brennan manning

Safe in the Storm

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“My soul quietly waits for the True God alone
    because I hope only in Him.
He alone is my rock and deliverance,
    my citadel high on a hill;
    I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my significance depend ultimately on God;
    the core of my strength, my shelter, is in the True God.

Have faith in Him in all circumstances, dear people.
    Open up your heart to Him;
    the True God shelters us in His arms” (Psalm 62:5-8, The Voice).

Right now, I’m typing these words as I’m lying in bed (or laying in bed– I’m still fuzzy on which of these is correct). Anyway, I can hear the thunder rumbling outside, signifying that more rain is coming.

One of my least favorite things to do is to be out on the interstate when it’s storming. One of my favorite things to do is to be safe at home, able to hear and see the storm while being safely under a solid four walls and a roof.

It seems lately that storms are raging all around us. Not so much literal storms with lightening and thunder, but so many senseless acts of violence and destruction. Not even the church building is a safe sanctuary anymore.

I read something amazing today. It was from the pastor of the church in Texas where the latest mass shooting occurred. He lost half his congregation, as well as his own 14-year old daughter. He said, “Christ is the one who is going to be lifted up. What you don’t understand you lean into the Lord. Whatever life brings to you, lean on the Lord rather than your own understanding.  .  .  . I don’t understand but I know my God does.”

I can’t imagine. I can’t say that I’d be half as brave or stedfast in the face of unspeakable tragedy and grief. I only know that God is near to the broken hearted and to those who are crushed in spirit, and in those times, He gives a peace and a love and a trust that truly passes understanding.

Storm come, storms pass, but the love of God is a shelter and a safe place forever.

 

Praying for Sutherland Springs

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“Death opens a door out of a little, dark room (that’s all the life we have known before it) into a great, real place where the true sun shines and we shall meet” (C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces).

I’m having a really difficult time processing yet another mass shooting at a church. This time, it was First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. The town has a population of about 400 and the church typically runs around 50 on any given Sunday.

That makes it especially heinous that a gunman walked in and opened fire on the congregation, killing 26 and wounding 20. I have no words.

Just when it seems that we’ve seen the worst kind of evil, something like this comes along and reminds all of us that this world is a broken place suffering under the crushing weight of original sin. Nothing’s the way it was supposed to be in the beginning.

I do know that the answer still lies at the foot of the cross. I know that Calvary still remains the best example of the worst kind of evil ever inflicted. God in Jesus took that evil upon Himself and in the process, defeated sin, death, and hell forever.

I know that tonight, God weeps with those who are weeping. I know that God in Jesus is no stranger to grief and sorrow, as Isaiah 53 calls Him a Man of Sorrows and Hebrews says that Jesus has experienced everything common to humanity, yet was without sin.

Because of that cross, my hope is that the Kingdom of God is breaking into this world, and that one day God will put everything right and turn this crazy upside-down world right-side up again.

In the mean time, we live with the unspeakable. In the midst of ultimate evil, there is still Immanuel, God with us. That remains our hope.

 

Finding God in the Valley

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“‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.’ The psalm does not pretend that evil and death do not exist. Terrible things happen, and they happen to good people as well as to bad people. Even the paths of righteousness lead through the valley of the shadow. Death lies ahead for all of us, saints and sinners alike, and for all the ones we love. The psalmist doesn’t try to explain evil. He doesn’t try to minimize evil. He simply says he will not fear evil. For all the power that evil has, it doesn’t have the power to make him afraid.

And why? Here at the very center of the psalm comes the very center of the psalmist’s faith. Suddenly he stops speaking about God as ‘he,’ because you don’t speak that way when the person is right there with you. Suddenly he speaks to God instead of about him, and he speaks to him as ‘thou.’ ‘I will fear no evil,’ he says, ‘for thou art with me.’ That is the center of faith. Thou. That is where faith comes from” (Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark).

The valley of the shadow of death is where you go from knowing about God to really knowing God, where faith goes from intellectual assent to confident trust and heart-yielded allegiance.

