Always surprised by joy

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You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures. Psalm 16:11 (CSB)

In his book, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis details his spiritual journey from a traditional Christian childhood through his season of atheism until that night when he “admitted that God was God,” moved into a confident Christianity, and discovered the true source of joy.

“There was no doubt that Joy was a desire…But a desire is turned not to itself but to its object. Not only that, but it owes all its character to its object…It is the object that makes the desire itself desirable or hateful…. Joy itself, considered simply as an event in my own mind, turned out to be of no value at all. All the value lay in that of which Joy was the desiring. And that object, quite clearly, was no state of my own mind or body at all. …Last of all I had asked if Joy itself was what I wanted; and, labeling it “aesthetic experience,” had pretended I could answer Yes. But that answer too had broken down.

In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England…. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

C.S. Lewis discovered in his search that joy is not in things but in the Who. Lewis wrote Surprised by Joy not as a general autobiography but as the telling of his story of conversion, finding what he called “joy.”

Connie and I had just finished a three-week mission trip to Kenya in January and returned with our hearts full. Over and over again, we saw the radiant joy of fellow Believers and were reminded again, that “stuff” is not the measure of joy and happiness. The world, and unfortunately even in some churches, offer a message that has warped the definition of what is needed to bring satisfaction. It is so easy to twist the meaning of joy and happiness to mean fulfillment is found only in the value of possessions, power, and positions.

I had the honor of sitting with a young pastor and his family in their “modest home” yet there was no mistaking what joy looks like. Connie and I had the privilege to help serve people in the middle of Kibera slums through a medical clinic and there was no mistaking what joy looks like. Connie and the team of nurses on the trip ministered to the health needs of those living in rural Kenya, yet there was no mistaking what joy looks like.

Followers of Jesus and the non-believing world all seek happiness. It is within this context that Randy Alcorn writes, “Don’t talk of joy as this unemotional transcendent thing and happiness as this worldly thing, because when we do that, we are pushing people, who all seek happiness, away from the gospel.”

Lewis understood that the source of joy was in the Who not the what. This same understanding was found among these fellow believers in Kenya. The source is not in “things” but in a person. John captured Jesus’ words when he said, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)

Eugene Peterson wrote about the outward expression of joy. “More praising goes on in church, more joy is expressed in the context of the Christian congregation, than anywhere else on the face of the earth.” He compared the outward expression of joy to the common places we encounter daily from supermarkets with anxious shoppers, to angry horns blowing on the highway. He wrote of athletic events where, “there are extravagant emotional expressions there, but it is surprising how few of them are joyful. The dominant mood is complaining, arguing, and criticizing.”

Peterson admitted the church family, it’s not a perfect place. Yet he wrote, “I know it could be improved. I know that some people are disappointed in it. But I don’t find any other place in the world where there is such a consistent friendliness, such a steady joy, such a relaxed rejoicing in God’s love.”

Dig deep and enjoy the rich goldmine of verses that describe the depth of joy and happiness that followers of Jesus have in their life. G.K. Chesterton said it well, “the atheist sees beauty but has no one to thank, and thus no one to be happy in.”

Paul’s vivid description of temporary happiness in Galatians 5 pales in comparison with the fantastic feast that God provides for us that brings true joy and happiness. For the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

“Despite your tribulation, take full delight in God, your exceeding joy this morning, and be happy in him.” –Charles Spurgeon

God is great!

Rooted Deeply

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Those who are devoted to God will flourish like budding date-palm trees; they will grow strong and tall like cedars in Lebanon. Those planted in the house of the Eternal will thrive in the courts of our God. They will bear fruit into old age; even in winter, they will be green and full of sap to display that the Eternal is righteous. He is my rock, and there is no shadow of evil in Him. Psalm 92:12-15 (The Voice)

Nadine Anderson is a 23-year-old woman from Dundee, Scotland who decided to honor her dad most uniquely by tattooing 90 percent of her body! The self-professed “daddy’s girl” said her inspiration came from her father. Anderson said “My dad had two sleeves when I was growing up and I always wanted them,” so when she turned 18 she had her first tattoo.  Anderson said, according to the news article, “she’s particularly fond of blackout tattoos – where large parts of skin are covered completely with dark, black ink-and wants to add a little bit more under (her) right eye because there are spaces. But even amid all that, she still wants people to be able to tell what she looks like.”

