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Another Good Borrowed Prayer

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“Lord, when I don’t like me,
You still love me, You still like me, You still lavish me with acceptance.
When I am fed up with me, You invite me to Your feast,
When I am done — with me, with life, with everything,
You whisper, ‘Hang on — I am making *all things* — *you* — new.’ (Rev21:5)
And when I want to quit, You cup my face: ‘This great work I started in you? I won’t stop that beautiful work until you are fully, completely, gloriously beautiful’ (Phil1:6, 1 Cor2:7)
So this becomes our brave & broken-hearted hallelujah, the one we sing into the dark, even when it’s hard to believe:
I am His Beloved, His Beloved, His Beloved… and even now I will be held.

In the name of the only One who loved us to death & back to the real & forever life… Amen.” (Ann Voskamp).

This is a good prayer for the week that never seems to want to end. This is a doxology for the difficult days that seem to come in bunches and never in just one.

I still remember the line from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that I quote to myself periodically: “Everything will be fine in the end, and if it’s not fine, it’s not yet the end.”

I remind myself that even the worst of days where nothing goes right still only lasts for 24 hours. It may feel longer, but the tell-tale ticking of the second hand on the clock tells a much different story.

I suppose this is another variation on my infamous “Don’t give up because God’s not done with you yet” rah-rah cheery blog posts. I don’t care. I’ll keep thinking of different ways to keep preaching the gospel to myself (and hopefully you as well) until it finally begins to sink in. And I think it’s working at last.

 

More Thanksgiving and Thanks-living

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“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself” (Tecumseh).

Even on Mondays in October, there is always something to be thankful for. If I’m going to be a one-hit wonder, then my song will always be one of gratitude. I hope you never get tired of hearing just as I never get tired of telling how much joy there is in giving thanks.

Rejoice always. That’s God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. That means that gratitude isn’t just a preferred way of living. It’s prescribed.

Gratitude is the polar opposite of cynicism and sarcasm, two twin fuels that seemingly power social media these days.

I decided a long time ago that seeing the glass as half full was a much better way to live, a much saner way to survive the hard days and the dry days and the long days.

If I come across like a trumpet braying out a one-note symphony, it’s because I’ve seen the power of gratitude to transform not my circumstances but me in the midst of my circumstances.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings” (William Arthur Ward).

“Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse” (Henry Van Dyke).

Give thanks. Try it. Just pick one thing, no matter how small or insignificant from your day, and be thankful to God for it.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend” (Melody Beattie).

Perspective

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“How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates. I can only do so with thanksgiving. If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can’t I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, I can enter the gates to glory. Living in His presence is fullness of joy- and seeing shows the way in” (Ann Voskamp).

That’s it.

It’s all about perspective.

It’s all about giving thanks and being grateful.

It’s all about living in the present, thankful for what you have instead of envious and bitter over what you don’t.

God is always present to those who know where (and how ) to look. Those with open hands of both receiving and releasing of surrender, not with clenched fists that grasp and clutch.

Gratitude is a choice that I must make every single day. Every day I get, I must choose to pursue joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control. For me, it’s not a “have to” as much as it is a “get to.”

Not that I always do. Some days, I let fear win. I let anxiety and envy win. It’s easy to do when you listen to all the other voices around you instead of the Still Small voice inside you. The voice of your Abba that sees past your scars and still calls you Beloved.

But each new day is a chance to choose again and make a new beginning.

So, make Monday count. Buck the trend that says that Mondays have to be horrible and bad because they’re Mondays. Even Mondays can be good if you choose gratitude and thanksgiving.

That’s what I’m choosing tomorrow. That’s what I hope I’ll choose every day after that.

 

 

Autumn Has Arrived

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Autumn is here.

I realize that Fall officially started a week ago, but the last two days have really felt like true Autumn. The cooler temperatures with the crisp breezes and just the faintest hint of the coming winter.

I have yet to partake of the pumpkin spice, but that will soon be remedied. I look forward to flannel, bonfires, s’mores, and a riot of colors on all the trees. I most look forward to not sweating profusely when I go walking on my lunch break.

For me, Fall is the season where I get nostalgic the most, where memories of my childhood come rushing back. I don’t really know why that is, but I like it.

I hope it lasts. I hope I get multiple chances to drive home with the windows down and good music playing. I hope to have many frothy beverages.

Most of all, I hope that all of us can learn to savor and not simply survive the days we are given. Learn to enjoy the small pleasures and the simple gifts.

Happy Fall, everyone!

 

One in a Million

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I’m in this apologetics class at my church and today we talked about a lot of things that made my brain hurt. Let’s just say that I think that whoever decided to put the alphabet in math was evil.

Still, it’s good to be challenged and stretched outside of your normal comfort zone. It’s important to know how to defend what you believe and why you believe it.

One of the factoids that grabbed my attention was how the odds of sustainable life in the universe were so infinitesimally small that it’s a miracle in and of itself that any of us are here. Really.

The odds of everything on this planet being just right and the earth being in just the right place to bring about life are 1 in a number with a lot of zeros. Like as in more than Donald Trump’s net worth. More than the cost of an apartment in downtown Nashville.

I remember the saying that if you have a hard time believing in miracles, remember that you are one.

God didn’t bring you about in the face of those odds for nothing. You have a purpose. You matter.

Each day you wake up is a gift. Every breath you take is grace. Every moment you witness is a Eucharisteo (a word I’m borrowing from Ann Voskamp that essentially means thanks-living).

How will you pay it forward? How will you live out your thanks to Almighty God? If life is a grand play and you get to contribute a verse, what will that verse be?

I know that life is too short to spend it nursing grudges and harboring bitterness. There’s too much beauty in the world to waste time in anger and impatience and greed.

