Balance

Tonight in class we discussed balance. Balance is a tough subject. I think in some ways it's tougher to come by now more than ever. In the physical realm, I've never really amazed anyone with my sense of balance. I was never the kid who could dazzle anyone with my skateboarding talents. Nor was I the first kid to learn to pop a "wheelie" on my bicycle. Some of these struggles followed me into my adult life. But, I have learned some lessons relating to balance. In general when I speak about balance, I'm really talking about peace. Think about my opening statements about balance and plug in the word peace. It does seem to me that real peace is hard to come by these days. Why is that so often the case? One of the most graphic pictures of a lack of peace and stability is found in James 1. James paints a picture of a wave that is tossed around the sea by the wind. What is the remedy for such instability? It is faith. Specifically, James speaks of faith in God's ability to answer our prayer for wisdom. Peace comes when we ask for God's help and guidance and then trust God to provide it. Likewise God is our source of balance. God will give us wisdom for the choices we make from day to day.

Devotion

Sometimes it's easy to get sidetracked when it comes to being a Christian. We have this tendency to get caught up in doing Christianity instead of being. A friend forwarded a quote from Oswald Chambers (thanks Craig) that sums it up this way:

"Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ."

Causes are not bad. Doctrine beliefs are not bad. But, we become weary when our primary devotion is to a cause rather than Jesus. In fact, it is only through our devotional relationship with God that we can be refreshed and renewed for proper engagement in mission. Right thinking alone will not bring an overflow of love from our hearts. The love that we have for our neighbors is dependent upon our loving relationship with our Savior.

Great Devotional Thoughts

We were reading a devotional from Max Lucado's "Just Like Jesus" last night. I really like how he answers a couple of questions that I hear so often. How do I live in God's presence? How can you and I grow familiar with the voice of God? Here's his answer:

Give God your waking thoughts - Before you face the day, face the Father. Before you step out of bed, step into His presence.

Give God your waiting thoughts - Spend time with Him in silence.

Give God your whispering thoughts - Imagine considering every moment as a potential time of communion with God.

Give God your waning thoughts - At the end of the day, let your mind settle on Him. Conclude the day as you begain it: talking to God.

Why Father?

Here are some pre-Father's Day thoughts from Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed:

"The Lord's Prayer begins with Abba, Father. Jesus is decidedly lopsided when it comes to names for God: every prayer of Jesus recorded in the Gospels begins with 'Abba, Father except the famous My God, my God why have you forsaken me?' utterance from the cross...why does Jesus focus so narrowly on Abba as the name for God? God may be YHWH but that sacred name evokes mystery. YHWH may be King, but that term evokes distance. From a long list of names, Jesus chooses Abba. What Jesus wants to evoke with the name Abba is God's unconditional, unlimited and unwavering love for his people. In this name for God we are standing face-to-face with the very premise of spiritual formation: God loves us and we are his children."

Prayer

Recently, I have been reading a book by Scot McKnight called Jesus Creed. It's not a new book, but it's a good read. The short version of the Creed is "love God and love others". McKnight also shares some good teaching about how the "Lord's Prayer" relates to the creed. McKnight's message is about living the words of Jesus. Here's a quote that stuck in my heart:

"Prayer does not stop with the "Amen". It rises to its feet and walks off, with our built up yearning turned into action."

In particular, I like how McKnight describes what happens (or what should happen) when we pray: "built up yearning". In other words, our prayer life should create a fire within our hearts. It is a craving to love God and love others that is difficult to suppress. Too often we do not connect our prayer with our passion to live for God. Perhaps if the yearning is not there, we should pray more. If our prayer does not rise to its feet - maybe it should stay on its knees a little longer. Good thoughts for a Monday. Since it is Monday, I'll go ahead and substitue "sermon" for prayer. The sermon must not end with the "Amen" on Sunday. It rises to its feet on Monday and walks off with a yearning for action.

Did you Stretch?

I was complaining the other day about some muscle soreness. A friend, much younger than I, asked whether I had taken a little time to stretch before "over-exerting" myself playing a couple of hours of basketball on our men's retreat...I think you know the answer. Today I have been studying some passages about belief. Faith requires us to be prepared to stretch. We stretch toward our initial belief and we continue to stretch in order to exert our faith. The fact that I stretched a lot in my twenties doesn't help my muscles now that I'm forty-six! Faith requires us to stretch beyond the current comfortable shape of our lives. This neglect is evident today. Many of the arguments that I hear against the basic tenets of belief take aim at this simple truth. For example, I hear belief in God questioned because God doesn't fit into a pre-constructed box. Typically, the box is constructed in such a way that it is a foregone conclusion that God doesn't exist. Presto! Science has proved that God doesn't exist. Genuine inquiry into the existence of God doesn't exclude rationality. Nor does it exclude metaphysical realities that are ill-shaped for a box. This Sunday I will take a journey into John 9. It's interesting to me that the nature of the disciples and the "Jews" and their perspective on the healing of a blind man reveal the same kind of belief struggles that are so common today. Why am I surprised by that?

What Winter is it?

I was driving home a few minutes ago and heard on the radio that the temperature has dropped to 49 degrees. If you have lived in East Tennessee for most of your life, as I have, you know that it is "dogwood winter" or "blackberry winter" or "red bud winter" or something like that. There have been many names applied to the expected-unexpected shift from 80 degrees to clear, frost-warning nights. More than once I have been tempted to speak to the trees and call into question their sanity as they "bud" out too early and then suffer the consequences of the cold snap. I'm tempted to complain, but I know better. Change is expected. The weather is not predictable. Neither is life. Recently when I preached from the text of John 3, the words of Jesus took on a deeper meaning for me. As Jesus rebuked/taught Nicodemus a lesson from Spirituality 101 he drew from the principles of nature. We can't control the wind. We can't predict the wind. Frankly, we can't understand the wind. Jesus wasn't sharing a lesson for future meteorologists. He was sharing just how well he understands the human heart (re-read the closing words of chapter 2). My fresh view of this familiar passage speaks to just how difficult it is for us to accept this fact. We love to control, predict and understand. But, we can't. Our frustration with this fact often undermines our faith. I realize that faith is not just ethereal, without substance or form. Yet, we love to define faith in our own terms. When it comes to faith in God - God is never subservient to our own terms...wouldn't be God if He was. So, go cover up the plants and prepare for a cold night.