Butterfly Praying

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Jesus said to them, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if someone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:22-24

 

Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod of dirt, trembling, “No, it cannot be. Not a little thing like that. No!”

Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.

“Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!” cried Eckels.

It fell to the floor, an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of small dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time. Eckels’ mind whirled. It couldn’t change things. Killing one butterfly couldn’t be that important! Could it?

 

Eckels is a character from Ray Bradbury’s classic science fiction story, A Sound of Thunder.  Eckels, along with the safari guide and two other hunters, had time traveled 65 million years to shoot a T-Rex dinosaur. Eckels overcome by fear and panic, steps off the time travel path impacting all of the future. Upon return to 2055, the time travelers are confused to find a changed world. Language has been altered and an evil dictator is now in charge. It was a simple misstep that changed and altered the course of history.

Though Bradbury’s story is science fiction, we do know singular events have changed the course of world history. Could they have been altered? Edward Lorenz is credited as the official discoverer of chaos theory and out of it, the term, The Butterfly Effect. The title is the layman’s term for a complex field of scientific study that says a small change in starting conditions can lead to vastly different outcomes or “does the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”

Walking with Jesus on a dirt road toward Jerusalem, his disciples were taught the butterfly effect of prayer. They were told that they could move mountains. Yes, they had seen the sick healed, the dead raised to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear and lives restored. They knew Jesus could move mountains but how could they move mountains? What mountains would they move? Why would they want to throw a mountain into the sea?

What mountain or mountains are you facing? Maybe it is a mountain of fear, anxiety, or hopelessness. Maybe it is a mountain of rejection or loneliness. Maybe it is a mountain of family problems.

We can begin a butterfly effect of change through prayer. “When God gets ready to shake America (and the world), He may not take the PhD. and the D.D. God may choose a country boy…God may choose the man (or woman) that no one knows, a little nobody, to shake America for Jesus Christ in this day, and I pray that he would.” –Billy Graham

Instead of being overwhelmed and defeated by what we see in our culture, we take Jesus at his word. We pray the mountain of child abuse we see in our society is thrown into the sea. We pray the mountain of violence we find in the cities be thrown into the sea. We pray the mountain of sexual immorality, consumerism, prejudice, and on and on be thrown into the sea. What mountains can stand against a mountain-moving God?

“During the darkest periods of history, quite often a small number of men and women, scattered throughout the world, have been able to reverse the course of historical evolutions. This was only possible because they hoped beyond all hope. What had been bound for disintegration then entered into the current of a new dynamism.” –Brother Roger of Taizé

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, praying Believers can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. God is ready to move mountains with us. Mountain-moving praying doesn’t make sense to the world and probably not totally to us but as Francis Chan said “something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.”

Jesus set in motion the real butterfly effect. On a cross, Jesus forever altered the course of human history. God had been at work from the beginning and now history’s timeline was marked for eternity because of the strike of a hammer on a nail.  It was a sound that has reverberated through the echoes of time. One event, marked by a cross and an empty tomb, forever changed the course of mankind.

God is great,

The Forgotten Blush

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“Are they ashamed of their disgusting actions? Not at all—they don’t even know how to blush! Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered. They will be brought down when I punish them, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 6:15 NLT

Remember when the teacher called on you in class and you didn’t have the foggiest idea of the answer? Your face turned deep red.

Remember when you did something totally stupid and everyone turned to look at you? Your face turned fire engine red and you wanted to crawl under the table.

Blushing is a natural response to some action that embarrasses or shames you. It is an involuntary reaction to an event and the bottom line is that you can’t control blushing. Charles Darwin called blushing “the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.” Mark Twain said, “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.”  I am pretty confident in saying that most of us have even blushed because we blushed!

Ray Crozier, a psychology professor from England concluded that “blushing evolved as a means of enforcing the social codes to which we humans must adhere for our societies to function in a friendly manner. By blushing when we’re embarrassed, we are showing others that we recognize we’ve just mis-stepped socially, and that we’re paying the price for it. Others who see us blushing after an awkward situation understand from experience the unpleasant feelings we’re undergoing at that moment, and blushing may serve as a nonverbal, physical apology for our mistake.”

Greek philosopher Diogenes once remarked to a blushing boy, “Courage my boy, that is the complexion of virtue.” The late Lucille Ball was reported to have said, “The problem with our world these days is that we no longer blush.” Long before Lucille Ball or Diogenes, long before your first blush, God shared how a whole nation didn’t “even know how to blush.”  Awkward social situation blushing is normal and healthy. However, when a culture no longer blushes then you are facing a major spiritual problem.

