Weather or Not…

My mind has been pre-occupied this week with weather and flight schedules as I’ve watched long-distance as my little birdie made her way back to school from wintery Nebraska to Texas… Not one but two flights were cancelled…and the rescheduled ones had lengthy delays over dragging hours, and an overnight in a hotel en route.

Not just once but on two successive mornings I was catapulted from my bed by the unnerving jangle of my phone ringing, to face the latest hitch in the scheduled flights…

It is apparent at times like these that life is most certainly not under our control.  We may make plans but we do not control outcomes.  Such a simple thing as a snowstorm, or sub-zero temperatures can ground thousands of people and delay countless others in their tracks. 

The wind is only just rising here tonight.  We won’t have snow but I hear the rain lashing against the kitchen window.  I am cozy beside the flickering warmth of the wood stove--thankful not to be going out.  In our part of the country, fog grounds planes and high wind disrupts ferry schedules, leaving us marooned.  We live at the mercy of the weather, you might say, but ultimately of the Weather-maker.

But I think blizzards and wild weather are very valuable reminders.  They show how very small we are in the whole scheme of the universe, and that we are most certainly NOT in control.  Ironically, in an effort to assert our power we concoct theories such as ‘global warming’ and task ourselves with its prevention.  It is laughable.  We are not in control.  And as much as I personally dislike that feeling at times…it is a good thing to be reminded of. Because really, do I want to be in control? really? I may think so but… In all honesty, I’d far rather be a passenger in a plane on a stormy day (so long as I trust the pilot) than be tasked with flying it!  With control comes responsibility.  I haven’t the power or the wisdom for such greatness.

And really,  being out of control is a terrifying reality only if you picture your destiny being subject to arbitrary cosmic forces not concerned with your welfare.  But what if instead your destiny is hand-picked by an all-loving, all-knowing, all powerful God who is both Creator and Sustainer of the Universe and everything in it?  And what if He has invited you to be His own kin?  Where is the place of fear in facing the storm?  At best bad weather is inconvenient and spoils our well-laid plans.  At worst it’s life-threatening.  But either way we’re in Good strong Hands that can take care of us far better than we can ourselves.

I’ve been chewing this week on a quote attributed to John Piper:

”In every situation and circumstance of your life, God is always doing a thousand different things that you cannot see and you do not know.”* 

It is to me a reminder to trust where I cannot see God’s Hand at work, to believe when being out of control makes me fearful, and always to give thanks for there is good reason, even if I can’t see it yet!

So when the storms of life blow our plans off course and buffet these ‘tents’ we call home…and when things get so desperate we don’t know what to do…what’s left?  We can be stressed or we can rest.  I dipped into a book by Louie Giglio this morning in which he elaborates on the importance of realizing both who God is and who I am not.**  The minute we begin to think ourselves essential to God’s plan being carried out in the earth we are on shaky ground.  He is God. He will be exalted in all the earth.  His plans are undeterred with or without us.  He may invite us to be involved in what He is doing, but this is His choice.  He is at work all around us in a myriad of ways, working in all things for His fame, using whom He will how He will.  (paraphrased from Giglio, p 105)

This is, incidentally, why it is foolish to compare ourselves with others in the Body who seem to be doing more, or less, than we. So? Given the access we have to fellow-Christians via the Internet, this is an easy trap to fall into.  I know.  I’ve been there today; it’s demoralizing.  Have you been there?  You read somebody’s testimonial perhaps or their New Year’s resolutions and feel so pitiful in comparison.  While you may be resolving just to get in the habit of reading the Bible every day, you find the fellow who not only has read it through in a year, but twice in a year, and then in a month!  Or instead of settling for three chapters a day you find a Bible Reading plan that boasts the goal of reading 3650 chapters in a year instead. That’s ten chapters a day!

And just when you thought maybe you’d make a simple New Year’s resolution…you read somebody’s 50-year-life-plan they composed when they were 19 and have been trying to live out ever since.  And suddenly you feel terribly behind, and kind of t-i-r-e-d… This is what comes of comparisons.  Stories shared for inspiration and encouragement can so quickly go awry when we give way to a competitive mindset. 

But here too, and getting back to thinking about our calling to know who God is and who we aren’t………REST is pivotal.  Being still from our frenetic efforts to keep the world spinning, greatly honors God.  In our restfulness we declare we are not in control but we trust the One who is. 

There is no point getting on a plane in stormy weather only to sit with every muscle anxiously tensed.  It will not increase our likelihood of arriving safe and sound but will only guarantee we arrive exhausted, while the relaxed traveler arrives rested. And where is God’s glory in this approach?

