Finding God

Is finding God a big secret? Christians constantly look for various activities hoping to find a path leading to Him. We fall prey to a misconception that God has hidden himself and we need some kind of treasure map to find Him. The quest becomes the map instead of the treasure itself.

God doesn't rollout a map for us. A map requires the reader to know where they are and plots what to expect down the road. I am not sure God considers that important for us. Instead God gives us something more like a compass. It does not pinpoint your location or layout what to anticipate ahead but instead provides a bearing to follow toward one place – true north. A compass has a single attraction and only needs the freedom to align itself toward that attraction.

God provides His children with our own compass pointing to Him. Deep inside us the Holy Spirit becomes that magnetized pointer seeking to align us in one direction. The world encumbers us but the heart is silently and continuously pulled toward God.

In the beginning God created...

Recently started my fourth read through the Bible and I cannot get out of the first chapter of Genesis. The creation story provides so much to consider. So much said, so much left unsaid.

God speaks and from nothing an entire universe comes into existence. Was it six 24-hour days or six billion years called six days? Either way the power to create something from nothing leaves any comprehension or research of that creation limited to what the owner of that process wants to convey.

God ordered the universe.
Day, night, weeks, seasons, years - God built time.
Land, sea, sky - God built space and place.
Birds, fish, animals, plants, trees, us - God built life.

Big bang? What started the bang?
Evolution? What kicked off the first beat of life in the primordial ooze?

"In the beginning God created...". These five words set the foundation for the rest of the Bible and the rest of history. Those five words are the prerequisite to the everything else. If I have trouble comprehending something else in the Bible or something in life, consider those words in Genesis 1.

God's creation, God's plan, God's power, God's rule.

If only that were my starting point for the way I try to see everything.

It is all God's. It was nothing then God created. I was nothing then God created. Anything I 'have', God created. Anything I experience, God created. Just understanding it all is His creation, His plan, His power, His rule would make sense why I have so much trouble making those things mine.

IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED...

Ticket to Heaven

I grew up in a small Baptist church. I had this view that when I became a Christian that it came with this all important "ticket to heaven". As long as I sat quietly and didn't get too dirty then someone would be by later to take me in. My Christian life was a waiting room.

It felt selfish. “If you don’t mess up, you get a reward.” Yet I was being told from the pulpit that even if I was thinking the wrong thing then I was messing up. It all seemed impossible. If I think something then it is the same as doing it? Do you realize what goes on in this head? How could I just sit and try to not to think and try not to do? Is that really what God wants?

So I did what it seems a lot of good Christian young people do when it comes time to start their own life. I quit. I never got involved with a church after going away to college. I didn't loose faith in God, I just didn't feel like there was anyway I could measure up to the church criteria.

So I became that "C&E Christian" - the one that shows up on Christmas & Easter and tries to be a "good person" the rest of the time. I mean after all I already had my ticket, right? Just check back in now and then to see if anything had changed. Nope, still seems the same rules apply. Those C&E sermons told me as long as I had a ticket the rest of the sermon was about those that didn't. My job was to try to stay awake and if everyone cooperated we would all be released in time for lunch.

When I begin to attend church on a more full time basis a few years ago, the light was slowly turned on for me. Christianity is not something to tie us down but to release us into what we were created for. It is not about what we shouldn't do but instead what we have the potential to do. As I begin to listen to Godly men and women, I learned God’s desire for me was more then having faith in a trip to Heaven. Yes Jesus came to die for me but his life was not one of simply waiting for the cross. His life was active – daily spending time with God the Father then going to where the people were and ministering to their needs.

To be honest, not sure what I am trying to say with this post but I feel like there must be other people out there stuck in that waiting room. If you are, I hope this blog helps but most importantly I pray you find wise Christian friends who are able to speak truth into your life. Don't just wait. Don't fear the failure. Go live the life God gave you specifically to live.

Small Enough

The story goes...

After dinner Theodore Roosevelt would step outside the White House to enjoy a cigar with his best friend, William Beebe, the famous naturalist. The two men would look up at the sky, when their eyes had focused on the tiny patch of light near the constellation of Pegasus, Roosevelt would say in prayerful tones, “That is the spiral galaxy of Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of 100 million galaxies. It consists of 100 billion suns, each larger than our sun.” Then Roosevelt would say, “Now, I think we’re small enough. Let’s go to bed.”

I get so caught up in my tiny piece of the world. My minute sphere of influence consumes my focus. This little slice of the universe so overwhelms me.

It is good to stop and take in the vastness of the universe and how little it is focused on me. It continues to plod along without consideration of my problem de jour or even what happens on this tiny little speck of a planet. Only a God of infinite proportions could place us in something so eminence and unmeasurable.

Yet, within all of the spinning, revolving, wobbling, twinkling, rotating, burning and exploding, I am not lost but found. This great big all powerful God reaches out of the dark infinite and found this insignificant and touched it. Transformed it. Only by grasping my smallness can I begin to step into true worship.

