To Gloirfy and Enjoy

The ladies and I have been continuing to meet to discuss Ann Voskamp's 25 Points Manifesto. The topics have been rich fodder for discussion and each week I come away blessed, challenged, and encouraged. So much of the depth and meaning behind AV's 25 Points is rooted in understanding your purpose and pursuing that with focus and intention every day. But I think we over complicate this a bit as we get hung up on our purpose. Westminster's Shorter Catechism, Question One asks, "What is the chief end of man?" (put another way, "what is man's purpose?"). The answer, "To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." It is that simple. Notice I say simple, not easy. I don't think this is an easy endeavor, but it is a simple one in that we can all, no matter the stage of life, no matter the circumstances were in, no matter the questions we have about our future or what, specifically we should be at work doing, we can all daily seek to glorify God and enjoy Him within the context of our day.

Part of glorifying and enjoying comes from the habits we develop. Do we affirm others daily? Not necessarily the same people, but do we just seek to encourage and speak life into others intentionally every day? Do we talk with God every day? - casually, as we go about our chores, tasks, play.. Do we acknowledge Him in the flowers pushing up through the snow? Or in the birds' songs in the air? Do we seek the enrichment of the Spiritual Disciplines? Stopping throughout the day to pray with focus for things outside of our immediate heart's cry? It is easy to seek God in prayer with the issues close to our heart, but He calls us to intercede for more than our own burdens. We are to pray for our nation, pray for the persecuted church, pray for the lost, pray for sick...

In our weekly meetings on these topics, we've tossed so many great ideas around, I think the easiest thing to do is throw out a bullet list of ideas for enhancing your walk with Jesus:

• Pray the Hours
• Go through The Hour that Changes the World
• Assign prayer categories to the days of the week: Praying for family on Friday, Others on Thursday, the Nation on Monday, etc. 
• Talk a walk daily for the purpose of seeing God in Nature and prayer.
• Light a candle every day for the purpose of contemplating that the Light of the World is with you and in you and wants to shine through you. 
• Post images in your home or office to remind you that your treasure is in heaven, that the end goal is to hear "well done," or to remember that the battle has already been won and victory is yours.
• Incorporate prayer into your chores and tasks - pray for family members while you fold their clothes, pray for those without access to clean water while you wash your dishes...
• Set a gentle alarm to stop you at certain points in the day for prayer or worship or reading Scripture
• Record your blessings daily - in a journal, on a wall, a calendar, somewhere keep track of the things God is doing big and small.
• Find some place and some time in your daily life to be a sanctuary, a "war room." - Maybe a laundry closet, a sun room, or even your car. Spend time in that space daily with the purpose of drawing near to God.

The most important thing is to do whatever works. Do something! Don't allow mindlessness and complacency to have a place in your life. Embrace wherever you are, knowing God is near and longs for time with you. But let yourself off the hook. The time He is seeking is not some deeply religious, intellectual or emotional foray into Scripture and theology. (Even though those are great and have their place.) God just wants to do life with us. He wants to walk the isles of the grocery store with us, sit at the kitchen counter and chat while we make dinner or do dishes, curl up with us on the couch at the end of a long day. To invite Him into the mundane moments is to glorify and enjoy Him. The truly beautiful thing is, as we learn to do this daily, our days become less mundane and more purpose-filled. Not because we've sold it all and raced to the mission field, but because He is there. Where we are. And we know it.

Judas Moments

I'm about to lose some of you by admitting to watching "Tyler Perry's The Passion" - I blame my friend who told me about it and I blame a lazy Saturday morning, when I should be doing dishes or homeschool prep. I will admit to much of the program being a bit too sensational and cheesy for my taste, but one scene in particular really struck me. The scene of Judas' betrayal and the arrest of Jesus:




We often vilify Judas, perhaps forgetting that he was a follower of Christ - one of the inner twelve who lived, ate, worked and traveled with Jesus for three years before this fateful night. Judas had hope, just like us. He had dreams and goals. He wanted more out of life, to live with purpose, to make a difference. But he was plagued by a darkness he just couldn't shake. We can all relate to that. So he turned to Jesus - just like so many of us have done.

Judas looked to Jesus to fix it - he did well. But Judas saw fixing it with a very limited definition - one which left Jesus with no choice but to leave Judas as he was - with his demons hiding inside. Oftentimes, we turn to Christ in the midst of a crisis, expecting our version of "fixing." How often does our limited vision limit the very healing we are seeking? How often does our insistence that it be fixed OUR way, arrest Jesus - stop him in his tracks, and force us to experience separation from him and his will?

Truth is, we all have Judas Moments. Moments when we wrestle with our lives or our situations being fixed our way or His. Judas shows us how bleak our way is. Our way doesn't lead to anything being fixed at all. Our way leads to devastation, destruction and death. But Christ's way leads to victory. His way doesn't pass over the devastation, destruction and death of this world, it passes through them, thereby conquering them. His way leads to the Cross, which leads to the Resurrection, which leads to His Return, which leads to our Everlasting Glory in Heaven. Oh that we might chose His way.

Two Days

It has been a Holy Weekend of me wrestling with the reality that Christ wasn't for two full days. There was death. That was it. His family, his friends, his followers experienced the unimaginable - the complete and total absence of Hope. For two full days.

