Benediction

It’s a little later in the week than I typically like to post. I write on Mondays, when the message is fresh and I’m refocusing on the week ahead. It’s a cool way for us to connect – I reach out to you right away and you have the rest of the week, if you decide you want to check in at all.

I heard this kind of communication is actually one of the characteristics of modern communication that has far-reaching consequences. When we are face to face (or even on the telephone), we send messages (verbally, physically, and countless other ways), they are received and reacted to immediately. If I say something that hurts your feelings, I see it, and we both have the opportunity/responsibility to address the hurt right now. You don’t really get the chance to hide it or pretend, because if I’m present and paying attention, your cues give you away. We both build all kinds of interpersonal skills through this synchronous dance. Nowadays (do I sound like somebody’s grandfather???), we send texts or emails and they are responded to sometime later. The receiver gets the chance to edit their responses, and the sender may not ever know the wound he/she inflicted. We lose so much in this asynchronous communication, it’s like the medium creates AND requires a disconnectedness.

This affects our ability to be present in situations and especially with each other. I am writing later in the week because I have chosen this week to be wholly present at home with my youngest son, who returns to college this week. (Really, it may more accurately be stated that I have chosen to be wholly present all summer. You may have noticed this, in any number of ways.)

I just want to share a few thoughts with you, and then give a sort of benediction. A benediction is the end of a church service where someone gives a parting thought, a blessing. It usually begins with “May you ____” At the Bridge, ours is always taken from the book of Numbers (ch. 6, v. 24-26, ending with “[May] The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”)

I often talk about a 2 Hands faith. This means we are invited to hold all of the emotions that come with living a completely present human life. Being an actual authentic human being is complex and complicated. We can be lots of different things, experiencing wildly different emotions from one second to the next. They are all ok, all welcome, and integrate into us (sometimes not so easily) making us fully aware and empathetic.

A great example and the one that I am swimming in right now is bitter-sweetness. “The bittersweet side of appreciating life’s most precious moments is the unbearable awareness that those moments are passing.” Marc Parent wrote this. I have no idea who this is, but it came to me through Brene Brown’s brilliant Atlas of The Heart book.

My son and I are very close, I love him dearly, am so proud of him, and really enjoy his company. He is absolutely ready to leave, start his adult life and change this world. I want him to go, I’m excited for him to go, we are celebrating – he loves college, is responsible, and will be able to fly – and I’m heartbroken. This kind of heartbreak has its roots in the richest, most wonderful soil of gratitude. I don’t want him to stay, I want him to become all he’s been created to be, and I will be his biggest fan and admirer as he goes.

And it hurts like crazy.

I don’t ever pretend it doesn’t, because to pretend otherwise is to introduce dishonesty into this sacred space, where it most certainly doesn’t belong. We have been given these gifts by The Creator of The Universe, He’s given them in love, why would I hold back anything? Why would I hold back joy? How could I possibly put dimmer switches on my gratitude? He gave me this great big, soft heart, He gave me this boy to love, to raise and to let go, and asks me to hold all of this out loud, so that is exactly what I’m going to do.

We’re playing games this week, shopping for school/dorm stuff, eating meals, disc golfing, and laughing. 2 nights ago, we played basketball in the driveway, like we always have, and the old man soreness I feel is 1. Not that nice, and 2. The most beautiful ache. He plays video games in the next room and I can see him while I writes to you, and that brings us to the benediction…

May we be courageous enough to enter into these relationships, and be present to the kind of searing pain that comes with such a deep, wide love. May we experience all the fullness of emotion that comes with the blessings of these human lives. May we be torn in gratitude.

4 Steps To A Great New Life!!!!!

[Before we get to our 4 Steps To A Great New Life – or maybe it it simply part of building a great new life – I want to share what I’m noticing in our Bible In A Year passages in Ezra. Over and over, like the chorus of a song, he writes, “the gracious hand of God was upon us.” Things happen because of this “gracious hand of God.” I love the lenses through which he sees the world. He isn’t making anything happen, not making blessings or manufacturing miracles, the Source of everything is God and His “gracious hand(s).” We could all probably use more of that sort of perspective. Now, the 4 STEPS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!]

