Musings

Lent

If you are interested in observing Lent with us - considering Christ's suffering and death, anticipating his resurrection, deepening our sense of union with him - do join us on the Coram Deo blog.

Lent begins this Wednesday (Ash Wednesday), but the first post is already up: "Preparing for Lent".

Peace,

Will

Advent

Hey, I am posting daily through the Advent season on the Coram Deo blog. I should have mentioned this earlier, but it woudn't take long to catch up (only four posts to this point).

I am writing about the themes of Advent (Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love), incorporating some of my own reflections regarding these things, and offering a daily Scripture reading. I think this would be a great way to organize your Bible reading and refelctive thought life over the next three weeks.

By the way, I do recommend reading what has been posted thus far, since each day sort of builds on previous thoughts. Just scroll down on the blog to the post titled "Advent".

You can get to the Coram Deo blog by clicking here.

It sounds okay if you call it “busy”

by Will Walker

How does life get turned upside down? Why do we feel under the pile sometimes, as if all our intentions and tasks and relationships have caved in on top of us?

Jesus said, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.”

That is, following Jesus leads us to become a certain kind of person with a certain kind of life; namely, one that doesn’t get buried under the pile, which begs the question, “How did I get so upside down again?” Answer: "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."

When I don’t feel under the pile of my independence, life is pretty exciting. Not because I am safe, but because I am free to act for the good of others rather than drowning in the self-absorption that comes from trying to keep my head above water. I’m not worried about my footing because the ground I stand on is solid. It breeds a certain kind of confidence and faith to follow Jesus even further.

I don’t just love Jesus in the relational sense. I love following him, in the way a player loves playing for a great coach or in the way a soldier loves serving under a great general. It just feels like there is no other place I would rather be.

I admire and respect him because of his courage and consistency. He knows what to say and do, and how to say and do it. He does not perform for men. He leads them. He does not pretend to be something that he’s not. He is what He says, and he says what he is. He faces hardship with strength and prayer. He fears no man, yet he gives himself up even his enemies.

His path is straight and good. Walking in it gives one a sense of identity and direction, a security that does not about comfort, but is about confidence and hope.

When I am with him, I am not hurried because he is not hurried, not afraid because he is not afraid, not lazy because he is not lazy, not arrogant because he is not arrogant. I am in fact a wise man who stands on the bedrock of Jesus’ leadership.

So maybe the pile we get under is not just the tyranny of the urgent, but rather the calamity of foolishness.

Laid to Rest

by Will Walker

There are no secrets to spiritual growth. There is humility and repentance and faith.

I cannot explain why we are the way we are.  We try all kinds of things – good things – to change, but every new thing seems to have a shelf life. Even when something works for a while, our tendency is to become superstitious at best and idolatrous at worst. When a particular method or formula or idea eventually loses its effect, we become disappointed. That is, we discover we are still, after all, who we are.

There aren’t any silver bullets when it comes to changing who you are. There is being forgiven for who you are, befriended in spite of who you are, and accepted as you are, but these have to do with love and not change. Perhaps being loved is the only way to be changed. Indeed, every answer leads us here, to the unadulterated grace of God in Jesus, who died for us while we were still helpless, and who now lives through us in our weakness. And to him we submit our “knowledge” and forsake our “righteousness” and entrust our lives.

My God, my rest; my burdens cast on Thee.
When all my best is but a drop in the sea,
You are nothing less than God and rest to me.

An Apology for Lack of Writing

by David Thompson

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And, I would add, not worth writing about either. If I don’t reflect, I don’t write. I don’t reflect because I’m busy. I’m busy because it makes me feel important, as if my absence would be noticed if only because stuff didn’t get done. It’s not a great life, but most people live it, so it doesn’t seem so strange.

Without reflection I live as something less than a human being – I live as a human doer, a man defined by the sum of his roles. My soul screams, “No! As one made in the image of God, I am!” To which I may tell myself I need to have a quiet time when life slows down.

Or I may stop for a moment and hear the living Word speak love, faith, and hope into my life. Sometimes the Word is so stunning, so surprising, it’s difficult to put into words. An attempt is made, but the representation so poor, it is quickly abandoned, only to be retained in the heart.

And sometimes I write. I write to understand. I write to hope, to grieve, to laugh, to confess. And sometimes I print. Not sure why I do that.

Apologies

by Bob Thune

Over the years, the Musings blog has developed a devoted and faithful readership. Some of you check here every day to see if there is anything new. So it pains me to know that we, the writers, have been allowing this blog to languish with no fresh insights for almost a month.