To change the metaphor, “when we tirelessly toil, as though that’s what it takes to keep our ship afloat, we steal God’s glory, elevating ourselves as sole providers and sustainers of all we have and are.” (Giglio, 123) 

“Furious rest” is how Giglio describes the sort of active trust God desires us to experience in His care. “[It] is not about doing nothing.  It’s about doing everything we do with the quiet confidence that our lives, families, businesses, ministries, relationships, and dreams are in His hands.” (Giglio, 124)

This is the kind of trust I want to learn to a greater degree in this New Year, weather or not!  How about you?

--LS

P.S. And I’m working on a Bible reading plan too.  Maybe those plans weren’t such a bad idea after all…  ( :

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. II Cor. 10:12,13 NIV

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Rom. 14:4 ESV

For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. Is. 30:15 KJV

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*This Piper quote was cited in an excellent article by Nancy Leigh DeMoss called Perspective and Hope for your Battle.  It can be accessed at the TrueWoman.com website.

** Giglio, Louie, I am not but I know I AM, Multnomah Publ.,2005

In Good Hands

I enjoy a good biography, at least most of the time.  But there are times they get me in trouble.  Take this week for example.  There I was, actually sitting in the SUN out back (Imagine it!) hoping the rays would be warm enough to fend off the chill…and I was just starting an old biography of Hudson Taylor.¹  I’ve read it before but wanted to refresh my memory after seeing a Taylor quote elsewhere that  I really liked (which will follow here shortly)…

So I was lounging in the sun hoping to snatch a few minutes of late afternoon Vitamin D, reading about this icon of evangelistic zeal. His “First Steps of Faith”, as the second chapter was titled, were to leave the comfort and refinement of his privileged upbringing to move into a squalid neighborhood on the edge of a sewage drain ditch so as to 1) have more money to give away, besides more opportunity! and 2) toughen himself up in preparation for going as a missionary to China.  All the while, he held down a job and used his evenings to evangelize in these slums. Wow.  Is this a case of ‘deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me’, or what?!  And suddenly I was feeling indulgent for relaxing in the sun while the world is going to Hell. 

I put that book aside and picked up the alternate biography I had brought along: Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S.Lewis.² This oddly analytical study of Lewis’ jovial personality, being rife with quotes from Lewis’ life and works, breathes a welcome lightness into my natural sobriety.  Usually.  But the chapter at hand this particular afternoon was: “Joy and Suffering”.   Not exactly the permission to relax that I was anticipating.  And yet, it rings true and is not altogether morbid…The author speaks of a joy that is not void of pain but is made all the richer by it.  

“Darkness, suffering, and longing are part of the very definition of joy…the salt of joy is sorrow, a touch of tears…Joy is prepared for by suffering.  God accomplishes that preparation by interrupting our material and superficial happiness.  He shatters, through suffering, our illusions and pretenses that all is well.”³

As one who tends to think (mistakenly) there is more merit in denial of pleasure than enjoyment of it, I ate up these next words before heading back inside to get on with the duties at hand:

“The keenest pleasures and joys of life cannot be given us without interruption, simply because we tend to cling to them. Yet such toys are not meant to take the place of real treasures.  Joy comes only when the toys are put away.  However, we don’t want to put them away; and, more often than not, the toys must be taken from us.” ⁴

Hmm… I’ve always been suspicious of a good time.  I’m warped, I know.  My distrust comes, I suspect, of hating disappointment.  Hating the ‘toys’ to be taken away…But it does seem that whether by my own choice or another’s, life will have pain. It will disappoint. 

I reflected on these things later in the week… who of us naturally chooses hardship over pleasure?  deprivation over comfort? Should we? We have been raised in a culture of excess, of comfort, of self-orientation, yet as followers of Jesus we are called to deny ourselves, take up our respective crosses and be about His business. Where is the balance, the guiding principle? How do we keep from being lulled into a love of this world’s ‘good life’ and rendered ineffective for the Kingdom?  On the other hand, how do I freely enjoy what I’ve been given without clinging possessively or depending on it for my happiness?

I gave a little more attention to Hudson Taylor’s story as well.  There is more at play here than arbitrary pain, whether self-imposed, or regulated by factors outside our control. Hudson Taylor was not some ascetic hermit trying to gain merit. He was working toward the fulfillment of his life’s dream—to take the Gospel to the people of China. And where did that dream come from? Who was the Mover and Shaker behind his life story? Who inspired and enabled him to train for hardship yet to come? Who gave him the grace to live out a story I lack the grace to imagine myself living?! God did. In fact, the quotation that drew me into reading his story again underlines all this. It caught my attention because I needed to hear it:

“After months of agony and struggle to realize more life, holiness, and power in his soul, he [Taylor] came in final and utter self-despair to ‘rest upon the Faithful One’. In a letter to his sister he says in part:

“The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being more sweet than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything…for He, I know, is able to carry out His will and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for the easiest positions He must give me grace, and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient. So, if God place me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength?”—Hudson Taylor⁵

This was Taylor’s ‘spiritual secret’ one I’m glad he has shared. It is very like Paul’s claim:

“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Phil.4:11-13

The common denominator is Christ.  I can trust Him with the living out of both pain and pleasure.  I can trust Him to grant me joyful endurance in pain and gratitude in plenty.  I can rest content in what He allows, knowing He will use it for my good.  I can trust that He will instruct me in the use of what He entrusts to me, and will prepare me too for things to come…

I am reassured too by the parable Jesus told of the nobleman going into a far country to receive a Kingdom before returning.  He puts his various servants in charge of his holdings until he returns to set up his Kingdom, instructing them to “Occupy till I come". (Lk.19) Then upon his return he asks them what they gained by trading.  In other words, what did you do with my investments?  What’s reassuring about this?  Well, I haven’t always seen it this way but really all that he’s asking is that each servant make use of what he’s freely entrusted him with.  Each one of the servants had received something.  Each one was responsible to use that something, not to merely give it away because it was more than the other guy got.  Not to bury it and live in poverty.  Not to squander it on themselves.  But to be faithful in the use of it for their prince’s cause.

And if this is us.  If we are those servants, I must say, we have a distinct advantage in the form of the Counselor (Is.9:6; Jn.14:6) residing in us to direct our affairs!  Some stages of life and some necessary duties are more comfortable than others, but for each we have all that we need in knowing Christ.

And about the time I was wrestling with all these notions, Rachel came along to request help with her review of Never Give In,⁶ a biography of Winston Churchill, the prime minister that led Great Britain through the harrowing years of World War II.  Here was another life story—one of rising to greatness through multiple hurdles, of overcoming difficulties in order to be able to confidently lead others to victory.  And imbedded in his story was this piece of advice for me, with which I close:

"Let us reconcile ourselves to our destinies, such as they must be in this world of space and time. Let us treasure our joys but not bewail our sorrows. The glory of light cannot exist without its shadows. Life is a whole, and good and ill must be taken together." –Winston Churchill⁷

Good advice I think.  Our destinies are in Good Hands!

--LS

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which [was bestowed] upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” –Paul I Cor.15:10

“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” I Cor.6:19,20

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1Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret by Dr & Mrs Howard Taylor
²Surprised by Laughter by Terry Lindvall, Ph.D, Thomas Nelson Publ.,1996
³ Lindvall, p.65-67
⁴ Lindvall, p.66
⁵ Born Crucified by L.E. Maxwell, p.17-18
^{6 Never Give In by Stephen Mansfield, Cumberland House, 1995
7 Mansfield, p.145}

 

Loose-ends

Loose ends. The term comes from the old days of sailing ships and their multitudinous rigging ropes. Each end had to be tightly bound to prevent it unraveling. I'm a little like a rigging rope; I unravel easily.

Give me predictability, a plan, a steady routine and I hum along through days and weeks and months. Make a sudden move and I jump (ask Jim how many times I've squealed when he's come up silently behind me in the kitchen in the quiet of a pre-breakfast morning.) Ask me to make an unexpected move on short notice and I am overwhelmed at all the minor details required to transition smoothly. And smoothly is the ideal, right?

Loose ends proliferate in my mind. What will unravel if I don't attend to it? I hate lose ends. The unexpected makes me uneasy. I haven't had a chance to prepare for it. I prefer that everything be tickety-boo, (Don't know this expression? Danny Kay will help. Have a listen here! ) (with perhaps a blue-bird on my shoulder too?)  But Life doesn't seem to come in such a tidy package.

My mother-in-law (the greatest cheerleader a wife could hope for) is dying. These many miles away we 'watch' and wonder how long and are poised to travel. Death always seems so unexpected even though it's one thing in life that is assured.

For that matter, life itself is a series of loose ends. Growing up is that—for both child and parent. What will the future hold? Parenting is not an occupation with a tidy job description. Just do this and that and results are guaranteed. Child 4 of 5 is moving out next week. Did we see it coming? Well, yes. Was I expecting it? Well, yes. But am I ready? No. Shouldn't there be a ceremony of some sort? Should it be a celebration or a teary-eyed farewell? Both, I think. But it will pass without fanfare. We may not even be here to wave…

Whether it's a tiff or a task, a birth or a death, or all the growing up in between, I long for the peace of resolution, completion and closure. The uncertainty of the unknown plagues me like a canker sore at holiday time. Makes me edgy and, well, at a loss to know what to do next—'at loose ends' you might say! Leaves me not knowing what to do with expectations. Do I postpone hope or nourish it at risk of disappointment?

Unanswered prayer is another loose end I've been staring in the face this week. Praying without fainting on the one hand, and on the other, resting in faith that my prayers have been heard (even when I can't see the end results!) I don't find this an easy balance. But I'm pretty sure that redoubling my efforts, fueled by doubt as to whether I've been heard, is not the solution. There is no peace here. One could argue from the case of the persistent widow petitioning the unjust judge, but my petitions sometimes seem more like the odious sound of a dripping faucet, the likeness of a quarreling wife never pacified, (Prov.27:15) nagging reminder that her will has not yet been done.

