Be Still

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. Pondering what direction I want my future ministry to take, what direction I want my life to take...what direction God wants to take my life.

I actually sat down to write about my thoughts on ministry. But as I thought about what I wanted to say, my mind took me in a completely different direction. The direction it took me was "stillness"

Being still, as anyone who knows me will attest, is not something I do well. I've always got this thing to do, or that place to go, or this person to meet, or a million other things that keep me running. And when I do get a "free evening" to myself, what do I do? I read a book on music history, I tinker on my computer - there is always something to be done.

And I wonder if that's really healthy (my friends tell me it's not). In seminary, one of my professors spent almost 4 weeks on the subject of a Sabbath rest. There was a lot involved in it, but the main focus was: resting in God. Taking a day, an evening, an hour to do nothing but rest in God.

I can honestly say that is something I do not do enough of. I rush through my devotions at times. I pray while driving - which makes it very difficult to focus on God. I'm now asking myself why. Is it because I have over committed myself, because of my inability to say 'no' or is it because I am scared of what God may have to show me.

In the stillness of resting in God am I afraid of hearing what God might actually want to say to me? How would it change me? How would it affect my plans for life, the ministry and everything?

I honestly do not know. I just know that I do not spend enough time resting in God. That I do not take time to put life on pause and just listen for God to speak to me.

Seeing God

Lately I have been asking myself a question as I am going to bed. That question is: Have I seen God today?

It was inspired oddly enough by the George Straight song “I Saw God Today.” The chorus, which is what really made me think goes:

I’ve been to church, I’ve read the book
I know he’s here but I don’t look
Near as often as I should .. yeah I know I should
His fingerprints are everywhere
I just slowed down to stop and stare
Opened my eyes and man I swear
I saw God today.

I have been asking myself this question because I think it fits well with what I believe. I believe that God is omnipresent, that He is present everywhere at the same time. I also believe that God takes an active role in the history of the universe.

So believing as I do, I think I should be able to everyday ask the question of myself and the answer be ‘yes.’ And if the answer is ‘no’ then I need to ask myself why. Ask myself did God not show Himself to me today or did I not see God in my life today.
Most of the time I can honestly say that it has been because I have not seen God, that I did not look for Him throughout my day.

I got up, grumpy because my alarm went off before I really wanted to get up. I went to work, a job I do not really enjoy, and spent my day counting the hours until I could go home. Finally I go home and I am home just long enough to eat before I have to go somewhere else to do something else. And when I do get home, I read for a few minutes and then go to bed.

Not much time in there for God or rather I did not take the time for God.

So my conclusion, which I think is becoming a theme here, is that I need to make sure that I am taking time for God. That I do not allow my everyday life to weigh me down so much that it distracts me from seeing God.

So I ask you: Have you seen God today?

Come What May - Take 2

I’ve been thinking about my Come What May entry for a while after a comment an agnostic friend gave me about that entry. I completely paraphrase and butcher the actual quote, but the essence of the comment was “the reason Christian’s dont turn to God is not that they don’t believe, it’s that God isn’t real to them in their everyday lives.”

Strangely enough I think he is right. We go to church on Sundays, mid-week if we have time. We might pick up and read our Bible’s during the week if we have time. In truth how many of us take time everyday, without exception, to spend time with God.

To “Practice the Presence of God” as Brother Lawrence would put it.

I began pondering how we as Christians can go about that. The most common is to set time aside everyday to read the Bible and pray. While it is a good and worthy exercise that I truly believe every Christian must be doing, in truth I have to admit, in my life that at times that becomes just another routine activity I do.

And with that thought in mind I picked up a book I purchased a while back and began thumbing through it. The book is Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. It’s not a book that one sits down and reads cover to cover. It truly is a handbook that takes 3-5 pages per discipline and describes the discipline, gives scripture and advice on how to practice it. There are almost 70 disciples that it discusses.

While I may not try all of them, there are some that I have tried in the past and am looking at incorporating in to my spiritual life again. Some new ones I have found that seem to me that they would be beneficial.

The amazing thing is, every human is different. Not every discipline will work for every person. But God in His creativity has led men and women throughout the ages to create different ways of practicing His presence so that everyone would have the opportunity to experience the fullness of God in their lives.

So my encouragement to you would be to take time to learn God’s ‘unforced rhythms of grace.’ Take the time everyday to make God real to your everyday life. So that when the time comes you turn to Him first (and not last).

Unknown Destinations

Mark 11:1-11 

Take a moment and imagine the irony imbedded in Holy Week.  Nothing seems to happen as it should. First, on Palm Sunday Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph.  The people are praising Jesus and waving palms, greeting Jesus as a victorious king.  But less than a week later those same people condemn Jesus and by Good Friday he is dying on a cross.

Then on Holy Saturday, as Jesus is lying in the tomb, it appears that evil has won.  Satan has succeeded in killing God.  Imagine the fear and disillusionment the disciples must have felt.  But then on Sunday morning it is all reversed as Jesus rises from the dead, the victorious king he was praised to be only a week earlier. 

The same is true of our lives.  We may never understand where God is leading, or what is happening.  We may feel like God has failed at being God.  However, as Holy Week proves, God is a God of unpredictability.  God will always surprise with the best possible outcome from any situation, good or bad.

Wake Up

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:  “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  Ephesians 5:8-14

It is very easy as we go about our daily lives to fall asleep.  We get run down by the monotony of life.  Get up, go to work, come home, go to bed...and tomorrow do it all again.  Occasionally we will do something special, go on vacation, go to a concert have a special evening with friends and family.  However, for the most part, life is just a continuing succession of repetition.

One of the things about the Lenten season we are in right now, is that it is a call to wake up.  It is a reminder that this life has a purpose.  We are not just supposed to go through the motions of life.  We are to live life to its fullest potential.

Yet, because of sin we often do not live life to its fullest potential.  We get distracted by it.  It wears us down.  And in many cases causes the continuing succession of repetition that life can so easily become, to be the thing that most separates us from God.  Not because we want to separate ourselves from God, but because we loose focus and put life on ‘auto-pilot.’

Take the opportunity this Lenten season provides to examine your life.  See those areas you need to work on.  See the sin that separates you from God.  Remember that life has a purpose.

Sin

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”  Romans 3:23

Sin is a subject that is not popular in today’s world.  The concept of sin brings along with it a lot of ideas that do not fit into the modern idea of life.  It declares that there is an absolute right and an absolute wrong.  It tells us that we are responsible for our actions.

But the idea of sin does not stop here.  As Christians we have a hope.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  Romans 3:23-24

The hope we have as Christians and that we profess in the Creed every week is that there is forgiveness of sins.  That God has provided a way, through the sacrifice of Jesus, that even though we have fallen short of God, we can still approach God.

As we continue our Lenten journey, take time to ask God where sin still exists in your life.  Listen to Him, and ask Him for forgiveness and help to move away from sin.

Ash Wednesday

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, for me one of the most meaningful services of the year that I attend. I generally attend another church's service than the church where I minister as we are a small church and do not currently have a mid-week service.

I would like to share my favorite liturgical prayer with you: the opening prayer of the liturgical Ash Wednesday service:

“Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledge our wretchedness may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.” The Book of Common Prayer

For more information on Ash Wednesday and Lent please click here.