This Is Your Life

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The last six weeks have been surreal. Not having a job certainly has altered my routine a bit, not to mention messing with my normal sleep patterns. Lately, I’m uncertain as to what day of the week it is, although I’m 75% certain of what year it is.

Lately, I’ve run into some familiar faces. Or more accurately, they’ve approached me because they recognize me. One was from my high school graduating class (Briarcrest class of ’91) who I ran into at the Rabbit Room a week ago Wednesday. The next was a girl from my college (Union class of ’95) who came over to my table at a restaurant.

Last was a guy I knew from Fellowship Bible Church back in the day. It took me a minute, because my reaction time has been a little off lately from not working, but I got there eventually.

All three of these happened in the span of about 10 days. All three were initiated by the other party. Each time was a complete and total surprise. I felt like a contestant on the old TV show, This Is Your Life, where they bring in random people from the past and you have to guess who it is.

This is normally where I make some super-spiritual analogy or make a relevant point about faith. But I’m still trying to figure out what it means. I know enough about faith and God to know that there are no coincidences in this life. Nothing happens by accident or happenstance. At the very least, these are all God-winks, those seemingly small moments of God breaking in to your normal.

Each time, I got a little tongue-tied because I was so taken aback and surprised, but each time I walked away encouraged and more hopeful. Maybe that was the point after all.

Growing Through Obedience

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“‘Aslan” said Lucy “you’re bigger’.
‘That is because you are older, little one’ answered he.
‘Not because you are?’
‘I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.’ (C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian).”

There’s one part in Prince Caspian where Aslan calls out to Lucy to follow him, and to get the others to do the same. The catch is that Lucy is the only one who can see or hear him. The others will have to take her word for it.

That’s the moment where Lucy chooses to trust in Aslan and obey him, even though it might feel like she’s the only one. She has to go even if she goes alone.

That’s what genuine faith looks like. Faithfulness and obedience can be lonely sometimes, especially when so many others are too busy trying to blend in and not make waves to truly follow Jesus. When you are obedient, sometimes your biggest critics will come from inside the Church, not outside.

William Carey, the father of modern missions, faced opposition from other clergymen for wanting to take the gospel to India. Imagine that. Pastors and church leaders not wanting to take the gospel to unreached people. But it happened.

William Carey’s faithfulness made it possible for others to take the gospel around the world, so that heaven could be filled with voices from every tribe and tongue, every skin color and hair color, gathered around the throne as depicted in the book of Revelation.

Obedience might mean standing in the minority for what’s right versus what’s popular. William Penn once said, “Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.”

In Prince Caspian, Lucy gets the rest to follow her. Some were more willing than others to go, but they all went. None of them could see Aslan until after they had stepped out in faith, but once they were committed to following, they could see him leading the way.

That’s the way faith is sometimes. You can’t see God until you obey what He’s told you to do. Obedience leads to faith being made sight.

God’s Loyal Love

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“But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:21-23, The Message).

My favorite Hebrew word is in this passage. It’s hesed, commonly translated as lovingkindness or stedfast love. I heard from a great teacher that basically it’s when someone from whom you have the right to expect nothing instead gives you everything.

That’s my hope these days. I’m counting on the fact that God’s hesed hasn’t run out. Even though I have no right to expect that kind of faithful love, still I ask for it. I crave it like a fish craves water or birds crave the sky.

In this season of transition where I feel set adrift, I know that hesed means that I have a firm foundation, a strong anchor amidst the waves, a welcome audience to the heavenly throne room in my time of need. I know that despite my fear, I won’t be forgotten. God will remember, even if I forget.

Every morning is a reminder of God’s promises, especially that His mercies are daily renewed to me and will never come to an end. So I hold on to hope as Hope holds on to me.

A Symphony of Prayers

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“We are not alone. My prayers are perhaps a single note in a symphony, but a necessary note, for I believe in the communion of saints. We need each other. The prayers of one affect all. The obedience of one matters infinitely and forever” (Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart, See I Corinthians 12:12).

I love that image. All the prayers of all the saints make a kind of symphony that is pleasing to God. I do think that God hears and answers each individual prayer, but I also believe that collectively they rise to the Lord as an incense and aroma like the animal sacrifices of old.

There is something powerful that happens when two or more are gathered in Jesus’ name. The Church can have a greater Kingdom act when gathered together than all the people working and praying separately. That’s why it’s vital to gather and not neglect the meeting together of the people of God.

Each prayer matters. Each act of obedience matters. Together they make up a symphony and show the hands and feet of Jesus to a world that has a need that it cannot name but will recognize Jesus in us as we preach both in our actions and our words.

Unselfishness Vs. Love

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“If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self- denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory).

I heard someone wise once say that it’s not enough to resist temptation, unlearn bad habits, and give up unhealthy thoughts and actions. You need to replace all these with good habits, healthy choices, and obedience. Otherwise, you end up with a different set of bad habits and vices.

I remember my pastor commented on how old-school Baptists were known more for what they were against than what they were for. He said they used to show up in church and brag about not having done anything bad — or actually anything at all.

To be unselfish just to be unselfish is missing the mark. You’re likely to pick up bitterness (from all that you gave up) or self-righteousness (at how much better you are than those who still indulge in what you gave up).

Love is the opposite of selfishness, not unselfishness, because it is self-less. We don’t need to think less of ourselves as the antidote to thinking too much of ourselves. We just need to think about ourselves less and more about others and God.

We miss the mark when we make it about modifying our behavior and being more moral when it’s about emptying of self so there’s more room for God and His ways. It’s not about becoming a slightly better version of me but about becoming a brand new me, one that looks and acts like Jesus.