Must I have all the answers before I can rest? Must I know 'the rest of the story' before I will trust? Life is too long a process to be lived in this suspended animation of holding my breath till I can see all the outcomes. Or of living beneath guilt, that I am to blame for hopes gone awry, and therefore must do something, or at least pray harder?!

As a related aside, I read this helpful word from John Piper this week in response to a mother who was feeling the guilt of her child's suicide:

"If you spend your time trying to figure out whether you should be feeling guilty, you'll always come up with an ambiguity. Just relax and feel guilty, and then deal with it the only way that you'll be able to deal with it at the judgment day, because I promise you at the judgment day you'll feel guilty….And if you don't have a solution for that issue now, you may not then. So let's just relax. We're guilty as charged. And now I repent."
[eds:John Piper, Justin Taylor,Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints, Crossway Books, 2008,p.138]

But this whole pressure of wanting loose ends resolved and prayers dramatically answered (now), has come to a head this week. I have been wrestling for assurances instead of resting in the ones already given. Fixation with present loose-ends distorts my perception of God's overarching purposes and unremitting vigilance to fulfill them.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
(from Immortal, Invisible God only Wise—Walter Smith, 1876)

I've had to step back, repent, and ask for fresh faith to see His ways as I ought. If I insist on loose ends all being properly tied up before I am at peace… well I am not going to know much rest. It is not to the one who has no loose ends in view that God promises rest, but to the one who knows who is in charge of all those frizzled ends!

They have not known my ways, they will not enter my rest… He said.

We are in fact the flock in His pasture, the sheep of His hand. (Ps.95:7,10-11) The desert walk was a long trudge for the children of Israel. It got hot. Sometimes hunger and thirst set in. The end in sight for the parent generation was death! But for their children, the promised land. For both parents and children the directive was to follow the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and learn to trust God to care for all the loose ends, all the details in between. He longed for them to know His ways and experience His rest.

I have to come back to this story and specifically this Psalm 95 again and again, and I pray often David's prayer: " Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Ps.25:4,5 This was, incidentally, the verse inscribed on a prominent plaque in my mother-in-law's home. I read it many times. It continues to be my own prayer…

And He hears, and answers. What have I seen this week of His ways?

• Firstly He asks that I hold on to faith. The righteous must live by it. There's no alternative. We do not and will not see the whole story God is orchestrating until this life's chapter is closed. Habakkuk's testimony beckons me to do the same. In the face of impending disaster—the enemy invading, he writes (and I paraphrase):

I will stand at my watchpost and look out to see what God will say—there is an appointed time—it comes—if it seems slow, wait for it. In the meantime, "The righteous shall live by his faith." Don't count on idols. "The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him." (Hab.2:1-4; 18-20) There's no way around the necessity of faith. We do not need a 'sign' of His presence and provision. We need to count on it, come what may.

• Another reminder. This life may seem to be a riot of loose ends but the things that matter most are forever secured. Jesus finished His mission (Jn.19:30) My sin debt has been cancelled. I am somehow declared forgiven and therefore perfect, while yet in the process of having my loose ends bound up… "because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." Heb.10:14 What a paradox.

He invites me to revel in this place of grace, to firmly take my stand by faith that I am His, as is, by grace alone. Not because I scrambled to tie up the loose ends of my unrighteousness into an acceptable offering, but because of His mercy.

• Lastly, there is this: He found me before I knew to seek Him. He shows Himself to those who have not asked. Ultimately, 'it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." (Rom.9:16) And that is the other 'way of God' I've been reminded of this week—His sovereignty. Have you read Romans 10 and 11 lately? Here is the marvel of the Gentiles being grafted into the family tree of Israel, being brought into fellowship with God. In the meantime God's own people, the Jews' are hardened against their Saviour and Messiah. But only for a time. It's part of a bigger plan of redemption that reaches to you and me.

God's purposes run far beyond the circumstances we behold on any given month or year! They are eternal. We are the clay and He is the potter. It's not our place to question why one heart is hardened--one pot designed for 'dishonorable use', while another is fashioned for honorable use. He works in everything to show the riches of His glory', not ours. Everything is from Him, through Him and to Him. No loose ends excluded! Every strand will be woven for His eternal glory. (Rom.11:36)

In these things I only scratch the surface of God's ways. Ultimately they are so far above ours as to be inscrutable, past finding out! (Rom.11:33) Mercifully, we are given glimpses, and this assurance--He is the alpha and omega (the beginning and the end). And in between? We are asked to present the loose ends of our lives to Him for His use, as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable though frayed around the edges! (Rom.12:1-2)

Knowing I am in His hands for His purposes I can take a deep breath (and let it out!) and pack, and travel unexpectedly, and parent and pray and walk in a frazzled world, by faith that in every 'loose end' He is at work.