What can I say... all of us are going through transition. The space for thinking and reflection that leads to excellent writing just hasn't been there lately. And the sad truth about writing is that sometimes inspiration flows and sometimes it doesn't. The whole point of having 4 or 5 writers is that each of us gets in the flow at different times, so between us, we usually have something interesting to write about. But it seems we're all running low on inspiration at the same time.

Relating

by Lane Freemyer (welcome to the blog Lane)

Sometimes I get frustrated that my feeling of intimacy with Christ is so lacking.  Prayer feels more like talking to myself than to someone else.  The Bible seems more like a book of philosophy than the living Word of God.  I suppose I want a relationship with Christ that is as visceral as the one I have with anyone else- actual sensory interaction.  But I don’t get to have that.  In his wisdom, God has set this life up a certain way, and since he is infinitely wise, I acknowledge that his way is better.  I’m not trying, consciously at least, to dictate to God how we communicate.  But it is hard to reconcile my concept of relationship and intimacy in relationship with the way we interact with God.  Scripture has quite a bit to say about the relationship between God and man, and examining what it says about the ways we interact with Him breaks down the misconceptions that stand between us and a more constant and intimate communion with Him.

In John 16, Jesus tells the disciples that he is going away, and when he does he will send the Holy Spirit to them.  And Jesus tells the disciples it is for their good that he goes.  Another translation says it is to the disciples’ advantage.  Jesus, the very Son of God, tells his most intimate friends that they are better off if he goes away!  The Holy Spirit in us is better than walking around with Jesus himself, according to Jesus.  It makes sense when you think about it.  The Spirit is inside us, guiding us into all truth.  Our very thoughts are inspired and directed by God.  God dwelling in us is a better situation than any other, even the face time with Christ the disciples experienced.  Acts shows us this in the lives of Peter and company- the same guys who spent most of their pre-Pentecost lives misinterpreting Jesus’ parables were astonishing the lifelong scholars with wisdom and power after the Spirit filled them.

John 16:14 says the Spirit will bring glory to Christ and reveal truth to us.  So the Spirit seeks to glorify God by helping us understand Him.  The Spirit supernaturally enables our understanding, and without the Spirit we cannot hope to understand what God has to say to us.  2 Corinthians 16-17 says that the veil, or the dullness of our minds, is taken away when we turn to the Lord, who is the Spirit.  John 16 further says that the Spirit will take of what is Christ’s and make it known to us.  And what is Christ’s, but the Gospel message?  The Spirit, then, reveals to us the Gospel- the message of Jesus, our redemption and salvation through His sacrifice and resurrection.  And the Gospel will change us into people who exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, listed in Gal 6:22- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

If my life doesn’t look like this, then someone- the Spirit or me- is not holding up their end of the bargain.  And because He is who He is, and I am who I am, I suspect it is me.  Romans 8:5 says that those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  That is a directive to us for action- to set our minds on what the Spirit desires.  The Spirit desires God’s glory and truth to be known.  So our minds should be on God’s glory and truth.  That is a great idea.  I think everyone would agree with that.  Let’s take it one step further and talk action.  What is my end of the ‘bargain’ mentioned earlier?  What is it that I should be doing and am not, or shouldn’t be doing but am anyway?  The answer to these questions can be found in part by looking again at what the original Spirit-filled Christians spent their time doing.  Acts 2 tells us the believers were in fellowship, learning, eating together, praying and praising God, serving each other and the community.  Community.  Study.  More community.  Prayer, worship, service.  In community.  And through it all, love for Christ and each other.  This is getting down to the brass tacks of Christian existence, what we do on a day to day basis, our ‘end of the bargain’ for getting from where we are to where God wants us to be.  And though we find in this life the fullest expression of our existence, we do not do these things for their own sake, or even for our sake.  We do them, in partnership with the Spirit, for the glory of God.

Wrestling with these questions doesn’t do much for the frustration I still have, other than shifting the blame for it firmly to myself and my own faithlessness.  But it does give me something to do.  Frustration with myself leads to conviction, which leads to repentance, which drives me to the cross again and the awe, gratitude and love I feel in that place.  And I never feel closer to God than when I’m standing there.  I still want it to be easy sometimes.  Isn’t it true, though, that the easy thing and the best thing are rarely the same thing?  Demanding easy is childish.  Recognizing that the wages justify the work, that the prize is worth the hard work required to attain it, is part of growing up.  Intimacy with Christ is perhaps the fullest expression of this idea- the ‘pearl of great price.’  In 1 Corinthians 13:11, Paul says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”  I guess it’s time for me to do the same.