lost

A Good Advent Prayer

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“Dear God,
Speak gently in my silence.
When the loud outer noises of my surroundings
and the loud inner noises of my fears
keep pulling me away from you,
help me to trust that you are still there
even when I am unable to hear you.
Give me ears to listen to your small, soft voice saying:
“Come to me, you who are overburdened,
and I will give you rest…
for I am gentle and humble of heart.”
Let that loving voice be my guide.
Amen.” (Henri Nouwen)

Those loud outer noises really crank up around this time. Buy this, buy that. max out your credit card to show your family and friend how much you love them. The more you spend, the better the gift.

The loud inner noises have a way of showing up at this time as well. You’ve got to make this season perfect or you’re not really celebrating the season right. You’re probably already screwing it up and it’s not even Christmas yet.

But that still, soft voice still speaks. If you lean close to the manger, you can hear the voice that arrived in the form of an infant saying, “For you, I came. For those just like you, I gave up a throne for a manger, a crown for a cross, royalty for servanthood. I did it all for you.”

Jesus didn’t come to affirm those who are well. He came for the sick to make them well. He came to seek and to save the lost, leaving the 99 to find the one. That’s you. That’s me.

That’s the same voice that says, “Come to me, all who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest.”

That’s the voice that says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

That’s the voice of Him who will come again in triumph over all those loud voices that try to lead you astray. One day, those voices will all be silenced forever, but the still, small voice will be the voice that says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17-18, ESV).

Showing the Way Out

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When your brain is french toast, sometimes it’s good to let someone else take over. In this case, it’s Uncle Mikey, a reference that us old Kairos faithful will understand while the rest of the world calls him Dr. Mike Glenn:

“I’ve long joked that sympathy is overrated. When things are going bad for me, I really don’t want someone to tell me they know how I feel. I want someone to come and say, “Yes, I know how you feel and I know the way out.”

I think we forget how completely sin messes up our lives. Sin not only messes up our lives, it messes up the way our minds and bodies work. Ever talked to people trying to justify their addiction? In their minds, they’re making complete sense. That’s what happens. Sin destroys relationships, bodies, minds, and souls.

That’s why telling someone what they’re doing is wrong without offering to help them get out of it is, well, pretty much a waste of time. You may feel better, but the person you’re talking to won’t. What’s more, they’ll probably just get mad and walk away, more committed to their destructive choices.

Jesus shows us another way. First, Jesus never confronted anybody without giving that person a way out. The religious leaders of the day, Jesus pointed out, were quick to make a lot of rules but never helped anyone keep them. Jesus would always point the person to the way out of bondage.

Second, Jesus walked with sinners as they found their way. The scandal of the incarnation is that God loves us so much that He came into our world. He walked into our lives and told us if we’d follow Him, He’d show us the way home.

Whenever I talk about abortion, I always mention our partnership with Hope Clinic, a crisis pregnancy center in Nashville. I always want people to know there are people eager and ready to help, no matter what situation they’re facing.

Since the beginning of time, God has been on a Divine rescue mission. We, the local church, are extensions of that work. Finding the lost is great, but telling them the way home—and then walking it with them—is even better” (Dr. Mike Glenn).

A Good Prayer from Spurgeon

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“We long for a humble and sincere faith in our divine Lord. Lord, if it is necessary to break our hearts in order that we may have it, then let them be broken.If we have to unlearn a thousand things to learn the sweet secret of faith in him, let us become fools that we may be wise, only bring us surely and really to stand upon the Rock of Ages—so to stand there as never to fall, but to be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.
As Christians, we should be humble. Lord take away our proud look; take away the spirit of ‘stand by, for I am holier than thou;‘ make us condescend to people of low morals. May we seek them out and seek their good. Give to the church of Christ an intense love for the souls of men. May it make our hearts break to think that they will perish in their sin. May we grieve every day because of the sin of this city. Set a mark upon our forehead and let us be known to you as people who sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the city.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

I had a couple of takeaways from reading this prayer earlier today. First, man this Charles Spurgeon could pray! Second, I wonder when was the last time my heart broke over someone who is lost without Jesus in this world. I wonder when was the last time I was grieved over the sinfulness of my city.

It’s easy sometimes to get into my holy huddle and stay in my sanctified circle and never see how lost the people around me really are. I can pray for them. That’s the best course of action. But then I could also pray for God to open up opportunities for gospel conversations in my daily life.

The world would be more open to the Church if they knew how the Church loved and wept for them. If they saw the Church crying out to God on their behalf instead of pointing fingers in their faces, might they not be more receptive to the gospel we preach?

Again, I go back to something my pastor said. The world hates the Church not because we’re too different from them but because we’re not different enough. There’s often no discernible difference in the lives people who profess Christ and those who don’t. When our words don’t match our walk, they don’t listen to what we say. They listen to what we do.

