brennan manning

Every Little Thing Matters

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“Lord, when I feel that what I’m doing is insignificant and unimportant, help me to remember that everything I do is significant and important in your eyes, because you love me and you put me here, and no one else can do what I am doing in exactly the way I do it” (Brennan Manning, Souvenirs of Solitude: Finding Rest in Abba’s Embrace).

That’s it.

As Mother Teresa once said, there are no great acts, but rather only small acts done with great love.

To put it another way, when done out of the right spirit, out of a genuine and abiding love for Jesus, everything you do and say can become an act of worship. Even cleaning toilets or scrubbing floors. All those menial tasks that don’t have much inherent value can be living prayers if they’re done as an offering to Jesus.

That makes all the difference in drudgery and delight, between surviving and thriving.

Maybe you’re not exactly in the high-profile career you thought you’d be in by now. Maybe you’re not pulling down the big bucks.

Then again maybe your job is to make a difference in the lives of those people in your office. Maybe your best gift is to be quite possibly the only positive light to someone who otherwise only exists in darkness.

Maybe you don’t have to go to seminary and get ordained to have a ministry. Maybe your ministry is you showing up every single day and giving your absolute very best for eight hours.

Maybe if you’re faithful in the little things over time, God will entrust you with bigger things down the road.

Or maybe you’ll get to the end of your life and realize that all those little things done with great love really were the big things after all.

 

Jesus Loves the Little Children

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The Gospel of Mark tells a very interesting story of Jesus and children.

By the way, when John-Mark brings up children, what he has in mind isn’t our highly idealized view of children as cherubic and precious, but the ancient culture’s view of children as those who couldn’t yet contribute, so therefore weren’t worth very much.

In other words, when Jesus welcomed those children, He welcomed the disenfranchised and marginalized. He welcomed those who were outcasts and nobodies to most people’s eyes.

Jesus often sought out those overlooked by everyone else. He sought out those on the fringes of society, those who often got overlooked and ignored.

That’s good news for those who have never felt like we belonged anywhere, to those who always feel on the outside looking in.

Jesus is for you. No matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been or who you’ve been with, Jesus is still for you. He wants to be with you, to be your peace and your strength.

That leads to the next question: who are you speaking for in your life who has no voice? Who are you standing up for who can’t stand up for themselves? Who are you using your gifts and talents to be Jesus to marginalized and ostracized people the way Jesus was to you?

These are some questions that Chris Brooks brought up at Kairos. The main question of the night was this: is your faith childlike or childish? That’s a question that will probably hit close to home for a lot of us (including me).

The childlike faith is one that still has doubts but know where to take them. It doesn’t necessarily claim to have all the answers but knows Who does. It may not always get what it wants but is never deterred in its trust in the God who ultimately always comes through with all His promises to us.

That’s the kind of faith I want.

A Deeper Dependence

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“Explore me, O God, and know the real me. Dig deeply and discover who I am.Put me to the test and watch how I handle the strain. Examine me to see if there is an evil bone in me, and guide me down Your path forever” (Psalm 139:23-24, VOICE)

Some days are easy. I feel like I’m at the top of my game (whatever game that is) and everything I do comes easy. All my traffic lights are green and seemingly everything I touch turns golden.

Somedays just aren’t. Some days it feels like a struggle to do the easy stuff. There are days when I’m doing well to remember my own name, much less anybody else’s.

Every day, every path, every choice leads me closer to or further away from who I really want to be.

I’ve come to the decision over time that there’s not a day that goes by where I’m not completely dependent on my God. Good days, bad days, easy days, difficult days, all days are days where I won’t survive unless I lean on the Lord.

I think that’s success– a place where I am completely and utterly dependent on Jesus, trusting Him completely for every single need. That’s the place where I find the truest peace and the richest mercies.

That’s where I want to be.

But then that desire to be my own man rears its proverbial ugly head. The cultural idea of the self-made man who pulls himself up by his own bootstraps is a hard notion to kill.

Yet kill it I must if I want to be in a place where Jesus is all my heart’s desire, where I am satisfied with nothing more and nothing less than as much of God as I can handle (and then some).

I still wish Mondays didn’t have to start so early.

 

Downton Abbey 2: Saying Goodbye

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It feels weird. I had known it was coming for weeks, yet I still wasn’t prepared for it. Seeing the final scene of Highclere Castle fading into black made it real– Downton Abbey is over.

By the way, there will be spoilers ahead, so stop here if you haven’t made it to the last episode. You won’t hurt my feelings in the least.

I loved seeing all the intricate stories woven together and how these very well-written characters learned to deal with all sorts of tragedies and triumphs, setbacks and celebrations, sorrows and joys.