The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.Hos.14:9

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Be encouraged with me as you consider these verses that point to the great end of all loose ends—

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. (I Pet.4:7)

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. (Heb.3:13,14)

He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. (I Cor.1:8,9)

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. (James 5:7,8)

Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. (I Cor 15:24)

His kingdom will have no end. (Luke 1:33)

And I hope you won't think it irreverent or impertinent if I tack on this carefree song from my childhood—Zip-a-dee-doo-day, Zip-a-dee-ay—there's plenty of sunshine heading our way!! It's the truth; it's actual. Everything is 'satisfactual' after all!

--LS

"I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways…" Ps.119:15

Great Expectations

On an otherwise unfettered day, content to be at home extracting the last days of summer’s leisure before the pace of fall kicks in…I am troubled by a gloomy companion, a faithless crony that rides on my shoulder under the name of Great Expectations. (Not to be confused with Dickens’ book by that name which has been my summer’s reading project, finished just this morning!)  It natters in my ear to the effect that:  What I do is not enough.  What I should do is unending.  While what I could do, if I would remains  a dark presentiment. This sense of not living up to expectations—God’s, my own, others’, threatens to steal today’s contentment. 

I’m determined to have done with it! And as I sit to take captive these errant thoughts and turn the light of Scripture on them my determination is heightened by the realization that this is not purely for my own sake.  For those around me likely feel in me this same sense of expectation with which I struggle—that they somehow be ‘more’—this illegitimate condemning, binding, stifling sense that they are failing to meet expectations—mine, their own, God’s and fellow believer’s.

We are all called to freedom--freedom to be who we are meant to be, to become who God has wired us to be, to live out His design for His great glory…without guilt, without disappointment, without regret.

This I want for me. This I want for all of us.  But how?  To silence the voices of unmet expectations, do I cease to read? Do I run from the Book that is also Life to me? Do I stay away from all things 'church'? Do I turn a deaf ear to others?

Is this really a means of relief?  Or will it instead shut off the very words of truth that would point us all to freedom?! The Word, the Body, the fellowship with Father and Son by the Spirit—we cannot live without these, only flounder into ways that seem right but in the living of them are hollow dead ways.  Whether we choose to try harder or to give up trying in our quest to be free of endless expectations, our ways are dead ends apart from dependence on God.

We all fall short of the glory of God.

I will never live up to even my own expectations, let alone God's, by trying to get it right, by hoping to do enough, be enough, sacrifice enough, obey well enough. Alas, conscientious Lindy, always wanting the directions to be clear so she can follow them to the “T” and so gain approval and thereby her significance in the world—be justified by keeping the rules. ( ?! ) And lo,
I’ve run headlong into a brick wall:

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.

How can I be so dense? Isn't this basically saying that keeping the rules doesn't work?! Can't work. Won't work. Makes no one significant! Keeping rules may look good, to people. It may make me feel good about myself. It may impress others (or not!), even gain one a reputation as a good person (or 'sweet' or 'nice' or some such ambiguity)…but it is of no relevance (did I admit that? Can I say this?) in God's sight as far as currying favor is concerned.

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

It's the comparison to His goodness that's the real rub. Nobody measures up with that. It's no use trying.

Some figure this out more quickly than others. Shutting their ears to all expectations, they do whatever seems worth a try--determined not to heed the ill-trained conscience, not to resent or regret the consequences, not to give credence to any lofty expectations that might spoil the journey…they steel their souls to previous counsel, warning and instruction determined to find a new way, to find freedom. In short, to find rest for their souls outside the burdensome keeping of rules.

But alas, there is no glory here either. And the glory of God is what we were made for—to live in awe of it, to relish it and to reflect it. Only God's glory will satisfy the deepest parts of us.

If such glory is not found in the summoning up all our sin-bent efforts to do good things and follow fine rules, then where?

If it is not discovered in a self-directed flight from restrictions and the qualms of conscience, then where?

Jesus beckons: Come to me. You're tired. You're carrying a load I never designed for you to bear. Here, tuck your head into my yoke. Walk with me. My load is manageable. My burden is light. You'll find rest here, even while you're working your way through life… (Mt.11:28-30)

This is what redemption is about. Technically, it is accomplished already. Practically, its effects are ongoing in the believer.  I need it, still. You need it. We all are dead without it. God reaching down to provide a sacrifice good enough to cover our insufficiency, still. God, justifying the ungodly, by faith.

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,  his faith is counted as righteousness…

God offers Himself freely still, for any disabled body's benefit. Only terms: recognize you're disabled and receive His offer to be righteous in your stead, this "righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe."  You don't have to measure up. There are no expectations, only that you bank on Your Benefactor's goodness, by faith, to pay your debt.