Anderson’s route to honor her father could be considered extreme by some. Yet creativity, especially worship, is birthed deep from the soul. John O’Donohue writes that “the heart of human identity is the capacity and desire for birthing. To be human is to become creative and bring forth the beautiful.” Choosing how to honor someone comes in various ways and methods, even if often it may seem different or bizarre to some.

We are now almost finished with the first month of 2023. Maybe you haven’t gone the route of covering your body with tattoos but is anything different in how you have chosen to honor and worship God? To live out life in community with others?

Long before God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, he was building altars so he could worship God. Abraham followed God’s command to move out of his homeland because he understood that God was worthy of worship and sought to honor Him.  “From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the LORD. Gen 12:8.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world.” What a powerful thought when you realize Bethel means “the house of God” and Ai translates as “mass or heap.” Abraham pitched his tent right in the middle of “the house of God.”  We live in this world but our focus should stay on the Kingdom to come.

On the surface, living in Ai is pretty comfortable. You have all the comforts that the world can offer, the best that life can bring. When Lot and Abraham parted and went their separate ways, Lot chose the easy way and went towards Ai. Needless to say, the choice left him living with some dire consequences.  Abraham didn’t care which direction he went since he would be building altars to God wherever he pitched his tent.  The Abraham-type “budding date-palm trees “only grow in Bethel.

“The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him. Rush is wrong every time, there is always plenty of time to worship God.” –Chambers.

It takes time which is not always easy to schedule so that we can sit before God. Yet when we do, we allow God to water the roots of our lives as we listen intently to His voice and seek to align our life to His ways. Your decision to pitch your tent amid your crazy, challenging activities could be the most rewarding and life-changing moment of the day.

Chambers went on to say, “Quiet days with God may be a snare. We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be.” We may live in Ai but for our souls to have life, we must always live in Bethel.” But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”  Proverbs 4:18

All that is eternal in me welcomes the wonder of this day.

The field of brightness it creates offering time for each thing

to arise and illuminate…

May my mind come alive today to the invisible geography

That invites me to new frontiers,

To break the dead shell of yesterdays

To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today to live the life that I would love,

To postpone my dream no longer,

But do at last what I came here for and waste my heart on fear no more. — John O’Donohue

God is great!

 

Jan 23, 2023

 

What is Required?

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The question: What should I bring before the LORD? When I come to bow before God on high? Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the offspring of my body for my own sin?

The answer: Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you:

to act justly,

to love faithfulness,

and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6-8 (CSB)

Jesus has spent the better part of his ministry teaching, encouraging, rebuking, and loving his disciples so they will understand what it is to live with the kingdom of heaven in mind. Jesus teaches his disciples truth and how it will impact people through radical love. Now as he is approaching the final days of his earthly ministry, Matthew records several parables to help them understand what it means to “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt 25:34)

Jesus tells them “For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe me; sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.” Their response has probably been mirrored through the generations since Jesus spoke those words, “Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?