So choose joy. Choose forgiveness. Choose freedom. Choose life.

 

Don’t Ever Give Up 

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“Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith” (Galatians 6:7-10, The Message).

You can’t microwave maturity. If you want spiritual growth and lasting change, you can’t expect it to happen overnight. As Kairos pastor Chris Brooks put it, most of us want righteousness in the amount of time it takes to cook a Hot Pocket. It doesn’t work that way.

The key is persistence. It’s about not giving up. It’s about showing up day after day with a surrendered heart, a positive mental outlook, and faith. Not necessarily big faith in God but faith in a big God who sees the bigger picture. Who sees the whole picture.

That’s a good reminder for me. No matter how bad things get during the hard days, the outcome is already assured. It’s your best possible future because God is already there.

Don’t give up.

 

 

Be Nice

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I think I can safely go on record and declare that I am an Independent. I don’t drink the kool aid of either political party. I refuse to be blinded by ideology to the point where I can no longer see any flaws in the person who represents the “right” side.

That said, I have some advice, particularly for those of faith who are wading into political waters. Two words: be nice.

You can disagree with someone and still be friends. You can hold opposing viewpoints and still be civil. You can admit that maybe the other side isn’t evil and may have some valid arguments. You can hold your convictions with humility and reverence and remember that there’s always more than one perspective.

You gain nothing if you descend into throwing insults and defaming the character of the opposition’s candidate. That does nothing to address the issues and ailments of our society or to give aid to those in need.

Jesus said to love your enemies. He said to pray for them. He didn’t qualify that statement. He didn’t say “Treat them right only if they treat you right.” He didn’t say, “Pray for you enemies unless they insult you.”

Hopefully, you can support your candidate without making those who don’t your enemies. Still, you will have those who will vilify you anyway. You can still choose love.

At the end of the day, you don’t fight hate with more hate. You fight hate with love. Your weapon is the kind of love that led Jesus to the cross to die for sinners and enemies. It was a love that said, “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Don’t compromise your convictions. Take a stand for your beliefs. Just don’t be a jerk about it. Do whatever you do out of love.

Do You Believe?

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“Do you believe that the God of Jesus loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness, beyond fidelity and infidelity—that he loves you in the morning sun and in the evening rain—that he loves you when your intellect denies it, your emotions refuse it, your whole being rejects it. Do you believe that God loves without condition or reservation and loves you this moment as you are and not as you should be” (Brennan Manning, All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir).

That’s the key. Do you believe that God really loves you?

I think most of the time a lot of us believe it in the same way we believe that Galileo existed or that Einstein discovered the theory of relativity– we assent to it as an intellectual fact.

Then we live and serve out of our own reservoir and wonder why we seem to burn out so easily and why we’re always so tired.

When we can accept with our entire being that God loves us and receive that love, then we realize that trying to contain the love of God is like trying to contain all the oceans in a thimble (thanks to Uncle Mikey for that one). It ends up sloshing over the sides and spilling out onto everything around it.

When we begin to grasp and understand and receive the love of God, we live and serve out of the constant overflow that never ceases. Not to say that we don’t go through seasons of hardship and suffering or that we don’t experience seasons of spiritual dryness where God and His love are harder to find.

Still, the normal experience for the believer who understands (as much as is possible for anyone to understand) the comprehensive love of God for each of us is the abundant life of joy and peace that comes out of the overflow of that life.

May we all come one step closer to that kind of life today.

 

Politics, Shmolitics

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It’s not even November and I’m already tired of the Presidential election and politics in general. What I’ve seen so far this time around has left me more deeply committed than ever to being an Independent.

I see too many people who have drunk the kool aid of either the Republican or Democratic party. They demonize their opponents and dismiss anyone who wants to vote for the opposition to the point of being almost cartoonish.

I’ve seen both sides who have blinders on when it comes to any faults in their own candidate, yet at the same time are unwilling to give any credit to the opposing candidate.

Abba’s children are called to a higher standard. We know that we as a nation are electing a President and not a Savior. That position has already been filled.

We know that the problems we face are not political but spiritual in nature. These problems won’t go away, regardless of who wins the election.

I for one am thankful that not everyone is like me and that everyone else doesn’t think like I do. I know that getting outside of yourself and learning about different perspectives is a good and healthy thing.

My hope still lies not in a flag and a country but in a King and a Kingdom. I remember that in four years when we go through the whole election process to choose another President that Jesus will still be Lord and King.

Here endeth the soapbox blog post.

 

The Prince of Peace

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“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

It seems like every time I turn around, there’s more hatred and violence. There’s more racism and division. I know ultimately that it’s not a hate issue or a race issue. It’s a sin issue.

It’s the sin that indwells the hearts of every man, woman, and child. It’s the same sin that indwells my own heart, the sin that causes me to not do what I want and to do what I don’t want to do.

That same sin issue won’t go away by electing the “right” President. It won’t go away by passing the “right” laws or by deporting the “wrong” people.

The answer to all the hate, violence, racism, and division lies within the Prince of Peace, who chose to keep silent in the midst of His own injustice and suffering.

He chose the wrongful death so  that we could live. He chose to bear the weight of my sin and shame so that I wouldn’t have to be a slave to it any longer.

That’s what brings me comfort on nights like these when the world outside seems to have lost its collective mind. There are a lot of talking heads out there offering a lot of different ideas about what can solve the mess we’re in, but only one real solution: Jesus.

The sobering thought is that I am just as sinful and in need of grace as those who shout racist epithets and those who riot and loot. In the deepest part of my heart, I see that same darkness. I see glimpses of what I am capable of apart from the incessant grace of God.

So I’m praying for peace to the Prince of Peace and resting in the promise that the victory over evil has already been won and that one day everything wrong will be made right.