And how do these reflections help me TODAY with all the shoulds and the coulds and the doubts that play havoc with my contentment in being who I am, where I am, just as I am in this moment, for His glory? They remind me that justification isn't found in reading commandments (or rules, or instruction manuals) and seeking to implement them. Bringing glory to God is not a matter of begrudgingly putting aside the joy on my plate to attend to a peripheral round of 'duties' that should (?) take priority.

Justification is mine by faith in the One who provided it.  I'm not called on to prove it by my works, but to believe it and the works prepared for me from the foundation of the world will flow from my life. Justification calls me to believe that His righteousness is enough. He is in me and I in Him and as I abide in this Love, He will lead me in paths of righteousness for His glory's sake. By faith I can offer this day, this moment, to Him--my body His instrument, as is. The rules hold no threat of condemnation. He will conform me to them as I walk with Him holding the Spirit's hand, governed by the 'perfect law of liberty', destined for glory—"the freedom of the glory of the children of God." (Rom.8:21)

And as He beckons me to “Come”, lay down my load of expectations, I take Him at His word, no matter how unlikely it sounds--this is faith. And I bow my neck again to carry His yoke—only the humble find rest. And together we walk through the doubts and by-pass the shoulds and coulds and pull only the weight I was designed to pull, digging the furrows together that are my lot to plow, trusting Him for the planting and the harvest, awestruck with this bountiful redemption He is accomplishing in me. This is the path to glory—my truly great expectation! 

"And those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified…" (Rom.8:30)

--LS

And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." Gal.20b,21

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." (Gal.5:6)

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For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Rom.3:20-25)

Wrestling with God

I’ve long puzzled over Jacob’s all-night wrestling match with God and for the past couple weeks I’ve turned it over and over in my mind and looked at it from every angle I can see (as if I were the referee!)… in hopes of extracting the essence of it for my own life.

Is it a model for prevailing prayer?  A template for securing God’s blessing?  Or is there more to this story than meets the eye in its sparsely told format?

Up to this point in Jacob’s life there has been little to commend him as a man of faith.  He has lived up to the meaning of his name mostly, and has struggled with everyone in his life in order to secure himself a blessing.  He’s been a cheat and a conniver, looking out for his own interests and enjoying the blessings of God without acknowledging God as His rightful Lord.  He has spent the most productive years of his life living in exile from his own family, putting in slave labor for his uncle, being cheated and taken advantage of himself but always rising to the top, always making things work out… and now he has a big family, two wives, and a whole lot of progeny, not to mention flocks and herds. He left home with just a staff and now he’s returning with his own entourage…

Yes, he’s returning at last. This was God’s idea.

But years ago when he set out on this journey he had made a promise—granted it was an unabashedly conditional, ‘Jacob’ sort of promise—but a promise it was.  God had ‘seen him off’ on his journey with a vision by night in which He said: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. … and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Gen.28:13) Jacob was awestruck by God’s presence and made a sort of altar out of his stone pillow in the morning, christening the place, “Bethel” (house of God), and vowing that if God would keep him in food and clothes and bring him safely home again that he, Jacob, would make this God his own God. 

And now here he is, almost home.  But this is scary. The immediate dilemma in Jacob’s mind is that his presumably embittered brother, Esau, is on the march with 400  men. Jacob could lose everything, including his own life. But there’s another One he’s been running from. This God to whom he vowed allegiance has not forgotten Jacob’s vow at Bethel. He loves Jacob far too much to let him go on living by his own strength. And when Jacob has taken every last measure he can think of to gain his brother’s approval, and has sent his loved ones across the stream ahead of him…when he’s all alone at last, God shows up.

I love this about Jacob’s story. It’s really a story of God showing up, intervening, blessing, protecting, and guiding Jacob’s life in spite of himself, to a point where he will rest from his conniving and let God be God. It’s a story of God pursuing man. It’s our story… But I run ahead of myself.

The details of the all-night wrestling match are sparse. A ‘man’ wrestles with Jacob until morning light. Jacob refuses to yield until his hip is dislocated and finally, clinging on for dear life he declares “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  (Gen.32:26) Who does he think is in charge?  Who’s not letting who go?  It seems to me that it is God who has initiated this match and God will say when it is finished. 

Hosea’s commentary on this event helps: “The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways…He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us… Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.:” Hosea 12:2-6

I see a picture of a repentant Jacob finally yielding to God’s power, finally willing to admit that he really does need God’s blessing. He has found that ‘place of repentance’ that eluded his brother Esau.  God, like a kind Father has brought him to repentance, first matching his strength till he is spent, then with a mere touch dislocating Jacob’s hip…all to bring Jacob to the point of crying “Uncle!” (or could we say “Abba”)?  Or as he puts it: “ I will not let you go until you bless me”.  Jacob acknowledges that he is dependent on God’s mercy.  He cannot coerce God to bless him but he desperately needs what only God can give him--a new name, a new allegiance…God has orchestrated this moment. 

It is not so much Jacob’s persistence that is to be lauded, but his crying out with the last of his strength for God’s mercy--recognizing that he is beholden to God for everything, even life itself.

