard.

My first feeling was one of guilt and/or shame. I could hear inner voices telling me that I had time to listen to God but that's not efficient, that the leaders of Grace Community didn't have time to do things this way. So when I got back to my office I should put aside this nonsense and be productive, as would be expected of a good church leader.

And then I realized that this wasn't God's voice, it was the world's. I have a lot of things to do, but I had made time to be at this learning community. I had set other things aside so that I could hear God's voice. That wasn't something to be guilty or ashamed of.

Jesus calls me to come to him when I am weary and over-stressed. He wants to give me rest. The work of transformation in the lives of people at Grace Community is his work. If I take on his way of doing things, I will find rest for my soul. This isn't something to feel guilty about. It is a gift to receive gladly and gratefully. The world is trying to make me feel ashamed for finding rest. Jesus wants to lead me beside quiet waters and restore my soul.

Who am I going to listen to?

unconditional love

Christian psychologist David Seamands has said: "...the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God's unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people."

What is unconditional love?

Here's a simple definition: getting rid of "should". Or at least being very careful of how I use the phrase, ""You should" or even "I should". When I tell someone "You should" I'm often telling them that I have expectations of them that they need to meet as a condition for my acceptance of them. When I think "I should" I could be feeling the weight of expectations from people in my life, whether or not those expectations are real.

signs

What's the most spectacular sign of God's presence that you could imagine? How would raising the dead rate? If you saw a resurrection how would you react?

In Luke 7:11-17 Jesus raises a widow's son. He does it out of compassion, which is reassuring: Jesus knows our pain. But how does the crowd react? They get it. They realize that this isn't just a parlor trick. And it's not just a valuable service provided by your friendly neighborhood Messiah ("Please form a line here to experience your own miracle."). They glorified God and said, "A great messenger from God is here." They realized that the Kingdom of God really was breaking through.

Signs should point us to God. God may give us a sign in response to a need, but the need creates the opportunity and isn't an end in itself. When I see the freeway exit sign for my street I know I'm close to home and I'm happy but I don't tell everyone about the exit sign. I look forward to being home. Jesus' signs told people that the Kingdom was nearby (Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15-16), but he didn't want people to focus on the signs. At times he told people not to tell others about the sign. He wanted people to get home to the Kingdom and not get distracted gazing at the sign.

babies

I got to visit baby Alex yesterday, born just last Thursday. As I held him and talked to the happy but tired parents, we wondered what he would become. Afterward I wondered what God wanted him to become. What is God's vision for him? What is God's vision for Alex' parents and for me and for all of us in Grace Community?

And that begs another question: Do I trust God's vision for me? I suppose that in the eternal scheme of things I'm just starting my journey (even though I feel a lot older than that). in that sense God may see me as still an infant because there is so much for me to learn. In another sense there is so much for me to experience in each day that I should marvel at how rich each day could be. What does God envision for me in just this day?

It makes so much much sense for me to entrust myself completely to my loving Father. Even if I don't think I can trust God with my life I could try trusting him with today. In the same way I can entrust my kids and those I love to God. And I can ask God for eyes to see them and myself as he does, with his vision for our futures, starting with this day.

reading

Some people no longer read. They only work. They think that reading is something that kids do for school, for a teacher. Work is something grown-ups do to be productive members of society.

But a wise teacher knows the true value of reading. S/he requires reading because it can help us grow, opening us to worlds beyond us, giving us new horizons. Reading can do these things if we are open to it... and sometimes even when we're not. Kids are generally pretty open because they have just begun to explore the world. Good teachers know this, so they make kids read.

When we stop reading we are at risk to stop growing. Work is good (work was given by God as a gift to Adam and Eve) but it is not the only good. Humans are meant to always be growing, exploring, finding delight in new things. Growth is an evidence of life. When we stop growing we are at the same level as machines. Machines can work and be productive but they are not human. And humans are not meant to be machines.

What do we read? Words. God reveals himself as the Word. Jesus is the Word and he clarifies this further by telling us he is the Way, the Truth, and Life. The Word directs us, informs us, and energizes us.

I once had a teacher who didn't like to read. She preferred to write. When we write we participate in the act of creation. It's a good thing and a kind of work. But reading is different. It recharges our minds and opens our hearts and creates in us the soil out of which something good can germinate and grow, sometimes without all that much effort on our part. Because the one who causes the growth is God.

"The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63) We should all read more.

preaching

I recently heard an interview with the writer of a very popular advice column. She is so popular that a selection of her columns has recently been published as a book. What makes her so popular is a quality that one person calls "radical empathy." She mulls over a letter for weeks, seeks to know the question behind the question, and then responds from a place of heartfelt concern and love.

When I was in seminary I made the mistake of taking a particular course as a once-a-week evening class. Although I only had to undergo this ordeal only once a week, it meant that I had to listen to 3 continuous hours of dry academic rhetoric, rather take it in one hour doses. (Not all of my professors were so dry, just this one and maybe a couple of others.)

I bring up these two incidents because they made me think about the role of the sermon in the life of the church community. Is the sermon supposed to be a theological treatise that may or may not be relevant to everyday hurts and challenges or is it supposed to be a wealth of human empathy to which the Bible may or may not be relevant? Obviously these are two extremes. But I know of many people who are willing to live in one end of the spectrum or the other. As a preacher, I'm challenged by this almost every week. What sort of sermon should I deliver? What I preach will shape our church community. We need both radical empathy and sound theology. I pray that I can connect the two well.

Dear Dad

Dear Dad,

I miss your warm smile. I miss the way you enjoyed small things. You could spot a blessing that the rest of us missed because we were too jaded by big or expensive or new. I miss how you sometimes laughed so hard you could hardly talk to tell us what was so funny. You knew that the best things in life are free. So if something cost too much it became suspect. Cheap and simple equaled good.

I wish I had talked to you more about your memories. You were full of wisdom that came from walking closely with God for many years. It was a wisdom that was hard-won, born of both devotion and conflict. The Bible was always your compass. I wish I had asked more and listened more.

I am just starting to appreciate how deeply you loved God. Everything you did was infused with God and love for God. He was the air you breathed. And when you could barely breathe he inhaled you into himself. And now you are part of the air that I breathe.

Your loving son, Steve

Hear, my son, and accept my sayings
And the years of your life will be many.
I have directed you in the way of wisdom;
I have led you in upright paths.
Prov 4:10-11