[…Well, not yet. I am using this title and putting it in a caps lock because I, generally, have a giant suspicion towards the entire library of this type of self-help industry. 4 (or 7 or 105) steps won’t change your life, there’s no magic pill, no cast iron formula for transformation. I use these words mostly as satire…but, only mostly. There is some truth in practice. Sometimes, we can find universal characteristics that help to point us in a certain direction. Eating dinner together as a family isn’t always going to lead to connection and foster beautiful close-knit relationships, but there’s a very good chance it will. So, in Sunday’s message, we discussed 4 ways we can cultivate an environment in which we can grow closer to (or, to use the word from the 2 Corinthians passage: know) God. Now, we’re ready to jump into these 4 STEPS THAT WILL…you get the point.]

STEP 1, Read your Bible. Through His Word, we can begin to discover the Story, the character of God, Who He is, and who we are in Him. We see this is a divine chase: He made us, we ran (and run) away, and He pursues. He loves. He is graceful, the “gracious hand of God” is upon us, no matter what kind or size of mess we can make. This is information, data, facts, head knowledge, as foundation. If we stop here, maybe our lives don’t change, but that leaves us to the 2nd BIG AWESOME STEP: Contemplate.

We read, pray, ask The Spirit to show us, to connect the dots, tie the clouds together. In our reading, we learn about Abraham, Elijah, Jonah, John the Baptizer, the man on the cross next to Jesus, Judas, and Thomas. And in the contemplative space, with the Spirit’s guidance, we learn that we are each of them. We get frustrated at the Israelites living the same tired loops, and have our eyes opened to our own loops that we live. The Story jumps to life and we can more and more easily see that these words, written thousands of years ago, are our words, too. The Spirit teaches, removes the scales from our eyes and hearts, as we see our place in this Creation.

STEP 3 (easy to disregard in our arrogant independence) is Community. We were never meant to be alone, even before the Fall, it is “not good,” so we are given the beautiful gift of each other, of The Church. We reach out, care for and are cared for, and in this, we begin to see the image of God in each of us. The us/them fallacy is exposed as pure, utter nonsense rooted in fear. There is only just us. And in STEPS 1 & 2, we have seen that God’s favorite method to bless us, to show His amazing, limitless love, IS us. We get to practice kindness, forgiveness, goodness, peace, joy, love every moment. In other words, in relationship, we get to practice living in His Kingdom.

The last STEP TO A GREAT NEW LIFE!!!!! is Mindful Awareness. In other words, this world is crackling with the energy of the God of the Universe, of His Universe, if we only have the eyes, ears and hearts to see, hear & experience it. Soooo, we need to pay attention! We have to notice His Kingdom all around us. If you are walking, totally distracted, you might not realize that I’m walking beside you. But if you do, you can hold my hand and we can walk through this life together.

That’s 4 STEPS!!! I wrote earlier that there’s no cast iron formula for transformation, but if there was, it might be this one. I guess it depends how you define a GREAT NEW LIFE, but a new perspective on our own lives, the world around us, and The One Who holds it all together, a terrific group of people to walk with, all of us finally awake, sounds like one to me.

Spirit

We have a prayer ministry at the Bridge. (I think every faith community should have a prayer ministry, where people can come together, share their burdens, requests, and celebrations, and then take them to the feet of Jesus together. So we do.) We’ve also added a short time before that to discuss what we’re reading in the Bible and/or other questions we might have about our faith. It’s a safe place to be vulnerable and explore. I sometimes picture us in the 1st century receiving letters from apostles, reading and wrestling with these new mind-blowing concepts in someone’s living room. And I usually take my shoes off, because we’re on holy ground (in a holy space, a holy posture).

This week, the conversation centered around the Holy Spirit, the Third Member of the Trinity Who receives relatively little mention in our lives. Maybe that’s because we’re confused about His/Her (often, The Spirit is given feminine characteristics and imagery) role, or that we’re simply used to using the Names of The Father, God, and The Son, Jesus the Christ. It probably doesn’t matter why or even if we use the Spirit specifically, as long as we recognize & acknowledge Her* enormous impact on our lives, impossible to understate.