Now, I think we’re small enough. Let’s go to bed.

Do Not Cross the Line

Why do we have this fascination with sin as a line?
We argue about its location.
What is allowed and what is abhorred?
Everything on this side of the line is good while over there is evil.
We even negotiate how close we can stand without going over?
Friendships are broken, religions are formed and wars are fought to establish where the line is.

Do you suppose God is as concerned with the line as much as we may think?
Consider instead, what if God would rather change the focus from the line to Him?
You see when you are facing God there is no line.
Its not so much where the line is but where the light is instead.

What are you praying for?

Okay, got hit with this a couple of weeks ago during a sermon at church. Still trying to digest it so thought it would help to write through it.

Imagine two canvases. On the left is a painting of a bright sunshine lit day. Across the top of the canvas, there is a crisp blue sky with only a few white clouds. In the foreground is a perfectly still lake with smooth as glass blue water. Rising in the distance is a majestic Colorado type mountain perhaps snow still visible on the peaks. All around there are beautiful trees with unmoving leaves depicting the calm peaceful tranquility of the morning scene.

Now on the right is another painting. Same location but this time the bright sunshine is gone and a storm is in full fury. The lake is churning with large white capped waves crashing against each other. The mountain is no longer visible through the massive dark storm clouds. The trees are bent over as they are being whipped by the gale force winds. Yet, on the lake there is a small boat being tossed at the mercy of the waves and wind. You can see inside the boat and there is a man asleep completely relaxed inside all of the turmoil.

So here is the question. What are you praying for? Do your prayers focus on God bringing you the perfect day or beg God to build your trust in Him so that the circumstances mean less? Do you want to dictate the how the picture should look or do you work on how you should look in the picture? Is your desire for God to deliver something you can be peaceful with or to trust him to bring peace to you no matter how it is delivered?

I have pondered these questions for weeks. I hope it strikes something with you as it did with me.

Grace Finds Beauy in Everything

I must live under a rock. Never heard this song until purchasing a U2 CD this weekend. Absolutely blown away with Bono's words on Grace.

Thank God, grace makes beauty out of ugly things!!!! Undeserved, unearned, no strings attached grace. Only God could give such an amazing gift. How can I not be changed by that?

Grace, she takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name

Grace...
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that, changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything

Grace, she's got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She's got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma, karma
She travels outside... of karma

When she goes to work, you can hear the strings
Grace finds beauty in everything

Grace...
She carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings...
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace finds beauty in everything

Song - Grace
Lyrics - Bono
Music - U2
Album - All That You Can't Leave Behind

A Prayer Request

Whether this prayer comes from Billy Graham which was aired by Paul Harvey or Minister Joe Wright during the opening of a new session of the Kansas Senate, I am not sure. I find references to both. However, I do know the words are our true need…

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'

Choice

Everything you do in life, every choice you make, has a consequence. When you do things without thinkin', then you ain't makin' the choice. The choice is makin' you.

Mark Steven Johnson

How often has making NO choice become a choice? Riding along with the group. So concerned about self image that my image actually becomes defined by others.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image..."

Genesis 1:26

Losing a Friend

One month ago today, I got the call. The one you always fear but never see coming. The news was bad. My closest friend had a sever stroke. My college roommate, confidante, buddy, brother from a different mother and thirty-two years of friendship was down for the final count. A brain tumor that no one saw until it had left just a body slowly trickling away for the final days.

Sitting alone with him in the hospital room, I knew all the things I claim to believe about God. Omnipotent, works beyond my understanding, perfect love, sovereign rule, trust, faith, His universe means not mine, etc. But those things are much easier to believe when dealing with simple things like traffic causing the clock to move faster then you can or a store being out of your favorite brand of ice cream or even losing of a job to no fault of your own. Those are the trails God has equipped me to do. Those are the times I hang on to the fact that there are undeniably things much bigger then my little world. God has slowly taught me these lessons over and over throughout the years.

But this was different; there was not a 'fix' or 'work around' solution to the problem. This was not an “everything will be alright” moment. There was no reason under the sun a good, decent, god loving, 51-year old man dies. No rational for two young boys who will spend the remainder of their life without a father. No explanation that would make this add up.

I have always hated the question of WHY? It really never matters much after something goes wrong unless it makes it not happen again. This was certainly not one of those times.

“It is what it is.” “Play it where it lies.” “One day at a time.” “Shake it off”... All of those words are how I normally navigate the world but they contain absolutely no meaning when you talk to your friend on Saturday, see him lying in a coma on Monday and feel the hole rip open in your heart as he departs on Thursday.

God doesn’t pass out too many true deep friendships in this life and when you loose one… it cost you. It cost down to the deepest part of you.

