24/7 Expectations... and Grace

 

“The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent” (Luke 4:42b-43).

 

I wonder if Jesus would have had data service to His phone. I recently disabled my service. I realized that I do not have the self-control needed to be present with people and be opened up to 24/7 access to data. I am trying to figure out how to be with people in love and compulsive checking was getting in the way of this sense of call.

 

In the above verse “the people were looking for him”, but he left them to follow his call. He intentionally refused to meet their expectations. “The people were looking for him”, but the work was outside of his Father’s call, so he fought. He was present with people when he was called to be, yet self-controlled and single-minded enough in his pursuit of his Father’s business to leave them when he needed to.

 

If Jesus had data service, he would have had the self-control to manage it. Pressing matters do not throw him off from being both fully present with people and fully responsive to the Father’s call. Whether this meant seemingly ignoring the sick and dying, just waitin’ around with the woman at the well, or telling one of his best friends, “Get behind me Satan”, he persisted in his sense of what he needed to do - regardless of the expectations others placed on him.

 

How do we hold the balance of the competing 24/7 expectations of: friends, family, work, church, sports and hobbies, when it’s so easy for one piece of our lives to throw us off balance?

 

I have heard it said, we ought not refer to this as a balance, but rather as a tension. Using the language of balance seems to infer that we can perfectly situate the competing demands, but we never will. If the Kingdom is unfolding and the Father’s business is developing, then our call and our responsibilities are also shifting.

 

I had a recent conversation with a 1st year student who decided to drop down to four courses so she could be fully present with the people around her. I had another conversation with a staff member who had to pull out of a church committee to follow the calling of God on her life. There is grace for those of us who are still figuring out how to manage the expectations and roles we are in. 24/7 expectations create tension. To live faithfully in the tension of shifting responsibilities and expectations, you must be willing to give yourself grace.

 

“The people were looking for him”, but He still left them. When the expectations were high, he took the freedom to remove himself from situations and recalculate his call: “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). To follow God’s calling, to be about your Father’s business, whose needs or expectations might you be called to take note of but not accommodate to?

 

Talk to someone about this struggle; you are not alone.

 

The roots of a strong tree draw from living water for sturdiness and growth.

 

 

Rooted for the Marathon

Blessed is the one…whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers (Psalm 1: 1-3, excerpts)

Following Jesus is not a 100 meter sprint that we run when we’re in the mood.

It’s a lifelong marathon.

Today inaugurates the final week of September, and the first school day of autumn. We’ve had the first Church in the Box, Hotspot, three chapels, dorm devos, impromptu porch worship experiences, and all kinds of other September experiences.

And now it’s time to fasten our laces for the marathon. Marathons beat us up: we get tired and cranky, and our faith goes stale, our love cools down, our hope lowers its bar to wishful thinking.

What sustains us for this long haul? Prayer is the chief marathon-equipper.

When the race overwhelms me, one of my strategies is to turn the testimony quoted below into a personal prayer. I invite you to try it right now, addressing it to the Lord as a petition:

“As a believer in Jesus Christ, I see myself as redeemed, forgiven and covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I believe that this is how God sees me, all the time and without exception. I believe that his smile and delight in me is unwavering. This view of myself is quite simple yet with profound implications. It allows me to accept criticism without self-condemnation and to accept affirmations without exalting myself. This is the ideal view of myself that I am always working at. It is a struggle, but a good one.” (Carol Collier, quoted in the New York Times, May 3, 2013).

This Wednesday at noon we begin our annual Redeemer tradition of 24/7 prayer: 168 consecutive hours of praying in the AUG hall common room. This Redeemer tradition symbolizes our shift from the early September sprint to the full year marathon. I encourage you – either alone or with others – to sign up for an hour outside the Student Senate office. If the thought of praying for an hour scares you, I assure you that the room will invite you to pray in so many different ways that your hour will fly by.

Last night Dr. Jim Payton, one of the senior members of our community (and thus a spiritual marathon runner) addressed us at Church in the Box. This Wednesday another marathon runner – one who has been imprisoned for his faith and activism in Communist China -- will address us in chapel. Han Dongfang will share his testimony to help us launch 24/7 prayer week under the title, “Why I am one of the five luckiest people in the world.” (He will also give a public address Tuesday evening.)

How can a persecuted brother in the Lord be one of the five luckiest people in the world?

Maybe he’s a tree planted by the stream of living water, nourished for the marathon.

May the Lord strengthen you as his tree this week too.

Rooted in Community: A context for mourning.

What struck me, in the aftermath of the tragic passing of Eric Kippers, were the levels of engagement that our community had with grief in general and with Eric in particular. For some of those in our community, Eric’s loss is like an amputation. Fresh, powerful, immediate…. For others, it has been more empathetic, in that their hearts went out to those they know who are affected and the realization of what Eric’s family, friends and surrounding community are feeling. And for yet others, there is a vague bewilderment regarding what all the fuss is about. It doesn’t touch their world. Talk of grief does not connect with their own emotional vocabulary. Not their pain…. Not their issue…. 