I loved how the character of Tom Branson blossomed from a mere chauffeur who felt like a supporting character in the background into a fully-developed major player who always fought for the underdog and came to be one of my favorites, if not my very favorite.

Even that dastardly Thomas Barrow came to have some redeeming qualities after all. We left him with his New Year’s resolutions to become a better and nicer person in the future. I like to believe he made good on those promises.

Thankfully, no one died in the finale. Lady Edith finally got her moment of happiness and found true love. Lady Mary will be having another baby at some point and life will continue to go on at Downton Abbey, just not on NPT on Sundays at 8pm CST.

I love how the themes of family and truth remained the focus of the series. Lady Edith chose to be truthful about Marigold at the potential cost of her happiness. I love even more how her decision paid off in dividends for both her and the Crawley family.

It will be surreal seeing the actors in other roles. After six years and so many episodes, I will always associate them with their Downton Abbey characters.

Thank you, Julian Fellowes, for creating such a beautiful glimpse into a bygone world filled with such fascinating and many-faceted characters. I hope to see more of your characters at some point in the future.

 

Rinse and Repeat

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“Make the things I’m commanding you today part of who you are. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re sitting together in your home and when you’re walking together down the road. Make them the last thing you talk about before you go to bed and the first thing you talk about the next morning” (Deuteronomy 6: 6-7, VOICE).

I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s not always easy to come up with something creative and original when you write these blogs on a daily basis. And yes, I do write all of these myself. I’m the only writer for the Ragamuffin Gospel Fan blogs.

I find lately that I do tend to repeat myself quite a bit. Sometimes, it’s intentional. Sometimes, it’s just me being forgetful that I’ve already written on a particular topic.

I believe that a lot of faith is returning again and again to the basics until they change who you are fundamentally. It’s going back to the Gospel for the rest of your life, because that’s where your hope lies.

So, it’s 10:05 pm on a Saturday and I am at home and not out painting the town red or hitting up the clubs. I’m writing this on the fly, per usual. What you see is generally what I write on the first-take, with very little revisions or editing. That’s just the way I write these days.

I’ve heard that taking up photography changes the way you see things. You begin to look at people and scenes as if you’re composing a shot or looking through a lens.

I also think that writing changes the way you look at life. You start hearing conversations differently. Phrases will jump out at you. Lines from movies or TV shows will capture your attention. You see your world differently.

So what’s the theme of this blog? I guess if there is one, it’s this: the best kind of faith isn’t one where you know a little in a lot of areas about God and Jesus and the Church and other such matters. It’s where you keep going back to the well of the basics over and over until you’re absolutely sated with it and you know the Gospel backward and forward.

That’s it.

 

Rare and Priceless

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I admit it. I geeked out quite a bit when I read about the recent rare baseball card find.

In case you missed it, a family going through their great-grandfather’s belongings in his run-down house found a wadded-up brown paper bag that looked like trash.

Inside, among other things, they found seven identical Ty Cobb baseball cards, dating from 1909-1911.

Why is this a big deal? Before this find, there were believed to be 15 of these cards in existence. That’s it.

Because of the extreme rarity of these cards, their worth is probably estimated to be anywhere to the high 7-figures to north of $1 million.

If only I could be so lucky.

But think of this. As rare as those baseball cards are, you are rarer still. So am I.

Don’t you realize that there is (and will always be) just one of you. There has never been– and will never be again– another you.

You are a one-of-a-kind work of God, not mass-produced or rolled out on an assembly line but crafted in love, soul-signed, and unique.

You are not only priceless, but twice priceless. God not only made you but also took on human flesh in Jesus and died for you. He paid the ultimate price that forever defines your worth.

Perhaps you’re feeling beat down by another week of work or by family and friends who don’t recognize your true worth. Maybe your soul feels battered by bad choices and unfortunate circumstances.

That doesn’t change your worth. That doesn’t change how God sees you. You are priceless and beloved for as long as God remains faithful and true. And that’s forever.

In case you want to read more about the baseball cards, here’s a link to an article with more information. If it were me, I’d sell six and keep one. But that’s just me. You decide for yourself.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/03/469035302/a-collectors-dream-7-rare-ty-cobb-baseball-cards-discovered

Mission Accomplished

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It may not sound overly exciting, but I got a few things done tonight. I paid a couple of bills and finally got around to my 2015 Federal Tax Returns. For some reason, I put my taxes off, and when I do get around to them, they really aren’t so bad.

Here’s my take on the day.

The morning and evening commute? Not my favorite.

Having a job to commute to and from? Totally worth it.

Having to pay bills? Not so much fun.

Not having to write checks and lick stamps and remember to put them in the mailbox in the morning? Win.

Having the money to pay the bills and not having to worry about it? Priceless.