(*or His, if you prefer – sometimes the words we use can be a huge obstacle, due to any and all sorts of human baggage. In that case, change the words. I’m certainly not interested in keeping obstacles. However, we must never abandon the principle and certainly not The Person based solely on an traumatic experience and negative semantic connotation.)

We are blind and The Spirit opens our eyes, deaf and The Spirit opens our ears, breaks our heart and heals it. When Jesus ascended, He left the Advocate/Counselor/Helper/Holy Spirit in us as a constant Divine presence. The prompts we receive to call that person or do that thing or whatever, that may be the Spirit leading us. The songs on the radio that connect to the passages we read earlier that “happen to” connect to a decision in our lives, there’s a great chance that’s The Spirit, too. Maybe you hear Her as an audible voice or a subtle nudge or a whisper or a shove, the way She moves is as different for each of us as it is for us at different days, times, situations in our own lives.

So, when I see the hosting site’s prompt today, “Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that,” I can’t help but to see an obvious (though likely unintended) parallel. The uninteresting story, about other people doing other things in other places, does connect, we just can’t always see it. The prompt slows us down, asks us to focus, breathe, and look for connections. That the other places aren’t as “other” as we initially think, the other people definitely not “other” at all. What could possibly be unrelated or uninteresting?

I’ve heard this sort of exercise called “tying the clouds together,” and it absolutely isn’t something we do by ourselves. On our own, we divide and categorize, we look for trivial criteria to evaluate & compare. We fight and de-humanize. If (and when) we hear The Spirit, we can erase all of those walls, hope to forgive, and begin to love each other. Connection instead of separation, peace instead of war, kindness instead of violence, enough instead of more, you/we instead of me – these are all the work of The Spirit.

I don’t care too much about the story we find when we “scour the news,” but I care A LOT about the connection, and I’m pretty sure that’s the work of The Spirit, too.

What Brings You Joy?

“Describe one habit that brings you joy.” That’s the hosting website’s writing prompt for today, and I wanted to pass it along to you. What is one for you? What brings you joy? What brought you joy today?

[I opened my computer to write about something else entirely. (Maybe it’s not so different, we’ll see.) Yesterday, as an aside, to illustrate the “requirements” of falling in love with & following Jesus, and the relationship between salvation & sanctification, I asked my oldest son what he’d do if I bought him a Lego set. He said, “Thank you, and build it.” Our response to His gifts are just like that, we are grateful, say “Thank You,” and we live full lives of love, joy and peace. Those are the “requirements.” The Angel wasn’t in the service, and when I told her that our son absolutely preached, it was more and more simple and profound. And I wanted to talk about it again, here. But now we have a new question to consider…]

We are often confronted with some variation of this question: Where do we find joy? It reminds me of the feeling I have when I read the story where Jesus comes upon a blind man who is calling out to Him. He stops, asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Now, in this story, the man asks for his sight, so Jesus gives it to him.

I don’t think we’d do the same, necessarily. Faced with Jesus, I think we’d be afraid to ask for anything, hedge our prayers, feel some kind of way asking for something so personal, and instead ask for a new cane or sunglasses to better deal with our blindness. Or, worse yet, if Jesus asked us what we want, what He can do for us, and we couldn’t answer Him because we didn’t know. I get to ask this question to quite a few people, in vulnerable places, and it is crushing when they can’t answer. They usually answer after a long pause through watery eyes.

What brought you joy today? Anything? Or everything? (Maybe that’s a lot to ask. Work on a Monday morning might not be the most joyous experience.) What if we don’t know? What if there hasn’t been any joy today? What if there hasn’t for days and days? Weeks? Years?? Then what?

[Now, as I suspected, these 2 thoughts aren’t unrelated at all.]

Are we spending so much time obsessing about what we have to do, about the “requirements,” that we’ve forgotten what we get to do? And what if they’re the same thing, with the only difference being our perspective? We often don’t know what we need, and we often become so blind to the shine on His gifts that we lose the joy of the simple, beautiful response: gratitude and building.

Maybe that guy’s response to Jesus is ours, too, because usually, the only difference between joy and emptiness is our ability to see. Maybe He can give us our sight, so then we can finally see what (and Who) has been there all along.