In the last half of Romans 12, the apostle Paul issues what could be considered a bullet point list of does and don’ts for living the Christian life rooted in community. Verse 15 states “ Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn”. There is a whole lot more to this verse than first meets the eye.

What does it actually mean to mourn with those who mourn? What does it mean to make someone else’s pain your own? What does it mean to enter into someone else’s suffering and to identify with it, even if you know that you have no idea what it is actually like?

As one of my colleagues wryly quipped recently “It is so much easier being shallow… “.

There is much that could be said and written. Here is a very short list.

·  Be there. They are not looking for answers. Not really. Probably not from you, anyway. They are just looking for you.

·   Listen. Invite them to talk about their loved one.

·   Be patient. Be ok with pain that you can’t relieve or take away.

·   Be ok with messy.

·   Did I mention patience? Grow in patience. We often want the grieving person ‘to get on with it’ more for our benefit than for theirs.

·   Allow for pain and anger – however misplaced.

·   It’s not a broken record. It is a long road up a mountain, complete with switchbacks.

·   It’s not about you. Be ok with the person not wanting to talk about it right then.

Grief is powerful, random and bewildering. God has ordained mourning ( the tangible expression of grief) as a pathway through it. And He has placed us in community. Biblical community is the God ordained context in which mourning can be properly done. I would actually be bold enough to suggest that the ability of a community to allow mourning and create a healing environment in which those who grieve can heal and grow is an indicator of its maturity, and even its legitimacy. I would be even more bold to suggest that it is true at the level of the individual, as well.

Eric’s tragic passing is a powerful learning opportunity . As I mentioned in Chapel, it is in response to such tragedies that the Body of Christ rises to its magnificent best. After identifying my son’s body in the morgue, a grief counselor cornered me and asked me if I had any support. Support….? I told him right then and there “Man, you have no idea..” But as it turned out, neither did I. Christ’s community was simply incredible!

And we are all part of it.

 

Pursueing Perseverance - James 1

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

As I was considering the approaching end of term and the students who are finishing exams, I could not help but think of the element of discipline built into  our educational process. In many ways, our degrees are as much a testament to our perseverance as they are to our mental prowess. While no one would deny that the content of our learning is important, it also needs to be stated that so too is the process of learning. When I think back to my undergrad years, and having to run the gauntlet of exams, tests, labs and papers, I realized that it had somehow changed my character. I had absorbed something that transcended what  I actually learned. My degree in Range and Wildlife management actually prepared me for seminary in ways I could not have predicted.

Persistence… Steadfastness… Forbearance… Perseverance... Endurance… Tenacity

This is a word grouping familiar to the generations that preceded mine. For my generation ( Boomers) and those following, increasingly less so…

We collectively are the generation of the microwave, the channel changer and the disposable razor.

Microwave?  Do you know they have now perfected the microwave pizza so that you only have to wait 7 minutes rather than a mind numbing 22 minutes. However, what you get in convenience and instantaneity you lose in quality. Nothing replaces the process of cooking with heat.  

The channel changer? Indeed, we have a collective case of low grade ADD. With the click of a mouse or the push of a button, we can ‘move on’, and not have to endure what we don’t want to. 

The Disposable razor?. We expect  short shelf lives. We factor in a built in obsolescence. This is true for relationships, or circumstances. You don’t like something (one) – well, you know what to do….

The word used for perserverance in the above text is a compound word in the original language.  Simply, it combines  ‘hupo’, which means ‘under’, with ‘mene’ -which means ‘remain’. While I am very aware that a word is not simply the sum of its parts (etc), this still has a message for us. Quite simply, it refers to “remaining under”. It means staying the course until the course has done its work.  And it has work to do that is deeper than we know.  While James is referring to ‘diverse trials’, the principle holds true across the board.

If there are still students around to read this, let me encourage you to “let perseverance finish its work”. Be encouraged that you are growing in ways you may not be aware of.

And let me express the sentiments of the entire school in wishing you a rewarding and refreshing summer.  

1 Corinthians 15 - Reflecting on Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15

²⁰ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive…………..

⁴² So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

It is not difficult at this time of year to think of Resurrection. It is not only the Easter narrative, but the entire created order is bursting with new life.  A month ago, I introduced chapel by welcoming the congregants to the first day of spring. It was not without irony, because we were in the middle of a deep freeze and there were no signs whatsoever that spring was in fact here. But, Spring it was.

I think about that. We just endured an ice storm. Winter has not released its grip gently. But, it is fading away and the new day has come.

It is not unlike that with the future of the cosmos. The Day is here, but it is yet to come. We announce the reality of Resurrection and a New Heavens and a New Earth when everything around us denies or  contradicts our pronouncement. We do so because we have seen the FirstFruits of the Resurrection in the resurrection of Jesus. He is the Crocus of spring.

