WOULDA-COULDA-SHOULDA

If you can handle one more Shel Silverstein poem, this one struck me between the eyes...

WOULDA-COULDA-SHOULDA

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas

Layin' in the sun,

Talkin' 'bout the things

They would-coulda-shoulda done...

But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas

All ran away and hid

From one little did.

Man, have I been stuck. Better yet, PARALYZED. Analyzing everything that has happened, scrutinizing every word spoken, every look cast, every thought attributed...And all the while, I have been frozen in neutral, unable to move out and move on.

So it's time.

I am re-reading 'Cloister Walk' for our book club and I came upon a passage that really struck me...

'..an important aspect of monastic life has been described as "attentive waiting." A spark is struck; an event inscribed with a message -- this is important, pay attention -- and we wait attentively, EXPECTING God to show us what we need to see...'

So, here I am, waiting attentively, trying to kick the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas from my path! I'll close with Psalm 62:5... 'Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from HIM!'

Grace and Peace

Checking the books!

I'm so new to actually 'being' a blogger, that I don't always know how often to post things, or if the things I am saying are hitting home, or if I should just post some pretty pictures and leave it at that. But there are times when I feel like God is poking me to say or do something, and when I act on that feeling, good stuff seems to happen. Thanks to Crystal and Greg for their comments on my last blog post...it was good to know my feelings resonated with someone besides myself! I 'checked the books', so to speak, and found a good report!

This Sunday I think we will discuss the entire 7th chapter of the book of Luke...as you prepare, pay special attention to how Luke 6 ends with the parable of the wise and foolish builders, and then contrast this with what Jesus says about the centurion in the beginning of Luke 7. Also take a peek ahead and see where chapter eight is taking us!

Finally, look at the characters in the stories contained in chapter 7 -- by my count there are 5 main characters, though you may come up with a slightly different number! See which ones are good examples of faithfulness and which ones aren't -- then see which ones come in as 'religious people' and which ones are 'heathens'!

Our common meal will be grilled chicken salads...and I hope to see ALL of you out this week!

Grace and Peace

Ryan

Diving in

I love Shel Silverstein, and here is one of my favorite of his poems: "Diving Board"

You've been up on that diving board making sure it's nice and straight You've made sure that it's not too slick. You've made sure it can stand the weight. You've made sure that the spring is tight. You've made sure that the cloth won't slip. You've made sure that it bounces right and that your toes can get a grip -- And you've been up there since half past five, doin' everything...but DIVE!

Which reminded me of this older song by Steven curtis Chapman...called 'Diving In'

The long awaited rains
Have fallen hard upon the thirst ground
And carved their way to where

The wild and rushing river can be found

And like the rains

I have been carried here to where the river flows, yeah
My heart is racing and my knees are weak
As I walk to the edge
I know there is no turning back
Once my feet have left the ledge
And in the rush I hear a voice
That’s telling me it’s time
to take the leap of faith
So here I go

I’m diving in, I’m going deep in over
my head, I want to be
Caught in the rush, lost in the flow,
in over my head, I want to go
The river’s deep, the river’s wide,
the river’s water is alive
So sink or swim, I’m diving in

There is a supernatural power
In this might river’s flow
It can bring the dead to life
And it can fill an empty soul
And give a heart the only thing
Worth living and worth dying for, yeah
But we will never know the awesome power
Of the grace of God
Until we let ourselves get swept away
Into this holy flood
So if you’ll take my hand
We’ll close our eyes and count to three
And take the leap of faith
Come on let’s go

Which reminded me of what Paul says in Ephesians, chapter three...

¹² In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. ¹³ I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. A Prayer for the Ephesians ¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

No matter what, no matter who, no matter where, let's stick together and dive in deep to seek out the full measure of the fullness of God!

The Power of the Body of Christ

“Who can be good, if not made so by loving? -- St. Augustine

Not long ago, I was asked by a college student how I could stand to go to Church, how I could stand the hypocrisy of Christians.  I had one of my rare inspirations, when I know the right thing to say, and I replied, ‘The only hypocrite I have to worry about on Sunday morning is myself.’

The Church has had a hardening of the arteries in the sixteen hundred or so years since Ambrose, then the bishop of Milan, welcomed the convert Augustine into the body of Christ.  Theological fine-tuning...has led us to forget that Christian worship is not, in the words of Margaret Miles, ‘primarily a gathering of the like-minded’ but a gathering of people ‘to be with one another in the acknowledgment that human existence originates in and is drawn towards love.’

Even when I find Church boring, I try to hold this in mind as a possibility: like all the other fools who have dragged themselves to church on Sunday morning, including the pastor, I am there because I need to be reminded that love can be at the center of all things, if we will only keep it there. The worship service will most likely not offer an aesthetically pleasing experience, great theological insight, or emotional release, although any and all of those things are possible, and precious on the rare occasions when they occur.”