God, help our hearts to be broken over our lost city. Help us to weep for those around us who are dying without Christ. May we not just be people who talk about loving our neighbors but be people who actually love them in a real and tangible way. Amen.

Praying for the Lost

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“Oh, our glorious Lord, you have taught us to pray for others, for the grace which could have met with such undeserving sinners as we are must be able to meet with the vilest of the vile. Our Father in heaven, we offer prayer for those who never think of you; who, though created by you, are strangers to you; who are fed by your bounty, and yet never lift their voices to you, but live for self, for the world, for Satan, for sin. Father, these cannot pray for themselves for they are dead; your quickened children pray for them. These will not come to you, for, like sheep, they are lost; but seek them, Father, and bring them back.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

Sometimes, I think we get so caught up bashing our enemies that we forget that we’re commanded to pray for them. Note that Jesus did not make a suggestion or a friendly reminder, but instead gave us a command. We don”t get to choose whether we want to obey or not.

But when we see lost people acting lost, why are we surprised? Maybe we should be more amazed that we’re not lost because when we were dead in our sins, God made us alive. If not for the grace of God, we’d all be just as lost and hopeless as anyone out there in the world.

So we can pray for those apart from Jesus just as others prayed for us when we were just as far from God and just as dead in sin. We can pray that God will do what no one else but God can do — save people.

It’s good to have a list of people that you’re praying for their salvation. You could pray daily or weekly or however you feel led. Even now, I’m thinking of someone who’s far off from God at the moment and praying he’ll come to a true saving faith in Jesus. Not because I’m extra special super spiritual, but because I know how much I needed Jesus when I was lost (and how much I still need Jesus now).

The Bible teaches us that no one is past saving or beyond the grace of God or ever too lost for God to find. Who knows but that our persistent praying might lead some of them in the the kingdom of God. Wouldn’t it be amazing to run into one of them and say, “You know, I prayed for you to be here, and here you are. Isn’t God good?”

Lost!

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Today, my friend and I hiked through Radnor Lake State Park. I love that place, primarily because I feel like it’s a place where you can still be in Nashville but feel like you’re stepping into another world. To me, it feels a lot like Middle Earth and I always feel like a hobbit out on a quest whenever I go there.

This time, I flashed back to a less pleasant memory. I went back to when I was a Boy Scout at my first Boy Scout Camp in Arkansas. I vividly recall that I went walking by myself and got incredibly turned around and lost.

Yes, I was that Boy Scout who got lost at Boy Scout camp.

I remember being absolutely terrified and panicky. At that moment, I felt sure I wasn’t ever going to find my troop or anyone else I knew ever again. It was not a good moment.

Then there have been times when I got lost in a very good way.

I can remember times when I got so caught up in serving, particularly at Set Free Church, Christian Alliance for Orphans, or Nashville Rescue Mission, that for a precious few moments I forgot about me and all my issues. I got so completely lost in what I was doing that I had no time to overthink and overanalyze what was going on in my life.

C. S. Lewis once said that the perfect worship service would be the one you were completely unaware of. You wouldn’t be able to recall what the songs you sung were or what the sermon was about. You would only know that God had shown up.

May we live our lives in such a way that we lose ourselves and only remember that God showed up. Maybe then one day we will find out much later that those were the times when God did His best work in and through us.

 

An Unexpected Detour

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Im-Lost-Ive-Gone-To-Look-Inspirational-Life-Quotes

I have my homeward trek fairly down pat by now. At least you’d think I had it down after all the times I’ve made the afternoon commute.

Today, for some reason known only to God, I took I-40 East instead of I-40 West. Immediately, I knew I’d messed up.

Still, I looked for anything familiar and found the exit for Stewarts Ferry Pike and the Tennessee School for the Blind, which I pass every morning on my morning commute to work.

It was probably a bit out of the way, but I got back to where I started (almost) and made it home from there. All it took was finding something familiar.

I think all of us get lost on our spiritual journeys. We get to where nothing looks familiar and wonder how we got to the place where we find ourselves. We wonder how to get back to what we know.

I truly believe God will give familiar signposts to those who have lost the way and seek to find their way back. He will send an old friend or a familiar Scripture or a song from the past.

Many times, we find that Jesus will show us that He Himself is the way back. For those who are lost, the best way back is to return to the trust and obedience we knew before we got off-track.

I know that for those who get lost when driving, nothing is more comforting than finding that familiar landmark. Suddenly, you know where you are and you can navigate from there.

I believe that just as much as His lost children long to return to places they know, the Father longs to get them there. The Father longs to see them running down the dirt road into His arms, just as that prodigal son did all those years ago.

If there are people in your life who have lost the way, maybe you’re the signpost that will get them finally headed in the right direction again.

PS I survived day one of my Lent fast from social media. I resisted the urge to check my Facebook page several times throughout the day. So far, so good.

The Long and Winding Road

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“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to” (Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings).

I had another good night in Franklin. I hit all the usual places– McCreary’s Irish Pub, Kilwin’s, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. I had to cut it short when it started to rain.