“Jeremiah, say to the people, “This is what the LORD says: “When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back? Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path? Why do the people of Jerusalem refuse to turn back? They cling tightly to their lies and will not turn around. I listen to their conversations and don’t hear a word of truth. Is anyone sorry for doing wrong? Does anyone say, “What a terrible thing I have done”? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse galloping into battle!” (8:4-6)

Twice the call for spiritual renewal is met with the same response, “Are they ashamed of these disgusting actions? Not at all—they don’t even know how to blush!”  Jeremiah confronts a nation that no longer has the moral foundation that produces blushing in its people. They were a nation where the people no longer feared God enough to blush; a nation of people that no longer had tender hearts to their sins that would cause blushing.

Throughout history, people have decided to go their own path, forgetting God and hardening hearts that no longer blushed at their actions. You only have to read the latest headline or watch the morning news to witness in our nation the accusation that we “do not even know how to blush.” “Shamelessness has pervaded the culture. There is no shame in the vilest behavior. There is no guilt in the most evil act. There is no embarrassment when caught in the most abominable conduct.“– Dr. Daniel Merritt

 

Our generation must choose which path to walk: the ancient path of God or the modern path of evil. Scripture records for us how Ezra felt the shame and embarrassment of a nation that had rejected God’s path.  “At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees and lifted my hands to the LORD my God. I prayed, “O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors until now, we have been steeped in sin. . . .” (Ezra 9:5-7b)

Lord, we need to feel the weight of our sins until we can again blush in your presence. Give us hearts that are tender, lives that are open to you, minds that are pure and life-styles that are God honoring.  Let us again come to you in repentance.  Let us again seek “the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for our souls.”

 

God is great,

Pray for the voiceless

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O LORD, you will hear the desire of the meek; you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth my strike terror no more. Psalm 10:17-18

I am overwhelmed at the news from Afghanistan – watching video clips of Afghans clinging to a C-17 desperately trying to escape, much like people jumping from burning buildings trying to escape the flames. How desperate does one have to become to place their hope for survival in what couldn’t save?

When I started this weekly blog my only desire in writing was to encourage people and always point to Jesus. I know without a doubt that He is the ultimate source of hope and salvation. However, I am finding words inadequate to express the events over the last few days related to Afghanistan. I will leave it to you to debate the merits of the action, the timing of withdrawal and whether the United States should have stayed or gone.

What I do feel as a follower of Jesus Christ that I now have a greater responsibility to pray for the voiceless, the fragile, the vulnerable and the small Christian remnant in Afghanistan? We know our God is far greater and more powerful than the current world events unfolding before us. The late Richard Halverson who served as chaplain of the U.S. Senate, said of prayer, “Intercession is the truly universal work for the Christian. No place is closed to intercessory prayer: no continent, no nation, no city, no organization, no office. No power on earth can keep intercession out.”

A good friend who served in that area with her family shared a most thoughtful reflection on the situation. “Hope is fragile. Anyone who cared for the people of Afghanistan, particularly those who felt called to go serve among them in some capacity, suspected the precarious peace might not last. One Christian woman who lived there at that time observed, “I said I don’t want to die in Afghanistan. But the fact is that when I went to Afghanistan, I had already died.” Dying to self is at the very heart of Christian discipleship. And no one understands it quite like followers of Jesus living in contexts of extreme persecution.” – Tina Boesch

The events in Afghanistan and Haiti, among the many seemingly hopeless situations around the world, reflect the futility of placing one’s faith in worldly structures. My prayer is that our nation will never experience the total collapse of our government yet each of us at some point will experience individual collapse from sickness, aging, family conflicts, jobs. Only in God will we find our way home.  “It’s when the Red Sea is before you, the mountains are on one side of you, the desert is on the other side, and you feel the Egyptian army closing in from behind that you experience His power to open up an escape route. He has power to do the supernatural, the unthinkable, the impossible” – Anne Graham Lotz (The Joy of My Heart)

Though I feel a soul deadening frustration, I know the God I worship is able beyond all measure to carry the broken souls through this season. I invite you to listen to the words of A Song of Lamentation by Steve Schallert. Let the words of this song become a prayer for the voiceless and to lament with them their pain.

https://youtu.be/-YLT6Hk-S5o

Jesus

God of the poor

Liberator

Friend of the weak

 

Jesus

Light of the World

These weary bones

Tremble and weep

 

Heal every heart

Heal every soul

Heal this violence we carry

The blood in the soil

 

There is blood in the soil!

There is blood in the soil!

There is blood in the soil!

There is blood in the soil!

Lord we don’t know the words to voice yet we trust you to know. We trust you to care for the oppressed, the hurting, the fragile and the hopeless. We trust you to guide us to in these days on how to show your love. Amen

God is great,