Ragamuffin Gospel

Praying for Real

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“To pray, I think, does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things, or to spend time with God instead of spending time with other people. Rather, it means to think and live in the presence of God. As soon as we begin to divide our thoughts about God and thoughts about people and events, we remove God from our daily life and put him into a pious little niche where we can think pious thoughts and experience pious feelings. … Although it is important and even indispensable for the spiritual life to set apart time for God and God alone, prayer can only become unceasing prayer when all our thoughts — beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful or joyful — can be thought in the presence of God. … Thus, converting our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer moves us from a self-centred monologue to a God-centred dialogue (Henri Nouwen).”

I confess. I suck at prayer.

Lately, what starts out as prayer either turns into daydreaming or just plain dreaming.

I have such difficultly keeping my mind focused on prayer when I’m praying. How sad is that?

I also confess. Prayer isn’t about me. It’s not about how well or how poorly I pray.

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit can translate even the deepest of sighs and groans into words that God hears. When I can’t find the words to pray or the voice to speak them, God still hears.

Sometimes, I think when I’m at my most eloquent is when I’m actually doing the least amount of praying. It ends up being me performing for others instead of petitioning my Father in heaven.

The most beautiful prayers in God’s ears are the ones for which there are few words, like the one the tax-collector prayer over and over, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

For that I’m thankful.

Let the Stable Still Astonish: A Repost

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I’ve posted this on numerous social media platforms (and even here at least once), but this one deserves another repost because it so beautifully captures the heart of the Advent and Christmas season.

In all the hustle and bustle and rushing about, it’s good to still our hearts and quiet our souls to reflect on the miracle wrought in a stable so long ago:

“Let the stable still astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain, 
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said: ‘Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place’?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
of our hearts and says, ‘Yes,
let the God of Heaven and Earth
be born here–
in this place'” (Leslie Leyland Fields, Let the Stable Still Astonish).

I’m Still Here

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“You’re not a failure until you stop trying. If you have no other testimony you have this one: ‘I’m still here'” (Joyce Meyer).

Winston Churchill once said that success is never final and failure is never fatal, but it is the courage to continue that counts. Aside from some very impressive alliteration, there’s some good truth here.

So hooray for all of you who made it out of bed this morning when you felt an overwhelming desire to sleep in and give up on the day.

Hooray for all of you who adhere to the old motto that faith is believing when common sense tells you not to, or as the author of Hebrews puts it, it’s the “assurance of things you have hoped for, the absolute conviction that there are realities you’ve never seen (Hebrews 11:1, The Voice).

Hooray for those who doggedly adhere to that faith through trials and doubts and who have never given up on God because they know God has never given up on them.

Hooray for those who still dream after so many previous dreams have been dashed to pieces and who keep longing after their desires have been countlessly delayed and denied.

Hooray for those who persevere in the midst of pain and suffering while wearing a smile through it all.

Hooray for those whose only victory today might be the declaration “I’m still here.”

Not only will your endurance lead to a reward, you are leaving a legacy to those who follow to not give up.

After all, Advent is all about how waiting on God’s best is always always worth it.

 

Loving Your Enemies

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At this time of Advent, maybe it’s time to revisit one of Jesus’ sayings that everyone seems to love in theory but which is a bit more difficult to live out in everyday life.

Love your enemies.

It’s easy to love those who love you and treat you right all the time. Anyone can do that.

Loving those who hurt you is way more difficult. Forgiving and yet at the same time not enabling them is hard.

Coming on the heels of the latest election, this command of Jesus has never sounded more timely.

Love your enemies.

Even the ones who voted for Clinton? Even the ones who voted for Trump? Yes.

There are no exceptions in this command. There are no loop holes.

Love your enemies.

Jesus never gives you an out or an excuse to be disobedient to His commands.

He said, “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.”

Notice that Jesus did not say, “Love those who agree with you, think like you, and vote the way you do, and shame the ones who don’t.”

He didn’t say, “Demonize all those who think differently than you and lump them all into one stereotype.”

He said, “Love you enemies.” Period.

He didn’t just say it. He lived it out. He kept His mouth shut while His own enemies falsely accused Him and had Him crucified. He even went so far as to forgive His enemies in the very act of their murdering Him.

God in Jesus loved us when we were His enemies, as far from the promise as we could possibly be. He loved those who would forever reject His love and spit on His gift to them.

To love your friends is easy. To love your enemies is hard. No, it’s impossible apart from the divine. When you love those who persecute you is when you are the most like Jesus.

Love your enemies. The end.

For All the Josephs

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“While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: ‘Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.’ This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term: Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son; They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for ‘God is with us’)” (Matthew 1:20-21 MSG).

Not everybody gets to be in the spotlight. Not everybody wants to be.

Some of us will be thrust into the spotlight where our faith will shine brightly, as Mary’s did through her faithful obedience to God’s command– though at times it must have seemed overwhelming and impossible.