- The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris

Even at my lowest moments, when my faith is sorely tested in God and man, I am still foolish enough to believe in the power of gathering together as believers.  That as Jesus says, '...where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am also."  Paul says that "...the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

You all sustain me. Thanks for being willing to be fools for Christ.  You are making a difference in my life and in the lives of others. 

So, here's the difficulty...

There are several lines of thought when it comes to how we should handle many of the difficult words and promises of Jesus.  Perhaps the most prominent goes something like this...

'Jesus is setting the bar higher than we can achieve because He wants us to aim that direction and then grace washes over us to make up the difference.'  

I like that thought, really I do.  It makes sense to me.  It soothes me.  It comforts me.  It rubs my back when I am up late at night thinking too much and obsessing about what God wants me to do or be or say.

But.

Sometimes what Jesus says is so pointed, so laser-like, it causes me to wonder...

Luke 6:32... 'If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?'... (35) 'But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting ANYTHING BACK.  THEN YOUR REWARD WILL BE GREAT, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  Be merciful just as He is merciful.'

OK, now I'll save some of the rest of this passage that is even more troublesome for our meeting on Sunday.  Let's just deal with this little snippet for a moment.

First, an aside.  There is a passage we will deal with in coming weeks in Luke 17, and the related passage in Matthew 18, where Peter asks Jesus, if someone sins against me how often do I have to forgive him?  Seven times?  Jesus tells him either 70 x 7 (490) or 77 times, we aren't sure what the number is here.  Randy Harris says, shoot, 490?  77?  I think 7 times is WAY too many if somebody REALLY sins against me.  That seems terribly generous.

And I agree with Dr. Harris.  Therein lies the problem.

To my way of thinking 7 times is way too much!  Can I even wrap my puny brain around what Jesus may really be saying here?  Is it really so much that I cannot ever achieve perfection, or is that my pathetic excuse for the fact that I am not even in the same zip code to what Jesus is talking about here...

Give to an enemy with NO expectation of getting anything back?  Are you kidding?  Never mind that I am not going to do this ALL THE TIME.  How about, WILL I EVEN CONSIDER DOING IT ONCE?

Now you know why I've been stuck in Luke 6/7 for over two months now in my personal study.  Because if I believe God's word is true, I am forced to ask, how does my life HAVE TO BE DIFFERENT?  Oh honey, you don't even HAVE that kind of time.

Til Sunday then...

Thomas Merton

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me.  I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  And I hope that I have that desire in all I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart form that desire.  And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.  I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

-- Excerpt from 'Thoughts in Solitude' by Thomas Merton

I loved this! Not completely sure how to live this out, but I loved it!

Rough Waters Ahead

The section of Luke we are about to study (Chapters 6-8) is, in my opinion, particularly challenging.  It reminds me of these powerful words written by Elizabeth Gilbert in her book 'Eat.  Pray.  Love.'

"The devout of this world perform their rituals without guarantee that anything good will ever come of it.  Of course there are plenty of scriptures and plenty of priests who make plenty of promises as to what your good works will yield (or threats as to the punishments awaiting if you lapse), but to even believe all of this is an act of faith, because nobody amongst us is shown the endgame.  Devotion is diligence without assurance.  Faith is a way of saying, 'Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding.'  There's a reason we refer to 'leaps of faith' - because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable, and I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down with their stacks of books and prove to you through scripture that their faith is indeed rational; it isn't.  If faith were rational, it wouldn't be -- by definition -- faith.  Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch.  Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark.  If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it ould not be a courageous act of humanity, it would just be..a prudent insurance policy."

This is interesting, because I think all of us like to be in control.  My friend Greg Needels sent me a Facebook message about this just two days ago...here is a brief excerpt...Remaining open to God's plans has really taken away my feelings of control. And I like to FEEL like I have control, even if I don't have it at all. 

But we must remember that the Apostle Paul told us in I Corinthians 13..For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

We don't yet fully know...so we live by...faith...and that is worth talking about!

Off vacation!

Well, I have enjoyed some wonderful trips this Summer!  One of the greatest added benefits of those trips has been the moderate temperatures we have enjoyed in places like Colorado, Wyoming, Indiana, South Dakota, etc.  It has reminded me how much I love rugged beauty and seasons and how much I miss them here in Texas. 

But now it's down to work!  JP and I have some clients we are working with, some products we are publishing, and are now generally putting our noses to the grindstone!  Johnny and I have some business travel this week, but for now, I am OFF vacation, and I will try to make sure that the blog gets updated!