November 1
Scripture focus: As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. "Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand." The Master said, "Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it's the main course, and won't be taken from her." Luke 10:38-42 The Message
In recent months my family has had the opportunity to practice what I preach – and we’re not particularly happy about this state of affairs. Frankly, we’re eager for our “end of the rope” experiences to slip off into the night. We’re anticipating a new year with more determination than anticipation. If I ever ran in a marathon, this is how I imagine it would feel – we see the finish line and we are gritting our teeth in grim-faced determination – trying to finish the year without making a further mess of things.
The story of Martha informs my thinking on this subject of finishing what I start. I began 2009 with desires and dreams – I plan on ending the year with this same spirit of expectancy in God’s prevailing purposes for me and mine. Martha helps keep my enthusiasm humbly in check.
Martha began her grand epic adventure – serving Jesus a delicious home-cooked meal – with delight. She welcomed him and made him feel at ease. Martha might have appreciated this victory too, if she hadn’t lost her place in the story. This is pure speculation, but I think that if Martha was willing to invite Jesus over for supper, she probably had the gift of hospitality.
Unlike the Pharisee who needed the unsolicited and unwelcome help of a harlot to treat Jesus graciously, Martha was obviously on her game this particular evening – Jesus felt at home.
Poor Martha got distracted by Mary. She wasn’t able to keep her eye on the finish line. Dishes needed washing, dessert was ready to serve, and the drinks needed a refreshing splash.
Suddenly, the kitchen felt more like solitary confinement than a launching pad for serving the Son of God.
Unable to contain her frustration, Martha demands that Jesus coax Mary back into the kitchen. In our community, we would call this triangulation. Triangulation is when one person (Martha) has a conflict with another (Mary), but instead of working it out with the alleged offending party (Mary), one of the offended parties (Martha) brings a third person (Jesus) in to run interference. Running to God with our worries and woes is a good thing – in fact, He invites us to do so. But Martha’s story provides me with a timely reminder – I’m responsible for myself and responsible to love others. Martha stopped working her own spiritual renewal program the minute she became distracted by Mary’s program. Two more months are left in this year. I’m praying we’ll pull up our britches and re-tie our shoes – we’ve got 61 days left to follow God’ s lead in 2009 – we don’t have time to worry about how anyone else is running their race! When we let others distract us, sometimes we trip over our own shoes.
Recommended reading: Isaiah 28-31
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October 31
Scripture focus: You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. Matthew 5:3, The Message
On any given day, you and I might find ourselves at the end of our rope.
This does not freak God out.
No one can snatch us from the Father’s hands. In him we rest secure. At the end of our rope, when we let go, we safely drop into his hands. May we invite God to catch us as we fall, hold us safe as he restores, and release us to participate in his prevailing purposes – in no particular order.
October 30
Scripture focus: Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?" He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself." "Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live." Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?" Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. "A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.' "What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?" "The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same." Luke 10:25-31 The Message
Spiritual renewal is learning how to do the next right thing in the moment – no more, no less. Jesus told a story that beautifully illustrates the limitations of spiritual renewal. A Samaritan – the kind of person in Jesus’ day that was considered disreputable by nature of where he came from – shows us how to live a renewed life.
“…his heart went out to him…” Jesus says that meant that he took care of him, made him comfortable and then made provision for him to find respite as he healed.
What the Samaritan didn’t do:
· He didn’t perform a miraculous healing, he positioned the man in a place for God to help, transform and create.
· He didn’t assume that he could provide for all the man’s needs; but he did aid in a way that was appropriate for his resources.
· He didn’t stop being responsible for his own life in order to rescue the wounded man from his suffering.
·
Spiritual renewal sometimes seems like an impossible assignment because we confuse God’s part with ours. On any given day, if God asks you to be ye transformed and aid a fellow sojourner, you can trust him to provide you with the resources to do so. This won’t guarantee the response of the sufferer. But I hope it encourages you to live large as you trust God.
October 29
Scripture focus: Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?" He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself." "Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live." Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?" Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. "A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.' "What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?" "The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same." Luke 10:25-31 The Message
“In the twisted logic of addiction we live as if God accepts me because I do the right thing (addictive doing), God accepts me because I feel so bad about myself(addictive feeling), or God accepts me because I know my bible inside and out and can take any wrong-thinking person down in an argument (addictive thinking). This hoped-for closeness to God, because it is based on our performance, is fragile and tentative. People who are spiritually addicted live with a constant anxiety about whether they have done enough, felt enough or believed enough.” Soul Repair, p.65
Do you remember how Paul called the Galatians crazy for their self-efforts at strenuous moral striving? Could it be that part of the craziness was a constant state of anxiety that propelled them to action – an anxiety fueled by insecurity, fear and shame-based living?
Notice in today’s story that the religious scholar had his own anxiety brewing. He was uncomfortable with this message of Jesus that said things like, “It’s okay to go to dinner with the unsavory.” Or “come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” That scholar had some things he presumed and assumed about the ways of God, and he didn’t want anyone confusing him with the facts.