Stables

Sometimes, I reference the writing prompt that the hosting website suggests. They can be interesting and thought-provoking, they’ve even been so good that I abandon the initial reason I opened this computer to discuss the site’s question. Today, it’s “If you could bring back 1 dinosaur, which one would it be?” They are not all interesting.

In our service last Sunday, I brought up the many prayer requests in our circle. Our individual circles are huge, because we are all so cool. In a Venn diagram, the overlap is the Bridge, but the way I figure, that connects each of the circles to each of us. We are all ‘members’ of the Bridge family.

But some people drift closer to the shaded, shared section. Our close friends have close friends that become our friends, too. One of those friends, a super-sweet man we all knew from a yearly party, (it would have been impossible not to notice him, know him, remember him, and be affected by him, even seeing him on such an infrequent basis), passed away suddenly, at far too young an age, last week. It hurts and leaves a deep wound that will become an obvious scar that we carry forever.

There are many others, who sit near the overlap, who are in need of prayer, struggling through medical procedures, surgeries, distance, isolation, and on and on. For a small community, we have these beautifully massive pools in which we each, in which we all, swim. These pools carry great joy, fulfillment, celebration. But they also carry pain. We get to go to the best parties, and the most crushing funerals. We get the phone calls for very good – and very bad – news. The weight is heavy and seems overwhelming.

Proverbs 14:4 says, “An empty stable stays clean, but no income comes from an empty stable.”

In times like this, when our friend is gone, we might really like an empty stable. Or at least one that’s not quite so full. Right? A prayer list where I don’t have to turn the page to continue.

We’ve all thought it’s better to not have loved, than faced the devastation of love lost. In that moment, in this moment, we might make the trade.

There’s a BRILLIANT science-fiction movie where a man chooses to have his ex-girlfriend erased from his memory, the suffering is simply too painful for him to bear. Most of the film takes place in his mind, as she is being eliminated. It unfolds in reverse, the first memories to go were the ones from the end of the relationship, and they seem to be easy to bid farewell. But as we move backwards, the beauty, the intensity, the meaning, the love… they go, too, and he decides that the empty stable he thought he wanted has a cost that is way too high. He begins to fight to keep the memories, fights to keep her, in his mind and his life.

This makes me think about our friend, and the very good friend who brought him into our lives. She is awesome, and you can see his fingerprints all over her life. She is a better person in every way because he was there. The income that came from her dirty pen is impossible to calculate.

I was thinking of this friend this morning while I was thinking of my son. He goes back to college in about 3-ish weeks, and even now, I’m seeing my screen through watery eyes and a very real pain in my heart. He considered an internship which would have kept him away for the summer, but he was here, instead, and now I get to send him off to school again, for the 2nd time. Maybe it would have been easier if he had not come home for these 3 months. Maybe.

Maybe an empty stable is clean, with less texture, less laughter, less hugs and gallons less tears. But the income is what makes life so wonderful. An empty stable has infinitely less beauty, too. And less passion, less love, less of everything that matters. My summer has been really fantastic, I haven’t missed it, I am deeply deeply grateful we are here.

My friend’s tears – and mine and yours – from her circles are really offerings of gratitude. The income is a full, awesome life. As Vision says in the WandaVision series, “what is grief but love persevering.” The pain my friend feels is directly proportional to the love they grew and experienced. If we’re blessed, very very blessed, we can know this terrible, beautiful pain. This is the gift and the curse of the Church, of a present life. We will be connected and full. We will have purpose. We will have hearts that are so big and soft you can see them from 100 miles away. And yes, we will hurt, mourn, and suffer. There’s never a way around the pain, only “through.” The thing about that, though, is the promise that we’ll have hands to hold and arms to fall into, for the “through.” And that is more than enough.

A Lego Life

This week, we were discussing the ways to connect and grow at the Bridge, and it made me think of Lego’s. Very many things make me think of Lego’s, and at least a little of it is because, at any time anywhere in my home, I am surrounded by Lego’s. Where I sit to work, I see, in order, the house from Up, a mouse house & wheel, Eva & Wall-E, and then a mechanical rhino that looks menacing. I almost forgot Kevin, Russell and Mr Fredrickson (also from Up). I can see, in another room, a gigantic Millennium Falcon (from Star Wars) and a tower-type thing. My oldest son is what’s called an AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego). This is something that is new to me. I thought Lego was a child’s toy, but of course I was wrong about that.