“It depends not on human will or exertion but on God, who has mercy.” Rom.9:16

All night long God has hung on to Jacob awaiting his surrender, like a Father feigning weakness as he ‘wrestles’ with his toddler,  but this is no game.  God knows what Jacob needs most, the blessing of forgiveness and acceptance despite all he has done. He needs to be rightly related to this God as his God. A precious thing transpires at this point. God asks him a question that seems so obvious as to be silly. “What is your name.”

Long years ago Jacob had been asked this very question by his own father. And he had answered with a lie, the consequences of which have dogged him down through all these years and brought him full circle to this moment. He had said ‘I’m Esau’ to procure his father’s blessing. And now he is here, a grown man pleading for a blessing from the God who has brought him to this moment for that express purpose.

But first he must confess his real name: “I’m Jacob” (the cheat, the deceiver, the usurper). And God is pleased to bless him with a new identity. He has come to the end of his struggling and will now bear the name Israel, denoting his life-long struggles with man and God, but also that “God Perseveres”. And I start to see that this is not so much the story of Jacob as it is that of God’s mercy and unrelenting love, carrying out all He has promised. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Rom.11:29  Jacob, now Israel, goes from this encounter, a reconciled man—finished with his struggles with God and with man. First chance he gets he buys up a parcel of land on which to pitch his tent and erect an altar.  And guess what he calls it?!  El-Elohe-Israel—God, the God of Israel.

His story gives me hope…for this God is my God.  This God is the One who holds me in the night of my fears for myself and my family.   When I struggle to work things out myself, He reminds me it’s His game plan that matters.  When I question ‘Why did you make me like this?!’ He reminds me that He is the Potter and that’s no way for clay to talk…When I see how weak I am, He reminds me this is the best place for His strength to be on display…

Ah, which reminds me.  There was another conversation God had with Jacob.  The night of wrestling was past.  The reunion with Esau had gone splendidly.  And God told Jacob to build an altar at Bethel. There God answered the question Jacob had asked of Him on the dark night of their wrestling: “Please, tell me your name.” Gen 32:29 

God answered, "Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name…And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply…” Gen.35:10,11 The introductions were over. God Almighty is now the God of Jacob and Jacob will in turn  invoke this name to bless his own sons and their sons (43:14) just as his own father had done for him. 

The story of Jacob at this point gets all but buried in the narrative of Joseph’s life. Jacob grieves the loss of his favored son Joseph until he is surprised beyond belief at the announcement that Joseph is alive and ruling in Egypt—a literal God-send for his family’s preservation. Life in God Almighty’s care goes beyond anything he could have schemed or dreamed up for himself. And so he grows old in the land of Egypt. But do you know what he is commended for in the great Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11)? It is not for his ‘power with God’ in that long ago wrestling match. It is not for his big family. He is commended for the faith expressed in his dying breath as he blessed the sons of Joseph bowing in worship on his staff. (Heb.11:21)

This was his blessing:

"The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." Gen.48:15,16

How was this an expression of faith? Here are these two Jewish/Egyptian lads, Manasseh and Ephraim,  being reared in a pagan culture, but Jacob is confident that God Almighty is well able to take them and weave them into a great nation as He has promised. Jacob has traded in his wrestling for worship, his self-confidence for faith. And so he is commended for his faith not in wresting a blessing for himself, but in passing it on…

I’ve been magnetized to Jacob’s story for two weeks now, perhaps because I see my own propensity to struggle with God to bless me and mine, as if He were not faithful, as if all depended on my faithfulness…As if the struggle were requisite to the blessing.

One morning early last week I was bemoaning my perceived woes, filling my ‘quiet time’ with rankling memos in my journal of all that is not right in my little world…It was time to put on the teapot and fix breakfast and still I could not see God’s truth through my self-absorbed fog. At that moment I was reminded of these words from Isaiah: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” And a little farther along in the same passage, “The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Is.30:15,18) Old familiar verses freshly applied to my heart.  They are the story of Jacob’s life and the requirement for my own.  It is not in the struggle that I prevail but in repentant rest and quiet trust. And when I cannot see the blessing that is promised, it is the waiting that will be blessed.