On Good Friday I sat in the sanctuary, staring up at the void. For where normally the Crucified Christ hangs dead center at the altar, a purple shroud had been draped. The solace and reverence I normally meditate on as I gaze into the pain-stricken face of my Savoir was unnervingly jarred. He simple wasn't there.

As we worked our way through the Stations of the Cross, I marveled at each point, immersing myself in the memory of Scripture and scenes from The Passion. The stained glass images were beautifully illuminated from the setting sun outside. They glowed with warmth, inviting and serene, even as they reminded us of Christ's torturous journey to Golgotha. We approached the twelfth station, finding me disappointed that the final three were not lit. Therefore the detail difficult to fully appreciate in their darkened state. Low and behold, they depicted the death, removal from the cross, and burial of our Lord. Once again, I was struck with what the Death of Christ signified. The Light of the World snuffed out and darkness fell.

This Weekend, in unexpected ways, has continued to point me to the Time Between. Between death and resurrection. Hours that had to have stretched on for an eternity. So many questions. So much despair. So little hope.

I know I dip my feet into dangerous waters when I say, "Thank you God, that I live now, and not then." - Because I know we ought not compare our situations to others, lest we sound like the Pharisee praying about the tax collector. But as I look at the lessons of this weekend, I cling to a fresh understanding of the Gift we have - we who live after the Resurrection. Because no matter the circumstances, no matter the amount of death, despair, or drudgery attempting to drown us, we have Hope. We have Light. We have Jesus. Praise be to God.

Stillness

 

Fantastic conversation last night with some amazing women of God. The topic: Daily Stillness (from Ann Voskamp's 25 Points Manifesto). Here are some thoughts from the discussion:

There needs to be a difference between taking a break and/or resting, and having stillness. Taking a break can be active, in that you can take a break from cleaning house to check email, or you can go for a jog after completing your accounting. But stillness requires a certain degree of inactivity and quiet. At most, stillness might include a Bible, a journal, some soft music. It is an act of listening, of quieting the mind to a state of contemplative peacefulness.

No doubt, stillness is a challenge for the more "Martha-esque" types. We Marthas need to figure out how to stop the multi-tasking for a moment and silence the constant inner dialogue. We need to recognize our tendency to purposefully distract ourselves in hopes of avoiding stillness and our inclination to fabricate a sense of busyness that excuses our neglectfulness.
Quite simply, stillness is waiting on the Lord. It is shutting up for once and giving Him room to speak. It is actively waiting on God by forcing yourself to be inactive. It is the opposite of busy. The opposite of anxious. The opposite of frenetic. Stillness forces you to face these things in your life and refuses to allow you to stay delusional about who you are and why you're here. But then just when you think that is the point, stillness sweeps in and gives you it's real gift: it gives you the freedom to just Be. It is our snuggle-time with our daddy. Where the worries of the day melt away and we remember we are loved, we are protected, we are cared for.

Go ahead. Be still.

An Empty Room, A Full Bucket

We have an empty room in our home. It has been empty for two months now. Every time I walk by it, the emptiness catches me off guard, a hollow echoing sound bouncing off the walls.

We have a full bucket in our budget. Full to overflowing. Every time we discuss our finances, it's fullness feels heavier and heavier to me.

Both are teaching me about waiting upon the Lord. One for Him to Fill, the other for Him to Empty. What do you do when you want so desperately to be used by God, but aren't sure how He wants to use you?

You wait.

Something I don't do too well. I guess I should be grateful for the practice. But I fear so much in the waiting. I fear I will get too distracted to hear God when he leads. I fear I won't recognize His voice. I fear I will get selfish in the mean time. I fear I will take matters into my own hands and fill the room with something or someone God doesn't want there; and empty the bucket into a vessel it isn't intended for.

There are just way too many options on how to do go about things all wrong and only one way to go about them all right, and as I wait, the law of averages, statistics and probability start to freak me out. I am convinced the faster God moves, the fewer the opportunities for me to screw it up.

But, this time, come hell or high water, I will not move until I know it's God. I have a feeling this might take a while. I'm willing myself to be willing to wait.

Shutting off, tuning out

I have successfully managed to utterly fail at pretty much every Lenten observance I had decided upon. I felt so uninspired going into Lent, it is no wonder I am not fairing well with my goals. I am wondering now what God would have me do

Honestly, I am on Spiritual Auto Pilot once again, I fear. Going through the motions of my Bible Study and barely giving God a second thought beyond that.

Which brings me to my newest attempt at getting it right - I am going hard core with my fast from the computer & TV. NO more blogging, checking email, shopping online, etc until after Lent is over. I will get online to do my work - nothing more. Maybe, just maybe I will get bored enough to read the Bible or something crazy like that. We'll see.

Talk to you on Easter or thereabouts.

Erin

Uninspired Ramblings

I am marveling at how un-Lentish life feels to me so far this season... we have all been struggling with sickness - Vivi especially, and that has caused every single day to feel like a Sabbath day - which, maybe means it has actually been a lot more like Lent than I have realized! But in all this hanging around doing a lot of nothing I have only been more aware of my own state of restlessness. As much as I say I worship the god of Leisure, I think I am bored to easily for this to be all that true of me. Too much down time makes my brain totally shut down. So, here I sit, with nothing to say because we have done a whole lot of nothing lately...