I do jigsaw puzzles. I love connecting small, seemingly unrelated pieces into a larger cohesive picture. It’s a way we can reduce the unrelenting noise and bring order & beauty to chaos. This is exactly what Legos do. Small, seemingly unrelated pieces into larger cohesive pictures. You know, this is also a pretty great description of The Church. We are all small, seemingly unrelated pieces who fit perfectly into a larger Divine design, a beautiful picture of harmony and peace.

Anyway. In a Lego build, there is a specific process. You begin with a foundation, whether it’s a flat square or a series of connected bricks, it’s the solid base of whatever we will create. Then, it grows with each piece, each level, color and size, into finally, a finished masterpiece. Finished, unless we choose to dismantle parts or a whole and transform the model, using our imaginations and interests.

Sunday, in that short talk about plans, programs, and practices, I realized we were simply talking about the bricks of our lives. The foundation is the same: Jesus. But from there, we use this creative spark we were born with, in the image of a wildly creative God, to build our own masterpieces. What kinds of bricks will we choose? Will they be Bible reading and/or car mechanics? Writing blog posts, long distance running, parenting, caring for pets, volunteering…As with all artwork, the only limits are our own self-imposed boundaries and the distraction that so often plots our course.

The world is big, fast, loud, and never stops demanding of us. Without any sort of direction, intentionally set, we will simply roll with the tide.

The Scriptures are a vast library of all different kinds of literature. There’s poetry, history, parable, song, prophesy, letter, and on and on, but each of them leaves us with one constant question. What now? This one leads us to so many more. What does this poem (or story or whatever) mean, and what does it mean for me now? What does a letter written to a church in Asia 2,000 years ago have anything to do with us in Pennsylvania today?

Those letters addressed the same issues we have. What does it mean to be human? What is a beautiful, meaningful life? And when we make it personal, what does it mean to be me, what does it look like for me to be human? What is my purpose? What am I really here for? Then, we build. What will our greatest work of art, this gift of our lives, be? Will we love?

Today is our day. We have all the bricks from which to choose, everything is possible. What now?

1’s & 2’s

Yesterday’s Bible In A Year New Testament reading was in Romans. Not that you asked, but I think, probably, Romans 2 is one of the most difficult and important passages in the Bible. And the consequence of continuing to ignore it is seen everywhere we look. It’s the cause of nearly all of the division we are experiencing and have experienced, from the garden to today.

Paul begins Romans like we would, like we do on Facebook. Look around, look at how bad these people are! They do this and this, they are like this and this. Can you believe how dumb, immoral, deceptive, how awful they are? There are Psalms that detail prayers asking God to destroy “the wicked.” Romans 1 reminds me of those prayers, the righteous passing their judgment on the wicked…“us” passing our judgment on “them.” It also reminds me of the Pharisee, who said of Jesus, “If this Man were a Prophet, He would know who was touching Him. He would know what kind of woman she is.” You can hear his condescension and disdain, she’s not even human. Neither are those “wicked” people. Nor the “others” of Romans 1. We stand here pointing…them…they’re the problem.

But then, in a brilliant twist, after we’re all on his side, feeling very superior talking about what’s wrong with the world, Paul says, “yeah, you ARE them!” (That’s my translation. Actually, he says, “You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. 2 And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3 Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? 5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself.”

Now, what if I make it a bit more personal, to reduce the narrative distance of reading something someone wrote to someone else 2,000 years ago? I’m just as bad, with no excuse. I condemn myself, with each cutting remark. I’m stubborn, refuse to turn from my sin, and am storing up terrible punishment for myself. God is kind and patient with me, and I do not extend those same qualities to others, it means nothing to me.

Ouch. We like Romans 1 much more than Romans 2. It makes us feel good, better than, it makes us feel right, but this is a delusion that we sometimes never expose. We like pointing. But this means we are also standing outside of the party.  