Jesus’ response to his disciples seems very appropriate during Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. “Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” God used this Baptist pastor to awaken a nation to confront the injustices of the day. Dr. King said that “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

God’s standard “To act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God” sets a high bar of obedience, yet Jesus puts flesh on those verses. Feed the hungry as if He were sitting at the table. Give someone a cool drink on a hot day. Find some clothes to meet the needs of a homeless person. James came to grip with this teaching and would later write, “If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15)

God by His very nature deserves our very best. Yet He doesn’t ask for elaborate, ornate, or spectacular acts of worship. Simple acts of doing justly, loving faithfully, and walking humbly are His response to “What should I bring?” Jesus models these teachings in Matthew 24 and 25 and a few days after teaching, He places His life upon a cross for us. The extreme act of love brings redemption and salvation to those without hope. Our broken world creates inequality, unfairness, and often prejudice because of sin. God recognized the injustices that would come and created laws and regulations to safeguard the disadvantaged, the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the enslaved. He knows that governments, people of influence, money, and resources will often be used to further the sufferings or at best not help. The late W.A. Criswell wrote “those who believe themselves to be God’s people and who rely on the sacrifice for sin which God has provided have sometimes assumed that because their sins are dealt with, it does not matter how they live. The Bible emphasizes that those who would live in fellowship with a holy God as His people must live in a way which reflects the holiness of God.”

Micah’s words are simple and straightforward but generations have struggled to live out their intent. Dr. King understood all too well the challenges yet wrote “If one loves an individual merely on account of his friendliness, he loves him for the sake of the benefits to be gained from the friendship, rather than for the friend’s own sake. Consequently, the best way to assure oneself that love is disinterested is to have love for the enemy-neighbor from whom you can expect no good in return, but only hostility and persecution.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.” How or what can you do today to make a non-believer question their disbelief in God?  Our crazy, mixed-up world needs us to “act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with God.”

Therefore, fear the LORD and worship him in sincerity and truth…. But if it doesn’t please you to worship the LORD, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship… As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD. – Joshua 24:14-15

God is great!

Jan 16, 2023

 

 

Thousand Days or One Day

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For in your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that passes by, like a few hours of the night. Psalm 90:5 (CSB)

Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 2 Peter 3:8 (CSB)

“What life was like 50 years ago in America, compared to now in 2023” headline sounded intriguing as I scrolled through my news feeds the other day, that is until I realized 50 years ago I was a 2nd-year college student, which meant I am now part of the “compared” group! Cortney Moore’s article captured comparisons from music, fashion, and movies to politics, world events, and lifestyle.

Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” would have been playing instead of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Instead of paying $3.99 a gallon, I spent 39 cents per gallon to fill up my car, which helped a struggling college student. Median income was $12,050, an average house cost $29,900, the Vietnam War was finally drawing to an end, Watergate hearings were underway and Roe v. Wade ruling was handed down.

It is so easy to get caught up in the moments instead of living life through God’s calendar. We may follow the Gregorian calendar for businesses, schools, social, and all other historical events but in actuality, we go by life calendars that change depending upon where you are. Young parents’ calendars follow the growth cycle of their baby when he turns over, when she sat up, or when the baby finally sleeps through the night. Working couples’ calendars go from vacation to vacation with lots of working hours in between. Retired couples are trying to find where they put their calendar!

Hairstyles have changed many times since The Shag haircuts were popular for men and women in the 1970s, but God’s concern for the smallest details hasn’t changed. “But even the hairs of your head have all been counted.” Matthew 10:30

The median cost of a home may have risen from $29,900 to the current new home price of $471,200 but it helps to focus on God’s shelter knowing “The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.” –Psalm 91:1

Now if you want a game-changer, step back and think of time from God’s point of view. The prophet Jeremiah was a little uncertain about his calling until God said, “I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4-5

“A thousand years like one day” puts into perspective this new year. We greeted the arrival of 2023 with excitement and celebration, as well as a little trepidation. Some are already saying we are off to a great start, others may be saying, nothing changed. It all depends upon where you are in life.

Most likely you are already making plans, adding events to the calendar, and thinking you have all the time in the world until you realize 2023 has only 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, or 31,536,000 seconds to work with. Then it all starts over until one day you realize you are some writer’s fifty-year comparison!

How refreshing to live life with the knowledge that “Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God.” Psalm 90:2

Eternity to eternity is a lot of time, so, I think God has a pretty good perspective on how to live life.