Some of us will play the part of Joseph, who was just as faithful and obedient in the shadows and behind the scenes. His part was no less important though he has fewer verses dedicated to his story.

No matter how great or small your part seems in the story of God, your faithfulness and obedience matter. You may feel unimportant- and sometimes ignored– but you never know who is watching you to see if this God of yours is real or not.

You may never know the far-reaching impact caused by the ripples of casting your small stone into that great ocean. And it may not be you but the child you raise or the spouse you support who makes the greatest impact. Even then your own steps of faith still count.

At the end of the day, it’s God who sees your good deeds and rewards your long-suffering faith. That’s the audience that really matters.

 

 

Holiday Faith 

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“But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move” (Labor of Love, Andrew Peterson).

Christmas is the season when we celebrate the Glorious Impossible, remembering that for God, truly nothing is impossible.

This holds true not just in December but 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (even on that weird day that comes around every four years).

That faith that can make the mountain move can move that mountain inside of you if needs be, whatever that mountain might be.

That’s all. The end.

 

 

Behold the Lamb of God

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I don’t normally do shameless plugs, but here goes: if you’re ever anywhere near a place that hosts Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God concert, just go. Don’t ask any questions. Just go.

The absolute best venue to see this concert is the Ryman Auditorium, but go wherever is convenient for you.

Aside Handel’s Messiah, I honestly can’t think of any other Christmas music that mines the depth and splendor of the Incarnation in the way this music does. It also happens to be a very good synopsis of the overarching meta-narrative of the entire Bible, the whole story in one short setting.

In the mean time, go buy the album. I’m making it really easy for you. Just go to this link, whip out the ol’ credit card, type in those numbers (including that pesky little 3-digit number on the back), and make that purchase. You will not for one second regret it.

https://www.amazon.com/Behold-Lamb-10th-Anniversary-2-disc/dp/B0040QTHMW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481775641&sr=8-2&keywords=behold+the+lamb+of+god

The theology is solid and the songwriting is among the best. My new favorite Christmas song may just be Labor of Love. The whole album is profound and moving in a way very few Christmas albums I’ve heard are. So go buy it.

Here endeth the shameless plug.

 

What’s Next

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“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike ‘What’s next, Papa?’ God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!” (Romans 8:15-17, The Message).

It was a very unassuming moment. There I was, standing in line for hot chocolate during the After Hours celebration of the last Kairos of 2016, uttering a small prayer.

“God, I’m ready for whatever’s next from You.”

It’s a loose paraphrase of the prayer Jesus prayed in the garden in the hours leading up to the awaiting agony of the cruxifixction. His words were, “Your will be done.”

One of the scariest moments is when you relinquish control. One of the most freeing moments is when you finally realize that you were never in control to begin with. It was and has always been God on the throne of the universe, working all things together for your good.

One of the biggest fears that many of us have isn’t that God’s not able to accomplish His plans in and for us. We’re just afraid of how painful those plans might be. And yes, I completely stole that from C. S. Lewis, though he probably said it better.

The truth as I am learning it is that my joy and God’s glory aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, my joy is greatest when God is most glorified in the world– and in my own life.

So God, whatever you have for me, whenever you have it for me, wherever you have it for me, I’m ready. I know more now than ever that the safest and best place to be is smack dab in the middle of Your will.

Amen.

 

At the Right Time

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“When the right time arrived, God sent His Son into this world (born of a woman, subject to the law) to free those who, just like Him, were subject to the law. Ultimately He wanted us all to be adopted as sons and daughters” (Galatians 4:4-5 VOICE).

For some reason, the image that immediately popped into my mind upon reading this verse was that line from The Lord of the Rings when Gandalf announces, “A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

I don’t by any means intend to suggest that God is Gandalf, but I do think that Gandalf is many ways is a picture of the Christ. More importantly, this speak a very important truth about God.

God is never early. God is never late. God’s timing is always perfect. Always.

Often in my own life, I’ve found that what seemed like delays weren’t because God wasn’t ready to give but because I wasn’t ready to receive. I had some growing up and maturing to do before I could fully appreciate what God had in store for me.

I do think that often when God doesn’t work according to my timetable, it isn’t because God is thwarting my plans but because God is seeing a much bigger picture and His vision for my life is so much grander than mine.

I heard a very good definition of anxiety as a state of feeling like everything has to happen immediately. The fear sets in when delays begin to seem like denials.

Fear, as I heard it put once, is False Evidence Appearing Real. In this case, faith calls me to trust the heart of God for me in the face of overwhelming yet ultimately false evidence that He will not work out all things together for my good.

Tonight I trust God’s heart as true and God’s timing as perfect. This season of Advent proves to me yet again that God always fulfills His promises to His people.

That’s good enough for me.