One thing that’ll have to happen along our road to spiritual recovery will be a willingness to let go of what we think we know and an awareness that there’s more to learn than we ever dreamed.
October 28
Scripture focus: Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?" He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself." "Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live." Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?" Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. "A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.' "What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?" "The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same." Luke 10:25-31 The Message
I love this story.
I love how a religious scholar shows up and asks a question, fully intending to test Jesus. He isn’t asking from an urgent desire to know and do God’s will. He is asking so that he might test and accuse. I really appreciate his position. Lots of days I ask questions of God, not so much because I want to hear his answer, more likely because I’m putting his love for me to the test.
Jesus knew this about the scholar; he knows it about me.
If he wanted, he could have shamed and embarrassed this guy to pieces.
But instead, he showed respect for the questioner and gave an apt reply. He managed along the way to give the scholar a word of affirmation (“good answer”) and he provided him an opportunity for a follow up question.
Not once, but twice, Jesus took good care of a man in need of healing, transforming and creating.
Spiritual renewal, as modeled in the life of Jesus, heals us enough to care more about another’s wounds than our own, be transformed in such a way as to respond to another’s suffering even if it costs us something in the process, and ultimately reveals our true God-created identity.
This miraculous stuff happens to people like the religious scholar, me, and you too. Because we’ve worked hard and have earned his respect? No way. Because Jesus - a living, breathing, son of God healer, transformer and conformer loves like that.
October 27
Scripture focus: You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up! Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Galatians 3:1-5 The Message
What would happen if you woke up each morning and told God all the things that you thought he’d want you to work hard at achieving, and then, instead of vowing to do exactly that, you prayed this prayer.
“Lord, I entrust to you these things…Stand with me as I acknowledge that I am neither smart nor strong enough to begin the work of doing your will in this area, much less carry it to completion. For my part, I am taking responsibility for responding to your message. As you speak, I will listen. Even in this, I have no confidence in my flesh. May your will be done in me today.”
You’ve probably prayed a prayer like that at least a kazillion times.
Here’s the part I want to suggest we add. Spend the rest of the day paying attention to how God is answering the prayer. Trusting God requires believing God. We give evidence to our belief by what we think about, tune into, and give our full attention to.
May you attend to the ways of God today.
October 26
Scripture focus: You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up! Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Galatians 3:1-5 The Message
How did your new life begin?
The first three steps of the Christ-centered twelve-step model go like this.
1. I admit that I am powerless over my addiction, and that my life is unmanageable.
2. I come to believe that there is a power greater than myself (God) who can restore me to sanity.
3. I make a decision to turn my life and will over to his care and control.
If you’ve ever experienced the need to take these steps, you may recall how vulnerable and weak you felt when you took that first step. Although it may have seemed humiliating, you may have had the privilege of finding some companions who had also taken this path, who helped you distinguish between humility and humiliation.
Others began to affirm and celebrate your decision. They may have told you about how the angels throw a big party when one who is lost is found. The first steps of the twelve-step process are one way that people become visible. When there are things about ourselves that are so shameful that we feel the need to hide them, there is an unwanted side-effect that goes along with the strategy of secrecy – we become invisible. No one wants to be invisible. We were created for community. The super power of invisibility may be very cool in comic books, but it doesn’t make for a very fulfilled life. The Galatians began a new life the day they chose to reveal themselves to God and others. They confessed their sins and longings and lackings. They told the truth about their broken, damaged, missing-the-mark life.
Spiritual renewal is frustrated when we hide parts of who we are from God, others and even self. May you find a community that mirrors God’s delight when you can tell the truth about your broken life.
October 25
Scripture focus: You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up! Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Galatians 3:1-5 The Message
“The God of whom Jesus spoke searches the horizon looking for signs of the return of broken, damaged, missing-the-mark people like us. God is delighted when we become visible, when we can be seen.” Soul Repair, p.47
Those crazy Galatians!
They approached the throne of grace looking for forgiveness of sins and a relationship with the living God. And they got it.
But as soon as they received the potential for abundant living they returned to their small living ways.
Here’s another thing about spiritual renewal – it’s not a straight ascension. It’s a messy journey, full of backsliding and side-stepping, slipping and sliding, and on occasion beautiful moments of living in the sweetness of a moment when you experience the love of God and know that you never want to go back to the land of living on your own best intentions.
God cares about how we live but he brings the Apostle Paul into our lives to remember that the good life is a gift from God. We can’t buy it or build it by self-will.
Spiritual renewal is a by-product of trusting God with our entire self – not just the parts that make us look good.
October 24
Scripture focus: By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.
"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.”
"Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God." Luke 15:1-10 The Message
I personally prefer to feel well, healthy, whole and productive. I don’t like losing things, especially myself! Nor do I want to be one of “those guys,” who are always criticizing and judging others, feeling superior to and removed from men and women who like to hang around Jesus, listening intently but who also are of doubtful reputation.