This is a reference to the Prodigal Son parable, where the King welcomes the son, who has been away squandering his inheritance, and throws a party. The older brother of the prodigal, who has always been there, is indignant at his brother’s welcome, and the parable ends with him standing outside with choices to make. The older brother likes to point at the “bad” brother, feeling like the “good” one, the one who listens and behaves. He is the one missing the party, too. He’s classic Romans 1, lying to himself while the King knows everybody is Romans 2 and has a great big eternal party for those 2’s.

If we think we’re so awesome, The King can’t really do too much for us, we won’t allow it. Step 1 is admitting we have a problem, admitting we’re the 2’s. We can’t accept the rescue as Romans 1 because Romans 1’s believe they can do it themselves, looking down incredulously on those pathetic 2’s inside at the party.

When Paul pulls that rug from under our feet, we are shaken into finally seeing that we are all 2’s. That is the reality we don’t want to face. But once we do, everything changes. There’s only 1 kind of woman/man: loved, forgiven, redeemed, accepted. There’s no one less than because there’s no one better than (well, there’s only One better than, and in Him, we live and move and have our being, in Him we find ourselves and our tremendous worth), so we can stop being so scared thinking we have to prove our value and earn the space we take up by knocking another down. We can just live into the divine economy of grace and love, and we can start to truly give the overflow of that grace and love to everybody else.

In other words, we can all come into the party.

Who Is Jabez?

Sometimes, the site prompt is unbelievably deep & searching, asking questions we might not want to explore. Today’s is: “What could you let go, for the sake of harmony?” Doesn’t this sound like so much of what we’ve been discussing in the epistles of Paul? When do the (perceived) slights and disrespect get so big that the relationship between us would be harmed? IS there a line, where it’s simply too much? Or is harmony to be defended at all costs, and we are to let everything go? This was not something I intended to think about today, it’s just a gift to lead us into ourselves, a place where we can consider what it is that we truly believe.

The prompt that got me to open my computer this morning did not come from the hosting website, it came from 1 Chronicles, chapter 4. Verses 9 & 10 read, “There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted his request.”

So, who is Jabez? An honorable man who too a risk and made a BIG ask of God – not only bless him, not only give him a lot of land, not only presence, but keep him from all trouble and pain!! ALL trouble and pain?! And, in an extraordinary move, God granted his request! What made Jabez so special? Did the fact that he was honorable ‘earn’ that unbelievable yes? Or was it the faith in a generous, loving God to ask? It seems like there should be more than 2 verses in a book no one really reads given to such a man, such a story. There have been many books written, many gospels based on 2 verses, surely there must be more to learn about this story.

Does God give us what we pray for? In Mark 11:22-24, Jesus says, Have faith in God…Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” If I believe that a mountain will throw itself into the sea, and it will because I said so, then maybe the prayer of Jabez isn’t that big of a deal at all.

But, then we have Matthew 11:2-6, “When John the Baptist was in prison, he heard what Jesus was doing. He sent his followers. They asked, “Are You the One Who was to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus said to them, “Go and tell John what you see and hear. The blind are made to see. Those who could not walk are walking. Those who have had bad skin diseases are healed. Those who could not hear are hearing. The dead are raised up to life and the Good News is preached to poor people. He is happy who is not ashamed of Me and does not turn away because of Me.”

John lived his entire life for Jesus, paving a way, devoted to the coming Messiah, and found himself in prison. We can forgive him for asking, “Um, are you the One?” Maybe he had Jabez in mind, thinking if we’re honorable & faithful, things will go very well for us. Jesus answers in an unusual way, essentially telling him he wasn’t getting out of that cell alive, but he shouldn’t turn away from Him. So, what’s up with this? All of the disciples had horribly tragic deaths (except John – a different John – who had probably only wished he died several times), the prophets didn’t exactly live cushy lives of material comfort. In fact, it seems like Jabez is the exception.

God’s blessing isn’t an exception. God’s generosity isn’t an exception. God’s grace & love aren’t exceptional. It’s only an exception that, in thsi case, His Divine Blessing looks so much like we want it to look, with easy living and loads of land and money.

