Life Unraveled
The journey of a frail pilgrim trying to love God and love others
You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
I saw a most fascinating story on 60 Minutes tonight (while waiting to watch Amazing Race, I might add, so I don’t seem *so* old). It was about “Face Blindness,” a condition in a small number of people where everyone is a stranger. They simply cannot remember faces–even their own family and friends. For those of us without this condition, it almost seems impossible: How could you not remember your own mother’s face, the woman who has nurtured you and cared for your every need beginning 9 months before others had the opportunity to? Or your father–who has spent hours in a similar role, caring and providing and teaching you a variety of tasks, like how to choke up on the bat, how to use a hammer and nail, or how to catch a fish.
Then it hit me. I couldn’t help but think of how easily I forget my Father’s face–how I catch glimpses or cherish long periods of connection with Him where He demonstrates His love and faithfulness time and time again…only to forget in the next moment that I ever knew Him, or what He looks like in the lives and souls of others. The psalm reminds us: Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth” (Psalm 105:1, 4-7).
May I never forget His face, and may I pursue it always. And may I see His face in others and help my fellow brothers and sisters who–like me–suffer from “face blindness.”
In Can You Drink the Cup?, Henri Nouwen reminds us that “…just living life is not enough. We must know what we are living.” Do you make it a practice to reflect on and evaluate your life? If so, what have you discovered? If not, why not? Are you too busy? Afraid of what you’ll discover? Fearful of what God might be asking of you? Too angry with yourself for the choices you’ve made?
If we’re too fearful to reflect on our own actions, how can we possibly begin to comprehend who God is and what God has done in our lives through Jesus Christ? I know there are some of you who are quite hard on yourselves and need to cut yourselves some slack…but for too many of us, we don’t spend time in silence reflecting on our choices and our priorities. We keep life busy and loud and distracting to keep from thinking too hard about our selves and how we relate to others and to God.
If the pressure to read and have personal devotion to/with our Creator per-dates the Pharisees themselves by millennia, it shouldn’t surprise us that we still deal with the guilt and frustration with the form it takes today. Charles Spurgeon reminds us in an 1867 sermon:
Now, do not be satisfied with merely reading through a chapter. Some people thoughtlessly read through two or three chapters—stupid people for doing such a thing! It is always better to read a little and digest it, than it is to read much and then think you have done a good thing by merely reading the letter of the word. For you might as well read the alphabet backwards and forwards, as read a chapter of Scripture, unless you meditate upon it, and seek to comprehend its meaning. Merely to read words is nothing: the letter kills.
It makes sense: in most cases, it’s quality over quantity!
Spurgeon closes with this: “In your private devotions, strive after vital godliness, real soul-work, the life-giving operation of the Spirit of God in your hearts.” So for us today, what do personal devotions look like? Robotic opening of a text and reading as much as we can before our eyelids fall? There’s time for context and understanding the “whole” story…but there’s also plenty of time to savor a pearl of wisdom or a phrase that turns our hearts toward God–and we meditate on that for days!
Remember what it was like as kids to walk through a toy store? We want this, and then that, and then we HAVE to have something else. The many options confuse us and create an enormous restlessness in us. When someone says, “Well, what do you want? You can have one thing. Make up your mind,” we do not know what to choose.
As long as our hearts keep vacillating among these many wants, it is difficult to move forward in life with inner peace and joy. I think that is why we need inner and outer spiritual disciplines–to go beyond all our personal wants and dreams, to understand the WORLD’S needs, and to explore what mission God might be calling us toward.
We are entering the season of Advent–the “new year” of the Christian calendar. If you’ve never experienced Advent, the word itself means “arrival” or “appearing,” and in the history of the Christian church, it is the season when we remember and celebrate the appearing or the arrival of Jesus into the world (both times – at his birth and in his Second Coming). Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, anticipation, preparation, longing…concepts almost foreign to many of us today. While those ideas may not be altogether absent, if you’re like me, you spend a great deal of energy working at NOT getting our hopes up and not waiting for anything we want. When was the last time you were hungry? When was the last time you really wanted something for a long, long time? Yearned for deliverance? In our opulent lives, we almost have to fabricate moments of longing, and so we fill up on desire for the simplest and silliest of things. What have you hoped for lately? Anything worth hoping for? And what does that reveal about who you are right now?
The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans: “Bless your persecutors; never curse them, bless them. … Never pay back evil with evil. … Never try to get revenge. … If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink. … Do not be mastered by evil, but master evil with good” (Romans 12:14-21). These words cut to the heart of our life with Christ. They make it clear what it means to choose life, not death; to choose blessings, not curses. But what is asked of us here goes against the grain of our human nature. In fact, we will only be able to act these virtues out in our own lives once we know with our whole beings that what we are asked to do for others is only what God has already done for us.
Everything that comes from God ultimately asks for an open and faithful heart. We cannot live with hope and joy unless we are living in a state of preparedness and expectancy. We have to be careful because, as the Apostle Peter says: “Your enemy the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5.8). Therefore Jesus guides us to avoid our natural tendencies by being attentive and prayerful: “Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life. … Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to hold your ground before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:34-36). That’s what living in the Spirit of Jesus calls us to.
How do we as the Church witness to Christ in the world? First and foremost by giving visibility to Jesus’ love for the poor and the weak. In a world so hungry for healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and most of all unconditional love, the Church must alleviate that hunger through its ministry. Wherever we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, listen to those who are rejected, and bring unity and peace to those who are divided, we proclaim the living Christ, whether we speak about him or not.
It is important that whatever we do and wherever we go, we remain in the Name of Jesus, who sent us. Outside his Name–and making it our work or our personal mission promoting ourselves–our ministry will lose its divine energy.
So much of our energy, time, and money goes into maintaining distance from one another. Many–if not most–of the resources of the world are used to defend ourselves against each other, to maintain or increase our power, and to safeguard our own privileged position.
Imagine all that effort being put in the service of peace and reconciliation! Would there be any poverty? Would there be crimes and wars? Just imagine that there was no longer fear among people, no longer any rivalry, hostility, bitterness, or revenge. Just imagine all the people on this planet holding hands and forming one large circle of love. We say, “I can’t imagine.” But I can hear God say, “That’s what I imagine, a whole world not only created in but also living in my image.”
Today is Ash Wednesday, the day in the Christian calendar marking the beginning of the 40-day period of Lent which prepares our hearts and minds and ultimately our souls for the most significant holy-day: Easter. A time for reflection and soul searching, the season of Lent calls us to follow Jesus, watch what he does, listen to what he says and identify with Jesus in his mission. The closer we come to Jesus, the more we become aware of the ways our lives and actions may not reflect the life and vision of Jesus. This year, I think I will be using Goshen College’s Daily Lenten Devotional as a catalyst for reflection.
May this day–and the Lenten season–be one of repentance and self-denial as we look toward abundant life made available ONLY through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