For centuries, people have struggled to explain why people who hang around Jesus, even listen intently to him, sometimes end up doing things that tarnish their reputation. Take for example the Pharisees and religious scholars. They spent their lives studying the ways of God. Jesus told his followers that if they knew the Father, they’d recognize the Son. He preached a message that encouraged men of faith to love the way God loved, and care about what God cares about. But in today’s story, those same God-studiers grumbled and judged.
We may never understand why people who love God sincerely still mess up. Whether it’s people of ill-repute, religious leaders, religious scholars…or even ourselves. But what we can know, and draw great comfort from is this: “The God of whom Jesus spoke searches the horizon looking for signs of the return of broken, damaged, missing-the-mark people like us. God is delighted when we become visible, when we can be seen.” Soul Repair, p.47
October 23
Scripture focus: By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.
"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.”
"Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God." Luke 15:1-10 The Message
“The implications of accepting pain are significant in dealing with specific addictions, but they become massive in terms of our basic attitude toward life. In our society, we have come to believe that discomfort always means something is wrong. We are conditioned to believe that feelings of distress, pain, deprivation, yearning, and longing mean something is wrong with the way we are living our lives. Conversely, we are convinced that a rightly lived life must give us serenity, completion, and fulfillment. Comfort means ‘right’ and distress means ‘wrong.’ The influence of such convictions is stifling to the human spirit. Individually and collectively, we must somehow recovery the truth. The truth is, we were never meant to be completely satisfied.” Addiction and Grace, p.179.
Spiritual renewal isn’t a one-way ticket to our happy place.
It does, however, provide us with an expanded view of God.
It teaches us the value of one. It trains us to work hard (out of gratitude, not desperation for approval). It tells us what to value. It touches off a firestorm of celebrating when someone that was once lost – is found.
May we find our way back to God, a place where we may be distressed, but never forsaken.
October 22
Scripture focus: By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.
"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.”
"Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God." Luke 15:1-10 The Message
In Gerald May’s book, Addiction and Grace, he makes a preposterous suggestion. Listen in as he tells us how to prepare for an embrace with God. “To state it directly, we must come to love our longing. Any authentic struggle with attachment must involve deprivation. We have to go hungry and unsatisfied; we have to ache for something. It hurts. Withdrawal symptoms are real, and, one way or another, they will be experienced. If we can both accept and expect this pain, we will be much better prepared to face struggles with specific attachments. We might even come to see it as birth pain, heralding the process of our delivery from slavery to freedom. If we expect comfort and anesthesia, however, we will feel more distressed when the pain of deprivation comes; we will feel like something is wrong. We will become confused and far more vulnerable to self-deception.” (p.179)
Our nation has recently experienced a financial crisis of massive proportions. People have lost jobs, homes and retirement funds. It’s terrible. But I must ask the question, “What were we thinking?” Did we expect to never have to pay the piper? Who did we think would pay for our massive over-spending and under-paying ways? When did it become socially acceptable to live outside our means and expect someone else to pick up the tab for our gluttony?
Somewhere along the way, we lost ourselves. We became convinced that pain was optional and deprivation was for suckers. We tried to avoid pain and suffering by buying pleasure we couldn’t afford. We thought that “longing for” something made us “less than” or losers.
Little did we know that learning to love our longing was a God thing.
If you that your own season of deprivation tarnishes your reputation, remember what the Pharisees failed to take into account. God’s angels throw parties in heaven when lost souls find their way back to God. They do not throw rotten fruit at them, and yell out in shaming fashion, “How could you have been so stupid and gotten lost?” May we find our way back to God. Embrace our longing.
October 21
Scripture focus: By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.
"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.”
"Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God." Luke 15:1-10 The Message
It is surrender to love that I really resist. I am willing to accept measured doses of love as long as it doesn’t upset the basic framework of my world. That framework is built on the assumption that people get what they deserve. That’s what I really want. I want to earn what I get.
--David G. Benner
David Benner speaks a truth that may have us muttering “Amen!” over, regardless of our denominational affiliation.
Gerald May speaks of the challenge of surrender in his fine book, Addiction and Grace, “You may have noticed that I did not include surrender as part of a consecrated struggle with addiction. This is because we cannot do our own surrenders. To try to turn it over to God prematurely would only be another mind trick, a way of trying to escape responsibility, testing rather than trusting. But indeed God is in it with us all along, and wherever our choices are enabled to remain simple and our intent remains solid, empowerment comes through grace. There is little else we can do except to keep on trying, and looking for God’s invitations and seeking simplicity.” (p.178)
In today’s scripture focus, the shepherd experienced deprivation and longing for his lost sheep. The woman sharply felt the pang of loss when she misplaced her coin. People of doubtful reputation have without doubt lost something of great value.
This loss and deprivation is not an unexpected, wrong or bad thing. Discomfort doesn’t always mean something is wrong with the way we are living our lives. The truth is this – we were never meant to be completely satisfied on this earth.
More on this hard truth tomorrow.
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