What do we make of this? First, I can’t remember many prayers I’ve read or heard that sound like this. I wonder how many of us have prayed so boldly, so honestly, so un-self-consciously. I haven’t. Do we think it’s selfish or somehow wrong to ask for what we’d really like from the only One who could really give it to us. Maybe we don’t ask because, what if our answer is like John’s. Maybe our faith isn’t quite built to withstand a “No,” for whatever reason. Maybe we’re afraid to be so open with God, as if He doesn’t know what we’re holding back, leaving unsaid. What does this say about our perspective of God?

This morning, my sister told me a story about how she called a coworker to ask if she’d switch shifts with her. Now, I’m thinking about the vulnerability of that, but also the faith. My sister is likable and great at her job, she’s honorable. But she’s also perseverant, if that coworker says no, I bet she’ll be a little like the parable of the persistent neighbor, asking for bread at midnight over and over until she gets the bread. She asks for what she wants.

Maybe Jabez got what he wanted just because he knew the character of God enough to ask. Right now, if you ask me (and I suppose nobody actually has;), I think these 2 verses are about the heart posture of prayer, and our reverence and child-like belief in Our God. The act of asking says, 1. He loves me. 2. He wants to give me good gifts (even if I might not always know what He would call “good”). 3. I am human, He’s created me to be His child, He knows me, inside and out, so I’ll ask Him. But also, 4. I love Him, I’m grateful, I trust Him to know what I need, so my entire faith doesn’t hang on the thread of His giving me everything I want. I don’t need Him to be my vending machine to love and/or follow Him.

The Bible isn’t always easy to understand, and sometimes the deeper we get, the more mysterious it gets, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome.

A New Story

We are reading the Bible-In-A-Year (capitalized because it must surely be a trademarked property), and yesterday’s reading was fascinating. It felt almost frantic, hurried, urgent – the story as well as the way it was written. The monumental shift in direction happened in relatively few paragraphs, it is jarring, and set against the tone and content of the rest of the books of the Kings, almost shocking to read.

Earlier this week, I wrote about the seeming inability (or rather, unwillingness) of either of the split kingdoms of Israel and Judah to fully eliminate the idolatry of the pagan shrines and asherah poles. Even the most faithful of the kings stop short of total obedience.

In 2 Kings 22-23, the story of Josiah begins quietly, with the proper counting and allocation of the people’s offerings. Then, the record scratches as Hilkiah, the high priest, declares that he has “found” the Book of the Law. At that time, there weren’t Bibles in hotel room drawers (I guess that’s a dated reference because they aren’t there anymore, in our time, but you get the point). There weren’t Bibles for every niche, translated into all different languages, for all ages. There was one hand-written scroll, as far as we can tell. And it was lost. And judging by everyone’s actions & reactions, they had neither seen nor heard it. These spiritual leaders have no idea what they’re reading and what it means, so they seek out the guidance of the prophet Huldah (A WOMAN! Gasp! I wonder what many modern church denominations make of this passage. Anyway…)

Once they hear it and understand, they tear their clothes and weep. They can finally see their intended path, just how far they have strayed, and their hearts are loudly broken. Josiah has it read to the people and commits to actually doing what the Bible says. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? He makes no excuses, even though he has a good one – he truly didn’t know what it said. But now he did, and was faced with the question with which we all are faced, in the Scriptures, “Now what?”

Josiah answered, quickly, decisively, with his actions. Immediately, he started the process of destroying any and all shrines, poles, and altars. He tore down all avenues of idolatry all over his kingdom, not stopping until all “detestable practices” were demolished. Until “finally, he returned to Jerusalem.”

“Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since. (2 Kg 23:25)”

Now what? We all have excuses for living beneath our divine call to love, peace, patience, joy, self-control, righteousness, excuses for living beneath our divine call to really, truly, fully live. So, now what? The Bible tells us exactly who we are and what we’re worth, truths we too often seem to be bent on ignoring. Now what? Will we take our example from the kings of the divided kingdoms and do some, take some steps, move a little, just leave a couple of asherah poles behind? Or from 1 particular king of Judah and dive into becoming who we have been created to be?

[What it looks like for each of us is different, unique. Each of our asherah poles is different. And usually, tearing down the No means saying Yes to something else, something more fitting to our beautiful creation. That’s why relationship WITH God is so important, we hold His hand and He leads us into our own new story.]