I also had to improvise a bit for my drive home. Franklin Road going north was blocked off for the Pilgrimage Festival, so I tried a new way. More accurately, I started to try a new way and resorted to GPS when my way led me into unfamiliar territory.

When you’re not sure where you are, i.e. lost, nothing feels better than finding a familiar landmark or street.

When I turned on to Berry’s Chapel Road, I knew I was finally heading in the right direction. It was literally the long and winding road that led me back home.

The faith journey often takes us into unfamiliar territory. Usually, God does that to increase both our awareness of dependence on Him and to grow our faith as we discover new aspects to God’s ability to come through in the clutch.

Sometimes, I’ve been guilty of viewing God as my GPS, a sort of last minute back-up plan in case my own way of getting home fails. Too many of us have prayer and God as a last resort after every other effort has failed.

The lesson from tonight is to start off with prayer. It involves less stress in the end. It also will save you from a lot of heartache and disappointment and distractions that your own “short cuts” inevitably lead to.

One other note: I’d have probably done better if it hadn’t been dark and raining. I probably missed a street or two from not being able to see street signs very well. I think sometimes when you’re tired and frustrated, it’s best not to figure things out because you can’t always see everything properly. And definitely hold off on those emails and posts until you’ve had a good night’s sleep. Just FYI.

 

Sheep

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“Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. ‘What a huge harvest!’ he said to his disciples. ‘How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!'” (Matt. 9:36-38, The Message).

I’ve observed that so many people are like sheep.

They will follow whatever is trendy and fashionable, no matter how ridiculous it seems. Six months later, they will jump on the next fashion bandwagon and laugh at those who are still into the old fads.

They will believe whatever the leaders of their chosen political party tell them without question.

They will never take the time to find out the truth for themselves, choosing to believe whatever the media, i.e. Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN) and those in power tell them.

This doesn’t apply to all of us, right? Surely some of us are learning to think for ourselves and not see everything though either red- or blue-tinted glasses, right?

I’m a sheep. You’re a sheep. We’re all sheep.

Jesus called us sheep. It wasn’t a compliment.

Sheep are smelly and stupid. They are helpless without the shepherd.

It wasn’t an insult either.

Jesus Himself proclaimed that He had come to seek and save the lost sheep. No matter how foolishly His sheep act sometimes, He still loves them enough to have died for them.

Maybe wisdom is admitting that I am anything but wise and trusting Jesus who is perfectly wise.

How much does Jesus love His sheep? His parable about the shepherd who leaves the 99 in search of the one who strayed is really autobiographical.

Jesus would have died for one sheep, if that was all that was lost. Even if it had been you. Even if it had been me.

I’m so very thankful for a Shepherd who never stops looking for me when I wander off, who never stops guiding me back on to the right paths, who never for a second leaves me defenseless, and who will not fail to get me home in the end.

Long Journey Home

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“We cannot find God without God. We cannot reach God without God. We cannot satisfy God without God- which is another way of saying that all our seeking will fall short unless God starts and finishes the search. The decisive part of our seeking is not our human ascent to God, but His descent to us. Without God’s descent there is no human ascent. The secret of the quest lies not in our brilliance but in His grace” (Os Guinness, Long Journey Home).

That’s it.

It’s not that I found Jesus. As one pastor I know always puts it, it’s not Jesus who was lost. I was. Jesus found me.

It may sound like semantics to you, but I think it’s important to know the difference.

Salvation is all God. It’s not like I was smart enough to figure it out or brave enough to seek it out. If God hadn’t sought me out first, I never would have sought Him in the first place.

That’s humbling. I can take no credit whatsoever for my being saved. It is all of grace.

That’s also good news. It means that if it’s not up to human efforts or human goodness, then anyone can find it (or better yet, anyone can be found). There’s no such thing as too lost, too far gone, too out of reach for God.

That helps when you’re praying for a son or a daughter, a brother or sister, a mother or father who seems hopelessly unreachable. It helps when you have a friend who seems bent on self-destructing and won’t let you help.

There are countless stories of those whom the world had basically given up on that God saved. The best example is the Apostle Paul. Maybe the next one will be someone you love. Maybe the next one will be you.

 

The Ultimate Mash-Up TV Show

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15-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-the-show-that-spawned-an-academic-discipline

I was thinking how great it would be if Chris Carter (of X-Files fame), Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly), and J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost) got together to create the ultimate TV show. I’d watch it.

You’d have a teenage girl who finds out she is the  chosen one to fight the evil forces of vampires and other things that go bump in the night. She also happens to be a secret operative for the CIA and has a younger sister who was abducted by aliens and sparked her obsession with all things paranormal. She ends up on a plane that crashes on a mysterious deserted island with its own set of mysteries and paranormal activity. She does all this while maintaining a relationship with her boyfriend who is an RA at the state university.

I personally think we have the next colossal blockbuster series. As long as it’s not on Fox.