--LS

"So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God." Hos.12:6

“We do not present our pleas because of our righteousness but because of your great mercy.” (Dan.9:18)

“O Lord, be gracious to us;
we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
Our salvation in the time of trouble.” (Is.33:2)

--I know this has been long but there are two songs that beg to keep company with Jacob’s (and my) story.  Take a few minutes to bless the God of Jacob as you listen:

In Christ Alone [Click title to listen]

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand
…………..
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I stand

Songwriters: Julian Keith Getty, Stuart Richard Townend

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My Saviour, My God[Click title to listen]

I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at his right hand
Stands one who is my savior
 
I take him at his word and deed
Christ died to save me this I read
And in my heart I find a need
For him to be my savior
 
That he would leave his place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my savior
 
My Savior loves, my savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God he was, my God he is
My God he's always gonna be
 
Yes, living, dying; let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring
That he who lives to be my king
Once died to be my savior
 
That he would leave his place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my savior
 
My Savior loves, my savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God he was, My God he is
My God he's always gonna be

--Aaron Shust’s adaptation of the original by:
Dor­o­thy Green­well, Songs of Sal­va­tion, 1873

 

 

 

 

 

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A Place to Rest

Have you ever puzzled over how it works that we are in a ‘fight of faith’, armed to the hilt against the ‘schemes of the devil’, ever alert and persevering, ever praying for ‘all the saints’… and yet called to REST. In fact we’re called to ‘strive to enter that rest!’ I don’t know about you but I find this a challenging balancing act.

On carefree days, preferably with the sun shining and ‘everything going my way’ (and Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder), I can see quite clearly that rest has to do with maintaining a calm and confident faith in God that knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that He is both present and working for my best good in everything.

But then there are those days… when the body has its ills and the weather is dismal besides. Or perhaps prayers don’t appear to be heard and circumstances seem daunting in one way or another. Then the enemy of our souls, not known to ‘play fair’, zeroes in on our weakest points and whispers his toxins in our ears… gloomy things, hopeless things, reminisces that make the present seem disappointing, fearful prognosis—dismal thoughts to drag down soul and body. The interplay of physical and spiritual is not always obvious. Yes, maybe a good nap and some heart-pumping exercise would do wonders to clarify the situation. I’ve found these to be spiritually beneficial solutions at times. But sometimes there is more to it. When weariness washes desire for everything away, even the passion of one’s calling (and the nap doesn’t fix it)… look out for sabotage.

The temptation may be to ‘throw in the towel’ on some ministry we thought was our calling…or to just shrug and not care about anything…or to grumble, whine, stone somebody, or go to bed for the rest of the day! How do we resist? This is where it helps to have that foundation of trust in God’s goodness and presence with us, firmly laid. The active acknowledgment of these truths will keep the muscle in our faith and prevent us from being easy prey for the enemy’s taunts: “Where is your God?” and the subsequent accusations he knows best how to tailor to our weaknesses.

What do I mean by ‘active acknowledgment’? Well, I’m thinking along the lines of thanksgiving and praise and rejoicing in the Lord, who after all is my strength. I keep being brought back to these themes.
I’ve been memorizing Psalm 32 with Rachel. This is David’s celebration of finding forgiveness after a wearisome harboring of sin. It concludes: “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” He’s excited! Reciting this aloud with enthusiasm is counter-intuitive some school mornings. But it surely is a safeguard against the gloomies! Another line in this psalm says: “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.”(32:7) What is that supposed to mean--'shouts of deliverance'? I haven’t done any formal word studies or read any commentaries on this but as I mulled it over I pictured God calling out something like: “Over here! Grab the lifeline… here’s the way out” and I thought of Paul’s words about temptation: ‘and He will make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it’ (I Cor.10:13).

If I believe this, my response will be to look to God for the way out. If I don’t… well, likely I’ll sound like the thirsty Israelites in the desert: “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Ex.17:7) They seemed to even exasperate God! After all He’d done to show them His loving care and continuous presence, had they forgotten everything? (Have I?) Even the cloud over their heads (while they complained) sparing them from the blazing heat of noonday sun in the desert? And now they’re ready to stone Moses and run back to Egypt’s ‘free’ food. God did not look lightly on their whining. He saw it as rejection of Himself:

“…you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, ‘Why did we come out of Egypt?’” (Numbers 11:20) 

And since trusting in His care was their only hope of getting to a place of rest, they got to wander restless for the remainder of their lives.

I don’t want that to be my lot! I don’t really want to be a doubting whiner who panics every time life seems rough. God has chosen to call me His own and to stick with me through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer… committed to my eternal well-being. He invites me to bring my requests with the assurance that He hears each one (I Jn. 5:14,15). He supplies me with all the armor I need for any battle and the sword of His word besides. He asks me to stand firm in faith, nothing flinching, resting in His strength… Surely I can rest in His commitment to me and learn to live out my vows in return. He is mine, and I am His. Nothing can separate us. Will I struggle in this union or learn to rest? Surely I pay Him the highest honor when I choose thanksgiving and turn my gaze His direction when temptation oppresses.

“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Ps.50:14)


“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God.” (Ps.50:23)


David had to talk to his soul at times when oppression mounted and good times seemed just a memory “Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?... while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” (Ps.42:9,10) but his thirst was set on God: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”(Ps.42:2) and his hopes were all there too. That’s the way I want to live. And I thank you for listening in this post as I have given my own soul a ‘talking to’ from all the words that have encouraged me this week.

--LS



“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you and evil and unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” (Heb. 3:12)



“By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.” (Ps. 41:12)