Today is our country’s Independence Day, maybe it could be ours, too?

Grading The Kings

The Old Testament readings lately in the Bible-In-A-Year plan are quick, glancing blows about the kings of Israel & Judah. They simply give the name, how long he ruled, and whether or not he did what was “pleasing” or “evil,” “in the Lord’s sight.” Sometimes, they spent many years in power, and still, only one thing seems to be important. (Of course, if you want to read more, the author repeats, you can look that up somewhere else.)

[Violence is always present. Some of the kings assassinate their predecessors, then are assassinated by successors. Some win wars, some lose wars, against the same enemies. This is the insanity of human beings, the story of Samson (in the book of Judges) on a loop, where only the names change. Samson does something (what he does doesn’t really matter, but someone gets offended and/or killed), then the Philistines retaliate, then, “because you did this to me,” Samson raises the ante, then, because he did that to them, they retaliate. Both sides think they’re right, obviously, only paying back evil for evil, an eye for an eye (or a head for an eye), but the story is one of an unquenchable vengeance and bloodlust. No one knows who started it, no one cares, really. At the end of the story, Samson and a building full of Philistines are all dead in the ruins. And then, the next ‘Samson’ and ‘Philistines’ believe that this time, it’ll be different. That we (whoever ‘we’ is) can bring peace through victory, but it’s not peace – the shalom of the Bible – and it isn’t lasting. It’s strange how we don’t like to read about the violence and war in the Bible, while we perpetuate the story generation after generation. Anyway, that’s not what I meant to write about today, it’s just a momentary digression.]

[Speaking of digression, we’re about to move into a few chapters in 2 Corinthians that scholars refer to as “The Great Digression.” Isn’t that awesome??]

The kings are graded on just one thing: did they do the things, govern the people, in such a way that it would please God or not? That’s probably enough to think about, but that is also not what I want to get into. What I do want to get into is another familiar refrain in these chapters (and I’ll specifically use just one example, from June 29, The Angel’s birthday, 2 Kings 15:3-4): “[Uzziah] did what what pleasing in the Lord’s sight…But he did not destroy the pagan shrines and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there.” Good kings, pleasing in the Lord’s sight, often leave pagan shrines and/or asherah poles, behind. This is fascinating to me. Why would they stop? Why would they leave such an offensive symbol of disobedience and idolatry standing? And how are they still considered “pleasing” to God?

The Bible leaves a lot of questions unanswered, doesn’t it? That is on purpose, by the way. The idea is that we enter in, wrestle with it, turn it like a diamond with many facets, discover ourselves in the story and then notice as the characters we are change with subsequent readings.

What do I notice? I was a bad king for much of my life, following in the footsteps of the culture around me, walking the roads that have been smoothly paved over hundreds, thousands of years, leaving so much damage (to myself and others) behind. Then, as I fell more and more in love with Jesus, my eyes began to open and I started to see new ways, take small steps from that wide path onto a new, narrow one. I was a king that might have followed some of the Law, might have followed Him a little, one foot on each path. I’m moving in a direction, growing, becoming. It’s that passage, Uzziah’s epitaph, that disturbs me. He was pleasing, but…

Where are the pagan shrines, the asherah poles, in my life? I wonder if all of the kings even knew they were there, I wonder if Uzziah could see all of the altars. Do I? Do I even want to know?

Uzziah left them, and was pleasing anyway. This is the message of grace, I think. We are new, redeemed, and we still leave some of the past standing. The old us still hides in tiny, secluded caves in our land. We still carry that “but…” but maybe the sentence gets reversed in Jesus. We may have, so far, left the pagan shrines, BUT we are pleasing to Him. We are loved anyway. We keep living these ridiculous loops of Samson, but… We keep going back to the wide path, even if just for a second, but…

When we read the Old Testament, it can be maddening. Why do they keep doing this?!!!? Why don’t they get rid of the shrines and poles?!!!?It doesn’t take much awareness to realize that we are them, and once we see that, we see the exile and the return (we see all of these stories) in a whole new Light, through new eyes of tremendous, overwhelming gratitude.