Some of you are in that valley right now. You are walking through the shadow of death. You can cling to the hope of the God who does not see you from afar, but who walks beside you through that valley.

God in Jesus knows all about walking through that valley, because Jesus’ goal led through a valley to a cross on a hill. He walks with you. Therefore, you can fear no evil, for He is with you.

 

 

Poverty and Kindness

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“The poor are the center of the Church. But who are the poor? At first we might think of people who are not like us: people who live in slums, people who go to soup kitchens, people who sleep on the streets, people in prisons, mental hospitals, and nursing homes. But the poor can be very close. They can be in our own families, churches or workplaces. Even closer, the poor can be ourselves, who feel unloved, rejected, ignored, or abused.

It is precisely when we see and experience poverty – whether far away, close by, or in our own hearts – that we need to become the Church; that is, hold hands as brothers and sisters, confess our own brokenness and need, forgive one another, heal one another’s wounds, and gather around the table of Jesus for the breaking of the bread. Thus, as the poor we recognise Jesus, who became poor for us” (Henri Nouwen).

I can only think to add one thing– be kind to everyone you meet, for every single person is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Every single person has one past event, one scar, one wound, one story that if you knew it, would completely and radically change the way you looked at them.

Be kind to everyone, even those who think and vote differently than you. Every single person has reasons for what they do and why they do it.  Just because someone has a different viewpoint than you doesn’t make them automatically wrong or evil. In fact, it’s good to take in different perspectives, so as to help you avoid myopic narrow-mindedness and pharisaical judgmentalism.

Be kind, but not a doormat. Be kind, but be assertive. Be kind, but don’t ever sell out your convictions or beliefs. Be kind, but be wise and discerning.

Above all, be kind because you might be the one who need it the most.

 

 

 

Believing is Seeing

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“When John Kavanaugh, the noted and famous ethicist, went to Calcutta, he was seeking Mother Teresa … and more. He went for three months to work at ‘the house of the dying’ to find out how best he could spend the rest of his life.

When he met Mother Teresa, he asked her to pray for him. ‘What do you want me to pray for?’ she replied. He then uttered the request he had carried thousands of miles: ‘Clarity. Pray that I have clarity.’

‘No,’ Mother Teresa answered, ‘I will not do that.’ When he asked her why, she said, ‘Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.’ When Kavanaugh said that she always seemed to have clarity, the very kind of clarity he was looking for, Mother Teresa laughed and said: ‘I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.'”

“Faith is the assurance of things you have hoped for, the absolute conviction that there are realities you’ve never seen” (Hebrews 11:1, The Voice).

“Seeing isn’t believing; believing is seeing” (The Santa Clause).

What we need isn’t clarity as much as faith. What I need isn’t to know how everything will play out in my life for the next five years, but to have faith for the moment that God is still working everything for my good.

Trust more, worry less. That’s a good mantra to practice in the middle of the week when Friday seems impossibly far away and Monday still seems right behind you in the rear view mirror.

Trust more, worry less. That’s something good to repeat to yourself when you’re less than confident in your own abilities and decisions.

Trust more, worry less. That’s the best stress relief/relaxation/detox/calming way to live that I know of.

Trust more, worry less.

Stranger Blog Posts

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Once again, I’m hooked.

I’m feeling nostalgic all over again and wishing it was really 1984, so I could head over to an arcade for an afternoon or maybe hit up the mall for some good tunes at an actual music store.

Season 2 has definitely got me anxious. I’m trying to figure out the good guys from the bad guys (with the bad guys tending to be authoritarian in nature for the most part). I’m also trying (and failing) to figure out how the storyline will play out.

I love wi-fi and smart phones and hi-def, but part of me would gladly give all that up to be 12-years old again with those days where I didn’t have adult responsibilities and my future had endless possibilities.

I sometimes think it’d be the coolest thing ever to have a time machine or some other means to travel back in time, if only for a day or so. I could visit with relatives who have passed away or go to my childhood home and wander around. Maybe just sit and soak it all in.

The reality is that for better or for worse, I’m stuck in 2017. Even if I could lay my hands on one of those Deloreans, I can’t go back.