My wife and I just came back from a respite retreat for grieving parents. It was a room full of grief and Glory. Never did the hope of the resurrection seem more alive. Never more relevant. Never more true.

Have a glorious spring.

Robb

Losing God – only to truly find Him…

In last week’s devotional we looked at the post-resurrection account in Luke 23. In the account, which is known to most believers as “The Road to Emmaus” , the risen Jesus comes alongside his deeply disappointed and disillusioned followers and leads them from despair to exultant hope. His disciples had clung to a view of God which the Cross was certain to shatter, and when it did, Jesus Himself was there to reveal Himself to them. 

To finish this theme, I would like to offer extracts from ( Redeemer’s own?) Abraham Kuyper, who wrote of this process in his devotional To Be Near Unto God:

At first what our heart feels is that we cannot square this with our God as we imagined Him, as we had dreamed Him to be. The God we had, we lose, and then it costs so much bitter conflict of soul, before refined and purified in our knowledge of God, we grasp another, and now the only true God in the place thereof . . .

We fancy ourselves the main object at stake; it is our happiness, our honor, our future and God added in. According to our idea we are the center of things, and God is there to make us happy. The Father is for the sake of the child. And God’s confessed Almightiness is solely and alone to serve our interest. This is an idea of God which is false through and through, which turns the order around and, taken in its real sense, makes self God, and God our servant . . .

Cast down by your sorrow and grief, you become suddenly aware that this great God does not measure nor direct the course of things according to your desire; that in His plan there are other motives that operate entirely outside of your preferences. Then you must submit, you must bend.. . . .

This is the discovery of God’s reality, of His Majesty which utterly overwhelms you, of an Almightiness which absorbs within itself you and everything you call yours. And for the first time you feel what it is to confront the living God. And then begins the new endeavor of the soul, to learn to understand this real God.

Amen

Post Resurrection: The Road to Emmaus Luke 23

²⁰"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

They were disappointed. They were dis-illusioned.

 

Illusions die hard. Theirs were resistant to the best preaching and teaching the world has ever known, from the best Teacher the world has ever seen.  Jesus was nothing if not clear and persistent that he would not fulfill some Davidic nationalistic fantasy ( Lk 18:31-34).  Yet this meme was deeply imbedded in their psyche. “We thought that he would be the one who would restore Israel…”

The Cross shatters and crushes illusions. It is exquisitely designed to do that. False hopes and dreams, however reasonable, however benign are put to death.  

C.S. Lewis describes how God can lovingly put to death even the most reasonable and benign expectations that we can put between us and His greater plan. 

“that God, who made these deserving people, may really be right when He thinks that their modest prosperity and the happiness of their children are not enough to make them blessed: that all of this must fall from them in the end , and that if they have not learned to know Him they will be wretched."

In defense of such expectations, surely, that is not too much to ask. We are not asking for the sun, moon and stars, after all.  We are merely asking for modest prosperity and the happiness of our children. Yet, it is not always to be.  

At some point in our life, most of us will be disappointed.   Let me be more direct. You will experience deep disappointment.  If you haven’t  already, prepare for it.  You will more than likely encounter dis-illusionment.  Events occur, quickly or gradually, that force you to dramatically re-calibrate your theology and your life philosophy.  

The fallout from disillusionment is all too often despair, anger, cynicism or even unbelief. We confuse the God we have created in our mind with the God who is. Further, we confuse our expectations ( which we have projected onto the God we have created with our minds)  with those of the living God.  Consider Jesus’ response to his followers’ despair.

²⁵He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" ²⁷
 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.  Luke 23

Vintage Jesus….was that a backhand to the back of the head? He firmly,  emphatically and lovingly calls them to embrace realism.  What are the components of realism?  Well, here are a few.  

This can be a hard, harsh world. Life is hard. Bad things happen to good people.  There is a huge gulf between what is and what should be…  Death is real and death is ugly.  

In the face of that, realism also asserts that God is good, He is in control and He has a bigger plan. His plan is unfolding. 

Realism tells me that because of the resurrection, I can assert that death is not final. Death, evil and sin, while all too real and powerful, do not win. While they may block out the sun, they are not ultimate.

Because of the resurrection

I can affirm that good conquers evil,

love conquers hate

and truth conquers lies.

Because of the resurrection

I know that death cannot conquer life

and that the darkness will not prevail over the light.

Maybe you are on the road to Emmaus with Jesus. Maybe you are lost in your struggle and being swallowed up in your thoughts and growing despair.  Or perhaps the doubts are circling like wolves at twilight. The Cross part of the equation is all too real to you right now. 

Know this. He is walking with you.  It’s not just about being comforted. Expect Him to challenge you to your core. Allow Him to teach you. He will reveal Himself to you in ways you would never expect. 

Shalom.  He is truly risen!