Nothing Else Will Do

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I’m excited. My church is weeks away from moving to a permanent campus where everything will be brand new and shiny. I’m reminded of the metaphor Jesus used about believers being a city on a hill, because this new location is literally sitting on a hill over looking the intersection.

I’m super hyped, but I’m also smart enough to know that the honeymoon won’t last. More accurately, I’ve hopefully learned by now through lots of times where I got excited only to see the enthusiasm fade and normalcy fade in.

I can remember all those Christmas gifts that I was thrilled to get. I remember how I felt, but looking back, I can’t remember the specific gifts any more. They lost their luster and faded from my memory. Some of them even ended up in garage sales a few years later.

That’s how it goes with anything I set my heart on this side of eternity. Anything less than God won’t fill that God-shaped yearning in me. Or as C. S. Lewis put it, anything that isn’t eternal is eternally out of date and obsolete.

I look forward to our move-in date in late May. I hope I will always be grateful for this gracious gift on God’s part. But I know that at some point, it will be just a building. More than likely, it will require maintenance and updating and repairs. And at some point, it will be no more.

But what it represents and what our church is all about (and every true Bible-believing church is all about) won’t ever fade or get stolen or moth-eaten or rust. The hope of God-with-us revealed in Jesus will only get better and more wonderful and more glorious over time, past time, and into eternity.

A Safe Place

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“God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us” (Psalm 46:1-3).

I think more than ever people need a safe place in this increasingly chaotic world. We need a place that’s stable and secure, unthreatened by the ever-changing whims and fancies of culture. More and more, those who name Jesus as Lord will need a safe place because they will be less and less safe in the world growing in hate for Jesus and all He stands for.

Sometimes, we need a safe place when our personal world is collapsing and pain seems ever present. We need a place to go when what we’re facing seems overwhelming and what we have to face it is very much underwhelming or non-existent.

But God is a guaranteed shelter in the storm, a haven in the midst of the hectic, a fortress for the battered and beaten-down. Abba Father’s lap is a good place for the weary and grieving child to crawl into on those long nights when the hurt doesn’t stop.

May we in turn be a safe place for those who are lost to find hope in despair, to find light in darkness, and to find Jesus as the answer to all their questions and the healing for all their wounds.

Something Better

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“Heavenly Father, reveal anything that is diminishing the fullest expression of faith in my life. I release to You all I have been, all I am, and all I have wanted to be. May Your good plans replace all I am releasing to You. Thank You for leading me forward from here. In Jesus’ name, amen” (Allen Jackson).

At this point in my life, I should have grasped this concept. Every single time God has taken away a dream or a plan out of my life, He has replaced whatever it was with something better. Every. Single. Time.

And yet I am afraid to let go? Am I scared to unclench my fists that white-knuckle that dream that I don’t want to lose? What is it that I think will satisfy me more than what God has for me?

Letting go is hard. Holding on to what I’m not supposed to have and what can never really bring me peace is harder. Trusting God is always best, yet every time I have to count my blessings like sheep to remember the goodness of God. It’s never second nature because of my sin nature.

So I come with open hands palms facing down, ready to let go of my plans and aspirations. I turn my hands palms facing up, ready to receive Kingdom-sized dreams and plans where I get a front row seat to God at work in the world.

I’m letting go now.

Happy Leap Year Day

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2024 is a leap year, and today is leap day, February 29, that only comes around in a blue moon. Actually, it comes around less than blue moons, only showing up every four years.

I think it’s because the actual rotation of the earth is 23 hours and 56 minutes instead of 24, so somebody smarter than me decided to add an extra day every four years to catch up on the difference.

I wish someone would add an extra day to the week, so I could catch up from all the craziness. Or maybe just have a 24-hour nap marathon. I mean a 23 hour and 56 minute nap marathon.

I also have a connection to this day, as I was very nearly born on February 29. According to the people who were there, I was born in the afternoon on February 28. If I’d been more obstinate, I might have been born a day later and instead of turning 52, I’d be 18.

Isn’t that how you count leap day birthdays? Since their actual birth day only comes around every four years, they only gain another number to their age on one out of every four years, right?

Unfortunately, that would mean they’d only have birthday parties about twice every decade. That wouldn’t be as much fun, now that I think about it.

But whatever the case, I hope you had a Happy Leap Year Day. Don’t forget to spend all your $2 bills and to go hug a unicorn.

The Birthdays Keep Coming

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At some point, I wish the birthdays would just stop.

I don’t mean I don’t want any more birthdays. I definitely don’t mean that I don’t want to live any longer.

What I do mean is that I wish that I could get to a comfortable age number and stop there. I think 35 would have been a good age to remain for a while. Maybe now I can stay 52 for a few years.

But then I remember people like my friend Nathan or my cousin Timothy who won’t get to see 52. They never got the opportunity to grow old because they left so young.

So I’m thankful for another birthday. It means I got to live. It means I got to experience God’s world and especially God in the world for another 365 days. I got to take for granted that I would wake up every morning.

As much as I enjoy opening birthday gifts, the biggest gift I get every single year is the gift of being alive and being loved. I’m reminded that I have a physical birthday on February 28, but I also have a spiritual birthday on which I prayed the sinner’s prayer and invited Jesus into my heart.

That was the day that I went from being lost to found, from being dead in sin to being alive to God. It was the day that I became a new creation and a follower of Jesus, not because I was especially deserving or good. It was because God is good and full of grace.

I think my friend Nathan or my cousin Timothy could have the chance to say some final words, they’d say that the most important gift anyone could ever receive is the gift of knowing Jesus and receiving what He did by taking our punishment on the cross, dying, and then being raised from the dead.

If anyone reading this wants to know more about following Jesus, I’ve included this link that shares the plan of salvation:

Have You Heard the Good News of Salvation?