Having my taxes done and over with until 2017? If I weren’t so tired, I might break into a happy dance. Maybe I’ll settle for a happy nap instead.

Perspective is my new mantra. It’s all about perspective.

I could complain about how sore my feet are from the journey or I can choose to sing along the way. I choose singing over complaining. It’s better for you.

Choosing to see the blessings instead of the burden isn’t always easy, but it is most definitely alway worth it. If you look for God’s gifts in the every day minutiae, you end up seeing God there. You see God’s hand everywhere you turn.

If you look for joy, you find it. If you look for bitterness, you find that, too. You really do find what you’re looking for in the long run.

All that to say that the most important part of this Thursday is that I’m still here, therefore God must have a reason for me being here. I will celebrate another day of life successfully lived.

I say that qualifies as mission accomplished, don’t you?

 

Judges: A Book Review

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So here I am, reading through the Bible again. I just finished the book of Judges. In my opinion, that has to be the most depressing book in the Bible.

In the first few verses of the book, it tells us that after the generation that claimed the Promised Land died out, the very next generation that came after didn’t know the Lord or what He had done for His people.

That didn’t take long.

There is a familiar pattern in judges, repeated ad nauseum. The people run after the next available god, fall into sin, get into trouble, and call on God. God sends a deliverer who bails them out and there is peace in the land — until another cheap idol shows up.

I read the Bible and I see the people of God by and large acting like anything but the people of God. It can be very frustrating.

Then I remember that I am one of those people of God. I find myself falling into familiar patterns of sin over and over, despite the guilt that remains from the last time. I find myself renewing the old promise of “never again,” which lasts until the next opportunity presents itself.

So I can relate.

I’m not excusing my (or anyone else’s sin). I’m just saying that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. It doesn’t have to be the familiar refrain.

I’m thankful for a grace that goes deeper and longer than any sin. I’m also thankful for a God who refuses to let me wallow in my self-destructive sin, but will provide me a way out. He won’t rest or quit with me until I am 100% sin-free.

I know that my story is your story. It’s the story of every child of God. But I also know that story doesn’t end with sin. It ends with grace.

 

 

Kairos 2.0

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I think I’ll like the new Kairos. I liked the old one with Mike Glenn and I’m 99.9% certain that I’ll like the new version with Chris Brooks.

There’s still some fantastic worship music from a band that lots of people would pay good money to see if they decided to go on tour. There’s some spot-on expository teaching that always hits home and is both comforting and convicting.

Tonight was no exception.

The text was Mark 7 where Jesus healed the man born deaf and dumb. Chris made the point that a lot of us trouble speaking the Gospel because we’ve gotten to where we can’t really hear Jesus speaking to us.

We have a spiritual speech impediment because we’re deaf to what God has to say to us. What people hear from us about Jesus says more about us and where we are than it does about who Jesus actually is.

My prayer for both you and me is that Jesus can again open our ears to hear Him speaking. I suspect that if we ever get to the place where we truly hear God speaking to us, our message might be very different than the morality sin management message that gets passed around a lot these days.

What turns people off isn’t necessarily the message, but the disconnect they see between what we speak and how we live. When our eyes and ears finally are open to what Jesus wants to say to us, then our lifestyle will line up with our lips and we will not only talk the Gospel but walk it as well.

 

Letting Go of Our Fear of God

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“We are afraid of emptiness. Spinoza speaks about our ‘horror vacui,’ our horrendous fear of vacancy. We like to occupy-fill up-every empty time and space. We want to be occupied. And if we are not occupied we easily become preoccupied; that is, we fill the empty spaces before we have even reached them. We fill them with our worries, saying, ‘But what if …’

It is very hard to allow emptiness to exist in our lives. Emptiness requires a willingness not to be in control, a willingness to let something new and unexpected happen. It requires trust, surrender, and openness to guidance. God wants to dwell in our emptiness. But as long as we are afraid of God and God’s actions in our lives, it is unlikely that we will offer our emptiness to God. Let’s pray that we can let go of our fear of God and embrace God as the source of all love” (Henri Nouwen).

It’s one thing to be in awe of God and quite another to be afraid of Him and what He wants to do in your life. It’s one thing to be lazy and quite another to have margins in your schedule where you can be silent and still for long enough to see and hear God.

I am witness to so many who are so afraid of emptiness and silence that they run themselves ragged trying to fill every moment and every void with activity and noise. We need some silence for our mental well-being. We need down time and rest for our own sanity.

Many of the men and women of faith that we look up to prized that silence and stillness to the degree that they made it a priority in their lives and put aside noble and worthy activities to sit at the feet of Jesus.

My hope and prayer through the remainder this season of Lent is that I will learn to fill up the void of social media with a holy emptiness where God has room to come in and fill all the spaces and speak in all the silences.