Lord, as we fill up our calendars this year, “establish for us the work of our hands.” As we face another challenging day, “satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days.” Whether we are tired or excited let us remember “How magnificent are your works, LORD, how profound your thoughts!” Remind us to live 2023 “to declare your faithful love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.”

God is great!

Jan 9, 2023

 

Beginnings!

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There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven:

a time to give birth and a time to die;

a time to plant and a time to uproot;

a time to kill and a time to heal;

a time to tear down and a time to build;

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance;

a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing;

a time to search and a time to count as lost;

a time to keep and a time to throw away;

a time to tear and a time to sew;

a time to be silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate;

a time for war and a time for peace. –Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (CSB)

These haunting words from Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes are so appropriate as we begin a new year. In welcoming 2023, we bid farewell to 2022 and for many, good riddance. The year brought various challenges as well as blessings. John Walton writes, “The message of Ecclesiastes is that the course of life to be pursued is a God-centered life. The pleasures of life are not intrinsically fulfilling and cannot offer lasting satisfaction, but they can be enjoyed as gifts from God. Life offers good times and bad and follows no pattern such as that proposed by the retribution principle. But all comes from the hand of God. Adversity may not be enjoyable, but it can help make us the people of faith we ought to be.”

I am not sure if Paulo Coelho ever read these verses but his thoughts seem to mirror Solomon’s understanding of time. “One day, you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”

For so many of us, 2022 began with good intentions, resolutions, and dreams. Yet as the days and weeks turned into months, it seemed impossible to keep many of those well-intentioned plans. The good intentions of losing weight didn’t happen, the daily routine of exercise sounded good, and trying to do something new was left on the table unfinished – yet we tried.

Edward Curtis writes, “Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people are encouraged to reflect on who God is, to study his works in creation and in history, and to meditate on the truth he has revealed about himself. They are instructed to carefully examine the world for examples of his steadfast love. Such disciplines keep before God’s people some of those “grounds for trusting.”

Happy New Year! Whether stranger or friend, you are greeted with these words. However, you may find yourself in a place that is neither “happy” nor “new”. The only thing you can resonate with that greeting is “year.” I will never forget Connie and my first New Year in Bophuthatswana, Africa. The country was in the midst of the worst drought in decades, the temperature was beyond hot, nothing was the same as what we left and we had lost our baby through a miscarriage. As the midnight hour struck, you could hear crowds of people walking up and down the road yelling: happy, happy, happy.

I realized that happy is simply an adjective. Though our lives had been uprooted, there would come a time to plant new roots. We had wept but there would come a time to laugh at the sound of a baby’s cry. We would learn to keep close to what was most important and throw away the other.

Much like pulling off the highway at a lookout point to take in the scenic beauty, the new year provides a similar “lookout point” for us to stop and meditate upon where we are in life. Solomon, in reflecting upon the state of his life wrote, “I applied my mind to examine and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven.”

Where do you find yourself in these times?  Have you been in a time of mourning and now you are longing to dance again? Have you found yourself forced to be silent over some issue but now you know it is the time to speak out? Have you found yourself filled with anger and hatred over something and now your heart desires to love again?  Use these eight verses as questions for your soul. Find some time in the next few weeks to spiritually pull into a “lookout point” and prayerfully let God speak into your life.

I don’t know how people celebrated the new Year in Jesus’ days. Most likely the greeting would be the same as any day, Shalom. Jesus probably didn’t say Happy New Year but, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.”—John 14:27 (CSB)

Lord, thank you for never leaving us, nor forsaking us. As we begin this new calendar year, let us look completely to you in those times when you will need to provide comfort to those who mourn, strength to those rebuilding what is torn down, wisdom to know how to speak and celebrate with us in laughter and joy.  In this coming year, let us daily experience Your Shalom in our lives.

God is great!