I can truly say I am so thankful to be hurting right now because every ache is directly proportional to the amount of life we shared together – like college life, the first job, finding the right girls (after spending a lot of time checking out the wrong ones), marriages, kids, maturing, holidays together, weekends at the lake, football games, lots of golf or just hanging out. However, most importantly over the past few years we each found our way back to relationships with God. A truly amazing experience.

Deep morning comes from deep loss which can only come out of deep friendship.

Thank you my friend.

Thank you God.

Rhythm

Never have been consider one with rhythm. Even though the drum was my instrument of choice in the junior high band, my teacher never once mentioned that a protegee lay inside me waiting to be discovered. After all, the drum choice was more about not having to learn to read music then an actual passion for creating the beat. Have found little in the relationship between my muscles and nerves that show a gift of rhythm.

However, God calls me to a rhythm that has nothing to do with the coordination of my body and far more about the beat of my heart. Am I in rhythm with him? Is the flow of my life in line with His pace or am I once again dancing to the beat of my own drum?

God has given the natural world around us a rhythm. Spring/summer/fall/winter, morning/day/evening/night, sowing/growing/harvesting/resting, birth/child/youth/adult. These are God’s inescapable patterns.

However, I fail to find a pattern in my life when chasing the bright shiny bobbles that too often catch my eye. Look at all I have to get done today? What do I need to push aside so I can move forward? What other information do I need so I know it all? Who is ahead of me and what do I need to do to catch up? What new luxury do I need to impress those around me? Can’t everyone see how important I am? If they would just do it MY way they could be just like me.

Oh how the world needs my management and input. If I leave it alone for just a few seconds everything falls a part. Blindly I plunge ahead not comprehending, this is what breaks my rhythm. This is the way the world cuts me off from God.

When there are those all too short seasons of unbroken rhythm in my life, there comes a peace, a comfort and a joy that can not be explained except to know I am on beat with Him. Not that everything is perfect. Problems do not just simply vanish but the importance I place on them does. Romans 8:6

Jesus showed us the beat, the perfect life in rhythm with God. It does not come by managing the world. It comes when following the One who created it.

Journal on Journal

A couple of years ago, was introduced the tool of journaling. Just started using this blog to as an electronic means last month. Still do some writing in the old fashion book form and not sure that I shouldn’t stay on paper. However, have always been incredibly amazed at how this discipline can be used by God to help connect the dots in my life. Showing how various scripture or events actually tie together.

Sometimes I have mulled over and over a subject in my mind for days. Other times I just pickup the pen (or hit the keyboard) with no subject in mind. Not planning any direction where this one may go but willing to put words down in anticipation of where they may lead. First step of any entry is the most difficult. Changing from still to moving. Inertia – bodies at rest tend/want to stay at rest. While the reverse is also true – bodies in motion tend/want to stay in motion.

How often I sit with no thought, no time, no inspiration – but once the first words form the next ones begin to pile up waiting on their turn to move from consideration to find their place in the sentence. This seems to be true within a single writing or from day to day. Too often going long periods of time without opening myself up to let God organize my heart by putting them in a readable form.

So many things in my life are like that first letter. It is out there, I know I need to make the time, find the effort and change my inertia. My life is full of spiritual inertia. When I am at stop in my relationship with God, I tend to stay there. On the other hand, there is no joy or peace in my life like that when my relationship flows. Moving easily from one experience with God to the next. If only I could stop stopping and stay moving.

More Valuable Less Visable

Been wrestling with these words since late last year. More Valuable - Less Visible. I have always struggled with what motivates me to service within the church. I love filling different areas of need and have grown in those responsibilities over the past few years. I realize it was service in the parking lot that first developed my habit of attending church each week. I knew I had a responsibility (a specific spot to cover) that would cause others to scramble if I was not in my place. God used this four years ago to drag me out of bed every Sunday because I needed to grow. Yet there was always that nagging feeling that I enjoyed the recognition of standing in front of the church and the kind comments and waves as people arrived or left each service.

Later I felt called to other tasks around the church. My schedule begins to fill up with very worthwhile endeavors, each growing me in my relationship with God. Leading small discipleship groups required a number of hours of preparation where God taught me many things as I drew closer to Him. Teaching kid's Sunday School required my trust in God to reach out and touch lives in ways I never thought possible. Prayer team required me to really understand what prayer is and learn to communicate and share in the needs of others.

Yet each of these and my other duties around the church are each visible. It grinds at me of what is my motivation. I do these as an act of obedience to what I perceive to be God's direction for me but I find such joy in these rolls that I cannot feel I am giving but receiving.

Then these words started in me last year. Where do I look to be more valuable and less visible? God has already provided a couple of new rolls that are behind the scenes and my commitment is to learn the discipline of silence from these rolls. I pray that God teaches me to seek and accept those tasks that are hidden from view of others.