But you know what? Here’s good. The present is a gift because I’m alive to open all its endless possibilities. I may have a job and bills and boring adult stuff, but that means that I survived and that I’m still here, a privilege not everyone gets.

So I’m thankful for this day, October 30, 2017. And I have three more episodes of Stranger Things Season Two to get my nostalgic kicks in and live vicariously back in 1984 again.

On a side note, I’d have a really hard time giving up Netflix to go back in time.

 

The Whole Gospel for the Whole Person

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This Sunday, my pastor Aaron Bryant touched briefly on the recent White Lives Matter rally in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro. Basically what he said was that any group that puts itself up as superior to others and treats anyone different as inferior is missing the heart of the Gospel and categorically rejecting those whom Jesus lived and died for.

I say that whenever you decide who is eligible or not eligible to receive the Gospel message of salvation in Jesus, you have in essence rejected the message of the Gospel. When you choose to define the people or people groups for whom Jesus died, then you reject what He did.

Starting in Genesis, the Bible teaches that all human beings are created in the image of God and bear the Imago Dei, the image of God. The Bible says that God so loved the world– every human being– so much that He sent His only Son.

That means that every single person is someone created in the image of God for whom Jesus died. Every single person has worth. Who are you and I to dismiss or degrade someone for whom Jesus bled and died for?

That goes for people you disagree with politically. That goes for Presidents you don’t like. That goes for both liberals and conservatives (and us independents, too). That goes for people who hold racist, sexist, and other despicable views, bearing in mind that the Gospel message is that even the worst of humanity can be redeemed and transformed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just ask the Apostle Paul.

Never think for a minute that I condone their beliefs or their actions. I’m saying that I believe that when you exempt anyone from the grace of God, you nullify the grace of God itself.

In the Kingdom of God, there’s room for everyone. Every single race, ethnicity, tribe, and language will be present in Heaven, all united in adoration and fixed on the beautiful face of Jesus.

 

 

 

A Brisk Evening

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“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!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
    He’s all I’ve got left” (Lamentations 3:22-24, The Message).

I trekked once more over to downtown Franklin for Pumpkinfest 2017. I had the incredibly bright idea to park at the Factory and walk the rest of the way.

It was cold.

Halfway there, I began rethinking the brilliance of said idea. But I also had the thought of how much I’d like to be at a bonfire right about now.

I still think that fall is my favorite season, especially when the temperatures dip into the 40’s and I finally get to pull all that flannel out of the closet and start wearing it.

I’m thinking right now that for me, the best day ever is still today, because that’s the day full of new mercies and fresh grace. That’s the day where you find God speaking to you. Not in yesterday or tomorrow, but today.

I didn’t quite calculate my arrival at Pumpkinfest just right. When I arrived, most of the booths were tearing down and there were few people still around. I still managed to have a spectacular Greek salad from Taziki’s and some stellar hot chocolate from Frothy Monkey. And I got my 10,000 steps in.

Speaking of flannel, I have my flannel shirt hanging on my closet door, ready for me to put on in the morning when my brain is in pre-coffee mode and needs all the help it can get. It’s really sad.

Still, tomorrow will have those new mercies and fresh grace that I’m so fond of. I can’t wait to see how God will show up at The Church at Avenue South (and later on in my Life Group).

A good time will be had be all.

A Little Pencil

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“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world” (Mother Teresa).

In case you forgot, you’re still the only Bible some will ever read. That’s not to put the almighty guilt trip on you, but to encourage you to live well.

No one gets it right all the time. No one’s perfect (or even close to it).

But while you may not do great things with your life, you can always do those little things with great love, to borrow another one of Mother Teresa’s saying.

You never know who’s watching and deciding on what they believe about God by how you speak and how you behave.

What they need to see isn’t another list of rules and don’ts, but a life lived passionately because of the Passion of Christ dying for you.

Remember, it’s not you doing the writing. God’s the one writing the love letter and you are His instrument, the parchment, and the ink. Your life is a part of the Grand Story He’s telling.

Make it a good one.